So it's over....

After all the stress about Christmas shopping it's all over now. We had a really nice Christmas. Jeremy got home on Christmas Eve EVE so the kids said. I made a pretty good meal if I do say so myself. The kids got more presents then they could ever need. Then we spent Christmas day driving to Amarillo because Jeremy had to be back to work that day. We saw parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We have thrown a 10th anniversary in their (I'll post more about that when I can add the pictures of the crazy thing I did). We are staying in a hotel in Amarillo so that we can spend sometime with Jeremy before the kids have to be back to school on Jan. 9th. We even got to experience our first ice storm in almost 2 years. I'm not sure when we will be heading home but when we get their I have Christmas pictures to post too. I know your just dying from anticipation! Hope you all had a very nice holiday and have the very best New Year!

Whew

It's official! I am totally and completely finished with all of my Christmas shopping and baking! Well, we do have Christmas dinner to make and cookies for Santa but other then that I'm done. Maybe now I can finally start enjoying the holiday. Every year just seems to get a little more stressful and less magical. Of course, I don't think we have had one Christmas since I have been an adult without some issue to deal with. It's either that we don't have much money, we're dealing with the loss of a loved one, last year was a little bit of all of all that and, as you all know, much more. This year it's that for all intents and purpose I have been pretty much a single parent for the last 3.5 months. It so sucks! It's also made it that much harder to get into the Christmas spirit. It's much easier when you have someone to share your stress with at the end of the day. And sometimes the phone just doesn't cut it. I have so much more respect for my Mother now. Not because she ever had to be a single parent but because I now know what all she had to do to make my childhood so magical and special. Wouldn't it be nice to be a kid again just for a day or two? Just long enough to remember what it feels like to be innocent and stressfree and not feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Can I make that my Christmas wish?

And we baked...

Not very well but we did. We spent today making these http://http://desertculinary.blogspot.com/2005/05/cocoa-tassies-with-peppermint-creme.html although we used brownie and ours were no where near as pretty because the icing never set. We also made these http://http://foodgoodness.blogspot.com/2005/11/buckeyes.html but they didn't turn out very pretty either. Could have been the four sets of extra hands. Then I also made some fudge. Since I did that alone it looks a little better. Then tomorrow we are making chocolate covered popcorn and chocolate dipped pretzel sticks for the kids teachers Christmas presents. Hopefully we can get them to look edible. :) The kids did enjoy helping and eating our near disasters though so I guess we can still count today a success.

ISO: Babysitter

Anyone game?! We now officially have less then 2 weeks till christmas. I can't even begin to finish my shopping until the 15th. Since my shooping to date has been minimual I still have a lot of shopping to do. Jeremy is hoping to make it home this weekend before they send him back to Amarillo Sunday evening. If only we had a babysitter we could get a huge majority of our christmas shopping done and I wouldn't have to do it alone! So who has a weekend free to come to good ole' Abilene to watch my kids? I'm sure I could throw in a nice meal or something. Just name your terms. :)

New hair

Sunday we took Chey and Dyl to get hair cuts.

We also got 3 Angel's off the Salvation Army Angel Tree so we ran all over town looking for coats and toys for these 3 less fortunate children. The kids are very excited about the idea of getting to be Santa for others.

Christmas picture

We took the kids to the Mall this weekend to have their picture taken with Santa so we can send them out with our christmas cards. Yes my children believe in Santa (except Chey she says she's too old) and yes we think it's a great thing that they do! SANTA ROCKS!!!!!

As an aside, can you tell that Alissa is about 2 feet in front of everyone else or that she was terrified of being that close to Santa?

House hunting

Really it's not all it's cracked up to be. We have been half-heartedly house hunting with the thought that in the near future we would like to purchase a home in our current area. We love the kids school and don't want to have to move them to a new one. We have seen a lot of nice houses but all of them have been 3 bedrooms. We really need at least a 4 bedroom because Dylan will no longer be able to share a room with Alissa soon and 3 girls in one room is just something I don't want to have to endure. Most of the houses in our area have 2 car garages so we entertained the idea of enclosing one side for a bedroom. But really when would we ever actually get that done. Last night we drove by a 2 story house that looked very nice on the outside. Jeremy called the realtor, yes it was 8pm because Jeremy had surprised us with an overnight visit. He agreed to meet us at the house since Jeremy had to leave again this morning. This house has 5 bedrooms and is only $100,000. A huge steal in this area. The upstairs is not so bad. It looks very newly remodeled. I absolutely LOVE the kitchen. Their is a deck of the kitchen with stairs, because it's the second story, that lead into the backyard which is huge and the kids loved. The living room was a bit small but workable. It has 3 bathrooms. The kicker there is that only one of them has a bathtub. The other 2 bathrooms only have a toilet and a sink. No way would that work for a family of 6. We would have to add a bathtub upstairs and a shower downstairs. The downstairs is partially underground so it's pretty much a finished basement. It has 2 bedrooms that I would want to re-carpet, a large laundry room that we would probably have to downsize to enlarge the bathroom and a huge den area. It would make a great media area. The problem there? It has old formica tiles that I would want covered with carpet or hardwood flooring. All in all it doesn't sound like a lot of work but with Jeremy being gone so much I don't know that I'm up to dealing with it. That is if we could afford to have the work done rather then do it ourselves. The then their the issue of getting financed and coming up with a down payment. We had decided we would get through Christmas and then start saving for a down payment on a house with the intention of buying this summer. The thing is it's hard to pass up a 5 bedroom house in this area! It's the first house we have seen with more then 3. Sometimes I hate being the adult! :)

My favorite time of year!

