Ten on Sunday

1. After Leah's birthday party, I decided it was time to start focusing on Christmas. In my mind, I couldn't start on the season until her birthday party was done and over with. I felt really bad that it took forever to get the tree but the weather wasn't cooperating and we had to wait a couple of extra more days to get it. I usually like to get the tree the first weekend of December usually on a Sat but it managed to rain all afternoon even until the evening. So, picking out in the tree isn't fun and we put it off until we could get it. We decided to go get a tree but it was FREEZING outside like 20 degree weather. We couldn't make up our mind on a tree, we kept going back and forth at the lot. Leroy wasn't to happy about being out in the cold. He finally agreed to get the more expensive tree and once we made the decision. We left with the tree, strapped on top! The tree ended up costing more than what we wanted to spend organically but it's sooooooooo beautiful! I'm not a FAKE tree person, I don't mind spending the cash on a tree. It's part of Christmas but my hubby isn't always crazy about the cost but I couldn't imagine not having a FRESH tree for Christmas.
2. Last year, I completely forgot to pick up tickets for the Bella Vista Winter Carnival. The kids were so disappointed and I almost forgot to get tickets again. Luckily, I read in the paper that they still had tickets left so I rushed down and managed to pick up tickets for the kids. So, we spent last Saturday at the Winter Carnival. The kids had a complete BLAST. I'm always surprised that some people don't take advantage of this carnival. Free crafts, games, food, door prizes, plus the Mouse House is awesome. The kids can pick out gifts for family and friends for practical nothing and they wrap and label all of the gifts for your kids. Plus, Logan and Leah both sat on Santa's lap. A first time, seen they were little babies. Logan asked for a pet hamster and Leah asked for a real turtle. I hope they wouldn't be too disappointed when Santa doesn't bring them a real animals.
3. Another Scheele Family tradition is to take family Christmas pictures infront of the tree. As you can see from the picture Landon was super excited about having his picture taken, yeah right! He used to be such a ham when he was a little boy, now he hates it when I take his picture. I should of included this picture on the Christmas card...hee hee!
4. On Monday, I had a doctor's appointment to confirm that yes I'm pregnant and our little peanut is due to arrive on June 21, 2012! We also found out that we have really crappy insurance with a deductible of $3500 plus it's only 80/20 coverage. So, we will be broke for the next year trying to pay off this new addition to the family. Yes, this is a surprised baby. Do you really think, I wanted to start all over again. It's okay, this summer will be hard with all the kids being home but if I can make it until they all go back to school in the Fall it shouldn't be too bad.
5. On Friday, I went with Leah's preschool class to the VillageHouse Adult Daycare Center to sing Christmas Carols. We had a big surprise, we went got there. Grandpa Scheele was at the VillageHouse and Leah was so excited to see him and be able to sign to him. I know Grandpa was just as surprised to see her. Afterwards, he gave her a big hug and he was so proud to show her off to everyone at the VillageHouse.


6. Christmas Caroling in the morning and Christmas party in the evening made for another super busy day at the Scheele household. We decided it would be fun to invite some friends and neighbors to the party plus it would be a great way to show off the new sun room. Just about everyone that we invited made it to the party which made for a really fun evening. I was so busy, that I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures. We had a huge spread of food, I'm sure that I wasn't the only person to feel completely stuffed by the end of the night. We played games, the kids made ornaments and snowflake necklaces. The pictures below were taken of the kids doing their own version of white elephant game. The adult version was a complete blast and the naught cup full of coal was hilarious. I couldn't of pulled off the party without the love and support of all of my friends that came to the party and helped with the evening. Thank you, each and everyone holds a special place in my heart. Thanks for coming, we need to make this into a new holiday tradition.


7. If one party wasn't enough, I had to get up super early the next morning to join my running group at the square in Bentonville. Surprisingly, I managed to get out of bed but I forgot to defrost the van windows plus I forgot that I was completely on EMPTY. I hate being late, I'm also the early person. By, the time I defrosted the windows and filled up with gas. I was about 15 minutes late. I didn't see anyone at the square. I thought for a complete second that everyone left without me but it turns out that everyone was crammed in Puan's vans. It was like a party in the van, I still bad about making everyone wait for me plus I was the last one to finish running. I can't seem to run up any hills but it wasn't too bad.

8. After our morning run, we decided to have a nice breakfast at Station Cafe and have a white elephant gift exchange but these gifts were super nice gifts! We had so much fun, eating and visiting with each other. I feel so blessed to be part of such an awesome group of girls. We encourage each other to do our best plus everyone in the group ROCKS!!!!! We are always looking for more ladies to come and join us. We're even looking for people who would just like to walk and not run. One of the girls in the group, really encouraged me to keep up running. She managed to run up to the 7 month which I thought was so awesome. She said it made a huge difference in her labor and delivery which is always a great thing to hear. Plus, one of the girls in the group is on the committee for Bentonville Half Marathon and she told us the medals they are giving this year are super cool and one of a kind. So, I'm going to sign up for the half. No, I'm not going to run the whole thing, I figured that I will just do a combination of running and walking but it will probably be more like speed walking...hee hee!

9. I did 95% of my shopping at Amazon.com which was so much easier than trying to shop at the mall. I'm never going back to my old ways, I just placed my order on Thursday and everything is expected to arrive on Tuesday. If you haven't tried it before it's so worth it plus I found a ton of great deals that's going to be saving me money on the long run.

10. This year, we're having a nice and quiet Christmas. We're sad that we will not be having any of my family coming this year but we will have the Scheele's over for Christmas dinner. It's going to be a nice and quiet Christmas but we will be thinking about all of you that we be away from us.