It's been a great year . . .

. . . and it's hard to believe it's over.

2008 brought lots of smiles and laughter, along with a few tears along the way. I'll always look back at this year as the year we built many friendships, completed our family with the addition of la princesa, and watched our little guy grow up more than I ever imagined possible in one year. I can hardly remember this time last year, but yet so vividly remember praying more than I've ever prayed before that our baby girl would come home to us sometime this year. God answered that prayer, and we're still in awe of the countless blessings we have received from that experience.

Tonight we're spending time with our little ones, safe and cozy at home. I wouldn't want it any other way! When the critters go to bed, we might actually get a jump start on my mission to get more exercise next year and finally open the WiiFit that hubby got us for Christmas. Or maybe we'll just go to bed. That would be alot less effort . . .

It's been a great year--I can't wait to see what's in store for 2009.

May your New Year be safe, happy, and joyful! Have fun every chance you get, and savor every moment with family and friends--see you next year!

Edited to add: If you haven't read the previous post about the critterboy's first prayer, well, you just don't want to miss it . . .

The critterboy's first prayer

Wow--what a moment. Our little guy finally gets what prayer is about. At dinner tonight he asked to say a prayer, but then changed his mind and asked daddy-o to do it instead. After the prayer we started eating, then he wanted to say one himself. He asked us to hold hands, then we bowed our heads and he said "Dear Lord, thank you for this day, in a one horse open sleigh, HAY! Haymen!" We're going to keep working on it, but I think that's a great start, don't you??!!

Here's what he's been doing ever since:

I just love this little man to pieces . . . .

Someone must have been very good this year . . .

Santa was very generous to our critterbeasts this year. I thought we got the last half of the toys from Toys R Us last year, but I was wrong! Having little ones makes Christmas morning so much fun. Here's how the festivities went:

On Christmas Eve, daddy-o and I both had to work until noon, so we took the critterbeasts (the kids!) to "school" as usual. After our long, hard workday, we picked up the beastlets and headed to my sister's house in Choctaw to join her, my BIL, and my parents for some Christmas Eve fun. She had made a wonderful meal for us and we had presents galore! By some miracle my kids didn't trash their pristine, kidless house, with white couches and real plants, and all the things we so gladly got rid of when kiddo numero uno came along. The wild man even played on the drum set and kept a pretty good beat for a 3 year old! When we had worn out our welcome, we headed home to prepare to help Santa finish assembling the 53 step instruction having but oh so awesome kitchen that the critterboy had been asking for for the last few months. I think it finally took a total of almost 6 hours to help Santa assemble. We also helped him put the finishing touches on the "fourwhewer" Jeep that he crammed down the chimney. Ahh the joy of "some assembly required"! We left cookies out for the big guy, popped the "overnight cinnamon rolls monkey bread whatchamacallits" in the pan and into the cold oven as instructed, and went to bed earlier than we had all week. Great start!

Princess Green Bean is #1!

Little Drummer Boy

Christmas morning was wonderful. Miss Priss Pants woke up super early, so I brought her to our bed to try to get her to sleep a bit longer. No go. Daddy-o took her to the living room at about 6:45am, I got up to brush my teeth, get my contacts in, and check on the rising quality of the frozen bread dough. Guess what? Either my bundt pan is smaller than most, or the rolls I used were much bigger than the ones in the recipe. The rolls runneth over. Sticky carmelly, cinnamony goo was dripping everywhere in the oven. I did what I had to do. I took the kitchen shears to the overhanging rolls and snipped them away, then stuck the pan back in the oven with a huge cookie sheet underneath, and prayed that they would bake without running over anymore. (They ran a bit, but not bad--and they were super yummy when we devoured them!)

About that time, the critterboy came down the hall dragging his blanket and rubbing his sleepy eyes. When his eyes focused on the pile of loot, he said "Did Santa bring me all these fings?" He went straight to the Jeep and jumped in. It took alot to get him out of it to check out the other things. La princesa really didn't seem to get what all the fuss was about. She just knew that there was a cookie with a bite missing, and it was HERS! The greatest part of the morning was just not being rushed to be anywhere right away. Between opening and de-boxing a gazillion toys, reading new books, looking at new clothes, eating gooey breakfast, etc., it took almost 3 hours to open everything. I so loved not being on a schedule--so relaxing and enjoyable for all! Here are some pics of the morning:

Little cookie monster girl

Yep, he drove THRU the swingset--such a boy!

