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Happy Birthday Honey!

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday. He is THE BEST HUSBAND in the world and spent his day with me ( aka didnt go to work! yeah! ) doing billing and helping me catch up with my business. I struggled with what to get him for a gift this year... he says all he needs is ME. ( yeah, he is that sweet! )

Then I got an idea --- he has NEVER been to a rock concert, he has always loved Nickleback and they sing our wedding song ( Far Away) AND they are going to be in Omaha in March! SOOOO I got TICKETS today to the concert --- I am giving him his gift in 1 hour --- he is going to FLIP OUT!!!!!!
Now I just have to figure out how we are going to pull off going to omaha on a SCHOOL night and what to do with my 5 kids --- details, schmetails...lol


I almost didnt do this... details overwealming... taking a risk that is unfamiliar. I am such a chicken. And then I thought, we only live once.. this will be one of the BEST experiences of his life and something he has dreamed of doing and he is worth it!

Starting over....

A few months ago we lost our dog... she had started "going to town" about 2 miles from home. We got calls to come pick her up numerous times. We tried putting her in a kennel. She dug out. We put the kennel on cement. She climbed out. We put a roof on the kennel. She unwired the fasenings on the gate and got out. Yes, she was a very smart dog. So we gave up. And most days she stayed home, and about once a week she would "go to town". I didn't want to have a farm dog that was locked up or on a chain it's whole life. But I worried. And one day she didn't come back home and no one called. We put up signs, we called the radio stations, and no one had seen our beloved dog. It is now 2 months later and we have all been mourning her since. For the last few weeks I have been checking out puppyfind.com to just "look" at the aussie puppies. Today I found my puppy. And we called and put down a deposit and soon he will be coming home to live with us ( the kids can not wait)

Last weekend we went to the movie Maddy and Me - wow what a heart wrenching movie - especially for a family like us who lost their dog a few months earlier. If you do go see it, bring tissues ( as in the whole box )

Meet our new start ( who better never learn there is a town 2 miles from here ) Bizkit ( we think this will be his permanent name... it is still under debate... with 7 opinions it is hard to come to a conclusion without a bit of bartering!)

Handmade from the heart....

I know Christmas is over but I wanted to show you some of my favorite gifts we gave this year.

The kids helped me make these cute little personlized boxes for their cousins, then we made cookies and filled the boxes with them.

We used stuff we already had.... scrapbooking papers, stickers etc, paint and old buttons and bottlecaps ( I collect those and this is the first craft I have used them on! )

the kids had so much fun creating these and were really proud of how they turned out!



We also made two altered picture frames for big sis.... she LOVED them! The hoodies the boys have on were her gifts to them this year which made the picture extra special too. These are big frames ( 14x18 ) so the finished effect when on the wall is dramatic! I love how they turned out and it cost me literally a few dollars worth of scrapbooking papers and stickers and I used old frames I already had.

I am going to try to do more gifts like these from now on.... it felt special to give something the kids created!

Christmas memories.....

We had a wonderful Christmas! I am going to do a short photo blog of how Christmas day here went.... Our beautiful tree ... Santa came to our house! The calm before the unwrapping storm.

Taylor with her favorite gift... a huge box full of envelopes of MONEY!

Reid got lots of Bengals stuff!

Lance is shocked at his gift..... his old highschool football games on dvd!

Evan got hunting stuff... traps, calls, binoculars etc. He is in hunting heaven.

Brady says... more clothes?

Ok..these clothes are COOL - they all have their favorite team and got the qb jerseys!

Give the teens money.... it's what they really want!

Later in the day all our cousins came over.

The girls went sledding... even though it was only about 15 degrees out. Brrrrrrrr

We opened MORE presents.... Brady looks tired? Not Reid.... bring on some more!

We played You Might Be A Redneck, and Scrabble, and Golf ( the card game)

And this is after the unwrapping ..... um where did everyone go? Anyone want to help clean up?

Christmas times a comin'

I am happy to announce I am almost done shopping!! I have 2 gifts left to get and I know exactly what I am looking for so that is good news! I have never been done this early before, it is a good feeling!
Here is one of my favorite gifts EVER - Santa is from my good friend Maurine from http://www.kottonkountrykreations.com - She gave him to me last Christmas and I just LOVE him! Stop by and see Maurine's other dolls when you have time!

Holiday Season!

We had a great Thanksgiving! I cooked, ate, napped, cooked some more, ate some more, etc etc.


I actually made HOMEMADE ROLLS - thanks to www.thepioneerwoman.com - her recipe for no knead dinner rolls is awesome ! I made them on Thursday morning and again on Friday night and baked that batch Saturday . Both family dinners I took them too RAVED over them and there were none left even though I made 3 dozen each time!

On Thursday night I went to bed at 8 30 pm ! I usually go to bed around 3 am - so this was big news! That thing about turkey making you sleepy must be true! Or maybe it was the fact that I have been going on about 4 hours of sleep a night for the last two weeks trying to get my new clients websites all up and running before December?

We put up the tree and decorated for Christmas yesterday - my home looks very inviting and I love how our tree looks in its new spot infront of our living room window - last year I stuck it in a corner - this year it is front and center. MUCH BETTER!

Notice my untrimmed window arch? I have ordered the trim 3 different times, everytime it comes in with the WRONG angle, wrong size, doesnt fit! I am trying again this month - maybe someday my window will be trimmed!

I have almost all my Christmas shopping done! woo hoo! Thank you ebay and amazon.com!