Not Me Monday Thanksgiving edition

Not Me Monday's were started by MckMama to tell others what you have NOT done. Go ahead and share what you have NOT done this week....it's fun.

This past week while getting ready to head out of town for the holiday I did NOT put the girls in their cribs with a snack & toys just so I could vacuum & take a shower.

I did NOT forget about them in their because they were being so good and lay down on the bed for a 20min nap either.

While at Aunt Beth's house for the holiday Addie did NOT knock over a huge 5ft candelabra with burning candles. It did NOT go all over the floor and on the walls. And Bill did NOT iron the wax off the walls.

We were just about to eat Thanksgiving dinner and were starting to pray when Ellia did NOT start saying "No pray" - because she associates prayer with bedtime (even though we too pray at dinner) and started throwing a major fit. I did NOT take her into the office, right off where we were eating and spank her bottom. Bill did NOT tell me later that everyone could hear my spank her bottom along with Uncle Harold's dinner prayer!

I did NOT agree to meet my friends for Black Friday shopping at 2:30am. And I did NOT look at the clock and decide to not go & not call them.

I did NOT get up at 5:45am and go out all by myself and do some shopping.

I did NOT break my hard & fast rule of listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving and listen to it a few times this past week. I would never treat my favorite holiday like that!

I did NOT eat so much food in the last 5 days that I am sure I have gained 10lbs. I love, love Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2009

We made it to Thanksgiving in Portland this year. Last year due to Bill's work schedule we weren't able to make it to see all his extended family. I was sad, very, very sad!

But this year was another story for sure and it was so good to see everyone and to celebrate with them. The girls were a bit.....lets just say.....challenging. Ellia was just too excited about all her cousins and really had a hard time eating, sleeping & listening due to all the excitement. Addie had an ear infection and wasn't too cranky. However, she did knock down the candelabras with burning candles on them and get into just about anything her tiny, little, grubby hands could get a hold of.

All said and done it was a fun time. I may be a bit sleep deprived but I did have a good time! (however, on our way home we did talk about how we will have 3 kids at next years festivities....yikes!)

Addie playing on the upstairs deck after we arrived

Ellia on the deck. The kids love this deck!!




The arrival gifts waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. Aunt Beth has gifts for everyone each year when they arrive. Even the kids.

We arrived at two in the afternoon and the chocolate fountain was going already. This thing runs day & night for 4 days. With re-stocking of things to dip it into several times a day.



The girls meeting Georgia for the first time. They were so enthralled with her. Ellia kept saying "baby Georgy"



Bill ironing the wax off the walls onto paper towels after Addie pushed over the candelabras that had burning candles on them. ( we insisted on cleaning the wax up off walls & floor even though Aunt Beth said to leave it cause her cleaning lady would get it on Monday)

Bill lounging downstairs during the parade Thanksgiving morning
and massaging his legs & feet at the same time

Leave it to Aunt Beth to find something to entertain the kids this year. She created an indoor ball pit made out of a pool. The little cousins all loved playing in it. It entertained them for the entire 3hr parade and before dinner.


Addie loved this thing!!!!

The girls playing while the boys got dressed

Cousin Connie with Nate & Ben in the ball pit

Ellia, Addie, Nate, Caden & Kate - How many kids can you fit in that pool??

Aunt Beth always has activities, magazines, games etc for us all to do while we are here. This year the kids got to decorate an ornament. Here is Ellia decorating her snowman ornament.

Addie climbing the stairs with some balls from the ball pit. These stairs are a bit scary so I was right behind her.

Trying to get the girls to pose for a pre-dinner picture. Not the greatest as you can tell.




Cousin Sarah with her hubby Daren & newest family member Georgia! Isn't she the cutest??

Addies place setting at the table

View of one of the tables.

The tables all set for dinner. We have to use three 8ft tables & 3 highchairs to accommodate everyone. We've outgrown Aunt Beth & Uncle Harolds dinning room so we now use the formal living room for dinner.

