Black Friday

Let's just be honest here. Black Friday is an event of its' own right around these parts. We love Thanksgiving, but we also like to shop on Black Friday. Because we, Dear Friends, like a deal. I hate paying retail and with a few exceptions, won't purchase something if I have to pay full price for it. In recent years, we've made shirts for our little troop of shoppers. And even though I swore up and down last year that I wouldn't get talked into making new shirts for this year, I did. And, in light of Noah's new love of all things SuperHero, Ben's return, and the plethora of new hero movies that have recently come out... we all got new call names as well:

In brightest day,

In blackest night,

No deal shall

escape my sight!

It was a little bit more crazy though this year. And I kinda blame it on the fact that the stores were opening SO much earlier. Which was nice because we actually got some sleep last night {after getting home around 1:30}, but we definitely didn't get everything on our lists last night. Ben and I went back to Walmart {which was the craziest of crazy places last night - I might have to refuse to go again after that!} this morning and managed to find the two items we still wanted: a new external hard drive and a video game that he wanted for Christmas.

This morning, after getting some real sleep, we all met up at Denny's for breakfast. Usually we're all bleary-eyed and sharing our crazy stories from just hours before, but this morning, everyone was mostly well-rested and stories had already been told {minus the one about Bryan and Jessie's neighbor who had just been stabbed before they got home last night - eek!}.

Happy Black Friday, everyone... hope you stimulated the economy too! :D

Glimpses of Today {from my phone}

Haircut for Noah at KoolKuts for Kids... he chose to sit in the firetruck and to watch Thomas, of course!

Pretending to be Elmo... in between running to look at himself in the mirror.



Bathtime for the messy baby... after eating her weight in spaghetti.

MarioKart with Daddy before bedtime... at Noah's sweet request: "Daddy play MarioKart wid Noah, peas?"

***

And, while I uploaded the photos from today, I uploaded the rest of them as well....

Standing in line at Walmart on Black Friday...

... waiting to see the doctor at the Walk-in Clinic on Black Friday.

And, just for fun, a little drumming on the letter basket in the tub.

Black Friday

Where to begin??

First, Ben and BB sat out. ALL. NIGHT. LONG. at Target to get THE TV deal of Black Friday: 40" LCD HDTV for $298.

It was freezing.

Literally.

But I'm so glad they did... the new TV is amazing. Thank you, Dear One! And I'm glad you got one too BB!

While Ben and BB were at Target all night, Jessie, Bryan, Daddy-Man and I went up to Walmart, just before they opened at midnight. Mom stayed home with the kids, trying to get some rest. After deciding not to wait around in line for our "back-up TVs" {Ben and BB were NOT first in line, despite having been at Target since 8:45PM and the main point of being in Texas this year was to get our TV}, we got in the long line to check out. I did take a few pics with my phone while we were there, but I don't have a microSD adapter... so, no photos. Just as we were checking out around 2AM, Mom called saying that Noah had woken up, with a fever and was breathing raspy. Once home, we gave him some more medicine and he finally went back to sleep. Daddy-Man and Jessie went up to Target to help out Ben and BB, Mom and Bryan went to JC Penny's, and I stayed home to get some rest, planning to take the kids into the doctor as soon as possible.

Once everyone arrived back home around 6:30ish, we ate some breakfast, looked over the spoils of the day, got the kids up and while everyone else went to take naps, Mom and I took both kids to the walk-in clinic.

Diagnosis: Noah has bronchitis and Ellie has the upper respiratory crud that is going around.

{sigh}

Noah had to get a breathing treatment while we were there... it. was. horrible. Both kids got antibiotics and decongestants... and Noah was sent home with a breathing treatment machine.

I got far more than I bargained for this Black Friday.

Later in the afternoon, once we were back home with the kids and everyone had had some lunch, Ben, Daddy-Man and Bryan got to work on our new screen door... only to have to stop because of the lack of proper tools. I'm so excited about the new door that I can barely contain myself.

Just before our pizza dinner {with leftover ham, YUM!}, we posed for photos in our new Black Friday shirts. We all kept the same call names, despite Mom's urging that she get a new one. Bryan's official call name is Merlin {Solider, you did great on your first ever BF!}. I used the YuDu to put the parachuting shopper on the fronts and freezer stencils {cut with the Silhouette} to put our call names on the backs.

