China here I come!!!

So my father-in-law surprised us this past Christmas and offered to take any adult back to China with them in May that wanted to go! Uh...yeah! We got the itinerary yesterday - it includes the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, the Temple of Heaven and other places in Beijing. I have to admit I'm a little scared - the only time I've been out of the country was to Canada! Is that a country? ;) We'll be gone from May 16th to the 25th - don't know if we can be gone that long with 3 children at home. Bless my family's hearts. They'll have them for at least a week! My sister Laura, and friend Crystal, have already asked for an empty suitcase so I can fill it with North Face I think? coats and such. Apparently you can get that stuff at 90 percent off.

15 days and counting until I'm in CHICAGO!!!

I am so excited that I get to visit my little sister in Chicago next month! She's lived there 1 1/2 years and I've never been able to visit - Hallie's been attached to the boob, actually still is but that's another story, and I didn't want to go with any children. So as a birthday present to me, my mom bought us tickets!!! 5 whole complete days free from responsibility! No cleaning (although I suppose I'll have to make my bed), no dinners to make, no "mom! can you wipe me!"'s. Freedom. Of course I realize that once I get there they're all I'll talk about!

Little Girls and Snow!!!

My girls have the cutest little friends that live around the corner. They're in the military and their time was up last month unless their father got into some type of medical program that would let them live here at least 2 more years. I was so happy when Emily told me that he got in and they're staying!!! Here's a few pictures of the girls and their friends when we had the big snow storm a couple weeks back.

Cookies and friends!

I like to create fun memories for my kids. It usually involves a lot of work mainly clean-up, but I'm happy to do it. I invited some friends and their kids over last month for a Christmas sugar cookie docorating day. The kids had a blast and I was sweeping up green sugar sprinkles for the next week!