Home sweet Home!

We're back! Ahhh Home sweet Home.

Oh wait you didn't know we left? Yeah I know I've been slacking on the blog here, but with the holidays it gets busy and my priorities change.

Yep, we left for our Christmas Break, the WHOLE break. We were gone for three weeks! Yikes, I know! We spent the whole time at my Folks in Spokane, with the exception of C going up to Canada to see his family for a few days. It was long, but I was glad to be back in Spokane with Family for a while.

I was going to write this post before Christmas about "No place like Home for the Holidays" because we last minute (meaning in October) decided to purchase flights to go to my Folks Home (the home I grew up in) in Spokane for Christmas. I never got around to writing it, let a lone posting it.

You see, I had torn feelings about going "home" for the Holidays. I mean I LOVE my family. I LOVE getting together with my siblings and being....us. To me, some times there really is "No place like Home for the Holidays". But that being said it's always, at the same time, stressful for me. You know the whole traveling with children thing, that's never fun, but also just living away from what is now my new Home, out of my element and my kids' element can be hard and stressful for me. I find it's worth it though, to be with my siblings and Mom and Dad during this special time of year.

It's just that this year I was hoping to stay put for Christmas and see what it was like to be in our home here with just us and what traditions we could do/start. Then I realized we have so much time to do those things with our kids in the future, they are still so young. But we won't always be in a situation like this (poor students, living far from family) where we get to spend Holidays like this (traveling, living out of suitcases for weeks,spending time away from our home) with our kids while they are so little. We're in a unique situation and time in our lives and we'll never have it back, so I figure we need to make the best of it while it's here because I don't want to regret anything. Does that even make sense? I'm just rambling now.

I did want to say, THANK YOU to my parents. I mean I already did say "Thanks for letting us come, Thanks for having us" but I mean really THANK YOU! I know they love having us there, the kids mostly but yes, C and Me too ;) But I also know that it's not easy on them to change what is now their new lives as empty nesters, to accommodate us, a family of five for three weeks! Not only do they accommodate us by giving us beds to sleep in, food to eat, even a car of our own to have three car seats in, but they make us feel so welcome and loved. So THANK YOU will never feel like enough for what they sacrifice for us each Year we come for weeks at a time. Thank you thank you! I love you.

Any way.... So if you were wondering Yes, we went on vacation. We had tons of fun with family; we laughed, we cried, we injured ourselves on our ski/snowboarding trip, we ate too much and my kids were spoiled rotten (it's a traditions, really). More stories and pictures to come about all the fun we had during those three weeks.


I'll share just one fun story with you.....My sister Kim and her husband Tyler have been married for not quite three years and they announced at Christmas that they are expecting their first baby! This is exciting news especially for me because that means that my kids will finally have some cousins on my side of the family. Yes my kids are the only grand children for my parents, it about time some one else start contributing to the grand child pool.

Kim and Tyler actually spent Christmas Day with his folks this year. So Kim told me a week before we left about her exciting news and asked if I would wrap her gift to Mom and Dad and video tape them opening it so they could see my Mom's reaction, because lets face it, my mom's reactions to news like this are usually priceless. Their gift being a picture of the ultra sound in a frame with a note that said "Baby Muir due June 19th 2011". Very cute!

It was hard for me to keep a secret like that from my Mom, Dad and siblings but I think I pulled it off, no one suspected anything, right?! It's very exciting news for our family. We are all so happy and excited for them and we can't wait to meet baby Tim or Kyler, ha ha just kidding, Kim.

And for those of you who care......I will try and post pictures of the fun times we had over Christmas break, soon, very soon. Just as soon as my kids are feeling better, yes they are sick again, looks like the flu this time :(