We spent our weekend loading up on cool outside Christmas decorations and pain stakingly placing them in the yard. We were in a hurry to get it all done before Jeremy left for Big Spring Wednesday morning. This is what we got.

Alissa had to have this.

Jeremy had to have these

That's Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy decorating a tree

Then the kids and I spent yesterday after school and today (because they cancelled school due to our big snow) decorating the inside of the house.

I LOVE having a fireplace

We'll have to retire our tree after this year

This is my new Disney village...I've always wanted a christmas village

Snow

I know it's not much but we were all very excited. We didn't even see so much as one flake of snow last year. Us Panhandle Texans sure have been missing the snow. It never accumulated enough to play in but it sure was pretty to watch falling outside the window.

First haircut

Yes I know Alissa is four years old but until Tuesday she had never had a haircut. It took forever for her hair to grow. The lady didn't cut much off. Just evened out the back and got all the fuzzy baby hair cut off. We took her to Cool Cuts for Kids. She got to set in a firetruck and watch The Care Bears movie. She though it was very cool.

Our Travels

Alissa and Travis

Lillypad aka. Thelma Renee

All 6 Cumming's Great-Grandkids

We went to both Oklahoma and Borger to visit family over Thanksgiving. Alissa spent her time in Oklahoma with her buddy Baby Travis. He even cried when we left because he wanted to come home with us. In Borger we spent our time snuggling up to Lillypad, yes I nicknamed her. All 4 kids watched her like a hawk. Dylan kept telling me he just couldn't help himself because she was too cute. :) Dyl also played with his 2 year old cousin Caleb(a boy...YAY!). Then in Oklahoma he had his best buddies, who he misses terribly, Ryan, Calan and Canton. He soaked up as much boy time as he could while we were gone! Cass enjoyed her time with another girlie girl, her cousin Erica. They did hair and nails. Chey was caught somewhere in the middle but she stayed busy.

My boy

He's too cool!

This is the Yankee hat Mrs. Garrett, his teacher last year, bought him for his birthday.

My little man turned 8 yesterday! I can't believe so much time has gone by. He seems so grown up in the last 2 days. He had a nice party at the nickle arcade on Sunday and had a blast. Yesterday we took him out of school at lunch and took him to his favorite restaurant. Last night he helped his Dad put Christmas lights on the house. Really where does all the time go? I called him "Baby Boy" tonight and he had a fit. "I'm not a baby!" I had to explain that no matter how old he got he would always be my baby and so will his sisters. It's amazing to see him growing into a handsome young man. I just hope I'm doing a good job of it. In a short 10 years this same boy will be graduating from high school. As fast as the last eight have flown by I'm afraid to blink!

Busy, busy, busy

I didn't have any time to post last week because I was busy tring to clean the house and keep it clean so that it would not be a total disaster when Jeremy got home Saturday. Of course I was completely unsuccessful until Saturday. I also had to find Chey a nice dressy outfit that she could wear to their field trip to the Nutcracker Ballet which she loved, the outfit and the Nutcracker. I had to plan Dylan a birthday party and get invitations out before Friday which was their last day of school until the 27th. His party will be the 26th becuase that was the only day they had a time avalible that Jeremy would be home. I have been tring to find birthday presents and stressing over the fact that I haven't even bought so much as one christmas present yet.

This week will be just as busy. Jeremy got home Saturday night. He will be here until the 28th when he has to go to Big Spring, Tx only 1.5 hours aways from us. In that time we have to get all the Christmas decorations up, have Dylan a birthday party, mow our horribly overgrown yard, drive to Borger, Amarillo and Oklahoma to see family for Thanksgiving and, cross your fingers, trade in my Durango. Jeremy is on his way to get a discount # right now so that he can go to the dealer and see what we can do about getting me a new Durango. We're told through his company they get a very good discount because they make the lightbulbs they use in the cars. YAY! So if I don't have a chance to post before the end of the week I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Not a bad way to end a rough week!

Saturday the kids and I enjoyed our first fireplace fire of the season. It made the living room all warm and toasty. We roasted marshmallows till they were gooey and black. We had hot chocolate overflowing with mini-marshmallows. It was very nice. I don't know anything about fireplace maintenance though so if anyone has any info to pass on it would be greatly appreciated. :)

Our week was a bit rough. I was sicker then I have been in a long time the whole week. The kids were lucky they made it to school everyday. I actually had to call my friend to take them and pick them up on Monday because I just couldn't function. I finally feel like I'm actually going to live. :) Chey was a huge help too. Of course the house ended up trashed and homework wasn't always done on time and the kids ate a lot of microwavable meals this week but I don't think their any worse for the wear.