Later in the afternoon, after naps even, we went to my aunt Charlene's house for an early dinner and more presents. We're going to have to build an addition to the house to keep all of this stuff. One of my very urgent projects is to go through all the toys in this house and decide what can be donated, sold, kept, passed on, etc. Anyway, we had a great afternoon of activity, and for the most part the kids weren't cranky and played really well. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and let the wild man blow out the candle on the gum drop cake I made. The cake was not a big hit at all--total bummer because it was a real pain to cut all those gumdrops into quarters then make the cake from scratch. Oh well. I love that the little guy is starting to understand the real meaning of Christmas. He can even tell you that Mary was Jesus' mommy, Joseph was his daddy (I have given up trying to explain to him that God is his father in Heaven and Joseph was his daddy on earth--too much for him to grasp!) and he was born in Bethlehem on some hay "because he didn't have no crib for a bed"! So cute! I totally blew it with my Weight Watchers points tracking this week though. I'm dreading the scale on Tuesday morning, but I enjoyed every bite of what I ate. And, I've lost just over 20 lbs, and while I don't ever want to have a gain on my "record", it's Christmas week for goodness sake, and it will be what it will be!

This was a very memorable Christmas for our family. Last year we just had our baby girl in pictures. We had her first Christmas ornament on the tree and kept a framed picture of her beside us as we opened gifts and took pictures so she will always know she was with us for her first Christmas, even when physically she was so far away. It still amazes me that God has entrusted us with these little blessings, and having them both here for Christmas and everyday forever is just awesome.

Work is really crazy for me right now--I have vowed to not discuss my job on my blog, and I won't start now, but please pray that I get through all of the craziness and find a way to not bring the stress of work home with me each day. It's so important to me that family time be family time, and I don't want anything to change that.

Also, my BFF Krista is on a mission trip to Belize this week. I'm so proud of her for going on this trip, and jealous that she's so close to Guatemala! I told her to be sure to wave to Guatemala for me. Sometimes I just ache to be back there--not sure what thats all about, but I'm sure someday I'll know. Anyway, keep Krista and her group in your prayers, too, for safe travels and a memorable trip doing such great work in Central America. It will surely change them forever. You can check out their trip journal HERE.

Take care, loyal readers! I'll be back soon . . .

A game called catch up . . .

Wow--this is the longest blogging funk I've ever been in. I apologize to all of my loyal fans (hee hee--no, I don't REALLY think that much of myself!) who have been waiting more than 3 weeks for an update on mi familia. Hang with me and I'll give you the rundown!

I really don't know where to start, so picture it: A cold Friday night in downtown Oklahoma City. My BFF Steph and I had decided that we would drag our munchkins and our hubbies out into the freezing cold tundra of our awesome downtown area called Bricktown. We have what's called "The Canal"--almost like the Riverwalk in San Antonio, but we didn't want to copy them, so the city officials came up with the boring name of "the canal"--and they (not sure who they are, but probably some city workers) transform the area along the canal into a winter wonderland (the critterboy's term for Christmas lights) of lights and give all the crazy nutjobs like us free water taxi rides to enjoy it. Here's how the schedule was supposed to go and how it actually went:

6:00pm - arrive and park in the far northwest corner of the Bass Pro Shops parking lot; begin to bundle up the munchkins who have no idea just how cold they're going to get; meet up with BFF and fam; exchange pleasantries, etc. etc. (this part actually went as planned)

6:05pm - depart said parking lot on foot toward Zio's, where our name is "on the list" for a table. Freeze all tushies off on the looooonnnngg walk to the restaurant. (this part also went as planned--we're off to a good start!)

6:15pm - arrive at Zio's. The kiddos are really hungry. Tell them we're there and that our table should be waiting. (But wait, the rude hostess actually said that being "on the list" doesn't mean you have a table, it just means that you get to wait the wait time they gave you on the phone, 30 minutes, instead of the current wait of 45 min. to one hour. Ummm, no. Not gonna happen with the cold screamin' mimi's--mine, not Steph's. Lo and behold they called our name almost after the clueless chick got me all riled up) Woo hoo! We're still on track! (But wait again, we drew the short straw and got stuck with the slowest of slow waiters. Ugghh!) What should have been an hour in the restaurant ended up being almost 2 hours. Oh well--it gave us lots of time to talk, and gave the other patrons of Zio's the opportunity to experience Miss Priss Pants' blood curdling screams, which she uses indiscriminately to express happiness, excitement, hunger, fear, sleepiness, you name it! It's only fair that others suffer hearing loss, too, right?!

