steph's stuff

Already?

I'm not one to decorate the house early, buy presents months ahead of time or generally be prepared early in any way for Christmas.

Usually, we get a tree by the 15th of December, I start panicking about presents around the same time, and end up tearing my hair out the last two weeks before Christmas.

Not this year. I decorated the house last weekend, the Christmas cards are done and I finished nearly all my shopping yesterday. And I have no real explanation. Gremlins? Aliens taking over? I have no freakin' idea!

But it's not even December and I'm ready for the holidays already!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving and I wish it wasn't all over. Prepare yourself for more photos than you ever wanted to see. We had most of Tom's family here with us for the weekend and it was a houseful. In a really good way. :)

I had my iPhone and big camera with me all day and just snapped away with whichever camera was closer.

The day started off with Tom making waffles for everyone who arrived after an early-morning 10K Turkey Trot.

Followed by a lunch-time wine-tasting test.

And then time for a rest and iPhone checking for Tom's mom + Doug, and Uncle Jason & Auntie Lisa (Tom's youngest brother + wife). :)

And then after a lot of cooking (no photos because I was the cook), we finally sat down to dinner. 

The kids ate in the kitchen and the adults + Emily ate in the dining room (again no photos of the eating because ... well ... I was eating.)

And then after dinner, more family arrived and we all hung around the dining room table - my honey cleaned and cleaned for hours and hours while we sat around the table. He rocks!

And, for some reason, everyone got tired of me taking photos. (Tom's little sis + his mom)

My own daughter. Harumph.

Jason just looked away instead of giving me the hand but I got him anyway. :)

My niece, Jade, being totally adorable.

Her mother giving me the hand. Harumph.

Emily loves her Nanny. :)

We went through a bit of wine.

Which may have had something to do with Uncle David falling asleep at the table. ;)

 What I loved the most is that most of us stayed around the table for so long just catching up with each other. 

And laughing.

Libby was ON FIRE. She was so hyped up on sugar and family and just high on life. She was singing and dancing all around us all night long. She and her cousin, Jade, had some kind of goofy game going on where they would sneak up on us and watch us and chant, "We're on patrol. We're on patrol. We're on patrol." It was hilarious.

My favorite photo of the whole night! Emily taking a picture of her cousin, Ari. Ari filming the whole table. Uncle Jason taking a picture of Ari. And Libby sneaking up behind all of them "on patrol."

Libby and Jade "on patrol" again.

And, finally, we couldn't handle the "on patrol" anymore and Jade carried Libby out of the room. LOL!

And then THE GAME. Texas vs. Texas A&M. It started at 8 and it took until exactly midnight for the Longhorns to finally beat the Aggies. It was an amazingly-crazy game and we were thrilled with the ending but could have done without the close score. 

However, the family snuggles and hanging out were the best part.

Having my baby-who's-not-a-baby-anymore fall asleep on me was pretty cool, too. 

Hope your Thanksgiving was just as wonderful!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I have so many things to be grateful for this year and am so thankful to be spending this holiday with family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Found!

Oh my goodness. Look what Sawyer found!

Fighting my way to the top

Today started off totally out of sorts. I was tired and just off-kilter. I got confused by coupons - seriously, I got confused by coupons? And my day just kept stuttering along. I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle with myself all day long.

Until the kids got off the bus and we ran outside for our annual Christmas card photo shoot. And that's when things just got awesome. I fought my way to the top of that internal stuttering and was so thankful that I planned our photos today. The kids have been watching me edit all of my photo sessions for the past month and a half and were actually eager to be the subjects themselves. It took all of about 3 minutes because they cooperated. Really! They cooperated. For the first time in the history of our family, they were happy to have me take their photos. 

So, I rewarded them with ice cream and spent the evening designing our Christmas cards. Which, I must add, is an entire month early. But I had a Groupon and it was about to expire and I was determined to beat the clock. And I did. In spite of stuttering and falling down the hill of confusion all day long. 

Want to see our card????

 

 

 

Ha! You didn't really think that I would let you see the card before they were mailed, did you? :)

However, here's a shot you can see. My unbelievably-beautiful-all-grown-up-I-can't-believe-how-mature-she-looks-and-is-almost-in-high-school daughter. Sigh.

Superdog

Antibiotics are truly miracle drugs!!! Sawyer is soooo much better and enjoying the fog delay with Andrew. :)

Poor sick puppy

Sawyer update: He has a bacterial infection in his lungs that he probably picked up when we boarded him last weekend. It has not yet developed into pneumonia - thank goodness!!! - but was fairly close to it.

He's on strong antibiotics and lots of Benadryl and is currently sleeping peacefully - which was much needed after being up all night coughing. I think I might nap now, too. :)

The crazy puppy is sick

Sawyer hasn't felt well in the last 24 hours and is coughing and gagging constantly. It's scary sounding and kept us up all night. Hoping it's just a bad doggy cold and not something lodged in his throat or something worse.

I'm calling the vet the minute the office opens today. He would love any virtual hugs you have to send his way today. He will thank you in slobbery kisses soon. :)

Guess who is 3?

Photo taken on his first Christmas. :)

Slowing down. Maybe.

Last week was nutso-crazy. Crazy-crazy. But I think we might be headed for a lovely slow down. At least I hope. Andrew's fall sports are both done - baseball and soccer - but flag football has started up. Emily is down to three activities and Libby is down to just one activity. There's a bit of breathing room in there for me, I think. And I'm almost done with photo shoots for a while. 

But first - Halloween pictures!

I had a crazed Mick Jagger groupie.

Along with her best friend, Bellatrix Lestrange.

A dead girl.

And Draco Malfoy.

And, our neighbor, Harry Potter, stopped by to have a battle with Draco.

It was a good night. :)

And then Draco morphed himself into a quarterback for his first flag football game.

And also tried his hand as a wide receiver.

It's been a good week, but busy. And this weekend brings a visit with out-of-town family and we are very excited to head south for the visit! It will be a nice way to wrap up the week. And rumor has it that I may have a baby, or two, or three! to hold. Can't wait. :)

It's also a special birthday today so I'll be back later with the details about that. Have a great day!