Giving Thanks

This year for Thanksgiving we were invited to my sister-in-laws house.  Our families usually stay home for Thanksgiving, because someone usually has to work on Friday.  Well it's usually me that has to work.  We did our usual spread of turkey, ham, mashed taters, yams, stuffing, scalloped corn, pies, ect.   

Even little Wyatt and Jacyln approved.  Okay so here it doesn't look like Wyatt liked his mashed taters, but he was just putting on a show doing raspberries with his lips.  The taters were flying.

We all sat down to a really good meal and stuffed ourselves silly. 

As it got closer to Thanksgiving people were posting on facebook all they were thankful for.  So I started to think of all the things I am thankful for.  The usual came to mind.  My family, friends, a job, and good health to name a few.  On the way home that night I was checking  facebook on my phone and learned that a very special young lady  in our community had lost her battle with cancer early that morning.  My heart just sank.  Mary Catherine was only 22 years old and an endeared so much with her 4 1/2 year battle with neuroblastoma and more recently her secondary leukemia.  I couldn't image that I myself would have a 1/4 of the strength and courage that girl had dealing with the ongoing chemo, the surgeries, bone marrow biopsies, and bone barrow transplants.  I also couldn't even imagine how I would deal seeing my own children go through something like that.  The Warrior Princess is hero to many.  That brings me to be thankful for my children.  I could not image having to lose my child, let alone having to watch them struggle and hurt.  I feel deeply for Dr Arden Virnig and Dr Patti Hook for the loss of  their daughter Mary Catherine and admire their great strength in dealing with a her struggles. Mary Catherine is now at peace and is not hurting anymore.  I hope and pray that god will bless Shane and I with healthy children as long as they shall live. 

Well on that note I will leave everyone with a few pics of our cute niece and nephew that kept us entertained on their first Thanksgiving. 

 

BLACK FRIDAY-NEVER AGAIN!

I always said I will never get up and go shopping on Black Friday.  I have said this since I worked at JCP all thru college and always seemed to have to work at 5 am every Black Friday.  Well stupid me did it today and will never again.  Tyler asked Santa for a Nintendo DS this year and Walmart had one in their ad on sale from 5-11 am for $89.  There was no way I was going to stand in line earlier than 5am, esp with an hour drive.  I figured 5 am would be good enough and if I didn't get one, oh well.  I decided to go to Brainerd, thinking it will be busy, but not nearly as bad as St Cloud or the Cities.  Well, I was clearly wrong.  I guess I am oblivious and naive to the reality of Black Fridays since I don't participate in this early morning craziness.  So I pull into the parking lot and it is packed.  I am thinking this is freakin ridiculous, but I got up at 3:45 and drove all this way that I at least need to go inside.  So I park across the street at the bank and walk over, to only get inside, and not even get thru the 2nd door, and said F%#$ this and walk out. 
Well I figured I came all this way I will tough it out Target.  Parking lot didn't seem that bad.  So I loaded my cart and got what I planned on getting.  Of course only got a few good deals and stood in line clear  past the entrance and followed the line that winded all around the store and probably close to an hour later I checked out.  I was happy to get a $10 off gift card because I spent over $100.  I almost thru in the towel when I saw where the line started, but once again I got up for this so I wasn't going home.  After some good conversations and what not I was okay. 
I checked out a few things across the road at Best Buy, which was busy, but not crazy by any means.  After that I thought I would just drive by Walmart to check out the parking lot and it was only half full.  So I ventured in and got my DS and a game within 5 min and wandered around the toy isle to compare prices.  I got some baby wipes and toothpaste and didn't even have to stand in line to check out.  I had an after thought about something I saw at Target that looked like a super deal but didn't get so I just thought I would check it out again.   I got what I wanted and walked up to a register right away and got another $10 gift card.  Another 5 min and I was done.
So moral of my story, I should have listened to my hubby who said wait for the rush to be over and start at 8am.  I could have still gotten what I wanted and would have only taken me an 1 hour instead of 3 hrs.  Lesson learned.  I am not one of those big shoppers starting out at midnight to snatch that great deal of the year.  I know the economy is bad and everyone is looking to save money, but sometimes I think people do for the thrill of Black Friday and to talk about the deals they got.  I am just not one of those people.  I am not against going out on Black Friday, I just will wait till the crazy rush is over and start around 7 or 8am otherwise my time and the craziness is not worth it to me.  More power to the rest of you. 
Then I get home and Tyler is looking at his falling apart, riped up Target toy ad, which I never payed attention much to the prices or dates until this late morning.  I could have actually saved $30 on the stuff I bought if I shopped before Nov 24th.  So another lesson learned, not always the great deals you think to shop after Thanksgiving. 

