MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I HOPE THAT YOU ALL HAD A WONDERFUL AND JOYOUS DAY CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF CHRIST!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas, but it is always a bit strange to be spending it in a hotel with warm weather, but as long as we are with the ones we love, it's special no matter what the location happens to be! We have been having lots of fun and have been very busy here in San Antonio which is why you haven't heard from me, but I hope to be able to fill you in on our activities tomorrow at some point.
For now MUCH LOVE to all of our family and friends!!

We Made It - Day #1

As you can see I never had time to post yesterday as I was WAY to BUSY getting ready for our departure. We were able to squeeze in a little family Christmas dinner of Don's infamous Chicken Parmesan (YUM-O), gift opening (we opened the gifts that I knew we wouldn't have any use for in TX), and then we all had to head to bed early (believe it or not I was in bed by 10:30PM...which if you know me that's early for me). 

We had to get up very early this morning (I was up by 3am and the rest were up by 3:30) as we had to leave the house by 4am to be at the Columbia airport by 4:30. Originally we were supposed to fly out of COMO but some crummy weather was headed for town and since our airport doesn't have deicing capabilities we had to bus to St. Louis and fly out of there. Needless to say, by the time we arrived in San Antonio we were all pretty tired...we got here at 10:30 am and it felt like 4PM.

Don immediately had to get to work unloading luggage and bringing it to rooms, while Adriene & I got kids food from the food court as we were all starving. After that I had to head back to the airport to pick up my mom who got in at about 1:30...poor thing had delays in Memphis and was stuck sitting on the plane on the tarmac for 2hrs, but at least she made it here safely and we are excited that she was able to join us!!

After I got her we came back to the room for awhile and then she & I brought the kids to the food court for a snack (our hotel is connected to a mall...sweet) :). As we were finishing up the long day finally got the best of Ms. Bella as she crashed in my arms at the table (she just woke up FIVE hours later...she'll be up all night)...Bail and I were able to get too.

Now we are just hanging out and relaxing & resting in our room for the upcoming week!

Goodnight for now and I'll be back tomorrow!

M-I-Z....

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!

I'm totally missing my blogging time but the holidays and bowl preparation have sure consumed all of my time the past week! My goal is to do some catch up posts tomorrow before we head off to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl. Also, another goal of mine is to try and post daily while there but I'm not making any promises! :)

Hope to chat with you all tomorrow and get you caught up!

If Momma Ain't Happy Ain't Nobody Happy!

Momma IS happy today...so all can be happy today! :)

The three older kids are at school today, I was able to get my hair cut & colored this morning, and Bella & I are going to lunch with daddy (and maybe Mitch) Mitch is our good friend & Bella's Godfather (1 of 2) in from Indiana where he's the head EQ Mgr. He will be here until Friday and we are excited about his visit since he hasn't been here since the summer of '05!

School's Cancelled

School was cancelled this morning for this:

This one is out my front door of my yard...take note of the grass! Are you kidding me?? When I was a kid the car had to totally be buried for school to be called off!

The three younger ones are already driving me crazy!!!! It is Tuesday today one of two precious days of the week that I usually get 3 hours to myself and they have been ripped away from me!

Mizzou Elves!

Go check out Coach Pinkel, Chase Daniel, Chase Coffman, Jeremy Maclin and Truman the Tiger as ELVES...too funny!

One of Don's coworkers found it on the net!

Also, Congratulations to Chase Coffman our 2008 Mackey Award Winner — America's Best Tight End!!!

MU Athletic Dept. Christmas Party

Last night was the annual athletic department Christmas party and this year it was held at the Stoney Creek Inn. We all had a great time with food, drinks, story time (which is a tradition...Mike (our AD) read Twas the Night Before Christmas before Santa came), Santa...which the kids were very excited about especially Liv & Bella, gifts...the kids all got one, Don got a gift certificate to Sophia's & I "won" a gift certificate for a one night stay at the Stoney Creek Inn in a theme room-woohoo, and friends!

3 1/2

3 1/2 is the number of years that Miss Bella has been addicted to her pluggie, and 3 1/2 is the amount of days that she has been going through withdrawal without her pluggie.

