:: christmas ::

Christmas went by way to fast!  I can't believe tomorrow is the weekend and then New Year's!  We had a great Christmas!  We went to the parent's on Christmas eve and stayed home all day on Christmas day!  Larry got me some brown boots that we picked out together 2 weeks ago and he suprised me with diamond earrings (to replace the old ones I lost) that he and Grace picked out!  My kiddos got a ton of toys and I am still trying to find a place to put them all and Goodwill ones we do not need!  For my kids I got them a used item and spent money on their gifts from there.  Crazy I know but this is how it worked.  I was given a free easel earlier in the year and kept in my works basement and took it to my mom's house to have her put Grace's name on it and to cover up the marker prints from the kiddo before her.  In the pics it doesn't show it but the stuff my mom did is on the other side. Super cute with her name.  A couple weeks ago she said she didn't want to be clown anymore and wanted to be an artist so I was already ahead of her!  I got a ton of new markers and paints for her and a bag (the one pictured) to put them in.  Her nana has a bag like it so she was excited!

Here she is the next day after Christmas!  Coloring away on her easel :)  I didn't have to spend much cause Crayola products were buy one get one free and I used coupons and saw sales! :)

  

My Buddy loves one of the daycare kids DS and I know that the new thing is the Nintendo 3DS but it was over $150 and came with the mario game.  I so was not going to spend that much on my kiddo I know I should but I was trying to keep cost down.  So I asked my mom if she was using her DS and she said no and let me have her's for free to give to Buddy!  Thanks mom!  So I went to town and got him the Mario game which was the most expensive and got him a case and 5 other games I knew he would love that were all under $10 cause I was watching for sales and Amazon!  He loves it and is super excited about it.  I do feel bad I gave him something used but now he has 6 games instead of just one and I would have turned off the 3D part of the new style DS anyways for his eyes.

Needless to say he loves it!  For Larry I got him some traveling stuff and Battleship to play with Hunter!  So far they are 1-1 they have played everyday since Larry opened it except for today. :)  I think it was a good idea of this mama cause both boys love games and this one is a good strategy kind and they both are good at that!

Me and my girl watching the Fox and the Hound.  I taught Grace to call it the Fox and the Hoooooound! You make the Hound part sound like a hound dog saying it. :)

My girl got another stuffed animal she got about 4 at Christmas but this is Boo she really likes him.  :)

And she took great pictures with him. 
I have only got 1 out the 5 goals done of my Christmas break goals!  But I hope to power through the other ones soon!  Larry and I watched the Hobbit last night so that was nice and it wasn't even one of my goals.  It is amazing how cleaning and cooking and playing with your kids makes you not get your goals done but they will in good time.  I got 2 more days! Merry (late) Christmas everyone!!!

The next big thing is my girl's birthday's!  Misha turns 7 on the 4th (I think) and Grace turns 4 on the 8th and her party is on the 1st so her Papa will be here for her birthday!  This will be a first he was here for her birth but has worked in Canada during the winter term for all her birthday's.  This should be fun!!!


:: vacation ::

I am offically on my Christmas vacation!!!

What does that mean exactly?  It means that I can be a mom with my kiddos for a week!  I don't have to go to work until New Year's!  Whoo Hoo!  And it means my whomps are out of school too so we have no plans whatsoever other then celebrate Christmas!  Larry came home tonight and he is home until after the first, too!  Double whoo hoo!  I already have my Christmas Break goals written out.  I got only 5 goals on it so will see how I do!  I am such a happy mommy right now cause my man is home my kids are asleep and all is well (expect my laundry room is a mess but it is on my list of things to do!) and I am just happy that we are all together and longer then a week! Whoo hoo!We have no skating or swimming lessons this week and we are so open for whatever and that is the cool part! So hello Christmas vacation please go slow and be full of fun and alot of sleeping! :) 

:: cancer bites ::

I deal with cancer ever day at work.  We check for it, look for it, diagnosis it, see patients with it, and watch patients die with it.  Usually I am ok with it but if it is a child or someone I know I get twittered about it.  My side of the family has been blessed without getting it, but my Grandma Betty on my dad's side died of a brain tumor a year or so ago.  My father-in-law has cancer and he is doing awesome. My past co-worker who got ovarian cancer 7 years ago is not doing well and now she has 6 months or less to live and is in the hospital and might not get out and if she does she will be on hospice and it just bums me out and makes me mad.  I am not a fan of cancer but when it hits home likes this makes me wish a cure could come soon!  The bummer part for my friend is she has tried so many different types of chemo treatments in the past that were new and experimental and wasn't sure the outcome but the way I see it is she made the decision for her life to prolong it to see if she could live and see if they did work that she has expanded so many other peoples lives that haven't even been diagnosed with cancer just cause of her trying.  Do I make sense?  She paved the way for her kids future if heaven forbid her kids get her type of cancer or I get it in my future or any of my family and friends because she tried fight her cancer with all these crappy new chemo's that will maybe one day cure cancer.  I wish that we could find a cure cause cancer bites and my heart goes out to this family.  The kids already lost their dad to cancer and now their mom is dying.  Sucks.

