Abiageal Marie at 9 years old

Time seems to pass faster and faster with every one of my children's birthday's. Today is Abby's 9th birthday it is no exception. She is such a spunky and sassy little girl that seems to become more confident in who she is with each passing year. She is much wiser than her years and will rule something someday. She has a passion for learning and fashion. She is a beautiful girl and she knows it!

Abiageal at age 9
Favorite color: Purple
Favorite number: 6
Favorite Animal: A Unicorn
When she grows up she wants to be a: Pediatrician
Favorite thing to do: Craft
Favorite school subject: Math
Wants to go to college at: Baylor University ("Because people say it is a really great college, I want to go there to get the best education and get a good career")
Best Friends: Kaydence and Kendall
Most Important thing to Abby: Her Family
Favorite thing to say: "Love"

To celebrate Abby's birthday this year she had one of her very best friends spend the night last night, Kaydence. They stayed up late watching Cinderella in the game room and then episodes of Henry Danger on her iPad after that while falling asleep. When the girls woke up Abby's room had bouquets of flowers (purple roses with purple and white carnations), a "Happy Birthday!" banner that Grace handmade and a lot of balloons all over the floor of her bedroom. She loved it! She came downstairs and opened her cards and gifts. She received things from her Cantwell Grandparents, Great Grandma Saner, Gram & R, Us and also from Grace and Orin. She got some money, some gift cards, clothes, and an outfit for her American Girl Doll that she named Clara. Grace gave her a phone case that she decorated with jewels in to make the letter A. She put a lot of thought and effort into it and Abby loved it! The night before Abby's birthday I had asked Orin to take a dry erase marker and color on our back door glass for Abby. Instead of coloring her a picture he wrote out "Abby is osm!". Orin is 5 and this is the first time I've ever seen him write out something like that and try to sound out a long word. It was one of the sweetest things ever and Abby loved it! It was precious and showed how big his heart is for his sister.
Everyone had banana bread for breakfast and then hung out playing for a couple of hours until it was time to go to lunch and go shopping. We asked Abby what she wanted for lunch, she chose McDonalds. I have to admit that I was disappointed, usually she wants sushi or something that I enjoy because we have similar taste, but this year she didn't. It was fine though, it was her choice and I went along with it. After our delicious lunch we went to the Round Rock outlets to let her do a little shopping she was eager to use her gift cards and some of her money that she had received for Christmas and her birthday. She shopped at Bath and Body Works, The Disney Store and The Gap. After shopping and walking around for almost two hours we had to head home. While Chad made sure to have a big gap in his day to spend with Abby he still had some work to finish up.
After we got home Abby and Kaydence played some more while Grace and Orin spent some time playing video games. Abby and Kaydence played outside on the roller blades and one of our scooters. They seemed to have a great time and were ready to come in and eat when Abby's pizza dinner arrived.
Shortly after the pizza showed up we had a small birthday celebration for Abby when her Aunt Sally, Uncle Mike and their two sons, Joseph and Luke came over and when Aunt Melody and Ari arrived. Uncle Dave got caught up in work and couldn't come, but a lot of that is also my fault because I spaced on giving him a heads up before today, sorry Dave! All of the Aunts and Uncles that I listed are family to us, but not blood. These people love our kids like they're their own and we feel the same about their children. They will always be our family.
While it is always crazy when we're all together with our group of kids, I love it. I love having all of these kids together knowing that they'll grow up as "cousins". It takes nothing away from our other family or cousins, it just adds to the love our kids feel.
Everyone had pizza and then sang our Abby "Happy Birthday" and enjoyed cake and ice cream. Abby was excited to open a couple more birthday gifts as well. She got a gift card to the American Girl Doll Store and a great new helmet that she needed to go along with her rollerblades. After everyone had their fill of pizza and cake the kids went upstairs to play while the adults sat downstairs and talked for a little while. It is pretty great that all of our kids can do that now. We all miss parts of having babies but it is nice to be able to hang out and have conversations without needing to be attached to our children. Luke is a little over a year and a half old so Grace helps to keep an eye on him but he can do a lot on his own already. We really have a great group of kids!
Now everyone is home, I have cleaned up the kitchen from dinner and cake, the kids are almost done picking up toys. We are looking forward to having a calm remainder of our evening. We will hang out a little longer with our birthday girl and then tuck everyone in bed.
While today is Abby's birthday, it also was my Grandmother Marie's birthday, who Abby is named after (middle name). Abby doesn't forget to say a prayer wishing her a Happy Birthday on each of her birthday's, it makes my heart happy that she continues to honor her even though my Grandma passed when Grace was a baby.
Happy Happy Happy Birthday, Sweet Abiageal!

