Too Close For Comfort-Part 1

Remember at the beginning of the year when I promised myself, that if I could blog at least once a month-every month for the entire year, I would treat myself to printing my blog? I'm fairly certain I wrote about it, because putting it in writing would mean that I'd have to hold myself to that promise. I think I did really well...til about October. That's when I got a little sloppy and careless. HOWEVER!!!! I did not forget. And with today being my first post in December and my final post for 2012 (, I have indeed kept my part of the deal, to myself. Whew! Cutting it pretty close, don't you agree?
We've had a lot going on. It's been the Holidays, who hasn't? So instead of boring you with silly little side stories of our everyday life, I'll just skip to the big event/vacation that we just got back from. I think it'll make for a good final 2012 post.
December 14th, Chris and I and the boys flew out to Orlando, Florida.

Clay met and became friends with a little girl on the flight. Then they ended up falling asleep. HAD to get a pic of it. He doesn't remember what her name was. Anyways, every year my Grandfather (on my Dad's side) holds a family dinner; and every other year we make arrangements to go. 2009 was the last time we went to his dinner, because 2010 I had just given birth to Cody and 2011 was when we went on our family cruise. (But that's not to say that I haven't been to Florida or visited him in the meantime during the year-just to clear things up.) We got into town super late, but happy to be with my family. My parents rented the same house they did a back in 2009. It's called the Tiger house. It's much cheaper than each of our individual families renting hotel rooms and going out to eat for each and every meal. We made meal menus and chose nights to cook and I think that saved us all alot of money in that aspect.

Saturday was kind of our chill out day. Dad had towed his and Evan's motorcycle out to Florida. The weather was in the 80's so perfect for trekking around on the bike. Evan would let Chris drive his bike to the store or where ever. Chris was loving being on a motorcycle again. (His bike still isn't fixed from when he wrecked it in August-but he and a couple buddies of his are soon to start fixing it...themselves!!)

Later that night my cousin Amy and her husband Diego and two of their three little girls came over for a BBQ. Everyone had a really good time just eating and catching up. The weather was perfect and all the little kids loved to sit by the pool and dip their feet in...or if you were Jayde or Clay they changed into their suits and dove right in.

Later that night, I brought out the story of The Elf on the Shelf. I'm sure you all know what that is. I saved it for Florida so that Jayde, and Ayden could share in the fun. I would say Kayson too, but he's too wittle to even know what was going on. They named the elf Snicklefritz, but we call him Fritz for short. It was so fun watching the kids every morning, trying to find him and hearing them ask questions about him.

Love seeing my parents with their grandchildren. Seriously, my kids got so lucky.

My sweet (newest) little nephew Kayson.

Sunday we all got prettied up and set out on an adventure to get our family pictures taken. I had tried to make appointment but for some reason the computer wasn't working. So we went out in search for a portrait studio that would take walk-ins. Sears and JC Penny's were slammed, but we waited in hopes of no shows. Our patience paid off when they miraculously fit us in. It was torture. Always is with little kids.

On our way to get Family pics

Afterwards we headed over to my cousins Lori's house where my Grandpa's Christmas dinner was already under way. It was so good to sit and watch my children play with all my cousins children. Sooo wish we lived closer.

My cousin Clayton, My Grandpa and My Clayton. Really I should have taken more pics at Lori's but there was just so much going on. After Lori's, Erin took me over to her apartment and I got to meet her cute little dog Moo. He's so sweet, but he DID NOT like Cody. LOL! Cody wanted to squeeze him so bad!!

Moo is dressed up as a little reindeer.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we park hopped our little hearts out. First it was Disney World, Magic Kingdom. Next was Animal Kingdom, then Islands of Adventure and later Universal Studios. It was AWESOME!! Exhausting, but awesome. My kids loved it, and for the most part there was something for everyone. WARNING!! Picture overload!!(I took over 600 pictures while in Florida, so I'm trying to only include the best ones and my favorite ones.)
Magic Kingdom
On the Monerail

Love my Brother's expression in this pic, cause Clay is making almost the same one! LOL!

