THANKSGIVING/BLACK FRIDAY

 I have cooked dinner by myself for about the last 15 years. It is a lot of work and can be stressful at times if the kids are losing it and I have to tend to them as well, but I do enjoy cooking especially when its for a big meal for my family to gather around and be together, we have so much to be thankful for! The last few years I have cooked the dinner over at my dads house since its bigger over there and the kids can just run back and forth through the house and so we all aren't cramped in our tiny kitchen with no where to put food.

 As you can tell Daniels starving...

 Justin always wants to sit next to Pa

 This may sound silly, but Daniel and Natilie LOVE the Sparkling Grape Juice at the holiday times, this time we got a 3pack and they guzzled it all down...

 My cute Wade, we can never get him to sit still, so he just ran around while we ate (since he wont eat ANY of that type of food anyways, he played with a hot dog in hand)

 Some of the Feast

 Delaney LOVED her food (as she always does, this girl can pack it away)

 We had to take a silly picture...... its only sparkling grape juice!!!! lol

 the proof, it really is juice :p

After we ate dinner, I sat down and went through the thanksgiving day ads to map out my route! I have always gone black Friday shopping with my dad since I was a teenager, but now with his bad health he cant go anymore but I still go out and do his shopping for him. I went through each ad, and wrote down what I needed from each store and arranged them in order according to the times they opened. We left around 8pm on thanksgiving day, Daniel and Natilie decided they want to venture to walmart with me since that was the first stop, that place was a  MAD HOUSE, with looney people everywhere, a fight had broken out over the towels and one lady got punched in the face, thank goodness that was all that happened, in other walmarts in California, 2 people were shot and killed....people can be so crazy!!! we didnt get done at walmart till almost midnight so I took daniel and natilie home to sleep since daniel had a wrestling scrimmage the next morning, then went back out to my other stores and didnt get home till 6:30am....Yes we shopped for 10 1/2 hours, but we saved a ton of money, with 5 kids and our income, we HAVE to do black friday shopping, so its fun, exhausting and can be irritating, but I suck it up :)

AKRON TREE FESTEVAL

 Every year we go to the Akron Christmas Tree Festival held at the John S. Knight Center, its free admission and is so fun to walk around and see. People donate and make Christmas trees to auction off for people to buy and all of the proceeds go to Children's Hospital. They have the trees up for display for 2 weeks every November. I wish I could have gotten pictures of every single tree, they were all so gorgeous and clever but my phone camera will only hold so many...We took all of the kids but Daniel because he was at a friends birthday party.

 I LOVED this tree, this is the tree in that first picture, gosh you can tell Natilie is my daughter uh :)

 This was Wades FAVORITE tree, he is obsessed with cars

 My favorite tree, GO BUCKEYES!! :)

 Natilie and Justin checking out the miniature trees

 Wade and Delaney loved looking around too from the stroller, dont you love Delaneys pigtails :)

 getting ready to enter

Daddy and Justin

 An awesome Tran village

 A blast from the past, a LIght Bright Christmas Tree

 Justin LOVEd walking around and looking at the trees, he did so well with not touching

 Had to get a picture of the Navy tree, my little brother is in the Navy and is stationed in Italy right now (which he hates it there) but there was 2 Military trees this year which i thought was neat

 The kids loved this one with the train that went around the tree

This Navy/Military tree was made completely out of duct tape, it was pretty neat. There was also a Wizard of Oz tree there but forgot to get a picture, this is one of our favorite movies and the tree was awesome with the Emerald City as the tree topper.

A MORNING OF PAMPERING

 This past summer I talked my friend Ursala into doing the biggest loser contest with me (it was my second contest that I did back to back) and won, our prizes were a FACIAL!!! Neither one of us had ever had one done and how lucky that we both won the prize since we are good friends and that we could go together made it SO much fun! It was a a skin center in Wadsworth and the place was super nice and the 2 ladies who did our facials were awesome, I so wish I could afford to have a facial done once a month :) the first picture is in the waiting area before the fun started!

 Our room, they had heated beds for us to lay in which was great because I had been freezing all morning!

 Just as we got all nice and cozy in our beds before the fun begins

 relaxing with the deep cleansing mask on that they put on with a stone

An up close and personal shot

 Then the hot towels, I LOVED that part, they did this a few times throughout the whole facial

Ursala enjoying her hot towel, I have another up close and personal picture of her with the mask on too but I want to get her approval  before posting it :)
We had a wonderful time getting pampered, relaxing, talking and getting beautiful skin in the process. I was so thankful to win something like that (because I would have never been able to enjoy it otherwise) and it was a nice break away from a house of 5 screaming kids.

In the car on the way back home, so sad to leave, I could have stayed there all day

MOM OF THE YEAR

Ok, so maybe not! You are probably thinking "yeah right" lol....well I never said I was perfect...BUT at this moment, I am to my teenager son Daniel! :)  we just got home, (its 12:35am) Natilie and I have been waiting in line with DANIEL, outside freezing our butts off surrounded by smoking gaming crazies (which I am amazed by how many people smoke these days, I swear we were in the front part of the line and I think we were the only ones NOT smoking, Daniel, Natilie and I were burying our faces in our blankets and coats trying to gasp for fresh air) so that Daniel could get his pre-ordered midnight release of Modern Warfare 3. There are probably some parents out there that forbid their kids from playing this, but we do have rules in our house, and if Daniel wasn't a good teenager, there would be NO way he would be playing it, but he really devotes his time to church, school, sports, helping out at home and he is SUPER responsible, he just loves anything military related and his hooked on this game (as well as Josh) He went all dressed in his camo army gear, it was nice to spend some time with the older kids (without little ones around, that doesn't get to happen too often) the line was INSANE , it was worse than a black Friday shopping line.

 Daniel, so very excited and more awake than Natilie and I were

 So tired, just before midnight (and freezing!)

 The first picture here  is just part of the line that was in front of us the second one is the line in back of us, but you couldnt see where it ends because it wrapped around the building, crazy!