2 months later...

Wow I've been terrible at blogging lately! Sorry! Let me get right to it, two months have gone by and so have two holidays!

We all dressed up for Halloween and enjoyed the holiday with friends and family. Liz went as Minnie Mouse and Maddy was a super cute chicken. Jay went as Joe the Plumber even though we lost the election a few days later. And I cheaped out by going as a cat. (black pants, black shirt, $3 cat ears and some eyeliner on my nose. Voila! A cat.) lol

Halloween was great but the real fun was Thanksgiving where Jay and I took the girls to Ohio to be with all my extended family for the festivities. We left at 4 am on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving which turned out to be a great choice. The girls slept until 8 which put us 4 hours closer to Ohio before I had to start entertaining them for the last 7 hours of the trip. I drove the first leg then began the rotation of movies, toys, songs, threats, you know... Anything to keep chaos from breaking out in the back seat. Lizzy was a bit of a nightmare during the whole trip. But to her credit she didn't get a good nights sleep the entire time due to the four of us sharing one room at my aunts. You see, Jay snores. Like a freight train. Maddy kicks her bed while trying to fall asleep. And Liz usually chats herself to sleep. Meanwhile I slept on the bottom bunk of my cousins bed and knocked myself in the head every time I sat up during the night to settle the girls or threaten Jay (who blissfully slept solid every night sawing his logs while I was up every 30-40 minutes every. Single. Night.) So having said all that, poor Liz, who desperately needs a good nights sleep to function properly was a bossy, non listening little stinker the whole trip.

However... And this is a big however, I am SO thankful that my aunt allowed us to stay with them. It was so nice spending time with my awesome cousins and getting to celebrate the season with them. We had an absolute blast while we were there. Madeline was an angel the whole time which helped a lot. We shopped, played games, ate more food than I should have had all month (which explains the 3 lbs I gained back in one week). Thanksgiving day we piled 21 people into my aunts house. With some creative decorating and name placing we managed to get everyone seated with 3 tables set up for all the amazing food. My aunt Debi made 8, yes 8 pies. I made 2 pumpkin rolls so we seriously inhaled a bazillion delicious calories over the course of a few days.

Black Friday I woke up early and went shopping by myself, I scored a few good deals but missed out on the two things I went for (I didn't get in line at 4) but then the girls hit the town and boy did we clean up on bargains! I scored some super cute shirts for myself from Old Navy for $5! Love that!

Friday night we all went out to dinner for Aunt Jill and Bethy's birthdays. YUMMY! Marchella's (sp?) was insanely good. It was this great little Italian restaurant with the strongest (and perhaps coincedentally best tasting) cosmo I'd ever had. The food was incredible and we all left there wishing we'd worn elastic waist pants. LOL

Saturday brought both frustrations (we got lost in Mansfield for an hour) and so much fun! Jay and I gathered our girls in their adorable Christmas dresses and took off for Jeromesville to find the worlds largest Sycamore tree. (you know my husband and his facination with trees) And we found it! On a dirt road, over the river and through the woods. (not to grandmothers house, that was later in the day) No, nestled in the heart of some No Trespassing acreage which we trespassed on stood the worlds largest Sycamore. It was beautiful and worth the trip. However since we were trespassing and in a tiny little town in Ohio, we didn't stay long. (I wasn't about to get shot over a tree!) So on to the Gauls house! After getting lost in Mansfield (10 years of being gone completely erased all memory of how to get around in my old home town) we arrived at the Gauls just in time to pass around some hugs, say a quick hello then back in the car to head to my grandparents with mom and dad leading the way this time. All this was acomplished by noon and we arrived at my grandparents with ravishing appetites and a huge spread of Christmas foods for our first Christmas party! We had a great time, some of my cousins where there that I hadn't seen in YEARS! The Christmas party was fun but before we knew it it was time to make the hour and a half drive back to Dublin.

Sunday brought more Christmas fun, I got to sleep in a bit after being up ALL night with the girls. So Jay took pity on me and let me have a couple hour nap before the next Christmas party at my grandma's house!

Once again the food was overflowing with flavor and abundance. What a great time! We spoiled grandma with gifts and pictures of great grandbabies and enjoyed every moment of our time together! Sunday night we hung out at the Embassy Suites in Dublin (where my parents stayed the whole trip) free cocktails and movie madness made for a fun last evening with my family. Monday was a long ride home but other than a couple major blowputs by Maddy (I had to change her on the side of the road in the snowy mountains, poor baby was freezing but she didn't complain, she was happy to have clothes that weren't covered in poop anymore. LOL)

So now on to a few updates. Madeline is standing! She walks around furniture now and has this "O" face that looks like she's suprised, she makes this face ALL the time. Its so funny! She also has two teeth now! They're so cute, her bottom two teeth. She smiles with her bottom lip down to show off her little beavers all the time. She'll be walking in the next couple months I'm sure.

Lizzy is SO excited for Christmas this year. She's been helping me wrap gifts, playing with the nativity every day and in general learning what this season is all about.

Life is great but crazy. My girls make every day an adventure. Jay talks about baby 3 a lot but we decided to wait a couple years as we're trying to buy some land right now for our tree farm. We're running out of space at our house so we're looking for a growing field along with a place we can build our future home. With all that going on, I definately do not want to be pregnant right now.

We're planning on visiting Disney in January so hopefully that works out. It'll depend on how busy our business stays.

Anyway, this was a long overdue update. I'll be sure to post some pictures soon! Our Christmas picture turned out super cute! :)