I'm BACK!

I know ALL of you have missed me terribly...right? I just got out of the blogging groove. I didn't realize how hard it would be to start up again. So for all of you who haven't given up hope...here I am!

There have been moments I want to jump on the computer to tell all the cute and wonderful things my kids are up to. Then the tables turn and I want to sit them in separate corners all day long. It is hard to recall all the happenings of the past month at 6am so I wont do a recap.

Christmas Eve the kids opened there presents from Grandma Elaine. She made the cutest jammies ever! We chowed down on our traditional Pizza and spent quality time goofing off. The highlight of the night was going Christmas caroling to our good friends and neighbors. Eliana could have kept singing all night but Tristan got burned out fairly fast. I was SO impressed with how well they both sang and remembered all the words. I think we will make caroling a new Christmas tradition. We were showered with lots of treats and goodies from our friends this year. I felt totally guilty about not getting out any cards or baked goods to our friends. I vow to do better next year!
Christmas was GREAT! We (I) went a little overboard as I do every year. It must have taken an hour and a half to open all the kids presents. Tristan's favs are his new batman trike, leapster and outdoor adventure kit. Eliana loves her Butterfly decorating kit, leapster and new dolls. The babies got ride-on toys and fun toys with balls. Soren LOVES to play with any kind of ball. Chris totally spoiled me this year! He got me a new 18-200mm lens for my Canon rebel XSi with a filter and lens hood. My parents got me a nice battery grip that goes on the bottom of the camera. Elaine got me a new battery for it and an awesome set of air-bakeware. My parents drove into town for the holiday. It has been wonderful having them here to play and help out. My mom puts me to shame...:)she manages to clean constantly throughout the day and still take care of the little ones. I told her if she keeps up this pace she will either go to the nutty bin or one day pass out from exhaustion. I think she can do it because she gets to sleep in while I get up at 5am with babies. I really should get my butt to bed before 11 or midnight then I might not be so exhausted.


Back to Christmas. The kids spent most of the day playing with their new toys. We had my friends the Wilcox's over for dinner. They have 15 month old twins b/g. We ate a delicious dinner with all the fixings and then played a game of taboo. I haven't played a game with grown ups in a long time. It was a blast. So to all you friends who live close by...come over for some gaming fun when Chris gets back! After a long day the kids were grumpy and overly tired so getting them to bed was a challenge.

I was able to go shooting on Wednesday. It was so much fun. It was long overdue and I was rusty at first. I was shooting low on the target but after warming up and reminding myself how it's done I did awesome! We are going again today.

I did my annual year-in-review photo book. I think it turned out really awesome. Check it out and tell me what you think. Well, I don't want to make this post too long or no one will read it. Love and miss you all. Hope your holidays were filled with the love of Christ, those you love and plenty of laughter.