Getting Ready....

Well it has been awhile since my last post. Things have been crazy busy around here. I noticed I didn't even blog about our Christmas morning! Well it's been a month, and I will just say, we had a great Christmas. Santa was very good to everyone!
We have been very busy this last couple weeks. We have been getting ready for our vacation and then of course everything seems to go wrong or something happens right before we go or do anything. This time it was Mike's car. The transmission decided to go out. We needed to get a new one...so after a week of being in the shop and $1700.00 later, the car is back on the road. Last week, I had to get the kids up at 5:45 am and pack them up and take Mike to work. We had to do this for 3 days. The kids did great, did not complain one bit. It was very cold and made for a very long day! I think going on vacation really kept me from being put in a mental hospital. It was a very stressful week!
So here we are a few days before our trip, I have already started packing. I thought it would be easy, but with the kids, it's a little harder, especially with Madison. Diapers and wipes and all the "baby stuff". Ryan was easy to pack, he actually helped me and had so much fun! I had fun watching him! We were right on track and everything was going according to schedule! Then I get a call that someone wants to come through the house. Which in this terrible market, is great. But we have not had ANYONE through in about 6 months, so why now...I really didn't want to have to reorganize all the toys this week, but it looks like I have to. The frustrating thing is nothing is probably going to come out of this, but it might, and that small possibility keeps me trying to think positive! Oh well, DISNEY WORLD IN 3 DAYS!! That is keeping me sane!!

Christmas 2008 with our Families

I am finally trying to get back to our regular schedule. Mike has been off work since December 19, so it's been really great having him home. We had a great Christmas! We started out by having Christmas with Mike's family on Saturday the 20th of December. We use to do Christmas Day with Mike's family, but last year we decided it was time to start our own traditions with "our" family and stay home on Christmas do, so the kids can actually enjoy their presents. It was always open presents and leave, and then the kids couldn't even play with anything until the next day. It was fair to them, and it wasn't fair to us. I love watching them play with their new toys. Such great joy on their face. So with little complaining this plan works out great! The kids had a great Christmas in Kalamazoo. I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures. We all got great presents and the kids had a blast.

Christmas Eve is when we Celebrate Christmas with my family. We didn't think we were going to make it to Ludington because of the weather. It was terrible. We had made back up plans just in case. We made it, just took us longer to get there. My only fear was not being able to get back home. We made it back, but it was a long trip home. We followed my brothers, just in case any of us went off the road.

The kids had a great time at Grammie and Papa's house. Great Grandma B. and Great Grandpa B. came down to see the kids. Took Ryan a little bit to warm up to Grandma B. but all it took was Grandma B. reading him a book to get him comfortable. We got some great gifts and had great food. My mom always puts on a great spread! The cheesey potatoes were my favorite this year, and I got to take lots home! YUMMY!!




Madison took right to Grandpa B. She wanted to sit with him! She probably would have sat with him all day if we would have let her! Madison got her Bitty Baby, and was in love. I don't think it was because she was a Bitty Baby, but because she was a baby. She loves babies!! Ryan his fire station he wanted and was so happy! We thought we were going to need a U-Haul to get home. Soo much stuff!!


Mike and I were happy to get gift cards to the mall so we could get clothes and stuff we need for Florida. I love getting gift cards, makes it so easy to getting what you want and need.

We thank both our families for giving us a great Christmas. I know the kids are very spoiled and never "want" for anything. We are all very fortunate!