My suggested timeline (yes and no, I'm that crazy--I'm really pretty flexible) got all messed up due to the lonnnnngggg meal ordeal, so we headed straight for the water taxi, again on foot in the freezing cold. Guess what--the elevator down to the water level was broken. We carried the sweet sissy priss's stroller down the steep stairs. As luck would have it, the water taxi makes a stop at Bass Pro Shops, so our crew decided to cut it short and get off while the gettin' was good. The kids loved seeing the lights. Sissy priss, who loved being held by her "aunt Steph", stared and said "ooooooooh" at all the lights. The other kids were old enough to know how cold it was and still had a good time! I'll call that a success . . .

We headed into Bass Pro so the kids could see Santa. It was a hoot, as you would imagine it would be. I even managed to completely, panickingly lose the critterboy for a few minutes. I hope that NEVER happens again! It really was a great night--hilarious and nuts just like most of our family outings. I realize every time I see BFF Steph how much I miss her. What a great family that I'm blessed to be friends with!

Then, later that weekend the critterboy and I made daddy-o a birthday cookie. It's hard to believe that he's the big 34 now--a far cry from the 19 that he was when we met! I think the cookie turned out great if I do say so myself! As if that weren't fun enough for one weekend, I also had the bright idea to make a gingerbread house with my little man and daddy-o. I didn't factor in how much waiting the little guy would have to do while we got the icing on. I also didn't factor in the fact that 3 year olds, even the bright ones like my little guy, don't understand why they can't eat all of the candy that is supposed to go on the house. I can't blame him, though, so when he got bored with it, we let him go play while we finished the house. It was fun, and while I'm a total perfectionist and wasn't super thrilled with my skills (or lack-there-of) over all, it turned out pretty nicely.

We've been so busy having fun, getting ready for Christmas, that there's so much more to share. La princesa is doing well--working on cutting several teeth and is Miss Crankypants quite a bit lately. She's walking so fast that she's almost running and has finally mastered the step down into our living room. She's amazing to watch--it's hard to believe that she's even the same girl that we brought home nearly 7 months ago.

The critterboy is mostly potty trained, too! Yay! We sent him to "school" last week in underwear (Batman and Lightning McQueen are the current faves) and lots of pairs of sweatpants. A few accidents the first couple of days, then viola! Virtually no accidents, and he's even waking up dry some mornings. He says "my tank was full!" every morning when he goes. I'm beyond proud of him. I always knew that he would do it when he was ready and I guess the time was finally right. I'm happy to not have to buy diapers for two kiddos, but I have to admit that I'm a little sad that this last little bit of babyhood is nearly gone. I can't help but wonder what's next for him--he's an amazing little critter, to be sure!

There'll be more soon. For now, though, here's some Matthewspeak to tide you over.

Crosty the Snowman--I love love love how he says crosty for frosty and crozen for frozen. I'll miss it when he starts to get them right.

Lazin hot--I always tell him to blow on his food because it's blazin' hot. He leaves off the b and says lazin!

And, he sings Jingle Bells. I need to get this on video--it's really that great! Instead of "oh what fun . . ." he says "oh much fun . . ." and he sings it with so much gusto! I don't know why, but it makes me fall over laughing and beam with pride at the same time.

Hopefully I'll have another update before Christmas. If not, I hope you and yours have a safe and wonderful Christmas!

Princesa home 6 months and some Matthewspeak

It's hard to believe that our sweet princesa has been home for 6 months, but alas, today's the day! We've stayed home all day today to put up the Christmas tree, watch movies, work on Christmas cards, and watch the Bedlam football game (OU/OSU--it oughtta be a great game--may the best team win--that would be the Cowboys, if you're wondering!). She has played all day, wrestling with her critterboy brother and walking as far as her little legs will carry her! Here's a picture from the day we got home with her, and one from today, playing with bubba.

There's a tooth! Finally! Can you see it?

Since so much has been said about Miss Priss Pants lately, it's time to give the wild man his share of blog time. We'll start with his 3 year picture, which was taken a few weeks ago, nearly 6 months after his actual birthday. I LOVE this picture of him, although I'm sad that he looks so grown up. I'm not sure who took my baby boy and replaced him with this amazing little man!

