Nothing but a puppy

Happy birthday Jackster! (oh yeah... Mommy too!)

2010-08-17T13:33:00.001-07:00

Jack and I celebrated our 6th and 31st birthdays with a trip to Red Robin! Yummmmmm..... That has become our birthday hot spot, who can pass it up? I ordered my standby, the Whiskey River BBQ burger. Interestingly enough, I don't think either kid has ever ordered a burger- Neily always gets spaghetti and Jack changes his mind every time.

Then it was back home for some gigantic cupcakes and a Batman party!
Presents!

Think someone's excited?!

We had a great day! Jack loved all of his presents- Bakugan, Clone Trooper Blaster, and Playmobil. The next day, we headed out to camp with friends to finish out the weekend!

Our trip to see the Florence Freedom!

2010-08-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

On our big summer to do list, we had a planned a trip to see the Reds. Since the Reds are in first place (woohoo!) it's next to impossible to get good seats, and we didn't think the kids would enjoy nosebleed seats. We decided to hit the Florence Freedom instead. They're a minor league team in the area, and we've been told they were a great family friendly spot. They did not disappoint! The kids enjoyed being so close to the field, all the kid zones they had set up, and even got autographs!

The Florence Freedom mascots, Liberty and Belle

What's a baseball game without the sugar?

Batting practice

Autographs!

Great seats!

Scrambling for the foul ball... that came no where NEAR us.

This is definitely something we'll be doing again! They were so into it, because they could actually SEE the game and watch the plays. So much fun!

Yes, we're still here!

2010-08-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

I know I've been terrible about updating this place. In my defense, it's because we've been having a lot of fun! I can't believe summer is almost over. Whoops! We're making really good progress on our Summer Fun list. One of our last things to check off was making popsicles, YUM! The kids really enjoyed making these and they were pretty healthy! They cut up their own fruit and we filled our molds with fresh fruit and grape juice. Perfect summer treat.

Goodbye, 1st grade!!!!

2010-06-04T06:15:00.000-07:00

This post comes with a heavy heart. I am genuinely sad to see first grade end. Neily has had a wonderful year and a wonderful teacher that I don't want to let go! We feel very fortunate that Neily had Mrs. Stutzman this year, it was truly a gift. Neily went to bed crying last night because she was so sad to say goodbye. I didn't have much to offer her, because I have shed tears as well! I did tell her that she is lucky to have been in her class and that Mrs. Stutzman will never forget her. Luckily, Mrs. Stutzman has a daughter just a year younger than Neily, so I know that we will see her often. I look forward to the day the girls might become friends and play sports together. That didn't do much to make her feel better, but she'll make it through today.
I sent her off with a heavy heart because so much has changed this year. Just by looking at the pictures, it's obvious. She's grown a mile and lost any trace of that 'little girl' look that she had left. I see her getting into things like music, jewelry, clothing, and friends. She's growing up and I just can't stop it. I wish I could freeze her right here, this age is magical to me. She is a person all of her own making.

Baby birdies!

2010-05-11T13:01:00.001-07:00

When Jack and I came home today, I spotted something in the yard that looked like a mess of branches. When I walked over to it, I immediately spotted four baby birds on the grass and realized it was a nest that had fallen from our tree. I almost cried! Poor little guys. I thought they had died immediately, so I rushed Jack in the house, but then I saw that at least some of them were breathing. I got a pair of gloves and tried to put them back in the nest as gently as I could. Two of them were upside down on the grass and one was very weak and couldn't hold its head up when I tried to pick it up, so I'm worried it broke its neck on the way down. They were all breathing but not making much of a fuss, so I'm not sure if they'll make it or not. I nestled them back into the safest spot I could find in the tree, and keep checking on them. Sadly, I have not seen the mama bird return, but the birds haven't woken up yet, either, so maybe she is watching and knows they don't need her yet. They are sleeping soundly and at least three of the four are breathing. I can't see the fourth one, he's underneath the rest. Good old Google tells me that orphaned baby birds are actually quite a wive's tale, and that the mother most likely won't abandon them if she smells me on them (but I used gloves just in case). I just hope that she'll find them in their new home. Again, The Google tells me that they have a good chance anyway- that another bird may feed them if it hears them crying. Poor birdies... they're so sweet and tiny.
Looking at these pictures, they are far less sweet looking in photos- they look pretty scraggly and gross, but I swear in person they are very downy and cute.

