Thankful

This Thanksgiving was really nice... nice and relaxing, nice to have us all together, and nice for all of us to enjoy turkey together!! Two years ago... Daddy and I missed out on Turkey dinner, we were busy at the hospital being teased by little miss B who couldn't make up her mind as to whether Thanksgiving would be a good day to make her entrance or not. We spent the better part of the afternoon/evening there just to be sent home... only to make our way back a few hours later when B decided that the day after Thanksgiving sounded better to her. When she decided it was time she ment it! She made her entrance fast and furious (almost in the toilet) but she didn't so it's all good ;) So today, November 27th, is Missa's 2nd birthday! She is happy to have Daddy home for this one! SUCH a daddy's girl!

5 days old

1 year old

2 years old

Then of course last year Daddy was away, he had just barley gotten to Kuwait at this point. Felt like such a long road ahead... but looking back, we can't believe it's already over. Nice to see it from this point of view. We were able to enjoy our Thanksgiving last year with family being very close by, but it wasn't completely the same with an empty chair. Poor guy missed 2 turkey dinners in row jeesh ;) Well technically they got turkey over there, but it's never as good as it is at home! 

We used to go to both our parent's houses, but it is just too hard with all the kids. They live close enough, but it's still nice to just relax in one spot and not be running around, and since He was away last year, This year we headed over to his parent's house. It was a nice day, which started at home with none other than the Macy's Parade!!!

Dinner was SOOOO Good, and was followed by some wrestling matches with daddy

and of course... PIE!

Mmmmm

"I" enjoyed it

Missa finished everyone's for them 

It was fun & relaxing. Our bellies were filled, and then the Turkey "comas" started to kick in....

Just in time for everyone to sit and watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory

Let the Holiday Season begin!

I usually know exactly what I am going to blog about. However I have been at a loss for the past few days... I also just haven't been in the mood to sit and do it. I love to blog though, it's like my own little journal (of course a journal that I don't mind sharing) ;)
It has been quite the week around here. We haven't been to the Dr's since E and I's 6 yr check up back in July.  November brings many appointments, with the two littles both having birthdays this month and of course flu shots/mist. (our kids get them every year) So we went in for K mans4 yr check up and he was able to get his mist at that appt. Two birds with one stone there. The next appt. was for the big girls to go get their mist. Well, the office ran out so we had to wait until they got another supply of it. In the mean time our next "real" appt. was for this morning, Miss B's 2 yr check up, where she would get her flu shot (too little for the mist).... again, two birds, one stone.
Well, last week I went to bed saying her throat hurt. I didn't think too much since the heats on, the air is dryer, and she had a little cold a few days before. So I gave her some tylenol and she went to bed. Well, this girl never wakes up at night, and never complains.... she was up a few times that night and even ended up in our bed. I knew it was more than just a sore throat. So she stayed home from school the next day and we went in to the dr's..... sure enough, Strep throat. She is a trooper though, because within a few hours of the first dose of antibiotic, she was fine. She had to stay home the next day too though. Then sure enough the next afternoon, K man has a sore throat. So later that evening when Daddy got home, off we went to the dr's. Yep, strep for him too. He too was a trooper though, and thankfully all the awful stuff about strep I hear, never really happened here.
I went out and got us some vitamins and herbs and began pumping all of us with, what i call "the good stuff". No one else has fallen victim to strep and we are doing good now!
We go back in about two weeks for the big girls to finally get their flu mist. Missa has a few other appointments we need to take care of... but other than that let's hope we don't spend much more time at the dr's this winter!

On another note... Missa is potty training, and what a little helper she is....

MmmmHmmmm.......

Good to the last drop

I had to blog about my little Missa this morning. She drives me nuts and makes me so happy all at the same time. She is always entertaining.... life is not dull AT ALL!
This morning she wanted cereal or as known to her "Yo-ee-yo's"... (yes it sounds just like it is spelt)
typically my kids are known for enjoying a bowl of dry cereal with a cup of juice or chocolate milk while watching their morning sprout shows. However lately Missa has been requesting milk in hers. She will run over to her highchair and pull it out from the corner and shout "Me milk mumma".... "Me milk... yo-ee-yo's"

This kid has the best hair too! ;) Anyways... so she wanted her yo-ee-yo's with milk this morning. We got her situated in her highchair and she went to town.

She does pretty good... she loves to drink the milk from the bowl. She used to do this after she ate all the yo-ee-yo's... lately though, she just can't wait to get to the milk. She takes a few bites from the spoon and then moves right along to the good stuff......