What a handsome kid, huh?

The next picture was taken the day before Thanksgiving when I was letting him help me mix up the pumpkin pie filling. If you know me well, you know that I always think I can do things better, faster, and easier if I do them myself. As a mom, though, I know I'd be depriving my kids of the joys of being a kid if I didn't let them "help" me, so I grit my teeth and watch the messes happen. You'd be happy to know that it is getting much easier for me to accept non-perfection. I didn't even move the ornaments that he put on the tree all in one cluster, and don't get me started on the fact that they don't match the color scheme of the tree, but I digress . . . Personally, I think the pumpkin pie tasted better because my little guy stirred it up! He also helped with the dressing by crumbling the cornbread for me. He's so fun to work with, and didn't even really make a mess this time. Maybe we've finally turned that corner . . .

As the critterboy continues to grow his vocabulary, which is HUGE by the way, he comes up with the most hilarious things to day. For instance, when he is racing someone, he says "I'm going to beat them up!" meaning he's going to beat them. Similarly, when he is behind someone and wants to catch up, he says "I'm going to catch them up!" Yesterday, after being put in the car for the 8,000th time while we were shopping, he complained that his car seat straps were too tight (also for the 8,000th time!). Daddy-o had already gotten behind the wheel when the whining began, so he got out, opened the back door, and, not very nicely said "Jesus!" (he doesn't ever say this in frustration, so I'm not sure where it came from . . .) The wild man looked puzzled and said "I'm not Jesus daddy. I'm not Mary and Jesus." We just about died laughing. Daddy-o knows not to say that anymore, too, since the critterboy is not, in fact, Jesus. He talks pretty much non-stop (not sure where he gets that from--I'm very quiet--hee hee!), and amazes me with his 3 and a half year old wisdom.

We took him to see Madagascar 2 a few weeks ago and left sissy priss with grandma and grandpa for the afternoon. He kept asking where sissy is, and was worried that we'd lost her somewhere. When we went to pick her up, he said "Sissy! I'm so glad to see you!" Such a sweet bubba! When he knows he's just about to go to time out, or knows that he's worn out our patience, he will look at us sweetly and say "Mommy (or daddy)? I like you. You're my best friend!" Lately he's even started saying "I love you mommy" without me saying it to him first. Yes, he's finally starting to grow up.

I love these kids with all my heart. Even on the teething, no nap, whining, nutso days we have more often than not, I just love them so much!

Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting Claudia and her "May 2005 baby" A yesterday afternoon. I "met" Claudia on a birth club message board in late 2005, and we've been reading each others blogs for quite awhile. Claudia's family lives not far from us, so she made the drive to visit while in town for Thanksgiving. We had a great visit, the kids played (not together, just in the same room!), and we all went to dinner. I love meeting blogger pals in person, and I'm so happy that she took time out from her visit with family to come see us. If you've never read her blog, you should bookmark it! Just click on her name above, or "Alabaster Mom" in my bloglist on the sidebar. Mark my words--she'll have her writing published someday! Claudia, you have a beautiful little girl--thanks again for allowing us the pleasure of finally meeting you! (I didn't ask if I could post the pics, but if she says it's okay, I'll add them later.)

Here are a few more pics to hold you over until next time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for this year. Here goes my "short list", since the full list would take days to share:

• My beautiful children. What an amazing blessing it is to have all of us under the same roof today. My wild man and princesa mean so much to me, and I can't imagine my life without either of them.
• My wonderful husband, who listens when I babble and ramble, comforts me when I'm sad, and loves me even though I can be a real pain in the tushie! He is my best friend, and I am so lucky to have him in my life. By the way, this is our 15th Thanksgiving together!
• God. My faith and patience have been tested beyond measure in the last year or so, and both have grown stronger. We are finally finding a church that we'll likely call home, and I can't wait to grow closer to Him and find more ways to serve Him as we continue on this path.
• My sweet princesa's birthmom. Without her I wouldn't have this amazing, strong willed, beautiful baby girl to call my daughter.
• Our jobs, even though there are always days that we'd both rather be at home. We are so blessed to have a job at all, and the fact that we are both able to provide for our family is priceless.
• Our wonderful friends, old and new. In the last year I have met so many people that have touched my life, and have renewed friendships with many who are far away. For the first time in many years, I can say that my cup runneth over with friends, and I couldn't be happier about that!