To be honest, I feel they (A&E) should have an episode of Intervention for pluggie users. For those of you who aren't familiar with Intervention...it's a show on Monday evenings on A&E, and it follows a person's plight with addiction, whether it be drugs, alcohol, eating disorder, etc. Don and I have watched this show several times, and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend that you do. The show can be very disturbing and upsetting at times but it really gives you some insight as to what an addict and their families goes through. It also makes think about your own family and what you need to do to lessen your families odds of becoming victims of these horrible addictions.

Anyway, this whole experience with the pluggie really has made me think of that show and Bella's difficulty in kicking her pluggie addiction. I don't recall any of the other three kids being quite so attached to their pluggies but maybe they were (heck I can't seem to remember anything...oh boy I sure hope I'm not plagued with Alzheimer's in my latter years...I digress). Also, in her defense she has been using it longer then we let the others (about 6 months or so)...which I will take full responsibility for because I have been trying to hang on to my sanity as long as I could. I think it's safe to say that this whole situation has pushed my sanity to whole new level that I didn't even know existed! (& I think Bailey's sanity was compromised too...she has been such a great help with this - THANKS baby!) I do feel bad for her because she doesn't know how to handle her emotions through all of this, and boy does she have them...I have had to deal with some doozy temper-tantrums which I'm sure are because of sleep deprivation.

With that said, my guess would be that tonight will go much smoother than the past two! Not because I think the habit has been kicked but because Don will be back home...just Murphy's Law...when you need them the most they aren't home & when they come home all just seems peachy again!

PS. Don has been in San Antonio for the past two nights for a site visit for the bowl game. He says it will be a great time & our hotel is attached to a mall (yeah!!). I sure am anxious for him to get home though! :)

Survey

Just for fun I have posted a survey on the side....I'm just curious to see where I fall in the scheme of Christmas shopping!

I will be the first one to answer and next it's your turn! :)

Big Girl Steps

Update #2: Night #2 Did not go very well at all! First of all she fell asleep in the car on the way home from picking Bail up from dance...this ALWAYS makes for a longer evening because they had that little power nap it fires them up enough that they can't fall asleep at a reasonable time. Then throw in the fact that she didn't have her pacifier to pacify her! This child cried off and on all night, "IIII waaaant myyyy pluuuuuggieeee!", and of course her father isn't home to help me us through this (go figure). I was fried, so at about 10:30 I told her to just go lay in my room and watch Hannah Montana thinking that she would just calm down and crash to that....WRONG. Don had called me, we chatted and he says, "she must be sleeping", and of course minutes later her the pitter-patter of feet above me...You have got to be kidding me! I decide to just let her sleep with me and am thinking that once I lay down with her she'll crash...well instead I crashed at about 11:45PM. She had fallen asleep sometime between 11:45 and 1:30am...this is when I woke up to shut the TV off. Knowing this child my guess would be that she feel asleep closer to the later time rather then the earlier time.

Oh and let me tell you this morning was NOT a treat either!! She was a BEAR!!! 

No sleep + no pluggie = a headache for mom!

I sure hope that tonight goes better....trust me no nap for this kid today...I want her good and tired come bedtime!!! :)

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Update: Bella did a great job last night without her pluggie! She was a bit restless, but it did help that her big sister, Bail, laid in bed with her for awhile! She is currently at school and then after we're off to pick out her new baby.

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Ms. Bella made big girl strides today...she threw her pluggies (pacifiers) away...YEAH BELLA!!! She had two remaining, one had a hole in it, and the other one I noticed this morning looked disgusting. I told her that the disgusting one would make her sick (which I really think would if she kept sucking it). After some hemming and hawing she decided that I may be right and asked me to put them away in the cupboard. I suggested that maybe we should just throw them away since they were in such bad shape and she was right on board. She asked for them, took to the trash, and dropped them in!! She was so proud when she did it as was I. I told her that tonight will be really hard and she will probably cry and she said, "no I won't mommy"! I told her if she was a big girl about it we could go get a prize...she wants a new baby with a bottle. We gave each other a big hug, I told her again how proud of her I was, and she went about her day!

Keep your fingers crossed for us tonight...it's going to be along one!

Watch Out San Antonio...

...Because the Tigers are coming to town! 

The Missouri Tigers have accepted an invitation to participate in the 16th installment of the Valero Alamo Bowl! The game will be held on December 29th (Don's Birthday) at 7PM on ESPN vs the Big Ten's Northwestern.

