Think on this

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

 Smart woman that Mrs. Roosevelt. As the new year is approaching ponder those wise words. I couldn't have summed it up better myself but it really is the type of thinking that started my journey. Always believe in yourself!

Christmas 2010

Christmas was excellent ! Kids were happy and thankful with the gifts. Santa's sleigh brought in some snow for us on Christmas Day. It was enough for snowballs and snowmen. In the first picture I rushed the kids outside as soon as I noticed the snow flakes flying. It was the first white Christmas I can remember. The pictures of the kids in the snow were later in the day on Christmas Day.

On to the excitement on Christmas morning!!

Hudson was cute with his gifts and walking around stealing everyone's loot. He would say "This is Huddy's" and start to walk off with it . He loved his Power Wheels jeep, Toy Story Jessie doll, and guitar from Santa. He loved the toys from Mom and Daddy too.

Collin was thrilled with his remote control truck, his wii game, and is in love with his Paper Jamz Guitar and Drum set from Santa.

Parker was the happiest I have ever seen him on Christmas. He got a super neat remote control car, new bedding, new wii remote and game and a book he's been begging for all just from Santa. 

Molly got alot of stuff for her room like a lamp and picture. She got a wii game called U draw and Fur real Panda bear. Plus lots of other stuff from Mom and Dad.

Macy racked up with a 32" flat screen tv! Santa knew she had been really good this year . She got new bedding and curtains for her room. Lots of makeup and some clothes too.

Logan got some new games for his xbox and alot of clothes. He got a really nice watch and wallet too. His tv will have a HD cable box added to it too. Santa was really good to the Moon kids.

There were too many gifts to list as this didn't include all the things they got from Brian and I. What a wonderful Christmas it was for them!


Christmas Eve was spent with my family and while Macy and I were feeling sickly we still had a really nice time. It seemed to be very calm considering there were 9 kids involved. We had a good meal and enjoyed each person opening their gifts. Collin was the lucky Moon to get the box of Moon Pies from Aunt Kristi and Uncle Randy.

Christmas night we shared with Brian's parents and brother and his family. We had a great spread of appetizers and dips. There was shrimp cocktail and crab legs too!  The cookies , candies and cakes were yummy too. I wish I had a picture of it all.

 There was a snag in a few presents and I felt bad since I picked them all out but it's nothing we can't get straightened out. We are blessed to be living close to our families that we can spend time with them on the holidays but also be home . We did miss both our Grandmothers this year as they were both at their homes because they were sick.  Here is a picture of Molly and Hudson playing with glasses at Maw and Das's house.

Last night and today I spent cleaning, laundry and putting things away. The kids have been very busy playing and spending time with friends. Christmas seemed to get here really fast this year. I am not even rushing to take down my tree. Probably by Tuesday or Wednesday I will get to it.
I look forward to the coming year and getting back to my work outs again. Life will be really back to normal then.

The pressure is on

Here we are down to the wire and I am tossing and turning hoping I have what I should for everyone little Moon child to be happy on Christmas morning. This is one of the stresses of having the above average family that you just don't think about.

I know I put the stress on myself but no one wants a disappointed kid on Christmas. But each kid is different some of them  are easy to please and others disappoint easily. This week certain kids have been very trying and I wonder why is it I am so concerned over toys for them when they are acting out so much. What happen to you better watch out you better not cry,you better not pout I am telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town?

It's what I consider a boring Christmas of sorts . There are no great surprise presents, like last years puppy. The gifts are pretty much what they asked for from their list and I don't think we over did it . I hope to see some smiles come Christmas morning. I have to admit it warms my heart on Christmas morning that my kids take turns opening presents. They go youngest to oldest and they enjoy seeing what each other received. They can be sweet and kind and loving to each other sometimes.  I love my children so much and kids make Christmas so exciting!

Today after running some errands  I came in and as I walked by a red glittered feather on a present caught my eye. I wondered to myself why that was there (around here things end up in odd places often) but with my hands full I kept on walking to the kitchen. Molly questioned me if I saw the package and showed me the gift they had wrapped. It was the cutest package with little decorations on it that they each made. I love it , it's beautiful and gaudy and made with love.

