The BEST gift ever!!!

This year hubby gets extra points for cluing in on the the wants and needs of his lady! His gift for me this Christmas was a maid!!! Not indefinitely, but for 2 separate times. Clint's logic behind this was that now with his new job he finally gets paid vacation, so he thought I should get my own version of that too. The funny thing is that he was pretty self conscious about giving this to me. On Christmas eve he asked me if he could tell me what he wanted to get me cause he wasn't sure... I was like "Are you kidding me? This is the BEST GIFT EVER!!!" I told him he could get this for me every year for the rest of our lives! I cannot wait to cash this gift in. I'm hoping to do it early January and then maybe again in the spring (and you know what I will be asking for in may for my birthday and Moms day) . Of course the house has to be picked up first but he says they will scrub the floors, bathrooms, windows...even my base board!

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it! I'm about to lose control and I think I like it! OH yeah!

This post deserves a song, but not that one cause the video is totally inappropriate.

Click on THIS and do the happy dance with me :)

The Atonement Christmas

When we arrived at my Mom’s house I think we were all a little unsure how it was going to go. It had been years for Clint and I and the first time for our children to spend a holiday with her. We sat and visited for a while and it was nice and relaxing. Then while the enchiladas were in the oven she let the kids open their gifts. She was absolutely over the moon at the kid’s joy. My Mom has never really had much money and when she did she never did anything good with it so it made her feel real good to be able to treat the kids to some nice gifts. I was pretty surprised how well she did picking gifts out for them when she doesn’t really know any of them that well. She had gotten Gus these really cool wooden blocks and he used all 150 of them to make village on her living room floor. It was clear to me she had Lilly figured out when she opened a very fancy dress and fancy hair bows. And my little artist Drew was excited to get some Blendy Pens! We gave my Mom a framed family picture and she was thrilled. She even had Clint hang it up for her before we left.
After gift opening we had a yummy dinner followed by a pogo stick jumping competition in her kitchen. My Mom and Willie (her boyfriend since I was 12) had a kick watching all of us. Clint and I smoked the kids on the pogo stick!!! Well, Clint smoked me too. We could tell that my Mom, though having a great time, was getting a bit tired and the kids were about ready to get going to so we took a photo of all the grand kids with them (- Cameron) and said our goodbyes.
It was a real nice time and I know we all hope to be able to do it again. My Mom has called me 3 times since then telling what a wonderful time she had and how special it was to her.

I do believe for my Mom this was her atonement Christmas.

Spoiled Rotten Kids

Gifts, gifts and more gifts!!! I guess there are far worse problems to have. Thankfully I am proud to say I don’t have the problem of spoiled rotten children, despite all of their Grandparents efforts to spoil them rotten. LOL!
Clint and I were just blown away by how appreciative the kids were and how quick to say thank you they were. No matter what the gift, Drew lit up like a Christmas tree and expressed her thanks. She is a super example to the little critters watching her closely. Just a few pick of the festivities…


There's some of that appreciation I was telling you about!

Evie got some cute bows for that pretty hair of hers!

Don't you just love when they are this surprised? (digital camera)

First reaction to the train table!
They're even excited for a gift they new they were getting!

Finally she won't have to beg Drew to use her DS!

WARNING!!! WARNING!!! These next pictures might shock you…

Proceed without judgment please.

This is what 1400 square feet, 2 adults, 4 children and 3 sets of grandparents will do to your house at Christmas time.

The living room with the rug rats playing WII rather then cleaning...

The playroom...I believe it had a floor a couple days ago???

and just where will we eat dinner now?

It's far worse then you can tell from this picture.

once again this picture does not do justice to how bad it really is.

I would have taken pics of our room and Drew and Evie's room but they both had people sleeping in them.

Don't worry, I am working on this mess. Hopefully will post "after" pictures soon (ish).

Twas the day after Christmas...

...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except Mom and Evie.

Aaaaaah, the day after Christmas. A day when I typically rip the tree and decorations down with a vengeance and look about our cozy little home in utter despair wondering how in the heck am I gonna find a place for all this stuff. But this year I will wait until tomorrow to start that process cause we have another Christmas party to attend today. Believe it or not my Mom is hosting a little party today for my sister and I's family. (is I's a word???Help Abbey, help!) I have already titled this event and future blog post "The Atonement Christmas" I can't remember the last time my Mom attended a family holiday function let alone hosted one! Oh wait, I actually do remember the last one she attended. It was our first Christmas in this house and the year Clint proposed to me. And as I ponder that year while writing it was the same year both of my Grandmas past away. That was a crazy year for our family. (Alert, alert...3rd creature officially stirring. Good morning Lilly) Anyways, back to what I was saying. She has bought presents for the kids and is making dinner. She has been calling me like 3 times a day giving me updates on everything she she is doing. It's been a long time since she has seemed this excited and I am happy for her. However, I will not count my chickens until they are hatched. Historically it is like my Mom to suddenly become very ill or even drop of the face of the earth the day before an event. So we will see. I haven't even told the kids about it and I don't plan on it until I hear from her this morning. If it happens they will be pleasantly surprised. But if things in my Moms world suddenly change, my children will be shieled from the pain of disappointment. A disappointment I have endured far to many times in my life.

