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Meet Bruiser

Meet Bruiser Kahl. After you pick yourself off of the floor from the shock that I actually agreed to this addition, I must tell you the boys reaction was worth it. As of 10:15, Ben was still lying in bed, professing his love for Bruiser. He said it was the best Christmas EVER. Gabe is still in shock. He can't figure out how daddy convinced me. We have not yet opened presents. That will be tomorrow, I am assuming around 5 AM. I am trying to upload video, I hope it works.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa- My Christmas wish is very simple. The ONLY thing I want for Christmas is for you to fix my yard so my pool can go in this spring. You see Santa, my husband finally agreed to let me have my long awaited pool- I was soooo happy until I found out we might not be able to have a pool. So Santa these are the things I need from you. I understand that you are very busy now, so these things can be done any time before spring thaw.
Please find a septic company who will move our entire field to a new area in our yard. Ask them to not charge 10,000.
Please contact our landscaper and tell him all of the landscaping he did last year needs to be dug up and relocated to another area. The place he planted the 5,000 worth of landscaping is the only place our septic can be relocated to.
Please call the pool guy and tell him sorry for the tears on Monday it's just that when he said he didn't think it would be possible I was sad. Please tell him we are trying to find a way. Now that you are helping, all things are possible, right Santa????
Do you see this picture, Santa burst out laughing.

Relaxing Break

We have been thoroughly enjoying our break. I have been completing numerous projects while the boys, big and small have been "relaxing". This includes playing Tiger Woods Golf on the Wii for 11 1/2 hours on Monday(By the way, thank you dear neighbor friends for bringing this game into our lives). Since they were under adult care, I am assuming this is perfectly acceptable right- Kevin? I feel like I am finally ready for Christmas to come to our house. Evidence of this is the well stocked battery drawer- isn't THAT pretty? I am still pleading my case to Kevin about the big room arrangement project (swapping Ben's room and the chill room) Kevin told me he is on board as long as he does not have to paint or take apart furniture- well, if I could only figure out how to take apart Ben's bed, he would be sorry for saying that. Has anyone ever used Mr. Handyman service?(that was not Kevin)

Kevin Turns 45!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Kevin!!!!!!
Well- it is official, Kevin is still older than me! We had an all day celebration. We began our morning with his favorite breakfast of monkey bread. After church and football games, we celebrated with cake and more presents and then Kevin and I were able to go out to dinner while the boys stayed with their amazing "helper" (we are not allowed to call her a babysitter because we no longer have "babies") Kevin and Ben are now tucked away playing Kevin's new Tiger Woods game for the Wii! What a great day for a great person!!!!!

Lessons From Ben

This boy is one of a kind. He is smart, funny, kind and yes sometimes difficult. You see, he knows too much and he definitely knows how to push my buttons. He also makes me laugh without even trying, he makes me see things differently, and he tests my debating skills to the maximum. Today was the perfect example- This morning I thought by brains were dripping out my ears. Ben wanted my attention. I was downstairs in the kitchen, he was upstairs and lets just say he was not going about it the attention getting thing properly. As Kevin and I did our best to "ignore" him- He shouted, very loudly, "If there is an adult in this house please answer, otherwise, I will pretend I live here alone and that would not be good." A few minutes later as he walked into the kitchen and saw us standing there he said, "I demand to know why no one was answering me!" Boy was he mad when we smiled at him. After school I was forced to be the outside parent, and actually play in the snow- usually I look out the window watching Kevin play this role but today it was me. As I walked out all suited up to play, Ben looked at me with a serious look and said, "Are you sure you can handle this?" We were actually having fun, the boys were doing exactly as instructed according to my fort building plan and I was really working hard. Ben saw me working hard and instructed me to "Be careful I might hurt my pancreas."
After a long day, Ben is always able to end the night by making me smile. As we were all settled into our favorite place in our house (The boys' TV room) Ben announced. "This is exactly how I want Christmas Day to be, everyone right hear, just hanging out all day." So, although he can test my mothering skills, he also makes me feel so blessed I get to be HIS Mom!!!!

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Proud Parents

OK, I am going to brag. Ben's essay was chosen to be read at a special assembly at school today(The school won the national blue ribbon award) So our son got up in front of the whole school, teachers, staff, school board, state senator and parents and read his essay like he was a professional speaker. Proud parents is actually an understatement. We were beaming!!!!
(Sorry for poor picture quality, don't know what happened there!)

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SNOW!!! YIPEEE!!

Christmas Cards

OK- Hold on while I brag. My Christmas cards are done, they are in the mail- oh yeah they are done. So here is why they are done the week after Thanksgiving. On Monday I woke up with no voice, I could barely squeak out my morning commands to the kids. No voice means no talking on the phone- I ignored it all day long, I had to. So I decided to turn off the computer for the day. Amazing- When you "unplug" yourself what you can accomplish. If your at home and your house is a mess and laundry not done chances are you are too "plugged in" I can attest to this as I am now living proof. This is what I did on Monday- brace yourself-the list is extensive
Every stitch of laundry- Done- including sheets.
Every stray item back in its place.
3 bathrooms cleaned
Christmas cards, designed online, sent to print, picked up, addresses on 100 envelopes, made return labels, wrote brief letter, printed, stuffed and licked all envelopes.
Whole house dusted, vacuumed,
Christmas gifts wrapped,
Wrong sized clothing removed from closets(My closet was quite a project because of my ever changing size)
And the list goes on and on and on
Try it- completely unplug yourself for one whole day- I dare you!

Who is this boy?

I hope you guessed Kevin. I FINALLY figured out how to scan pictures. I am a little slow with technology... Now I can actually show pictures like this I am very excited to show the world how much fun Kevin and I use to be. People often wonder if we have always been as boring as we are now. The answer is No! NOW I can prove it!!!!!

BUSTED

Oh no! My mom found my junk drawer today!
Today- Gabe got busted! I discovered THE DRAWER. After I envisioned a life of hoarding for him, I asked for an explanation. You see, I know people do have "junk drawers" but I- really do not. If I have objects in a drawer, you will also find a organizer of some sort to make my junk look pretty.
Gabe's response " It's all my things I want by me." It will be OK for me, as soon as we "organize" it.

Black Friday

I survived my 2nd "Black Friday"! I have to tell you-Black Friday does strange things to people. It can turn sweet looking elderly ladies into cart wielding lunatics. It can cause dads, who normally have good judgement to cram their sleeping child on the mental grate UNDER the shopping cart as they gently place their gigantic plasma TV IN the cart and it can cause 3 crazy ladies to think that it is perfectly OK to wake up at 3 AM to go shopping!!!!!! I survived and was able to check some things off my list. I then came home and whined the whole day about how tired I was. I even fell asleep in Gabe's bed while we were writing on his white board- that was a nice mothering moment!

And We're Off!!!!!!

Here we go. The wrestling season has officially started. We all survived the first tournament.