Brian took this past week off from work (horary!) We didn’t do too much exciting stuff, just enjoyed having him around and put him to work hanging lights on the house. We pulled out all our stuff last Saturday and guess what…almost ALL of it was no longer working! We threw away 5 strings and 8 mini Christmas trees that we used to use to line our front lawn…only 4 of them are still in working order! We were actually ready and willing to commit to lights on the house this year so I went out and bought some new ones! Inspired by Brady’s upcoming birthday party (candy land theme), we went with a candy-cane theme. The front parkway trees have red bottoms & white tops. We did the (reachable) roof line of the house in white and then red & white lights up and down the 4 poles on the porch. While poking around Michael’s Craft Store yesterday, I even found some cute striped candy decorations for a wreath.

Yesterday was Black Friday. Last year, I was up and in the parking lot at Target by 5am (remember Den?) But that was because I wanted one of the car DVD players they had on super sale (and yes, I got one…and yes, it has since been destroyed by the kids…and yes, they had them again this year, but no…I wasn’t doing that again!). This year we didn’t have our eye on anything in particular, but Brian got ancy and left the house around 6:30 to see what he could find. He avoided the long lines at the major stores and hit Office Max as well as Bed, Bath & Beyond (chef Brian wanted to scout out any potential cool cooking gadgets). I called to check in and got this question: “So…if I bought you something for Christmas, but knew that you would use it a ton between now and then…would you want it today or wait until Christmas morning?” Um…what did he think I was going to say?! “Oh…go ahead and keep this oh-so-useful gift away from me for another month?” I think not. I feel like I’ve already had Christmas, but he was SO very right. He scored me a new camera! Ye-haw! I had to hold my old one in my hand instead of putting it on the desk while transferring pictures because it was beginning to split apart and wouldn’t keep the connection to the computer. It’s the newest version of the Cannon Elph…I think we’ve owned at least 4 of these now. It’s super cute and super tiny…and makes me super nervous because I keep thinking I’ve misplaced it in my purse! I gave it a test run at the Holiday lights parade last night!

Oh and P.S. I totally forgot to take pictures of Thanksgiving! It was a lot of fun though. We had dinner with Uncle David, Aunt Diana and cousins Max, Zach and Jack. Memaw and Grandpa were in Arizona with Bri’s little brother Pete, his wife & son so it was smaller than usual, but everyone had a great time. The food was delicious and there were cousins to play with!

We met up with some of our neighbors at the annual Christmas parade last night. I’m not even sure what this event is called, but they light up all the trees and buildings and have a few floats. The best part is that most of the people in the parade throw candy – awesome. Here are the big kids before the main event got started, playing down by the river.

This was the first day we really bundled up in our winter-wear. Aiden was a bit bummed when he found out that he was inheriting Logan’s green coat from last year (while his beloved blue coat got passed along to Brady). He got over it though, declaring that he, “loves blue AND green…and all the colors of the rainbow.” He was happy to see that his hat and gloves were purchased this year…just for him…in blue!

Watching the ducks on the river

Ready to catch some candy! Brady is in the blue stroller…Chewy (Matthew) is in the red one.

The parade scene

I took quite a few pictures, but none that were decent because of the dark…gotta figure out those night shots on my camera!

Brady (who refused to wear his gloves!) waved at the parade the whole time. All the kids scored glow-in-the-dark bracelets as well as candy.

Santa & Mrs. Claus

We had dinner together after the parade and then went to see Santa. The kids got these cute reindeer headbands

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and…Sassy face…

Although the line wasn’t very long, it also wasn’t very fast. We all have tickets to “The Polar Express” in 2 weeks so we asked the kids if they wanted to wait in the line we were in OR…take a trolley and see Santa at “The North Pole” in a couple of weeks. They chose the trolley route and then lingered outside the window as we were leaving. “Bye Santa…bye Mrs. Santa…see you in a couple weeks” <—I’m not making that up…that’s what they were saying in this picture. :)

Some of our outdoor decorations. I need some big, fake candy canes to complete my planters, but it’s a start.