The list could go on and on. Right now we're all still in our jammies, but the turkey is in the oven and the house is already starting to fill with the smell of yummy things to come. In a few hours we'll be joined by a few other family members for a wonderful (I hope!) meal and fellowship. Like all our gatherings, it will probably be loud, with lots of people talking at the same time! Tonight we'll put up the Christmas tree and let the kids help. What a wonderful year it's been for our family. Blessings to all--Happy Thanksgiving!

Birthday bash pictures, as promised!

Here's the scoop on the big bash that celebrated la princesa's first birthday:As is tradition in our house, the guest of honor refused to nap. Pretty much everytime we have something planned, one or both kids refuses sleep. It was a rough start to the day, to say the least. I actually dreaded the party time of 4:00pm, since I could smell a disaster waiting to happen. But, here's one way my kids are different--my sweet birthday princess was all smiles and giggles once the guests started to arrive, 30 minutes early--yikes! I had actually just put on a bra for the first time all day about 15 minutes before people started ringing the doorbell, and I still didn't have makeup on, princesa dressed, etc.

Seriously, she was the best birthday girl EVER! She sat still to open the mountain of presents (um, yeah, too much stuff, but all very much appreciated!), worked the room with her adorableness, and didn't freak out about her cake (which I made, by the way!). She didn't get overwhelmed at all. I was one happy mama. We crammed 22 people in our house for this shindig--I'm still not sure how! Here are the pictures that tell the rest of the story:

Gimme that bow! (No applause neccesary, but I made her shirt AND hairbows--I said no applause . . .) :)

I don't get what all the fuss is about, so I'll just lounge in mommy's lap while she does all the work.

More stuff? For little ol' me?

How many kids fit around the busy box, you ask? That would be five . . .

Mommy, la princesa, and Grandma

The family

Yep, I made the cakes! Not my best work, but pretty anyway.

Birthday bubba sneaking some icing before the "cake segment" began

"So I'm SUPPOSED to grab this and stick it in my mouth? No way--I'll just touch it, thank you."

Mommy's sleepy little birthday girl after all the fun.

It was a great birthday. Our last guests left at almost 8pm, so it was a fun filled day (and evening!). It was great to see some of our far-away friends and family that we miss so much, and great to be in the company of new friends and close family as well. A day to remember, to be sure!

FFF - For crying out loud!

The theme of this week's Fav Foto Friday is "for crying out loud"! We all take pics of our kids with their sweet smiling faces, but rarely to we think to catch their crocodile tears! Here's one from just the other day--I was trying to get a cute picture of la princesa in her new outfit from Nana, but she wasn't about to show me that amazing smile. As a matter of fact, this is the more common theme in our house these days--whatever mommy wants, the kids do just the opposite! She's so beautiful, even hiding behind those big 'ole tears, though, isn't she?

For more Fav Foto Friday pics, click HERE . I promise to get pics from the big birthday bash up this weekend, so don't give up on me!

Referral-versary

One year ago today we saw the sweet face of the baby girl who was to become our daughter for the very first time. We knew we were getting close to the big day, but didn't know just when the call would come. On the afternoon of November 20, 2007, we got the long awaited call from our coordinator, Tonya that we had a baby girl. She was 6 days old, healthy, and beautiful! I was determined that Mark and I would open the pictures at the same time, but gosh, it seemed like it took forever for my computer at work to let them through the email system! Finally, several long minutes later, we laid eyes on our beautiful girl. It was an indescribable feeling. I wanted to cry, but I was just so happy that I couldn't wipe the smile from my face!

Obviously this day one year ago changed many lives forever. The weeks and months that followed both crept and flew by. The days we waited seemed so long at the time, but looking back, it was no time at all. This is just one of many days that are forever etched in my memory. A day I'll always look back on as one of the happiest days of my life. Happy one year referral-versary, Miss Priss Pants! I love you!

Happy 1st Birthday Princesa!

Happy First Birthday my beautiful girl! I can’t begin to describe how much you’ve changed my life. It seems as if you’ve always been with me, if only in my heart. You’re the perfect daughter for your daddy-o and me, and the greatest little sister to your big bro. I love having you in my life, sweet girl, and I hope you love being here just as much.

