Back by popular demand

I had to take a break from blogging for fear that I would annoy people with my Obama talk. That being said, I will talk no more of Obama at this point.

Updates:
Riley is a two toothed wonder. I think if I put her at the bottom of the stairs she could almost crawl up them. She sits up on her own now. She can shimey out of her car seat or bouncer if not strapped in and she can arch herself out of her Bumbo seat. She's not quite crawling yet but she gets where she wants to go by scooting or rolling. I already have to keep crayons and small items off the floor because she wants to eat everything in sight. She loves to gargle (like Chewbahka) and do raspberries.

She loves Cailen and is always laughing at her little antics, songs and silly faces.

Cailen is a trip. She makes up songs about anything all day to the tunes of ABC's or Barney's song or whatever...She loves to dance. Despite the house being colder these days she still prefers to wander in her diaper no matter how many times I dress her. I never thought I'd let my kids watch Barney but Sesame Street and Nemo were getting old. She LOVES Barney! What is it with a big purple dino? She loves the song at the end naturally. She often starts hugging us or holding our hands when the final song is sung and the kids start hugging Barney. It's quite sweet. Cailen has a new kitchen set that she loves to play with, she always wants to play "eat." She's also very demanding in making us come over to a certain rug and sit on the floor with her to play ball, color, lay on pillows or even to do nothing. She just loves the floor. In our opinion the floor is so cold! (and we aren't sitting around in just a diaper!)

We have taken the house off the market for the next couple of months. With the mortgage crisis and it being winter, we figure why worry any more about it? It is just emotionally easier to take control of our situation and just say "We aren't selling the house right now because we aren't trying" than to wonder why no one cares, or to clean like crazy for someone who has no intention of buying right now who wants to browse for the heck of it. (Sorry if my sentences are run-on. I'm rushing my update.) So, we are hunkering down for the winter however we need to and we're not going to worry about selling it for now. We are taking our lives back! :) God will get us through the winter regardless of money. Everyone is struggling right now, so we will just continue to be thankful for all that we do have. I am clipping coupons, shopping sales and clearance and making quite a game of getting good deals :)

I am making most of my Christmas gift this year. I will try to take pictures but I can't post them until after they are given out. I'm attempting to do the "buy nothing Christmas" idea. I have spent $32 on some supplies but I am really excited to make gifts and hopefully make more meaningful gifts this year that will be appreciated more than some deal at target that the person will never use or remember where it came from. I am trying to make gifts with love in them to make it all more special. Well, hopefully it will be more special...

We have been using space heaters to heat one room at a time up until today. Compared to last year we could have saved ourselves about 120 gallons by waiting until now to turn on the furnace. Today the house was unbearably cold so hearing the furnace roaring in the basement was actually a welcome sound instead of a stressor.

Well, I guess that's it today. I have so much to be excited about. Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year. Cailen's b'day is on thanksgiving. My birthday is the next day. I am planning a party for Cailen. I am eagerly awaiting Keila's baby's arrival. I hope to get together with friends for my b'day but if nothing else I am planning to throw a holiday pot luck at some point. I figure, if we still have this big ol' house we might as well enjoy it! :) I've got some other friend get togethers to try and plan and of course decorating for Christmas for my girls....I'm excited about the next couple of months :) Regardless of not having sold my house :)

Happy Thanksgiving to be!