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.

A few months ago I joined this awesome community of bloggers who know that The Secret is in the Sauce... or rather... the comments. Just wanted to give a shout out to all of my SITStas and wish everyone a Happy Merry SITSmas to all!

Can you believe we only have 2 more weekends to go Christmas shopping?! I know I still have some shopping to do. I keep thinking I have all this time, but I still have so much I need to get done! Christmas cards to fill out. Pictures to print. Presents to buy.... for both Christmas AND birthdays! I still don't have all of our Christmas decorations up. UGH....Can I just say that I'm a tad overwhelmed??

Well, I was hoping to put up our new family picture in this post, but it will have to wait for a future one. (No rush, Alyssa! Lol I know Saturday was only 3 days ago.)

ETA: She sent me 2 of the pictures!! I can't wait to see the rest. :)

We've been so busy all weekend that I haven't had a chance to post anything in about 3 days! The day after the exploding casserole incident we went to Lowes and bought our Christmas tree. While we were there we also picked up this really cute toy tool set for Camron. (He's been following daddy around the house, helping him baby-proof the cabinets... pretending my nail polish is a screw driver.) I think he's gonna love it.

Friday night we went to Sea World's Members Only Night. They closed down the park at about 4:30pm and then re-opened it just for members at 5pm. We got there at about 5:30. I mainly wanted to go because they were handing out Sea World ornaments. Plus we hadn't been in over a month. When we go into the parking lot we were stuck in a long line of cars. Josh decided to follow the car in from of him out of the line, over the orange cones and through a gateway that said, "STOP! Wrong way. Severe tire damage." I was freaking out thinking that we were going to have to call for help because our tires were flat. Luckily his truck tires went over it just fine. We ended up parking right near the entrance.

We were thinking it was going to be really crowded inside, but it wasn't too bad. At around 6:20 everyone in the park seemed to head over to see the Shamu show. After seeing flood of people headed toward the Shamu stadium we decided against going. We pretty much had the park to ourselves after that. We were able to see the sharks, the penguins and the eels with no problem. The boys had a lot of fun... until about 7... then the crying started. Time for bed. So we left.

Saturday afternoon we took a drive to Old Poway Park in North County. We were meeting up with my old high school friend, Alyssa who is now a wedding photographer. She offered to take some family pictures for us as a late wedding present. The location she choose for our pictures was perfect! I had never been to Old Poway Park and I was really impressed. It's located right in the middle of this adorable little community. The boys had fun running around in the grass and playing in the leaves. I think she got some really cute pictures of us and I can't wait to see how they turn out! I'm hoping there's a good one in there of all 4 of us that I can put in our Christmas cards.

Sunday was spent going to church and trying to get the boys to behave during sacrament. Right now our ward starts at 11am... which is right before nap time for both of them. (Not a good combination... Church + Cranky Kids = Most of our time is spent walking the hallways.) I can't wait til the beginning of the year when it will change to 9am. I think they'll be in much better moods at that time.

Now it back to the regular work week. Only 17 more days til Christmas!

It seems like our family has been non-stop since we got married. As of right now, I don't see any signs of it slowing down. I'm not complaining really... It keeps life interesting. The month of December and January is no different.

• December 4th - Sea World's members only night. We want to go get the special ornament that they're passing out that night.
  
• December 5th - Family pictures! An old friend from high school is a photographer and offered to do pictures for us as a wedding gift. :) She's awesome!
• December 15th - Josh's Birthday
• December 23rd - Camron's Birthday
• December 24th - Christmas Eve and my Dad's Birthday
• December 25th - Christmas
• December 31st - New Years Eve
• January 3rd - My Birthday
• January 12th - Brady's Birthday

Mixed in there we have Christmas shopping, grocery shopping, doctor's appointments for Camron's 3 year check up and Brady's one year (that I still have to make), getting our Christmas tree and decorations up, wrapping presents, making cookies, making cakes, visiting family, putting together the gifts I'm making... not to mention doing our daily routines. Oh yeah and Josh's friends want him to install heating ducts on their addition to their house as soon as he can...

There's lots to celebrate this month and lots of fun to be had... but I'm not gonna lie, I'm looking forward to when I can stop stressing about all this and finally breath again!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! I'm pretty excited because we get to spend time with family that we don't get to see everyday.

It's always been a family... ok MY... tradition to go over to my Grandparent's house for the holidays. Ever since I was a child we spent every year doing the same thing. When I was married to Ron he never argued with me about where to go because his family is spread out over several states. It worked for us at that time. Now I'm married to someone who has family here in town... Things are going to be a little different.

This year and next there's going to be a lot of firsts for both Josh and I. We just spent our first Halloween together... not really a big deal to us or our families. Next is Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We're going to have to figure out and establish our own traditions. New traditions. I think it's important for Josh, the kids and I to come up with our own. Next year we're planning to move to Missouri and we won't have our families around...

Maybe next year we'll figure out our own family holiday traditions. I think this year we'll just spread ourselves thin and try to visit everyone who wants to see us. We won't have the option next year so I think it will be worth it.

First stop for Thanksgiving will be Josh's parents house at noon. We'll eat just enough to hold us over for the next meal. After we finish up there we'll head to my grandparent's house around 2pm where we'll eat a little bit more and probably have dessert.

Next we'll head over to my mom's house for a quick hello and to drop the boys off with her. They're going to be spending the night with her so I can do some Black Friday shopping in the wee hours of the morning. (Wish me luck on that...) I'm still trying to convince Josh to come with me. He hates crowds and he hates shopping. Black Friday is not a good mix for him...

Now I'm off to make some pumpkin pies for tomorrow's feast!