:: 12-13-12::

I think this date will be a memory to me just like 9-11.  20 innocent Kindergartener's and teacher's and a Principal was killed by a young adult.  I don't watch the news and there is a reason for it.  But this is too much for me.  I still haven't turned on the news to watch any of it cause I can't.  It hits to close to home.  My buddy is a Kindergartener and if anyone did this to him and my family I would go crazy, not going to lie.  I have been reading some on Facebook and when I open up my email on MSN but today I had to stop reading it because they listed the names and ages of the kids.  This is too much for me.  It is hard enough to understand why it happened but I don't need to know their names and how young they died.  I already think of the kids thinking they were in a safe place to learn in school cause we their parents want them to go to learn to get to first grade and I just hope that their families and friends can come to peace sometime in their lives and for the police, parametics, and fireman that had to deal with what they saw and the after math of the whole ordeal.  I will never forget this day and I am sad for so many innocent children and I just hug my kiddos more now because of it.

:: instagrams ::

 

I love my Instagram app! It makes my pictures so darn good. The bad part is I don't bring out my good camera and keep using the camera on my phone. My best subjects with my Instagram are my girls...Grace, Lucy, and Misha. They are troopers when it comes to me taking pictures of them! Here are some I have taken this month and last! You gotta get the Instagram app!

:: whomps DVD's ::

I love, love, love to organize!  My house is 50/50 organized.  I am behind on so many projects that I want organized that I finally finished one I have wanted to do for MONTHS!  I got this from a blog I love...iheartorganizing!   Project Whomps DVD's is finished!  They are horrible about putting their DVD's back in their cases and it just makes me crazy.  And it got so bad that my hidden bins that housed their DVD's looked like this!...

You can understand why I have wanted to do this project!  The bins are horribly out of control!  No organizing at all.  The blog said to get DVD/CD holders that are 2 sided and put them in order of kids, adults, and so on.  I just did all the kids videos.  No rhyme or reason to the colors I just tried to put them in some type of order.  I haven't done it yet cause Grace was not happy with me but the cases for the DVD's are going in the shed in a bin she didn't like that idea but it will happen under her nose. 

 Don't the discs look so pretty and organized?!  And yes Grace already took one and and put it back in the slip so it is kid proof!  I used an old bin that I got at Hunter' baby shower that I reused for this project. 

Then I found a home for the DVD's where both whomps can get them.  Under the Wii controllers and if they make a mess Grace who loves to organize and put things in colors I am pretty sure will keep it looking good.  Win win situation.  I love it when a project gets done!  No more DVD sleeves on my desk glaring at me to do this project!  Now I have 2 free bins to put stuff in after doing this.  Score! :)

:: just hatched ::

I just finished Grace's birthday party invites and it just amazes me that my kids will be a year older in the next couple of months!  Grace turns 4 in January and Hunter will be 6 in March!  So I went to the archives of our pictures and we put all the pictures of the day they were born in a folder called " Just Hatched" .  It is truly amazing how they both look so much alike at birth and so different now. They looked so much alike with their head covered but without the hat a whole different story!  Hunter had very fine light brown hair and Grace had black hair with side burns past her ears!  Hunter was bigger and longer and Grace was petite and smaller.  But you can't tell in these pictures.  :)

 

Here is Hunter's Just Hatched pictures...

And here is Grace's Just Hatched pictures...



• 

:: music ::

Music is my help mate.  I never really understood music until I was at my lowest and went to counseling.  I learned and my counselor taught me to find something that helped me and got me through whatever was my issue.  So I learned to turn on music.  And listen to the words, and the actual melody, sing, and dance to it.  I love all kinds of music but my fav would have to be country and Celtic.  I am starting to actually sing again too.  I don't feel embarrassed about it anymore.  I sang in grade school and high school but I think it was more of a pressure to sing and they needed kids to sing to make it to convention and competitions.  So I did it.  But now it isn't forced.  And I dance to music.  I dance crazy with my kids or just dance with my kiddos in my arms showing them how to dance. I posted another song that I am loving right now!  I gotta get myself a Kenny Chesney album cause I love all his music but Pandora is my ultimate friend and I can listen to him on that!



