First Snow!!!

We woke up this morning to Kenzie running into our room telling us to get up and look out the window. She said the ground was covered in snow and she wanted to know if she could get her snow pants on and go outside and play. We made her wait at least until after breakfast. As soon as she finished eating she bundled up and headed outside. Its definately starting to look a lot like Christmas:) According to the weather forecast, we are supposed to get quite a bit more snow today. I like snow, but only for a little while. After Christmas, it can all go away!!

"Oh Christmas Tree.."

Kenzie helped me put up the Christmas tree and other Christmas stuff up around the house. I love putting everything out, but taking it all down is not so fun. Kenzie was so excited to help. She doesn't think we have enough stuff out but I told her thats all we have (that I wanted to put out) I can't believe how fast Christmas is coming!!

Thanksgiving update

Did you all have a nice Thanksgiving? We did. We went to my Grandma Schauble's first at noon. The kids all got to play with each other and the food was delicious! We tried to take some family pictures. The one of our family is pictured above, with the blog title. Its the only one we got, since Aydan didn't want to sit still. It didn't turn out too bad I guess. We got some of my sister with her family too. I love this picture of Kendall below, in the black and white. After we finished up at my grandma's we headed over to Danny's mom's house for supper. Again, the food was delicious. I was so stuffed by the end of the day, I just wanted to take a nap. It was a pretty relaxing day, even with the kids running around. Its nice to just sit around and visit with family and eat ALL DAY LONG!!!

Here's Kendall, being funny as usual :)


Aydan riding a horse at grandma's. He just loves it, I need to get him something like that sometime.

Erin, Adam, Kendall, and Melanie

Thankful for..the 13th and final part

"Laughter is the best medicine."

To me this seems very true. Sometimes all it takes when you are having a bad day is a good ol' gut busting laugh. I don't know what it is but laughing about something usually makes me feel a lot better. I guess it just makes me realize that whatever it is thats bothering me isn't THAT serious and life DOES go on.

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In case you missed my first post in this whole series of thankful posts, I was trying to write about things that I'm thankful for that aren't so obvious or stuff that you wouldn't really think of as being thankful for. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Now, since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I probably won't post anything so I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and try not to eat too much! Yeah right, thats the whole point, right!

Now its your turn. Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving!! I'd love to hear from you.

Thankful for..part 11 & 12

Oops! I forgot to write my thankful post yesterday, so today, you get 2!



With the cold weather we are having, I am sooo thankful that no one in my family has gotten sick yet (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!) Well, the kids have had small colds, with coughs and running noses, but nothing more serious than that. Thank goodness! There's nothing worse that having a sick kid or sick kids that don't feel good and are fussy and impossible to keep content. I hope they stay healthy all winter, but I know thats a lot to ask, especially with all the different viruses and stuff that goes around the daycare and schools. We will just have to see how it goes:)

Stay healthy everyone!!

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For those of you who know me pretty well, I'm sure you would agree that I'm usually a pretty private person, meaning I don't usually share that much about my personal life to just anyone. So, as I was watching TMZ (basically a tabloid/gossip show about celebrities) last night, I think to myself, "Man it must really stink sometimes to be famous!!" Everyone knows you, you can't go shopping or even go for a walk without being harrassed and followed by the media. Every little mistake or embarrassing moment is posted to YouTube and is on the evening news and the whole world seems to talk about it, for DAYS at a time. Everyone knows who your dating, where you were last night, how much weight you've gained, and what you had for breakfast this morning. Theres no way I could handle that type of lifestyle! I'm so thankful that I'm not Brittany!!

Thankful for..part 10

Have you ever wondered what life now would be like without the internet? I mean, it has made doing certain things so much quicker and easier. There's online banking, shopping, blogging, Netflix, news, games, Google, email and everything in between. Need a recipe for supper tonight? Not sure who won the football game? Its all right at your fingertips. I take it for granted because I pretty much grew up with the internet, but there were times before the World Wide Web when you had to actually go to a store to shop and drive uptown to do your banking and rent a movie. There's so much I do on the internet, I would be lost without it. Just today, I ordered my photo Christmas cards (1 cent each by the way!!), rented movies on Netflix, and bid on some Christmas ornaments on Ebay-which by the way, I did not win :( The internet has definately changed the way we all live our lives:)

Thankful for..part 9

Ok, are we all getting tired of these posts yet?

