Tomorrow is the day...

Tomorrow, I have back surgery (four-level spinal fusion). I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I will try to post after my surgery (probably later in the week).

In keeping with the Christmas theme...

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

what Christmas tree are you?

Did I miss something...

When did you go from this... to this...

UGH!

I'm not ready for you to grow up.

I'm not ready for you not to want to spend every waking moment with me.

I'm not ready for you to spend the night away with your friend...

but, I guess it doesn't really matter that I'm. not. ready.

The fact is that YOU'RE ready. You're ready to grow up, you're ready to play with your friends (without me watching you're every move), you're ready to spend the night away...which is what you did on Friday night.

I couldn't believe my ears when you came barrelling thru the door with Kinzie asking me if you could spend the night over at her house. I was actually shocked because when I heard the door open, my heart fluttered because I knew that you were home for the night. Oh how wrong I was...you were only here because you wanted to ask permission to spend the night away. When the words came out of your mouth, my heart skipped a beat - probably a few beats. My gut reaction was NO, you're only FOUR...but the excitement in your voice and the sparkle in your eyes told me that you were more than excited about the opportunity to spend the night with Kinzie. So, I paused before answering. During that pause, you looked up at me with those beautiful brown eyes, a smile still plastered on your face, and I couldn't say no. So, I said yes (and silent tears began to fall).

Your first sleep over - I can't believe it. These past four years have gone by so quickly that I don't want to miss a thing.

Meg, please don't get mad at me because I'm constantly taking pictures and hugging you and picking you up for no reason. I know that sooner or later, you will no longer welcome these things...I'm just trying to steal as many precious moments from you now...while I still can!

I know it's only November...

Meg and I have been setting up for Christmas since Sunday. I know, I know - it's early...but, we'll be gone for a three weeks (possibly four) between now and Christmas. So, I put it up early this year so I could enjoy it. Of course, it's not too early for me, I usually set it up two weekends before Thanksgiving anyway. This year I just got a jump start on it. Maybe I was excited about putting it up because I got a new tree this year - it's so beautiful!!! And, yes, I've already wrapped up a few gifts and put them under the tree. I'm really on top of my game this season.

In keeping with the Christmas spirit, I gave myself a bloggy make over. What do you think?

Trick or Treat...

trick or treat

smell my feet

give me something good to eat

if you don't, i don't care

i'll pull down your underwear

(thanks to the older kids in the neighborhood, we sang this song all weekend)

Meg was having one of her "moments" before trick or treating time. Earlier in the evening, she was playing with her friends and took her shoes off. On her way back to the house, she stepped on a rock and it bruised her foot. Since she hadn't had a nap, she was a complete brat about it. I gave her an ice pack and she laid on the couch for a little while.

We were so happy that Meme and Poppy were in town. Boompaw and Nawnaw also joined us for the evening. We ordered in pizza, threw together a salad, and cracked open a bottle of wine :)

***my sweet Dorothy***

We left to go trick or treating around 7:00. Up until the point that we walked out the door and joined her friends, she was complaining, complaining, complaining about her foot hurting. Of course, once she saw her friends her foot was completely forgotten about - it's a miracle I know! So, we left the house for good ol' trick or treating. Meg had a blast. We walked thru the entire neighborhood (about 5 miles) and hit every house that had a light on. I was shocked that Meg lasted as long as she did. She finally gave in around 9 and we headed back to the house. We only missed about 5 houses.

***Meg's first house (our house)***

***walking with her friends***

***BOO***

Carving Pumpkins...

Meg and I decided to wait until Meme & Poppy got into town before we carved pumpkins this year. So, on Thursday we bought our pumpkins from Walmart. I am really sad that we weren't able to make it to a pumpkin patch this year, but the month got away from us!!!

After dinner out, we got home and started carving away. Before we made any carves into the pumpkin, I forced Megan to stand next to the pumpkins and pose for my make shift pumpkin patch pictures.

Once we got started, all was quiet because everyone was focused on the task at hand. I was telling Meme that I didn't remember carving pumpkins growing up...good reason to, turns out that Meme used to carve the pumpkins while me and my brothers were in school. After carving pumpkins for the first time (yes, it was my first time doing everything from start to finish) I can totally understand why Meme did this while her children weren't home.

Don't let this picture fool you, Jarrad only helped Meg trace her stencil that we got for "easy" pumpkin carving. The other two hours that we were doing this, Jarrad and Poppy were out on the back porch, having a scotch and cigar.


Here are all the girls that worked for 2 hours with their pumpkins. Didn't they turn out awesome? We were so proud.

Meme carves an awesome pumpkin. From left to right, pumpkins by:

***Meme, Meg, Mommy***

***My precious pumpkin***

I will post about trick or treating tomorrow :) We had a great time.

We love Meme & Poppy

Meme & Poppy came in for a long weekend last weekend. Meg always loves their visits. They arrived on Wednesday afternoon and stayed thru Sunday.

Every time meme and poppy come to visit, Poppy has a list of places we "must" eat at. Our meal schedule looked something like this...
Wednesday dinner - Mexican Inn (on the list)
Thursday lunch - Chicken Express (on the list)
Thursday dinner - Outback Steak House (on the list)
Friday lunch - left over Chicken Express
Friday dinner - we picked up Mama's Pizza (on the list)
Saturday breakfast - Braums (on the list)
Saturday lunch - we skipped (anyone who knows Poppy is probably calling me a liar, but seriously - the man did NOT eat anything for lunch)
Saturday dinner - Buffalo Wild Wings (not on the list, but could possibly become a new favorite)

We had so much fun with them and hated to see them go on Sunday. Below are a few pictures from Thursday night at Outback.

***Poppy, Meg, Meme***

They are making fun of Poppy - any time you say "smile" to poppy while holding a camera, he automatically raises his eye brows. I noticed Meg did it a few times at dinner, so I asked them all to do the "Poppy Face"

***aaaawwwww, so sweet***

***smile for the camera***