My next new find is finding Christmas music that I love!  My past favorite Christmas artist is Amy Grant.  I love her 2 old Christmas albums.  I haven't found them yet for this season but hopefully will get the right bin out next week!  My fav, fav, fav from the last couple of years is this one...



Faith Hill!  Love this song!  I could sing it at the top of my lungs. :) 

This last week I have been overwhelmed and it happens every time Larry is gone every month and I am not sure why.  I think it is because I want my family to be like so many out there all together and not have to be apart.  But mine isn't like that and I hope someday it is but I get overwhelmed with life, kids, house, work, and being the one in charge.  So I have to take out my music and sit back and let it work its way into me and either listen, sing, or dance to it.


:: getting things done ::

I love feeling like I have accomplished things and this week I have! 

It has been overwhelming for me this week.  The kids and going through all this again with Larry working.  It isn't my favorite thing in the world to do but it is where we are at and it is getting things accomplished.  Larry told me by New Years 2 more debts will be gone.  If that is the case I will have no more debt!  I finished mine last year and took on his 2 credit card debts since I could get him a lower interest rate that he had and all we will have is the new van debt and what he has left from his last credit card he has.  I can't wait to tell you all when the last 2 are paid off!  And that I am done with my debt and how much we have paid off!  It is crazy and will surprise you all and is embarrassing but so worth paying off after 2.5 years off trying and going through getting out of debt! I haven't used a credit card in 2.5 years and my credit card amount is 0.00!  I have it just in case we have an emergency and to keep our credit score good.  I was so humbled when we saw our credit score when we bought the van it was 1/2 better than when we got the Kia before Hunter was born.  It was fun and exciting to see it and to know we were putting money down for the van :)  Baby steps but we are learning.  But enough of that back to my getting things done!  It just makes being overwhelmed with life to know that we are so close to being out of debt even if we all can't be together like normal families.  We just want to be normal but we got us where we are right now and this is how we can get us out of our past wrongs.

I got alot done this week!  I had Monday off and I took Hunter to school and Grace to daycare and came home and went to bed cause I woke up with a headache and unhappy children cause I didn't take Hunter to daycare and Grace didn't want to go to daycare.  So I got home and I went to be at 9:30 am and woke up at noon!  I haven't slept that well in ages and my headache was gone.  I think I needed the sleep and needed to rest up.  Then I went and tackled Christmas shopping and 2 birthday boys presents!  4 stores later I was done and picked up my kiddos and felt so much better about life!  I also finished Grace's birthday invites for the family!  My rule I made was that the kids have to have their birthday at our house until they are 5.  Why?  Cause I was trying to get out of debt!  It is so much easier and cheaper to do parties at your house and not invite friends and their parents cause it just cost more.  So Grace has one more birthday to deal with at our small house.  I feel bad for family about making them all come to our house and deal with the close quarters but next year it will be different!  Anyways, kids don't really have friends until Preschool or Kindergarten so this works perfectly!  Her invites are pretty cute too for her dog party she even told me she loved them :)  The VERY cool thing about her birthday party is her Papa will be here for it!  This is the first time he will be present for her birthday!  She turns 4 on January 8th and her party we are doing on January 1st so he can be here for it.  I don't think she will mind that it is early she just doesn't know it.  It will be a win win situation.  She will have her Papa here and her Papa will be happy to be here for it.  Amazing what you do for the people you love. I have always in the past done my kids birthday parties on their actual birthday so it isn't confusing for them.  This year I am branching out and making my man feel a part of his daughter's birthday.

I have also gotten chores and projects done around the house and it feels so good to get them done and out of the way!  I got my kids school paper bins done and I love them! 

I ordered my Christmas cards!  I love them!  I used a groupon or Living Social for Picture People when Larry was home a couple months ago and got us to get family pics done and some of both kids!  It was the best idea ever cause we bought the CD of the photo shot and now I used the pics and put them in our Christmas card!  All I have to do now is drag my kiddos to Costco!

I started walking!  Baby steps, but I was able to get out 2 times this week with Misha and get our walk on!

I did laundry today and I had no laundry in the washer or dryer or the basket.  I started with a clean laundry room!   I haven't done that in forever!  It was such an awesome feeling!

