I'm still here

I realize that I had not written in a while...but I didn't' realize it has been this long!!

We have been keeping ourselves busy. We had Isaiah's birthday party since I last wrote. We had such a great time. We had it at Roly Pollies...this place with trampolines and bounce houses and a lot of fun stuff that even the adults could use. Everyone really enjoyed themselves....and later...we all took a nap. We were exhausted!!

We also hosted Thanksgiving dinner here this year....our first year in our house. We had our family, my parents, Kristine and Scott, Kerri and Joe, Bo and Giovanni, and Scott's parents and sister. We had a great dinner and after we put the kids to bed...we all played Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader....it was a blast. I am a little competitive so I didn't like some of the cheating going on...you know who you are...Ha ha!!

We finally got to see some family here too! We went to Aunt Sue's 80th birthday party. We had so much fun and got to spend time with Dave's family. We really need to do that more but everyone always seems so busy...us too!~

After Thanksgiving and Isaiah's party were finally over I thought...oh yeah...I need to get started on Christmas shopping. At first I thought I would do it online...can I tell you that you really need to know your prices....there were a lot of companies and people trying to rip you off this year. (Good thing I know about price because I research items a lot before I purchase). It was crazy. I can tell you I bought Hope this dollhouse and the accessories in the store are about 5-10 dollars. Online...they were trying to sell them for between 20-30 dollars! What a rip off. Anyway...my mom and I picked a day and Dave watched the kids. We went early in the morning and were gone for about 3 1/2 hours and got almost everything done! It was great to hang out with my Mom just me and her and to do one of our favorite things together...shop!

Since I have a lot of people to buy for...that also means a lot of wrapping to do! So Dave and I have been having dates nights for the past week. Every night after the kids go to bed (at 7!) we turn on a movie and I wrap and he assists. It has been great! I have all my wrapping done but we are still going to watch a movie tonight. We have caught up on movies that we have wanted to see for a long time. Any good movies you recommend?? We are on a roll!!

We will also be having family here starting this weekend! Yeah! We are so excited. The only bad part is that my cleaning lady has been gone for 2 weeks and will not return before they come...which means my mom and I have to clean this beast...yuck! Ha ha! Not looking forward to that part. Get home cleaning lady...LOL! :)

I have been trying to get some other things done before people arrive...like baking and decorating. Of course I put my Mom and Dad to work to help me with these things. They are the best helpers. They were just here today and my Mom and I finally baked cut out cookies..yum! And I had my Dad hang some more pictures. Thanks mom and dad!

So now that you are all caught up...I will try to post more often but with company coming...I am not sure. I will try and post some pictures of the kids soon too.

About the kids...
Isaiah cracks me up everyday with things that come out of his mouth. He was holding Hope's baby doll and feeding it a bottle. Well this is one of those babies that makes all the noises and this one always laughs. So he was holding her and says: "Why you always laughing baby?" Then he says: "What's so funny baby?" My mom and I were dying laughing but trying to not let him see. It was the cutest thing.

Hope is getting very frustrated lately. She really wants to talk and gets upset when you don't know what she wants. I know this is just a stage but some days she just cries and cries...It is crazy. But of course no one else sees that side of her. All my friends and family think she is the sweetest (which she is) most loving (she is too) thing!

Hope I didn't bore you with this long post!