I doubt I will be blogging again until after the big day. So I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from our house to yours! I will make sure to post lots of pictures from our holiday once I get all the wrapping paper and bows put away.

Annual Girls Christmas

About 6 year ago we started a tradition of getting together during December to go to eat and see The Nutcracker ballet. This year we decided to do something different . We went to Olive Garden as usual and then went to the beautiful Alabama Theater to see the move Elf. It was fun to change it up a bit , the girls still enjoyed our outing like they normally do. Mimi gave them their ornament as it is part of the tradition too. This was Sadie's first year to join us . She sat by me during the movie and she would let me know when her favorite parts were about to happen , it was cute. I think a fun night was had by all. I know I really enjoy it!

Mom's Birthday

Today we celebrated Mom's birthday here at my house. I took the easiest way out and ordered a variety of pizzas. I figured it was win win for me less mess and everyone (the kids)  enjoyed it . I did make a big salad and cheese sticks to go with it. It was a nice smooth party and Dad brought a really good red velvet cake for dessert.

Sadie my niece spent the night with us  tonight.I had promised they could make gingerbread house earlier in the day. I had bought a new kit that was a little village . Boy was I surprised when I opened it up to realize I had to put it together and make the icing myself.I have been spoiled to the already assembled kind with the icing packet.  That icing was a huge mess it was as thick as toothpaste. With a 4 and 5 year eager to get going I sort of just slapped the pieces together.

I might not have done it correctly but they didn't seem to care or notice. I nicknamed the houses the Gingerbread Projects because of there poor construction and horrible paint job on the icing. But the decorating was done by true artist I tell you! They had a ball and we made a major mess. Of course Collin was mad we only did one house each but I was worn out for having to use a death grip to get any of the icing out. Sadie proclaimed "Gingerbread houses are the mostest fun ever" but was fine with just making one and then watching The Grinch movie.

                            Collin's on the left    Sadie's on the right

The kids were pretty excited they ran around laughing for awhile. Finally I got everything cleaned up and got them settled in the bedroom. They were still alittle wild so I told them to plug up the Christmas tree and turn out the rest of the lights. The calmed right down and started to sing Christmas songs together. It was priceless to hear the singing of their little voices coming down the hallway. After a few songs they were quiet for the night.

Less than a week now

Our week started on a sad note last week as a local High School boy passed away in a car accident. It was a shock to our whole community. Macy is good friends with his little sister and their Mom had helped coach Macy's softball team her last season. So it really hit home with us and our hearts go out to this family. It's so unthinkable a young life ending at 16 years old.

This was the kids last week of school before Christmas break. Macy was out sick one day with what I am pretty sure was food poisoning. No one else got sick at all and she was in so much pain and so sick for about 8 hours. I was thankful it wasn't a virus that would have us all sick leading up till Christmas.  

I was able to get the shopping done for the girls and I to do our holiday baking this week. We will be doing gingerbread houses very soon too. I have all of that ready to go! On Friday night Molly , Erin and I had a great time making sugar cookies. These two girls love doing this and they have gotten so good at it. We baked them and they decorated them. I wish i had taken more up close pictures of them decorated because they were so cute and each cookie had so much personality . Tara came over and decorated a sugar cookie man and he was so adorable! I think he looks like Uncle Sam in his red, white  and blue.

I got busy wrapping presents and boy there are alot of them. There are a few others to wrap but my part is done. I told Brian we might need to add another tree in the coming years because our tree doesn't have  room for more gifts. I guess thats NOT a problem really, we are very blessed!

The highlight of the day today was Hudson hitting his eyebrow on the edge of the table when we were having lunch today. I tell you this little boy is accident prone. He has a small gash on his eyebrow which probably could have used a few stitches but since he's a rough and tumble boy it will just be another battle scar.

Tomorrow the whole family is coming over for Mimi's Birthday!! I am keeping it super easy and ordering pizza and making a salad to go with it. Dad is bringing the cake . I figure everyone likes pizza and there won't be a huge mess like with cooking. I will post some pictures soon.

