Random Catching up...

I had a smattering of random cell phone pictures...that told a story all their own about what's been happening in our house lately!

Owen and I made a thankful thanksgiving craft...after it was done it went on the mantle.

In progress someone thought google eyes were so awesome he needed them all over his face!

After Black Friday shopping...Owen enjoyed romping around in my new boots! Tucked in his sweat pants and everything.  My little fashionista! 

Owen dismantled our pantry baskets and fruit to create a jail cell for his horse. Sheriff Woody was on the case somewhere in the mix...he has quite the active imagination that kid!

12 hours, 4 trips to Market Basket and 1 trips to Home Depot later...our side walk project was completed.  No thanks to me. Jer did this one all by himself.  And he did an amazing job!!  Love you babe :)

Just as it got too dark to see...he finished the project.  Which included moving the old sidewalks worth of concrete!!

The boys and I chilled all day together...and it looked like this:

As a side note...have kids who like popsicles but eat them slowly??  We found these Dora the Explorer ones and they are slow melt.  It's the only way to go!

Oh and it looked like this too. Boys are hazardous to your hair!!  I had to have Jer help me unravel it. THANK GOODNESS I didn't have to cut it out!

The below picture was taken at Home Depot. Where Jer spent entirely more time in the plumbing aisle than either me or the kids could stand. Picture this:  Owen walking around singing rather loudly along with a Christmas Alvin and the Chipmunks doll that plays an equally loud Christmas song.  Cooper running through the plumbing aisles grabbing pieces of PVC pipe (we were there so long we had mutiny even in the cool car shaped carts that Home Depot has). Me pretending that I was Wall-e with pieces of PVC pipe held to my face like glasses...and Owen dropping a HUGE 3 prong piece of PVC pipe smack on his forehead.  The new bruise matched his playground induced goose egg from that morning...prompting me to call him a double-horned unicorn for the rest of the night. I should note, I was informed before going in that we were buying some plugs for basement drains.  Note to self...ask Jer if it's truly a quick trip...or a long one disguised as short one by description?  If it's the later, me and the boys will stay home!

I snapped this picture b/c I thought it was cute that Cooper was saying Dadda help?  I'm pretty sure Owen had wandered two aisles over to play with a doll house display and Jeremy may or may not have made a comment about...Um Babe. Where's our other son?  Funny what pictures don't say isn't it??

That same night at dinner...Cooper channeled his inner Bob Marley.

Or is it Toadstool from Mario Brothers??  We weren't sure...but it was funny none the less!

Work on our basement (it's been being painted and cleaned up for the sale of the house) has left us with out our washer dryer...and also frankly all the house work has left us with little energy for laundry.  Mount-Laundrymoore is the result:

2 episodes of Private Practice later...I had the boys clothes folded and lined up by their door to put away the next morning! Sheesh! Laundry back up is no laughing matter people!! Don't let it pile up on you.  

Remember these???  Well I found Coop a pair in a tennis shoe...and he LOVES them just like O did.  

I think that is just about it for now!!  Hope everyone is knee deep in holiday fun :) 

How we start mornings in our house

The other morning while I finished getting ready, I had a helper.  Sure he put the chipmunk in the potty chair...and on top of the toilet.  But you know...he's only 16 months...so he gets an out because he's learning!

This little dance he does is something I just know I will remember for my entire life...but having a video of it is priceless.

It's Official!

This past Tuesday...our house officially went up for sale.

This morning our For Sale sign went out:

YIKES!!!

Thanksgiving 2012

This years Thanksgiving was most wonderful!!  We had a long extended weekend of family time together.  And that is never a bad thing!!

We kicked off our holiday weekend with a date night!  Sushi at Wasabi in Edwardsville, followed by the final installment of the Twilight movies, Breaking Dawn Part 2. It was relaxed and unplanned.  We had a blast and enjoyed ourselves emmensely!!

Thanksgiving day we enjoyed some lazy family time around home...followed by dinner wiht our Linley Crew.  There was delicious eats...Ryder celebrated his first official Turkey Day and we did Grandpa Mike proud because our meal was not without Hawaiian dinner rolls.

Friday Mom and I got up and did the Black Friday craziness!  After an hour of waiting at Kohls and some serious Target shopping, we snagged lunch and called it a day.  Friday evening was spent day dreaming about houses at Home Depot and relaxing together with our boys!

Saturday we did Thanksgiving Lambie style. Dad grilled filets and Mom made her cheesy potatoes.  YUM! We spent awhile looking through pictures of Owen when he was a baby all the way through to Cooper!  We ended the night with Cars PJs, Uncle Josh's boots and Grandpas gardening hat...and these pictures!

                             Yep this about sums up living with a 3 year old.  Never a dull moment!!

Watching a Christmas movie in our room before night night time.

While the boys snoozed Jer and I were busy elves and got the motivation to paint our dining room.

I happen to really love the brighter blue shade and how it ties our kitchen's red, white and blue into the other room!

Sunday morning after staying up MUCH past our bedtime...we hopped in the car for car ride to Lincoln.  We met our Walnut Linley's for a Thanksgiving lunch...we were late b/c Owen threw up right as we pulled into the exit. After a stop at Walmart b/c we did not pack extra clothes for such occassions as vomitting...we enjoyed lunch and headed back home.  These was no more vomitting...so it was either my crazy driving or a fluke!

