Merry Christmas 2011

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had a blast and were so truley blessed this holiday season! I wanted to share some pictures with you all from Christmas eve....

Time to decorate some cookies for Santa.....

Time to open our gifts from mommy & daddy...

Chore Time...

The kids, yes all 3, have certain chores they do everyday. They are ever changing as they grow we sorta "move rank" on who gets what chore.. Well last weekend the boys asked for extra chores, but with a catch. They wanted to start earning an allowance.. AWESOME I thought. I remember chores when I was little and getting my allowance. I also remember getting it taken away sometime too.. But hey don't we all!

So Sunday night I put together the kids a chore chart to follow. If they did a good job all week on their chores, without having to be told to do them, and they didn't get any marks on their behavior/attitude portion, they would get paid on Friday!! It was a hit! They did so well all week, and I even threw them both a "new" chore that occurred once a week on the chart.. One knocked off on mommys chore list..lol

So I took 2 clipboards and 2 markers and hot glues some magnets on the back. Stuck them to the side of our refrigerator and BOOM, chore station was born!!!

And you might be wondering how much did the little chore masters earn in a week. They both go their full dollars pay on Friday.. Which was happily spent as their cousins Ryans skate party on the game machines.. That's part of the allowance deal.. They are allowed to spend it in any way they please..

Size Doesn't Matter

Justin is now 9 years old and a well rounded 4th grader. And as he grows I see an amazing young person coming out in him. Hes my sweetheart, who wears his heart on his sleeve. He loves everyone and will do anything for anyone. As he grows I see him starting to take notice of things. Here recently he came home from school, not upset, but wanted to talk. He told me some of his classmates were teasing him about his size and being short. I reassured him hes perfect and its just all in his genes. Yes his daddy was tall and stocky, but I was a tiny kid. And my cousin Greg, whom Justin favors ALOT, is also on the smaller side.. Well we were until we got to high school.. Justin smiled and didn't give it another thought, but I have..

You see when Justin was born he had alot of health issues. Most were respiratory related and until age 5 when they finally figured out what was going on he was pumped full of all different medicines in hopes they would help. Turns out some I guess hurt him. At age 7 his pediatrician confirmed Justins growth had been stunted from the steroids he took as an infant and baby for his breathing issues. But she reassured me Justin would catch up as he grew, it just might take him longer..

I know and will show Justin as he grows, he was made the way he is for a purpose. Hes perfect in every way and size really does NOT matter!!!

Here he is next to his BFF Gabe and I swear one of the tallest girls in his class...hehe

Hello Fall!

I can not believe it is the first of November already. October went out with an awesome Halloween night of trick or treating... My little spooks had so much fun!

Fall Baseball is OVER!!! Do not get me wrong, I love the boys baseball, but this season my wonderful husband decided instead of just head coaching his normal 9/10 year old he would also head coach Nicks team of 7/8 year olds. And though we had a blast it was alot of work, and alot to keep up with an organize!! But we did have a wonderful group of kiddos and parents. My 9/10 year old boys even got me flowers, and yes I did cry!!

No we are looking forward to the holidays. Thanksgiving will not be the same this year as we will not be traveling up to spend the holidays with Joes moms side of the family. This year has been a super huge financial challenge and we just do not have the travel cash. But I hope they know we will be with them in spirit and would give anything to be with them!

Well I am off to start on some projects. This year Joe & I are making all homemade gifts for our family and friends, but more in that in another post!

New Additions

Over the past week we had 6 little chicks born. You see one of our hens, the youngest infact, decided to go broody. Sometimes wanting to be a mother hits us early in life..lol Well since we do not have a rooster and after 2 weeks of watching her set on unfertile eggs & air, since I would gather all eggs in the morning, I decided to buy her some eggs. So I found a lady that lives near Joes work that had some breeds of chickens that I have been wanting. So I bought 7 fertile eggs from her, 3 of which we were not sure if they were fertile. She charged me $5! I came home 3 weeks ago and put all 7 eggs under our little broody hen....

She was such a determined hen, I mean we had to move her twice and she let me look under her to make sure all eggs were ok and none were rotting almost everyday! Then bright and early monday morning I went out to the coop. Before I even opened the door I could hear little "peeping" coming from inside.. Over the next 24 hours she hatched 6 of the 7 eggs. I ended up opening the last egg after she left the nest and found it was just a yolk and was never fertile.. So now we have 6 new, CUTE, babies running around. They have all since been moved into the garage as the temps are dropping today and we expect lows in the lower 30's the rest of this week!!! But here are the cuties!!!