Addie enjoying her turkey & fixins!

After dessert & coffee it's time for another tradition = balancing a spoon on your nose.
Cousin Connie here along with her "special" teeth she brought along for the weekend.



Bill - he has certain technique to this, but it works every time!

Cousin Sarah & Caleb - her protege this year. She holds the record for the number of spoons she can balance. Here she is with them on her eyes. Although Caleb did get 4 spoons this year on his eyes, nose and chin & I think beat her record!


Cousins Ryan and Jeff

Addie didn't care for pumpkin pie but she sure did like the cream puffs!!!

Christina was a foreign exchange student from Germany years ago with Bill and his family. She has stayed in contact over the years & made many trips to visit them again. She came for the holiday. Here she is having her 1st EVER bite of pumpkin pie. She liked it!

All the girl cousins (minus a few) dressed up in some of Aunt Beth's costumes, fur coats & old clothes and did a fashion show. I wore someones letter man's jacket from high school.

The annual signing of the "Thankful table cloth" This has been a tradition since 1989, we've had to sew another 2 table cloths onto the original. But it's always fun to see what people say each year, or see how kid's hand prints have changed. This is Bill and Daren signing.

Ahhh, another Thanksgiving in the books. Now the Christmas holidays officially begin!

Not Me Monday!

Not Me Mondays were started by MckMama as a way to confess what you have NOT done this week. Always fun and exciting. Wont you join us in confessing what you have NOT done this week?

This week I did NOT work hours & hours on stamping cards to sell at a craft show on Sat. And at this craft show I did NOT only make $20 for all my efforts and hours of work!

This craft show was from 10am -5pm. Afterwards, I did NOT pick up the girls, go home, feed them, change their clothes, let the dog out & then turn around and drive to Seattle to daddy's Costco for shop night. Where I did NOT make myself sick eating so much free chocolate from the fabulous vendors that were there that night.

I did NOT dress the girls all up in Christmas santa skirts & their white fur coats just to go to Costco! And when we arrived Bill and I did NOT make the girls sit with Santa for pictures twice! They both did NOT cry and get upset.

I did NOT have a dream about Thanksgiving dinner two nights in a row. I did NOT dream about the turkey, the cranberry sauce, potato's, shopping & the Macy's Day parade. Hmmm, can you tell this is my favorite holiday??

My husband and I did NOT get into a wee bit of an argument last night. We do NOT argue at all! But supposing we did argue and during the 45Min's we both cooled off I did NOT clean the whole downstairs, master bathroom/bedroom, vacuum, put away 2 loads of laundry & empty all the garbage cans. Who says working out our anger cannot be beneficial?

Friday Facts

Friday Facts for November 20Th:

Thankful for: My little family and the fact that I am able to stay home with the girls each and every day! That I have my own little family. Something I dreamed & prayed for, for many years. And being a SAHM is harder than I thought but I do enjoy it. It is rough around here some days but we make it through. My patience is sometimes shot by the time Bill walks in the door but I wouldn't trade the whining, "mama I love you", more water please & all that jazz for the world. Well, okay I would trade the whining. That is sooooo irritating to me and Ele is in this whining mood that is driving me crazy! She spent 20 Min's in her crib the other day until she finally stopped.

Listening to: The radio playing in the background and Ele trying to sing along. She loves to sing & dance. And it is the cutest thing ever!!!


Looking forward to: The craft show tomorrow. I have made about 25 cards & 15 or so clips to sell. Plus I am going to put out my Arbonne stuff and pray that I get a few hits for that. But more importantly it will be fun to hang with my BF all day & see some other cool crafty things.

I am needing or wanting: To know what this baby is in my tummy! The suspense is killing me!!!! Drano test and Intelligender test both say boy. If it isn't a boy on Dec 18Th I will cry! But I know I will come around b/c each baby is a gift.

