Christmas Greetings.!

I fully understand that most of you don't want to be bored with 7+ minutes of Ford family photos....but if it's mid-night and you're having a hard time falling asleep--this MIGHT help!

Are you kidding me???

Our last fill-up at the gas station was so much fun....seriously! Just 6 months ago, we were paying nearly $140 to fill up our Excursion. This week we found gas for just over $1 a gallon!! I don't remember gas prices that low....well, for a very long time.

We've been busy with sick kids. No whooping cough this year....we had to find another 1800's long-forgotten disease to contract. Baylor got Scarlet Fever. I really do feel like I'm stuck in another century. I haven't heard of these diseases since history class when we studied nineteenth century US epidemics. She's much better now. Rick ran his marathon this past week, the boys are playing basketball, the girls' are already on Christmas break, and we're preparing for ALL of my siblings to come "home" for Christmas. It will be crazy fun! There will be 10 children ages 7 and under in one house. Hee hee hee. I'm sure that fact alone will make Christmas extra exciting this year.

My Little Artist

Corbin, my little artist, had his artwork displayed at the nearby Barnes and Noble. He was so proud to take us so that we could see his fish painting. He is very much our artistic child. He's the one who tells me what clothes to wear, how to arrange furniture, he critiques food, etc. I'm just hoping he's not on Project Runway some day. He did a great job on his painting, and we're very proud of him.

(To prove my point about how "creative" he is....this afternoon he and Piper were playing "house." Piper wanted to get "dressed up" for him so that she would look "pretty." Corbin told her, "That's ok. You don't have to look pretty, because we're married now." "Now that mommy's married, she doesn't look pretty very much." )

OUCH!! Let me pick myself up off the floor and go put some makeup on.

Giving Thanks.

What a fun week this has been! The kids were out of school all week. We've stayed in our pj's half of the week. We've Christmas shopped, watched movies, had a weiner roast at my parent's house, and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving! Rick was home for Thanksgiving, but due to his job he told me that was the last holiday he'd be home for years to come. If I'm lucky, he might be home for Groundhog Day or Secretary's Day. Lucky me!

Black Friday.....Why do they call it Black Friday? It should be called, "Get the &$*% out of my way before I run you over with this germ infested shopping cart FRIDAY." I mean...seriously!! I've never seen more people grabbing things in my life. And they weren't grabbing nicely. They' were grabbing like the item they were going for was the last item in the store. All I could think was, "Recession? What recession?"

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and that none of you were crushed by the rush of crazy shoppers this morning!

Merry Thanksgiving.......

Merry Thanksgiving. I've created a new phrase for those of us who are crazy enough to get Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving. I figure if Hobby Lobby can put their Christmas trees up in July, it's ok if I put mine up in November.

I'm looking forward to a whole week of NO school. Our district gets the entire Thanksgiving week off....no homework, no swimming, basketball, guitar....no anything. I think I'll stay in my warm pj's for 7 days!! Attractive thought, I know!

We will spend Thanksgiving day with my parents--cheering on our mediocre Cowboys, stuffing our faces with way too much food, and rejoicing in the fact that God has taken such good care of us for yet another year. As the economy continues to faulter, every day becomes a reminder of His graciousness. Our childrens' prayers are now 20 minutes instead of 2....they have to thank God for the grass, roof, windows, warm beds, clothes, toys, family, schools, food, tables, playgrounds, water, etc, etc, etc.

I miss all of my sweet friends and even though I hardly ever get to see any of you, I'm incredibly grateful for each one of you. Happy Thankgiving!

Halloween....

So, I started blogging nearly a year ago. One of my first posts detailed our 2007 trick-or-treating "experience." This year was far more enjoyable...well, don't ask my parents--they may disagree. Maybe it's because all of the kids are out of diapers, I no longer have to push an enormous stroller around town, and they don't automatically fall asleep at 7:30. We packed the kids up and took them to our church's trunk fest. There were an estimated 15,000 people there....so we didn't stay long. We ventured back to our old neighborhood and enjoyed seeing our former neighbors. They, of course, emptied their trick or treat candy bowls into our kids pumpkins. So, even though we only went to 10-15 houses, the pumpkins were nearly full--as were the kids stomachs. I've never seen a child eat as much candy as Baylor did that night. Piece, after piece, after piece went into that child's mouth. It became humourous! The kids were so sick of candy after that night, they've barely wanted to eat the last couple of days.

So, now it's down with the pumpkins. Where, oh where are those Christmas trees??? They're about to come out of hiding. If Wal-Mart can bring out Christmas stuff in June, I figure I can get it out in November. In case I fall back into my lazy habits and "forget" to blog for 2 months, have a Merry Christmas!

Pre-Halloween Festivites

(Deliquency. That's all it is. This is why I never kept a diary. Blogging is hard. Or maybe I'm just lazy, busy, or have 4 kids with demanding schedules.) We weathered a nasty stomach bug that ripped through our house about like it ripped thru our stomachs. It was awful. Yep, we'll just leave it at awful. We're all feeling much better--just in time for Halloween.

People always wonder what my children want to be for Halloween. The question needs to be...."what costumes did you find at the resale store for your kids this year?" I must be an awful mom. I've truly never asked the kids what they want to be....I just tell them what they're going to be. I'm sure they'll be in therapy for this some day.

I got to watch "Little Bo Peep" (Baylor) and Red Riding Hood (Piper) walk in circles, and circles, and more circles for the costume parade today at school. Seriously, how many circles can one class make around a courtyard?? Baylor was yawning by the end of her "parade" saying where's my candy. I'm with you sister. If I had to parade around for an eternity in a silly outfit, I would want restitution (candy), too. I saw 250 Tinkerbells, 2 million princesses, 2 Yodas, Pop-stars, Fairies, Butterflies, Batman, SpiderMan, Knights.....I saw it all. We got a good head-start on the candy for tomorrow. That's another good thing about having 4 kids....we get 4 x's the candy--like any of us need it. I'm sure Halloween night will be an event-filled evening....as it usually is.