Happy Birthday Nick

This past Saturday we celebrated Nicks 7th Birthday with a Halloween themed party.. It was SO MUCH FUN!! We had pizza, and hot dog mummies, ghost poop, and cake!!! I'm so glad my boy had a great time and I must say it was the best home birthday party I (we) have ever had/done!!

Here are some pictures!!

Also I wanted to say I know I said I was gonna blog like 3 times a week, but I do have a legitimate excuse. The past week and a half I have been down with nasty pneumonia.. I'm still not over this crud, and I hope it leaves me SOON!!! But I will be back to posting (alot) :)

Getting Over The Bug

Whew its seems the three munchkins have been passing around the same cold for 3 weeks now... Oh wait they have! Emily was the last are hardest hit by this coughing bug. Luckly knock on wood she is taking a turn for the better.. Here she is all piled up in our bed watching her Dora & Cailou!! She better perk up because her big brother Nicks turning 7 years old this week!!! :0

Its Been Awhile

Well here I am, once again taking up the "blogging" thing.. I had passed the notion to just all together do away with our blog. I mean who actually reads this thing anymore anyway! But then I was reading a friend of mines blog. She is an awesome blogger (and photographer) and she mentioned every year she takes and prints off her blog post (she averages a post every 2 or 3 days) and puts them together in a cute book/notebook and displays in on her coffee table.. She made the comment it was better than just an old picture book.. I thought what an awesome idea! So I went back and started reading our blog, this blog. I came across some post I made almost 3 years ago about some worries and concerns we were going through at that time and it actually felt good to remember those times and how we came through it!!!

So here I am, blogging again. I am going to make an effort to post at least 2 or 3 times a week.. And get back into taking pictures of the family on a DAILY basis!!! Yea they might be boring post every now and then, and hey there might not be anyone reading it. But I will have it for us! For our family to read years from now and remember, good and no so good, this time of our life!!!

With that said I will not be posting a long drawn out update post right now, I mean LOTS have been going on. Some of which I am not quite ready to share in words! As for now, let get this bloggin a goin!!!

Camping Trip #2

This past weekend we headed out for our second camping trip. This time we took the canoe and bikes. The boys had a blast riding through the campground and even made some new friends! A bad storm moved in early Sunday morning causing us to pack up and come home early, but we were all so tired we were ready to get home. Here are some pictures from this trip....

This is a fish Joe caught at dusk Saturday night. It was freaky!!!

Trying Something New

I love being a stay at home mom, and though I know my "job" is just as important as my wonderful husbands, its been a constant thought in the back of my head for the past 6 years since I left veterinary medicine and a paycheck behind to start the best job in the world (being a SAHM). I just wish I could contribute to the family expenses in a monetary way.. I have seen those commercials for work from home jobs, but nothing ever striked me as "oh I would love to do that".. Ive also been to those Mary Kay, jewelery, spa, and "girly" parties, and again none of them stood out to me as something I would be good at.

Then back in February I went to a friend Scentsy party. And listening to this awesome product and how I could make some cashola by introducing others to it, I fell in love.. So I set out to become a Scentsy Consultant. I have been sharing and selling Scentsy for about 4 months now and I love it. I recently receive "Certified Scentsy Consultant" status and I am lovin it.. This is such an awesome product and I am eager to share it with everyone. Its also been nice to have some extra income coming in!!

So if you want to earn some FREE Scenty Stuff just contact me about hosting a party!!

My Page - https://suzielannom.scentsy.us/Home

  - (example - if you have a party with $500 in sales you will get $75 worth of FREE Scentsy & 3 half priced items) SWEET

Fathers Day 2011

We had a great Fathers Day this year. We started the day off at the park with Joes family. The kids had a blast and thanks to the overcast skies, it felt great outside!!! Here are some pictures from the park...

3 Generations of Joes :)

Joe & His Dad

My Amazing Husband & the loves of my life!

My Best Friend, SoulMate, & most amazing father to my kiddos...

After hitting up the park we went over to my dads for some swimming, riding four wheelers and some yummy kabobs!!! Here is Emily with Papaw riding around the yard!!!

Happy Fathers Day daddy!!!!