Thanksgiving

What I'm most thankful for: My Life... I have a healthy, happy family! I am thankful for my two most precious gifts of all, Ryleigh and Landree, and for my little gift on the way and I am thankful for my wonderful hubby! I am thankful to have a beautiful house to live in, to have a job that helps provide for my family. I am thankful for extended family and friends.

We spent Thanksgiving Day right here at home with my parents and Jason's dad and Terri! It was great. Jason and I didn't have much to do on Thanksgiving morning. We had made the turkey early this year--on Thursday (a gift from his work) and all we had to make was the mashed potatoes. It was a fun day filled with great laughs and lots of love. We even got to see my brother and Kelli on skype and we got a tour of thier newly remodeled home!! I was thankful that everyone made it to our house safely and then made it home safely.

Jason spent Friday with the girls since I had to work, but I went in super early and was off pretty early. I made it home for most of the Husker game and it was so nice to win the BIG 12 North!! GO BIG RED!! Now, it's off to Texas to play Oklahoma for the BIG 12 Championship!! Should be a good game!! Sure would be nice to go out with a bang!

Saturday we got all of the Christmas decorations up. Boy, does that feel good. And today, since it was in the upper 40's, the girls played in the melting snow for a bit!

So excited for the Christmas season to be upon us! I love this time of year! Ryleigh has her Christmas program coming up for preschool, I dug out the camcorder, now I just need to get it ready. We've been practicing her songs and she knows them all! We've also been singing Happy Birthday to both Landree and baby Jesus! We've been singing her favorite Christmas tune as well lately, "We Three Kings"!!

Thanksgiving Feast!

We had a Thanksgiving feast at Preschool on Monday! I took some personal time from work to spend a few hours with Ryleigh on Monday morning at Preschool....it was so fun to get to see her interact and see what a great listener she is (something Jason and I feared --and still do--that she would have trouble focusing on)!! We made a special meal for some special guests. Ryleigh got to cut up oranges for the feast, I on the other hand was in a group with 4 boys cutting up sausage and cheese....it was interesting. Instead of cutting the cheese and sausage into halves.....ours were cut up into bite size chunks (I had to giggle) and by the time we got done with the cheese and started the sausage, the boys were finished!! I met some other moms, which was nice for the most part. Despite being 31 now, I felt like I looked way younger than a couple of the moms. Yay! ;) I learned a lot about Thanksgiving and had a blast watching Ryleigh race around the gym, catching all the boys (wow, she's speedy)!! It was so fun! Tomorrow we are having our very own Thanksgiving feast here at home to celebrate all that we are thankful for, which includes all of you family and friends, who read the blog! Jason's been working on his first turkey and it's all cooked and ready to go in the crock pot. I am on mashed potato duty tomorrow. Grandpa and Grandma Quint are bringing a few items and Grandpa and Grandma Zabka are also bringing a few items. The only thing that makes me nervous is that it has been snowing all day, so hopefully the roads are good so we get to see them all!! Ryleigh's "craft turkeys" are ready to go, and the house is picked up for the most part...hopefully no one looks at the behind the scenes....you see when you work all week before the holiday, it's hard to get the house cleaned exactly how you'd hoped. Oh well, thankfully we have a house to celebrate in!! Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Miss Landree Isabelle

Since I recently shared some pictures of Ryleigh, I thought I'd share some of Landree. I have more on my camera that I need to get on here, but here's what I've had on the docket.

My girls are such "daddy's girls"! They just love him so much and doesn't it look like he's in love too?

Daddy and Landree (so precious):

A month or so ago in her jammies:

Being adorable posing for me:

Pretty girl:

She just came out from hiding from me:



That's what I have for now on my sweet, precious, loving little girl!

Middle of November??? Already???

I can't believe it's the middle of November and I have only 3 posts before this one. I told myself I was going to work on more, but, well, time flies and life is busy!!

We headed back to Nebraska this weekend to see grandparents and dance with my Aunt Pat and her new hubby Chuck!! All in all, it was a good, safe trip. The girls were awesome both ways, which actually surprised me. I stayed up way to late with family on Saturday night and Jason was kind enough to drive most of the way home, so we could all nap. I got to meet the newest members of the Zabka family....twin cousins, Madison and Mason and cousin Corbin who are all around 3 months old. I got to hold Mason a lot, so I am hoping the boy vibe rubbed off on me, but another girl would be just fine!! Mom and I spent about 1 1/2 hours with my Grandma while she slept most of it, but it was nice to get to see her, hug and kiss her! On the way home, we stopped at a restaurant and mom and dad bought us supper for my birthday! Thank you mom and dad!