I am halfway done using my candles. :)

I haven't really blogged about Hunter's hockey stuff.  He passed the skating class that put him in learn to play hockey a couple months back and he was so excited and went to the first class and the first fun hockey game.  He was so cute and in his element.  Then that week I got a call from a lady that said they had a problem with Hunter and that he needed to go back to his skating lessons and take a few months and try to pass it again.  He was the youngest in the learn to play hockey and the slowest.  I was so bummed and so mad at how they approached it.  I put him back in skating lessons and Hunter was so bummed cause he wanted to be with his friend and keep doing hockey but he was a trooper about it and did what he was supposed to do.  So he didn't pass all the elements of the last skating class and I had been dragging my feet all week to sign him back up in that class.  I called today to sign him back up in the skating class and after I did the person I was talking to asked if he was trying to be a hockey player and I said yes and she said there was a new class that was starting that he could go into!  I was very hesitant cause I didn't want to go through this again and pull him out.  I had the lady ask his coach if he was ready and I got the call he could go into this new class!  I am so excited for my Buddy!  I signed him up!  It doesn't work with my work schedule but with my mom's help and Larry's too when he is home we will get him there!  When I picked Buddy up after school I replayed the voicemail of the lady saying his coach said he could go to the class to learn to play hockey and he was so happy and he told me "mama that almost makes me cry" and I told him Buddy it made me cry knowing you can go to the class to learn to play hockey!  So we are back to learning to play hockey and goodbye learning to skate!  And if they tell me again he can't be there I will not be happy and they will have to talk to the coach that told him he could!

My Grace has been using up paper and tape like crazy!  She is my little artist and I can't keep up with her!  She draws and writes so good and she is only 3.5 almost 4! If you tell her to draw something she will.  If you tell her to write something she will just tell her the letter.  She is crazy smart.  So this year both my kids are getting something used for Christmas and I am using what I got and making it cooler for them and saving money at the same time!  I would tell you what I am doing but maybe Christmas week I will I don't want to spill it!  Just know that my kids will love both things and I spent maybe $100 each more or less on both of them because of the used gifts they both got!  I am so excited about it all and that I came up with the idea and that I kept with my goal! 

I think that is all I can think of about getting things done at least I finally blogged now I just got to take pictures with my camera and not my phone!

Here is a picture of my Buddy at his Feast at Kindergarten!  My mom went for me since I had to work.  The bummer part of working is you have to miss out on fun stuff like this...



But he had a great time and it didn't phase him that I wasn't there :)  He is too darn handsome I can't stand it!  I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished so far in his 5 year lifetime!  Have I blogged that he can read up to a First Grade winter term kid and further!  Yep!  My Hunter he amazes me!  I don't have to read books to him anymore he reads every word almost perfect!  Yes, he will miss one or two here but he is dead on with reading!  If I read a book wrong he will tell me cause he is reading along with me.  So proud of my big boy don't know how he got so smart but he is and his sister isn't too far away from him!  So proud of both my kids they are both sharp little cookies!  Watch out world for my little Robinson's!

Night and hugs to you all.
Al

:: taylor swift ::

My favorite artist for November is Taylor Swift.  This song is my fav right not cause it isn't repeated over and over again on the radio.  I love the music!  The words are ok.  I just love songs that have guys and girls singing in it.  Enjoy :)



and I also like this one too...



I seem to like songs about relationships it might be because Larry isn't home right now and working and for some reason I listen to music more when he is gone.  It must be because when we were seperated I listened to music alot and listened to the words more and grew from that.  It is amazing when you go through stress of everyday life how even music can make everything better.  Just singing songs, dancing to music, and singing at the top of your lungs makes everything happier. 

My candle goal is going great!  I have used up all my tealights and my candle that has a wick that sounds like a fire.  I have one of my big candles going right now and it is 1/2 way burnt.  So excited to go through my candles and I can't wait to get new ones!  Goodbye ones I have had for years hello new ones that I will not keep as long as these!

Kiddos are great I will blog about them next time, promise :)

:: fall goal number two ::

I am happy to say that I already finished my second goal!  Yeah, me!  It was degut my yard and prep for Fall!  I did this last Sunday while the kids were playing in the house.  I love doing deguting plants!  Larry isn't a fan and doesn't understand why I have to chop it all to the ground but I just do!  I love knowing that when it gets really cold and snows that my plants and bushes aren't dying anymore and their leaves are not looking yucky.  I love the look of that is is Fall and I have prepped my yard for it!  I got my pumpkins I grew in my garden on our porch and all the outside toys are put away so they don't get ruined for next year.  All the junk under my little carport is gone and all that is left is recycling and the garbage can.  Larry helped me a couple weeks ago gut the garden as much as we could and just knowing it looks better and things are not dying and rotting makes me smile.  My other goal is to get so many other projects done this weekend that I have just kept putting off for the last month.  Will see if it gets accomplished.  Another part of goal number two is to post pictures from each month last year and present and see how big my whomps are growing!  Here is the first picture it was when family went to the railroad farm in Canby :)

 

 

And when I get the pics of each of my kiddos on their school pumpkin patches I will post them for you!

