It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas!

Welcome Pilgrims to Thanksgiving!

The girls (Kylee and Kellie) made this sign welcoming everybody to Kyle and Myra's house on Thanksgiving day.

We woke up Thanksgiving morning, VERY early morning, to two sick kiddos. McKenzie has the chicken "pops", and Blaine was coughing and had a really runny nose. He does NOT, however, have a cleft pallet. He just wiped his nose so much, his upper lip literally bled! He was so sad that he didn't go hunting, so sad. He told me, I'm not going to ask you anymore. I'm just going to ask Pops. He'll let me go! So I told him, Me and Pops will fight! You are NOT going. He said, But I don't want you to fight (sobbing).
When my dad showed up, he walked right up to him, hugged his leg, and said, I'm sick. I can't go hunting. Then he walked by me, gave me a look reserved for those he despises and said, I told him I can't go. You don't have to fight.
I'm not the meanest mother in the world. I really did feel sorry for him. I felt sorry for me, too! I was SUPPOSED to go to Ruidoso with just the girls, which also got ruined! I DID let him have a little fun. Okay, okay. He didn't actually get to GO on this ride, but he did get to get ON the ranger!

There was lots of eating


playing games

a little fishing>


and LOTS of snuggling!





Pardon the pajamas and lack of makeup. We had TWO sick kids in the house, remember, and the worst part is ALWAYS in the middle of the night!

There were also grands and greats,



cousins,



turkeys of all kinds,

new things to look forward to next Thanksgiving,

and don't forget the Annual "Rubbing of the Feet" (Kellie's words)





You don't even have to read this post, only look at the pictures to see how blessed our Thanksgiving was, despite sicknesses and ruined trips, and how much we have to be thankful for!

Bibles and Besties

Blaine has a new obsession, one I'm not complaining about at all. Remember in my previous post I told you about hhim SLEEPING with his Bible? Ever since he's been reading it CONSTANTLY. He even asked if he could go in the cafeteria before school and read it instead of playing with his friends. Every spare moment, this is how I find him.

Sunday after church we had a nice surprise. Michael, Courtney, and Staci called and wanted to have lunch. Kylee was so excited. She had missed Staci so much.

Staci felt the same way because Michael told us while they were waiting for us to get to the restaurant, Staci could not sit still and squealed when we walked in the door.
After lunch we all went bowling. When it was over, Michael had to get the girls back to his house to do some stuff before they went home to their mom. Kylee asked if Staci could come home with us, and I told her I didn't care if her daddy didn't. Michael said maybe next time because they had to get some stuff done. Both girls were devastated. I promised them we would get together again soon and not wait so long. I said maybe after Thanksgiving they could have a sleepover. When we got to the house, Kylee went straight to the bathroom. I went in a few minutes later to check on her, and she was just in there crying. Bless her heart. She missed one of her besties!

Ecstatic!

Blaine had his first field trip today to Americas High School to the cosmetology department. (Don't ask why. I have NO idea.) Anyway, they sent a note home last week asking if they could get their hair cut there. I talked to Blaine about it, and he was adament that he did NOT want his hair cut there, only at the barber shop with Tina. When Mom Mom picked him up from school after the field trip, he told her they went on vacation. Then when I got to him, he was mad because "I" didn't let him get his hair cut. ugh!

I think he is having a growth spurt. He's always tired, sleeps late, falls asleep in the car on the way home from school, eating A LOT, etc. When he gets tired, EVERYTHING makes the child who usually rolls with the flow cry. He turns into the drama KING of the house. He'll say nobody loves him. He'll say whatever we did or said makes it "worser". He just becomes very sensitive. Last night after AWANA I asked him if he got to go to the treasure chest (which has candy and prizes, and they get to go if they say three verses or more). He said, "Yeah. Want me to show you what I got?" Of course, I did, but before he could get it, Kylee said, "It's stickers." He, of course, started crying and said, "Diddy, now you just made my life ruined!"

Then! after we were finished praying on Blaine's bed, Blaine wanted to read his Bible some more. I told him no, that it as time for bed. He cried and cried. Finally, I just gave him the Bible. He hugged it like a stuffed animal and was satisfied. He even slept with it like it was Cowboy.

As I went to get up, I stuck my feet in Joey's face, just being silly. He made a big production of it, and Kylee said, "You do gross stuff all the time!" He said, "I have NEVER stuck my feet in your face. I have only farted." I said, "Oh, yeah! Which is worse?" And Kylee said, "Your farts are WAY worse." Joey gave her an ugly (but totally just playing) look, and the drama QUEEN said, "Oh yeah, I just went there!" while wagging her head and finger. Joey grabbed her finger, still totally playing, and was twisting it. Blaine started bawling and screaming, "DON'T fight in my room. It makes my heart break!" Bless his heart. We assured him we were just playing and loved his neck.

This morning, Kylee told me she needed to spray her bangs with water becuase she didn't want them "ecstatic".

