O Christmas Tree!

Saturday, 11-28-09
We made our annual trip to The Red Barn in Orting to get our Christmas tree. We keep on coming here because of the train ride. The kids love it!

Out wandering around trying to find the perfect tree.

I couldn't settle on one, so we went back to the barn to look at the pre-cuts. I love noble's with distinct layers. It is hard to find one that looks "just right".

We ended up getting a pre-cut that was a nice compromise.

On to trimming the tree and getting all our holiday decorations put out.

I love these ornaments.

Then the kids were playing with the Christmas toys. Zach loves this singing snowman from Hallmark. He plays it over and over again and likes to feel the little penguins shake. :-)

Also the Little People manger scene is a hit!

Oh - and the manager scene from Amy Jo that she got the kids while she was in Africa. Zach decided that one of the men was a shooter instead of a wiseman. :-) He went around running after his sister shooting her.

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Holiday has started!

Friday, 11-27-09
It has been a weird start to the holidays. Thanksgiving Day we ended up staying home because of my cold. I didn't want to spread any of my germs to anyone else. With the swine flu this year, I'm being overly cautious of staying home whenever we aren't feeling the slightest bit good. It is just not a year to take chances and to risk other people's health. So it was a quiet, pretty normal day.

Then I always go shopping on Black Friday with my mom. I just didn't feel up for it this year. I looked through the ads and I didn't really have a game plan, so I decided it would be nicer to sleep in then to get up at 4am.

I was very much looking forward to our 2nd Annual trip to the Sumner Bridge Lighting festivities to finally feel like the holidays were here.

This year Grandma Myrna & Grandpa Frink came with us and Grandma & Papa met us down there.

Working on getting a Christmas card pic.

Such a great photo of them!
Grandma Myrna, Elissa, Zach & Grandpa Frink

Lissy loves her Papa!
(He might think she is pretty special too. :-])

Another great fireworks display....

that everyone was really enjoying!

Especially Elissa!

Grandma's having fun!

The bridge is lit, the fireworks our over and now the Christmas season has begun!I hope your holidays have started with a bang too!

Some serious Peer Pressure

Wednesday-Thursday, 11/25-26/09

You think that after you leave High School and College that you really shouldn't have peer pressure anymore. Comme oooonn.....we are adults now and we shouldn't be pressuring each other to do things. Yeah, right. We quickly learn that there will always be peer pressure. :-)

So for months many of my friends have been trying to get me to read the Twilight series. Seriously, they have been relentless. Kirstin actually bought the first book and sent it to me in the mail. Sheesh people, is it really that big of deal?? LOL!

I originally didn't want to read them because I don't like movies or books about vampires. I don't like scary movies and I don't like to think about "dark" things. I don't want that in my mind. Then I heard that the main character, Edward, is so great that I may think that my husband should be more like him. I don't need anymore fairy tale thinking in my mind. Then it was just because I didn't want to give in and truly, because I knew I would love them and then I wouldn't have time for anything else. :-P

Well, Wednesday I woke up with a bad cold that I thought was going to turn into the flu. That evening when Darin got home, I was feeling pretty bad so I planned to stay the rest of the evening in my room. I decided, hey this would be a great time to start reading Twilight. So I started reading and reading and reading and reading. I read until 1:40am (took a break to watch a movie w/my hubby) and I had to force myself to go to bed. Then my little boy got up just before 6am and Darin got up with him. Well, I was awake so I turned on my light and started reading. :-) I read until about 7:30am when I decided I really needed to go be with my family and put the cinnamon rolls into the oven.

I was so distracted by wanting to read that I wasn't even interested in going through all the Black Friday ads, which is one of my favorite things to do on Thanksgiving. When the kids went down for naps, I was excited for some alone time to try and get thru the book. Darin ran over to Walmart, so I made sure that he would pick up New Moon for me. And the rest are on their way from Amazon. I finished soon after the kids woke up.

