New Years Flop

We don't host parties at our house.  It's small cozy which doesn't lend to entertaining.  Our family of 6 (8 some weekends) has us bursting at the seams all on our own.  We almost always spend New Years with Jeramie's family.  Last year we were set to host but then when more people wanted to come they decided it would be better to host at their house.  But this year we stuck to the plan of hosting at our house.  

And then the day of when all the cleaning and prep work needed to take place Jeramie got called out.  So he spent his day working and I spent my day juggling the kids and cleaning and cooking.  I worked my ASS off.  Never sat down once.  Spent a ridiculous amount of money.  

The night before I bought a bunch of drinks.  It was too much to put in the fridge so I put it all out of the back deck.  The next morning it had all FROZEN!

All except the Vodka.  But then the dog took care of that and chewed the plastic bottle open!

So I had to go out and re-buy all the drinks.

       We baked for our favorite people. 

Bought a cute cupcake stand to display them on.

Jeramie got home with 30 minutes to spare.  The food was all laid out.

Holiday punch was made.  Sharpie set out next to the drink station so all our guests didn't get their cups mixed up.

Crock pots going.  Enough food to feed an army.

And then three people showed up.  THREE.

Moral of the story ... this is why I don't entertain.  It was so much time, energy and money wasted.  I ended up throwing away a ton of food.  We had fun playing games with the 3 people that came and I'm so grateful they did.  But I doubt I'll be offering to entertain a large group like that again anytime soon.  It's like when you plan for a handful then everyone brings a friend or two and you feel like you don't have enough.  You plan for an army and nobody shows up.  Can't win.

And my poor kids!  We'd been talking about our party all day.  Our 3 guests showed up and the kids kept asking when the party was going to start!

Happy New Year!

This is my very last catch up post.  I spent all of New Years Day catching up blog posts that I'd missed over the second half of this year.  Goal for 2014 .. blog more regularly.  It's going to help that my new phone will automatically upload ALL of my phone pictures to my Google + account.  That's pretty cool!  This is post number 18 that I've written today (1/1/14).

My parents spent the New Year in Mexico.  I'm totally jealous.  We were originally planning to host a game night at our house.  It's been a really long time since we've hosted ANYthing at our house.  But then the day before Robie told us that rather than coming to us they were just going to host at their house.  Change of plans then.  So I spent the day at home with the kids, my last PTO day of 2013.  Even with our two big vacations this year I still had a ton of PTO time that I needed to use before I lost it.  Let's just say I think my kids are ready to return to school.  Being stuck inside all day with just themselves is wearing on them.  The fighting is at an all time high.

I'm SO digging this lens!!

This boy is intense.

Oliver and Wyland kind of love to play with my heels.

After heading to Robie's for the evening Oliver MADE her sit at the bottom of the stairs to eat with him.

That boy has his Grandma wrapped around his little finger!

I brought and made Rachel's famous punch recipe.

It lasted for ONE round with so many adults.

FAIL.  Although people loved it .. so WIN.

Jackson waiting for the games to begin.

We played a little Logo Party edition and it was really fun!

I need to get that one.

Happy New Year from us!  Boys were still awake.

Some good old fashioned pans banging with Great Grandma!

Thanksgiving

Conveniently my birthday and our wedding anniversary fell the day before Thanksgiving this year.  My parents were ever so nice enough to take all the kids for the night.  This meant that Jeramie and I could go to dinner and then we were set to run a race the next morning of course.

Funny because we keep saying how we really need to stop "wasting" babysitter nights for pre-race nights.  All that means is that we get to grab dinner but no movie because we need to head home and get to bed for our early morning wake up call on race day.  Another post for another day I suppose.

Last year we walked the Thankful 13 5K with my parents and kids.  At the time my mum said to me, I'm surprised you guys didn't want to run the half marathon?  Umm .. didn't know that had been an option.  She may have regretted ever saying that this year when it came time to juggling my kids!  Rachel and Evan were supposed to be running it with us, and then Evan was "sick" and it Rachel pulled up all by her lonesome.  I will say kudos to her for showing up without him. I'm not sure I would have dragged my butt out of bed on my own on a holiday.  This race was FANTASTIC!!  We went into it with the sole intention of just taking it easy and enjoying ourselves.  At one point Jeramie said to us, "I can't believe you two can talk this whole time!  I can barely breathe!"  But we did.  I think we chatted easily for 3/4 of the race and we all felt pretty great when we crossed the finish line!

This picture says it all .. we had a good time!

I'm not sure why Jeramie wasn't in these pictures. I couldn't find a single picture of him on their website.  He kind of acted like our secret service guy, running behind us sometimes. That's probably why!

Once we finished we quickly went back to the car to get warmer attire and then it wasn't long before my parents showed up with the kiddos.

 Cute little turkey medal! 

The kids lined up for their race!

Last year it was frigid cold .. this year they were shedding jackets!

Awe .. look at Wyland's little flushed face!  He ran the whole way.

 Jackson was cruising into the finish.

He ran by himself and did fantastic!

Baylee walked with Grandma

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!!

Happy New Year!!!

From my little pot bangers to yours ....

Turkey Trot .. and trot we did.

Last year Evan, Rachel, Jeramie and I actually raced a turkey trot. This year they were in Oregon and we were going to forgo the whole experience.  Then the night before my mum talked me into registering us all with the plan to walk.  We weren't really "celebrating" Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day with the Howard's this year.  So it was a fun way to spend some time together and start the day off right with some exercise.

Now, the problem with doing a 5k where they are also hosting a half marathon means that you have serious runners and not so much turkey trotters.  The cool thing was that we all got medals (well the kids did, and the rest of us will get them when they get more in).

We were literally dead last.

But that's okay, because Baylee walked the entire thing and didn't complain at all.

Yet again though I was caught not prepared for the weather.  It had been such a nice week weather wise and I wasn't prepared for how cold it was.  Wyland had been up that morning throwing up.  So he was just not feeling good in general.  Add on top of that the wind cutting through their clothes and they were freezing.  Had I been prepared I would have brought my rain cover for the stroller which would have cut the wind out of the equation.  Fail again.

We were awarded with hot chocolate and marshmallows at the end.  Well my kids just ate the marshmallows of course.  There was also pumpkin pie .. barf.

Wyland perked up a little bit and jumped in the bounce house for a little while and then it was time for the boys to run their kids fun run.

Jackson was excited about it .. I swear.

I basically had to drag poor Wyland.  Although Jackson took off like a bat out of hell.

You can see Jackson there with his hands up.  He thought he was cool.

But he was happy to get his "half marathon" medal.

Grandma went back and stole Baylee a medal.

It's not really fair.  She walked the whole 5k which is a million times harder for the majority

of the people who ran it.  But then they ran out of medals.  But not for the kids.

While it was cold and I think the kids whined the majority of the time it was still a good way to start the day.  After we finished we headed up to Black Bear Diner for some breakfast.  They have the best Eggs Benedict of anywhere I've decided.