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

Cantwell Christmas 2015

We always agree that we aren't going to go all out on each other or our kids. This year Chad and I bought some new furniture, a new mattress and two incredible pillows for our bed. We agreed that those things would be our Christmas gifts to each other and that was it. We talked about getting the kids 4 or 5 gifts each because they already have so much there was no need to over do anything.
What actually happened was Chad spoiled me and we spoiled our kids, again. Chad gave me a Yeti Rambler, a Tyme Iron, a Ninja blender and food processor, some of my favorite candy, an Under Armor jacket and two amazing tickets to the Adele concert. He really went above and beyond this year!
I feel like I totally failed him for Christmas gifts this year with the exception of one. I gave him a case of metal collar stays for his business travels, Superman playing cards, a handmade muscle relaxing balm, a bottle opener keychain that I had engraved to him (a message not his name), a Yeti Rambler with a decal to put on it and a massage. His "big" gift from me this year was a box of cigars from the New Orleans Cigar Factory which were hand picked from the awesome owner out of his personal stash. Al and Nancy, if you're reading this, thank you, he loved it!! He was happy with his gifts and I know he isn't disappointed in me so I'm not too worried but he really made my Christmas special!
Grace received three books she had been wanting and a pink flute case from Santa. She got many, many gift cards, some clothes, a couple of games/toys and as her big gift she received a new Mac Book Air laptop. She was so surprised and is very excited to start using it!
Abby was very happy to see that Santa left her rollerblades and an American Girl doll! She was also given several gift cards, a lot of super cute clothes, a couple of other toys and a new iPad mini. She is over the moon!
Santa left Orin a Chewbacca mask and a Zoomer Dinosaur. He was thrilled to see them both! He was a little skeptical about wearing the Chuy mask but as I'm typing this he is wearing the batteries out! Orin was gifted several other small toys, a lot of clothes, a couple of gift cards and many new Skylanders for his new Skylanders Super Chargers game. He and Chad are upstairs playing it now and loving it!
Our close friend Dave (Uncle Dave to our kids) came over early this morning to watch the fiasco of the kids opening their gifts. We came downstairs before he got here so they played with their Santa gifts and stocking gifts until he arrived a short time later. He is always thoughtful about what to give our kids, he did a great job this year!
My Dad gave each of our kids gifts that they loved! My Aunt, Grandma and Uncle Ed all pitched in for a family gift and presented us with season passes to Fiesta Texas! We will be getting a lot of good use out of those! Fiesta Texas is less than a 2 hour drive so we will be able to go often.
Late morning brought my Aunt Ardath and then my Dad and his girlfriend Marguerite. We all spent the day together and it was very nice. Uncle Dave left to join another friend and his wife for their Christmas meal and then I started getting our meal ready. Again, we ordered our meal from Boston Market so all I had to do was warm everything in the oven. I served Boston Market's spinach-artichoke dip and queso for appetizers/snacks while the food was warming up. My Aunt picked my Grandma Jane from her hotel room (all day at my home would have been overwhelming for her) to join us for the meal and to spend a few hours with us all. My Grandma will be 85 next week so I'm thankful she made the trip and was able to be in our home for Christmas Day!
After our meal we had a large selection of desserts, from creme brûlée cheesecake to gingerbread cookies to petit fours to pies. We have quite a bit left over and I'm ok with that! ;)
When everyone was done chatting and relaxing for a while we took the kids along with my Aunt to the Cedar Park PD and our local Fire Station to give those working today a big batch of cookies each.
Now everyone has gone home and we're left here to spend the evening together playing games, relaxing and reflecting about how amazing this Christmas and this year have been to us. We are so thankful for everyone in our lives, each of you are a part of it for a reason! We are thankful for new friends and also for the wisdom to let some relationship go. We are so happy to be right where we are and to have each other.
Our family would like to extend a special Thank You and Merry Christmas to everyone we love, everyone working a vital job today and our United States Military!
Merry Christmas everyone!

