Mackenzie's 6, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

We celebrated Mackenzie's birthday on Nov 21. We had planned on taking her, her cousins and a couple friends to the pool for open swim and having a party at home afterwards. As it happens every year it snowed on the day of her party so the roads were crap. But when you're 6 you usually love playing in the snow, so we had a "play in the snow" party at home. All of the kids had a great time and it was the least pressured party we have ever had going on our own time table. 

After her party, all of the family went to Blaze pizza for dinner. You are able to get your own pizza with anything you want on it. And it's a good choice for the whole family because the Mason's are able to have everything vegan. Everyone's happy!

The Lash and Mason kids were able to spend the night with Papa and GG that's and night and had a blast. 

Sunday was Taylor's 13th birthday so we all had brunch Sunday morning and had her presents. Thinking about my baby sister being 13 makes me feel old. I really can't believe she's already a teenager.

The next Thursday was Thanksgiving. With the fact that we have so much family and our parents are not together, we always have multiple holidays. That gives us a better chance of having a good time though.

On Thanksgiving we went to my grandmas house. I really enjoy going there because I never get to spend enough time with her. Some of the rest of my family however are not the most enjoyable so we didn't stay long.

Afterwards, we went to Uncle Doug's (Carols brother). We always have a good time with all of them and we always stay too late! There's so much good food and good company. The beauty is that many are not family and we come together just like family does. And we usually all get along better also.

We had Thanksgiving with Marty's family on Saturday. We used to do it on Thanksgiving but his mom always hosts and she works at Walmart on the night shift. With their Black Friday sales starting at 6 Thursday night she had to be to work 5 hours early because they needed the extra help for all of the crazies. Anyways, we always have a good time with his family as well. They don't have only the traditional food either. You will find unsociables (cream cheese and onion or pickle wrapped in ham), and even macaroni and cheese. And there's always some new dessert or appetizer to try. This year it was homemade cookie dough. Turns out, I love that stuff and probably gained 10 lbs from that. 

Finally, we don't do the Black Friday stuff. We always put up our Christmas stuff on Friday. Marty usually works and he doesn't like putting stuff out so it works out perfectly. We have a few new decorations this year. I found a porcelain nativity scene at a garage sale this summer and put it up for the first time.

You can also see in the photo above, I decided to use stocking hangers instead of putting them on the wall. I like this set up much better. The other new decoration was some wooden letters that Marty's mom gave me which spell out JOY. They were a plain, unstainable wood so I decided to paint them and I love how they turned out. All of us decided how they would be painted.

You can't tell in the picture but the red and green are sparkly. That was the choice of Mackenzie's. I couldn't decide on dots or strips so Cameron said he liked stripes better. Finally I wasn't planning on using the white but Marty thought it would just finish it off if I had that between each stripe. As it turns out it looked much better with the white. 

After those the only thing added was 300 lights on the tree and I love having more.

This time of year is busy!

It has been so busy around here. I feel like we never have down time to just spend time together. With that said, the holidays are coming so it's bound to be even busier. While trying to get all of the end of semester work done (which takes forever!) I'm also getting the house presentable because we have Mackenzie's birthday party Saturday. She's going swimming then having people over for food, cake and presents. She can't wait! She picked Inside Out as her theme for the party. I'm looking forward to it, this will be her first gender neutral party so it's easier for me when it comes to the boys at the party. Sunday we will be taking her to get her ears pierced. She asked us for that and tennis shoes for her birthday. 

Monday is her birthday, 6 years old. Time just flies. We have school and she has dance Monday night and she can't wait to go on her birthday. She also gets to take a birthday treat into school on Monday and they are having a thanksgiving dinner for lunch. That should be exciting. 

Tuesday night we have her first conferences. I'm looking forward to that. I know she's a good student and very respectful, I just like the confirmation from the teacher. Plus there was a period about a month ago where I didn't think she was making new friends. It will be nice to follow up with her teacher about that. 

Wednesday Marty and I will be married 8 years. That's hard for me to believe it's really been that long. I can't really remember life before Marty and I love how close we've gotten over the years. Even though sometimes I think I married his dad (Marty acts just like him sometimes. And does the same things to me that he complains to me that his dad does to him) and it drives me crazy. However, I still love him and would want to live life any other way.