Male Flight

Fem Flight

Future Black Friday Shoppers.

Noah already seems to be feeling a little better and actually sat still for his remaining breathing treatments for the day. And Ellie hasn't ran a fever since yesterday afternoon... so, hopefully they'll all be feeling better soon.

After we put Ellie down for bed, we started setting up the new TV!

And by the time Noah was in bed for the night, we were ready to watch Toy Story 3!

Happy Black Friday, everyone!

Black Friday

It's no secret that we are Black Friday shoppers.

We. Love. Black. Friday.

In our nearly six years of marriage, we've only not gone shopping on Black Friday once. {And that was NOT the year that I was big and pregnant with Noah!} Crazy? Maybe. But we love a good deal.

This year, we made matching shirts. And we all got call names.

It. Was. Awesome.

The entire Squadron from left to right:

Iceman {BB}, Hollywood {me}, Charlie {Ellie}, Goose {Jess}, Maverick {Ben}, Jester {Noah}, Viper {Daddy-Man}, and Cougar {Mom}.

Who knew shopping at Walmart at 5AM could be so fun {and that my sisters could look so beautiful so early in the morning?!}?

The Fem Flight {minus Mom and the kids who stayed at home} went to Walmart {above} and then to Target and Toys R' Us before meeting up with the Male Flight {they attacked Sears, a different Walmart, and Best Buy} and the rest of the squadron for breakfast and to share battle stories.

Fem Flight's spoils of war... before the sun had even come up.

The backs of our shirts had our call signs written on them.

Charlie was tuckered out after a trip to the mall with the Fem Flight and was signing to us to "freeze".

All in all, it was another successful Black Friday.

{And seriously. I can't wait to make next year's shirts... Easy Company anyone?}

Thanksgiving

Today, I am grateful for....

... a non-deploying hubby and a new baby ...

... new friends and darling aunts ...

... family from near and far ...

... cheesy smiles ...

... little ones who are quickly becoming not so little ...

... sweet sisters ...

... generations of love ...

... health and happiness ...

... simple moments ...

... first-time meetings ...

... welcoming embraces ...

... and lots of warm memories.

Black Friday

I LOVE BLACK FRIDAY. Seriously. I look forward to it all year. When I still lived in Oklahoma, I'd get up and go shopping with my parents, and then after Ben and I got married, I roped him into the "fun" {now he's just as crazy as me!}. Even after we moved to California, we'd still go out on Black Friday, often times calling my parents to see if they were able to get their hands on something we "needed". This year, the main event was at Wal-Mart. We left Mom at home with Noah, and Ben, Daddy-Man, BB and I all headed up there, lists in hand! We got a ton of things that we needed {and maybe a couple we didn't}... here some of the big stuff {with a few presents intermingled}:

After Wal-mart, Ben headed up to the base for gift cards {which, unfortunately, he didn't get... the base opened at 4:00AM!!} and Daddy-Man, BB and I headed to Toys R' Us and then Babies R' US for Noah-stuff. We didn't even have to go to Target or Best Buy because Wal-Mart does price matching! Yay for Black Friday!!

***

After we finished shopping {and actually got ready for the day}, we headed over to Tinker AFB to spend some time with the "Indiana" Smiths and Eric, Amanda, and Marian. While we were there, Grandma {GiGi} and Grandpa Smith gave Noah his birthday present and Christmas present. And we all know that Noah loves books, so he just loved the Santa book that they gave him.

Here's a clip of Marian reading part of the story to Noah:



I just love how he continued to look at the book and then look at her as she was reading it!

I think he really liked his new shirt too.

***

After lunch, Ben and I dropped Noah off to my parents and had a "date night" in the afternoon - a much needed date night. We saw Twilight!! SOO good... seriously, I'd even see it again.

***

Later in the evening, 'Rissa came over to spend some time with us {okay, mostly with her BFF Jessie}:

We watched a movie:

Ben played his game {and won!}:

And Noah made his usual mess at dinner-time:

Black Friday is always a really good day. :)