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

It's Christmas Time?

Does anyone else feel like this year has flown by? Our house is decorated, gifts are wrapped, but it just doesn't quite feel like Christmas. Hopefully it will in the next day or two considering Christmas is this week. We are officially on the kids school Christmas breaks, I'm sure letting them sleep in tomorrow will help it hit home too.
We've been fortunate to be invited to several parties and events in the past couple of weeks celebrating the season and a couple of special birthdays.
The first party was two weeks ago, our friends hosted an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. Chad and I didn't even come close to winning but the party was a great success, we had a blast! We will definitely have to be more creative next year!
Last weekend I had a great time at my girlfriend's Christmas baking party! It was a ladies only event and we couldn't dress up, in fact we were required to wear PJ's. It was a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to going again next year!
Thursday evening I hosted the Christmas Bunco with my group. We had a White Elephant gift exchange which was so much fun! I have to brag a little because I'm pretty sure I ended up with the best gift! I really enjoy this group of ladies and had a great time with a pretty relaxed party this month.
This past Friday Chad and I went to Orin and Abby's class Christmas parties. I'm so glad Chad could come too, I love that he can do things like that. It means a lot to our kids and it means a lot to me.
Yesterday we went to three parties. We over extended ourselves a little but still had a great time at each event. Today we're pretty exhausted but it was totally worth it!
Today we went to the gun range to fire off our weapons which hadn't been played with in over a year. We brought Dave who is a close family friend and spent a couple of hours shooting off every single bullet that we intended which added up to be several hundred rounds. It felt good to get out there and shoot some targets and clay. I went to town with my shotgun and am much more comfortable using it after my practice today. After we shot all of our ammo we reloaded our clips with our home defense rounds and went to lunch. Today was pretty good, nice and low key after a very exciting and busy Saturday.
Tomorrow my Grandparents are coming to our home for lunch and we will have our Christmas with them. My Grandfather was very sick recently and is still pretty weak, so we will have a nice calm lunch and I'm sure keep it a fairly short visit, but we are happy to host them as long as they want to stay.
On Tuesday my girls have a hair appointment with my awesome stylist, Darcy. They both need a trim and are looking forward to getting pampered.
This Wednesday the kids and I are meeting up with my friend and her three daughters. This is the same lady that I mentioned that I gone to lunch with recently because her daughter and Abby are getting to be close friends. My kids and I are really looking forward to our lunch/playdate!
On Thursday we will be home relaxing and getting the house prepped for the chaos of Christmas. My Dad and his girlfriend, Grandmother and Aunt will be coming to us for Christmas this year, I'm very excited! Chad and I had discussed going to them in Houston the day after Christmas but I decided to throw it out there that they're welcome to come to our home and they said yes. We will have a great time having a meal and spending time together on Christmas day! We're also having our friend Dave over for part of the day which is fitting since we feel that he is family.
Five days after Christmas our Abby will turn nine years old. It seems impossible!! The plan is to have her friend spend the night on the 29th so she will be there when Abby wakes up on her birthday and spend the day with us. We have invited family over (friends that have been around since she was born) for a pizza dinner on Abby's birthday. That is always fun! I love having everyone over for my kids birthday's.
I'm supposed to have a minor surgery on Dec. 31 but I'm going to make my final decision to go through with it or not this week. I'm waiting to hear back from my doctor, I'll talk to her and then make my final decision. If I go through with it we'll be home for New Year's Eve. If not we'll probably crash a friend's party, but don't worry, I've already given her fair warning! ;)
I would love to tell everyone what our kids will be getting for Christmas but I don't want to spoil the surprise, y'all will have to wait just like them! Haha! Not that it's that big of a deal, but I'm very excited to give them their gifts and see their faces!

