Life as a Brandtito

 Christmas tunes are on, hot chocolate is being served (heavy on the marshmallows) and the Christmas bins are out! The decorations are slowly going up around the house. I'm hopeful by next weekend we can be all finished as we move fully in the Christmas Season! It's coming along nicely...and by that I mean, it currently looks like Christmas exploded around the Brandt house.  As we unpack our Christmas bins I am proud of my last year Christmas clearance deals that I forgot all about....and John keeps questioning  my need for such things.  Can you have too many Christmas decorations? I think not. Kids tree is up...and in the process of being tackified.  Our own little Grinch. Our fancy tree Christmas threw up :) 

  Since we missed Thanksgiving with the kiddos, we had a repeat Thanksgiving tonight. I taped the Macys' Thanksgiving parade & the token Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special &  recooked all the requested "Thanksgiving" foods for dinner. Since the kids honestly don't like most Thanksgiving type foods anyway...this proved to be a much less stressful option. We even had a picnic in the living room to mix it up...which is a treat...because we DO NOT EAT IN THE LIVING ROOM (at least with permission) Picnicing in the Living room Heaven showing off her Turkey Leg. She seriously CLEANED her plate AND had seconds. Shesh Why do I even try for normal photos anymore... Wishbone Photo take 1  Wishbone Take 2. Annabelle & her GIANT turkey leg. She was So excited.... The GAV. He is in desperate need of a haircut as you can see Bayleigh was trying to hypnotize me with her eyes...."GIVE ME SOME TURKEY SCRAPS" You'l

Even with Kingsley all ready for the big game today, we were not victorious. This is the first time I've been glad the kids were not home. With Gavin declaring his love for Gators...he probably would have ended up grounded before the day was done.  Also, I act like a total brat when the Noles lose...not the best of examples to be sure.   I WAS however victorious with my Black Friday shopping deals. Win some, lose some  

Did you know hunting can cause injuries?? From your wife that is?? Well it can, and Thanksgiving almost proved to be a dangerous time for JB! Lucky for him he's cute in camo. Here are some photos of John's Thanksgiving kill that resulted in him showing up late for Thanksgiving lunch, unshaven, STILL in camo AND with DEER BLOOD ON HIS SHOES! #HunterWifeProblems.

Me & one of my many Gorgeous Sisters!   Happy Turkey Day!! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving today!! We are without the kiddos this year, but we enjoyed our day with the Family and Friends we did get to see! I am very Thankful for the wonderful life I've been blessed with. Drinkard Ladies! Ignore the fake smiles...this was photo 1500 of the day. Me & the lovely Cass-uh-dee Please note the camo and mustache...neither of which is okay!!! John almost lost his life on Thanksgiving for  being late. If you are later than I am....then you are L*A*T*E I'm not sure what's going on here exactly...but it makes me smile.

 This Saturday the girls and I headed down to Floridatown Park for the annual Creek Indian Pow Wow.  Gavin was feeling under the weather, and it was gorgeous outside so it seemed like a good way to spend part of our Saturday. The girls really loved it, and surprisingly enjoyed watching the ceremonial dances, though they could not be tempted to join in when it was allowed. In an effort to avoid the "Can we buy everything PUHLEASSSSE" discussion which usually ends poorly for the children I gave each of the mini Brandt ladies an option, $5 to spend on whatever they chose at the festival or to spend on a treat at the festival or on the way home. The only limit I put on this, was that it could not be on an actual weapon of any kind as Heaven had her eye on a bow & arrow. Nothing good can come from a child and a bow & arrow. Nothing. While Annabelle did enjoy browsing thru the craft booths, she decided that her sweet tooth was stronger than her need for Native

This gorgeous face belongs to a winning soccer team!!!   Team Heat finished up their season with a win today. I belive we finihsed the season with 3 or 4 total losses. They will announce the official standings on Tuesday at the awards ceremony. Annabelle didn't get to score a goal this season, but she had several really close calls this year. She's very confident that next Season she will be a goal scoring machine!!   