The bowl was still very full though so it was a bit harder than usual. She however enjoyed every bit of it, and then began to eat what was left off of the tray (where it ended up when she attempted to drink the milk first) and she proclaimed "Mmmmm Yummmmmmyyyyyyy"

Oh Missa, you are a nut! Yes, that is a mixture of honeycombs and life cereal, she couldn't decide this morning, they both looked too good I guess. So she presented me with two boxes. She finished every piece of cereal. The she wanted out... she was a little wet from the attempt at drinking the milk with all the cereal still in it.... so we had some cleaning up to do. It was then we noticed most of the milk had actually missed her mouth and ended up elsewhere.... It was then her mission to figure out where this milk had come from.....

Hey... At least she opted for yo-ee-yo's with milk today instead of helping herself to left over birthday cupcakes in the fridge like she has the past few days.

She is such a HAM!

Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

~Deuteronomy 28:4~

2 & 4

We had a birthday party for our littles this past Sunday. First off, I can't believe our boy turned 4 this past week, and our baby girl is going to be 2 on the 27th! I'm so glad I'm big on taking pictures of everything, because time goes way to fast!
We... no, I (Hes not the "event planner" around here... it is ALL me) ;) I decided that we would have one party for both of them, since they are both in the same month and the holidays are fast approaching, there will just be too much going on to have another party later on.
K man being the older one, I let him pick the party theme. he of course chose "Army". So now to make this Army party a little girly too.....
I love making my kids cakes, we used to order the birthday cakes from the same lady that made our unbelievably delicious wedding cake. She also made all our kids christening cakes. They are both beautiful & so tasty! However, $$$$$ they have become SO expensive! SO I started making my own and playing around decorating them, and I love it. I have been doing it for a few years. This summer we went with cupcakes for the big girls birthday party, and cupcakes seemed like a good way to go for this party. Seeing I had to make some boyish and some girly, this would make it a bit easier.
Well this was not going to be an Army themed party with out little green army men on top of the cupcakes! It took me forever to find those tiny little soldiers... but I finally found some ;)
I decided to do green camo for K man, and pink camo for B. The "rough, tough" army theme suits her well, she doesn't let anyone get in her way. Our little Brute ;) So Daddy and I spray painted half of the little green soldiers pink!

Notice the soldiers are strategically placed, all the men facing the proper direction to fight

(that was all Daddy) ;)

My favorite flavor was hands down the chocolate! (same ones I made a week ago actually with the peanut butter filling) YUM! And I decided to make some peanut butter frosting with some left over filling, since it already had some of the color I needed anyways. The vanilla ones have a creamy strawberry filling with a strawberry/vanilla frosting. I had fun with those!

The cupcakes were enjoyed and of course Hoodsies too!

I enjoy watching my kids have a blast at their birthday parties, and I love planning them and making/decorating their cakes/cupcakes. We don't have a ton of room in our house for a lot of people though, so for these fall birthdays it's hard. you never know what the weather is going to be.... I mean look at a week ago... we were all buried under about 2 feet of snow and had no power for a few days... Now it is 65* and sunny and all the snow is pretty much  gone. We lucked out!!! We were able to rent a bounce house and it was warm enough for the kids to go out and play & enjoy it! When everyone was inside though... it felt like a million people. I have a huge appreciation now for places like Bounce U, that cater to kids birthday parties. We had K man's there last year since Daddy had just left for deployment, and I didn't want to go it alone at home. Best thing I ever did!!! SO worth the $$$ for that! I will start a fund now just for the sake of saving my sanity next year... and having the fall birthday celebrations outside of my home. ;)

The littles tore into their presents later in the afternoon, and I'm sorry... I have no idea who got who what!?!?! With a 2 year old who would open one and run off for daddy to open the package, then come back periodically to open another, and a 4 year old ripping the paper off his and tossing the cards aside... not to mention about 15 other children (give or take a few), all sitting on top of one another, pushing and shoving to see what the next gift was going to be.... yep it was hectic! ;) They love every single one of their new toys though, and hollered out their thank you's, that's what counts right!? Oh, and they had a ton of fun!

The party concluded with a bunch of grown men & a few little boys shooting suction darts from a double barrel shot gun, at my kitchen window. Good times ;) All in all, it was nice to see our friends & family, and the kids had a fun day and were exhausted by the end of the day! (Not to mention they were all up earlier because of the time change!) I was exhausted too! Now to go open a savings account for next years out of home event ;)