Santa's Magical Elves

So last week along with Birthday Celebrations we had PINK EYE going around our house like MAD!!!! I have never dealt with Pink Eye before, and boy is it maddening! Just as i thought it was over the next person would wake up with it infecting their eye ... UGH!

Well, needless to say Emma had to miss both days of Pre-school because she woke up with it on Monday morning. Saying she was DEVASTATED would be an understatement!! She was VERY upset with me!!!! I went to pre-school on Monday and got her "homework" she would've done that day in class and did it at home with her. Then we made cookies together, and decorated them for FHE.

On Wednesday was a field trip and she KNEW it! She was EQUALLY mad at me that day because I wouldn't let her go. I decided that we would have our own field trip that day to somewhere we couldn't really infect anyone cause we'd be OUTSIDE ...

We went to see the ELVES at Gardner Village. Now, I think I have NEVER been to see these little magical elves before, so it was a treat for us all.

I packed the Candy Canes and off we went on a mighty fun adventure!We were even lucky enough to have Uncle Davey, Aunt Megan, and Grandma Fergy join us for our Field Trip!

My kids LOVED seeing the FUNNY magical Elves, along with the "WATER"!

They loved that even Elves go Camping and roast "Michell-os"!!!
{aka Marshmellow}

Zachary DID NOT want to leave because he just wanted to see the WATER, again & again!

Emma was sure there were more ELVES to see!

Kye didn't really care cause he had a sticky, MESSY, candy cane to keep him satisfied the WHOLE time!

Mommy was ready to go cause she was COLD!

Up in our neck of the woods we really haven't gotten much snow ... both my kids have been BUMMED!

We played in the snow on a FREEZING day in November, but since then our lame snow has been LONG gone. Emma caught a glimpse of the snow at Gardner Village and asked if we could build a snowman ... unfortunately there isn't much there anymore either. But she was determined to at least play in it!

She threw snow onto herself for a good 5 minutes before getting into the car to go home.

I was prepared to have WW3 with my kids when I told them we could NOT go to Grandma's because of our Pink Eye, but they took it in STRIDE! Which made for a perfect ending to our

FAMILY FIELD TRIP!!!!

Yep, it's been a YEAR!!!

On December 7th the UN-THINKABLE happened ...

My Baby Turned 1!!!!

Yep, it's been a WHOLE year and I can hardly believe it!

We started the day with pumkin waffles with syrup and whip cream ... YUMM-O!!!And of course it ended up right in his NEWLY washed hair ... Then for lunch we had chicken nuggets & fries with ketchup ...

Yep, right in his hair!

For dinner we had PIZZA ...

And of course we totally had pizza in the hair, but we didn't get a picture.Then it was onto opening presents.

{Kye just CRAWLED all over them and didn't really care about opening them up.

His brothers and sisters got to HELP him a LITTLE bit ...}Here's the happy birthday boy with ALL his loot!Then it was onto mini CUPCAKES for this tired boy ...It took him a while to take his thumb out and dive in, but once he did he enjoyed it!By his 3rd cupcake he new EXACTLY what to do!I even had fun dying the batter all different colors!HAPPY 1st Birthday Kye!

We are so glad that you are apart of our family!

A little tid-bit about Kye:

- he has 2 1/2 teeth.

-he is the master crawler.

-he can go up and down stairs.

{the down can happen, but only if he wants it to}

-he balances in the middle of the floor with perfection, but doesn't walk.

-he has taken one wobbley step, but it was kinda on accident.

-he LOVES his sister and brother and just wants to be wherever they are.

-he is such an easy going kid.

-he is a SOCK Monster! {he constantly finds socks around the house and carries them all around with him ... CONSTANTLY!!}

-We all adore his smiles!!!

-he knows how to get us to pick him up ... pounding your head on the tile floor really gets anyones attention!!! {lil' stinker}

-he crawls outta ALL his pants, stretchy or not!

-he wears size 9-12mo.

-HE'S ALL BOY, and we LOVE it!

LIFE IS WONDERFUL!

WE ARE SO GRATEFUL TO HAVE OUR LITTLE KYSER IN OUR FAMILY!!!!

All I Want For Christmas ...

This year we took our kids quite early to see Santa at Rc Willey.

This is the first year in 3 years we haven't had ANY tears!!!!

Emma went first and set the "good" example for her brothers to follow:She HOPPED on his lap and asked for "Alice" and a "Purple Unicorn Pillow Pet"

{aka Alice in Wonderland the movie}
Zachary went next:

He was a little nervous you could tell, but once he saw his sister be ok, he just got right on his lap and TALKED away.

He asked for a "water bottle" like Emma's

{I love his simple pleasures!!}
Kye was last:

I did wonder how he would react to Santa.

He loved it, and didn't seem to mind sitting with a stranger.

I should've known he would be ok, since he is such an EASY-going kid!!!

Too bad he wasn't able to tell Santa what he wanted ...

Santa really needs ideas for this kid!!!!

Ho-Ho-Ho!!

Why I Have Been MIA ...

So, this year I thought up a great idea for one of my kids Christmas Presents.

I wanted Alan to make my kids a Train Table!!! Great Idea ... YES, but with a husband who worked outta town for 6 weeks, and is busy every weekend ... not so great idea.

So, I decided that I would make a car/train playmat.

Great Idea ... YES!!

I took this piece of fabric:Painted some roads on it:

SEWED A LOT!!

And turned it into this MASTER PIECE!