All the babies sleeping-yes Cody sleeps with his eyes open.

These little guys had so much fun together.

Animal Kingdom

Relaxing after a long hard day at Animal Kingdom.

To Be Continued....next year. Muah ha ha ha ha!!!

A Little Here, A little There

Can’t believe it’s already the 10th of November. Christmas is less than 2 months away and I am NOT ready, not even slightly. I've been so busy with random things that I haven't really had time to THINK about Christmas. So here's what's been taking up my time lately.

Of course my boys are always keeping me on my toes. Even when I don't have a thousand and one things to do, seems like they keep me running like a chicken with my head cut off.

-Making Loveys-My mother has enlisted my very limited sewing abilities to make these darling mini blankets. Perfect for snuggling, and using while baby is in the carseat. They are so soft and take hardly any time at all to make. I will post pictures of these (including the process) later.

-New Dog Riley- My in laws got a Puppy! Her name is Riley. She is black lab, 9 maybe 10 weeks old. She is so cute and pretty mellow. She LOVES Cody.

She follows him everywhere...

...then tackles him.

-Cornhole Competition- My love of Cornhole (the beanbag game-get your mind out of the gutter people) has soared to new heights. I joined a Cornhole Competition with my friends Carrie, her brother Brad, and Cody. Our first game was last night. It was so much fun, but I got nervous and I (by my standards) choked. I have much practicing to do! (It must be said that I would love it if Chris could play with us, but #1 there is only 4 players to a team and #2 Chris's second job kind of gets in the way of participating. I'll get to that in a minute.)
Carrie and Cody

I need to get more pics of us playing the game. It's so addicting and fun!

-Files for Dad- I also started doing files for the Bail Bonds business for my Dad and Evan. Business is somewhat booming and they temporarily needed some help. I do it at night after the boys are in bed and Chris is at work.

-Clay’s Indoor Soccer- With the weather outside being a little cooler I didn’t want Clay getting too comfortable. I tend to get lazy in the winter and do nothing productive…with Clay being after my own heart, we signed him up for Indoor Soccer. They only have like 5 or 6 games. But he loves it. His very first game, he was the only one to score a goal, and that goal was the only one for the whole game! Woot woot! Go Clay!

I'm a little upset that they don't have numbers on the back of their jerseys. It makes it very hard to spot him in pictures. Cody gets so mad that he can't get out there and play with the big boys. So it looks like as soon as he hits the youngest eligible age we'll have TWO soccer players. He keeps up with the big boys!!

- Chris got a second job at Walmart. He hates it. He works in the toy department though so I think that eases the boredom a little. He asked for part time but it seems like they work him every single day and the weekends too! That's not part time!! Anywho, it'll be good for his paychecks though. You see, Chris wants all these toys, and guns, and accessories (expensive ones) that just aren't in the budget. So I told him, "you want all these toys, go get a second job to support your habit". So he did. I think after the holidays he wants to stop working there, but that's when his discount kicks in (after the holidays) so I may have to sweet talk him into staying. I love Wal-mart!

-Election Day- Tuesday, November 6th was Election Day. It was also my very first time voting. With a gentle shove from my in laws, I realized that this year more than ever was so important to vote. So I did. And even though the candidate that I voted for did not win, I am not broken. I am thankful that I have a say and the opportunity to “voice” my opinion.

P.S. It's snowing like crazy. It just started this morning and I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not. Don't get me wrong, I like the snow. But I don't like what comes WITH the snow. Muddy paw prints on my nice-clean-wood floors, bad drivers, shoveling....the nice neighbor kids came to help me do my driveway today. Seriously without their help it would have taken me HOURS!!

I know my kids are happy about it though!
Clay showing off his new snowsuit.