So, as you can tell, I'm totally hooked! I've given in to the peer pressure and I'm enjoying it! So now I've got to get off this blog so I can go read some more of New Moon. LOL!

Monday Play Dates

Monday, 11-23-09

My neighbor, Vicky, and myself were talking this summer about trying to get our little boys into daycare 1 day a week this fall so that we could have a "free" day. Well not many daycare's take a child for 1 day and it is way too expensive if they do.

At a soccer game Vicky said, "We should swap babysitting." Well I had been thinking the same thing and jumped at the thought that we were both thinking the same thing. :-) We decided that Mondays would be a great day and that November 2nd would be our starting date. Yeah!!

So that Monday came and Vicky graciously offered to be the first to watch the boys. Her son, Brady, is pretty much exactly the same age as Zach. Brady turns 3 in January and Zach turns 3 in February. Needless to say, the boys really have fun together.

Zach still takes naps, so playing from 9:30am to 2:30pm really wears a guy out! He came home and I turned on a cartoon and he was out in less then 5 mintues. How great is that!! Oh and not to mention, Vicky and the boys baked some pumpkin bread and brought a loaf home. Yum!!

The next Monday, the 9th, was my turn to watch the boys. Thankfully it wasn't a rainy day, so we got to spend some time outside.

We started with some bike riding (do you think we have enough riding toys??).

Then we decided to go for a wagon ride around the loop

Spent a little time trying not to fall onto the rocks and into the water.Being silly while having lunch.Then some wrestling, which Zach really needs more of.And then out for the count as soon as we dropped Brady off. Vicky said that Brady fell asleep in the car while going to pickup his older brother from school. They had a hard day of play!Today I had the boys again. They spent a long time playing with their homemade shooters. Why do boys always want to shoot things?

Then they were cracking themselves up at the computer. Isn't that just the best sound?!

And yes, Zach is asleep in the chair right now. :-)

On December 7th we are going to add another little one into the mix. My friend, Renee, is going to bring over her 4yr old, Tyler, to see how 3 boys get along. If all goes well we'll get TWO Monday's off a month! I mean.....the boys will have just that more fun! hee, hee

Annual Guy Weekend

Friday - Monday, 11/13-15/09

Darin and his friend Don have had a tradition for years (way before I met him) of going to car races together. Up until a couple of years ago, they would go to Elma in August for the Outlaw races. Don would fly in to go to them. He use to work with Darin at Intel in DuPont, but had moved to Intel in Texas. Then things changed in Elma, so somehow they schemed up the idea to meet in Arizona in November to go to the Nascar races. :-) This is the 2nd year that they have done this.

They have a great time catching up (because guys don't talk much more then once a year :-) ) and thoroughly enjoy immersing themselves in all the Nascar obsession.

I'm glad he has a "guy weekend" to look forward to.

The first pic that Darin took - "Texas Sized" turkey legs

Looks like he is enjoying it. :-)

The first night of racing.

Looks like Don is excited!

There is a Dale Earnhardt Jr signature signature on the bumper

2nd day of racing...

A little tailgating...

Already looking forward to next year!

It's cold!

Thursday, 11-12-09
The kids kept telling me that they were bored and then Zach asked if we could go to the park, so I decided that was a good idea since it was a nice sunny day. He yelled, "yeah!" and then ran upstairs. A minute later he was downstairs with his swimsuit. I had to explain to him that it wasn't summer anymore and it was too cold to go swimming. :-) Then Elissa asked if we could bring the floaties and then she remembered that we couldn't get in the water. We had such a great summer with lots of days at the lake, BUT now it's cold.

I didn't think it was going to be that cold, but man was it freezing. I packed us a little picnic lunch and then the kids were off exploring. I tried to keep them out of the mud, but that was pretty much impossible.

Elissa is a tiger.

Starting in October, the lake starts draining. It provides lots of exploring in the winter. We are hoping to find some water toys we lost this summer. :-) But until the mud dries, I try not to come down - for obvious reasons.

I much prefer the lake during the summer, but it can be pretty fun in the Fall/Winter too.