Sunday, November 30, 2014

Thanksgiving 2014


We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  Lots of family and friends showed up, such a blessing.


Every countertop was covered with food, such a blessing.



The kids had their own table, so many blessings.


Family and friends, such a blessing.





Sweet grandbaby.

Sweet desserts.....
Sarah also had her birthday on Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for this year.  We have had our struggles but we have learned from them and grown.

I have been so busy and have to much to post about!  Perhaps I can take a moment this week to update.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Monthly Under the Couch Cleaning

 Once again we had our monthly Under the Couch Cleaning. No great sums of money were found, however one of the TV remotes was.



Actually this time around there wasn't as much stuff as in the past.  I am not quite sure why! It sure isn't because the kids are picking up better.


Obviously Anthony realized that I was taking pictures.  I was just sitting there so it wasn't obvious.  This was moments before they realized that there was a spider in the last little pile of trash.


A while back it was recommended to me that I use a crib to block the brick steps.  It works great!  One side of the crib is hinged and at this time just hooks in place.  Eventually I will add an actual latch.
Anyone else have a spot that just seems to attract "stuff"?  I have many but the couch is the most labor intensive to clean up.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Florida Trip

On Friday morning we left the house at 3 am.  We left at the crazy hour to accommodate our foster baby.  He does not like to ride in his car seat.  He has never liked riding in his car seat.  Riding in the car does not put him to sleep.  We figured that if we left real early he would sleep for the first part of the trip and we were correct.  He woke up in time to eat a late breakfast and then did well for the rest of the trip.  We made good time since all the kids slept and we didn't have to make numerous bathroom breaks.

When we got to Orlando we went to our friends home to deliver the dresser and doll bed. I met this friend online.  It is amazing how relationships can be built with people who are traveling the same path even when the connection is started online.

After school was out all of our kids were able to spend some time playing together. Yes, there was chaos. Many kids.  Lots of energy around.  We were fed a great dinner and then we headed out to our hotel near Universal Studios.  Sarah has been wanting to go to Harry Potter World for a while.  Her birthday is later this month and we were trying to find a way to go for her birthday.  Our friends were able to obtain two free tickets for us so we were able to afford the rest.  None of the kids knew that we were going to Universal Studios.  It was a very pleasant surprise.

Funny, the younger kids were not familiar with many of the movies.  They have never seen Back to the Future.


 
 The weather was fantastic and everyone had a great time.  Warning, picture overload ahead......













The kids loved this dragon and he blew fire.  However, I could never seem to catch the fire in a picture.












At least the kids were familiar with Dr. Seuss!




They enjoyed the water ride.  I forgot about Larissa's cast until after they were on the ride.  Ooops, at least my jacket protected it from getting wet.




Larissa saw this Hulk ride and begged to go on it.  Sarah finally decided to go on it with her.  Michelle and Emma were too short and Anthony had no interest in going.



 She came off of the ride very excited, said that she loved it.

We left Universal Studios at dinner time and went to a local Mexican restaurant. After dinner we went to the hotel where we crashed.  The suites that we stayed at had a well stocked breakfast so we didn't have to buy breakfast.  Eating out can get very expensive for our family. We stayed in a two bedroom suite for $150/night and brought our own playpen for little man.

The next morning we met up at our friends church for the 9am service.  It was a very nice church and everyone was very friendly.  After the service we headed back home.  It took us longer to get home because of the numerous bathroom/food breaks.

We stopped at Steak and Shake....




We made it home at 8pm and everyone crashed once again.  The weather had gotten cold while we were away.  I was ready to head back south! It was a quick trip but well worth it.  I love that we are able to meet some of our friends that we have connected with online.