And I am now laughing at myself because when I decided to go ahead and blog again this morning I was not planning on talking about that at all. I was going to share about our Christmas celebrations...

I'm back. You didn't know I left did ya? I just went to the bedroom to awake my husband by smacking his foot and saying "hey, wheres the camera?" "grunting and throat clearing sounds followed by- I left it at my parents." Boo hoo, because I was gonna show you some pics of my absolutely adorable children. But we will have to wait. Besides Evie is getting fussy and as I see it is now 10 O'clock I better go stir the remaining creatures myself.

Until next time...

An oldy but a goody! "I AM"

Remember this one ladies...

I am: blogging for the 2nd time in one day
I think: we need more Christ and less presents for Christmas
I know: I have bad spelling and grammar
I want: to have a relaxing day with no kids whining or bickering
I have: to plan my lesson for Sunday still
I wish: our loan modification would go through
I miss: my Grandparents
I feel: tired and sad
I hear: my loud computer fan
I smell: nothing
I regret: yelling at my kids
I love: peace and quiet
I always: miss my kids when they are gone
I am not: done wrapping presents
I believe: everyone should dance like no ones watching
I fear: many of my family members will never now Christ
I cry: not nearly as often as I want to (tough girl)
I don't always: eat breakfast
I fight: the urge to curse at bad drivers on the road
I never: return my books to the library on time
I listen: for Evie to wake up
I need: a personal assistant, maid, chef...
I am happy: that my husband loves his new job

If you are reading this then you are next! Copy and paste to your blog with your own answers.

A Gus"ism" and a whole lot more...

This cute little guy has us cracking up multiple times a day. So far today this is how he has entertained us with his words...

Last night Lilly hung up an 8x10 picture of Gus in their room. He was so excited! So today Drew was in his room and he points it out to her and says " That's me! Mommy says "That's my handsome guy"." So cute! I do say that ALL the time to him. Happy to know he's listening.

Then later when I was in the shower Drew comes in and tells me about this conversation...

(as Lilly is pouring his water cup into the sink in her effort to clean up) Gus- "hey, that's my water yilwy (Lilly). Don't throw that away. That's diculous (ridiculous) !" Ha! He was so proud of what he said cause of his sisters reactions he had to come and tell me all about it too. "I said diculous mom. I said Yilwy, that's diculous!" I have to say that I know he got that word from me and it doesn't sound like that nice of a word when I hear my 3 year old say it. Live and learn...

Now for a whole lot more...

On online socializing-I know I said this last time I posted but man do I miss blogging. I am guilty of online social network swapping! First myspace, then blogger and now facebook. While I do not miss myspace in any shape or form I do really miss blogger. I like blogging way more then facebook because you get the whole story, not just a snip it. But facebook wins out on the quick and convenient factor.

On posts that should have been- I really actually blog all the time...its just in my head. I title them and everything. Like SAVING LIKE MAD-funny stories of being a coupon queen, or My TOP FIVE-Top 5 things I love about my five favorite people, or THE BIG TOE SAYS TO THE LITTLE TOE- Good and ugly stories of relationships in the body of Christ. Not to mention the countless homeschooling posts I have thought of doing.

On being so busy I can barely breath sometimes- Whew...I'm actually already about an hour and a half into this post so far. Partly because I'm a slow typer but mostly because I've had to stop to nurse the baby, take a phone call, check a post on craigslist, discipline Gus, light a fire under the girls butts to get their chores done, rethink dinner since my meat didn't thaw (still don't know what I'm gonna cook) call my hubby, and go to the ladies room.

I have much more to write but its almost time for the man to get home so I better just sign off and save my thoughts for the middle of the night when I can post with no interruptions. Ha! As if I don't get interrupted in the middle of the night...

Evelyn's first month

We are enjoying every minute with our sweet baby girl. She has been the perfect blessing to complete our family. She loves to eat sleep and poop... but most recently she loves to smile. Big sisters love helping mom take care of her and big brother Gus wants to be sure he gets a good look at her eyes at least a couple times a day. God has blessed us immeasurably and we are truly thankful. Here are a few photos from her first month.

(smiling at mama)

PS- It has been FOREVER since I've blogged. I have missed it a ton... I hope you will be seeing more of me on here.