To My Loves

2010-05-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Eddie, Neily, and Jack,
It's just before noon on Mother's Day. It's so pretty and sunny out, but just a little cool. I'm in the house by myself and I can see the three of you from where I sit, working and playing in the yard.
I look around our house and you are everywhere. The wrapper to a juice box straw discarded on the rug, leftovers from our lunchtime picnic earlier this week still on the bench at the door, my Mother's Day gift from Neily (a flower pen in it's own decorated pot) sits in front of me.
It's hard for me to see the blessings of where I sit sometimes. I wish I had the fancy Pottery Barn desk for the computer instead of the rickety armoire that I'm sitting at. I think about how nice it would be to have a pretty, bright laundry room in lieu of the slightly scary one in the basement. Yesterday the dog threw up on the wood floor that I'd just spent 30 minutes mopping and I really wanted to strangle him.
But this morning, when I opened my eyes on my 8th Mother's Day, the first thing I saw was a tiny clay pot resting on top of a handmade card. No one was in the room, Neily had sneaked into the room before I woke and laid it next to me. She loved me enough to leave it and sneak out, letting me sleep. She woke up and remembered instantly that it was a special day, and knew she wanted to do something. I thought about how selfless an act it was, and how hard that must have been for a 7 year old. She knew that I would find it and she wouldn't get the satisfaction of seeing me open the gift. It warmed my heart that she had made something, hidden it from me, and then given up the privilege of seeing my face when I opened it. Every time I look at that little clay pot, I will see so much in it.
Jack bounded in, bursting at the seams waiting to give me his present. Just yesterday as I was heading out the door to meet friends, I said "What I really want for Mother's Day is to wake up to a clean house! Will you clean for me while I'm gone? That's what I REALLY want..." Jack immediately jumped up and said, "You don't want a silhouette?" and seemed crushed. I knew exactly what he meant- on Wednesday, he brought home a wrapped gift from school and told me that under no circumstances was I to peek under his dresser. I didn't. He chased me up the stairs last night asking me if I really only wanted him to clean, or did I maybe want a silhouette, too? Was that something I'd always wanted? I told him that yes, I have always wanted one of those but I didn't know how to make them myself so maybe we should find out. The smile on his face as he hopped off will not be something I will forget.

Dear Eddie,
Without you, I would not be here right now, and we would not have this family that I am so thankful for each day. I look at Neily and I see you. That is such a gift. I love to tell people who sweetly say that she looks like me that she, in fact, looks just like her daddy. I think about the moment we found out that we would be parents, and the day she was born. I love to tease you about your music but secretly adore it when our kids hum some crazy song that only you have heard of. I think it's even more adorable when Neily asks you to fill her iPod with Hannah Montana and Black Eyed Peas, and you do it, without much complaining. I think about the stressful year when our house was on the market and we dreamed of more space, moving away, and leaving this silly little house behind. I realize now as I look at the front window that this is exactly the view I want to see and I'm content and happy here. Don't take that too literally, if we hit the jackpot, I won't refuse to leave this house.... ;) I love you for being the best father our kids can dream of, and for always being on my side. I appreciate that we are showing our kids the value of loving someone, and showing them that we are important to each other.

Dear Neily,
Before you were born, I could imagine you in our family. I knew I would have a little girl and buy her sundresses and put bows in her hair. I knew you would be smart and funny. Now that you are 7, it's hard for me to believe. The moment you came into our lives, we were a family and I will always be grateful to you for giving us that gift. Sometimes I look at you and feel overwhelmed because you're so pretty and sweet. You are passionate about everything you do. Everyone likes you and gravitates toward you. I can't think of a better gift to possess than that, you have always been confident and fun, and I hope you never lose that. You have a contagious laugh and are always smiling. You and I are very different and the mother/daughter relationship is not an easy one to figure out. You challenge me in ways I never thought possible, and I know that it's only the beginning! I will always be on your side and I will always give my best to you. You are such a GOOD person and I love you!

Dear Jack,
You are my little man. I never knew how much I wanted you until the moment I laid eyes on you! You are mine. Sometimes you tell me stories, and I find myself just watching you and laughing to myself. You are smart and silly, and you think of things in a way that is uniquely yours. You are sensitive, sometimes too sensitive! Sometimes I see so much of myself in you that it's eerie. I hope that as you grow, you continue to be as caring and sweet as you always have been. You make people laugh, which is a true gift. You wear your heart on your sleeve, and can't hide how you feel. When you're happy, everyone knows it. When you're not, EVERYONE knows it. I've never known a child who got in more trouble because they were having fun than misbehaving. When you smile, your eyes light up. You love with your whole heart and we love you back! You have the biggest heart and thank you for sharing it with us.

Thank you to all three of you for making me a mommy!

GO KINGS!