Thursday's thanksgiving!!! I can't wait to celebrate and spend time with family. I am thankful for family and the short break from school.

October Already?

August was the last time I posted...seriously? It's been busy around here. Both kids are in school, still at different ones. Since it's the same public school district this year, I was pretty disappointed in that. However, they both just love their classes, new friends, and their teachers. What more could I really ask for? They are both also in dance class this year, different days. Mackenzie has dance on Monday nights at 5:30. We don't get home on Mondays until almost 6:30 and still have to have dinner and get ready for bed and school on Tuesdays. Cameron had to take the Saturday morning class this year since I'm in school 5 days a week this year. 

She's the girl in the white tutu in the background, spinning. 

I've been busier than I ever thought I could be while being a student. The only time I really have for myself is the weekends after the kids are in bed. That's the only time I don't have to worry about anyone else and I don't do any homework. I'm either in class, driving to or from school or taking the kids to whatever they have to do.

Both kids have had major dr appointments this last week. Monday I took Cameron to the dermatologist. We are keeping an eye on a mole he has next to his nipple. They want to see him back in 6 months for a recheck. It's looking ok for now. Mackenzie has started to have migraines so she had to go to her pediatrician as a first step. We are monitoring her for now. She was told if she feels like she's getting a headache at school she needs to go get medicine from the office ASAP. The dr is hoping that will work. We go back in 6 weeks for a check up. If that doesn't work we need to call the dr and she will set up an appointment with a neurologist to check her out. We feel that at only almost 6 years old that she should not be put on imitrex or anything else so strong unless absolutely needed.

We had our annual trip to Gull Meadow Farms for apples to make applesauce with Papa and GG. As always, we all had a great time and loved all the family time!

Finally, we got ourselves a new dog. Her name is Rosie. She's a sharpei, Doberman and Labrador mix and she's about 4.5 years old. We weren't planning on getting another dog yet but I'm sure she was meant to be ours. The day we got her, I told Marty that I missed having a dog in the house and wanted to THINK about getting one. Someone else was looking at her when we left the adoption event for a bit, but she wouldn't get along with their dog. When we came back she was ready to see us again. Anyways, she's shown her personality and she fits right into our family. She's queen of this castle!

Summer

We've had the busiest summer ever, I think. I can't believe it's almost time for school to start up again. However, I'm also very excited for it. I start at a new school this year as well as Cameron. Last year he was at our catholic preschool, this year he enters the public school system and will be at the same school as his sister. He will be in the same class she had last year and she will be in kindergarten!!! 

All summer we have had time at the beach, been to the air zoo and the children's museum. Along with sleep overs, garage sales, and parties of all kinds. We've been to birthday parties, a family reunion, a wedding, anniversary parties, and even more to come.

Swimming lessons

Beach days!

Activities at the library

Museum fun

Anniversary parties!

Birthday parties!

Finally, George, Courtney's new goat we got her for her birthday.

Buddy, then me

I am always so behind on my posts lately. 

First off, Buddy's cancer hit him really hard two weeks ago. We ended up rushing him to the vet because he was having trouble breathing. His throat swelled throughout the night. Once the vet saw him and informed me of two things we could do, upping his prednizone, which probably wouldn't work, or putting him down. We had to put him down. He was so exhausted and in pain. We got him cremated and he rests on our living room table next to a picture collage of himself.

Finally, me. Shortly before we found Buddy's cancer I had a "kidney stone." Turns out it was never a kidney stone. It was a calcification in my kidney caused from chronic kidney infections. The bacteria in the infection causes calcification. The chronic kidney infections has damaged my kidneys and I now have kidney disease. I'm in stage 3. My dr. Will continue to monitor me and we'll make decisions depending on my test results over time. It's painful and overwhelming to learn. I think dealing with it and changing my diet will get easier over time. I'm hoping I don't continue to damage my kidneys and end up on dialysis or transplant list. 

I can't wait for life to go back to normal soon.

The Mason Wedding

So last weekend, June 6, my little sister got married to her best friend. Their wedding was absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect. 

I gained a new brother-in-law and two nephews and I'm so happy for all of them. 

Here's to a lifetime of happiness for all!!!