It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!

First, I just wanted to add a little memorial tribute to baby Hunter who passed away on this day 2 years ago, bless his little soul. For pictures of his precious few days here on earth please visit 25 week angel For those of you who are new to my blog, baby Hunter is my nephew. He was born on December 19th 2005 at just 25weeks gestation. The fight to live was so very strong and he tried so very hard to stay with us here on earth. After just three short days on December 22nd 2005, the Lord wrapped baby Hunter in His big strong arms and carried him home to be with the angels. Baby Hunter left such a huge legacy with us, that will live on forever in our hearts until we are all reunited in heaven. May you rest is peace sweetie, not a day goes by that you are not thought of. You have shown me to not let one day go by without be thankful for your cousins and to squeeze them any chance I get. I love you and I will see you in my dreams.



I'm done my shopping, done getting the food, done baking..done...done...done!!!
All in one week I might add! Although I would much rather do it over the course of a month or two if given the choice, but it just wasn't possible this year with all the illnesses we've had. However, all that is left is wrapping!!
Tomorrow will be a deep clean in the basement and the girls room as well as Robbie's. The basement is in dire need! While down there in the depths of disaster, lies a mountain, rightly named Mt.Laundry. I will attempt with great fierceness and power to tackle it's domain. The fate of my family and their lack of clothing depends on it! Though try as it might to knock me down with it's array of stinky socks and oatmeal covered garb, I will not submit to it's vigor!
NO! I shall conquer and be victorious! My family will not become nudists!!

Today we had a wonderful visit with Auntie Shellie and Uncle Rob and 'K' and 'A' to exchange gifts and just relax and visit. It was so nice to see them, since it's been forever!!LOL I cannot believe how quickly those girls grow!! Funny though, my kids were totally spun out prior to them coming by. While they were here, it was like a lightswitch with the kids! They were quiet and all shy like!!LOL I mean they were running around and yelling and arguing with each other, Mariah had perma-whine happening and then POOF! Auntie Shellie and Uncle Rob walk in and they all sat on the couch or chair silenced! I was about ready to kidnap them and hold them hostage in our house!LOL

Well, I'm off to accomplish a few things around here, you know important stuff, like make myself a huge mug of luxurious hot chocolate..........but first, I will post the holiday menus over in my food blog! Since judging by a few recent emails, this is important stuff to some of you!!(wink!wink!)

God bless!!
~Penny

Silent Night, Holy Night

Well we're finally over the stomach flu...however over the weekend we discovered that poor Matthew has a double ear infection. So, back on antibiotics he went. The doctor that saw him mentioned that we should talk to our family doctor about the possibility of tubes in his ears.
Thankfully, he seems to be doing better now. I am so very thankful for Zithromax...especially with Matthew whom I typically contemplate launching Tylenol up his butt because of hoe difficult it is to get medicine in him.
So hopefully that is it for illnesses around here...at least until AFTER Christmas anyways.

It's Alyssa's 9th birthday today!1 I cannot believe my 'baby' girl is NINE! Yikes! We celebrated her birthday on the weekend, she chose a huge oreo cookie cake!
Happy birthday sweetie!

We have been super busy baking around here the last couple of days...we've made over 30 dozen cookies! Tomorrow will be some more baking and I'm running out to grab a few things in the evening. It looks like Kerri and I will be able to sneak out for a bit on Friday to squeeze in a few more last minute Christmas things and of course a nice big Latte!!LOL
Then the wrapping frenzy will start!! We decided that the kids will exchange their gifts with one another on Sunday. This way they can enjoy watching each other open them. We get the kids to draw names from a hat. Neat thing is this year, each brother chose a sister and each sister chose a brother! We've never had that happen before, they were super excited about that!

I'm so happy that Bill has almost all of next week off!! It will be sooooo nice to have him home all those days...nice cozy, snuggling, jammie wearing, hot chocolate drinking, sledding, light watching days!!

I am just putting the finishing touches on my Christmas menus and then I will post them on the food blog. We have mostly our traditional foods, but I am trying a few different recipes this year.(shhhhhh, don't tell Bill, he hates change!!)

So far the weather calls for flurries on Christmas Eve, I am really praying their right. For years now, I've wanted snow for Christmas. Big, fluffy snowflakes falling while we go for our traditional Christmas Eve walk....maybe, just maybe this year!!

God bless, Penny

Something Fun!!

Have fun!!
God bless, Penny

Babywearing Makes the News!

Cool, eh?!?!

Well, we've been blasted with more illness in the house. We had just finally put the cold virus to rest when last Saturday evening (of course 5 min before Bill and I were to leave for his company Christmas Party, thankfully we had a super awesome babysitter who braved it even with the barf!) when Mariah began barfing. Then in true Norovirus spirit, it has hit someone every two days since then. After Mariah it was Matthew who awoke early Monday morning puking. Then last night it was Kayla. Thankfully it only last about 6-8hrs of actual barfing. Now I'm just waiting to see who the next victim will be tomorrow. Right now Robbie is complaining of a sore tummy
which seems to be how it begins, but we'll see.

I haven't even begun my Christmas preparations. No baking, no sewing, no shopping.*sigh* I'm not used to being this far behind this late in the season. There just has been no time with all the sickies we've had! I'm hoping that maybe Kerri and I can hit some stores next Saturday and get some shopping done, we'll see!

We also had Alex's 11th birthday last weekend, I can't believe he is 11! It just doesn't seem that long ago when I became a Mama for the first time.

We are all finished school for winter break. I would've loved to have tried to squeeze in another week, but it was a lost cause. Between barfing kids and being so close to Christmas, it just became in avoidable to start our break.

Oh, and my Mom was broken into last week. It's really sad because she had a lot of very sentimental jewelery stolen. Stuff that you can never replace. She's been trying to recover emotionally as well. So sad. I feel so bad for her.

Well, better run and attempt another lost cause....laundry. Ugh, I am so far behind it is at gross level. I was already behind from having been sick myself with the cold, and all it takes is 2 days and the mountain is crazy.

Oh, there are pics in the Flickr!!
God bless!