It's Christmas Time!

I LOVE this time of year.  I love the decorations and the music, the old tv specials (Rudolph, Charlie Brown), getting presents for my family, and making fun memories with the boys with our traditions.  I love, love, love the excitement in my boys as we get closer to Christmas. 

Well, this weekend we started the traditions with the annual tree hunt.  We set out just after lunch into the COLD weather.  The farm we went to has their trees ultra organized into sections and each section is labelled so we drove to the Noble area, parked and ventured out into the cold.  Now, we usually spend a fair amount of time looking around sure that a better tree must be over there or maybe over there.  Dean and I usually disagree a bit about the kind of tree we want so we keep looking for a compromise.  Well, this year we got out of the car, saw one tree that looked good but decided there might be a better one over there (here we go again huh?) and the spotted a tree that we both really liked so we cut her down.  It was an all time record for us!  10 MINUTES!

After the chilly tree hunt we stopped by Starbucks to warm up a bit and still made it home a little over an hour after we left!  Later that night we hung all the decorations on it and now our house feels really Christmasy. 

I hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season and can all celebrate the birth of Christ!

November Flew Past...

I can't believe how quickly November goes!  Of course we were SO busy that we barely noticed it.  Every year since 1998 and then 2000 we have had two birthdays to celebrate. This year we toned it down a bit and both Jake and Austin got to invite three friends over for a sleep over on their party night. 

Jacob got to have his on his actual birthday since Veterans Day is the next day and there is no school.  He and his friends had a great time having Nerf gun wars and then settled in to watch a movie and finally fell asleep around 11:30pm.

Austin had to wait a couple of days after his actual birthday since it landed on the day before Thanksgiving.  So that Saturday two of his buddies came over (the third wasn't feeling well) and got to spend some time with the family we still had at our house.  They played video games, had some cupcakes and ice cream, and watched a movie until late and then went to sleep.  Overall, they were both very successful!

The other thing that kept us on our toes was the two extra kiddos we had for a week.  On Wednesday the 18th we got a call about a brother and sister that were coming into care.  We called back and said that we would take them but then the case manager decided that they would do better with a full time stay at home mom.  After I hung up, Dean and I joked that they would probably call us back at 5 or 6 to say that they couldn't find a full time SAHM.  And guess what?  Our phone rang at 5:05!  BUT they were calling about a different brother and sister and we told them to bring them on over!  They were younger than the first set (5 and 20 months) and VERY cute but dirty.  Their case worker figured that they would be placed with family soon so we figured that once again we would only have them for a week.

Well, as the week went on, we were feeling a bit overwhelmed having gone from three to five so quickly but kept reminding ourselves that it was just for a little while.  The following Tuesday the case worker said that it looked like it might be awhile longer since at their staff meeting no one could agree on an appropriate relative.  But as roller coasters usually do, we were taken by surprise when on Wednesday, the case worker said that the judge ordered them to be place with a relative that day.  She came and got them an hour later.  Such is the whirlwind of foster parenting.  They were cuties and sweet but through this experience we learned that for now at least, we should just stick to one kiddo at a time.  So once again, we are waiting...