2010-05-05T06:36:00.001-07:00

We are thrilled to announce that our school levy PASSED with flying colors last night!
Ten years ago, we received our first introduction to school levies in Ohio. Here, schools are funded largely by property taxes. When expenses go up, schools have to raise property taxes. To do that, they have to put a levy on the ballot to ask voters. It is not a great system, but it is what it is and we will support it. Our neighboring district, Little Miami, has failed 5 consecutive levy attempts and they are in a fiscal emergency. The state has taken control of their school and budget and the schools have been cut to state minimums. That means no busing, no gym, art, or PE for K-8, no electives for high school students, pay to play for sports, and the list continues on and on. Their property values have tanked (our exact house in Little Miami is worth $15K less) and you cannot sell your house because no one wants to move into the district. There have been a lot of tears.
No one wants to go broke paying their taxes, but there are certain things in America that are a fact of life and this is one of them. You have to support your schools- if you don't, what WILL you support? In Indiana, you may have lower property taxes, but you still pay for the schools through your sales taxes, your license fees, etc. We ALL HAVE TO SUPPORT THE SCHOOLS.
It became a very important issue in our house and we tried to be very active in the cause. Seeing what happened in Little Miami turned us into some serious activists. We live in a fantastic district and we will do anything we can to keep it that way. Not surprisingly, there are some who just wanted to see the levy fail and they did anything they could do see that happen. There was talk of how wasteful it was that our teachers are the highest paid teachers in the county- at an average of 45K per teacher. Anyone who thinks that $50,000 is too much to pay a teacher, PLEASE- raise your hand. I want to talk to you. Anyone who believes that teachers shouldn't be making double that amount for what they do for our children, stand up. Because I will never understand that. Neily spends more time with her teacher than she does at home, and I am forever grateful to Mrs. Stutzman for all that she does. I know that for every hour she spends in the class, 2 are spent working outside the classroom. Our teachers attend our after school functions, our sports games. They are worth ten times that amount.
I went to dinner last night to celebrate a friend's birthday and we were watching the numbers roll in. When the first set of numbers came in quite low in favor of our levy, my stomach literally ached. I had not prepared myself for the idea that our levy would not pass. Suddenly my mind started to race- what will I tell Neily? How can I explain that her favorite teacher's job is in danger? How am I going to tell her that her gym teacher no longer has a job? The loss of the extra activities that put our school at the top- spanish classes, cooking classes, dance activities, etc- suddenly seemed like they were slipping away and I was physically ill. Eddie was texting me with the latest results that he was seeing and those numbers weren't much better. I honestly had tears in my eyes.
Throughout the night, our numbers slowly started to turn and we had a lead (a very small one!) of 51% for the levy and 49% against, it was about 200 votes. A few more precincts came in and we bumped up to 53%. By the end of the night, we were at 57% for the levy and it passed. My friends and I gave a quick cheer but I could not get past the numbers for Little Miami... their levy had failed again. It didn't feel right to celebrate when our friends two miles away were in tears. Their hope was taken away last night and they have a long road ahead of them. I felt sad that my children were so lucky and they were not. Parents just want the best for their children and it should not come to this to get it. Every child deserves an amazing education and it's time that they get it.
Sorry for the heaviness of this post, but this was SO important to us. We passed out signs, we stood with our children waving signs to support the levy, we attended rallies to show our support, and it was worth it. We are proud to be Kings Knights! If you live in Ohio, PLEASE write your senators and representatives and ask them to find another way to help Ohio schools. This has to change, because what is happening in Little Miami should not happen to our children. That was my original purpose in writing this post, the first few paragraphs will eventually be sent on to my local representative in hopes of change.

Man your battle stations!

2010-04-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Jack is obsessed with all things boy lately. A big thing for him lately has been soldiers. I'm fine with the cute little Toy Story bucket of soldiers, but Eddie and I have different opinions on the gun play. So far, the rules are you don't point at your face or animals, you only play soldiers with kids who want to with you, and you don't ever point at Mommy. Ever. :) Snapped these while he was setting them up one day...

Before Sully decided to play:

After:

Our date with Jack

2010-04-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

Last night, Neily was invited out to dinner with a friend so we got to spend some time with Jack on his own. I love the rare treat of spending time with each child one on one. It's probably the one thing I miss from their crazy preschool schedules when Neily went in the a.m. and Jack went in the p.m. We made a picnic and ate on the side of Landen Lake, then walked the nature trail. We have lived in Landen for 11 years and I can't believe I've never been on the trail. We've enjoyed the lake before, but the trail was like finding gold. Eddie had told Jack we could hunt for fossils, and I thought he was joking. He was definitely not, there were actually tons of pretty impressive fossils to be found in the creek bed. Jack made several really cool finds and Sully terrorized several ducks.

