I got tagged by The Purple Diva to list 10 HONEST things about myself. So, here it goes...

1. I HATE shaving my legs. Seriously, as long as they're shaved for church I'm good right? And if my skirt is long it's still unnecessary. At least I shower, so shut it.

2. Target and me are best friends. I'm a HUGE believer in Buy-Therapy, and it gets me into trouble.

3. I have shoes that I haven't worn in years that I refuse to get rid of because they look cute sitting in my closet.

4. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and have full conversations with the Hub and I NEVER remember it. It drives him crazy.

5. I wish upon wish that I could survive solely on Hot Tamales and Zebra Cakes.

6. When I read a good book, nothing else gets done. Including me getting sleep.

7. Now that I get to stay home with my kids, I never want to go back to work. Ever.

8. By nature, I'm a night owl. I have to drag myself to bed so that I can wake up in time to take care of my kids. When truthfully, I'd rather stay up and finish writing that novel I started when I was 17 and work on my screen play.

9. I don't really like roses. Except orange ones. Go figure my husband was the only guy to ever give me orange roses. He's just cool like that. (I like orchids and daisies best. Happy Flowers!)

10. I hate working out. (Which is why #5 just won't work out.)

Alright... Consider yourself tagged!

Yes, I know the holiday officially starts tomorrow, but I have pies to bake and stuff to do, so I'm sending my greetings today. More importantly here's my list of things I'm thankful for:

- My Hub. We've had so much fun this week while he's been working this evening schedule. What a lucky girl I've been to get to have breakfast and lunch with my hubby and have him there to help at nap times and on shopping trips (and for reminding me what I need when I forget my shopping list on the kitchen counter.) Then, he's still home in time to warm my toes as I'm trying to fall asleep. He went back to his normal shift today and I'm already missing him. Love that guy.

-The tots. They are nothing but constant joy. My kids are amazing. Serious. No joke.

-Mom & Dad for feeding us while Jake has been working nights. It just didn't seem right to make a full dinner just for myself and Gid. Thanks for the yummy food, without you it would have been cereal for dinner!

-The fact that the average person consumes 3,000 calories on their Thanksgiving meal. Oh please let me have an entire pumpkin pie to myself!

-Christmas music.

-Nap time.

-And last but not least, the rest of my amazing family. All of you, I love you and I'm grateful for all that you do and how you inspire me. You're definitely the best around.

We got to Hillary's house in beautiful Bella Vista, AR at around 4 Friday afternoon. Jake spent as much time as he reasonably could enjoying Hill's piano. (Boy does he miss having one to play every day.) We hung out and admired her awesome house. Natalie and her gang arrived. We ate some chili. We talked, we laughed. And THEN....

We saw TWILIGHT.

Basically my opinion went like this:

Edward is gorgeous. I like this. Bella is weird. I hate this. Edward. I like this. Oh my gosh, that was hoooorrrrible effects. What the? Rosalie's butt is enormous, how much jiggle does that girl need? Oh Edward. Jacob is ugly. Bella is weird. I hate this. Oh snap, James is the hottest of them all. I'd let him take a bite out of me. Oh, okay... I really like it.

Basically I think I need to see it again and actually allow myself to enjoy it rather than critique the entire time.

On another note, Nat caught an AMAZING quote from one of the teenage-no-brains in the bathroom before the movie.... "I read the book, and like, I liked them, I just didn't like that Jacob was... you know... and Indian. What's with that?"

Nice.

Ron & Jenny joined us right as the movie was starting. Ron really liked the movie. So it's not strictly a chick flick!

Saturday we cooked. We made pies. We made potatoes. We shot up a turkey. We played with it's innards. Sarah & her fam arrived. We made more food.

Then, we ate it.
It was delicious and we were full and we went to bed early.

Sunday morning we headed back home.

We finished off the wonderful evening by watching 24: Redemption and getting totally pumped for Season 7 in January. Don't worry Jack, me and you will be back together soon enough.

Oh how things can improve in just a week!

It's thursday already!? My word... Well here's what I'm thankful for this week:

1. Breyer's Rocky Road Ice Cream

2. Children that are happy even with snotty noses and nasty coughs.

3. Getting over this cold business.

4. Getting to go visit Hillary & her fam this weekend! We're sooooo excited for a mini-vaca!

5. Thinking about the fact that the REAL Thankful Thursday is just a week away (and anticipating all the delicious food.)

6. Pulling out the Christmas decorations. (They're not up yet... Jake won't let me til the day after Thanksgiving... but they're ready to go!)

Another month has some how flown by! Ashelyn has so much attitude and spunk. She makes us laugh and is such a happy baby. She thinks she wants to crawl even though we tell her she's still to little. She pushes all the way up on her hands and then lifts her knees up too and digs in with her toes to push herself forward. It's crazy to watch! She's a strong little girl that's for sure. Right now she's really into pulling off her hair bows, giggling, eating baby food and playing in her exersaucer. She's been very attached to me lately, which doesn't bother me in the slightest. (It is throwing Daddy off a bit!) She has decided that she'll only sleep through the night if we snuggle her in bed with us until she's decided it's bed time. Which is still much better than being woken up at 3 am. She loves to splash around in the bath and loves when we dance with her. She thinks Gideon is crazy and gives him the funniest looks. We love our little princess to pieces!

