Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We did! With the way the economy is right now we knew Christmas would be tough, but God truly blessed us! Why does Christmas always seem to come down to money when it is about so much more, JESUS! Our kids asked for very little and got everything they wanted, and received all their gifts with excitement!

I was so very thankful that my kids have a thankful heart! They were truly pleased! It is sad to say but some kids don't have a thankful heart, and just seem to be greedy! I pray with all my heart that my kids will never become one of these brats! It was a true blessing watching them open their presents with looks of surprise and never thinking "this is all I got??"! Because in reality they did get all they wanted, and thank God for that!

We enjoyed a Christmas Eve at home watching Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe Chronicles of Narnia! The kids each had their own bag of popcorn (a treat in this house), and had a plethora of blankets laid out before the TV. Good times. We also enjoyed a few Christmas books, and the most important the story of baby Jesus! It was a great night being at home with my family!

Christmas day the kids opened their presents, and then we headed to the hill, my in-laws. The weather was nice, finally, so the kids enjoyed a lot of time outside. They received many great presents from their grandparents, and Elke out did herself again on a great Christmas meal. It was a good day.

Elke watched the girls for a couple days, so the boys and I have had a good time together. It has been a great week, and now the real world of work comes back. I enjoyed every minute I had with my kids, and will treasure it! Hope you all had a great Christmas, and enjoy your New Year!

Just a quick share to show some pictures of the Deaton gang doing our annual Christmas cookies. It is always such a pain in the butt to clean up the mess, but well worth it! They get so excited, and get more creative each year. Devyn is now 10 and her cookies were well decorated, she liked to try to lick the frosting more than anything (true sugar freak)! Mom and I had to send her into the bathroom to wash her hands a few times:)! Sadey is 7 now and her cookies were quite the creation also. I just give them each their own frosting, knife, sprinkles, and this year used writing frosting. Sadey used barely any of her frosting (to my disappointment, that's the best part), but they turned out pretty. Lukas just cracks me up. His nickname is Turtle for a good reason! It took him 10 to 15 minute to decorate one small cookie, but it did look good. Really good actually the child did a good job, and took it serious! Nate, well what can I say, he is Nate. I think he broke one or two of the cookies while decorating, and then gave up after a couple because he was too concerned with wanting to lick the frosting bowl. I just gave up and didn't let him have any more cookies, so we wouldn't have Nate germs all over the cookies!! It was fun and always an adventure. As I say I love holiday traditions!

Christmas at Mom and Dad's

For those who do not know my dad works off shore on an oil rig, and is gone a lot. So due to his absence at Christmas (usually) we have our Christmas celebration with them a little early when dad is home.



It's always such a wonderful time with family! Last year and this year we did soups with mini-sandwiches and lots of snackie foods and LOTS of dessert! Always way too much to eat in such little time, so we come together the next day for lunch and try to finish it off. It is so good. So good to the point that you are miserable after the feast! (extra workout time needed after that weekend!)

Anyways Friday night mom and dad watched all the kids, and Sam and I enjoyed an evening together. Mostly we went into Branson and finished our Christmas shopping, but it was just nice being together. The score of that evening was a new book store called Books-A-Million. I could have spent so much time in there! It was a heaven to me.

We went to my parents on Saturday around 1pm and started our now annual celebration. I hate the fact that dad is gone most Christmas's but this early celebration has become one of my favorite times of the season! It also seems to help with the over stimulation of the kids getting so many presents at one time from two sets of gparents and us! This gives them time to enjoy the presents from mom, dad, u.Dan and a.Andrea.

We all got wonderful gifts, but a few I want to write about in particular.



1.The American Idol game the young Pullans got the girls. It is so much fun. You can plug your own Mp3 player into it and dance away. It is hard, but I just put it on a slow pace and dance away. We all tried this Saturday, and I believe we worked out our stomachs as much as our legs from all the laughing!

2.This gift wasn't even to my family, but it has to do with that Wii I love. Mom and Dad got the young Pullans the Mario Kart game. WHOOO HOOO that is fun! Oh how I love the Wii.

3.Mom and Dad got all the kids a Scene It game. We played it yesterday because the kids had a snow day. It was so much fun! It's a Disney one, so the kids are pretty educated in that department! Great way to pull all of us together!

But like I said all gifts were great these were just a few that we have had time to enjoy together!

