Oh Christmas tree!

Let me just say that I take the Christmas tree very seriously. I know get over it right? Well, as I have posted before if I could decorate trees for a living my life would be complete.

When I was a little girl we had a tradition that Mom made chocolate chip cookies when we put up the tree. None of those cookies in a tube....the real thing. (the only way I make them) Isn't it funny how little luxuries like cookies aren't that exciting anymore. I mean it was a BIG deal to us. Kinda like a big deal when Mom bought Velveeta for cheese dip....anybody hearing me? HA! So I made the cookies and the tree is up ready to be decorated. We plug in the lights and.....none of them work this year. We all go to Wal-mart to be severely disappointed by the selection and head to Target. After we find what we need we head home and it is already 8:00! So I video Maggie and take a few shots of her decorating herself instead of the tree and put her to bed. She needs her beauty sleep. Parker stays up and helps me decorate....the bottom three rows of branches: ) I know growing up my tree was made up of the precious ornaments my sister and I made as children and we thought it was beautiful and it was. But, my tree is not one of those trees. I will have a tree as a centerpiece of our table to display those priceless works of art. I really am not that particular about anything else but the tree....it is my personal work of art.

Buddies

I had to make note that a prayer request has been answered. Tate is doing well. One of Parker's closest buddies had open heart surgery yesterday. Scary thought for anyone but to hard to comprehend as a mom. Please keep him and his mommy and daddy in your prayers. We love this little boy and want him back to normal as soon as possible. We have memories to make! As Parker so wisely prayed..."Thank you God for Tate. Thank you God for doctors. Thank you God for Hospitals." AMEN!

Reunion, Halloween... both not as scary as they sound

Two weeks ago we had our ten year high school reunion. It turned out to be a lot of fun. It is funny how similar we all were yet leading such different lives. At the park things were pretty casual. That night we all gathered downtown in a basement of a bar. It was neat atmosphere but the $120 dollar fajitas were not quite $120 worth. LOL. My two closest friends and their husbands (which kept Jer incredibly entertained) all caravaned in the Caravan. After talking with old friends till midnight we left to go to IHOP. From what I can tell our party at IHOP was a little tamer (but couldn't be less fun) than that of some of my friends from school. Jeremy and the guys were worked up to be some kind of silly. They had us laughing all night. It took me a few days to recover from being up till 2:30. I have never been good much past 11 or so.


Me and Jeremy, Adrienne and her husband Jeremy(or is forehead anyway) and Kristen and her husband Mark. Aren't we cute!

My old Jr. High drill team buddies. Shannon, Me, Amanda, and April


Halloween...

We had a great time Halloween. Instead of going to the carnival we decided to go to my sister Shelley's to trick or treat for the first time. Parker practiced with me at the front door several times before we left that day. Then I had to practice LOL. I finally finished his costume. Not that it was elaborate or anything it just takes a while when you get to work in 10 minute sessions. I bought the pirate t-shirt at Target and wanted to find some fabric to match the pirate pants to the shirt. Good luck with that! I decided to paint the stripes on. Being brilliant I first got black fabric ant tried to paint orange stripes...didn't work. Got smart. Black on orange....duh. I made the boot covers and about threw them out the door before I finished but they turned out OK. I had to let Maggie's costume out a bit....she is so stinkin cute though. Parker wore his costume the whole day before Halloween....target and the mall included. Fun times. We trick or treated in a Shell's neighborhood and Parker and Anna squealed they were so excited. As the rang the door bell they would say 'trick or treat' and when they opened the door they were silent. One of the funniest moments was when we got back and a group of older kids came to the door and Parker gave them a handful each but they just stood there wanting more I guess. Parker wanted to help them with what to do next and so he said, " Alright, go to another house now." We all cracked up.

We went to Jeremy's parents first to trick or treat. Like every year they go all out. My kid's have the best grandparents.

This is true Maggie. This tantrum is about to get ugly. I know it is bad but it makes me laugh.

Maggie really wanted Parker's glow stick. Big brother was nice enough to let her explore it.

All in all it was a lot of fun. I have such wonderful memories of Halloween as a kid. When else do you get to play dress up and show off to a bunch of strangers for candy? Sounds like fun to me!