Thanksgiving 2012

As per tradition, we once again made our annual trek to Ft. Worth for a weekend of family festivities.  Frankly, I am half brain dead from driving, so I don't have a whole lot of wit to contribute to this post.  But I know you just come for the pictures anyhow, so I'll let them do the talking.

Wednesday we were blessed with beautiful weather, so the kids spent the day outside.  Lovie helped Taylor bone up on her boxing skills,

followed by some wrestling tutorials.

Yes, I had pinkeye again.  Hence no makeup.  Beaster also discovered the joys of orange juice.  Kid survived on juice for almost three days solid because she decided that eating actual food was beneath her.

The girls LOVE their aunts Lauren and Rachel, thanks again guys for being such good sports while my kids played the role of your shadows! 

Taylor also learned a new "trick."  I know you're thoroughly impressed.

Sadly, this is the only picture I have from Thanksgiving day.  Everyone was zonked out after lunch at my uncles' house in Paris.  I would have taken more, but Jody and I were mostly wrangling kids outside.  It was better than risking having to clean up (or replace) anything expensive that they might have broken inside the house, lol!

Black Friday!  Poppy and Daddy attempted the door busters at Cabela's, only to drive away once they saw how long the line was.  Instead, Poppy brought back donuts and made this little girl very happy.

Later that afternoon, Lovie broke out the gingerbread house kits.  Notice the sprinkles all around Taylor's face?  Yeah, that's because she spent the majority of the time licking her house after we decorated it.

At least all that gingerbread didn't go to waste.....

Lauren was the frosting pro out of all of us, her houses looked great!

Poppy, you're in my shot.

After all the excitement, it was back home at a very early 5:00 a.m. on Saturday.  As I write this, both kids are zonked out for a nap. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Saturday Night

Last night we dusted off the video camera to catch Ava playing peek-a-boo.  At the moment it is her favorite form of entertainment.  Since we had the camera out, we captured a few more fun aspects of our Saturday night, I know it's kind of a cop out to post home movies and call it a blog post, but tough crap, that's as good as it's getting today, ha!

Thank God They're Girls

Deep down, I know some small  part of Jody will always be just a little bit sad that we never had a boy.  However, the flip side to this is that we have two of the rowdiest, burliest girls God ever saw fit to put on the planet.  Case in point, tonight I made the mistake of laying down in the floor.

One of these days I'll learn my lesson.......

Anyhoo, I wouldn't trade either of these little beasts for a dirty, scabby kneed boy any day of the week. Instead, I have dirty, scabby kneed girls that stink like dogs when you dunk them in the tub at the end of the day.  

Forced sweetness.  Notice how they'd both rather look at the TV than the camera.  Turds.

Mom, There's a Beaster in My Bed

Tonight when Ava started getting tired, she started looking longingly at Taylor's bed as opposed to her crib.  Just for funsies I stuck her up there, and she snuggled right in and made herself at home.

Needless to say, this went over like a lead balloon.

Once Taylor discovered her own beasterly version of Goldilocks in her bed, she immediately came to tattle.  "MOOOOOOOM, Ava's in my bed.  She doesn't want to sleep in my bed, she wants to sleep in her crib.  Let's take her to her crib."  The telepathic abilities of a three-year-old are obviously way more developed than I ever realized.  

Don't Feel Sorry For Him

I know it always looks like Jody is getting attacked by our little WWE hopefuls,

(case in point) 

but believe me, he totally brings it on himself.  And a good majority of the time, he starts it.  As for the kids, don't feel sorry for them either, because they are having as good a time as my 33 year old kid.

See?

No torture here!

If there's anyone to be sad for in this chaotic house, pick me.  Jody and the girls get all riled up and crazy, destroy everything in their path, and I get to be the grown up that puts it all back together.  

It doesn't stop until someone typically gets hurt.

But then again, I wouldn't trade the chaos that is nightly wrestlemania for anything.  At least I get left out of it enough to take pictures.

Someone call Vince McMahon, I think we have a couple of hopefuls on our hands.....

Halloween 2012

Oy, it's been a rough week.  Jody and I have been passing the cold from hell back and forth (as of now, my lymph nodes are so pissed off my whole neck hurts), Beaster had another case of possible strep (Doc-in-a-box, aka-urgent care, can never seem to get a positive swab.  From what I've witnessed, I don't think they're actually touching her throat when they go in for the kill, but I digress.), and work is keeping Jody and I overly busy.  

This is how I found Taylor sleeping one morning.  My sentiments exactly.

So, in a nutshell, sick and exhausted mom = lots of Happy Meals because I'd rather stab myself with a fork than even consider cooking.  For those of you unfamiliar with the "toy" McDonald's always offers every October, it's a cheap ass plastic bucket o'food that can double as a Trick-or-Treating pail if you're either broke or uncreative.  Frankly, I hate the damn things, and I think it's a total waste of plastic.  Last weekend however, I overheard Jody cackling madly in Taylor's room.  This is why:

Said plastic Crappy Meal pail becomes plastic Beaster helmet.  Why this is so riotous I'm still not sure, I'll go so far as to say funny, but not quite the side-splitter Jody thought.

Poor Taylor has her Mama's "Pumpkin Head,"and the pail looked like a organ grinder monkey's fez.  So she improvised with another headgear that would fit her melon.

Thankfully, Halloween was not only warmer than usual for our area, but Beaster got over her latest puny-ness in time to go Trick-or-Treating with her sister.  For thirty minutes anyway.  After that, Ava decided to throw a world-famous arched-back, kicking, screaming tantrum in one of our neighbors' yard.  

Still happy before the candy gathering.

Starting to get a little peeved in the wagon.......

Ready to get this show on the road, and attempt to run out into the street as many times as possible.

Thankfully, this one is finally old enough to have the required stamina for the holiday.  After Ava's hell-fit, she waited patiently while I got Ava in bed, then went back out for another round with me.

All in all, we had a really good time.  My cold has unfortunately come back with a vengeance as a result of running around outside most of the night, but it was worth it to have so much fun with Taylor.