Anyway, today I am thankful for silence. Peace & Quiet. For those of you who have kids, I am sure you can relate. I love my kids to death, but sometimes I just want complete silence, even for like 10 seconds. Its usually pretty hectic around our house. When the kids are playing with each other, they're usually fighting and getting rowdy with each other. Kenzie's crying because Aydan is jumping on her. And if they aren't playing with each other, then Aydan is either in the litter box, in the cupboards, or running around without any clothes on. Kenzie's bored and wants me to play with her but I'm busy trying to make supper, do dishes, fold and put away laundry, all while chasing after Aydan. Its constant chaos until bedtime. Then, finally, after arguing about pj's and brushing teeth, its bedtime. The house is quiet....ahhh, its great! No one is yelling, no one is complaining, no one is crying....

Now what?

Thankful for..part 8

TGIF!! I'm so thankful its Friday! I love when Friday rolls around because it means the end of the work week, unless you have to work tomorrow like I do, and it also means I can spend time with Danny and the kids. The weekends always seem to fly by but I'm thankful for them no matter how short they seem. I love being able to sleep in, at least until Aydan gets up, and just lounge around and just do whatever. And just in case you didn't know, there's only 4 weekends left until Christmas!!!!

Thats all for now, I'd better go start some of that laundry I'm so thankful for:) Everyone have a great weekend!

Thankful for..part 7

Brrrrrrr!!!!! I'm so thankful for coats, gloves, scarves, hats, and big cozy blankets, and anything else that keeps us warm in this freezing cold weather we're having! Ok, so it hasn't snowed yet or anything but jeepers it is cold outside! And who likes frostbite? Not I. I'm so not ready for winter.

Bring on the hot cocoa:)

Thankful for..part 6

As much as I hate doing the dishes, I will say that I am thankful for them because it means that my family has meals to eat each day. Remember when you were little and you didn't want to finish your supper and your mom would say, "You know there are starving people in (insert poor country here)!" Well it is very true! So I am thankful that we have meals to eat and dishes to serve them on. Now, since I didn't do my dishes last night because I just love them so much, I have to go home after work and do them, twice! Oh well, but it would be great to have a dishwasher (oh wait we do and its name is Kim!) lol! Ok thats all for now, have a great day:)

Thankful for..part 5

This may sound a little strange, but today I'm thankful that Aydan doesn't talk much yet. For one, it would mean that he growing up and he's not my little baby anymore, which still is true. And for two, he's already such a little stinker! Now go and add a vocabulary to that mischievious little boy and we have major trouble! Theres times he rambles on in his own language and I just wonder what in the world he thinks he's saying. When he gets in trouble he'll yell and scream and I'm sure that when he can actually speak in sentences that he is going to get himself into even more trouble, to say the least! We were so excited when Kenzie began to talk and now we have Little Miss Diva on our hands! She's so funny though, the things she says just crack me up! The other day, she yells to me in the kitchen, "Mom, is today Saturday?" "Yes it is," I tell her. "Good, then we can burn!!" It took me a second to figure out that she meant that we could burn leaves today. How random!! Anyway, thats all for now, have a wonderful day:)

Thankful for..part 4

I'm thankful for my camera. Without it, I would have no way to capture those Kodak moments of my kids. And, this blog you are reading would be lacking all of those wonderful pictures:) Right now, I have more pictures than I know what to do with, but I know as my kids get older, I will be very thankful that I have so many. I'm sure they will be happy that I have so many too, especially the emabarrassing ones that we can show their boyfriend/girlfriend:) We've all been through that! I looked so dorky as a kid too! I don't know where my fashion ideas came from because they definately weren't hip and my hair...not so cute! Anyway, thats probably a whole new post so thats all for now. Have a great day:)

Thankful for.. part 3

After night of being up with Aydan a couple of times, I am thankful for all the nights he sleeps through uninterupted. Ususally, he is a great sleeper but for some reason, he was up a few times for long periods of time. Poor guy, he's getting over diarrhea (spelling?) and now hes got stuffy nose and cough. I must say I am not used to having to get up with him, which definately makes me appreciate those restful nights:)

Thankful for.. part 2

Today, I'm thankful for laundry. No thats not a typo. I've got piles of it in my basement, which means I'd better get to work, but I am thankful for it because it means my family and I have clothes to wear each day. Unfortunately, theres a lot of people out there that can't say that. So yes, as odd as it may be, I am thankful for laundry. (I'd be even more thankful if I had a maid to do it for me but lets not get carried away:)

Thirteen days til Thanksgiving

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm going to write one thing everyday up to Thanksgiving that I am thankful for. Instead of writing about the obvious ones, like my kids, my husband, family, etc.. I'm going to pick out things that normally I wouldn't consider or that aren't so obvious.

