Christmas ALL IN ONE

I'm posting Christmas all in one or I will never get up to date with this blog...so here goes. Christmas Eve. The traditional reading of, "The Night Before Christmas."

Our Christmas Eve Family Picture. I think it turned out pretty good for the 6th try. :D
This moment seems harmless and sweet but Hayden is actually yelling at Jaxson for trying to eat Santa's cookies.Christmas morning everyone was nicely surprised. Jaxson enjoyed his new (bigger) knot blanket... this time Curious George.Hayden loved his huge Pikachu and his new desk for his room.
And our yearly christmas morning picture.
Christmas Day at John and Amanda's house. I think Jaxson was keeping an eye out for the big guy, thinking he was coming back again. LOL
Tim playing "santa." I think he just looks cute in the Santa hat :D
The family picture 2009. Now John and Amanda have the space for a more tradtional family photo. This one is a keeper.It was a very nice holiday all around. We all went without a bit and scaled back but I think nothing was really missed.

our snowman

Hayden and Jax proudly standing in front of our mini snowman that we made on one of the first snowy days. He's small but mighty.Jax must of had something against our little friend...
"I don't like you Snowy! Take that!"
"Uh oh. . . "
"well maybe Mom might notice you're missing your head," he says thinking to himself.
"Maybe if I just ... put .. it here."
"... no one will notice."

Our Christmas Elf

waiting for Santa to come soon.

Sugar and Spice and a whole lot of mess!

We had our annual cookie baking day with the kids but this year we let Jax help. Can you say, What a mess!! But it was a lot of fun and yummy to boot!
We knew Jax knew how to pinch so we put sprinkles / sugar in a small bowl and let him at it. Well that just wasn't fast enough so most of the time he ended up just dumping the decorations onto the cookies. Then when he got bored with that he just ended up eating what was in the bowl :D Hayden tried over and over to show him what to do but he wanted to do it HIS way.
Here are the boys and their cookies.
Some of the many treats made this year. Believe it or not this is no where near what I usually make but times of crisis call for cut backs. :)

A dream come true...

I have always and I mean always wanted to see Garth Brooks in concert so when my good friend mentioned that she was going to try for tickets in VEGAS I told her I was in! What I didn't factor was Tim getting laid off but he told me to go ahead and go anyway. What an amazing and wonderful husband I have!
Here are Tammy and I on our site seeing portion of our weekend. Couldn't leave without a pic of the sign, especially since we had our own car to get there. :)
Me and Tammy all dolled up for our cowboy and waiting for the concert to start.
My only photo and of course it was taken illegally, under my armpit, and while blocking the screen from the usher that was starting to walk my way. :)
The other sign outside the Wynn Resort.
I can't even being to describe this trip. The concert was amazing, wonderful, dream fulfilling, entertaining, and magical all in one. It was Garth on a stage with his guitar. no fancy stage or lighting or even costume. He was so appreciative that we all would want to see him after such a long retirement that it was humble. He actually broke into tears when he finally got around to playing his music. He was just so happy to be back he even told the audience at one point, "I missed you all so much!"
I will never forget that concert or that weekend. Tammy and I ended up not causing trouble like we had planned because I got ill at the last minute so.... we'll just have to go back next year and do it again :D

I'm getting closer to catching up...

I'm working as fast as I can whenever I get a free minute to work on it... keep posted :D

Hayden only waited 5 years...

to light the tree!!

He almost missed it to because we were inside with Santa when they called the numbers. Luckily enough my Dad was outside listening and came running inside to get Hayden. He was all flustered and excited he never even let go of his cookie :) This picture showed up in the Village Newsletter too. He's so excited to be famous.
Here he is lighting the tree with the other winner.Hayden in front of the HUGE tree. He was so stinkin excited! Our little portrait. It was more than cold outside but we beared it because its always a good time.
Mom and Dad getting in on the picture action.
This picture was take mere seconds before my Dad came running in to tell Hayden that he won. Santa was even cheering for him. BTW this is the best Santa ever!!! The Luminera. They line the parkways down the major roads with these. It's beautiful to see and one year when it's not sub-zero I'm going to get a picture of it. So many people help out and set these up. It's an awesome tradition and a beautiful one at that!

