Well. Its December. Not the beginning. The middle. Clearly I have been falling behind on my blogging duties. Between Halloween, October birthdays, Thanksgiving, traveling all over and now Christmas...it seems my blogging came to a halt. Well. I'm back to do a quick rewind and let you know what we have been up to. Trust me. Its been a lot!
Lets start at the beginning!
October we already talked about our first road trip that month so the next thing to discuss is the fact that we had two little girls' birthdays as well as Jareds! Yes. October is a very full month! For the girls we decided to still do a day for them and although they are the biggest age gap in our combined month birthdays they are still both our princess' and we treated them as such! I picked up Carina early in the morning and we played hooky with school (although she did reach out to the teachers to get all missed work...that's my child the studious one!) and we went to breakfast over at Fremont Diner. We love going to places together and seeing what we can order. Of course I went chicken and waffles and she went biscuits and gravy. Uh. Duh. Best breakfast choices! After that we went to the mall to meet up with Alyssa and Jared to have a day of shopping and fun. We took Alyssa to Build a Bear first and since it was her first time and completely Carina's idea we let those two have a special moment. From what I could tell Alyssa had a blast and to our surprise she picked a dog and dressed it as a boy! She never ceases to amaze me! Carina did some shopping and then all of us girls got our nails done. We decided maybe we should let Jared in on the fun so we took him to eat lunch with us. It was a pretty relax day but fitting for these two girls.
The next item in October was Halloween! Sadly Jared and I didn't have any of our kiddos on the actually evening of Halloween as Alicia and RC were the lucky ones but we did still get to see them. I will also add that its amazing how lonely Halloween is without any kids! We decided to head out to grab a small bite and last minute I thought the last I could do is half dress us up so $20 bucks later we we were the Hulk and Captain America. Jared is NOT the dress up type in any way shape or form so even just a T-Shirt was a stretch. I'm happy to know he totally understood my sadness and gladly went along with the costumes to make me smile. What a guy! We also got a couple surprises that night! My cousin Tish and her littles stopped by to say hello...well...Trick or Treat and give me big hugs and even Angela my pseudo sister came over with my nephew and they pretty much spent the rest of the evening with us. Corbin helped me pass out candy and it was just another moment I am reminded that those closest to you know just what to do in order to make you smile and forget the sadness! Halloween although not what I am used to was stilltons of fun...not to mention we did still get to see all the kids in costume as I had my kids in the AM and went to their Halloween parade at school and the Luoma bunch stopped by that evening! I would call that a sweet success. Yes that was a total candy pun!
Phew. November was full! Now onto November!!!
November wasn't any shorter in time but we did a few more things than we thought of doing! The first of those things was FINALLY getting to enjoy Jared's birthday gift. I of course gave it to him in October however they were tickets a 49ers game so we didn't get to go until November. Now. The tickets were great, it was his first NFL game and it was at the new stadium. All that being said. We still lost. Lame. I know he wanted to make the most of it but defeat is defeat and by the end of the night he was a bit of an unhappy camper. We did make it to a nearby (kinda shitty) restaurant and meet up with super great friends of mine. Either way. I am stoked to say that I was able to surprise him with such an awesome gift. Next time we will try to go to a winning game.
The second not nearly as awesome but still just as important moment in our month of November was that Jack finally got all caught up on shots and was able to go on his first walk that extended past our front lawn! Of course I took pics because I am totally cheesy like that!
Then as if just those two things didn't already have us totally worn out we then went on an impromptu trip to Rich and Sherrie's house to see them before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately we were without Alyssa and Carina but we did still have 4 others and we took total advantage of the free weekend. I mean. Why not just FILL UP every single weekend with plans and driving. Right? Lifes short and family is much more important than rest. I do have to state that we had previously gone up to their house in the summer. During this trip we had gone to the community pool where they had a rock wall you could climb in the outside pool. Rich..the Marine.. successfully made it to the top and Jared...the Air Force FlyBoy...did not. Of course this led to much ribbing about who the greater man was but not to fret. When we came back we went bowling. The first game we played Grown Ups Vs. Kids. It was solely based on the fact that the kids needed bumpers but either way the kids still held their own but Rich got the highest game. Then only a few of the kids wanted to play another game but the more important and significant thing is that Jared was challenged to an Marine VS Air Force game. Of course Jared took the challenge and he KILLED it! Needless to say I am sure there will be a rematch and I didn't get a ton of pics but at least I got a few and as always our trip to Minden was fabulous!
