Have we forgotten about Thanksgiving?

I'm completely in the Christmas mood. Of course we're celebrating Thanksgiving and all (it's also Joshua's birthday) but I've taken all my fall decor down and the Christmas tree is up and garland is wrapped around the staircase. Our neighbors have almost all decorated their yards. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This year, Dusty and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm sure the excitement will wear off after this first year though. We have enough house to accommodate everyone, so it's only logical to have it here. We're having a combo celebration though. It's Thanksgiving BUT more importantly, it's my baby boy's 7th birthday!! My Mom also celebrates her birthday the same day, but I'll leave her age off of here ..hehe.

I'll probably put up a little Spiderman decoration for Joshua. I'm making him a chocolate cake and he has also requested an apple pie (I'm leaving that one to my mom) We're all really excited about Tuesday of this week though. We are going to Splash Village! (an indoor water park) The girls haven't really been there before.. well, they were in my belly a couple years ago but I'm sure they won't remember LOL. I know they will LOVE it. This year we are also taking my 14 year old sister. She's excited to get out of school that day =)

Then just 2.5 weeks after Thanksgiving, we celebrate the girl's birthday. They will be 2. Oh boy.. do they ever act it too. Geez. If it's not one thing it's another with those princesses. Addison is definitely giving us a run for our money. We'll probably have a small party. Grandparents, aunts and uncles. Possibly my best friend and her family. I'm excited about that too! We're all done shopping and it's been fun sending out everyone's birthday wish lists. The kids sure do get spoiled this time of year with their birthdays being so close to Christmas and all.

Speaking of my best friend. Her husband lost his job this past week. It's a really crappy situation that lead up to this whole thing. I hate when people lose their job at no fault of their own. I mean, it's one thing when you suck at your job or just half ass things to barely scrape by but when you bust your butt and then in the end get crapped on, that sucks. His job loss also led to my job loss. I babysat their youngest baby a few days a week. It was so sad on Friday after hearing the news. My bff and I just cried as I packed up all the baby's things and sent them on their way. I swear I felt like I would never see the baby again. I know it's silly but I've taken care of her since she was 3 months old and she's almost 13 months now. I know her daddy will find another job but the economy is so bad, it may take awhile. I feel for them and of course I'm selfish and feel bad for myself. Don't forget me Chloe! Cynthia loves you!! =)

Hello? Anyone out there (there.. there……there…..)

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged last huh? This is probably just going to be a completely unrelated gathering of ramblings.

• Joshua turns 7 at the end of this month. We are going to Splash Village again this year but we are taking the girls this time. They will almost be 2 years old and I know they’ll really enjoy it. We actually pull Joshua from school that day. It always lands on the short work/school week of Thanksgiving, so he doesn’t miss much of anything. Plus it makes it a bit more special too.

• Joshua is THIS close to losing another tooth. There is a very good chance that he will be able to sing the song “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” He has only lost 2 so far (bottom) but both top front teeth are loose and one is barely hanging on to dear life.

• Addison and Samantha are growing like weeds. Both are talking a lot more. They don’t make full sentences yet but are putting 2 and 3 words together. They definitely get their point across no matter what though =P Addison’s most recent saying is “Ble(sh) you” when you sneeze. It’s super cute. Samantha, on the other hand, is saying a lot of “Shut… UP” to just about anyone and everyone making loud noises. So that’s lovely.

• We’ve all completely avoided any illness thus far. We feel pretty good especially since it seems that the entire world is dropping like flies (especially if you get caught up in the media aspect). We’ve only had 4 confirmed cases of H1N1 in our school district. Which oddly enough made the news. Our district never shut down and our attendance is at 95% (according to our superintendent) No one I know IRL and have daily, weekly, or monthly contact with, has been sick either.

• I’m still babysitting about 3-4 days a week. It’s hard to believe I’ve been watching little Miss Chloe for 10 months now. She just turned a year old last week. She had a Halloween birthday party. The kids had a lot of fun painting pumpkins, doing a monster egg hunt and enjoying monster cupcakes. Chloe pretty much feels like another family member. She plays with the girls well and they can “fight” like siblings too. It’s really worked out well all around. I get to earn some extra money while being home with the girls anyway. Plus my friend and her husband have someone that can watch the baby last minute. This works out well because my friend is a Nurse and is often asked to come in on her days off, come in early for her shift, work overtime …etc.

• Halloween was a blast. It was cold and windy but at least the rain had stopped in time. My mom, sister and I took the kids around to about 10 houses and then I brought the girls back home and Dusty took my sister (13yo) and Joshua throughout the entire neighborhood. We ended up with about 150 trick or treaters here. I was fully prepared..well almost. We had to turn our porch light off about 10 mins early because we ran out of candy. It was just great being outside and seeing all the kids out and about. It was really active. It just made me love our neighborhood even more than I already do. This move has been such a blessing to us.

• For those that follow me on Facebook, you may have noticed a status update that I posted

"its so frustrating when someone treats your loved one so terribly and you pretty much have to keep your lips sealed on how you really feel about this particular person because it's their family member. It's kind of like "hey, I can call my brother/sister/mom/dad/cousin stupid but you can't" UGH!! Then they'll forgive them and you are still stewing over the mess??"

I am STILL stewing over the whole mess but can’t go into it. It just makes me mad when someone (especially a closely related family member) treats someone like dirt. I can tell you with 100% honesty that I will never get over it. But I don’t have to, this person isn’t my “problem” except for how it affects the person I love. I feel bad for my loved one that didn’t, doesn’t and probably will never experience the type of relationship that they should have or deserved to experience. It will always be tainted.

Now I will leave you with some recent pictures.

and finally.. Chloe