Check out this shell that Jack discovered! We've scoured tons of beaches over the years and never found anything this cool, and here it was practically in our own backyard! However- words cannot describe the foul stench of this shell. It was unbearable. I soaked it overnight in a bleach and water solution, only to find out this morning that- surprise!- it was actually white. EW! I mean, bright white. I can't even begin to imagine what made it turn the color it was, and it was not just mud, folks. To top if off, after a night in bleach, the sucker STILL smells horrible! I actually dug some slimey goo out of it this morning (hurl!) and am still soaking it... doesn't seem to be helping, though.

A trip to Cox Arboretum

2010-04-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

The kids are on spring break this week and we are enjoying some AMAZING weather! I cannot remember the last time we had a spring break this warm. Seeing green outside feels so nice after a reeeeeeally long, yucky winter.
I've wanted to go to Cox Arboretum for a long time, and it was the perfect day to be there. It's a beautiful park with a lot of wildlife. We had fun spotting turtles, fish, and butterflies. They're gearing up for a butterfly exhibit, we will definitely be heading back when it's open!

Kkkkkkkkrazy!

2010-03-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

That's what things have been around here- KRAZY! We have been so busy, lots of picture taking but not much posting, no time! We started off March by heading to the kids school for Krazy Karnival. This is an annual event that they look forward to every year. This is the third year we've attended, and this year, Neily and I worked at the Karnival as volunteers as well.
This year's Krazy Karnival will be a day I'll always remember. We had a really fun day as a family and I really enjoyed working at the company. Neily got up that morning and put on her Kings sweatshirt. I don't know exactly how to explain the way I felt watching her that day. Some of it was pride- I was so proud of her, she knows everyone, said hi to all of her friends, all the teachers knew her, she seemed confident and happy at school. Some of it was just plain happiness, I know I sound so sappy over a carnival and a sweatshirt, but maybe if you're a mom, you understand. I felt like we really belonged here. We've put down roots in this neighborhood, I knew the other moms. Seeing her in her school colors just really hit home, made me think about the memories that we are creating for them every day. One day (sooner than I would like to think!), she will be remember stories about her elementary school days and I hope that she looks back on them as fondly as I do on my own childhood.
Okay, on to the pictures! ;)

A little Barn Door Booty

Neily's teacher dressed up for the Pick A Pocket game- we *heart* Mrs. Stutzman!

Neily showing off her piece selected for the art show! She was so proud to have this in the show and even more proud when we decided that we would purchase the piece from the show to keep at home forever. Her face lit up. ;)

Too cute, playing the penguin toss!

Oh look! They won fish. We let them play the game never imagining that they'd both sink shots and win fish. Neily's is named Lindsey Vonn, and Jack's was Halfpipe. That's right... was. Halfpipe didn't make it a full week, we'll be purchasing a new one soon.

Cake Walk!

Already looking forward to the next Krazy Karnival! I feel bad that I mostly ended up with pictures of Neily! If you have ever been to a busy event with Jack, then you know getting him to look at you at any point is just not going to happen.

ANOTHER one!

2010-02-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

Yet another snow day! We are up to 6, 4 in just the last week. Today is the first one that we'll have to make up, Ohio schools are gifted 5 (a new concept to us Hoosiers!). Today we hit the Columbia sled hills, something we'd never gotten around to doing. They usually sled down the big hill on our backyard, but this was a lot of fun. The snow was pretty packed down and they flew down the hill! Really funny to watch, but I couldn't resist and took a few runs myself.

Fat Tuesday!

2010-02-16T16:20:00.000-08:00

Eddie had the fun idea to celebrate Fat Tuesday with the kids, and they loved it!
We had jambalaya for dinner, one of our favorites. Neily and Jack were on board until they tasted it, and immediately decided it was too spicy. They choked down the three or four mandatory bites and waited (im)patiently for the Kings Cake.

We even decked the dog out in Mardi Gras beads- he wasn't too happy about it!

King Jack! Actually, when I cut the cake, as luck would have it, I cut right down the middle of the baby. For real?! What are the chances? We had to make a decision on which kid would get it, it was like Sophie's Choice, terrible!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-16T09:08:00.001-08:00

We enjoyed a great night out with friends that celebrated a good cause for Valentine's Day! With such a big group, it's always a small miracle when we can almost all get babysitters on the same night!

Valentine Craziness!