Happy Early Thanksgiving from the Brandito darlings!! Last day of school before fall break!!

We are halfway thru our "Thankful" project at home. I LOVE seeing all the things that we have to be thankful for. Of course, we have barely scratched the surface of all we have to be grateful for, but I hope this will give the kids a chance to visualize SOME of what we do.   This is one of my favorite "Thankful's" to date. Annabelle made this one for my Bestie, Erika. When I asked her why she put "sometimes funny" verses just "funny" or "always funny" she replied (quite seriously) that sometimes Erika's jokes don't make her laugh. Totally made my  night.

Please note the "Bieber Fever" shirt Heaven is sporting   In an effort to show Heaven's friends what a cool step mom she has I crashed her lunch yesterday at school. She was so cute and excited. We got to eat on stage (which is strange to me because the stage is where the bad kids sat when I was in school) and she had a few friends eating with their parents as well. It was a day brightener for me to say the least.  

  It's almost time for Elfie Sneakins to return...I heard a rumor she was on vacation near Pensacola and made a special trip by the Brandt house to check on the Brandt children behavior. I sure hope she brought back good reports!! The kids will be in Orlando with Amy for Thanksgiving next week...but I  hear a letter from Santa  may be waiting on them when they get back....   That's just what I heard though....

  This is what happens when you're supervising a project and lose focus. AB had to do an Indian project for school. The tribe she chose was the Algonquins.  Part of her project was to make a Wigwam house which (as we waited until the night before it was do to begin) is what I was working on while she was filling out her information packet. I'd given her my Ipad, and she was researching answers and running them by me before she wrote them down. As you can see, the question was where the Algonquins live & the answer was Michigan, New York & Canada. I had Annabelle look up a map of the US, and then locate both New York & Michigan and color them in separately. She of course, could not find Canada on the map & I explained it was because Canada is not part of the US, and it located above the US. I absent mindedly (with glue covered hands) pointed to the section above the US and said, "Canada is right up here".   Mistake. Hopefully her teacher will g

   Road Tripping is my favorite This weekend me and the Hubs went to St. Augustine to watch some of my favorites get hitched. The bride was stunning, the setting was GORGEOUS and our table company was pretty darn adorable I mean, C'mon can you get any cuter!!! This is my friend Trina's little man, Major! How Precious   The Gorgeous Bride-Katie and her new Husband-Chris   We explored around historic St. Augustine and grabbed lunch before Heading back on Sunday. This is all i wanted to do on Monday at work....

  I have an amazing friend, Kat on the other side of the world in New Zealand. She's a lucky lady & like myself will be obtaining 3 step children in an upcoming marriage. I was talking to Kat yesterday and we were talking about how cool it would be if our kids could hang out since they are so close in age (hers are 7, 8, 9 vs our 7, 9, 11). Since a lack of private plane makes that impossible, we thought having (forcing) them to be pen pals might be something fun to try. The Branditos started their letters last night with a letter and small treat to be mailed out this week. It will be very interesting to see how long this little idea lasts! I think once they get letters back, they might think it's really cool...but for now...I am just using my cool parent knowledge to assure them how rewarding it will be. Besides, who can't use a little extra writing help!!     This is Kat, Neil & Mini's Orin, Kyla & Alec.  Who knows maybe one day these Kiwi'

We've started our Thanksgiving project (Gavin and John are especially thrilled.). Each day we will all add one leaf of thanks to our wall. Once something or someone has made the wall, it cannot be repeated by anyone in the house. By the end of the month we will have different 150 things to be thankful for. I hope or will serve as a reminder that in a culture constantly telling us to want more....we have more than we could ever need. We are so blessed. The wall of thanks. Okay technically cabinets of thanks, but whatever.. Though I am very thankful for these children...I am very UN thankful that they woke up an hour early for school  (Stupid time change). This photo was taken about  6:45 in the line to be dropped off at school. We were waiting for the school to open. Not cool.