Goodbye 2011. You started off rough but ended wonderfully. You kept us happy and healthy. You kept our loved ones healthy ... except Great Big Paw Paw Ray ... he joined the angels this year but we think he was ready. Hassie Clare and Quinn crossed over from toddlerhood to kidhood.
As the clock struck 12, we were sitting at the Hagel's house playing poker and taking everyones money:) The night before we were at the casino with the Hagel's and Carroll's (plus Toan) and taking the casino's money. I wonder if this a good sign of what is to come in 2012?????
Many memories were made. Many lessons were learned. I hope that 2012 is as good to us as you have been.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
The Thurman Sisters
We got side tracked while cleaning the girls room. I'm the manager, Quinn is lead vocals and HC is the entire band, backup singer and stylist. Jamie / Daddy is our groupie. As the manager, I will make sure to upgrade Quinn's microphone if more performances are requested.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Christmas morning 2011
Notice I'm fudging about my blog dates??? .... I've gotten a bit behind and I gotta squeeze all the dates in before the end of the year so they can go in the 2011 blog book. Shhhhhh......
In all honesty, I'm trying my hardest to teach my kids what I think is the true meaning of Christmas. But I get wrapped up in the whole frenzy of presents just like the best of them. I have not been able to find a happy medium. We talk a great deal about God, especially during Advent. We talk about charity, A LOT. Almost to a point where Hassie Clare (our little humanitarian) loves to give things away, to anyone, for any reason. I told everyone that we try not to buy our kids lots of gifts at Christmas so that they don't forget what Christmas is all about. I really thought I was taking a minimalist approach this year. But as I got everything out to set up, I quickly realized that I'm a big, fat liar. I've realized that I love buying my kids presents and seeing the excitement on their face when they see everything Santa left for them (note to self - wrap a present from Mom and Dad to put under the tree next year so that your kids don't ask you a thousand times "where is our present from you Mommy?"). I selfishly want them to have childhood memories of being lavished with lots of gifts from Santa. Maybe next year I'll do better and practice what I preach!
In all honesty, I'm trying my hardest to teach my kids what I think is the true meaning of Christmas. But I get wrapped up in the whole frenzy of presents just like the best of them. I have not been able to find a happy medium. We talk a great deal about God, especially during Advent. We talk about charity, A LOT. Almost to a point where Hassie Clare (our little humanitarian) loves to give things away, to anyone, for any reason. I told everyone that we try not to buy our kids lots of gifts at Christmas so that they don't forget what Christmas is all about. I really thought I was taking a minimalist approach this year. But as I got everything out to set up, I quickly realized that I'm a big, fat liar. I've realized that I love buying my kids presents and seeing the excitement on their face when they see everything Santa left for them (note to self - wrap a present from Mom and Dad to put under the tree next year so that your kids don't ask you a thousand times "where is our present from you Mommy?"). I selfishly want them to have childhood memories of being lavished with lots of gifts from Santa. Maybe next year I'll do better and practice what I preach!
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| Quinnie Ray's presents from Santa. |
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| Hassie Clare's presents from Santa. |
Here are 2 of the many .... MANY ... Christmas Carols we heard from our sweet little angels during the holiday season. :)
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The 12 Facts of Chirstmas
My head is swimming with things I'd like to blog about ... it is also swimming with an obscene amount of mucus. As I sit at my desk, pretending to work, I'm listening to my two precious little girls sing "Silent Night" in harmony while painting their fairy and unicorn canvases they got for Christmas.
fact #1 - The girls and I went to 5 Christmas parties in 16 days, saw Santa Claus 4 times, had 2 school Christmas programs and ate sweets every single day of this month.
fact #2 - Hassie Clare and Quinn are officially out of their toddler beds and settled into their awesome bunk beds courtesy of Maema! We purchased the toddler beds for $50 a piece, used them for 3 years and sold them for $25 a piece.
fact #3 - I will smell pretty for all of 2012 thanks to my Christmas gifts. I'm a perfume fanatic if you don't already know this about me.
fact #4 - Elfis (our Elf) turned mischievous this year.... but only on weekend nights. Hmmmm. He rolled the girls playroom. Dumped flour on the counter and made snow angels. He wrote on the bathroom mirror. He went for a ride in Barbie's convertible. Hassie Clare cried when Elfis went back to the North Pole.
fact #5 - Our first born daughter, Ruby, was a bonifide brat during Christmas time. She got into presents, and stockings and dug Hershey kisses out of the trash and consumed them wrapper and all. I'm not sure where this erratic behavior came from. She is a crabby, old, blind lady. The Christmas magic made her feisty and kind of cute. Of course I was not saying that while bathing her attempting to get the poop off her legs from all the diarrhea. TMI .... I know. I just hope we get a few more Christmas's with our fur baby!