My pick for today:
Gas Prices- Ok, a month ago, not so thankful, but today, as gas prices are $1.98/gal I am pretty darn happy about it! It's pratically cut in half from what it was just a few short months ago. Its insane really that it ever got as high as over $4 a gallon! At least SOMETHING has gone down in price-I'm hoping milk is the next thing to drop:)

School Program

Last night was Kenzie's school program. As you can see, the theme was Patriotic. They did a really good job!

What about Thanksgiving?

Halloween just got over and guess what decorations are in stores now? Thanksgiving. Nope try again.... Christmas. Actually, I've seen some stores that have the Christmas decor out right next to the Halloween costumes! I just don't get it. Why can't places wait until at least after Thanksgiving before shoving in all the Santa and snowmen stuff? Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Christmas but come on, let us finish our Halloween candy before trying to sell us candy canes and icicle lights! And, I've actually seen some homes that have there Christmas trees up right now! Its seems like Thanksgiving gets overshadowed by the anticipation of Christmas. I love Thanksgiving; the food, the family, the whole togetherness thing, just the feeling of it all in general, and did I mention the food? :) So before you drag out the trees and holiday lighting, please make sure that Trick-or-treating is over!

(hey I'll admit it, my tree and decor usually go up the day after Thanksgiving)

Big news!!

Kenzie lost her 1st tooth yesterday at school!!! It had been loose for a pretty long time now and she finally got it out. She was beyond excited!! Since she was at school, her teacher sent her to the office and they gave her a little treasure chest to put it in. Man, thats way cooler than the little envelope things we got when I was her age. It seems like just yesterday her first tooth came in and now she's already losing teeth. She's already got it under her pillow, ready for the toothfairy to take.

Eewwww!!!!

Aydan loves to look at this book, especially this page. He says, "Mom, eewwww!!" Then he slaps the page like he's swatting at the bugs. He's fascinated by lady bugs too. Anytime he finds one in the house he holds it and lets it crawl on his arm. But, he usually ends up smashing them in his hands.

This shirt says it all!! Speaking of that, I'd better go check on him, silence is never a good thing when it comes to Aydan:)
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Oh my gosh, of course, I find him running around the house without his diaper!! I don't know what I'm gonna do with this kid!!!

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I also discovered that he had the toaster out and managed to drag it into his room! I better go! :)

Early Bird

I don't know if its the time change or what, but the past 2 days, Kenzie has been up and dressed and ready to go before I even get my lazy butt outta bed! Its such a change for her. Normally, I have to go in her room and keep bugging her to get up and dressed as she lays there and tries to go back to sleep. Well, since we changed the time back, it is actually light out by the time we get up so I think that is helping her get up. Well, its either that, or the cat is waking her up. Either way, I'm not complaining:)

Say hello to Cali

A toy all of the kids can enjoy:)
She loves to lay on Kenzie's bed!

We had been talking for a while about sometime getting a pet cat for the kids. On Saturday, I took Kenzie over to the Livingston Co. Humane Society to pick one out. This cat was the first to come to the door and greet us so immediately Kenzie wants her. We looked around at the other cats to be sure that this was the one she wanted and it still was. She is a 5 month old calico (hence the name 'Cali'). Her name at the shelter was Louise, which actually is Danny's mom's and sisters middle name and his grandma's first name. Instead of leaving it just Louise though, we decided to call her Cali Louise. The kids love her. It didn't take her long to adapt to her new home. She's not even scared of Aydan (not anymore anyway). I've always been more of a dog person, but cats are way easier to take care of. Its nice that you don't have to take them outside to go potty, they just go whenever needed in the liter box. I think she'll be a great addition to our family.

Want us to sing to you?

Here is Kenzie (aka Hannah Montana) and Aydan (aka Alvin the chipmunk) on Halloween. All Aydan wanted to do was eat the candy as soon as he got it, and then he'd get mad when we wouldn't let him, so it made for a fairly frustrating event. But, he did look pretty cute in his costume. I don't know if people realized that Kenzie was supposed to be Hannah Montana. She had a HM shirt on but she had her jacket zipped up the whole time so you couldn't see it. With her wearing a skirt and high heels, I just hope people didn't think she was dressed up as a 'street walker.' Poor girl! Gotta love her:)

Pumpkin before and after

Well, these pictures posted in the reverse order that I wanted them to, so you will see the finished product first I guess. Anyway, the top picture is Kenzie's pumpkin after we carved it the other day. It did have 2 teeth, but somehow Kenzie broke one of them off. The other pics are of her holding it before it has a face. She's such a goofball:) She had a lot of fun carving the face, even though I did all of the work. That little sucker was hard as a rock and very hard to cut. Or maybe I'm just a whimp?