Shew.  It was busy..it was productive...and most importantly it was fun!  Bring on Christmas 2012.

We're ready to rock this one too :)

Tight Rope

Ever hear a song and feel like it's exactly the song you want to hear, exactly when you need to hear it?? Even if you didn't know you needed to hear it? A lot of times this happens to me at church.  But sometimes it's a random afternoon, a few songs into a relatively new album and bam!  Meaningful words smack me in the face!

Check out the song on You Tube. If you enjoy this, his whole album is pretty amazing! As a side note, we listened to a lot of this album while on vacation. I think I will always have this vision of Jer and I driving, windows down, fresh ocean air blowing through the car, holding hands across the console, sun shining, exploring a new place and knowing at that moment there was no where else in the world that I wanted to be. So not only did this song smack me with meaning...the whole album also was a vacation sound track of sorts!  I love that and I think because of that it has and will probably always have a special place for me.

Anyway, back to point of this post!

Ever been on the precipice of something big or a new adventure?  Or simply looked around at your life and felt like you were standing still waiting for the next big drop?  Or maybe even been through something devastating that left you wondering what this life is really all about??  This song just might hit you in a place that makes sense. For me in particular its the line about "The only thing I'm sure of is to have have no fear at all. Just go, keep on going on." Maybe it's the year we had.  Maybe it's because we lost a parent. Or maybe it's simply because I know our family is in for some changes in the coming year with our home that means a big leap of faith for us. Regardless, this song makes a lot of sense. Hope you enjoy and maybe find some new inspiration!

Tight Rope by Alex Clare

Life's a tightrope, and you're standing on one toe.
Don't let the fear take hold of you,
You're bound to fall to the ground below.

Pick yourself up again,
Over the edge again,
Hold on to your hopes and dreams.
When all seems to be lost,
Don't start to count the costs,
Just go and begin again.

Tight rope walker, tight rope walker.

The only thing I'm sure of is, to have no fear at all,
Just go, keep on going on.
And the only thing that's certain is sometimes you're bound to fall,
Just go, keep on going on.

When all you work for,
Comes tumbling to the ground.
Don't let the sadness fill your heart,
Tomorrow may be a better day.

Lift your head up again,
You know you'll start again,
No matter what may come of it.
You know there's more to life,
I'm sure that you'll survive,
You know what you have to do.

Tight rope walker, tight rope walker.

The only thing I'm sure of is, to have no fear at all,

Just go, keep on going on.

The best laid plans...

Are the ones you make up as you go!!

Day 3 started out warm and beautiful. After a walk on the beach where we saw an old abandon bottom to a HUGE ship and a dead sting ray/manta ray...we wandered our way back to the house to get ready for a little lunch.

Our adventures took us to the Florabama, a bar on the state lines of Florida and Alabama...thus the name! We snacked on delicious bar food and I had the coldest canned Land Shark I've ever had.  It's an interesting haunt and would be fun to venture to again!

An interesting arrangement of bras and underwear.  What cracked me up is that some were matching sets! HA!

Next up we stopped by a beautiful stretch of beach called Florida Point Beach.  It's a huge area for fishing...and we had 3 dolphins greet us from out in the bay.  A fun suprise on an afternoon walk!!  We watched a man spear fish for awhile and also watched several boats come and go. We bumped into a cute older couple that informed us that they worked for a LOT of years to take their 5th-wheel and retire like nomads to the Florida/Alabama area every winter.  The white sand between my feet and our relaxing stroll is one of my favorite beach walks we've ever taken.

Bird foot prints that were as big as MINE!

Hubby-drawn art work :)

After we left our beach strolling we stopped at a place called Tacky Jack's...enjoyed a draft beer and a quick chat to catch up with our kiddos and what was going on at home!  This place was a cool and had we not been tired from adventuring, it would have been fun to stick around for the live music they had playing that night!

From there we headed back to our beach for an evening stroll, a couple more movies and a couple of crashed parents.

Day 4 was nearly a mirror image of our Day 3.  After a morning beach stroll, I sat on the deck and read enjoying the warm sunshine.  Then we got ourselves together and wandered into Gulf Shores for lunch and found a place called Sea and Suds.  Absolutely best fried food ever...seriously people. Amazing!! Our meal consisted of a warm bowl of gumbo, fried fish, fried shrimp and fried oysters.  Delicious delicious and more deliciousness!! 

The blue water NEVER got old to look at. Ever.

 We had a cute little visitor who liked our saltine crackers. 

While dining at Sea and Suds we even learned how to make your own homemade cocktail sauce....it was awesome!  After our lunch we sat and took in the amazing ocean views, did a little souvenir shopping and headed back to our beach house to soak up our last night of vacation!!

We pretty much did not leave our ocean view until the sun was dipped well below the sky line...and I cannot think of a better way to end our trip.

 Meet Stego...our dinosaur shaped sand castle...can you tell we have kids??

 

Amazing amazing and amazing is all I can say. Trip to remember forever.  Jer thanks for a wonderful time!!