Being Festive

We still decided to set-up both trees this year, even with trying to cut back. I won't go without our 'family' tree and Hayden wouldn't allow us NOT to set-up the Star Wars tree. Hayden was very helpful this year. We didn't have to 're-decorate' the ones he hung. Took him 7 years but he's learned the concept of spacing.This was also the year I gave my Sesame Street ornaments to Jaxson. These were given to me when I was a baby/toddler by my Uncle. They were made in 1971 and it is rare to have the entire set still intact. I sometimes wonder what they are worth but now they are not mine to wonder over. Jax's love of Sesame Street and Elmo earned him the right to own these.
He was very fond fond of them and didn't think anything of ripping them off the tree and playing with them at his table :) I on the other hand had a heart attack each time he handed me one!
Boys ganged up on Daddy while he was trying to hang the kid-cat safe ornaments on the bottom :)
My favorite past time as a kid was staring up into the decorated tree and looking at the lights and all the ornaments hanging down. Jax and Hayden I guess get it from me.

Our finished tree, at least the first one. Maybe next year it will be safe enough to bring back into the room and out of the corner.

Annual Trip

Our yearly trip downtown was really nice this year. We saw Santa, ate at the Walnut Room, and strolled around the German Market before Jax let us know it was time to head home. Here are a few pictures from our day.




Hayden got all "Pirate-ed up" by the balloon man in the Market. It was funny trying to get the sword belt off him. It was so tight we had to take his coat off and then slide it up over his head. :) Jax was asleep but did get an elephant on a leash.

A day of blessings

I think it is appropriate that I start blogging again with this post, a Thanksgiving picture from this year. On a day when you are to be thankful of all things dear, there was still something missing for Tim and I. Knowledge that our little family could lose our home unless he found a job. Now we were not in crisis, oh my god we're moving in with our parents as of yet, but it was looming over our heads since the job markets were not being kind to either one of us. The possibility that we could lose everything that we, especially Tim, have worked so hard for, just because someone in a boardroom 3 months ago made a decision that would affect and change our lives without ever knowing us. Most of you will say that us business but damn business! I guess that is why I love where I work because we are very family orientated and my co-workers will bend over backward to help you out. But back to my point.
On a day we were thankful that our children are healthy, happy and well adjusted kids. (most of the time) That some of our family members were there to celebrate the day with us and were in good spirits, and that I did not ruin the turkey after a very rushed call to 1-800-BUTTERBALL :)

I can now say our prayers have been answered and that Tim will begin a new job on Monday. It came at a wonderful time when things were starting to look not so great and the job market was still being unkind. God, angels, Grandma & Grandpa, or Dad K kicked someone in the tush and told them what an amazing person Tim is and what a hard worker and they called right before Christmas to offer him a position. Praise be! Prayers do get answered in a way, if you ask enough and hard enough.
Through the past few months we have seen how we can live on a budget and can survive without and looking now it wasn't so bad. Maybe just maybe this was someones idea of a wake-up call. Thank you, we are eyes open now but please give us warning if you need to repeat this experience.
So I can say I am thankful for my husband, my children, my family, and the life we worked for.

Need of revision..

Now I know I've been slacking because I just realized that I double posted about Hayden's birthday. YIKES!
Now I know I have to get better. I have a whole group of photos to add and now with my new Studio set-up there will be tons more once the Christmas tree is gone and I have room to play :)
Thanks Mom and Dad :) You want your anniversary picture taken now?

again

I'm doing it again... not posting. Well at least on here anyway. I have a zillion and one pictures from the holidays so far and have not edited a darn one. I also have a running list of all the posts I need to make sitting here on the desk. But again my screen time in limited or what time I do have to spent job searching for me as well now. No, I have not been laid off but I need to find employment to supplement the income we are not getting anymore, hence a second job. It's a lot harder out there than it looks.
So I have posts to make and things to say and pictures of my monkeys to show but with the holiday it's just not going to happen right now :)

I hope some of you are out there still reading and patiently waiting. We're all here and well as can be.
Till next time...