Ahhh Silent night.

The kids are in bed, Christmas music playing, I'm in front our beautiful Tree, ready to wind down!  Daniel is at the gym?!?!?!?

Daniel and I had a great friend come down and visit for the weekend.  Our wonderful Tabatha!  We had a blast.  Had a great dinner at Neighbors Mill Friday (love the Beef and Cheese sandwich) bought great cookies for dessert and fresh muffins for breakfast.  Tab and I got away on Saturday and spent the day walking the square. Did the flea market and thrift store thing. Found some great buys!  Saturday night we went to Branson for Daniels work Christmas party.  A place called Rockys down by the landing has some Great Prime Rrib.  Then the fun begins :) Earnie Biggs piano bar!  So there was alot of alcohol, loud music, cigarette smoke :-(  I would have preferred the Karaoke bar down the landing , but the large party had already decided the dueling pianos won out!  It was my first time at a place like that and I'm sorry to admit I wasn't too impressed,. I'm so Thankful for Daniels wonderful employer who reserved hotel rooms at a group rate so many couples were able to have a great time safely, as far as I  know there were no legal issues during or after the great fun!.

My Eldest daughter is trying her hardest to turn me into a gray haired mom.  Here we are less than a week away from Christmas, I want to give her all the things she wants and she wont stop the shenanigans long enough to recover from the last. She has strategically changed her top request on her Christmas wish list to include #1. "I want to be ungrounded" and #2. "I want my phone back". But she continues to make stupid decisions and those 2 things are only leverage we have as the parents in the house! (well at least the most successful) Whats a mother to do?

Aiden brought home an F on his last spelling test.....He has had nothing lower than a A, on any assignment in any subject, all year long! 
What is happening to my children?  The Momma Grinch is fixing to steal Christmas in my house! 

Could these Halloween pictures from this year be any Indication?  The Gypsy and the Monster!

Lord Help me is my nightly prayer!

Ohhhh Lilli-Kate, my sweet little Love Dove.  Shes not too rotten yet, however I did learn tonight that her Grudge actually can last about 10 minutes. Does this seem like an exceptionally long attention span for a 16 month old, to any one else? She was Trying to cut some teeth on a battery and I told her "no mam", not even in my angry voice! Heaven Forbid!  She looked at daddy, then sissy, then me and stuck out that bottom lip and the water works began. She IS the drama Princess!  We all laughed at her and she stopped eventually, 10 minutes later she looked at me and , I kid you not gave me "the look and rolled her eyes at me!!!!  Oh Man !

My Lottery Mission isn't working out so great. Haven't won anything else!  Beginners luck is over.  Hey a woman can dream.
Well good night for now, I'm apparently addicted to a new PC game Ive found, Bejeweled 3. Its calling my name?

GOOOO LAPTOP!

Okay, so we are about a week away from Christmas, but we now have our Wal-mart special laptop, and I love it!  I'm sitting in the living room, with Daniel, in comfort, on my couch!  I had to make up a fabulous excuse about needing it early, and it worked to my favor.  It went something like, "I have to take it to the computer guy at work to transfer all my stuff over from my desktop, so it will be ready to use and so on and so on..." and then I had to leave the desktop with him to be cleaned out and refurbished, and its still being worked on (it had some issues). So we have been destitute without an Internet access source in the house.  Now don't get me wrong, Daniel didn't for a minute believe or give into my excuses.  He was lost without Internet too!

I wanted to get on here and tell you all about Aidens latest issue that totally tickled us.  If you know Aiden he sometimes doesn't think things through all the way before he says what he wants,  sometimes it comes out a bit backwards, or very literal context, or wrong words, etc.  He has in his short time alive, given us so many laughs, due to his interpretation of what he has heard or seen or thinks he understands.  He definitely is good for a million laughs.  Anyways, he started complaining Saturday night of his stomach hurting (a cramping, slightly nauseating, sharp pain) not necessarily a stomach virus, just inconsistent pain?  He wasn't going to go to school on Monday because it seemed to hurt most when he was up and about.  However, later in the morning he called me and asked me to take him to school because he felt the house was making him sick, thought he just needed to get out and occupy his mind.  After school he still feels OK, so he goes to his buddies down the street, but comes in crying after he has asked the parents to bring him home, as the pain has returned.  he proceeds to tell me that "Jordan's mom said they had this Bug but it only lasted about 12 hours" a minute later, between sobs, he says "man I must have just got bit too many times by that bug".
I wish I had archived all the great things that have come out of his mouth! 

We are actually ready for Christmas early this year.  We usually do all shopping the last payday before Christmas. This has made for many of cram shopping trips on Christmas eve in the past!  It feels nice to be done, considering the fiasco we barely skimmed through last year. 
It was Christmas eve and Daniel and I still had stocking stuff to buy.  Time slipped away from us and after wrapping all of the presents (way too many) we realized it was almost 1 am.  We rush out to the local Wal-mart super center (that is always open), just to find that it closes on Christmas eve?!?!?! Who knew? We panicked!! We drove all the way to Branson Mo, (about 35 miles away) to the Kmart that was barely still open. We didn't even consider the Walgreen's right down the street.  Oh well, we vowed not to do that again. We thought we had ruined Christmas.  Despite all the gifts, it always seems the stockings are our families favorite part. I think it must be because so much thought and personalization goes into the little things.  Wouldn't it be nice if the Christmas celebration went back to that simpleness.  Aside from the true reason for the season, I mean!