I can't wait for to give it to my kids for Christmas!!

I hope they LOVE it and PLAY on it EVERY night,

or else I guess Al and I will just have to use it every night after our kids are in bed!!!

It will get used no matter what!!!!

DeCoRaTiOnS ... UGH!

I LOVE having the tree trimmed, the lights on, the ornaments hanging, the nativity scene displayed, the garland hung, the stocking all in a row, but I DON'T like to do it MYSELF!!!

This year, I was totally not in the mood to decorate for Christmas, but I wanted it done.

I got in the crawl space, got out all 7 boxes of STUFF.

And left the boxes there for EVERYONE to trip over thinking maybe they would do it once they tripped hard enough.

NOPE, didn't happen!

I finally guilted my husband into setting up the tree before he left to go outta town again.

But that's ALL he did was set it up ... no fluffling the branches, no fixing the lights that weren't working, no putting on ANY ornaments, no stringing more lights onto the tree to fill in the spots where the light no longer work ... nothing else, but at least the tree was UP!?!

So, I came down one morning to this:My kids I guess had tripped over the boxes long enough, and decided to get in them to find the ornaments themselves ... JACKPOT!

Except I still needed to purchase and string on some more lights ... around ornaments not sooo fun, but do-able.

So, Monday I strung on the purchased lights around the ornaments that were already placed on the tree.

Monday night I had 3 HELPFUL children EXCITED and WILLING to help hang the rest of the ornaments ...FUN!?!?

We got the TREE done & that's what mattered that night!The best picture with ALL 3 HELPFUL KIDS!The next several days I slowly put up Christmas because I got sick of TRIPPING over boxes!!

Now, I am happy!

I LOVE all my decorations up!!!!!

Gobble Gobble until you Wobble ...

Thanksgiving ... Oh, how I LOVE thee!!

I love the excuse to eat, and eat, and eat and everyone else is doing it, so you don't look like such a PIG!!!

Well, this Thanksgiving I thought it would be an excellent idea to start the day off with a RACE, so I could EAT more later ... good idea!?!?

Well, it might've been if it wasn't RECORD BREAKING COLD!!! Brrrrr ....

The morning leading up to Thanksgiving I was really wishing I hadn't signed up for a RACE!!!

As I woke up Thanksgiving morning knowing they weren't going to CANCEL the race, I peeled myself outta bed to go RUN.

And it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.

Once I got running I warmed right up and even wished I hadn't been so layered ... Oh well, better to be WARM then FREEZING while running!!!

So here's the CANDID shot I got of us 3 BRAVE runners before the race started ...We enjoyed our lil' Turkey Trot!!!

Then it was back home to get ready, have naps, prepare an appitizer, and head to Grandpa and Grandma Ferguson's for a FEAST!!!

My husband almost lost his life to the meat musher and a CrAzY mother-in-law, but at least he was spared and the FEAST was able to carry-on!!We had so much food it didn't even fit on our LARGE dinning room table ... CRAZY ... YES!The kids were as excited as I was to eat ... YUMM-O!Here's the kids table:This was supposed to be the "GROWN-UP" table, but as you can tell a bunch of KIDS sat there!Here's another table:At last the REAL grown-ups found there spots at a table for 2!!!And here's the Baby Section:

Kye did have a spot to eat by us, but chose to eat quickly so he could GRAZE by the other cousins.A kid after my own heart ...{Shove everything in as quickly as possible so we can eat more ... & no he didn't choke!!!}

Later Julie, Dennis, and Afton blessed us with their presence and we enjoyed DESSERT:Oh look at my STUDLY brother and me:Then the ladies got together and EXCHANGED their ornaments for the year.

{We all make/buy an ornament according to whatever theme we choose and exchange them on Thanksgiving to put on our trees. This year the theme was BALLS.}{Silly Megan, these are the priceless pictures I get of her 90% of the time!?!}

Then MIDNIGHT hit and off went all us CrAzY women to shop Black Friday.

I havn't done this in about 2 years, and really haven't done it since the stores open up ALL NIGHT, but it was FUN, FUN, FUN!!

Crazy, but FUN!!

We got good deals, good laughs, and most importantly our FREE snow globe from JC Penney!!

{Thanks Eskimo Momma, TD, & Thin Pants for the good time shopping --- Love, Fartsie!!!}

Bring on the Christmas Season ... But not TOO fast!!!

Before/After

On Tuesday November 23, @ 9:30am we headed over to one of my friends houses to do something NO ONE else knew we would be doing ... NOT EVEN DADDY who was outta town ... hehehe!

These are the RESULTS-

BEFORE:AFTER:{i didn't get a DURING because I was holding him}

BEFORE:DURING:AFTER:BEFORE:DURING:AFTER:

I am ABSOLUTELY in love with how Handsome and Beautiful all my kids look!!!
Emma has ALWAYS wanted "short hair like Mommy", and I have always wanted to do it, but just never have.
I finally did it and we both agree ... "WE LOVE IT!!"
Now she ACTUALLY asks to get her hair done in the morning and doesn't fight me!!
{I am so proud of her too ... EVERY TIME someone has commented on her new hair cut she politely says, "THANK YOU!!"
I didn't even talk to her about that!
I am just so proud at what a Little Sweetie I have been blessed with!}


We didn't tell ANYONE about our little seceret until they SAW us!!
I just LOVE SECERETS!!!!
{Sorry Ashley and Luis, you'll see it here first and not in person}