Fall goal number 3 is read more, watch more movies at home, and save money for my first pair of cowboy boots!


:: lucy and hunter ::

Lucy is 11 years old and in the last year or so she has starting to be a more lovely dovey cat.  She has never, ever been a lap cat.  She will give you head butts and let you pet her and she has the softest fur ever and has seen I got her when she was a kitten.  Besides me her fav is now Hunter.  Hunter loves her even more now that she is all about him.  Kramer used to be his fav but not anymore.  Lucy and Hunter are buds.  This is her new thing in the above picture.  She waits for him in his bed.  :)  Remember she is 11 years old and the last year or so she found a safe haven in Hunter's bed away from Kramer and she loves being up high.  Dude has the top bunk.  So she climbs and claws her way up to his bed up his ladder everyday during the day and every night.  Sometimes she will sleep in there with him it depends if the kids are too loud when they go to bed.  When I start getting the kids going to go to bed if she isn't in his bed already she is on her way and will go in after he does.  I put a gate up in front of their door cause I don't want Kramer to sleep with them cause he wakes them up but when I move it in the morning Lucy will sometimes go in there to wake him up in his bed.  Or she will knock down the gate to get in his room.  It is so crazy.  So, I thought I would give you a little info about my oldest animal and my oldest kiddo and the love they have for each other.  Super sweet!

:: fall goal number one ::

My first goal for this Fall season is to use up all my old Party Lite candles and Yankee candles (the top ones) and get more Scentsy candles (the bottom ones)!  So I started this goal last year and this is what I am left with from last Fall!  I am so close to getting my old candles out for some new ones!  But I will let you know that my ultimate fav candles are the flamless ones from Costco that have timers in them!  I ask for more each Christmas!  They don't smell and they light up when you want them to and I just love, love, love them. 

 

So there you have it!  I hope to get more Scentsy warmers cause at the moment I only have one but I can't use it until I have reached my goal and then I will go to town with them! I love candles in Fall but I have had alot of these in the picture for a few years and these puppies have to go and be burned up in my house ASAP! Burn with the old to get ready for some new!

:: my girl and her papa

Someone took this picture this weekend at a reception we went to and I just love how Grace's eyes sparkle and how happy she is and her Papa can make her this way all the time :)

:: fall ::

I love Fall.  It is my fav season of the year.  Here is why...

candles

sunflowers

pumpkin pictures with my family

the crisp cold air

rainboots

tea and warm beverages

watching movies

boots

leggings

baking cookies

 

I can't believe October is here! My kids are in full swing with school and they both love it now! It took Grace a week and half and now she loves it. I think she had to get used to her weeks being different and now she has friends at school and share days have started and she was excited when her brother did share days now she does. My kids had there school photos last week and we got Grace's back and she looks like such a big girl in them. I can't wait to get Hunter's! I also used a Groupon at Picture People to get a family picture of the 4 of us when Larry was home and it was so fun and I am so glad I did it! Now we will have updated school pictures on the wall and a family picture of us all. Here they are!

 



 This is the one I used with our Groupon!  We haven't taken a family picture like this for a couple of years :)

 This is so my kids.  Silly.  Always silly

 They were pretty much done posing by this picture.

 Love.  This so shows my kids to a T.  My girl loves her brother and he is just him.

 A little to much saying cheese on this one.

 Jump.  Grace did this the best.

 Grace showing some of her attitude.

 My big boy.

 He makes me smile.

 My big girl.

 She makes me laugh.  She looks scared here.

 My baby.



I am so glad I used this Groupon!  It was fun and even though my kids had no clue what they were doing we did it as a family and when we were done went to there favorite resturant...Spaghetti factory for a very late dinner.  Alot has gone on and I have taken tons of pictures but with my phone but my camera is on my desk!  Larry has changed jobs and we are Canada bond again.  But this comes with alot more money and hopefully all our debt Larry's and mine will be paid and we will be able to sell our house debt free and be Canby bond where both kids go to school.  That would be a great dream will see how the winter goes and next March we should see the benefits of continuing this path of Larry being gone and me and the whomps doing what we have done for years.  Sigh.  I wish it wasn't this way but maybe it was meant to be. 

Happy October everyone!