It's Been Awhile! (Yes I sung this while I posted it)

Dear Blog followers, sorry I have been slackin'. I hate to say it out loud, but my life feels like it's on hold...so I kinda hate to think about it too much. The house has still not sold though we drop the price again and again, and I am still living the life of a single mom while the the hubster has to work and live away from his family. It's a sad thing. But life DOES go on.

My sweet Noah started 7th grade. I can't believe it! He will be a teenager in November. Sometimes I still feel the teenage part of myself, so it will be interesting to be the mother of one. (Pictures of my growing boy provided. One of him at the park in his cool sunglasses and one of him trying to ride his little cousin Bradlie's bike with his super long legs.)

Jon and I after a lot of thinking and praying have decided once again to change our minds on where we are going to live once the house ever sells. We have decided we will live in Saratoga Springs. It is a good central location, it is a nice, small city, it is close to some family (Scott and Lauren live there), it's pretty, and they have great loans available there to make our lives much more comfortable. While there are areas where I would love to live even more (like Daybreak) it will just be much more affordable for us in Saratoga.

Anyways, not to much more to write about us. Like I said, I feel like my "real" life is on hold. I'm sure I will have lot more to say when we get ready to move, while we make the transition, and while we live together as a family again.

Devil or Angel? I Can't Make Up My Mind.

If you couldn't tell, that title was to be sung. ;) Don't know if any of you listened to oldies when you were young...but I did... A LOT! So that oldie Devil or Angel came to mind when I was trying to think of a title to describe the blog that would divulge the secrets of my relationship with Flamin' Hot Cheetoes. (Especially the Limon ones.)

I freakin' love them!!

They are my absolute favorite junk food item. We can keep chocolate, or cookies in our house for weeks and I can not touch them...but a bag of Flamin' hots doesn't stand a chance. So, what is the problem if I love them so??? Well my shear lack of will power when I am in their presence has made me, and continues to make me a fat-a**! So, being that it is New Years Eve, and everyone is thinking about New Years resolutions, I have decided that I have to re-evaluate our torrid affair. While I can not even think about giving them up all together, I do have to turn our relationship from a nightly after hours hook-up into a more responsible adult relationship. Now, I am not saying that I will not miss our "hot" midnight booty calls, or dates (and by dates I mean me, the flamin' hots and a chick flick) I have to do better for me, and my family. So, sorry Flamin' Hots, but you and I need to be "on a break", oh and please don't feel bad....it's not you, it's me.

What A Group!

I forgot to post the Christmas picture of Noah's class at school. They are all in their PJ's because they had Polar Express day at their school. When they got there in the morning there was train noises playing over the intercom. It was really cute. This year instead of playing games the class had a white elephant gift exchange, and the kids did really well with it. The kids in Noah's class this year are a great group who are wonderful to each other, and his teacher is amazing, and cute as can be.

Christmas A GoGo

We were able to have Jon come home for a few days for Christmas, it was so nice!! We were together to watch Noah open all of his loot. Now let me explain that Noah LOVES these little toys called Gogo's Crazy Bones but already has most of the ones that are available here in the United States (there are 5 sets of them and only the first came out here in the good ol' USofA, not to mention all of the special ones that Noah wants that again are not here in the USA). More of these toys were what Noah wanted most for Christmas, so I did my shopping early since I had to order his gifts from England! Oh well, it was so worth it on Christmas morning when he was so excited!

The Gangs All Here!

The Shane family was ALL together for Thanksgiving. This does not happen a lot because some of the gang lives in Texas, but when we get together we have SO MUCH FUN!! We ate tons of Kimmie's YUMMY food, and then played games all night long. The next day we all got together and "tried" to take some family pictures. I say try only because all of the kids were WAY tired, and it was super sunny, yet COLD and so the kids were NOT excited about taking pictures. Oh well, you take what you can get, right?

Diary of a Non-Wimpy Birthday!

My Noah turned 12! I can't believe it!! Noah decided that this year he wanted to have a party with his friends. He wanted to have a movie night party, and decided on Diary of a Wimpy Kid as the movie. I wasn't sure if they would really watch it, but they did. Then they decorated cupcakes.
I do this at a lot of Noah's parties because the kids always love it, and it takes up more time then you would think. Next, Noah opened his gifts. His friends had been really thoughtful and picked out things for Noah that they knew he would like. Then they just ran around the house having a great time. Noah loved his birthday party and I am so thankful for his amazing friends and how much they support and love him. They are great kids!!

He's Classy Like That!

My boy always finds something interesting that he wants to be for Halloween. I have written about this before. This year he wanted to be a masked prince. Sounds easy enough, right? Well Noah of course had very specific ideas on what this masked prince would look like...very specific! I took him to store after store after store looking for the thing he liked to make the costume, to no avail. On one of the trips Jon was in town. He saw a Penguin costume and he knows Noah likes Penguins (a lot) so he suggested it to him. Noah paused...but it was a no go. About a week later I took him to Spirit Halloween over by TJ Maxx and we were determined to find pieces to make his masked prince costume. (My sister and mom were starting to worry and it was freaking them out) I made suggestion after suggestion about this mask, or that cape, or this crown, or this crushed velvet (very expensive) price costume...but no, it was all wrong. Then Noah sees a Penguin costume and says he wants it. In my head I am like...Are you kidding me??? So I ask Noah why when daddy asked he didn't want to be a Penguin, but now he wanted this costume. Noah looks at me like I'm stupid and says, "Because this one has a bow-tie". HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA This kid cracks me up sometimes!

Here he is in all his Penguin glory! He ended up loving his costume, and had a great time being in his schools costume parade, and playing games in his class.

Some other highlights from Halloween were my sister and her kids were here during Halloween this year, so Noah had someone to go trick-or-treating with. We made it a family affair with both grandma Holliday and Shane, grandpa Shane, Aunt Kimmie, Aunt Katie, Uncle Bill, and cousins Hannah, Tyler and Kayla. They all had so much fun...but especially Hannah and Kayla who both totally "got" trick-or-treating this year.

(By the way my sister Kim is a "Utah Mom" and for my friends that don't live here in Utah...she is a walking stereotype, and it's funny-trust me. And I am sad I didn't get a picture of my niece Hannah who was a cute little 50's girl. I did get her on video says Trick-or-Treat though.)

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!