The King Christmas 2012 at Joyce and Dick Barta's!!!

This is the crew of kids we had at Joyce's this weekend.

Top Row:  Jessie Birch, Lauren, Charlie, Haley Birch, Elise, John King, Austin Barta

Bottom Row: Kennedy and Allie Barta, Caroline and Jack Harrison, Ethan McAuley and Gavin Barta

Charlie was a hit as always... everyone wanted to take him home!!

Kennedy Barta and Charlie are only 2 weeks apart.

Mallory, Jack and Myrna

Steve and John King visit with Joyce

Time for a little hot tubbin'

We needed and adult out there so I sent Lauren to Eric Barta in her sweet little voice to ask if he'd take them... he can't say no to Lauren!

Time to get silly!

Ahhhhh, peace and quiet at last!

Lauren relaxing with Eric and Sheri Barta

Let's Dance X-box game... even I did it... pretty fun and a good work out too!

The kids couldn't get enough of the outdoors... it was wonderful!  January in Iowa and 40-50 degree weather, we will take it!

Gavin Barta- guarding the base!

Aunt Joyce and Charlie

This is how our Saturday night ended... the 5 of us stayed up until 3:00 in the morning and we played drinking games like we did in college... what were we thinking... we all have kids that get up at 7:00!!  But it was a good time...

Matt, Mollie, Jaime, Mal and I... the party animals!

Lauren's Ornaments!

Hello Kitty is quite popular right now with the girls... it was when I was that age too... that was a LONG time ago.  This is from Aunt Mollie 2011

From Aunt Mollie

This is from our trip to Florida in 2009 I believe.  We love Sanibel and Captiva Island!

From Aunt Mollie~ 2008

From Aunt Mollie

Lauren picked this from our trip to Walt Disney World 2011.

From Aunt Mollie

This is from Grandma Divine for both Elise and Lauren- 2010.

Elise's ornaments

This is from Great Grandma Huber when Elise was just a few months old.

From our trip to Sanibel Island in Florida in 2009 I believe.

Elise picked this out from our trip to Walt Disney World- 2011

Aunt Mollie gives Elise and ornament every year... I love this!

This was from Grandma Divine for both Elise and Lauren 2010

From Aunt Mollie

From Aunt Mollie... and this picture TOTALLY gives it away that my tree is fake!

Another from Aunt Mollie

A few of my favorites... and Eric's too!

These are some important/fun ones to both Eric and I.  Of course we have to start off with IU!

The girls and I made home-made ornaments this year and they picked out this one for Daddy!

This IU ornament was made by my good friend Deb Smith.  She is quite the wood worker.

This was when we went up to Lake Tahoe with Deb and Pat Smith in 2003.  It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and we had SOOO much fun on that trip.

This is from... can you guess???  One of our many trips to Vegas (pre-children).  We went there on our Honeymoon and many times after, I think it may be time to head back out there!

I love this ornament because it so represents growing up in the 70's.  Its soft fuzzy felt like fur is so cute and it reminds me of when I was a little kid myself.

This was from Eric's grandma Virginia Hubbard.  She gave him an ornament every year and I think this one is sooo cool.  He would have been 3 years old when he got this.

This is from my trip to San Antonio, Texas with my best friend Jennifer Wadle.  We went down for the National PA conference... a good time for sure.

This is one of the few ornaments I have that was my mom's.  She hand painted this one.  I think Mollie has a few similar to this one.  A sign of the times.

A trip down Memory Lane.....

I stole this idea from my sister... documenting where my awesome ornaments have come from and what they mean.... I am starting with all, or most, of the ornaments from my wonderful Mother-in-law Sharon Hubbard.  Years ago she started giving me ornaments every year because we were just married and didn't have very many.  This is a sand dollar from Florida, she bleached it and put the ribbon on it...it is still to this day so pretty.

Sharon and I both love Moose... so we always find things that have moose on them for each other.  We even have a gift bag with a really cute moose on it that we give back and forth to each other... I think she has it right now.

This one is hand made and so cool... they all mean a lot to me and that's what I love about my Christmas tree, it's full of memories!

It's Pajama Time...

New pajamas... at least for Lauren... we had a silly night!

A little blurry, but cute!

Is this wrong... a cute little 7 year old, in her monkey pajamas, hangin' by the Christmas tree..... holding a gun?  But man do we have fun with them!

Where do I start with this madness???

Well I have come to the admission that I am just not a good house keeper.... there I said it.  My house is a disaster and I can't seem to figure out where it all goes wrong on any given day.  I have been told by Eric numerous times that I can't seem to finish one single task..... I start a million things but yet nothing is done.  My reply is that I am a GREAT multi-tasker.... which really isn't true because I don't seem to be able to finish any of those tasks.  My biggest problem is that I start a project whether it is cleaning a room, going through closets/toys/drawers etc and then I leave that room to get something and while I am away, I always see something ELSE that I didn't get done, so I head over to finish it... and it leads to the next task... by the end of the day, I get back to the original task and am totally annoyed with myself because I have made more work for myself because I am TIRED by this time.

I have never been a fan of New Years resolutions because I think they just set us up for failure... however, I am going to try to come up with a schedule to tackle each room in the house, go through all of the crap, get rid of it or store it in a more useful way... that is the goal.  I get the Better Homes and Gardens emails and they had an idea to de-clutter your home.  So I am taking their advice and picking one BIG room a month and tackle it from head to toe.  I am going to start with my kitchen pantry and junk drawers... they seem to be over flowing with crap... and WHY do I need so many stinkin' canned goods in my pantry... I could feed an army with all of the stuff in there... I don't really know what is in there. 

So this is my goal to myself.... have my house presentable at ALL times that if someone were to drop in, I wouldn't be totally humiliated by what they see.  Don't get me wrong, the house is CLEAN it's just so dang cluttered.  I will be getting the kids involved as well, they are old enough to get the stuff picked up!  Wish me luck.... I am going to show you my pantry now.... and when I get it where I want it...I will show you the finished product.... not that any of you care what my pantry looks like, it will just be a proud moment for me!

Seriously.... who has this much crap in their pantry... there are only 4 people in this household for goodness sake.  I am going to start making meal plans based on what is in here, and get rid of it.  There is a TON of storage in there going to waste on canned goods that I hardly ever use!!  This will feel SOOO good when I am done...  happy organizing to me!