I truly love everything about this time of the year. The weather, the lights, the feelings, and especially the music.  I have acquired a few more Christmas albums this year. This is not new to me I always get at least 1 new album. However, this year I had to have more, as it seems the local radio stations have been very sparse on playing the seasonal stuff, and I'm finding that it really gets on my nerves to have to listen to regular music during this season.  I'm forced to listen to regular music the entire rest of the year, would it be too much to mix it up a bit, for a few months out of the year?  Although it is also not out of the ordinary for me, to pop in some Christmas music at any random time in the year, just for a little jingle jangle happy time.  So now I have a great stock, that is now a little better, to put on shuffle and get me through all my wearisome travels during the day. 

By the way, Aidens stomach issue has since resolved, with out any true diagnosis. As far as I can tell, Aiden may have accidentally eaten some foam from a Nerf dart he was innocently chewing it up, while Daniel and I were Christmas shopping.  He's not quite sure how much he may have eaten, but all the plumbing is working well and the pain is gone, so maybe a lesson was learned?

My sweet, loving funny little guy! Summer 2010

Catching up.

Well, so this blog of mine has actually turned into one of those, yearly updates that people send out in Christmas cards. It has been that long. We Took Holiday pictures today and I'm feeling particularly Festive so I decided to sit at this uncomfortable computer and finally write a little.  (have i mentioned that i am finally getting a laptop this Christmas?) I plan on writing alot more frequently!  I also decorated some photo albums to sent out to family with the kids pictures in them, they turned out quite well if i do say so, myself.  I may post some pictures if i can figure out how to put them in this text space?

Wow Could it be so simple??? 

I'm still working at the same place, same job, same people. It has gotten a bit better. It'll do for now.

Daniel is still working at the same place for now. However he has just signed a contract for the Navy. We have decided by Unanimous vote that we prefer military life and are going back in for the long haul. Daniel will be joining the Special Operations of the Navy in accompaniment to the Navy SEALS. He will go through training, to be a SWCC or Special Warfare Watercraft Combatant Crewman. (Basically he will ride a boat and shoot a very large gun. :-) This makes him very Happy. This whole military thing has been a long drawn out process, and we feel very fortunate and confident that this is the path God has chosen for us. As there was a large number of reasons that this shouldn't have worked out. Daniel is scheduled to leave march 7 2011 for approximately 3 weeks at Great Lakes Naval Base, then approximately 28 more weeks of training in San Diego Ca.. somewhere in the middle of all this the kids and I will get to move out to San Diego as well.  After training we will get to choose our duty station. San Diego, Virginia or somewhere in Mississippi....  We are all looking forward to the changes!

Camille has had some difficulty in school the last couple years, so we have decided that she is of age to be trusted to do school from home.  She will have a Christian based  curriculum that is done on CD ROM.  She is not too thrilled about this but is warming up to the idea, she was home schooled the second half of last year also.  She more dislikes the idea of missing out on the social life that young people her age call Junior High.  i vaguely remember being there and i think it was something like what HELL must be!  And its only gotten worse over time :-(  Oh yeah Camille is now 14 years old, taller than me, and still very beautiful!


Aiden is 8.  He is very active, funny and lovable.  He started TaeKwonDo 2 months ago and has already taken his first test to receive his yellow belt.  the instructors have been raving about how advanced and natural he is at this.  (As if we thought he wouldn't be...Hes been fighting silverware at the dinner table, and imaginary battles in his mind for years!)  ooh i have a video of his pattern he learned that isn't even a requirement yet, he just did it for extra credit!  i should mention that he doesn't know if he passed his testing yet, they make the students wait, to learn Patience. he will find out at their convenience :)

 So Lilli-Kate, our ornery little PRINCESS, is almost 16 months old.  All I've got to say is its a good thing she is so darn cute! Do you know what i did today, how retarded could a mother be?  so, i have been cutting Aiden and Daniels hair for quite a long time, usually turns out Fine.  Well something possessed me this morning to try cutting Lillis. Oh Man, i have to take her to the beauty shop tomorrow and see if they can fix it a little!! I'm not really freaking out because its just hair, it will grow back.  But i am a bit sad that it was her very first haircut and i chopped it to pieces.  I didn't even save any.  but I've always wondered what people want with a lock of hair.  I just cant believe i did it, and on picture day too.  However if you notice she is wearing a strategically placed headband and hair bow, that i made.  How can i feel so crafty, and make truly pretty things but be so inept at a little haircut?

I guess that just about sums it all up?  Since the possibility of moving a great distance has arisen we have been contemplating the fact that we must downsize our animal situation, along with everything else we have acquired over the last 10 years of marriage, that we do not need.  So Xena our female great Dane went to a wonderful new home down in Cabot Ar.  they have raised great Danes for a long time and are very excited to have her and are making her one very happy dog.  Moppit also went to a new home. a young family with one other dog and kids for him to play with. he gets to stay inside all the time and sleep with his new best buddy Fred, on the huge ottoman right in the middle of the living room in front of the huge picture window!
(we still have Pixie, Magnus and Cat) Yes her name is Cat, we are fresh out of originality, or not used to naming cats?
Sorry no time for editing.