You shall have no other Gods before Me

Kylee's reading homework tonight was myth about The San people who live in the Kalahari Desert. The myth is about "Kaang", who supposedly created all life. She was NOT happy about this...at ALL! There is only ONE God, and Kaang is NOT it! She evidentally wanted her teacher and whoever else happened to see this homework assignment, to know it, too!

After she went to bed, I was reading her text message, (as I do from time to time because I AM the Mom, and I need to know what's going on, especially in this crazy world of technology) and my first born is growing up! Our friend Katy had a diabetic crash of sorts yesterday. She was almost admitted to the hospital. I told Kylee to say a little prayer for her last night. She was REALLY worried about her. As I was reading her text messages today, I found a conversation the two of them had. It went like this:
Kylee: How are you?
Katy: I'm better. I almost had to go to the hospital but I didn't.
Kylee: Good! You gave me a heart attack.
:-)

Blaine is also growing up! He is learning so much so fast. Tonight I kept telling him to get in the bathtub. He finally said, "Mommy, you are like the Earth. You go around and around and around." ha! Then later he said, "I think I'm so tired because we have to 'fall back' in time." (Daylight Savings) I said, "You're so smart. We already did that, though." He said, "How do you know? Did Mrs. Murphy tell you too?" I wanted to say, There is only ONE God, Blaine, and it's NOT Mrs. Murphy. But I just hugged his neck and laughed.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did NOT feel so bad one day last week that I totally blew off picking up the kids, making dinner, seeing if homework was done, or any other "Mommy" duties. I did NOT feel this bad because somehow I SWITCHED my fibromyalgia meds so that I was taking the WRONG ONE!!

I did NOT not only allow my child to be a tattletale, but encouraged it, at a birthday party where another child stole MY child's crappy little toy! I DID NOT try to take said toy from the other child, only to have him pull away from me. So I did not wait until my son came back and cried for his toy to tell him to go tell the other child's dad. That dad did not make his child give my child the crappy little Peter Piper toy back, only to make THAT child cry instead of mine. And it was NOT me who totally did not feel bad about any of it!

I did NOT tell my perfectionist kiddo that I thought all this testing the state was doing was stupid and as long as she did her best, I was not mad if she failed. I then did not tell said child not to tell MY mother what I had said. (Sorry, Mom)

I did NOT let my son, who is all of a sudden scared our house is going to burn down (thanks, kindergarten, for teaching him about escape plans and fire alarms), come and get in bed with me after his Daddy had taken him BACK to bed twice, just because I wanted to smell his sweet head and feel his soft skin.

NOPE, NOT ME! I would never even consider the aforementioned scenarios!

A Weekend of Firsts

We had a weekend of first around here.

Kylee made the district science fair for the first time. She didn't place, but I am so proud of her. I NEVER thought she would be able to present something like that in front of strangers, but she did! She wasn't even nervous. You've come a long way, baby!

She chose to wear that outfit because she said the skirt made her look smart.

After that, as you can see from the previous post, she had a sleep over with her dance company at the studio. They planned a dance workshop and a talent show, and of course, to stay up all night. I sent her a text at 10:00 and asked if she was having fun. I got a reply at 2:30 AM! I figured at that point she was probably going to sleep. ha! When I picked her up at 8:00 this morning, I was told they were up until 5:30. We WERE going to go to church, and she LOVES going to church. I told her we'd go to church and then she could take a nap. She told me, "I just can't do it, Mom." So we just came home. She told me she wanted some pancakes before her nap. She never made it. When I took her her pancakes, she was OUT!

Joey carried her to her room. It's 11:30 now, and we've heard not a peep from her. I have no idea how wonderful it was or who won the talent show yet. I'll update that when she recovers from her first all-nighter.

Blaine had his first birthday party invitation from a classmate in kindergarten. He's such a stud. The minute he got there, the girls were swarming him, fighting over him, chasing him. The birthday boy, Derrek,

was so happy he was there. Blaine was the only boy (from their class) to go. He gave him the Optimus Prime off his cake AND some of his toys he got with tickets. What a sweet kid!
These are the kids in Mrs. Murphy's class that were at the party.

Yup, he's a shorty like his Mama!

Thank you, God, for letting me be a Mommy and enjoy the first of my children's lives.

Video Instruction Poll

Option 1

Option 2

It's a Zoo Circus in here!

We took the kids to the circus last night. They were so so excited to ride the elephant. When we got there and got up to where you get ON the elephant, Blaine was not having any of that!!! Kylee is our chicken child, if you will, and she is sitting on the elephant YELLING at Blaine to come on. Blaine is standing at the bottom of the stairs, BAWLING, and NOT getting on the elephant! We finally coaxed him on, and he LOVED it!
Now he's begging to go back to the circus again just so he can ride the elephant!

The whole reason we go to the circus is for the kids to see things they haven't

and eat cotton candy, of course!

This makes me wonder, though, why people think RODEO is animal cruelty!

I was quite impressed with this circus. There were a lot of talented acrobats! The guy waiting to catch this girl also sold us our cotton candy!

There were also clowns!

And a grand finale!

The kids are sssoo ready to go back next year!

Now I'm off because Blaine wants Subway so he can have a footlong sandwich...but only half of it, he said!