We are very excited to head to down to San Antonio and enjoy all of the festivities! We are also very grateful to just be able to go to a bowl game, and our family has an awesome time wherever we go!

Good Luck Tigers!!

M-I-Z....

St. Nick Came!!!

A tradition that we have always had in my house is to celebrate St. Nicholas' feast day which is December 6th. What you do is leave your shoes out on December 5th before you go to bed and St. Nick stops by and leaves a small gift....well he came to our house last night and the kids were overjoyed!

Continued Prayers

Please continue to pray for our friend's, the Caton's, as they head down this new, unknown, and often times scary medical journey for their daughter, Weslie. The doctors confirmed that she did indeed have a stroke most likely in utero. 

• Please pray for them as they now start the process to see what caused the stroke, lasting effects, possibility of more, physical therapy and so much more. 
• Please pray that the doctors have the knowledge and insight that they need to treat this little pumpkin. 
• Please pray for Keith & Adriene that they can find some peace in whatever is handed to them.
• Please pray for Weslie, that whatever diagnosis is handed to her that she will overcome it and grow to be a strong healthy women. Knowing this little sweetie pie though, she's going to overcome any obstacle that is put in her way...this child is a girl that knows what she wants and isn't going to settle for anything less (& a nosey little one too)...watch out Kade! :) One good example of her strong will and advancement: the doctors told Keith & Adriene that she would probably be walking in the next month...she's only 8 months old for crying out loud!
  

Keith, Adriene, Kade, & Weslie, we love you all and are here for you for whatever you need!!!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

This year I decided to put up our Christmas decor a week earlier then normal...with all of the rush that ensues us once Thanksgiving arrives and the bowl game, I wanted us to be able to fully enjoy it! I had the house completely done by Nov. 24th....yeah!!!

A Boy's Dream Come True

Monday night we had five of our football players (Chase D, Chase C, Ziggy, Maples, & Giss) over for dinner as a thank you. These five young men so graciously helped us out with a Birthday Party on Faurot Field last spring that we, along with the Catons, had donated to our kid's school auction. They did such an amazing job with the kids, so I promised them I would make them all dinner (with trying to coordinate all the schedules this was the only time that we could do it). I made them appetizers & A LOT of lasagna and the Caton's brought bread, salad, & dessert. I must say these boys did not eat nearly as much as I thought they would so I ended up having a full pan (out of 3 1/2) left over.

After the players left my sister just happened to stop by. She asked if she could go upstairs and say goodnight to the kids and this is what she experienced (This was taken from an email she sent me...I asked her to write it down because it was so sweet)....

"I walked up stairs to say goodnight to the kids. I went into Nico's room and he was just sitting up in his bed playing with something in his hand and staring with a smirk on his face. I said hi and I asked about something he had in his room (art project I don't remember what it is) he told me how he and some other kids made it at school. I looked at him and said why are you all smiley. (he had this look in his eye, like he was in a daze and just smiling) I could tell there was something going on in that head of his. He looked at me and said, "Ange I had a good day!". I said that's good, what made your day good? "I had football players at my house tonight!". He was in aw when he said he it. He was so happy, I am glad I got to see that look on his face before he went to sleep. I told him that was so cool and then he told me what players were over."

For the most part being around our football team is generally something that our kids are just so used to that it's usually not that big of a deal. However, tonight was very special for all of them especially Nico...to be able to have these five guys in our house and eating dinner with them was pretty awesome in their eyes! I was so proud of my kids for handling the situation in a mature manner and not being overly obnoxious! I'm so very happy that my boy's dream came true!!!

OMG!!!!

Back in September I had you all go vote at A Womb at the Innsane for me to win a handbag and I won (with all of your help)...click here and here to refresh your memory! Well a couple of weeks ago I got the handbag and it's so ADORABLE!! After some issues that poor Kadi had with the post office & the lady that makes the bag (running out of the fabric of the offered bag), it ended with me being able to pick out one that I wanted from Pink Lemonade Bags (they are all so cute it was hard to narrow it down to just one.

Here is a picture of me with the bag...so cute isn't it!!!:

Now for the OMG part of this...

After getting caught up with some of my own posting today I started to read some of my favorite Blogs. I finally get to A Womb at the Innsane, start reading her post for today and OH MY GOSH...it's me...on her blog...which gets hundreds if not thousands of readers a day...holy crapola!!!! Seriously go check it out...it's little ole me!!

