Monday, December 19, 2016

Random Catching Up!

I haven't blogged in almost a month, but for good reason. First we've just been super busy and second we've had some serious computer issues going on at our house. Michael ordered a new one...Merry Christmas to him...and it was so messed up he ended up having to send it back to the company and they are troubleshooting it. Thank you Windows 10!!! He still hasn't gotten it back and probably won't until after the new year. Ugh!!! There was about a week where we didn't have a computer at all and then there was a couple more weeks of trying to get Michael's old computer set up and all my pictures transferred over. This was after we tried to set up my Dad's old computer to be my computer, but for some reason it would not install Adobe and you kind of need that when you are trying to upload pictures to Shutterfly! We've also had some internet connection issues so we had Comcast come out and they replaced some bad fittings, but I still feel like our connection isn't all that great! Oh and my phone was just a piece of junk and I finally went to the store and got a new one...Merry Christmas to me! Anyways a bunch of my photos weren't backing up and so when I'd go to blog they wouldn't be in my Google photos so that was annoying. All that to say...I'm back and here is a quick recap of our last month! 


We finished off our thankful leaves with a full window of things to be thankful for. We didn't do them every day, but we did a lot as you can see. I still have leaves left over so I'm going to pack them away with the fall decorations so we can do this again next year! 



One morning while waiting for the bus it was snowing. I had to get a picture of the very first snowfall of the season! 



Even though it's blurry I think it's a fun shot of Ella, Kendra and Lily getting in line for the bus! 



Rachael and Reagan getting snowed on!



I decided that our family should do 12 Days of Christmas activities so I planned out the activities to post on the frig! 



Me and my sweet Zeke enjoying lunch together!



Being silly with my boy! 

  

We always have the kids draw names and buy gifts for one another. To get ideas for what they would like I take them to Wal-Mart where I take pictures with things they like. The gifts can't be more than $20. I always pay half and I feel like spending $10 on your sibling is plenty at this age. 



Some kids have an easier time than other picking out what they like. We were there for almost an hour. I did walk out of the store without buying anything and none of the kids were crying so that's a win in my book. Later on I took the kids out in groups so they could actually buy the gifts. Ella and Zeke went together since they weren't buy for each other and then another day I took out Owen and Jack. 



While we were at Wal-Mart Ella saw the Princess Carriage and wanted me to take a picture of it and text it to Pa. I told her that he had already bought her her Power Wheels, but I did text it to him to appease her! 



Early in December I attended my MOPS Leadership Christmas Party. We always do a white elephant gift and this was what I came home with. 



My kids have loved playing bowling with all the different balls or marbles we have laying around the house. 



One of the days Owen desperately wanted me to help him build a Christmas LEGO scene. I built the trees with lights and he built everything else. The red section next to the tree is the fire pit. 



The giant presents were what the kids made at the free monthly LEGO build at the mall. I love how Owen made a bench for the guy to sit and enjoy his hot chocolate on. He also made sure to have 3 garbage cans, one for garbage, one for recycle and one for yard waste! 



Since we hosted Thanksgiving I went ahead and bought Reddi Whip for the pumpkin pie. That has been the best thing ever for the kids. They LOVE to have Reddi Whip with their hot cocoa! 



Look at all this Reddi Whip mom!!! 



Jackson has gotten wise and now wants to use one of my bigger Starbucks cups! 



Sweet drink for a sweet girl! 



Practicing taking pictures of mom! 



I've revised my meal planning a couple months back and we've been adding new things to the menu. Kim had made soup with bread bowls one day when Zeke and I were at her house and I thought that would be fun to do at home. Surprisingly the kids have been open to trying new things. Some things they like and some they don't, but it has been getting easier and easier to get them to actually try things so that's good! 



We've also went back to being really restrictive with electronics at our house. It helped since the computers were down! The other big catalyst was the fact that in the span of 3 days Zeke used over $60 worth of my $150 Amazon gift card to buy games on the Kindle. Talk about freaking out! I ended up calling Amazon and they were amazing! They removed all the charges and credited back my gift card...thank you for saving Christmas! I have changed the settings on the Kindles so he can't do that again, but the Kindles have still been in time out. Since we've been more restrictive the kids have been so much better with playing. I'll also find them all piled on the couch listening to Owen read a book every now and then. I absolutely love this!!! 



My MOPS group had our Christmas brunch on the 13th and Zeke's class came down from their room to sing a few songs for us. As you can see Zeke is the only boy. Instead of getting to hear him sing all the ladies got the joy of seeing him put his finger in his mouth because he's super shy and then after that he picked his nose. Thankfully he never put his finger back in his mouth after picking his nose so there is a bright side! 

So there's a quick catch up of a few of things that we've been busy doing over the last few weeks! 

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