The best dog ever got a little present too, but he destroyed it in less than 5 minutes. Oh how I love that Chocolate Labrador Retriever! I could never own a dog that sweet and who seems to know every thought I have. He is a precious, precious animal! Sometimes he seems more human to me, and I believe he himself thinks this too! Sorry about going off about the dog. We lost our cat this week, and I'm having a hard time with it! We will miss that silly crazy cat that blessed our lives for just over a year!

Enough of the sad stuff! I'm so very thankful to be blessed with a wonderful family, and it was another fascinating Christmas holiday at the Pullans! Thanks for the good times! I just love traditions!!!

Thanksgiving

I can't believe that Thanksgiving already passed us. The older I get the time really does just go so fast!

Dan and Andrea invited mom and us up to their house for Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time. Good food, good company and great weather! Kuddos to mom for the gravy and dressing and to Andrea for the party potatoes and ham! It was delicious!

We enjoyed a great time outside playing baseball and throwing the football around! A great way of working off those extra calories I piled on during our yummy dinner! I think the best work out was the Wii though! I tell ya, I love that thing! It is so much fun and an awesome workout! You don't even realize how much your body is being worked because you ARE having so much fun. My body always KNOWS the next day, getting old! Plus the fact that the two times I have played we end up playing for hours!! It is such an awesome way to get everyone involved in ONE thing! The kids loved it, and played it well. I didn't expect them to get it, or at least not Nate! But once again I don't know why I ever doubt any of my children's abilities, they are amazing:)!

So, I'm not much of a shopper, but yes mom, Andrea and I went out on the dreaded Black Friday! It wasn't too bad. It was nice getting a break from the kids and being with the ladies! It's rare that I get girl time! And I did score on a few good Christmas presents! Friday night we relaxed at home and watched Kung Fu Panda which was outstanding. If you have kids give it a try!

Saturday we visited Sam's parents, and it was nice! Then we came home and watched the Gators kick some bootah! Really crossing my fingers for the next weeks game against Alabama! Go Gators! Also did about 10 loads of laundry Saturday, no joke!

Sunday we put up our Christmas decorations, which is a few days later than I usually do it. But we were so busy running around that was the first chance we got! I absolutely adore watching the kids put up our many many ornaments. Because there is four of them it only took them about 5 minutes, but they had a blast! Devyn is tall enough to get the ornaments on the top of the tree, so I just have to hand them out! Luke and Nate are so very excited and are expecting Santa to come at any moment! So hard explaining time to little beings!

All in all it was a great holiday weekend, and enjoyed it all!

Priceless

OK let me start off by saying that it is rare that I come up with a good idea. Most of my ideas are "hand me downs" from other intelligent people.

So last weekend was my sister-n-law's birthday. Kelly is a very special person!! She is 10 years older than me (you can do the math I'd rather not at this moment), and loves Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, and most of all High School Musical.

So as most of us that have young girls know High School Musical 3 was only in theaters! This is something that really gets me!! Why in theaters?? The first two movies were premiered on the Disney channel! Like these people don't make enough money on their backpacks, jewelery, sunglasses, clothes, DVDs, Cd's, ect......!! It just ticks me off! Anyways, moving on...I knew how much Kelly would love to see this movie. So here is my good idea, I wanted to be the one to take her...a big surprise. The movie has been out since the end of October and last weekend I was busy visiting family, so my prayer became a reality when it was still showing THIS weekend.

The movie was showing at 11:30, so the kids and I spent the night out on the hill (Galena where my in-laws live). It just made it easier because Elke watched the boys so I could take the girls to the movie. They had no idea what I was up to, or so I thought! We got ready and headed to Branson. Let me just say that it was absolutely priceless to watch Kelly's face as we pulled into the movie theater and she realized what we were doing! That smile, that grateful look, it just meant everything. It made it entirely worth sitting through this MUSICAL! Her smile wasn't directed at me it was just like she was surrounded by nothing but pure happiness!

To my disappointment Devyn had figured out the surprise the night before, go figure! Which I didn't know until after the movie was over, and she hinted Kelly in on what she thought! "But mom I told her I didn't know for sure because you hadn't told me anything", blah blah blah!! It pisses me off because it reminds me of myself. No surprises just figure it out! I hate surprises, but I have gained a whole new respect for someone who wants to surprise me now.

The movie was OK, I mean I caught myself laughing a couple times over the ridiculous times they chose to sing a song, and just the idea of the whole movie. But I have to admit I probably watched Kelly's reaction to the movie as much as I watched the movie itself. And believe me I know what it feels like to be completely obsessed and taken over by something, TWILIGHT!! So I did understand to an extent on where she was coming from. I loved watching her smile, cry, and laugh to the movie. She felt everything that HSM hopes for a person to feel! It just felt so good to do something like that for someone you love!



