Happiness abounds....

I have not been blogging much lately because I have been so busy. I promise that I will post pictures of my holiday baking...when I actually get to the holiday baking. This past weekend proved to be not so fruitful in that area...with a Christmas parade, shopping, another trip to Ikea, and time to sleep, I didn't get much done. I am going to this weekend, though. We will have no children, so I am going to try to really buckle down and get to it! I wanted to share this picture of Steve and Sophie.....

Excuse the blurriness because it was taken with my camera phone. While in Charlotte picking up my wonderful hubby, we took the children on the Lynx....Charlotte's new mass transit train. Sophie adores trains, having a Thomas the Train table, and this was a very cost effective way to let her ride a train. (May I add that it was great....going uptown in Charlotte without having to navigate through the traffic?). We rode the train uptown, walked around, had lunch, and rode back to our car (off Billy Graham Parkway). Although the details aren't that important-what I love is seeing how happy they both are. Don't get me wrong, all the children were happy to see him. But toddlers are so unguarded with their emotions. Often, this means there are temper tantrums and lots of crying....but on this day it meant she was overjoyed to have Steve back. I thought my heart would break the other morning when she saw him putting on his camos to go talk to a class (he is used as show and tell when he returns....the kids always like to ask him questions).....she saw him putting on his desert boots and asked, "Where are you going, Stevie B.? Are you going back to hannastan?" She loves him so much and she is glad to have him home!

We have really enjoyed decorating the house for the holidays! You have seen pictures of my Christmas tree and some of our decorations, but we now have Christmas trees in both girl's rooms, one in the basement (this is our Santa tree- he brings his presents there), and one in the kitchen (couldn't resist).

I remembered yesterday why I love shopping online. Don't get me wrong- I love the holiday season- but being out in those crowds is not why. Yesterday at Hobby Lobby I waited in a check-out line for about 20 minutes while a woman returned an acrylic bowl so that she could repurchase it with her 40% off coupon. I think she saved about $2. Don't get me wrong- I am all about saving money- but at 5:30 pm on a Tuesday night with 14 people behind her in line? And the crowded streets are enough to make me experience road rage. Nope, I love shopping online. I don't get pushed around in the crowds and made to feel as if I am a cog in a machine. I think UPS may be getting a little tired of delivering to our house. =) I can't wait to show you what the kids get from Santa!