Breakfast with the Angels!

Every year we attend the breakfast with Angels at Harvester Christian Church (where I attend MOPS). We do this instead of breakfast with Santa because I want to give more meaning to Christmas instead of it being all about Santa plus the kids believe these are real Angles and love coming here.
They have each family take a picture by the Christmas tree that they mail to you, then each child gets to do a craft which is an ornament of the manager, then we come down for breakfast and they tell the story of baby Jesus and all the Angels walk around singing Christmas carols. Its one of my favorite Christmas events.
Here is Adriana with one of the Angels. Andrew with another Angel.

Joey wasn't too sure of the Angel so I had to be with him.After breakfast with the Angels we headed up to Andrew's preschool where they had Christmas shopping for the kids along with crafts and an appearance by Santa with his reindeer and sleigh. Although we didn't go in to see Santa, the kids did get to do all their Christmas shopping for everyone. Then of course we had to see the reindeer and sleigh outside.
Here are the kids inside the sleigh.Here is a picture of the sleigh with the reindeer.Joey was a little afraid of the reindeer.Adriana couldn't wait to go up and pet him.And I think Andrew was just as excited!This was such a fun day for the kids and we can't wait to come back next year!

Happy 4th birthday Andrew!

We celebrated Andrew's birthday on Dec. 1st with a small cake and family. He also got to open his gift that mommy and daddy got him (Mario Cart for Wii which he has wanted for a long time).

Here is Andrew with his cake.Andrew blowing out his candles.On Dec. 5th we celebrated his birthday with all his friends at Jump 4 Fun where Andrew choose to have his party.

Here is some of kids sitting nice for the owner to give them all the rules.Andrew's birthday cake (of course its Trans Formers which is his favorite thing right now).


Andrew and his cake while everyone is singing Happy Birthday to him!
Andrew blowing out his candles.Everyone enjoying their pizza, cake and ice cream.Andrew opening his presents.

I was very proud of my big boy this year. He made sure to look at everyone who's gift he opened and tell them thank you (we had a hard time with this last year). I think I'm really going to enjoy Andrew being 4!

Happy Birthday big boy!

Christmas pictures

Every year for Christmas cards I do a family picture of the kids in front of the tree. I think this year ended up being my favorite as it was a very quick and I had a very cute picture of all three of the kids actually smiling. Although we didn't add Sunny in the picture this year so maybe thats why it was so much easier too! So here is our Christmas card picture, along with a couple of other pictures I added as well.

Losing it!

Now I know I am loosing it! Tuesday I completely missed Joey's 2 year checkup and its costing me an extra $25 then today I completely forgot about my MOPS Christmas party. Seriously, what is going on in my head!!!!

Giving up!

Not for good, but just until after Christmas! I have been putting in crazy amounts of hours at work the last 6 weeks to help with money for Christmas and it is finally catching up with me. This week alone I am working 6 out of 7 days which means only 3-4 hours of sleep each day and I'm really hitting rock bottom! But it will all be worth it because I can give everyone a GREAT Christmas. No, my poor kids are still neglected and only getting 3 gifts each because that is all baby Jesus got for His birthday and since we are celebrating His birthday we can't get more presents than he did. But I wanted to give a great Christmas to our parents. My poor dad has been trying to retire for the last year but because of the economy he has been still working and will hopefully be able to retire this spring. My father in law has been laid off for the past 2 years (he is a carpenter) and their insurance just went up an extreme amount so they are having a very hard financial time. I just wanted to be able to give both of our parents the best Christmas we could, so yes I am slowly killing myself but it will be soooooooo worth it to help my family out who has helped us out more than I can ever count. So after all that being said, I will be getting back to my posts as soon as Christmas is over and I have a full night sleep (meaning 6 hours). I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!!! And please remember the reason for the season, JESUS!!!!!

Crazy month!

Yes, I do realize how far behind I am in my blog. Its that crazy time of year plus adding in all the extra hours I am working and only sleeping 3-4 hours every night makes for one tired momma! But I will have posts from Andrew's b.day party, Joey's birthday, and all the Christmas fun we have been having.
Oh and I have become an official soccer mom I think. When you spend your Friday night out with other moms from your kids school having a Christmas party, I think that makes it official ;)

The polar express!

On Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend my parents treated all of us with tickets to ride on the Polar Express. My kids have been soooooo excited about this for the past month and could not wait to go. We headed down to the Landing (where the train station is) to do a little shopping and eat dinner before hand. I had also promised the kids I would take them to build a bear so they could make a very special Christmas friend to take on the train ride with them. This is where one of Adriana's thanful for ideas came from. The lady was great with all of us and let the kids do everything as a group so here they are rubbing the heart on their heads for knowledge before they put it in the bear (they did a few other things but I didn't take pictures of it all).

Joey wasn't quite getting it!Adriana making her bear into a special Christmas Angel!After we all ate dinner came time to change into our pajamas and head down to the train. Although I wasn't in any pictures since I was taking them all, I did have my pajamas on!