What a year it’s been! Here are the latest, greatest happenings in the life of the world’s newest one year old:

This little wild woman is standing alone quite a bit, and will “cruise” around anything she can pull up on. And, she took her first tiny steps alone last night! Woo hoo! There's no stopping her now! She has a fiery temper if she doesn’t get what she wants, but is also the sweetest little snuggle bunny. She loves to play peek-a-boo and make all kinds of silly noises with her mouth. She says dada pretty often, and will occasionally say mama, but it’s more like mamamamamama, but it counts in my book! She still loves to pull every book off the shelf and sit in the pile of them while she analyzes every page. She loves to play in bubba’s room, since that’s where all the fun boy toys are. She is as rough and tumble as her big brother, and often wrestles him (and mommy and daddy!) to the ground in a fit of giggles. She has one volume: LOUD! J Still no teeth, but just as before, it doesn’t stop this little eater from packing away the food! She moved up to the “creeper” room at daycare, and has amazing teachers who dote on her all day long. They love to fix her hair, and they say they are always excited to see what she’ll be wearing every day, especially the hair bows! It’s been so wonderful to watch her grow and progress these last six months (can you believe she’s been home for 6 months on the 29th of this month?!). She is truly a gift from God and I consider our family blessed beyond words to have her part of the fun.

Today, with all of the happiness and sheer joy I feel to have been chosen to raise such an amazing, beautiful, smart, and perfect baby girl, I know that my sweet baby’s birth mom is feeling something far less joyful. I pray that she can feel, across the miles, just how much her baby girl is loved and find peace and happiness in that. It’s bittersweet, really. I can’t begin to imagine what memories this day holds for her first mom. I think about her often, but especially today. I will be forever grateful to her for creating this amazing baby girl I call my daughter.

Feliz cumpleanos mi amor. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us this year!

Pictures!

There aren't many new happenings to report, so I thought I'd overload you with pics of my precious kiddos! We had our first professional pics done over the weekend and for the most part, they turned out great! It's definitely more challenging to keep two kids interested in the camera than it was with just one, but surprisingly we got a few keepers of them together and the whole family too!

And a few random cutenesses . . . .

Hmm, I wonder what's in my daycare bag?

Let me get a closer look . . .

Maybe if I get IN the bag I can find the good stuff!

My little mohawk man

My bathing beauty! The spike of hair I had created on top of that sweet head had fallen over by the time I got the camera--bummer! She looked like Cindylu-hoo!


I can't believe my baby girl will be ONE on Friday! The big b-day bash is Saturday afternoon, so lots more pics to come in a few days.

Can it really be November?

I know I say this alot, but time flies! We hope everyone had a great October and a Happy Halloween!

We started the big "Trick or Treat" night out with a stop and our fav chicken joint, Chick-Fil-A. We're super cheapskates, and they were giving all kids in costume a free kids meal, so we HAD to go! Critterboy was Iron Man, and an adorable one at that. It made me remember the day of my ultrasound when we heard them say, "well, it's most likely a boy, but he's not letting us get a good look." I was so sad that day. I just knew were going to have a girl and hadn't even begun to look at anything blue. Well, fast forward almost 4 years and I can't imagine NOT having this little guy with the awesome muscle chested costume. I mean seriously, princess dresses and girly stuff are pretty, but there's not much cuter than a little guy in a muscle chest superhero jumpsuit! Check him out!

The baby girl of the house was a poodle. Not my first choice of costume, but I was convinced it would be cold like last year (um, no, try 80 degrees!), so I nixed the 50's girl idea (I even had the felt and the poodle applique all ready to make the skirt :( ). We happened to be at Old Navy the day their costumes were all marked down to $5.00, and being the super cheapskates we are, decided on the poodle costume. Here's the deal--this girl looks so adorable in anything she wears, now including a poodle costume. I just felt so bad for her because it was so hot and we had to keep taking the top on and off to put her in her car seat. Anyway, this little pink poodle just couldn't be tamed, even though she didn't feel well!