So the Bible is so right on about when you bless others it is really YOU that will be blessed in the end! I teared up a couple times just watching her, and THAT my friends is what it's all about! Giving, loving, sharing and experiencing things with the ones we love! Thank you Kelly for giving me today, it truly was priceless!!

By the way stupid me forgot my camera AGAIN!!

Obsessed

Sam was reading a Time magazine that was explaining appropriate books, TV series, and movies for teen girls to be involved with. Having 2 young girls he was interested in this! While reading it he came across a book series called the Twilight Saga. He went to the authors web page, read an exert from the book, and decided that I would love these books.
I tried to get them from my local library but the first book was out so I put it on hold. Before it became available Sam bought me the first two books.
My journey began on a Friday night. I wasn't thinking to much about it. I mean come on I'm not much into sci-fi stuff. Vampires?? The only reason I even liked them was because of that great movie The Lost Boys I saw growing up!! Remember that? Anyways I say "journey" because these books took me on a great ride. I read all four books in 3 weeks. I've read people saying they read them from 2 days to 3 weeks. I could have been that 2 day person, but I do have a family to take care of! These are not small books, Breaking Dawn was 756 pages, but they read like they are only 100 pages!
I was beginning to worry about myself. These books are meant to be for teens and I'm 31 years old and loving it. I mean loving it to the point of any free minute the books were in my face and I hate to admit this but I had several Twilight dreams. I didn't sleep well for the 3 weeks I was reading them. Due to my insecurities I found people that have enjoyed the books from the ages of teens to 65 years. So yes I do feel better about that, along with the fact I found several people in their thirties that had children that became obsessed also.
After finishing the Twilight Saga I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I went to the authors web page and found Midnight Sun. Which is Twilight from Edwards point of view. She only has a partial draft of it on her web page, and I will not go into detail why, you can check it out on stephaniemeyer.com.
The movie comes out in 14 days. I know it won't do the books justice, movies never do, but I am so excited to see it. Sam will be taking me!! I believe they did a really good job picking out the cast. My only problems were I considered Rosalie and Carlisle to be "prettier", but come on no one could come up with the people I created in my head. They did a great job with Bella and Edward (love those names) I could get really vulgar in the way I explained Robert Pattinson but I will spare you:)!

I guess my point is if you have not read these books, and are looking for a great romantic escape then I completely recommend the Twilight Saga. Become another obsessed freak. As one of my friends said..."I believe Twilight is a cult and I am happily drinking the kool-aid"! I love it! And for those who understand...TEAM EDWARD even though I believe the books would have never been the same without Jacob, I'm one of his fans also!!

My Birthday...A Couple Great Weekends.

Well another year has passed for me, and to be honest I am NOT good at getting older! Very depressing for me, but I had a great birthday this year! It started a couple weekends ago with a surprise call from Elke (Sam's mom) telling me she wanted to watch all 4 of my kiddo's for the entire weekend! UMMM how could I say no to that? That's right you don't!!

So my brother and his wife got a new Wii and I have never played one, so I pretty much invited myself to their house for the Friday night! They took me out to dinner for my bday, which was nice...thanks. Then we went home and enjoyed some good times on the Wii! Before I knew it it was 1am. I'm old now and don't ever stay up that late...my bedtime is about 9pm!! Anyways that just shows how much fun it was. Being with Dan and Andrea and the Wii! Bowling was my favorite, and pathetically was sore the next day! It's like your really playing! I WANT A WII!!!

Saturday night Sam and I enjoyed a nice evening at home with great food and no kids. I could actually sit on the couch without having to get up several times and hearing "mom" from 4 little different voices. Not that I mind hearing my babies call for me, it is just nice to have a break.

Halloween was great for the kids. They had a blast at the church. Devyn was a pirate, Sadey a angel, Luke a dog, and Nate a power ranger. They didn't get as much candy as I wanted but it's not about me right?

Saturday mom took me shopping and out to lunch. It was so nice. Got some cute clothes and really enjoyed my lunch at a restaurant called Blue Olive. Yum Yum. When I got home we enjoyed a good dinner and then Sam surprised me with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. I had told him last summer that I had always wanted one and never gotten one. Learned later from mom she did get me one for my sixteenth birthday. Sorry I don't remember much from those years! Anyways my ice cream cake was fabulous and a great surprise. Sam also got me my Gator shirt with the Tebow superman on the front. I have been wanting one of those and he remembered, so he really out did himself! It was a wonderful time with family! Thanks to all!!