Here is the kids with Chris in front of the train.As we were boarding the train they had a snow maching going making some fake snow which my kids thought was the coolest thing!
Then we finally got on the train. The conductor came along to check tickets and to cut out the letter to each of the kids first name just like in the movie.Next came the hot chocolate (but it wasn't as exciting as in the movie because they weren't doing all the cool flips even though we tried hard to talk our guy into doing them).The kids loved drinking their hot chocolate (which I might add was all you can drink unlike the movie and a major bonus for us!)After the hot chocolate and cookies (which I don't have a picture of) we finally arrived at the North Pole to pick up Santa. The kids were all sooooooo excited looking out the window and seeing the North Pole!

But unlike the movie, we didn't get off the train at the North Pole. Instead we picked up Santa and brought him onto the train to visit everyone. He also gave each one of the kids a Christmas bell that Andrew refused to stick in his robe pocket because he was so afraid that he would lose it!

Joey still didn't want anything to do with Santa!And Santa whispering secrets to Adriana! Actually he was singing "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" and Adriana thought that was hilarious.

Then it was time to drop Santa back off at the North Pole and head home. The kids had so much fun on the train ride! It was definitely worth every penny spent on it to see their excited before hand and during the trip! This might have to be a new tradition if they still have it each year!

Thanksgiving in Branson!

After hosting Thanksgiving at our house, we headed down to Branson to spend the rest of the weekend with my family. We arrived down there late Thursday night so not much was done on that night. The next morning my mom, sister, and I headed out to Walmart to do a little black friday shopping. The good thing about being out of town for black Friday is that there is not much of a crowd. So we did all of our shopping and got everything we wanted except for the laptop my sister was wanting.
After that we headed out to Silver Dollar City to eat lunch with Santa. My kids love doing this every year. We get to eat a buffet of food then we all sing Christmas Carols until Santa comes. Then they call each table up one at a time to visit with Santa. Of course my older two LOVED seeing him, but Joey was not so sure!Most kids just tell Santa what they want, but not mine! He had to bring the toy catalog with him to show Santa exactly what he wants.Even the teenage girls still like visiting with Santa! My neice and her friend telling him everything that they want!

Next we headed out to spend the day playing games and riding all the fun rides. Of course we can never leave Silver Dollar City without Andrew playing a game of basketball and winning yet another basketball to go in his collection.The kids got to make cookies, another favorite at Christmas time!At the end of the night they put on a really cool parade for everyone. We didn't get a place up front for the parade so we stood back where there was an opening that a worker was lettting everyone cross the street. The boys were being so patient waiting that the worker told us he would save the open spot for us to have when he closed it up for the parade. Well not only did we now get a front row spot, he also made sure everyone came by to see Andrew! Andrew though this was the best thing ever!
The first float in the parade is of course a favorite........Santa!Andrew meeting all of the characters. Adriana was off riding rides with my mom and sister so she missed out :(
The last float is my favorite........the Angel watching over Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus!But the best part of the weekend is getting to see my little brother.......er, my younger brother and his wife who live in Oklahoma. We miss them so much!

So ended our first day in Branson and what a fun day it was!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Every year before Thanksgiving I have the kids make out a Thanksgiving Tree to say what they are thankful for. Its so fun each year to see what the kids will say. So this year the older two made out there trees and this is what they each said they were thankful for:
Adriana's TreeShe is thankful for:
-for clothes
-for very nice teachers
-her eyes so she could see
-God
-her home
-family
-that she didn't get any writings so she could go to Build-a-Bear (there is a long story behind this one)

Andrew's tree:He is thankful for:
-mommy, daddy, sissy, and Joey
-clothes
-God
-Jesus
-if trees fall down (so we can get some firewood)
-winter and snow
-himself
-if Santa gives him something he doesn't want then he will give it to Joey

Alright so there was what my kids were thankful for this year!
This year also was my very first Thanksgiving at my house. My mother in law was having several tests done the week before Thanksgiving so I offered to take it over since she was have some tough times. I was very nervous about making everything turn out, but surprisingly everything turned out great. We made two turkeys, one deep fried and the other oven cooked. But of course I forgot to get pictures of the great meal so the only one I had was a picture of all they boys on the stairs.
Right after everyone left we headed down to Branson for Thanksgiving with my family. This year I have so many things to be thankful for that I couldn't even begin to write them all down without running out of room on my blog. So I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as we did!

We will miss you Grandpa!

This past Saturday 11/28/09, we lost our beloved Grandpa and Great-Grandpa! He passed away at 3:05pm surrounded by loved ones. Grandpa will always be remembered as a jokester who loved making everyone laugh. The kids loved coming over to his house and grandpa bringing out the odd house that you drop money into and it breaks or his fart machine. He made the kids laugh and laugh and they loved him very much along with the rest of the family! He was buried in the St. Charles Borromeo cemetary today 12/1/05. He will be missed very much by all who knew him! We all love you very much Grandpa!
Here is a few pictures from the past few years that I could find.
Until we meet again, you will be our Guardian Angel in heaven!