fact #6 - I'm having some major anxiety about Jamie's one year anniversary of him almost joining the angels above. I just can't stop thinking about how different this holiday season would have been for our family had things not gone our way last New Years Day. All of the "what ifs" are making me certifiable. It is consuming my thoughts. Maybe it is a lovey, dovey feeling you get around the holidays ... I'm not sure. And I have GOT to stop watching all the real life medical ER shows on late night TV...I don't think that is helping me any. I'm ready for New Year's Day to come and go without incident and then I'll relax a little .... maybe.
fact #7 - Mae / Maema / Mom / MIL spoils all of us rotten with love and materialistic things.
fact #8 - One of my favorite things this holiday season was spending lots of extra time with my Momma. We had a great time together watching the girls enjoy the magic of Christmas.
fact #9 - Self portraits of Hassie Clare crack me up.
fact #10 - Quinn's OCD habits are testing every fiber of our patience. Especially when it comes to her picking out socks. It took her 68 mins yesterday and lots of tears. But good God that little girl is the sweetest thing ever!
fact #11 - Having family gatherings at my house on Christmas Eve are memorable. Especially when I serve the best Bloody Mary's around!
fact #12 - I "think" my girls understand the true meaning of Christmas.
fact #1 - The girls and I went to 5 Christmas parties in 16 days, saw Santa Claus 4 times, had 2 school Christmas programs and ate sweets every single day of this month.
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| Our kids in birth order (from left to right). :) |
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| The girls BFF at school. |
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| A really out of shape Santa came to our house again this year thanks to our special friends Dana! The girls decided he wasn't the real Santa but one of Santa's helpers. |
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| Getting ready for a Christmas book exchange. |
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| Christmas Teddy Bear Tea |
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| The children's table is impressive to say the least. |
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| The first time EVER Quinn sat on Santa's lap by herself. Sure she was an emotional wreck and had nightmares ... but she did it! |
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| The Santa at the Teddy Bear Tea was great. He was very soft spoken and talked to the girls for a long time. We decided that he was the real Santa. |
fact #2 - Hassie Clare and Quinn are officially out of their toddler beds and settled into their awesome bunk beds courtesy of Maema! We purchased the toddler beds for $50 a piece, used them for 3 years and sold them for $25 a piece.
fact #3 - I will smell pretty for all of 2012 thanks to my Christmas gifts. I'm a perfume fanatic if you don't already know this about me.
fact #4 - Elfis (our Elf) turned mischievous this year.... but only on weekend nights. Hmmmm. He rolled the girls playroom. Dumped flour on the counter and made snow angels. He wrote on the bathroom mirror. He went for a ride in Barbie's convertible. Hassie Clare cried when Elfis went back to the North Pole.
fact #5 - Our first born daughter, Ruby, was a bonifide brat during Christmas time. She got into presents, and stockings and dug Hershey kisses out of the trash and consumed them wrapper and all. I'm not sure where this erratic behavior came from. She is a crabby, old, blind lady. The Christmas magic made her feisty and kind of cute. Of course I was not saying that while bathing her attempting to get the poop off her legs from all the diarrhea. TMI .... I know. I just hope we get a few more Christmas's with our fur baby!
fact #6 - I'm having some major anxiety about Jamie's one year anniversary of him almost joining the angels above. I just can't stop thinking about how different this holiday season would have been for our family had things not gone our way last New Years Day. All of the "what ifs" are making me certifiable. It is consuming my thoughts. Maybe it is a lovey, dovey feeling you get around the holidays ... I'm not sure. And I have GOT to stop watching all the real life medical ER shows on late night TV...I don't think that is helping me any. I'm ready for New Year's Day to come and go without incident and then I'll relax a little .... maybe.
fact #7 - Mae / Maema / Mom / MIL spoils all of us rotten with love and materialistic things.
fact #8 - One of my favorite things this holiday season was spending lots of extra time with my Momma. We had a great time together watching the girls enjoy the magic of Christmas.
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| The only picture I have of us is me torturing her while trying to get her pretty new earrings in her ear! |
fact #9 - Self portraits of Hassie Clare crack me up.
fact #10 - Quinn's OCD habits are testing every fiber of our patience. Especially when it comes to her picking out socks. It took her 68 mins yesterday and lots of tears. But good God that little girl is the sweetest thing ever!
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| It is obvious by her attire that it is cold outside but look at her feet. Notice anything missing? Sometimes I gotta pick my battles. |
fact #11 - Having family gatherings at my house on Christmas Eve are memorable. Especially when I serve the best Bloody Mary's around!