Santa is coming to town, Already?

I went to the St Cloud mall shopping with my sister-in-law today and Santa was there already.  I never knew they started so early.  I just assumed it was after Thanksgiving. It was a great time to go see him tho, there was absolutely no line.  Tyler kept begging and begging to see him.  I planned on taking them, just wasn't planning on it so early.  So I was tired of listening to him whine and gave in.  Collin kept saying, "no like Santa," but still wanted to go "see" him.  Tyler  went up to Santa with no problem and hopped up on his lap.  He told Santa that he wanted a Nintendo DS and a Power Ranger along with a few other things.  He told Santa what Collin wanted too.  Poor Collin wanted me to hold him the minute we got 10 feet from Santa and clung on to me really tight.  I am not sure if he remembered a little bit from last year or not.  So it came time to take the picture and Collin had the death grip on me.  I had to pry his little hands and legs off of me and set him on Santa's lap.  He was not a happy camper.  This was the result we got.  

I was a little bummed that the lady didn't ask Tyler to look at the camera.  She did offer to take another picture after I looked at it, but I didn't have the heart to put Collin back on Santa's lap.  I could only be a big meany once. No worries, he got over it pretty quick.  It's not just Santa, he just doesn't like any strangers or even people he just doesn't know really well.   While I was paying for the pictures they were  sitting on the couch in the mall sitting area that was close to Santa's setup and Collin and Tyler were waving to Santa.  He was just fine from a distance. Like I said he just wanted to "see" Santa, not visit with him.  

Photoshoot from yesterday

Here's a little photoshoot I did with Tyler yesterday morning.  Okay, well not really.  It was me practicing a few things and Tyler being his goofy self.  He always likes to makes silly faces for the camera and then look at the pictures.  He always tries to top each silly face with a better one.  

5 Years Old :(

My baby is growing up so fast.  He just had his 5th birthday and we celebrated his actual birthday with a friend birthday party.  All I have to say is "Oh Boy!"  Imagine 12 kids running around a small house.  It got to be a little much and we might have to pair it down a wee little bit next year.  Don't get me wrong, everything went just fine with help from parents that stayed and my daycare provider.  I couldn't have done it without them.  Tyler really wanted a pinata and good thing it was a nice day out so we got everyone outside to do that.  Thanks to a little help from a couple of bigger kids they finally got it open.  The kids also got to make their own little personal pizza for supper.  Tyler couldn't wait to open presents so we just let him do that before cake.  After all he was the birthday boy.  Tyler had so much fun playing with all his friends.  I just can't believe he is 5 already.  How time flies.  Before we know it he'll be 18.

Beautiful Sunrise:)

Man there sure was a beautiful sunrise this morning.  I had to take a few minutes and get a couple pictures.  I am not good with these kind of pictures.  I think you are supposed to meter the sky.  Well this is what I got.

Well I have been kind of lacking in the blogging department this week.  I still have to put a little bit on here one of theses days about Tyler's friend birthday party.  I have been really bummed the past few days.  I accidentally deleted my Halloween pictures off the computer.  I have recovered them, but the program to actually "recover" them off my hard drives is $100 and not worth it to me for 10 pictures.  I tried to recover them off my CF card for $25 but had no luck.   I did have the boys get dressed up again and sit on the front steps again, but I really want the pics of the trick or treating.  I hope the pic off my blog will make okay wallets, so I least have those to scrapbook.  Oh well, life goes on.

Stinky Feet and Happy Halloween!

I think this was the first year the boys really enjoyed Halloween to its full extent.  Tyler was pretty excited all week to wear his costume and go trick or treating.  I was pretty impressed with Collin, he did so much better that I ever expected.  Collin got on his costume with no fuss, carried his candy pail and didn't asked to be carried.  I was nervous how the night would go, because Collin wouldn't nap, but he did good.  I did carry him toward the end, since he was really slowing down and looking pretty tired.  They both did really well at saying trick or treat and thank you.  I had to laugh, because it sounded like Collin was saying stinky feet instead of trick or treat.  When we got home, Tyler handed out most of the candy.  He had fun checking out everyones costumes and even got to see a few kids he knew.  Tyler's favorite costume of the night was a boy dressed up as a fat ballerina.  He couldn't stop laughing.

The boys thought the neighbors down the street was pretty cool.  She had scarey music playing and everything.  

Collin kept grabbing all of the Tootsie Rolls out and bringing them to Shane.  Shane would put them back and then Collin would go grab more.  I think they are his favorite.