Happy New Year!

So Long 2008

I have to admit I'm not sad to see 2008 leave. We've had some good times this year, but it's also been crazy. Richard's business has gone through some rocky times, hurricane Ike decided to give us a beating (we're still paying for that with longer school days), and the CCAA has decided that waiting "forever" for a baby should be just fine with us. Add a crazy presidential election, and it might just be enough to make a person lose their minds!

I don't want to make it all sound bad. We had the most awesome snow day ever, spent alot of time at the beach this summer, I got to meet some bloggy friends in person, and baseball season was alot of fun :)

All in all, though, I'm praying that 2009 is a better year.

My family had 2 "Christmas miracles" (dubbed so by Cade). We had that awesome snow day in South Louisiana, and our dog, Britney made it back home to us. I am praying for one more: that the CCAA will get on with it! Let us bring our babies home, and empty out those orphanages!!

Here's wishing everyone a safe, healthy and happy new year!!

The day after Christmas, we headed out of town to Richard's parents' for a couple of days. This is where the boys got Rock Band. They didn't get to play it until they got home, but they LOVE it! You might have to click on the collage to see it better, but my FIL made Bryce a sword. Bryce was in heaven! He has been asking us for a real sword to hang on his wall, and our answer is "you're crazy!" All those boys upstairs, with a sword, I can see it now. This wooden version is a good compromise, and was a complete surprise. You can also see a picture of the entire group. This was a riot because nobody could remember how to set their camera to do this! Luckily, I had my manual in my bag and figured it out. I also found a few settings and "perks" my camera has that I had completely forgotten about!

Christmas Afternoon

We had lunch at my brother and SIL's house. It was alot of fun, and the boys loved playing with their cousin, Rylan, and all his toys. All in all, we had a very calm Christmas day. It was really nice.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was alot of fun. The boys were so excited to get downstairs and see what Santa left them. Every year there seems to be one gift that is absolutely perfect. This year, that gift was Braden's. His baseball team is the Rays, and we plan to take a trip there this summer. We have some connections, so we are actually going to get to meet the team! Richard and I got him the full set of Rookie cards for the whole team. He'll be able to get them signed when we go! He loved them.

You see me holding my favorite gift. Cade made that flower with torn paper at school. I will treasure it always.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house, eating our traditional seafood gumbo...yum! The boys got to open their stockings from my parents that night, so it appeased them temporarily from asking to open presents. Braden and Richard are looking through Braden's baseball cards here. Looks like Bryce had gotten into the chocolate.

Cade and my dad. He loved this little ornament.

Braden and my mom.

Putting out milk and cookies for Santa.

Braden's School Party

The three amigos: These three are trouble!! They are best buds, and love to be together.

Braden and Morgan have been sweet friends since kindergarten. Her mom is a teacher at the school. Aren't they cute?

Cade's School Party

These are pictures of Cade during his Christmas party at school. When I post his diary entrys, this is the awesome teacher who writes such sweet comments. She is one of my favorite people in the whole world. (She's one of Cade's too!)

Bryce's Christmas Concert

I'm going back to post all the fun things we were able to do during the Christmas season. Bryce had his annual Christmas band concert, and it was awesome! Their band is so unbelievable. I was so proud of him. We also found out that he made the honor band as an alternate. Considering he has only played the french horn for a few months, I think that is pretty great! Two sets of grandparents were able to be there, and I know that made him happy.

By the way, if I look tired...I was!! Working was kicking my butt!!

Getting Back to Life

I have so many things to post as we are just getting back in town from the holidays. I am happy to say that I am still in my jammies this morning and don't plan to get out of them any time soon! I have this whole week off, and will finally have time to catch up with all my bloggy friends! Also on the agenda is taking all the Christmas decorations down. I always HATE that job, so hopefully it won't take too long. As I type, the boys are upstairs playing "R*ck B@nd" for the first time. Pretty funny stuff!! My boys got my talent (or lack of) for singing, I'm afraid.

So, I thought I'd give you a peek at one thing we were able to do during the holidays. I got to get my hands on Miss Kate!! In fact, we got to spend some time with the whole Peanut clan! We had so much fun. Kim and Dave were so sweet to let us pop in on them, and their new house is gorgeous! All three peanuts are so sweet, and the boys had an absolute blast! Nerf guns and Star Wars Leg0s...doesn't get any better than that.

Well, for me it does...

Can I tell you how happy our husbands were having to be the "papa"razzi! They rolled their eyes, but were very sweet to indulge us. They knew we had lots of you to report back to :)

The boys, getting ready to run around in the freezing rain to play nerf wars.

They were all so cute playing here. They were setting everything up to have a Star Wars war. My boys were not happy to have to leave, and want to go back real soon!

Thanks again Kim for letting us stop by. I hope we can get together again real soon!

Merry Christmas!!