Missing: Nothing right now that I know of

Quote of the week: "Impossible is not a word, it's just an excuse to not try at all"

Two videos of girls having fun playing

Two recent video's of the girls......just for you Nana and Papa!

Who says girls cannot make a lot of noise was sure WRONG!! These two can make enough noise as several boys.

"I just don't get it"

This is what my husband began his conversation with me about in the car on the way home last night....."I just don't get it".

"What don't you get?"

He went onto explain the whole MckMama and Stellan phenomenon going on. By this he means the blog/twitter/Facebook following that MckMama has. Women all over the world rushing to be her friend on FB, checking their phones for the newest tweets, checking into her blog 3-4x a day. He get's that Stellan is a miracle and understands how God healed him. We prayed for him this entire year.

His biggest question....WHY? Why do we love her so much & want to constantly know what is going on with her life? He said he'd get it if it was like a sitcom and you tuned in once a week but it's not like that.

So I tried to explain how I feel like I identify with her:

Soon to be many small children all close in age
Stay at home mama
Trying to raise her children to love Jesus
Her honesty & realness

And I went on and on for a few minutes and again he still said "I just don't get it"

Soooooo, Fellow blogger's....why do we love MckMama so much???? Lets flood this post with comments just for my husband to read...(he does read my blog)

God know's when to use a child

On Saturday we had family pictures taken. Our MOPS group hired a photographer to come in and take photos for $35. Of which $25 goes back to our MOPS group & you get to keep a CD with the pictures on it.

So in anticipation of pictures I bought the girls matching shirts & coordinated our clothes to match them. It was all going perfectly in my mind for our annual Christmas card photo. That is until we got there......

Ellia immediately decided she did not want to participate in family photos. She ran around the room, tried to play with the lights, took off her shoes, wanted to see the camera and just generally was a bit out of control. Addie was great for the first little bit but then she too decided this picture idea wasn't fun any longer either.

Sadly, I commented that our girls were acting like "Brats" to which the photographer told me not to worry, that all kids act like this at this age when it comes time for pictures.

As we walked out to the car Ellia said to me " Mama I love you" and as I buckled her into her car seat I told her I loved her too but "Mama is mad at you right now for your behavior"

To which she immediately replied "No, Mama YaYa (this is what she calls herself) mad at you"

Bill immediately started laughing, Addie followed suit b/c she laughs at anyone who laughs and Ellia then started laughing. As I climbed into the car Bill said to me "Laugh honey, you need to lighten up it was just a picture."

In that moment I needed to laugh because staying frustrated & mad wasn't going to help me or our family. And God used my two year old to give me a kick in the pants.

p.s. I heard from friends that some of their children acted up too that day, at least we weren't the only ones whose kids didn't cooperate.

Friday Facts

Friday Facts was stolen from created by Tiffiny at The Story Of Our Life. Won't you join in on the fun?

Thankful For:
My nice & warm house. The storm last night and earlier today sounded nasty & looked worse. I am so glad to have a place to call "home".

Listening To:
The girls play quietly with each other....oops scratch that. Ellia just got on the musical train and is riding around the house. And I just happened to look over and Addie is on the ottoman, on top of it. How did she get up there????? She just said "uh ohhh"

What's for dinner:
Today, I made a double batch of Chicken, Broccoli, cheesy rice casserole. I offered to take dinner to a fellow MOPS mom who is very sick with morning sickness during this pregnancy. So I made up a double batch. As I type dinner is in the oven & the kitchen is clean. WooHooo!!

Looking forward to:
Tomorrow morning we are getting family pictures taken. Just Bill, myself and the girls. It's a MOPS fundraiser. Pay $35 for a 20 minute photo shoot & you get the CD with the pictures on it. And $25 bucks goes back into our MOPS budget. I am hoping the girls cooperate and do okay. I bought them matching shirts. Now I just have to figure out what Bill and I are going to wear.