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| Decorating cookies for Santa. They also made super cute ornaments and reindeer food courtesy of Josie Love. |
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| Sprinkling reindeer food for Rudolph and all his friends. |
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| My sweet niece on her first Christmas. |
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| Jack-A-Poo and his sweet Momma |
fact #12 - I "think" my girls understand the true meaning of Christmas.
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| The girls came up with the idea to get Jesus some balloons for his birthday. They decided on red balloons because they figured red and green are his favorite colors - they stated, "why else would Christmas colors be red and green Momma????" So they sent a half dozen red balloons up to Jesus for his birthday. |
Thursday, December 22, 2011
1st Disney vacation - April 2011
Originally started this post in May 2011. Never finished it. Shocker. Thought I would throw it in to this years blog book anyway! Hey girls ... if you are looking for our Disney pictures from when you were 4 years old, look for the black, leather bound book with Mickey Mouse on the front. I had all our pics and memories printed into a keepsake book but there is only one of them ... SHARE!
Disney World was magical in every sense of the word. There is no other way to describe it. The whole time we were there, I had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude. I felt extremely lucky to be there with my family. This joy brought tears to my eyes at least once a day. Maybe they pump something in to the air that triggers all those warm and fuzzy feelings. Or maybe, just maybe .... the place really is magical.
We had the time of our lives. I loved every bit of it and wouldn't trade all the awesome memories for anything in the world. One thing that I have thought of daily since we have been back is the way Hassie Clare would lean over and kiss our hand or arm or hip ... anything she could reach. We would look down at her and smile and she would say "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is the best day of my whole life!" She did this randomly throughout the week. I'm telling ya... the place was M. A. G. I. C. A. L.
We stayed at Port Orleans - French Quarter Resort in building #4. It was perfect for us. Not too fancy, great amenities, awesome pool for little kids and adults, great location, lots of character, nice big rooms, good food, good bars, cute gift shop, wonderful staff ... I could go on and on. Even the housekeeper was great .... and we had the same one all 7 days. She would leave cute little washcloths and towels made into an animal or Disney character.
We went the first week of April and had high hopes of missing the heat. According to the locals, the week we went was the first hot week of the season. The nights were perfect but the days were a bit steamy (between 85-90 degrees with high humidity and no breeze). Once we embraced the heat we all handled it much better. Plus I changed our itinerary up to sleeping in, going swimming for a few hours, eating lunch, taking a nap and then hitting the parks. We ended up closing down the parks at midnight on more then one occasion.
**Notes to Add to post-
HC's favorite ride was Splash Mountain.
Quinn's fav part of the trip was the resort water slide and sleeping in with Mommy and Daddy.
Quinn was scared of every character except the Princesses.
We all loved all the shows, fireworks and food.
**Pics to Edit and add captions (pull more pics off phone) -
And this is as far as I got on this post. This vacation was one of the best vacations ever. Hopefully it was good enough that we will remember it forever ... especially since I never finished this blog post!
Disney World was magical in every sense of the word. There is no other way to describe it. The whole time we were there, I had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude. I felt extremely lucky to be there with my family. This joy brought tears to my eyes at least once a day. Maybe they pump something in to the air that triggers all those warm and fuzzy feelings. Or maybe, just maybe .... the place really is magical.
We had the time of our lives. I loved every bit of it and wouldn't trade all the awesome memories for anything in the world. One thing that I have thought of daily since we have been back is the way Hassie Clare would lean over and kiss our hand or arm or hip ... anything she could reach. We would look down at her and smile and she would say "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is the best day of my whole life!" She did this randomly throughout the week. I'm telling ya... the place was M. A. G. I. C. A. L.
We stayed at Port Orleans - French Quarter Resort in building #4. It was perfect for us. Not too fancy, great amenities, awesome pool for little kids and adults, great location, lots of character, nice big rooms, good food, good bars, cute gift shop, wonderful staff ... I could go on and on. Even the housekeeper was great .... and we had the same one all 7 days. She would leave cute little washcloths and towels made into an animal or Disney character.
We went the first week of April and had high hopes of missing the heat. According to the locals, the week we went was the first hot week of the season. The nights were perfect but the days were a bit steamy (between 85-90 degrees with high humidity and no breeze). Once we embraced the heat we all handled it much better. Plus I changed our itinerary up to sleeping in, going swimming for a few hours, eating lunch, taking a nap and then hitting the parks. We ended up closing down the parks at midnight on more then one occasion.
**Notes to Add to post-
HC's favorite ride was Splash Mountain.
Quinn's fav part of the trip was the resort water slide and sleeping in with Mommy and Daddy.
Quinn was scared of every character except the Princesses.
We all loved all the shows, fireworks and food.
**Pics to Edit and add captions (pull more pics off phone) -
And this is as far as I got on this post. This vacation was one of the best vacations ever. Hopefully it was good enough that we will remember it forever ... especially since I never finished this blog post!
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