2010-02-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

I hope that I remember this post when NEXT Valentine's Day rolls around! I asked Neily what kind of Valentines she wanted to make for her class, and she wanted these little iPods made from Sweetheart boxes and peanut butter cups. Jack, of course, jumped on board. Okay! So cute, right?! Easy, right? I'll be supermom, right?!
Not so much.
For starters, you can buy a box of Valentines for $3. I ran into my friend in Target lamenting that she needed 28 and they only came in boxes of 24, so she was frustrated that she was going to have to spend extra. This should have been the first alarm to go off in my head and tell me that this was way too much effort! But instead, I spent $24 on the boxes of Sweethearts (yes! You read that correctly, we needed 8 boxes at $3 each). Normal, sane people would have seen that alone and decided to bag the whole idea. Then the peanut butter cups were $12, I needed 3 bags. I was out of foil (okay, maybe that doesn't really count). I am happy to say that I tapped into my frugal side and used string I already had. Go me!

Next step- assembling the pieces. It's not hard, but tedious. WAY too tedious for Jack, that's for sure. He lost interest in about ten seconds and left me to assemble the rest of his Valentines.

Neily was slightly more helpful. ;)

The finished products- cute, but not cute enough to warrant the time and money spent. And to top it off, at one point, I muttered, "This is ridiculous. Next year it's Star Wars out of a box," to which Jack exclaimed, "Star Wars?!? I want those!" I had to restrain myself a little. ;)

Neily's Valentine box for her classmates, she worked very hard! My favorite part was the little "Thank you!" I thought it was very sweet and very much showed her personality that she would think ahead to put a thank you sign on her bucket.

So, in the end, learn from me and buy them from Target! I wish I could say that this was a sweet, fun experience that we shared, crafting these up together, but it really wasn't. They lost interest really quickly and it just wasn't worth it. If they had enjoyed it, I would have at least had that on my side, but they mostly just whined about how long it took! Ha!

Buried!

2010-02-11T16:50:00.000-08:00

I think we've had just about enough snow this year! The kids went back to school today after 2 days off. I saw this one coming a mile away so I was well prepared. We made our Valentines, baked, and watched new movies. Two days was about all the fun I had in me, so it was a good thing they went back today, I was running out of gas!

The first go-round of snow was great building snow, they made a fort with Daddy!

For rounds 2 and 3 of the snowstorm, my "I'm sorry, I don't have snow clothes" excuses fell on deaf ears and somehow, I wound up outside in a foot of snow. Neily reminded me that I had my 'cool boots' from Aunt Icky... darn her, she was right.

I'll tell you what, those suckers are worth every penny! Not just for looks, apparently, I played outside in 15 inches of snow for over an hour and my feet were warm and dry.

We had a little over a foot overall, but huge snowdrifts up against the house that came up to their waists!

I shoveled the walkway and that was enough for me!

The Life

2010-02-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Sully has a rough life, I tell ya.

Roller Derby, here we come!

2010-02-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well, maybe that's a stretch.....
My friends and I took the kids roller skating a few weeks ago- all kids from 3-7. It was hilarious, stressful and fun! Neily loved it, but she had the benefit of having been to a roller skating party not too long before we went. Jack had never been and let's just say he didn't pick it up that quickly! He couldn't quite get the hang of it and his balance got the better of him. Luckily, none of the boys were exactly stellar, so they had some good laughs. He wanted to give up for a while, but we bribed them with a snack break. A few Slushies and a candy bar, and everyone was happy again. Poor Jack finally got the hang of it about 20 minutes before open skate ended. He has been asking to go back over and over again. I think we should have earned some brownie points from the dads for going it alone on this outing. A spa day, maybe?

The girls giving us a pose

Sweet Neily helping Jack along

Jack and Evan spent a lot of time like this! Once they realized that they were both doing it, it became a game and they laughed about it.

All the kids

Aaaand two seconds after that, haha!

The Mommies, not bad for a 6 year old photographer!

Jack took this one of Neily and I

Undergoing construction!

2010-02-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to make some updates to the blog so that I can have larger pictures in posts. The only way I've figured out how to do it now is to eliminate all of the columns on the sides where you could see recent posts and other little gadgets we had. I don't miss the gadgets, but do you miss the recent posts or the option to search back by month?
Also, I'd love to know if you can see the pictures clearly without scrolling back and forth on your monitor. I know most of the family and friends who read this have a widescreen monitor, but if you don't and you can't see them clearly, let me know with a comment and I'll make them a little smaller.

Gettin' crafty

2010-02-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

I had seen this wreath around BlogLand and put it on my must do list. Neily wanted to help, and luckily, it was the perfect craft for us to do together. She loved it! She didn't last long, but she definitely helped and we had a fun evening.

