Before there was the new house, there was Thanksgiving

And thankfully this year it was at Uncle Jills!

We enjoyed dinner with Boyd's mom and dad, Alan and Lucree (who are front and center in this picture)

I think there is no longer a family gathering where the two "Yo's" aren't joined at the hip.

Tim spent most of Thanksgiving in a reclining position so it's a good thing that blogger turned this picture on it's side for me so that it actually looks like Tim was upright and awake :)

That Little Yo ----she sure has a lot of fans and isn't hurting for the lovins!

In following our annual tradition (two years in the making now) we made Christmas count down calendars (just like the kind Yo Bob used to bring home from Hill Air Force Base back in the day).

Uncle Boyd tested by crafty-patients when we were facing a calendar candy shortage by attempting to place a cheese stuffed celery on the last countdown day of the calendar. Ewwwww.....

Our finished products:

Is it just me or is Little Yo doing a beauty queen wave?

Little Yo finds another fan

Aaron insisted on pulling this face-----15 year old boys-----I just don't get them!

Thanks Boyd--for not leaving the cheesy celery on calendar. I don't think it would have survived the 30 days.

And hey Uncle Jill--can you please "ugly it up" a little bit. Still sick of living in your pretty shadow.

Not only does Uncle Jill look pretty and throw one heck of a Thanksgiving shin dig, she also has a heart of gold. She reminded the kidses that they are super blessed and have a lot to be thankful for. She challenged each of them by giving them an envelope of money that was to be used on an name off the angle tree so that they would think of and shop for someone that wasn't as fortuanate as they were. They each were responsible for picking a name, shopping, wrapping and returning their gifts.

It was a wonderful way for them to remember how much they had to be thankful for.

Santa brought me a Barbie dream house for Christmas

After a couple of painful/scary/grouchy months, we FINALLY were able to see the most beautiful Christmas sight ever.......... a SOLD sign.
And now we're are the happy happy owners of the Williams home (shout out to Chris, Ann,Geri, Lisa Jo, Trinity, TJ, Suzi, Candi, Andi and Matt. The Williams home is their mom/dad/grandma/grandpa's house. )

The Williams house was built in the 1950's, is almost 5000 square feet and is on 1/2 an acre. Mr. and Mrs. Williams built the home and William's Circle which is where my mom and dad built their house when Buster and I were growing up. I got to play in this house when I was little and I have always loved the home. So you could say it's my Barbie dream house.
The home had a for sale sign in front of it for quite some time and in early September, Tim let me take a leap of faith, we put in an offer, put our house on the market and we embarked an four months of waiting, crying (that would be me, not Tim) waiting, obsessing (yes, I stalked the house) and waiting some more, we sold our house just in the nick of time and were able to close on the Williams house just before Christmas.

So two days before Christmas my sweet Timmy moved us into my Barbie dream house. For Christmas I got a new house and he got a sore back and achy muscles. Fair trade don't ya think!

There are now only four houses between me and my dad (whether he likes it or not :) ) I'm back in my old neighborhood, we have double the space that we had before (which is good since the boys are double the size they were before) and I feel like I'm at home. I sure hope I make the Williams sisters proud.

Here's a sneak preview/mini parade of homes of our new digs.

This is our new 1/2 acre back yard that feels like it goes on forever!

I now have a mail box. I love mail boxes! I love not going to the post office. I love that they bring the mail right to your house. How cool is that!

The fireplace/sitting area which is right inside the front door.

Our tv area

the backside of our tv area where we have a dining table and timmy's computer (can you see tim in the kitchen)

another view of the fireplace area and the front door

seriously blogger......what did you do with my picture???

bookshelves around the fireplace

the other side of the front door that leads into Lydon and Aarons bedroom and bathroom area

Pancho has taken over our super comfy couch

Our bedroom

The kitchen

Oops.......how did this get in there

back to the kitchen (Lydon eating breakfast)

Aaron's room (Lydon was occupying his room at the time so you get no pictures of his room). Both rooms have two lighted closets with a little built in desk.

There's also a huge laundry room, over sized two car garage and a big big party room basement for the boys (yes----aaron has already hosted many a 15 year old boy over to the house already)

Special thank you to Tim's sister Debbie who gave me decorating advice via telephone/internet from California. I wasn't quite sure what to do with all of this big beautiful house and she walked me through it. Thanks Deb!

It's been the best three weeks. I know that this will now be our forever home (because I WILL NOT go through the last four months AGAIN!!) ha-ha

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a little quiet at our house this year.......it was a dark, rainy, dreary night. And now that my boys are no longer young enough to really be of trick-or-treating age, Halloween is a little lame at our house. Add to that the fact that we live clear down a dark scary lane that no one in their right mind wants to drag a small child down just to get a candy bar and we are pretty much in Trick-or-Treat no-man's-land.

Aaron tried to salvage the night for his 15 year old friends by digging through my buckets of costumes-of-Halloweens-past to throw together some last minute disguises. Don't ask me what Aaron is but I think he is some sort of kitty cat wearing a head band (kitty must have been working out) and was recently crowned Miss America yet needs to shave her upper lip and mono-brow. Words just can't explain......

Little Yo is just about the cutest little witch EVER!!
At least Leslie was brave enough to drag her kids down our dark no-man's land lane to bring Mario and Ariel to trick-or-treat.

My friend Heather wasn't scared of my long dark drive way. She brought her kids all the way from Idaho to visit us for Halloween. These are her three boys......notice the "mummy juice" that her Mario is holding in his hand. That's my crafty treat that I made and handed out to all those who dared travel down our dark driveway.

They are Sunny-D orange drink bottles wrapped in sports tape with cute little stick on googly eyes to look like little mummys.