There is a Season... Turn, Turn,Turn

That’s what I am doing: Turn, turn, TURN!  I feel like I am spinning!  Wasn’t Halloween, like, yesterday?  I distinctly remember going to @storybookgirl74’s house just a few days ago re-making Finn’s convict costume… No?  That was over a month ago?  You have GOT to be kidding!  On the upside, I think everyone is basically well at my house.  Husband was getting over a cold, got his flu shot, and the cold rebounded.  And Finicky Finn has decided to cough in his sleep from 3:30 – 4:30 every morning the past few nights.  Not during the day.  Strange baby. But as of this writing, NO ONE is on antibiotics, steroids, breathing treatments, prescription cough meds, or other co-pay required medications.  HALLELUJAH!  Definitely thankful for that.

And speaking of thankful, here is our Thanksgiving wrap up – in pictures:

Wednesday night – Pizza Party at the Ricker Romper Room:

Me and the Preemies!  Cousin Faith (my cousin Jane's daughter) visiting from New York, and My Finn

Little Mommas!  Lara with Faith (born at 34 weeks), Emma with Finn (born at 26 weeks)

Kayleigh (my brother's daughter) and Grandpa

Finn, Britt, and a very squeaky elephant!

Nana - testing her Wonder Sitter skills on Faith

Not sure why Jake was bare chested, but Rocco (my cousin Jane's son) LOVED it!

COUSINS! Emma, Lara, Faith (NY), Finn, Jake, Kayleigh (TX) and Rocco (NY)

Jake LOVES when Kayleigh comes up from Texas!

Thursday noon – traditional (for us, anyway) Thanksgiving Dinner at Curly’s  (I wish I had gotten pictures of ALL the food!  YUM!):

Finn - in his Turkey Day BEST (a tie...)

Kayleigh and Jake outside Curly's

Lara and Emma outside Curly's

My In-Laws and my Parents chatting

Kayleigh and Lara

Aunt Paula and Jake

Aunt Paula and Emma

Finn inspecting Cousin Peter's teeth

Nana, Grandpa and Kayleigh

Six Dream Weavers

True Love

Thursday afternoon – photo shoot at Aunt Paula’s:

Little Dream Weavers - Jake, Emma, Finn, Lara

Grands! Jake, Savannah, Emma, Grandma Mary, Peter, Grandpa Jake, Finn, Lara

 

Six Dream Weavers: Emma, Britt, Finn, Jake, Betsey, Lara

Friday – trip to Enid -- Oakwood mall for Santa Claus, Downtown for Light up the Plains (No fireworks pictures because it was SO COLD!  We were managing hats, hoods, gloves, and a baby!)

Jake on the train

Lara and Kayleigh in the caboose

Emma on the train

Finn taking it all in

Santa 2012

Kayleigh got in one, too!

Christmas has descended upon us, Black Friday, Cyber Monday style!  Although we didn’t really do any hard core Black Friday shopping, my mom did have a few things on her list that Best Buy had on special.  She lucked out, went in at noon on Friday, and came out with ALL THREE THINGS SHE WANTED - in less than 20 minutes!  Wow!  I ordered a few things online Friday, and a few more one Monday, but I still have a long way to go.  Mom also scored a Cyber Monday deal for her last “big” gift.  WOW.  You go, Mom!  I have my Amazon.com cart full, but waiting to see if prices still go down…  ;)

Along with all that, it was time to get pictures taken so I could order the Christmas cards!  There was a time in my life where I wanted you to have MY card first.  I had them completely finished (picked out, pictures taken, cards ordered from the printer, shipped to me, envelopes addressed and stamped) by the last week in November, mailed so people would get them on the 1^st or 2^nd.  Not so much anymore!  I am ahead of last year, as I took the pictures Sunday and ordered the prints on Monday.  It’s on my weekend “to do list” to assemble and address them, but so are a million other things… We’ll see how it turns out!

We hope to decorate and put up the Christmas tree this weekend.  We had thought about doing it over the Thanksgiving break, but Britt is still fighting this cold, and the idea of stirring up dust in the garage to get all the boxes down did not appeal to him.  We want to get him healthy before we make that big mess!  But the real dilemma comes in when we think about Finn.  He’s our bull in a china shop.  With little to no body control and LOTS of curiosity!  WHERE do we put the tree?  HOW do we keep him out of it?  WHY does he not understand the word no?  Two good ideas I saw on Pinterest were to put a gate around the tree to keep little hands away.  Awesome.  I don’t have a gate like that.  And would rather spend my money on presents.  And the other was to use big diaper boxes (or similar), load them with books (or heavy items), then wrap them like Christmas presents to make a barricade.  Finn would just unwrap them, though…  *sigh* what to do… what to do…  Anyone with any other tips, PLEASE let me know!