One big surprise

At this exact moment this man is sound asleep on our couch, in our living room, in our house. He showed up on our doorstep, Dr.Pepper peace offering in hand, Saturday at about 7pm. Yes he's a scary site in his current state of slumber but it sure has been good to have him here the last 24+ hours. I knew I missed him I didn't know exactly how much until I saw him standing on our front porch last night. Of course, I have to make sure he's up by 2am so that he can be back in Amarillo early enough to make it to work for his first day as a supervisor at 7am tomorrow. It's so nice to have him here now though. He picked a great time too because the girls, all 3 of them, and I have all been sick. The girls have been lucky and only have 1 or 2 of the 7 or 8 symptoms that I have. I on the other hand feel like total crap! Jeremy has taken good care of me though. He took me out to eat last night and tonight. He held me close last night so that I got the best night sleep I've had in the last 7 weeks. He played ball with the kids and brought them all presents. Overall he gave us the best weekend we've had in a long time!!

Too cute!

Alissa recieved this adoradle purse in the mail today from her birthday buddy Clayton! Isn't it adorable?!

The party

Baby Alive


Dora register
blowing out the candles

our sad cake

The nap she took before her party.

The party went well. We we're lucky and there was hardly anyone there. They had cake and pizza, played tons of games, traded in thousands of tickets. Overall a successful party.

Pancakes and ice cream...Could it get any better?!

I think Alissa has had a great birthday so far. She woke up in a very good mood. She was quite content to wait till her party tonight to open any presents but her siblings were impatient. I gave in and let her open one present, a Dora movie. We had breakfast just the 2 of us at I-Hop this morning. She had her usual smiley face pancake with chocolate chips, cherries and whipped cream. She had some of my omelet, too. On our way out the hostess realized it was her birthday, she is wearing a button that says Birthday Girl, so while we stood at the exit door the wait staff came and sang happy birthday to her and brought her a chocolate sundae in a to go cup. Like the pancake wasn't enough sugar...lol Then we went to Walmart to get the last few things we needed for her cake. While there she also got snowman napkins, Dora party hats and a 2nd Birthday Girl ribbon "cuz she needed them for her birthday". She is now cuddles up on the couch happily watching her new movie. And if all that's not enough excitement we still have a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese to anticipate!

One a non-birthday note it's not good to drive or attempt to make a birthday cake when you have a cold/flu/allergy thing. I'm covering all my bases because I don't know what the problem is exactly. I have this coughing, runny nose, watery burning eyes, congestion, sneezing, achey muscles thing going on right now. The burning eyes make it difficult to see the road. Everything else makes it difficult to make a decent looking cake. Thank goodness it's at least still edible. :)

Give me all your candy or surrender!

Dylan was quite upset when every person he said that to laughed. He didn't want to be cute. It's inevitable though. All 4 of my little trick or treaters were way too cute for their own good. Must be something they get from their mother...lol :)

Pumpkin goo is fun!

After digging in pumpkin goo, cleaning and roasting pumpkin seeds and painstakingly carving beautiful figures from my loving (and impatient) children this is what we ended up with.

Thirty one

I know a lot of people have trouble with getting older. I'm not one of those people. I have found the older you get the less important your birthday is. It's just another day. I don't feel any different then I did last night when I was still 30. I figure my year will be much the same as last year. Their will be days when I fell like I'm still in my 20's and days that I feel 80, like today. I am a little sad that Jeremy won't be here today but then I think about the fact that he won't he home for Alissa's 4th birthday in 2 weeks either and I am more sad for her. My friend was very sweet to me yesterday and took all the kids for a few hours. While she had them they made a cake for me. It was very yummy, and still warm when we ate it. I got orange roses yesterday too. It was exciting to get home and see the box on the porch. I though they were from my hubby. I have to admitt I was a little disappointed when I opened them to find out they were from my Dad instead. Jeremy would have gotten me white. Their my favorite. So anyway, Thank you Mom for induring nine long months of pregnancy and labor and delivery to bring me into this world on this very day 31 years ago!

Thelma Renee

My sister-in-law had this beautiful, healthy baby Friday, October 13th around 4am. She weighed 7.13 and I don't remember how long she was. I was told she has the family temper. :)

Sometimes life just SUCKS!!!

You would think that the thunder that woke me up at 3am that sounded like a train would be comming through my bedroom at any moment would have been an indication that this was gonna be one of those sucky days. However, I was tired and just happy that we were getting the much needed rain. Maybe the rainy, gray sky when I woke up should have tipped me off. Nope, I love those kind of days. The fact that Dylan was in a much more horrible then normal mood this morning should have done it. Nope again! How about the fact that Alissa and my McDonald's breakfast cost $6.66? Stupid superstition, I thought. Not until my car died on me did I realize that all of the afore mentioned things we're signs that I should have never gotten out of bed this morning. Add to it the fact that Sunday Dylan broke yet another window, that makes 4 in a year, I apperently can't budget to save my life and an email from a friend that makes me feel as though I have been "weeded out" and I have reached the conclusion that right now life just SUCKS!!!!

Some Dylan pics

I have pictures!

Their from Chey's birthday and the following weekend.