Update: We got our Christmas miracle. At about 11:00 this morning we got a call from a woman who said they had Britney. They live just down the street from us! I can't believe she's been that close this whole time. She was safe and well cared for this whole time. We are VERY happy to have her home!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!
I hope you are all having a great day with your families. All my boys (even Richard) are upstairs having a nerf gun war, and I'm downloading pictures from this morning. This one is from last night. We're on our way to my brother's in a little while.

Have a great day!!

My Elves

Braden saw Denise's "elf yourself" with her kids and begged me to do it. I added my dad and my nephew, just for fun. We have been laughing at this all afternoon.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

No word on our dog yet. She is still missing. Thank you all for your sweet comments. I did have one "anonymous" comment that wasn't so nice, but that's ok. It's real easy to be cruel and ugly when you hide your identity. If she'd like to comment with her name, I'll be happy to respond.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas Eve. We're about to head over to my parents' for some seafood gumbo. That seems to be the meal of choice on Christmas Eve here in South Louisiana.

Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Our Puppy is Missing

Our sweet puppy has ran away. Richard went to the camp this weekend with the boys and I went to the beach with my mom to shop, so we left Britney in the yard. I guess it wasn't the best plan because something must have spooked her and she ran away. We have an invisible fence, but if she gets scared enough, she'll run through it. She has done this before, but has never been gone for this long.

I am more upset than I thought I would be. I'm not a real big dog lover, but Britney has been with us for almost 10 years. Braden and Cade have never known life without her, and Bryce doesn't remember it. She even survived our fire with us. She has been super skiddish ever since that trauma, and we want her with us. We have put up almost 20 signs and took out an ad in the paper, just hoping some nice family is keeping her until they find us.

We were driving around looking for her yesterday and hanging signs. When I looked in the backseat, Braden was crying. Well, of course, I start and then Cade starts (Bryce wasn't with us). I told him it was ok to be sad, and it would be really sad if we didn't care she was gone. That would mean she wasn't loved. We're praying for a "Christmas miracle".

Another Diary Entry

This journal entry is so funny! I actually walked in his class while he was writing this. He was so happy to show me what he wrote until he remembered what it said! I read it, and then looked up at him. He turned red and sheepishly said, "Are you mad?". Of course not! He was sweet to have eaten it and not complained. I was very thankful.

Cade was watching tv the other night, and there must have been a storyline about a surprise party because he came in the room and announced that he wanted a surprise party. I chuckled at him, and he said, "It's three months away, I'll forget by then."

We're on our way to Bryce's Christmas band concert tonight. It doesn't start until 8:00! Can I tell you how bad I want to be in the bathtub right now? Not that I don't want to see the concert. I have really been looking forward to it, but I just wish it was a couple hours earlier!

I can't believe we're so close to Christmas!! I think I have everything ready, but keep thinking, surely I've missed something! What is it?!?!

Gingerbread Accomplished

I bought a gingerbread house kit a few weeks back with the intention of doing it with the boys before the Christmas party. Well, that didn't happen, even though they begged me every single day to do it. I knew I needed to do it in the morning when I had lots of energy and patience left;) I didn't want to be yelling at them in frustration while we're trying to do a fun Christmas activity! Yesterdy was the perfect day because we had an extra snow day. I even ended up with a couple extra helpers for the day. We all really had a good time, and I think it came out pretty cute.

You'll never guess what I decided to do with them after this! We went to Chuck E. Ch**se. I guess having them running around a place that wasn't my house was more appealing than staying home. It wasn't bad because there was hardly anyone there. It sure beat school ;)

Winter Wonderland

I just had to share a few more pictures from our day yesterday. It was truly magical. Being able to wake the kids up and say, "Come see all the snow" was so awesome. The last time we had any snow at all was when Cade was a baby, but it was nothing like this. The last time we got this much snow was in 1988! I was a junior in high school!

My parents came over yesterday to play in the snow with us. After everyone was frozen, we made a great big breakfast complete with hot chocolate. Then we went upstairs and watched the Polar Express. It was the perfect winter day.

The kids (and me) are off of school again today. I know all you northerners think that's crazy, but nobody here is used to icy conditions, so I guess they didn't want the buses driving through it. I think we'll make that gingerbread house kit that the boys have been driving me crazy about, and maybe I'll finish wrapping gifts.

I sure hope all my flower beds survive. They're not used to all this. We usually have flowers all year round.

SNOW DAY!!!!

You can imagine the excitement this morning when we woke up to this! We woke the boys up at 6:30 because we promised we would if it was snowing (never thought it would really happen). Cade prayed for snow before bed, and called it a Christmas miracle this morning. So cute. We all piled on all the warm clothes we owned and ran out to enjoy the winter wonderland. We have loaned out alot of our ski clothes, so we really had to piece things together. We're not used to this!! We got about 4 inches total, and it was really coming down hard for a while!

The beginnings of a snowman.

Cade the snowboy:

Here he is, golf balls for eyes, LSU cowboy hat and scarf. Yep, it's south Louisiana!

And now, the redneck version (you had to know there would be one):

Antlers on the head, gun and fishing pole

So fun! Not a bad week at work: Day 4 is a snow day!!! Off to watch the Polar Express with the boys.