Our New Tradition

I hope everyone is doing great! I have been out for several days. A week to be exact I believe. 
Here is my explanation. Firstly I try not to blog when my Mr. Sexy is home. He feels like I am ignoring him :-) Second, I ended up sick. Yes the illness came upon this house. My daughter had came to visit for her weekend time and she passed it on to us. Thank you Gabby! Eric (Mr. Sexy) ended up sick first. He took off work and slept for awhile and I will admit, I have a lack of empathy sometimes and I did not want to get sick so I tried to keep my distance from him. That did not work and I ended up with it, 2x's worse. Imagine that. Seems the further down the line an illness goes it gets worse. My step son ended up at the doctor yesterday with a minor ear infection. He is no antibiotics for a bit. 

This morning you could tell it was Friday. Waking the 2 kids out of 3 up to get ready for school was a bit more hard. Cory overslept and would not wake up when his older brother tried to get him up. 30 minutes later he gets up when I tell him. Shower was skipped. Logan had his covers up over his head and was not awake at all and he just wanted to stay in bed. Thank goodness its Friday so the little bits can wake up on their own tomorrow. The one thing I love about Saturday.

During the down time of trying to recover I missed out on several prompts from the Blog-Tember Challenge. That is okay I will do my best to try to make them up. If not at least get back on track again. 

Day 12- Tell us about a favorite tradition, it can be any tradition and tell us what makes it so special. 

It is very hard to have traditions when you have a blended family especially around the holidays. Everyone is trying to figure out when kids will be with us or be with the other side or when we can celebrate with our families and then try to have our own. Mr. Sexy (Eric) and I have been together 2 years this month. Our relationship is new still yet so there are not many traditions set in stone. Like I said it is so hard to do the traditional traditions. 

While trying to type up this post and racking my brain on a tradition we have or could have, I found one.

We make a yearly trip to the Little Rock Zoo every year. This started in 2013 when we heard thatArkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center hosts one day out of the year where admission is free for families who have been affected by Autism. We have attended both years so far and hope to continue this. Unfortunately, getting everyone to go and together is impossible. 

2013 All the Kids together

This Year and As you can see, 2 kids are missing. One wanted to stay with a friend and the other is having issues talking to his father. Long Story

I have come to realize when you have a blended family, traditions have to be tweaked a bit. You can not always have everyone together at once to do the special thing your family does. Keep the tradition and if everyone can attend that is great if not that is fine too. We will continue to attend Zoo Day that Arkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center hosts every year! 

What favorite traditions do you have? We want to hear and you can link up At Brave Love

Our 4th of July

Our 4th of July was simple. Which of course is the way I like it. We were not sure if Eric would have to work or not so we were not set in plans. He did have to work on the holiday but was off the following day so we could go up to my parents house. 

Those were always my favorite memories. We never did anything huge and fancy but simple and fun. I want my kids to learn to enjoy these things as well. No sense in going all out and spending tons of money to enjoy the holiday. 

We bought a handful of things such as bottle rockets, smoke bombs, sprinklers and things like that. No big deal and my mom picked up a few things and supplied the food. Eric cooked some chicken and steaks, baked potatoes and corn. Mom picked up sides. She doesn't like to cook much. I do not have a big family or tons of friends to where we have huge gatherings so it does not take much to feed us. 

We were concerned how Logan would react. He does have autism and can be sensitive to certain things. Last year he covered his eyes the entire time. We passed on a family gathering and just attended a local fireworks shown instead. So this year we thought he may react the same. To our surprise he did not! He loved loved the booms! He may not have had issues with the sight because we were not at a huge display. Not sure though but he did very well and we were all so proud of him. 

I ran off and forgot to charge my batteries to my camera so we did not get many great pictures. It died at night. 

After the night was over I asked the kids if they had fun, I got a really loud "oh yeah!" They said it was the best 4th they have had. These are my step kids answering this. I asked them if they had to choose between a huge show or going to my parents every year and shooting off small ones what they would choose. They chose my parents! 

How did you spend your 4th?