Hoot's Mom: November 2011

Monday, November 28, 2011

Insanity

It's a crazy busy time right now in the life of me...Wednesday the Doll got her first haircut... PRECIOUS. She did great. She acted like a pro in the chair. we made a whirlwind of a trip to Dallas for Thanksgiving, which was a lot of fun! The kids had a ball. The weather was nice and the food was great. I am thankful... We returned home Friday due to Lambert's work schedule. I decorated a house Saturday and had the kiddos in tow... The photos below give a pretty accurate account of Thanksgiving Day... Saturday night we took the littles to visit Santa at the Galleria. I was expecting a LONG line of naughty and nice littles but to my amazement there was only one family ahead of us in line... what happened to photos with Santa??? Maybe it's the $25.00 price tag that goes with the visit. The boys visited the Lego store and then we had dinner at P.F. Changs... Yummy.I have been wiring ribbon and hanging ornaments until my hands are raw, but I love it. Spencer our Elf on the Shelf arrived last night and Hoots behavior improved immediately (not that he isn't always well behaved). I have one more house to do tomorrow morning and then I head to Shriners with the Doll for her pre-op visit. Earlllllly Wednesday morning she will have her first foot surgery. We'll be at Shriners for a couple days and then we'll return home for a six week recovery. FUN... after 6 weeks, she'll have her second surgery and then another 6 week recovery. Hoot starts basketball tomorrow... can't wait to see him play his first game. So with all that said, I am off to do more laundry and get ready for our big day tomorrow and bigger day Wednesday. Did I mention how busy we are these days??? Does laundry EVER end?? I feel like I wash/fold/press and then repeat in a vicious cycle.

We started the Thanksgiving weekend with fresh hair cuts for the kiddos!

My friend cuts hair from her home so it was play time with the girls after her cut. Hoot got to go on his first go-cart ride with his new best friend. He'll never want to go to Sports Clips again!

The littles donned the name "Team Turkey" this year... even Libster participated.She had no problem getting her hands dirty!

After prepping the turkey the kiddos (well the parents of the kiddos) each received an I-Pad II for an early Christmas gift. We won't all be together for Christmas so gifts were given early... we had no idea we were getting I-Pads... Look at the hi-jacking that took place. These kids were I-Pad PIRATES

Team Turkey turned into Team Stinkers

Hoot was not so great at sharing so the Doll found the next best thing

There are three littles and three I-Pads on the stairs... this is where they camped out for the rest of the day. And this is what we saw of them... Hineys

Smart Smart Littles
We ate YUMMY YUMMY treats

Nothing fancy... but really tasty

My moms tree in all it's glory

She wanted a fall tree since we would all be there for Thanksgiving... Not my taste, but it did turn out beautiful.

These are a couple of the other trees I've done... they all start looking the same after a while.

My tree has to be my favorite ALL time tree EVER... I love it

Leopard makes me happy

I know the trend is to go more natural with the burlap and the plaid this year, but I love a traditional tree kicked up a notch with leopard

This was our Santa visit...

Our turn next!!! No wait!

Hoot looks a little nausiated and the doll is really not sure what's going on. She knows he has candy and she's wondering when she will receive it!
The Lego store was next
Hoot decided he should add this to his list

Notice the number of parts...

Santa will not be delivering this to our home this year!

I thought this was adorable

Can you tell Hoot is in Lego DREAMLAND
Instead of visions of sugar plumbs... it will be Lego Plumbs!
He received a free Lego magazine

Our whole family loves a good magazine:)
This is how he walked through the CROWDED Galleria

We stopped at P.F Changs for dinner
No MORE TURKEY and a great place to people watch!

He's fun to watch too!

We had a ball! Great fun

Spencer made his way from the North Pole and behavior will be awesome for the rest of December!

Guess who took over??!

Hope you all enjoy the season and keep in mind the true spirit.
Many Blessings,
SAL

Monday, November 21, 2011

Thankful

I didn't join all the wonderful bloggers in the 30 days of thankfulness although I certainly have been thankful the past 30 days... I can just barely get it together to post once every couple of weeks... let alone 30 days in a row!!! You blogger friends can sure make a gal feel like an ungrateful slacker. HA@ I have loved the posts and think it's an awesome way to express gratitude this season. However I am thankful for so much... I have never known what it's like to do without. i have never really suffered. I have an amazing husband who loves me in spite of me. I have two beautiful littles that I'm over the moon for. I have my health. I have an incredible father that raised me as a single parent and while I never appreciated him then... I'm in awe of the sacrifices he made in his own life to provide a better life for me. I have a mother that is an awesome Nana and I'm thankful that God was able to restore our relationship. I am thankful for all of my family as crazy as they may be! I'm so thankful for Shriners and the services they provide for children with special needs. I am blessed with a wonderful church family and friends. Most of all I am thankful that God sent his son to die for my ugly sin so that I may have a relationship with Him. Sadly I take all of these blessings for granted daily. I could go on and on but I guess the point of this post is to truly reflect on just how blessed I am. I can often look outward at what I don't have or wish I had and become ungrateful. (this happens more often that I care to admit). I intend to look around at what I do have and count them when I start feeling the "if-only I had---" syndrome. Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving.