Wow! It's a Real Post! First Time in Months!

I've been sitting here glancing back at this screen trying to decide how to start. It's been so long since I've put up a real post that I have forgotten how! Do I start at the beginning and work my way through? Do I start at the most recent and work my way back? Do I start in the middle where my head usually ends up and try to make heads or tails of it? Decisions! So I figure my best bet is to download all the pictures I want to share and go from there. So here we go.

Football season and cheerleading came to an end right around the first of October. We had a little bit of "sibling" rivalry around that time as well. Callie was sitting there first and there was no way Zeus was going to let her have me all to herself!

Around the middle of October, we traveled to Indiana where we had pictures made of the kids. These are just a few of my favorites out of the 70 pictures that were taken.It turned off very cold up there that weekend so by the time we got to the pictures of all three kids together, they were freezing! Belle had been out of her coat the longest by that point so her smiles were a little "frozen". My sister-in-law trimmed up all their hair and fixed Belle's so that it would curl because those curls? Are natural! How I love that beautiful hair! When sister-in-law got done with her hair, Belle replied, "It's too poofy!" Belle hates the curly hair with a passion. So to pacify her, the front part was pulled back. It was still too poofy according to Belle but at that point my response was, "deal with it." No way was I going to straighten all those curls for pictures!

We had Belle's party the week before her birthday and me being me, I forgot to take pictures until the very end. By that point, the girls were burnt out on bowling and had moved onto other things. Here's Belle blowing out her candles.We ended up going to Mississippi at the end of October when Hubby's grandmother passed away. That meant Bryce's birthday celebration had to be postponed a week and the kids went trick or treating in Mississippi. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my camera so I have no pictures of the kids costumes. Brady was a ninja, Bryce was a grim reaper and Belle was a witch. The kids had a ball trick or treating and then went with Hubby, his sister and her boyfriend, aunt and cousin to their church for a Halloween festival. They went through a haunted trail, played plenty of games and came home with more stuff than any child needs!

Bryce was afraid that if he had a birthday party, no one would come so as an alternative I told him instead of picking out seven friends to invite, he could invite two people, we would go out for pizza and take everyone to a movie. He loved the idea, picked a couple of friends and we took them to see "A Christmas Carol" in 3-D. It was a great movie and the kids loved the visual effects! Hubby and I loved seeing the kids reaching out at the screen trying to catch falling snowflakes! Here's a picture of Bryce blowing out his candles with the family.The week football and cheerleading ended was the same week basketball team placements were held. Bryce is a 6th grader this year so he is playing on a sixth grade team with a coach that he had a couple of years ago. Belle was given the opportunity to play up on the 6th grade team this year and she jumped at the chance. She has the same coach she had last year. Brady is playing on a 4th and 5th grade team and also has the same coach as last year. One of my next tasks is to get a picture of them in their basketball uniforms because I have failed to that at this point. I really need to be doing that since this weekend is the last of their regular season games before tournaments start the following weekend!

Also in November, we lost our darling dog, Sophie. She had gotten to where she wasn't eating a whole lot and then suddenly she stopped eating at all. She stayed under my feet from the time she got up until the time I went to bed. Then I got up one morning and she was gone. Thankfully Hubby was here and had her buried before Brady got up because we knew that of all the kids he would be the one to be the most upset. She is greatly missed and I still haven't gotten out of the habit of calling for "Sophie, Gracie, Chi Chi!" Maybe I'll be able to adjust soon.

Thanksgiving was up in the air until the last minute. We picked up everything we needed to fix the meal but Mom was having minor surgery the day before so where we were having dinner was a toss-up. So the plan was that I would cook dinner at my house unless Mom was up to having company, then I would cook dinner at her house so she didn't have to get out. Thanksgiving morning I got the call that she was up for dinner, so to her house we went! I can't tell you when the last time it was that I cooked the majority of the Thanksgiving meal (Hubby fried the turkey this time) but we pulled it off without a hitch! Talk about a sigh of relief!

The time up until Christmas was crazy insane. The kids had six basketball practices each week and each one of them had an after school music lesson of some sort each week as well. Christmas week, the kids were out of school and Hubby didn't have to work so he stayed home with them while I worked. We spent most of Christmas Eve with Mom and Dad as well as my brother and his girlfriend. Christmas morning, the kids were up bright and early just waiting for their chance to see what they got.

I had two New Years resolutions. One was to be in bed when the new year began. The second was to sleep in the next morning. I'm proud to say that I kept both of my resolutions for the first time ever! I am definitely going to have to try to have these same types of resolutions every year so that they are easy to achieve and not so devastating when I don't. You have to aim high, you know!

And let me tell you how this work thing has been keeping me crazy busy. We had the pictures of the kids made in October and I just got three of them up on the wall last week! It took me three months to get those three pictures into frames! I still haven't gotten one up on the wall of the three of them together yet nor have I framed the ones that I had printed for my desk at the office. I have been running so much with the kids and work that even the animals are stressing. Here's Zeus giving me lovin' this past weekend.He was so excited to be able to spend time with me! I didn't think I was ever going to get him to let me up.

Saturday morning, Brady had to be at my former elementary school for a game while Bryce had to be at their school for his game within an hour of each other. So Hubby to Bryce to his game and I took Brady to his. When Brady and I got home, we found this dog sitting on the carport step. Like she lived here!I got out of the car and she met me slowly trying to decide if she could trust me. When she figured out she could, she thought she should come in! We left her outside that day because we were still running for Belle's ballgame hoping that maybe someone would come around looking for her. We put food and water down for her but she still wanted in every chance the door was opened. Finally Sunday we felt sorry for her and let her inside. Called the animal shelter Monday and left my name, checked the lost and found in the paper and checked craigslist. No such luck. She is now inside, thinking that she is queen and that she belongs on the couches and beds. She is a sweet dog, doesn't care if Gracie and Cheech bother her and she ignores the cats. She loves the kids and is fully house trained! It breaks my heart to think that someone could've dropped such a sweet girl!

That brings me to right now. I am currently waiting on Belle to go to bed so that I can go to bed. While this new dog is sweet, she is also stubborn because she likes to scratch at the side of the bed to see if I'm going to give in and let her up in my bed. Not going to happen but still keeping me from sleeping a good nights sleep until she realizes that I'm going to win this battle! I have also decided that since it seems that the dog is going to be staying around for a while, that she needs a name. I like the sound of Daisy for her and Belle agrees so she may be becoming a Daisy in the very near future. Now that the kids are all in bed, finally, I am going to join them at 9pm. And maybe it won't take me near as long to get my next post up. Maybe.