The finished product, ta da! It is proudly hanging on the front door now.

Not much to report lately...

2010-01-17T07:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating, but unless you want to see pictures of the kids like this:
.... then there isn't a whole lot to post! Santa brought DSs for Christmas and we haven't seen them since. ;)
I'm kidding, sort of. I do have pictures from our snow day and roller skating, but... well, I've been lazy. Soon!

More Disney

2010-01-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

I really want to get started on the holiday photos, but I think we should probably focus on finishing one project at a time!
Here are the last of our Disney photos. There are obviously more, but these are our favorites.

We lucked out with a short line to see Princess Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. This was a new area since our last visit, and it's amazing! You are taken into a small room with only a few other families and each princess is in her own nook. Your family gets to spend time with each princess with no one else around. The princesses were very talkative and sweet. It was a lot of fun!

In Minnie's house

Jack and I front row on the Barnstormer, he was pretty ticked off at how short it was (can't blame him!)

Watch out when this kid gets on the roads! Neily was even worse!

Our breakfast at Ohana. One word- YUM!

Our family favorite, Toy Story Mania.

Frozone- we were actually in line for Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, and they left before we got to the front. The one time I've been irritated with Disney for poor planning. Normally, they close the line and don't allow any more kids in (so that no one is disappointed). We have never been told that we could enter the line and then have the characters leave right before we got there. I'm not sure what happened, but a lot of people were angry! Frozone came out instead, which was good enough.

Outside MGM... er, Hollywood. Hollywood. Hollywood.

Our last ride on Big Thunder Mountain of the trip. So much fun!

The perfect way to end our trip- we tried to see Santa all week, and the line was always closing when we arrived. We finally made it, and I am so glad we did. We waited for OVER AN HOUR with only 4 families in front of us, if that tells you anything about how much time Santa spends with each child. Hands down the best Santa I've ever seen, he talked to the kids forever and was truly the best. We have two children who are absolutely convinced that he was THE real deal. He ended their visit telling them "I know what you want and I know what you need, so you'll have to trust me with your presents!"

And you can't end a trip without Mickey ice cream, even if it was only 60 degrees. At least they didn't melt all over us this time! We miss you already Mickey, and can't wait to go back again.

Checking in on my resolutions

2009-12-30T14:09:00.001-08:00

This morning as I was mulling over the things I wanted to accomplish in 2010, I suddenly remembered my list from 2009. I knew I'd posted it here, and I also knew that there were plenty on the list that I'd blatently ignored.
So here it goes:

1. Continue to 'finish' projects around the house.
We're going to have to call this a miserable failure. I did little things like some light furniture rehab and little touches, but none of the big projects I had hoped for were even touched.

2. Look my best ever on my 30th birthday- I have seven months!
Um... Not really. I think about the same.

3. Stay HOME and enjoy it! I would say after this last two weeks, I'm well on my way. Yoga pants are my friends.
Eh... I'll give myself a silver medal on this one. I think I did better than usual, and I am in yoga pants right now. That counts for something.

4. Spend more thoughtfully- go for quality and things I really love and want, not mindless spending. This is hands down going to be my toughest goal, a direct combination with #3!
I truly think I did pretty well on this one. I bought far less clothing this year for myself and for the kids than usual. If I didn't love it, I passed.

5. Grow my business and learn new skills.
I give myself a 200% on this goal! I was floored at the business explosion that I had this year, so much that I have to scale it back next year for the sake of our family.

6. Spend quality time with Neily and Jack every day.
I would like to say that I accomplished this, but I don't think any mother feels like they spend enough time with their children. To top it off, I am coming off of my busy season where I feel like I didn't do anything but work from September to December. Prior to that, I think we did a lot of new things each day.

7. Keep our master bathroom vanity clean. Every single day. Oy.
Yyyyyyyyeah. No.

8. Organize my time more efficiently.
I'm not exactly sure what I meant by this but I am pretty sure I didn't do it!

9. Continue to grow friendships that are important to me.
Oh, I'd forgotten about this one! Absolutely, YES. We had an amazing year with our friends. It will be hard to top.

10. Be really, really happy with the way things ARE.
Let's say I'm getting there. I'm working on it.

SO- for 2010, let's try to keep the master vanity clean, look my best ever at 31 (fair enough), spent quality time as a family, and finish projects in the house. I have a very long list for Eddie- big, big changes like painting the house, finishing the basement, and *possibly* adding a bathroom. We'll have to mull that one over.

More Disney World!

2009-12-28T10:12:00.001-08:00

Can I just start off by saying I hate Blogger, Picasa, Flickr, and computers in general today? Why does everything have to be so hard? Am I the only one who hates blogging because of the sheer agony involved in uploading pictures?

