I am so glad that 2009 is over and done with. Don't get me wrong, there were many happy times... but there were some bad times too. It's amazing to me how much things have changed in just 12 months. I had a baby. I got divorced. I got married. Geez... It takes most people many years to accomplish all of that.


2010 has the potential to be a great year for all of us. I'm looking forward to this year and all the things we hope to achieve as a family. There will be lots of changes in the near future, but this time they're all for the better. We have a few road trips planned... Paying off our debts... Moving to Missouri... I'm looking forward to all of it!

As promised, here's some pictures from Christmas... (We also got the boys... ok, ok, Josh... a new puppy. More about her at a later time.)

Well, that's all for now. I'm hoping to be able to find more time to blog soon. With two boys and now two dogs it's kinda hectic around here. Having a puppy is like having a newborn that runs, jumps, bites and pees every where. Like I said, more on here later.... I need more hours in the day! Hoping to catch up on everyone's blogs soon. I have a LOT of reading to do.

Unfortunately my mom is going through a really hard time right now. I won't post about all the details just yet, but on Christmas Eve my step dad asked my mom for a divorce. He couldn't even wait until after the annual family Christmas party to do it. We were all gathered around their living room. Enjoying the meal that my brother-in-law cooked. Laughing, talking... My mom told everyone that Hans (my step dad) wasn't feeling well so he was in his bedroom the whole time. We were only there for an hour when my mom was called back to her bedroom. A few minutes later she came out and announced to everyone that the party was over and we had to leave because Hans was kicking us out. WHAT??? He told her he wanted a divorce and that she had better pack her bags and leave NOW. Well, he was not only kicking out my mom... but my 19 year old brother who lives there AND my sister, her husband and my 19 month old niece. (The 3 of them had just come up on hard times and moved in there the weekend Josh and I got our apartment.) So on Christmas Eve my family was scattered.

We were all confused as we made our way to the front door that night. The food was left on the dinning room table... all of it (the turkey, the ham, the mashed potatoes) went to waste. The pies were left on the kitchen counter. Hans hasn't let anyone come back to get anything. He has barricaded himself in the house. He has completely lost it. My mom thinks it has something to do with the Percocet he's on right now. (He's not a drinker and has never done drugs... so he has no tolerance for that kind of stuff.)

I'm not sure what's going to happen from this day forward, but I know that Hans has said some pretty unforgivable things to a lot of people in the past 2 days. My whole family has heard about what's going on and no one is going to let him live this down. Especially my brother and sister. My niece is basically homeless right now. We've offered everyone a place to stay here... They're staying with friends though. My mom is with her sister.

I hope this can all be worked out soon. My mom's whole life is up in the air right now. I'm praying that she can stay strong during all of this. My step dad is doing a good job of wearing her down through phone calls and texts. He's offering her ridiculous deals... (Like to let everyone come back, but he still wants to live there while my mom moves in to the office and basically becomes the maid. He's only saying that because the house is in her name!) I tried telling her last night to stop taking his calls.... I just hope she listens. Praying that this is all over with soon.

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I should mention that Christmas wasn't all bad. Josh, the boys and I did have a wonderful Christmas together. As soon and I can get a chance to upload the pictures, I'll post about our day. The boys had fun opening all their gifts and I took tons of pictures. Oh and the Chargers won!

Every year ever since I can remember my paternal grandparents have thrown a Christmas party the weekend before Christmas. I can remember when I was little the excitement I had leading up to the day. Picking out my special Christmas dress with my Grandma. (Because I was ALWAYS over there during school breaks.) I remember being at the Christmas party with my sister, brother and cousins playing games while the grown-ups stood around talking, laughing and dancing. Our favorite games to play were hide-and-seek and one we called witches. (Not sure why it was called that... it had nothing to do with a witch. The game was to make it from one side of the house to the other without a grown-up seeing you. If they spotted you then you had to freeze until another kid tagged you.) I have the best memories from those parties.

My boys are still pretty young, but today we I made a birthday/Christmas chain to count down the days. They made a huge mess helped out as best as a 10 month old and almost 3 year old can. I don't think they really knew what we were doing, but they thought it was fun to play with the strips of red, green and gold paper... along with the markers and glue stick I had out. The chain that we I made has all red & green for the normal days... the gold chains represent Josh's birthday, Camron's birthday and Christmas. Now when Camron asks me, "Where's my berffday mama?" I can show him the chain and we can count the days.



We I also wrote out a quick letter to Santa. (The boys just scribbled on it and kept trying to grab the marker out of my hand..Which is why it's so messy...) Camron keeps asking me for a million different toys OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I figured if we wrote them all down he'll stop asking for the same things. (I thought I still had a few years before he starts asking for specific things...???!) If he does ask again I can point to the letter on our fridge and show him that it's already on the list. Anything to give me some of my sanity back...

ETA: In case you can't read my sloppy writing... Camron's list of toys include:
-A little Batman (as he says this he pretends he's walking around a toy with his fingers.)
-A BIG Transformer (Bumblebee) (he says while throwing his arms in the air)
-Tools ( just like Daddy's of  course)

LOL Kids are too funny.