Winter wishes to you!

The holiday season is here! Although is seems like we bypass thanksgiving, we don't. I do put our tree up the weekend before though because when I get back I feel like it's GO time. We drop everything in the living room and the work week begins.  This working mom needs to do somethings her way for her sanity.  But I am not the only one who kicked off the Christmas season this week...

The Ottumwa chamber of commerce kicked off "holiday nights and lights" on Thursday. Daddy got some tickets from work and this was our first year going. You drive thru the Ottumwa park and look at the lights display.  

Of course they had a JD tractor

And the lighted tunnel at the end

Then on Saturday we awoke to this, SNOW!!  It was very pretty.  Mother Nature is ready for Christmas too!

We started in on Saturday morning decorating.  We had the Christmas tunes going and wonder and delight from the girls filled the room. See? Ella was totally into helping.

The girls had a good time putting the ornaments on the tree.  Of course, we had a lot of ornaments towards the bottom and sometimes 5 ornaments on one branch.  I tried really hard to not let my OCD kick in.

Our tree!

After the tree was up it was sledding time!  We got on all our winter gear and out we went. I didn't last long though. It was COLD,

When dad and the girls came back, Ella was in tears.  She had snot all across her face, she was cold and just ready to come back in.  Her tears didn't last long though because she got some hot cocoa to warm her up.

Enjoying the warm beverage

And this year I decided not to put up my Christmas village. It was a lil out of laziness and some to enjoy other decorations I don't have room for.  The first year I havent put it up since I was in my 20's :|

And as we come into the holiday season I hope it will be filled with all of these- joy, peace, hope, cherish and love. 

Morrison family

RV-ing out west

My friend Rachael from Bowling Green, graduated college, sold all her stuff, bought an RV (above) and is driving across country to end in LA to live and find a job.  I am extremely jealous! This sounds awesome!  

During her travels Rachel, and her step mom Lori,  made a stop in Ottumwa to visit.  I loved that she was making a stop to visit.  They got here on Monday and left Wednesday morning. While they were here I think it rained the whole time.  

Even in the rain we made it to American gothic house. Of course you gotta see that if you come visit. Really it's the only thing to see in Ottumwa...

The girls like when we have company and they loved their "new friends" as they called them.  They liked showing off and being the center of attention.  Not sure where they get that from.... ;)

We hope that all all your travels are safe and L.A. treats you good!  Best of luck friend! 

Another one bites the dust

Deere has a reputation of employees moving from Ottumwa at rapid pace. It is what feels like a constant turnover for John Deere Ottumwa works and this past Friday another one leaves.  The JD employee is getting transferred to the QC area and that means his wife (as of today 11/21, they get married today) will leave as well.  Liz was the girls teacher at school. They loved her and quite frankly she was awesome. She handled me and my personality very well and was great with the girls. They love her!  Maybe it helped that before the girls, we all hung out and by hang out I mean drink ;) So she knew all about me before hand....;)

Liz and the girls

For her last day and wedding present we put a gift together for her and it included a decorated S, done by the girls and for her new name change.  Since Liz will probably read this, I would like to point out the lack of paint shirts/bibs they are wearing for this project. 😱😜

Alex

We have had some amazing weather recently for being end of October and November which was nice so I could get some senior photos of Alex.  It was nice to be able to do an outside photoshoot this time of year and not be bundled up in our winter coats, hats and gloves and also not to mention having the red cheeks and noses you can get with the cold.  Here are a few of my favorite from the shoot.

 

Cute

People have asked how the girls are going to be about their baby brother and if they are excited.  I'm not sure they fully grasp what a baby brother means to them but I would definitely say that Josie is more excited than Ella.  She is more my mother hen than Ella.  It's just her personality-she always wants to help,  watches out/ tells her sister what to do, is so loveable and is going to be a super big helper with her brother (I hope).  She talks about her brother more than Ella too.  She has asked me "when do I get to hold my baby brother" and my response is "he has to grown bigger in mommys tummy before she can hold him." 

 

One evening this week she was playing with her baby and shoved her up her shirt saying "her needs to get bigger in my tummy."

It was sooo cute and clearly they remember and pick up exactly what you say.  

So Proud! Just like she will be of her brother.

Other cuteness

Gigi sent the girls a Halloween bag of goodies including a card with a $1 in it.  We let the girls pick out anything they wanted from the dollar tree and it was super cute to watch them decide what to get while "shopping."  On the way there Josie said she wanted a Barbie.  When we saw the "barbies" and Ella picked it up right away and said she wanted it.  Josie needed to look around at everything and decide.  They each picked out a Barbie.   They had their purses that grandma gave them and paid each got to pay.  It was super cute! 

 

After work one day I saw a male co-worker in the parking lot as we were leaving and I rolled down the window to talk to him briefly, of course the girls were in the car too.  When I drove away Josie asked "Was that your Uncle, like uncle Randy?"  LOL!  I wish I could remember the whole conversation because it ended something like "your brother is my son" and Josie completely changing the subject.  It is just so cute to see the wheels turning in their brains and the questions they ask!

 

And there's this..

 

Re-do

At the tail end of my parents visit, my brother Randy and his girlfriend Val and dog Charlie came out for a visit.  This visit was more work though.  I had some big painting projects I needed to get done and had every intention of doing this summer, however my level of exhaustion (from early pregnancy) was WAY TO MUCH for me to even get daily living activities done.  Then I started back to work and I just couldn't find the time so I hired my brother. :)  So here is why I am behind in my blogging....

 

The living room before....

Goodbye RED wall!

After

Its not completely done.  I want to add a nice bright colorful rug and colorful accessories.

Our spare bedroom that will now be the nursery for baby boy Shultz.  I didn't get a before shot in time, but it was a nasty green color that was there when we bought the place.  It was long overdue for a paint job.

And our spare bedroom in the basement, before picture.

This was also original paint when we bought the house.  It was very dark and needed a paint job and some patch work as you can tell.

And the after picture.  Don't mind the unmade bed. Still working on things!  :)

 

I still have lots to do and have been super busy with visitors and projects, but I am really liking the way things are starting to look.

Grandparents, sickness and candy

This past week my parents came to visit.  They came right as Josie was getting sick.  The girls stayed home with them during the week so the sickness wasn't too big of deal as I didn't have to call into work to stay home with kids.  Except then I got sick.  I had some GI bug that made me have to miss a day of work and then miss Ella got sick, but again stayed home with Grandma and Papa. 

 

 

 Although we were sick, we still were able to enjoy Grandma and papa's visit.  They stayed to be able to go trick or treating with the girls. 

 

Ella my Cat! 

Josie the bunny all ready to go!

Grandma with her grand "animals"

And me with my tractor :)

We went trick or treating around our neighborhood which was just the perfect amount of houses for us.  We had the wagon, mom/dad, Grandma and Uncle Randy to join us so it worked out just perfect.

 

As you can see they received a lot of treats!

Enjoying some of their trick or treat candy after we got home