Here’s the wreath I made. It took like 10 minutes…I sure do love my hot glue gun!

Both Aiden and Logan tried to pick off and eat the candy decorations before they realized they were plastic. I didn’t even bother showing the wreath to Brady!! That kid would have one chewed before he realized it was quite nasty tasting!

Here is the front of the house at night. I wish we had a better roof line…ours is kinda boring!

So I just packed away Halloween decorations, leaving some of the more “fallish” items in place, and added a few others for this Thanksgiving month. However, I feel like I’m already thinking and planning ahead to December (which is usually not at all like me since I’m a November baby and get irritated when people seem to skip right over this time).

First, Brian got an email last week about a little boy who has terminal cancer. His family is celebrating Christmas early this year. He loves Christmas cards so his family sent around a message urging people to send them. I got the same email from another friend later in the week which makes me happy – l read that he has already received thousands of cards!! Last Thursday night, Brian and I spent some time making one with the boys. (pictures below)

Second, I have been beyond perplexed for about a month now every time I think about what to get the boys this year. I’ve spent hours and hours pouring through toy catalogs and on-line sites trying to sort it all out. We want to be on a strict budget mostly because they don’t NEED to get a million things. I want the few items that we pick out to be meaningful and special to them. So, I made my choices and ordered everything! I didn’t even leave the house, but I do have to admit that my major purchase DID come from Target! May I reiterate: I have a Target problem!

Third, I just spent the morning trying to get my three boys to stay still, smile and look cute simultaneously in the hopes of getting a picture good enough for our Holiday card. Our usual tradition is to take a family picture at Thanksgiving, but it seems like I then take a couple weeks after to get my act together, order, wait for the order to arrive, address etc. and then I’m “late”! I had stopped by Carter’s last week to get Aiden one of his Christmas wishes, “basketball pajamas that actually fit me.” This was a request we got after I had to take away his old ones, which were WAY too short, and reassign them to Brady’s drawer. Anyway, while I was shopping at Carter’s, I saw some very cute Christmas PJs. I started poking around and the ones I liked looked to be well in stock…until I began checking the sizes. Out of 5 piles of these pajamas, I only found 1 size 4T! So…I grabbed a 5T, the 4T and a 2T. After the boys woke up this morning, I put them in the holiday jammies and had FOUR different photo sessions with them…spread out amongst playing, eating and general hanging out. I took over 160 pictures. Not ONE is that great, but I was dying laughing while I reviewed them – 3 boys together are funny!!! I got enough decent ones to make a card though so – CHECK! I also uploaded them to Costco.com and made about 5 different ones for Brian to review and pick!

At this rate people, I will have my act together this year…I think….

Below is the card we made for Noah Biorkman. I made the mistake of letting the boys choose Christmas pasta for decorations. I need to find a padded envelope! It was hard to trace Brady’s hands so I painted them and cut out the prints…but not before I realized I used a different color of green paper. Oh well. Aiden’s are in the middle and Logan’s on the bottom. Aiden wanted to draw “the stem”…that’s why it’s blue!

Sadly, I think the family celebrated this weekend, but we’re still sending our card along with a dollar that will be donated to the Michigan neuroblastoma research center and the Michigan Make A Wish Chapter. Here is the address if anyone else is interested!

Noah Biorkman 1141 Fountian Viewcircle South Lyon,Mi 48178

Since he’s getting so many, I wrote down what the boys told me to write…short and sweet. Oh and yes, Brady won’t be 2 for another month, but it’s getting annoying to say he’s 23 months old.

Here are the best (hahahahaha, I laugh hysterically) of the pictures I took today. I am posting a bunch of them because they seriously made me crack up. Click on “slide show” for the full effect (or if you want to feel my pain as I tried to take these pictures!)