Moving on... Walt Disney World Day 3! We started at Epcot, one of our favorite parks. We found that this time around, the Magic Kingdom was actually where we spend the least amount of time. It will always be our 'favorite' because it just has to be- it's magical!- but we didn't spend as much time there as usual.
First thing in the morning, we saw Daisy Duck, which was a treat! We've never gotten to see her on previous visits.

We made our way around World Showcase to ride the Three Caballeros in Mexico and enjoy some fish-n-chips in England. I'll have to ask Phil, our resident Brit, the proper way to write fish and chips. First stop, Mexico! The kids love these little Kidcot stops with crafts, but we were mean parents and didn't stop for many of them. We are go, go, go vacationers. I start to get antsy when I stand around.

Don't I look fabulous? Thought so. Since my early years were spent in the southwest, I know just how to wear a sombrero. Not many can pull it off, I know.

It's BRUCE! Jack's face! Haha!

This is one of our favorite spots. In Epcot, the kids love the Figment ride. The ride itself is not that exciting (I suppose to a kid it is) but what comes after the ride (in true Disney form, you never, EVER just walk on or off of a ride!) is a blast. Here they are 'conducting' their own music. You stand in the yellow 'goalposts' and conduct, and Figment will fly around the screen according to your music and play. It is strangely addicting!
Headed over to MGM (I know, I know, it's Hollywood Studios, it just doesn't sound right to me!) and grabbed some lunch at Pizza Planet.

The kids got picked from the audience to be a part of the High School Musical show. It was fun- they weren't up there for long, but got to do a little dance and had fun.

Chip and Dale! I had no idea our kids loved Chip and Dale so much. They both freaked out when they saw them and ran for autographs. Every time we spotted them in a parade, walking around, etc, they were giddy!
Then we had a fun treat! My friend Tracy lives in Orlando and we met up with her several times. Her youngest, Sadie, is the cutest! We always have fun with them and seeing them is one of my favorite parts of the trip. Never enough time with Tracy!

And an even bigger treat, our friend Darby grew up in Orlando and had to come in unexpectedly. The reason for her trip was not a happy one, but it was a treat to get to see her at all. This is the three of us at the Magic Kingdom!

Merry Christmas Mickey Mouse!

2009-12-21T14:44:00.000-08:00

We are back in the real world! Disney World was amazing! We had an absolutely amazing time, as we always do, and really enjoyed getting to see the holiday lights and decor. It was a treat! The crowds were busier than we expected, since this was projected to be a 'low attendance' week, but it was okay- we have our magical ways of getting around lines, so we had fun. :)
Here are the highlights from days one and and two!
First up- Eddie realized we would be driving right by the world famous The Varsity in Atlanta, one of the hot dog stands on his bucket list. We decided to plan our trip around stopping and it was a lot of fun! Atlanta is famous for chili dogs, but they are definitely different from Cincinnnati's chili dogs. Very good! We also got ourselves apple pie pockets- think the fruit pies from Hostess only a million, billion times better with a homemade flaky crust! YUM!

Welcome to Main Street, USA!

We'll call this the BEFORE.... in line for Space Mountain:

And the after- Neily gave it a "thumb sideways". By the end of the week she was ready to ride again, but at first she was pretty certain that she would never get on it again!

And Jack. And this was after he'd calmed down a little bit! Yes, I am the meanest mom ever for making him ride it and for taking this picture. Neily and I could hear him crying as our car pulled in at the end of the ride, so I knew before I saw him that it hadn't gone well! In my defense, they just reopened this ride after a major revamping and it was MUCH DARKER than it used to be!!!

Jack and Daddy in Tomorrowland

One of my all time favorite rides, The Carousel of Progress! Yes, I'm serious. It is REALLY one of my favorites.

Me and Jack on the Jungle Cruise- another one of my favorites that no one else in the family likes (it's a classic, people!!!!)

We let them drive the boats around in the lagoon- we must have been in good moods because this cost $2 for about five minutes! Are you kidding me?

Getting ready for Pirates of the Caribbean!

A really, really awful picture of our great seats for Fantasmic. Well, great seats until the fountain overspray misted us the entire time, anyway!

THE coolest lights in Hollywood Studios! Absolutely amazing. :) We totally lucked out, the streets were pretty quiet on our first night and apparently, this attraction usually has people shoulder to shoulder. Every ten minutes or so, a song begins and the whole set (it's about two city blocks that look this full of lights) start to dance and

Trying to catch the snow falling!