What's on tap for this week . Logan will have a wrestling tournament all day Monday and Macy is babysitting Monday and Tuesday. And for the rest of us we will just be hanging out at home . Hopefully  there will be no making huge messes and making Mom crazy. Brian says after Monday he will be taking a 1/2 day off work each day it will be nice to have him around too.

Visiting Santa

 

Tonight we did our annual trip to the mall to see Santa at the mall. It was one of the easiest times we had had yet. The kids seemed to be excited and looking forward to the outing. Collin shed a few tears wanting to wear his suit he had last year which he refers to as his tuxedo. I explained to him his dress shoes and suit are both  two sizes too small this year.  He settled for the plaid shirt I had laid out for him.

We did our usual tradition of listening to Christmas music on the drive to the mall. But this was the very first year we have had snow flurries on the way to see Santa. While it melted as soon as it hit the ground it was still kinda neat. 

The mall wasn't busy at all as we arrived an hour before closing. We walked right up to see Santa and the kids did a great job. While Hudson didn't cry he was scared and refused to sit on Santa's lap but he allowed Macy to hold him for the picture. Hudson wouldn't talk to Santa but just said Yes when Santa asked he he wanted him to bring him toys. Collin wasn't afraid and told Santa exactly what he'd like for him to bring.

 We were in and out of the mall within 30 minutes and we headed to dinner. The kids cheered when we said we were going to Macaroni Grille. Dinner was very good but Macy started feeling bad . She didn't eat her dinner at all. I had the waitress box it up and Macy sat there feeling sick to her stomach with a headache too.  What a good evening! I joked with Logan that when he goes off to college we will have to all meet up at the closet mall each year for our picture. I am lucky the older ones are such good sports and humoring me to still go see Santa. The photo with Santa was just my snapshot ,we bought a much better one for our photo book.

 

Brian and I had a couples Christmas dinner to attend on Saturday night here we were in front of the restaurant Christmas tree. Next event the kids are looking forward to is our Gingerbread houses. They are all excited this is the last week of school before Christmas break. Yippee!

The goings on

It was back by popular demand!  The kids just love appetizer night.  I made a few of our favorites and we called it dinner. There was hot spinach and artichoke dip , pizza dip, pigs in a blanket,  veggies and ranch along with sliced bakery bread and tortilla chips. For me to cut back on calories I like using carrot sticks or celery sticks for the dips. Try it sometime it's pretty good!  We all missed having my potato skins and the kids missed mozzarella sticks so I promised we will do this again soon.

What you see here is a bad iphone photo of Logan in his Christmas play. I totally forgot my camera at home so this was the best I could do. His final exam in drama was being part of this play called A Modern Christmas Carol. Logan played the part of Scoorge and of course he did a great job. It wasn't a big production but I still loved seeing him on stage acting. He is SUCH a natural! Good job son!

Two weeks till Christmas? Man,  December is flying by. I feel good about all I have gotten done so far , but I do need to make a list and check it twice just to make sure.

Definite Housewife

I am definitely a housewife based on how excited I was to see these boxes arrive today. Dealnews.com (the company Brian works for) had posted a awesome deal through Amazon on Tide laundry detergent. Four of the large bottles for a really low price like $30 with free shipping. Here at the Moon house we wash alot of clothes. So we jumped on this deal and I was all excited to have a stock pile of detergent for the next month or so.  Later that day there was also a great deal on Cascade dishwasher detergent so how could I resist? If a box shows up every couple of months with the household supplies I seem to be constantly buying each week and it saves me time and money that is something to get excited about! I plan on finding the right deal on paper products too and getting that on the Amazon subscribe and save program also.  This is the coolest thing since slice bread !



Here are some pictures of Collin and Hudson from today! For some reason  they both asked for something to eat every 2 minutes today. I guess it was boredom but man it gets old quick. They are so excited about Christmas. Maybe all the Christmas stuff makes them want to eat !?! They are cute and I love them even if they can eat a whole bag of animal cookies in one sitting. Lil stinkers!