She had asked for a photo of me with the bag when I got it so she could post about it, but I never thought that she would really do it! 

I'll be signing autographs later! :) Thanks Again Kadi!!

Here is a Good One for Wordless Wednesday...

Prayer Request

Please pray for our friend's, Adriene & Keith's, baby Weslie who is almost 8 months old. She had to go through an MRI this morning....please pray for positive results from this test.

Please click here for her full stroy!

Thanksgiving!!

This year for Thanksgiving our good friends, the Spiccis, had us over for dinner! It was so nice to go to someone's house for a change. Since Don has worked here at Mizzou we have not been able to travel for Thanksgiving. So our dinners for the past 9 years have consisted of us cooking or going to the dining hall...both have been great but it was a nice change this year!

In addition to the Spiccis having us, they were also kind enough to have Borts (one of Don's assistants) and Erich (one of Don's students) for dinner as well. The food was fantastic but as with all holidays there was a TON of it! They made turkey, stuffing, dressing, veggies cranberries, mashed potatoes rolls, coconut custard pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie...it was all DELICIOUS! We brought pre dinner snacks, I made sweet potato casserole (it was AWESOME) and two pie (I made apple and Bail made cherry...both SO GOOD)! 

Thanks Tony, Aimee, and Sophie!!!!!

Aimee & Tony prepping and Borts, Bella, & I....

Bella helping to put the silver away (she did a great job) and the rest playing a game...

Bailey's Cherry Pie and my Apple Pie (this one turned out so much better then my last one)...

Thanksgiving Break

The kids had a three days off this year for Thanksgiving break which is a 1st for us...they usually have only had two days off. Despite our Wednesday morning mayhem which led me to the photo contest, we had a great break!!

Wednesday afternoon we headed over to the Spicci's house so the kids could play with Sophie and so Aimee and I could sew. We got to their house about 2PM and ended up staying their until about 9:30-10PM. In addition to sewing and the kids crafting and playing, we also made our pie crusts for our pies for Thanksgiving, we had dinner (a smorgasbord of Buffalo Wild Wings & D. Rowe's), and I had to bring Nico back & forth to his basketball practice.

Thursday we went to the Spicci's for Thanksgiving but this will get it's own post.

Friday Don left for Kansas City for the game so the kids and I were on our own. We hung out at home for the morning and then I took the kids to see Madagascar 2 in the afternoon....it was cute and we all had fun! After the movie we met up with our friends the Anglens for pizza at Shakespeare's...the Anglens used to live here but moved to Indiana a few years ago. They also have four kids and their oldest Becca and Bailey have been the greatest of friends since Kindergarten. All of our kids love to play with each other so it's nice to be able to get together with them (Nico also loves it because their daughter, Sarah, is his "girlfriend" and has been for several years). After dinner we all went to the Mizzou women's volleyball game (which they  lost), and then Becca came over to spend the night with Bail. 

Saturday I got up at 5:30am to head to Kansas City for the MU/KU game at Arrowhead Stadium on the staff fan bus (which left at 7:30am) . It was fun despite the very cold/wet/snowy weather, the long day (13 1/2 hours to be precise), and the loss by 3 in the last seconds of the game. This coming Saturday our boys will play in the Big XII Championship game at Arrowhead against the Oklahoma Sooners for the Big XII Title...Go TIGERS!!!

Sunday Don and I had to go to the football banquet at the Holiday Inn Select and the kids hung out at the Spicci's (they got to go get a tree with them at the tree farm).

Contest Winners

You all have begging so I must announce the winners of the contest...drum roll please....

SAHM, The Vesh's, & The Catons were correct on the WHY of the picture....The kids were driving me crazy! So you all get 50 pts and a shout out! :)

The caption winners are....BUT 1st I have to say that there were some very good ones so I picked my top 3 favs:

3rd Place: JMV (aka my mom) with Holy Mouse Sh_t! (it went well with her why even though wrong)

2nd Place: Tony with I have to wear gold!!!! (again went well with his why...I love to wear black if y'all didn't know already)

1st Place Winner and the winner of a full 50 Points goes to...drum roll please...The Vesh's with Too bad Nebraska changed that law or we'd be in the car. (That whole Nebraska situation is horrible but when they were driving me nuts this sure cracked me up)