Our first candy stop was a trunk or treat at a church, which oddly enough now occupies the building that was once a home improvement store where the hubby and I met almost 15 years ago when we both worked there. The little guy had been practicing his "Trick or Treat . . . . thank you!" and did great with it. They had about 50 cars all decked out with decorations. Oh yeah, and handfuls of candy. Yes, handfuls. Every car just loaded us up--I had to tell them, "just one please!" about a hundred times. Then, my picky little critterboy decided he would ask all the people if they had tootsie rolls. Yeah, just give him tootsie rolls and put that Snickers in my pumpkin bucket! Darn that Weight Watchers leader for telling us that every fun size candy bar is 2 points. That's crazy! How am I supposed to get my candy fix when I only get 23 points per day?? hee hee On our way out, we saw our friends the Garcia's! It was great to see them again. Their kids were adorable in their costumes, especially Jenna!

Then we were off to the home of one of daddy-o's co-workers who we visit every year on H-day. We scored tons more candy and fun from them and their neighbors, then finally headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for more loot. I'm glad the wild man can't read, because I'd hate for him to know that we've hidden most of the candy he worked so hard for. He may or may not ever see it again. It's a good thing he can't spell, too, because I spelled P-A-N-T-R-Y to daddy-o about five thousand times when trying to tell him where I was putting it!

Oh yeah, I need to back up a bit. Last weekend we all came down with colds. We took both youngin's to the doctor on Monday. Antibiotic for the little man and nothing for sissy priss since there wasn't anything really wrong other than a cold. Then Tuesday, I drug myself to the doctor, and sure enough, another sinus infection. One steriod shot to the hiney and a z-pack later, I'm doing alot better. Daddy-o, who is hacking up a lung as I type this, still hasn't made an appointment for himself. Anyway, Wednesday as I was shuttling the youngin's to daycare, I felt kind of loopy. I hadn't slept well and didn't feel quite right, and I'm convinced it was the steroid shot that made me all out of whack. So I'm driving along and look over at the passenger seat, for reasons I have yet to remember, and a split second later I looked up and I was running off the road headed straight for a reflector post that marks a small creek that runs under the road. Yep, I hit it. Yep, I over-corrected and thank the good Lord there wasn't a car in the oncoming lane. Yep, I said a profanity--I'm not proud of that at all--I think about that alot when I have close calls like that. I wouldn't ever want my last words to be a profanity, you know? Why can't I say a peaceful prayer or something when things like that happen? Okay, so everything seemed fine, but I pulled over to take a look at the damage. Surprisingly there wasn't really anything visible in the early morning light, so I went on my merry way.

I called hubby later in the day to tell him what had happened, and told him I'd rather him pick the kids up from school since I still didn't feel quite right. On the way home I noticed that everytime I would hit a bump it felt like I was about to lose control. At that point, I knew there was more damage than met the eye. Try almost $2000 worth of damage all together. Yikes! When I do something, I never do it halfway, you know! My dear husband took care of everything about getting it fixed, and spent basically the rest of the week dealing with estimates, insurance claims, buying new tires, etc. You see, when I saw the place I hit in the daylight, I realized that I had nearly gone off a small ravine and rolled my car. The damage underneath (basically it tore the rear shock and strut loose) was done by the concrete bridge that my passenger side tires were all the way off of. It all happened so fast, but I'm more sure than ever that God was watching over us Wednesday morning. I consider us very blessed that no one was hurt and that the damage wasn't worse. Thank you Lord, for always being with me, even when I'm distracted.

So please, please, pay attention to the road. With little ones it's so hard to always be looking and aware of your surroundings. And in my case, it had nothing to do with them needing something from the backseat like usual--it was just plain and simple distraction.

On to November--another crazy month! We have something going on pretty much every weekend. Miss Priss Pants turns ONE on the 14th! I can't believe it! Party plans are made (shut up Hollie--I really just decided how the table would be laid out last week!) and invitations are being mailed on Monday. This month starts the "One Year Ago Today" for many of our milestones with the adoption of our sweet baby girl. Get ready for lots of posts with that title in the coming weeks! The inlaws are coming for either the big b-day party or Thanksgiving, so we'll have houseguests part of the month. Then, after T-day, I'm hoping to meet up with blogging buddy Alabaster Mom, who will be in town for Turkey Day (week!) with her family. I can't wait! Then, of course, Christmas shopping begins. If you're wondering, we're pretty much done with shopping for the kids. "Santa" put their stuff in safe keeping last week! I hope all my loyal fans (I mean readers!) are well. Keep praying for sweet Abby and sweet Bella as they keep fighting leukemia. (click on their names to read all about them and their amazing families) I can't get those sweet girls off my mind. Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with some random cuteness--enjoy!

My bedlam brood! Go Cowboys and Sooners!