It's true. It seems we've caught whatever nastiness is going around.

It all started last Wednesday when Ashelyn's nose started running... and running. And then she started coughing. So there was no play-group on Thursday for my little tots. Ashe's nose never got green and gunky I didn't feel the need to take her in to the doc, since they don't do anything for babies with colds besides tell you to hang out around a hot steamy shower. So that's what I did.

Friday was looking up, it didn't seem like Gid was getting sick (Ha!) and Ashe was in much better spirits and wasn't coughing as much. (Quick bug! Woo Hoo I thought.) We hung out at home that night and enjoyed a good movie, some pizza, and some ice cream.

Saturday, the fun continued. We decided to be brave and take BOTH kids to see Madagascar 2 (It rocked btw) Of course Gideon thought it was the best thing ever to get his own cup of gummy bears and his own big boy seat to sit and watch King Julian on a GIGANTIC screen. And to make it all even better, I got to stay in the theater the ENTIRE time with Ashe. She started to fuss a little bit but quieted down as soon as I stood up. So, basically I just bounced around by the exit door for 3 minutes until she was out cold and went back to my seat. Unfortunately, by the time we got home all things happy and good seemed to be coming to an end. Ashelyn was coughing and spit-uppy (more than usual...which is insane) Gideon was fussy and had gigantic GREEN boogers, Jake had a stomach ache and I felt like someone had poured hot coals down my throat. Pleasant... let me tell you.

So church was definitely not an option for our family of sick-os. I know how ticked I get when people bring their sickness around my family, so no way I was subjecting anyone to our mess. So that's how I thought it would stay. Sick and miserable but otherwise mellow. Just vegging out trying to get better. Right.

That's when we get to Sunday evening. So let's just say out of all this mess there also became the concern that Gideon might have a hernia. He started fevering and was having someother... issues. And since no boy wants any trouble with his nether-parts we decided to take him to the E.R. What a mistake. Well the biggest mistake I think was that we took him to Liberty. We'd always gone to NKC when he was tiny with his asthma attacks and they must have a policy that gets kids right in or something. But Liberty... we waited 3 hours. We didn't even see the triage nurse for over 2. Then finally when they got us back in the room the doctor spent all of 3 minutes with us and basically said. "Doesn't look like a hernia.... He must have some 'fluid build-up', be sure to take him to his pediatrician tomorrow though because it doesn't look right." Thanks doc. Then we waited another 35 minutes for her to get the prescription to us. And no, they weren't understaffed... they were hopping with nurses and doctors...there wasn't any crazy "I shot myself in the leg cuz deer season just started" injuries AND there were plenty of empty rooms. Basically they just didn't seem to care.

Luckily, there doesn't seem to be anything seriously wrong with him. So now, I take him to see. Dr. Pitalla tomorrow.

Some weekend, huh.

- I'm more thankful than I've ever been for anything in my life that there are no more political ads spoiling my tv. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

- Family. You rock.

- Play group and for the fact that we can get excited about going to the cannery together and stocking up on Hot Chocolate. mmm hmmm. Can't wait til next Wednesday ladies.

- Washing machines. I really hate folding laundry, but if it weren't for you I'd hate washing it too.

- That my old car keeps running and keeps getting me where I need to go.

- Homemade pizza. We're seriously addicted. Best idea I ever had.

- and..... Fall. Leaves on the ground, sweaters, apple cider, and chili. Thanks.

It wasn't the outcome I was hoping for. But, whether it's what you were hoping for or not. It is most definitely something worth remembering. Barack Obama will be our next President. And the President of the greatest country in the world deserves respect and support.

If you want the best summary I've heard of how I feel right now, stop by and visit Tib. As usual she rocks.

And if you just can't be happy no matter what you do, then go over and visit Mindi for a chance to win this adorable beanie she's trying to win your love with... you're bound to feel better!

Hey remember that one time I used to blog regularly?? Ya, sorry about that. ANYWAY! We had an awesome time on Halloween. The kids were adorable and Gideon was totally amazed that if he just walked up to random people's houses they would give him candy and say how cute he was.
Ashelyn was a fairy.(The Hub kept trying to avoid the cam... hair wasn't done ya know.) She was so stinkin' cute and tolerated the wings really well pretty much the entire night. Sorry about the bib, like I've said before...the girl pukes like CRAZY!
This was soooo fun! I couldn't believe how different Gideon looked with just a little black hair paint. Talk about Eddie Munster eh??? It kept throwing me off all night because I'm so used to looking for my little blonde boy. He was such a cutie and talk about an easy costume for a little boy who doesn't like fluff. I made the cape in about 6 minutes.
Me and my girl!!! I wasn't so festive. Didn't even wear black. Which is really shocking considering half of my wardrobe is black.
Gid-Man stuffing his face at Gramma & Grampa's.