                          Orin & Abby's Christmas Parties. Kindergarten and 3rd Grade

Christmas Baking party with a great group of ladies, hosted by my girlfriend Andrea.

Until next time, count your blessings!

Sara

A Week in the Life of Sara

It has come to my attention recently that some people are very concerned with what I do with my days now that all of my children are in school. I'm flattered that people need to concern themselves with my daily activity but they should probably focus on themselves. To answer the question of what I do with my days; whatever the hell I want. Eat it up. Some days I substitute teach, some days I do laundry and clean house and some days my children or myself have appointments. However there are many days that I meet up with a friend and go shopping or out to lunch, going out to lunch is my favorite!
After having at least one child home with me for 13 years I now have a gap in my day to fill however I please, but I promise that I don't need anyone's approval to spend it how I want.
I'll break down this week for anyone that feels the need to know exactly what I'm doing.

Monday: I cleaned my home after the weekend. Chad and I went to lunch together (Buffalo Wild Wings) when he was able to take a break from his busy day. I then came home and took a little nap until it was time for my two youngest kids to come home. Then I hung out with them, helped with homework, watched some TV, fed my family and then Chad and I got them ready for bed together and called it an early night.

Tuesday: After seeing Chad off to the airport before 5am I went back to bed until my alarm rang and got all of my kids off to school. My girlfriend came over and picked me up. We had planned a day of shopping but I got a call from Vent Blotique asking if I could come in and have my hair done for free (shampoo, blowout and styling). I asked if my friend could come too, when they said yes we stopped what we were doing and went straight there, we already had our Starbucks so we knew we wouldn't be too hungry yet. It was great to spend an hour getting pampered for free! After that my friend and I went to lunch together and then got our shopping done after that. I had to purchase some black pants for Grace which were a required part of her uniform for her band concert that evening. After we were done shopping my friend dropped me off at my house and I picked up my kids from school soon after. We spent a few hours relaxing and doing homework together before Grace had to get ready for her band concert. I loaded the kids up and took them to the performance. With Chad traveling for work I could only record one of Grace's songs because we also had FaceTime happening so Chad could watch the concert. After it was over we came home, I got everyone clean and in bed.

Wednesday: After getting everyone off to school I laid back in bed for almost two hours, it was great! Then I got ready for the day and went shopping at Target. I needed more of my Biolage shampoo and conditioner and a new round brush. I also bought a couple of fun little things to include in my Christmas gifts to Abby and Orin's teacher's. After shopping I met up with one of Abby's BFF's mom for lunch. We hadn't met before but considering how close our girls are becoming we both agreed it would be nice to get to know each other. We had a great time talking over sushi! When our lunch date was over I headed back to Vent Blotique, they asked me the day before if I could come back in. I received a scalp microdermabrasion, and then the same service I had received the day before. It felt so good and did a lot of great things for my hair and scalp. When my free service was over I headed back toward my home to pick my kids up from school. I got everyone home and then asked Grace to babysit Orin so I could take Abby to the doctor. She has been coughing at night and a little during the day for going on two weeks and I wanted to get her checked out just in case. Abby and I picked up some coffee and hot chocolate and headed in. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics just to clear out any infection that may be in her system. While Abby and I were at her visit Orin watched some TV and played on the computer while Grace studied and did her homework. After I got home I made sure everyone had eaten and it was bed time. Orin took forever to go to sleep so that wasn't fun, but we survived!

