Happy birthday Tater Tot!

Today my oldest girl became a 9 yr old. Not that she hasn't been acting way older than 8 for months now but today it's official. She was too impatient to wait for her actual day once gifts arrived in the mail from Grandpa, so we celebrated early with presents and an Oreo ice cream cake.

Gifts for hair and makeup, what every too big for her britches 9 yr old girl needs.

That Cousin Thang

Mia has blended right into the cousin mix quite nicely. 

Teagan and her are like old buds.

What sup dude?

Give me a fist bump, sort of.

Hey, I'm ticklish, man.

Don't muss the hair. I worked on it all morning.

No more pictures, seriously.

Welcome to the madness

that is the annual cookie bake.

Didn't actually take any pics of the process this year.

Adding a new little person to the mix meant that Aunt Krista was basically one on one with the little peep while I rotated around the table and kept the pans going into the oven.

Letting young folks roll out their own cookie dough is a bit tedious and requires some hands on assistance.

Hence, the lack of pictures.

We also got a late start due to some cranky girls in the family so it was a bit of a rush.

But my older peeps managed to finish all the cookies after everyone went home.

I'll let you guess which ones are their masterpieces. I don't want to take all the credit.

A change up in scheduling because of bedtimes and school tomorrow meant no Polar Express this year.

Not sure that anybody but the grown ups really cared.

We also took the annual penguin pic this afternoon too, but with 25 takes, a little creative editing is in order.

Skipped right through Fall

Since it is a week before Christmas and all, I thought maybe I should get around to posting these Fall pics before I throw out some Christmasy ones. So here it is. Our early Fall trip to Brumbaugh fruit farm with 7 kids and 2 adults. Ahhh.

(On a side note, as if Christmas wasn't enough to celebrate, as of 12-12-11 I am officially a graduate!)

And good night.

Happy Thanksgiving

Slogger

So, apparently it's almost Thanksgiving and I am continuing the slacker blogger tradition. I'd like to say it's because I've been really busy, but you could look around my house and call me a liar.

So I'm going to be honest here. I finished school, essentially, and have just been lazy since. I finished my clinicals November 7th and had all my assignments turned within a week of that. I studied a little for my practice exam and took it today. Passed the first time, with a nervous knot in my stomach and a headache creeping on. It's not like it's a pass/fail thing, but it was timed, which always makes me nervous. Plus I want to be done so if I failed it, I would have to study more and take it again. At this point, I'm hoping the school gets everything together so I can get my name sent in Dec. 1 for my comprehensive exam. I plan to chill for the rest of this week then hit the books hard to be ready for that test. It is pass/fail which is just way too much pressure if you ask me.

Let's see, what else has been going on? My scale has declared mutiny. At least I hope so and that I'm not really gaining a pound a day. I've opted to ignore the mutinous bastard for the rest of this week.

I found white hair........ on my head! And not just one, but seven! At least that's when I stopped counting since I finally recognized if I kept looking there would be more.

The fam is coming over for Thanksgiving which I suppose means I have to clean my house. Damn.

I've decided we need to implement some changes around the home front. My chicklets are turning into ungrateful little heathens. Perhaps this week of thanksgiving is the time to teach thankfulness.

Some reflection on needed changes coming soon........

October?

Where did it go? I'm pretty sure there was one but we just skipped right over it.

Or rather, I was too busy to post about it.

Pee Wee cheerleading ended with a cheer competition last weekend.

I am finishing up my clinicals. Have caught 40 babies so far and need less than 40 hrs to be done.

Which unfortunately means I'll have to start studying soon for my biggest test ever.

We did go to a Fall farm festival a couple weeks ago and helped celebrate cousin Braeden's 6th birthday at Magic Castle, which I would never recommend unless you have a saint's worth of patience or maybe some Xan*x.

I think there are pictures somewhere.

All the little cousins went trick or treating last night, and as you can tell from these pics, getting 5 kids to look at the camera at once is not easy.

I think Mia might have been looking in the first pic but you can't tell since her beak is in her face.

Penguin Mia, Princess Tess, Iron Man Teagan (sans mask), Vampirina Tatum and Darth Braeden

We didn't have alot of luck around our house last year so we went to a smaller local neighborhood where the houses are closer together and were more likely to participate.

Plus, I liked checking out the beautiful houses. Makes me almost want to move there except for what would I do with my chickens, and how could I afford the taxes? Anyway......

The boys discussing next year's costumes. Apparently they think Ghostbusters would be pretty cool.

The big boys stayed near home and went out with their buddies. Tanner did his own makeup while Travis basically threw a bandana over his face and called that a costume, hence, the lack of a picture.

Now to keep them from having candy for breakfast every day.....