I also get to announce today (a secret that has been very hard to keep) that we are going to be aunt and uncle again. My brother, Ryan and his wife, Kelli are expecting baby Zabka on June 18th, 2011...........a playmate for our baby #3!! I am so excited for them! So, add another baby to the slew of them on the Zabka side and that is 7 babies added in a 10 month period!! My mom and dad are pretty excited to double their grand kids! A congrats goes out to my cousin Jon and his wife Kara on the birth of a baby boy, Boden Jon last Tuesday. And, since we are still on the subject of babies, I had an appt. today. Got to hear the baby's heart rate which was approximately 150 beats per minute!! Best noise ever (besides their first cries, first words, first sentences, first songs, the list goes on)!!!

And, thanks to all for the birthday wishes. I only wanted no-bake cookies from Jason since he hasn't made them in years, due to them not being "healthy"! But what are birthdays for, especially when you're over 30 and don't really care about your age anymore?? So, him and the girls made me a batch tonight and they were delicious. But, instead of just getting cookies, he also spoiled me with a new camera...now I just need to learn how to use it. (Ana--can you help me out??) HAHA!! I have been reading and playing and I am just not doing something right!! Although the pictures that I have taken look fabulous (I actually have lots of Landree smiling, instead of her running and blurry in the camera)! The speed is amazing!

The worst part about not being home this weekend??? We missed the first major snowfall when the good Lord dumped a foot of snow on top of our house. But we found our snow boots, bibs and winter gear and Ryleigh was excited to stomp around in it this morning. Hard to believe it was 67 degrees a week ago. Jason also took the girls outside to play in it this afternoon after work, but by the time I got my time in, got gas in the car and got home, they were coming in because it was getting dark, so maybe I will get pix tomorrow. And, supposedly we're getting more snow tonight, so I am sure it will be around for awhile to get some pix!

Hope everyone has a great week!

What happened to the week....

Be ready to read and sorry, it seems lengthy, but there are lots of pix!!

What a fast week it's been. I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already. A lot has happened this past week. First I will start with last Friday evening. Jason went hunting and got his first deer with his bow! Right through the heart...nice kill. He had everything cleaned and done Friday. Ryleigh was so excited for him and excited to see the deer.

Then, on Saturday my parents came over for the Husker game and boy was it a nail biter....again! But we pulled her off in overtime and got the W, which is what matters the most!! GO BIG RED! That evening after my parents headed out, Jason and I decided to take the girls to their 1st NCAA basketball game at MSU! He got some free tickets from work and so we headed just a few minutes from our house to take it in. Of course, like last year, there weren't many fans, so all the kids there pretty much got lots of attention from the mascot! Which was fine by Ryleigh, she loved him. It was Landree who freaked out anytime he got near us and it was Landree who knew exactly where that mascot was at all times during the game. You could ask her where he was and she'd point him out to you....hilarious! They were both very good and we left a little before the game was over to get the girls to bed. MSU was kicking butt and taking names. (It just kills me that when I went to a GCCC basketball game in KS the place was packed and here at a University, there were hardly any people there. Maybe there's more to do here than little Podunk Garden City, KS???? All was good until Jason and Ryleigh raced to the car and Ryleigh had a big spill in the parking lot. I was nervous as to what I was going to see, but all her teeth are still there, she just got (what she calls) road rash to her forehead and nose. It's almost all healed. Her new nickname is "ROADY"!! (and for other reasons, Landree's new nick name is "ROCKY" as she likes to eat rocks--uggh)!

I forgot to mention, Saturday morning, Ryleigh and I had a little crafty morning planned that we worked all week to get the supplies for. Landree didn't care to join us, so she and Jason ran errands, which was a nice change because usually Ryleigh goes on the errands and Landree stays with me! So we made some Thanksgiving turkeys and will use them for name tags for Thanksgiving. The pine cones are right from our backyard and most of the supplies I already had, so it was a fun, inexpensive little morning. We had a good time and Ryleigh did most of the work and was so patient and careful with the hot glue! Here are a few photos:

Sunday was pretty much a lazy day for me because Jason cleaned the whole house for me and since the girls didn't want to adjust to daylight savings time we were up an hour earlier than normal and got it pretty much cleaned by 10 am!! Last Friday, I also hit the 20 week mark of my pregnancy.....half way done!!!!!!! This has gone so fast, it's crazy! Jason even felt the baby move this week, which is always cool. We have not even talked about names yet or really anything except that he wants to get going on building bunk beds for the girls for when they move into the same room. I have another appt on Monday so we will see what the heart rate is. If anyone saw my facebook page--we don't know for sure yet what we are having so keep guessing!! Here is a photo of me last Saturday and don't mind how I look, I've been kind of tired this week!

