Tiss the SEASON!!!
Finals are over for me YEEEAAHHH!!!

We are moving along nicely and gearing up for Christmas. We are working on our 12 days of Christmas which i might just have to do an email version as well. Thank might be fun. I think i may post them on there as well. Not that anyone will actually look everyday. But i did some cleaver ones i was proud of.

We have a Christmas clip from the kids, it took us hours to get a reasonable clip and even that was interesting. Well they say in the movie business never work with kids or animals... now i know why.

Be Positive and KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR! That is what we have been trying to enforce in our kdis this year. I have had to resort to it is Jesus birthday party and he is so special that everybody knows about it and that we give physical gifts to one another because we can't give them to Jesus. Jesus told us to love one another so we give them gives to let Jesus know we remember him. I feel so corny at times, but i really want them to understand what it is about. All of our family home evening lately have been on the subject. I think tonight i need to google the Christian Origins of St Nick and help them understand why Santa is even involved. I wonder that myself sometimes. We focus so much on him we lose the religious signifigance of him. Have a Happy day and reiterate to your kids what Christams is all about! Love YA!

HAPPY FALL YA'LL

TO translate, That is Texan for

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Bill and Nikki pose for us while Evelyn (his mom)

teaches Leelani how to make a pie.

Grandma Evelyn taught Leelani how to make her famous apple pie. The one that you only get if you are dying or at a funeral. I must admit this is the first time of 89 years of marriage that i was graced to have a piece. I must admit... it is worth dying for. It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!! So now Leelani should be able to make it for us anytime. YEAH!!!

We traveled to the Cabelo's superstore. They have a taxidermy museum complete with Elephant, and every kind of deer you have ever seen. It was a lovely day!

Justine and Lydia's family joined us. THERE WAS WAY TOO MUCH FOOD!!! It is so hard to see traditions change so much over the years. The way i tried to honor my thanksgivings past was to have every type of pie known to man so the kids could choose. And we had lots of different types of soda. I know that was something that always sticks out in my head as being so cool about Thanksgiving. We are so grateful Bill's parents were able to come and spend this time with us. We are blessed to have so many great things, friends and people in our life. We love our new home and appreciate all that we have in our lives.

We are truly blessed!

Thank you for being a part of our lives.

HO hum!

Well i should be running around cleaning... but that is not happening. I painted a room yesterday and apparently my legs didn't like all the up and down on the chair. I am very sore and tired. I had some health issues that wore me out last week and i am tyring to find the energy to do anything constructive. OH well.. i need a 5 hour energy shot and i will be fine.

We are having a bad week with our kids completely ignoring us. I get very tired of little people doing whatever they want to do. It is very frustrating. I understand it from the 4 year old... but from an eleven year old? That is the one that gets to me. She should know better. Apparently we are not threatening enough. I guess we have to work on what will really bother her. Right now she is in her bedroom allegedly cleaning it. We shall see how that goes for her.

I think i am overwhelmed this week. Just too much to do, not enough time and not feeling very well still. OH Well life will go on.

GOOD OLD RUG DOCTOR!

Well Bill has been working on cleaning carpets. I think i should have stayed away longer, cause now it looks like i am working on them. It is amazing how big the room seems when you are shuffling along at such a low pace. They look so much better that the kids may never get to come in from outside. HA HA. How come the only time they want inside is when you tell them they can't come in? Oh well one day they will be all clean then i would have to start over where i started. If we ever build a custom home. I am going to have a drain installed in the kitchen. Just like you see at fast food places, they soap up the floor then squeegee it down the drain. That and of course i will have one whole wall that is a urinal in the boys bathroom.

Cleaning Extravaganza!

Well i have just informed the children that tommorrow we are cleaning!!! They are not so happy. I am thrilled. I am going to have to pull out my creativeness to get them motivated. The last month has played out like this... Nikki brought the flu into the house, it then worked through all the kids one by one. Of course we have so many kids that by the time it was done we started all over again. So my puke scrubbing for two weeks led to me screwing up my back. Well i tried to be good and not do too much, but i always did just enough that i had a good day and three bad ones. And of course in the middle of it all we had to stop and decorate for Halloween. So my house is a white hot mess!!! I just don't even want to come home, so it is time to see if i can screw my back up again by doing a major cleaning day. Time to get the rake out and clean under beds and backs of closets too. I loooove to see their faces when i pull the rake out to check way back under the bunk beds. I think we may do a preliminary toy toss from the play room to start preparing for the Christmas onslot. OHHH i love to make kids miserable!

HALLOWEEN SMALLOWEEN!

Happy Halloween! The kids had a great time! We had a fairy, a Genie, a two headed monster, a scream guy and a sassy pirate. I should have known the night would not be my favorite when the jello brain i made for dinner to be cool did not go over well. Apparently it looked so good they were grossed out and thought i was trying to feed them raw brain. Even after telling them what it was and them watching me eat it, they did not want any part of it.

If there is a Halloween equivalent to "Ba HUM BUG" I need to know it. I was sure feeling it at only 7:15 last night. I was ready to send every one to bed and turn the light of and lock the outside door.

I usually love Halloween, but after decorating and then taking our kids trick or treating for a Little while I was so done!Everyone (including me) was so over stimulated they wouldn't listen to anything. They had a good time and were super cute, but i am glad that it is over with. The excitement of the event was killing everyone. To my sweet children's credit, it was the excitement of getting to wear our new costumes and wear make up. The candy was incidental. I appreciate that they are not real candy crazy.

Volunteer Central-

So this week was Leelani's School Fall Social. Of course i am kinda of in charge of it from being PTA president. We chose a fear factor theme and had a rock wall, carnival, dancing, obstacle course and of course gross food. I did cow stomach lining, cow tongue, weird sardine mash, fish eyes (dried pickled cocktail onions). Everyone had a great time, but i am glad it is over!!!

Kaiyla (left) and Nikki (right) were the most creepy talked about thing. Kaiyla's was hilarious!!! As soon as we put the makeup on her she got her evil face on and would creep around and crawl around looking mean. Every once in a while they would reach out and gently grab someone ankles. OOOHHH that was a hit. I heard people everywhere talking about "those creepy little girls." When parents would tell me how creepy they were I simply said, try living with them. HA!

We did a haunted house, i made a 12 foot skeleton thingy to hang from the ceiling. We had the kids dressed sort of like the grudge face kids. They were uber creepy. It was fun. It is amazing when you phone number is out their for public comment and question how many weird things come crawling through the phone line. So i drug myself home at 11pm from cleaning up and counting all the money, and woke early in the am to realize i had to make spirit sticks and it was my week to work the concession stand for Leelani's Cheer team. I am just tired of being a public free servant this week. Will be nice to rest tomorrow. OH wait it is Sunday, there is certainly no rest tomorrow. Better get my lesson ready to teach kids tomorrow and write a 2 talks for my kids to give at church. I am hoping this is just a busy time of year and not my new life for good.