Dear Santa,

Please bring me a Cleaning Elf to clean my room.

Love,
Annaliesse


Yes...this is actually what she asked for from Santa :)

Catching Up!

Let me begin by saying that technically I am cheating...it is Thursday, November 17 as I write this but shhhhhhh....I am going to schedule this post for Saturday, November 19.  Why? Because November 19 is my darling husband's birthday! He is slowly catching up to me. Oh I know he'll never completely catch up- or if he does, I won't know it ;)- but in my mind he is gaining on me. Let's just leave it at that.

We just recently celebrated 16 amazing years together and I can honestly say...ignore the cheesy in it...that I love him more now that I did then.  Cliche?  Yes.  True? A thousand times yes!  He is my very best friend.  He makes me laugh...even when I am trying hard not to.  He listens.  He encourages.  He loves me.
He is the best daddy in the world!  Really!  He's a much better daddy than I am a mother.  It may have something to do with not being with them 24/7 but then again, it probably doesn't.  He LOVES for us to all be together. ALWAYS!  He never gets tired of it. He doesn't ever need a break from us.  He works very hard to provide for us...for me to be able to stay home...sometimes he works too hard.  He can't stand to miss out on anything in our children's lives.  He will take a few hours off from work to be at a school event- even if it means he has to stay a little later to make the time up.  He makes memories with his children...the kind that money can't buy.  I could go on and on about him but I think I'll just stop and say...

Happy Birthday Trent!! We Love you!

Halloween update

I know, I can't believe it either!  I am posting my Halloween pictures 2 weeks after the event rather than two MONTHS later! Unfortunately, I had to endure my computer screaming at me during the entire photo upload, reminding me that I am low on disk space and need to delete old and unused files.  Oh well, they are on my computer now.

As I mentioned before, we sort of scrounged things up last minute...I am especially thankful to my SIL, Nickie, for letting me borrow not one, but two of the costumes worn by my lovelies...the Belle princess costume and the Auburn (I know, I can't believe I'm letting her wear it either) cheerleading outfit.  I made Grace's Thing 2 costume and Mason pulled out some hunting clothes.  Voila...Halloween 2011!

We were invited to the Malones for Halloween.  The food was great!  The kids loved the hayride and really just getting to be together.  Watching them race from house to house all packed together reminded me of my days of Trick or Treating with all my friends in my neighborhood.   

Poor Annaliesse...after hitting about half a dozen houses she was getting tired.  I reminded her that she probably didn't have much candy yet so she looked in her bag ready to argue with me and with great surprise said, "You know, you are right!"  I peered in and saw that she had even less than I expected...I looked behind us and saw a trail of candy.  She had dragged her bag along the ground and put a big hole in it.  She was losing as much candy as she was getting... 

Once again Aunt NickNick came to the rescue and gave her another bag.  By this time everyone else was waaaaayyy ahead of us and she had a lot of ground to cover to make up for her loss.  The hayride had continued on to keep up with the others so she was forced to walk the whole way...I know, terrible isn't it, having to actually w-a-l-k!

About halfway back to Jeff and Kara's she informed me that "candy is very unhealthy for you" and "why do we do this anyway?" !! :)  Fortunately, for her, she has three older siblings who were happy to share their candy with her!

 Grace and Carley wanted to go as Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Grace chose Thing 2... unfortunately they didn't actually Trick or Treat together so she did kind of look funny without her Thing 1 with her :)

 Mason has plenty of experience being a hunter!

 Thank you Nickie!! Roo looks beautiful in her Princess Belle costume! For her though, the best part was the make-up!!

 Yeah, I don't really know where the whole "War Eagle" thing came from...I guess she is just showing her rebellion early in life.  I'm hoping she'll get it all out of her system now!  Bailey, maybe you can talk some sense into her!

Thing 2 is finally united with Thing 1!!

I have my suspicions that this may be where the Auburn influence is coming from!!

The whole group!!

Carley, Grace, and Hannah

Besties Annaliesse and Allie!

Couldn't you just eat her?!? She is looking adorable as Strawberry Shortcake!

"I'm ready to go...Mom, you wanna rethink this paper bag?"

Annaliesse, Macy, and Katie-Claire stayed warm on the hayride!

Hannah, Peyton, Grace, and Madeline

Ellie joined the hayride as a beautiful bride!

Thank goodness that's over!! for another year at least.

November 3, 1995

Well everybody, yesterday was my 16th wedding anniversary and it NEVER occurred to me to let my blogger friends in on my happy day. I don't really think my wonderful husband reads this much...why read it when you live it, right?!...but I will wish him a public Happy Anniversary! 

It has been a truly wonderful 16 years!  We even have four mostly precious children to show for our time together :)  Thank you Trent for filling my life with happiness...and chaos!