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 :)