After our Trip to Minden we decided that we had a spare day on the next weekend that we could kill some time so we went on a quick trip to Six Flags. I mean. We have season passes so why not take total advantage!
Then before all the Thanksgiving trips began my two younger kids did have a couple of little Thanksgiving lunches that I was lucky enough to attend. Each one was totally different but they were both fun and I snagged a couple of pics during these as well!
Once I was already stuffed from those lunches we ran right into the Thanksgiving week that was now upon us. The way that Thanksgiving falls for us it makes the most sense to sort of swap this day. My family celebrates the day after, Jareds dad celebrates typically after I guess (this year it was the weekend after) and his mom they sometimes made it up to see but I hear hadn't really been up for a little bit. It worked out best for my kids dad and the Luoma kids mom to have them on the day of Thanksgiving so Jared and I opted to take a trip up to Grass Valley to spend it with his mom. I am glad we did. He was able to show me around his little town as well as the neighboring town of Nevada City and I got to see all sorts of neat things even the houses he and his sister grew up in. It was quite an adventure and I am glad we got to share it with his mom.
One of the funny things to share because I rarely put food pics on here is that I was able to eat at a place that serves Beef Wellington. What is it you ask? Well its deliciousness wrapped in more deliciousness and then served on a fancy plate. I ate all of it. Gladly. I have only ever seen it served on Hells Kitchen or on fancy shows and to finally eat it was amazing. Made my night for sure!
The next Thanksgiving celebration was at my dads house on the day after and not much to write home about except that we all gathered together, grubbed down and caught up! It was a blast and just because we took a pic in the same exact spot as we did last year with all 6 kids. Pretty cute!
My momma and poppa! Love them!
Pretty sure my brother could not possibly make me look any shorter...and I am wearing heels!
The final Thanksgiving celebration was over at Chuck and Dianne's house. Affectionately known as Grammy and Grampy. They were gracious enough to have us all over again and although I am still not quite myself entirely when we are there I did manage to snag a few pics and have a pretty good time. Its always a funny situation when you come into a new family and this is no different. Luckily for me I have a strong guy by my side who loves me and honestly...his sisters have really helped to make me feel as home as its going to get. Hopefully time changes all of this and I start to meld a little better. For now I will take what I can get!
FYI. There was a lot of kids there and we drew names for the Christmas Secret Santa so we will be heading back for the Christmas Craziness but only 6 of us crazies will be attending. The Luoma littles will be with their mommy that weekend. Poor Chuck and Dianne probably are ready for the holidays to be over! Hehe.
Okay. FINALLY. December!!!
December I will mash all together since we will most likely have a lot of Christmas posts. So in the month of December so far (and mind you its only 10 days in) we have done the following...
-Put the Tree up
-Decorated it
-Hung our Christmas lights outside
-Already finished Christmas shopping
-Gotten Jack fixed (no babies for him!)
-Watched Alyssa dance
-Been to a little Christmas shindig with Angela
-Had two kids win gift cards for a coloring Contest
and...drumroll please...
Celebrated an insane victory for the 2014 6-8 Travis Vikings. Aidans team won 1st place in the league for his age group and it was amazing. Aidan ran in the winning touchdown as well as threw for the 1st and only other touchdown. Now I don't want to take away from anything else that will go on this month but for this household, for Aidan and for Jared this was better than any Superbowl.
Great win Aidan Luoma! Can't wait to see you over the years grow as an amazing football player!
That's all for the catch up and boy oh boy did we do so much more than I remembered! Now onto Christmas!