Thursday (today): After everyone is at school today I'll go check in with my diet clinic. I expect to still be on track and everything will be good. Today I'll focus on getting laundry from the week done and cleaning up the little that needs to be cleaned in my home. Today will be spent having some "me" time and I'm looking forward to it! I'll pick up Orin from school today while Abby goes to one of her GT events that she has every Thursday. I'll pick Abby up from that a little later and then I'll pick Grace up from her private flute lessons a little later after that. I'll already have dinner prepped so we'll all eat together and then have a nice calm evening. Chad will get in late tonight from his business trip, we will all be happy when he is home!

Friday (tomorrow): I have a hair appointment to get my color, highlights and cut. It was supposed to be last week but I was able to re-schedule due to Orin's surgery (which he is recovering beautifully from). After I get my hair pampered for the third time this week I'm meeting up with some of my Bunco girlfriends for lunch. They're always fun so I'm excited to see them! After lunch I'll come home and relax with Chad while he works from his computer until it is time to pick my kids up from school and start our weekend.

I don't need approval or permission for what I do with my time. I love my life and feel so blessed that Chad is able to provide for us the way he does that makes my life so relaxed and fun. We have been together since we were teenagers, we started our family early and put in a lot of work and sacrifice to get where we are, together. It is only getting better from here. Everyday I focus on what makes my life so amazing, not drama or people or events that I don't enjoy. Those who try to drag me down are massively unsuccessful. I'm not saying I don't have bad days, everyone does, but I intensely focus on the good, I do not fester on the bad. So for each of you haters and trolls, again, eat it up. For those of you who are my true friends and happy for me, I promise I'm just as thrilled when life is going well for you! I love seeing people I care about having successful, happy lives, it truly gives me joy. I look forward to continuing my journey with those who add something positive to my life. To those who don't, please move on. I'm happy, it's too bad you're not. Please stop being so concerned/obsessed with my everyday life and worry about your own, I promise I'll be just fine!

Here I am being happy, which is how I spend the vast majority of my days. I hope you can be happy with me!

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

Orin's Surgery

As many of you probably know by now Orin had surgery on Tuesday, he had tubes placed in his ears and his adenoids removed. Grace had the same surgery with the same surgeon almost exactly 10 years ago, right after she turned three. Orin was a trooper and the surgery went very well. The doctor said that his adenoids were huge and removing them will make his life a lot better as soon as he is done healing. He is 36 hours out of surgery and you can hardly tell he even had it done. He is playing and we're trying to keep him calm so he can continue to heal. He will be out of school the rest of this week per the doctors orders but I honestly think he could go back tomorrow or Friday, but we'll do what we've been told and try to get him to rest.
Is anyone else starting to get really excited for Christmas?! I have one last gift to pick up for Chad and then we are completely done! I'm so excited about his "big" gift from me, but I know he will read this so I can't spill the beans until after Christmas. We bought a new mattress, two great pillows and a new dining table about two months ago and agreed that they would be our Christmas gifts to each other so we're trying to remember that and take it easy while getting each other new gifts for under the tree. I'm thrilled for our kids to open their gifts too! We joked with Orin about his surgery being his Christmas gift considering how much we just had to fork out for it, but of course he didn't think it was funny. He gave us a crazy look and told us that surgery isn't a present. I guess he is right ;) We've got the inside of our house decorated but still need to do the outside. I'm anxious for it to get done because our Christmas decoration bins are littering my foyer and I would like for them to go away.
Chad plays basketball in a men's league, last Sunday evening he and his team won the championship! I was able to go watch him win, it was a lot of fun! He earned a shirt that declares himself a champion, its pretty funny watching him strut around the house wearing it, he cracks me up!
I've got two more days of snuggling my boy and then a fun weekend coming up!

Until next time, count your blessings :)

Sara