I am needing or wanting:
A pedicure. It's been too long! Our new budget doesn't allow for these kinda of frivolous things so I will have to just do them myself. But the idea of going to a salon, relaxing with a magazine, latte in hand & being pampered sounds so good right now!

Missing:
My Lexus SUV. We sold it this morning. I didn't think I was going to be sad about seeing it go. But I am. That car was my transition car from being single & free to married & with children. It was a smooth transition and I fell in love with it. I realize that 3 children will not fit into that car and so it's impractical. And besides that the car payment each month was killing us. Good bye Pearl you will be missed.

Quote of the day/week:
Ellia "Mama me help you cook"
Me "okay, sweetie"
Ellia "and daddy will eat"
Me "Yes, daddy will eat dinner with all of us"
Ellia "Noooo, daddy eat with YaYa (how she says her name), not mama & Addie"

Well okay then, Daddy can eat dinner with just YaYa

My child cannot read but she can.......

We tend to limit what the girls watch. Even though they are young, they will pick up on things. So we only watch two channels during the day. One of which airs the same commercial at least every hour. It's about teaching your child to read as early as age 9months.

I have to admit at first I was intrigued and thought it was a cool concept. Then after awhile the thoughts of "she doesn't read" and "my girls cannot do that" started to creep into my head. And Yes, sadly I contemplated asking for the system for Christmas.

But today, as the commercial played yet again I began thinking. Thinking of what my girls can do...........

Ellia can put together simple puzzles
She can point at pictures in her books and tell me what the objects are
If I ask her to go find something she can do it, like yesterday she wanted her cup, I told her it was in my bedroom. She went up the stairs & came back down saying " I find it mama"
She can draw me pretty pictures
While drawing all over her hands & arms too - she is multi-talented ;o)
She can sweetly rock her babies, feed them their bottles & put them into their baby cradle
She can sit on top of her sister & pin her down with the best of them


Addie can put the balls into her gumball machine & press the handle to make them come out
Addie can steal her sisters favorite softies
She can also walk around the ottoman & took 2 steps by herself last night!
Addie is multi talented too, she can grab food with one hand while holding a toddler size sippy cup in the other hand - this girl loves to eat & wont let anything get in her way.

So my girls may not be able to read but they can get fight, scream, cry and make each other laugh better than any children I know. And when that commercial airs again I am going to focus on what they can do.

Take that "can your child read" program!

Mama and her girls

This picture was taken the Friday before Halloween. I had just gotten my hair done and the girls and I were all wearing our Halloween shirts. I Absolutely love this picture!!

Halloween Fun

Halloween was an eventful day in our house to say the least. It started early & ended late and the girls made it through with no naps!! Unbelievable but true. We had an adorable Minnie Mouse and the cutest Ladybug you ever saw.

Our day started by stopping by Costco to see daddy at work & deliver Halloween cookies to him & his employees. (sorry such a small pic, it was taken on my cell phone)

2ND Trip was to see Grandma, Grandpa & Auntie Sus.

After a short stop at home for some quick nap time, which didn't happen we headed in the rain to downtown Snohomish to go Trick or Treating. Ellia loved this part of the day!! She had so much fun going into each store and saying "Tick or teat". She wasn't at all fazed by the rain that was pouring down on us. Addie was content in her stroller with a cookie & didn't mind that she wasn't getting to participate.

Addie chillin out in the stroller with her cookie

On our way back to the car Ellia decided she wanted to carry the umbrella.

It was a bit big for her but she managed it pretty well

After an hour of fun we headed home to get ready for our own Trick or Treating visitors. We made our traditional Halloween dinner. Potato Rice soup and waited for daddy & the visitors to start knocking. With each knock Bubba, Ellia and Addie pulling up the rear would run to the door to see the kids & give them candy.

Once daddy got home we headed out for some neighborhood trick or treating. It was pouring down rain and we made it to 3 houses! But at least daddy got to participate a bit too.