our weekend - the good, the bad & the ugly

First of all, before I get into our weekend I wanted to comment on a reader's comment. Shannon had asked about my daughter's first communion dress that I made last year. To see the finished dress you can go to this post Shannon :)

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Now, on to our weekend. Saturday we decided to head to the mall downtown to see Santa, do a little shopping, grab lunch & then see the new Muppet Movie.

We had to wait a bit to see Santa. Cause, ya know, he's a very popular fellow this time of year. As we were waiting in line I realized that Addie had cut her first tooth. Woo hoo! Just a day after she turned 6 months old :) 

Anyway, our visit with the big man was very uneventful...as in, no screaming for Addie :) 

She was more interested in looking at the fur on his red jacket...and at the lady behind the camera who was squeezing a squeaker toy :)

One seriously big Christmas tree!

A view from the 4th floor at night...

We also made sure to stop at Macy's & mail our letters to Santa in the 'special' mail box :)

The Muppet Movie was cute. Not what I expected, not like the 'old days' but still cute. 

Then Sunday hit...

and at about 3am we had our first casualty. Ben got sick. Then Olivia got up that morning feeling sick. We all felt super cruddy but Ben & Olivia got hit the hardest.

We stayed in pjs all day. Emergency buckets strewn about the house. Unfortunately mom is never allowed to be sick so I had to run out to the store to get stuff for homemade chicken soup. Boy, that sure hit the spot!

I've already had to disinfect all of the bathrooms & change out the toothbrushes. I'll probably do that again tomorrow.

By nighttime the extreme symptoms had ceased. Thankfully everyone is feeling better today. The kids stayed home from school today and only have 4 more days til winter break. 

Hard to believe Christmas is in less than 2 weeks!!!!

I still haven't mailed any Christmas cards (or even begun to pull that together). I haven't gotten any teacher gifts, or class treat bags, mailed out the gifts to the grandparents. 

This will be a busy week!

oh the weather outside is frightful...

Yes, it's been very chilly here lately!

Lows in the teens, 'highs' in the 30s. 

The frost on the tree branches never melts (most of these pics were taken in the afternoon). And they all just look so magical.

I especially love how the pine trees look.

I always get a few weird looks when someone sees me pulled off to the side of the road...taking pictures of a fence.

Or when I'm crouched down in my front yard taking pictures of Christmas bulbs...

No matter, I'm getting great shots :)

And poor Mater...so frigid on my truck these days...

I love being in a nice warm house, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate & seeing the pretty winter outside. 

Unfortunately, I don't get to enjoy that hot chocolate for too long...there's lots of cleaning that has to be done! Christmas boxes still out, the 'fancy' dishes still sitting on my counter (from Thanksgiving) that need to be put back in my china cabinet, more decorating...

But I'll put on the Christmas music. Somehow that makes cleaning a bit better, dontcha think?!!

And when this little one wakes up we'll have a little snuggle time :)

She was a little cranky last night since she had some shots yesterday :(

And after I pick the kids up I'll probably hear a lot of girly giggling in the house since my daughter is having a friend over after school. My son will probably retreat to the basement & play his video games I'm sure!

This last week has been a bit crazy...school holiday performances, orchestra recitals, Christmas shopping, etc...

Next week is the last week of school. Crazy! Thankfully I think I might almost be done with my shopping. And I just got Addie's outfit to go see Santa so we may brave the mall this weekend and go see the man in the big red coat :)

paper snowflakes

My oldest wasted no time in starting the Christmas decorating in our house. She spent half the day yesterday making paper snowflakes.

Of course, I had to look up on the internet on just how to make them cause ours were turning out pretty funky! I found this site that was really helpful. So grandma & I helped out & we made tons of paper snowflakes to decorate the house :)

She also made tons of paper garland. We have it strung just about everywhere. I love it :)

My son joined in on the garland & snowflake making so now we have it everywhere. It reminds me of when I was a kid & would decorate the house. I was always into decorating. Always :)

We're heading out today to get our Christmas tree. I'm so excited that we live somewhere that we can go cut down our own tree again. I've missed that part of the Christmas season so much.

thankful

I have much to be thankful for this year. Especially for this little turkey!

This little one has us laughing at her cuteness each and every day :)

We have my dad & step-mom in town this year for Thanksgiving so it was nice to be able to cook for someone other than the 4 of us...well, technically 5 of us but Addie didn't eat turkey this year ;)

I brined the turkey again this year which made for a very juicy turkey. Yum. I didn't get too many pics cause, um, I was hungry. 

I tried a couple new recipes this year which all turned out great. Like these bacon wrapped smokies...

Super yummy. Definitely will be making those on Christmas. I followed the recipe except for freezing the smokies (not sure what that step was for??) and I used turkey smokies (you couldn't tell the difference with the bacon & the sweet sauce).

I also made some Texas Roadhouse style cinnamon butter. That was a definite hit. No one used the regular butter for the biscuits. I'll share the recipes for the biscuits & butter in a separate post. Mmm....I think I need another one!

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Oh, and the Breaking Dawn premiere last week. One word. Awesome. 

Such a great movie. I can't wait to go see it again! They did such a good job with this one. Even Kristin Stewart who I don't particularly like was good. Can't wait to go see it again.

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When we came out of the movies it was snowing...and continued to snow off and on all weekend.

I could not get the kids to stay in the house. They played out in the snow for hours.

It all melted on Tuesday. But I'm sure it will soon be back!

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My hot water heater went out on Tuesday...you know, 2 days before Thanksgiving. That was good timing. Thankfully we got someone out on Wednesday to fix it and {keeping fingers crossed} it's been ok since.

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I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day with lots of friends, family & thankfulness. I'm not a black Friday shopper so we slept in a little, stayed in pjs, and enjoyed each others company :) Our company is heading home tomorrow so we'll probably head out for our tree this weekend!

11.11.11 and other weekend happenings

First of all, thank you to all the men, women and families who serve and have served. We couldn't live without you!!!

How did you spend Veteran's Day?? Addie & daddy spent time watching war movies :)

We had company in town...my very, very good friend Becky that I've known for over half my life. Whew, we're old! hehe

So we took her to the mall downtown for some pizza at Rock City Grill. But before that my wonderful hubby helped some ladies with a flat tire. What a man :)

Then onto food! Black & white pizza please!! And some yummy chocolates for the girls & covered apples for the boys :)

We headed back home & watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2.

Saturday morning we woke up to a bit of snow (cue squeals of excitement!) That afternoon we headed out to see Puss In Boots at the movies. Much better than I thought it would be.


And wouldn't you know it, when we came out of the movie theater it was snowing again!!! 

This time there were some decent flakes. So my kids promptly came home & made snowmen in the dark!

I think all of this snow might have been our fault. A certain little someone was wearing her Christmas pjs...

And now the snow is gone, it's back to the same 'ol same 'ol routine...until the next batch of snow blows in!