On top of this week being crazy, it's been very emotional. We didn't think my Grandma was going to make it through the week, but apparently she had a blood clot which traveled to her heart. From what I understand from my Dr. and NP friends is that it can lodge into a smaller vessel and cause some short term problems, if it would have lodged in a major vessel, she would have left us and she will most likely continue to have more and more at any time. So, we are heading back to Nebraska tomorrow after work to go see her and my Grandpa. My aunt and Godmother also got married and is having a dance on Saturday evening that we will be attending and there I will get to see my other Grandma. So, off we go to have some major family time in the great state of Nebraska!!

Also wanted to wish our friends Ben and Jenna a big congrats! They are the proud parents of a little girl whom was born on Sunday. They adopted her from a teenage couple and named her Brielle Mae ( I might have misspelled that completely, I will have to check tomorrow as all of my information and pictures of her are on my work email)!! How exciting and what a special gift for new mommy and daddy and baby during this holiday season!!

Hope everyone has a great week. Be thankful for all that you have. I also got my birthday (& Christmas) present early from Jason and the girls. I am so excited, I got a new fancy camera!! Oh, which brings me to give a big Happy Birthday wish to my friend Cami as well!! Hope your day was great!! Happy Veterans Day as well--a big THANK YOU to my brother who is currently serving in the US NAVY!! We love you!!

Miss Ryleigh Grace

Funny.

Sweet.

Cute.

Entertainer.

Halloween...

What a fun Halloween weekend we had! In the 3 days before Halloween, the girls (Ryleigh) changed their (her) minds about what they wanted to be. It all started when Jason and I went shopping quick for some costumes on Wednesday since my friend couldn't find the ones she was going to lend us. I opted for this cute little ladybug costume and Jason was a tequila pop n' dude! We got home, tried them on and called it good. So, I thought it would be cute to dress Landree up again as a ladybug this year, so we could be mama and "baby" ladybugs. Well, then Ryleigh said, "I want to be a ladybug too!" I told her it would be OK, that we could dress them both up in their original costumes, but then, I was telling my friend about the ladybugs and she said she might have one at home that would fit Ryleigh, so the three of us were a little ladybug family on Halloween!!! The costume party that Jason and I attended was SO fun! Lots of great food and karaoke!! I was the only one not drinking at the party, so karaoke was easy for me, but then it was pretty easy for them all as well since they had been drinking. Anyways, it was hilarious. Jason even sang.....................chin dropping for me, but he had fun I think (and despite what he thinks, he really has a pretty good voice)--I've always thought that by the way!! My parents had come over and babysat the girls and then spent the night on Saturday. Oh, and they brought these wonderful caramel apples...................best I've ever tasted!! YUMMY!!

Sunday we had lunch with my parents and then they went home around 3 in the afternoon and we headed over to where I work as they were having a parade and trick or treating there. Ryleigh was so quiet and Landree was a pistol as she woke up from her nap on the wrong side of the crib! Then we came home, ate supper and headed out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Several neighbors had goody bags especially for the girls so that was fun. We bundled them up good and they both were warm (even sweaty when we got home). It was a pretty nice day, but once it got dark, it got chilly. We went and met our new neighbors....finally! Ryleigh was not shy saying trick or treat in the neighborhood and Landree, well, she thought she could just walk right in to everyones house and hang out! By the end of the evening, Landree was even saying "Thank you!" after she got her candy. And, oh my gosh, the girls have enough candy to last them 2 years as they don't really eat it that often.

My vampires:

I got the best scare I've had in the past few years. We walked up to this house...decorated really good (scary for the girls). There was a graveyard with headstones of the family that lived there, some other decorations, smoke and two stuffed scary people up on the porch. The girls weren't too thrilled, but they rang the doorbell and got their candy. As we were starting to leave, this smoke started spraying the porch and I thought it'd be a good picture of the girls in the smoke, so I kneeled down next to this chair to take a picture and this stuffed scary person lurks out at me. I stand up screaming and turn to get away from him and then the other stuffed scary person jumps at me (Jason was with the girls). I screamed again and then started laughing so hard. It was definately not expected especially since, when we walked up to the door, I turned to the first one and asked teasingly, "You're not real, are ya?" However, when I screamed, that scared the "feelers" off of my two little bugs and they were screaming and Landree started to cry and couldn't move. These two teenage boys did a great job. Of course for the next two blocks Jason and I had to explain to Ryleigh that they were just people dressed up like us in makeup and costume. Luckily, no one had nightmares last night!!! :)

Mom, here's the cheese ball that I made for the girls' party!!