All those little white spots? That's snow! Okay, not real snow, but Disney magical snow! ;)

Shameless plug for Lexus

2009-11-18T12:58:00.000-08:00

They should pay me!
The kids were playing outside and saw this hot air balloon flying right over the house. It was pretty neat! We have hot air balloons around here more often that I would think your average home sees them, for some reason. We probably see 3-4 a year in our neighborhood at least, there must be a launch near us. Thought these were neat!

Look what Neily learned...

2009-11-18T12:52:00.001-08:00

It's a little hard for me to write this post out lovingly right now, because Neily is in her room directly above me throwing a holy fit. Ah, girls. They're lovely.
In any case, I am very proud of her for what she has learned! She saw me knitting the other day and asked to try. I warned her that it is not easy to learn but she wanted to work on it. She picked it up really quickly and loves it! She can remember the steps but can't quite be set free yet. She thinks she is going to make a scarf. ;) We'll see if it holds her interest that long!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T04:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! Here are our little munchkins. ;) I don't think I snapped many (or any) of our neighborhood Halloween party, but we had a great time despite the freezing weather. Anyone tired of seeing pics of the kids in front of our door yet? Haha!

Pumpkins!!!

2009-10-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

I sat down to the computer all prepared to upload our pictures from our trip to Shaw Farms... after I uploaded three, I looked and realized I already WROTE that post. OY. It's been that kind of week.
So... next post! We carved our pumpkins last night. Jack and Neily loooooove Halloween, particularly Jack, and a favorite movie lately has been the Nightmare Before Christmas. We decided to carve our pumpkins to look like Jack Skellington and the Boogie Man.

Neily was not impressed with the innards of a pumpkin at first.

After the pumpkins were cleaned out, the kids completely lost interest and we were left to do the carving. Keeping it real, this is what the kids were doing while we were slaving away over the little details.

But they appreciated the final product! We're going to keep them inside for now because... you never know. ;)

Shaw Farms

2009-10-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

Every year, we try to get out to our favorite pumpkin patch, Shaw Farms. I am convinced that Shaw Farms is the best in the city! They have so much for kids to do, activities and fun things to play, horse and tractor rides, a corn maze, the list is endless. After looking at our calendar, we realized that we had exactly one afternoon that we could make it out to the pumpkin patch before Halloween, so we jumped on it. It was crowwwwwwwded, but always fun.

Being the good parent that I am, I snapped this picture of the sign as I let Jack *RUN* *UNsupervised* through the maze.
Yummy homemade apple butter in the store

Jack spied his name on this wagon full of baby pumpkins (did you know that those little pumpkins were actually called Jack Be Littles? I had no idea and for our lover of all things Halloween, he was thrilled!).
Jack put Neily in jail and she was not happy, LOL!

Neily took Daddy for a ride in the tractor

Mmm, caramel apples!

The soccer season is coming to an end...

2009-10-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

And it can't come soon enough! Whew. I think we are soccer'd out this season. In the spring, we'll try a new sport. Jack has really enjoyed it but Neily is ready to move on to something bigger and better.
Here are some action shots- I wish they were larger so you could see that Jack has his tongue stuck out in EVERY shot. LOL!

Go Jack!

I'm open! I'm open!

Getting a mid-game pep talk.
Neily on a corner kick

Jack trying to stay warm at Neily's early game, I think the high was 40 that day and we had a 10am game. Brrrrr!

This past Saturday, the other team that Jack was supposed to be playing was a no-show. The kids were so disappointed, all ready to go in their gear, so the dads and siblings decided to organize a game against the kids. They loved it! Neily was nice enough to 'take it easy' on them.

We are alive! ;)

2009-10-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still here. We are all safe and sound. The past two months have been seriously busy and we have barely had a second to breathe. We are doing a lot, but honestly, I am not taking a lot of pictures for two reasons- 1) I am tired of taking pictures this time of year and 2) I am trying to BE there at family events and enjoy them instead of feeling like I'm always waiting for a shot. I stopped taking the camera out of the car at soccer games for this very reason. Life lately has consisted of me booked back to back to back with sessions, soccer games, soccer practice, another soccer game, and ripping the upstairs floor apart. We don't have time to be blinking, let alone blogging. Just to prove we are here, happy, and that we ARE doing fun things when we have the chance, here are some pictures of our trip to Disney on Ice. My mom and I took the kids a few weeks ago and they loved it. I was worried they might be too old for it, but honestly, they were at a great age! They appreciated it much more this year than when they went as toddlers. We saw countless 2ish year olds being carried out asleep by their parents and I thought how much that ticket price would sting if your kid slept through it! LOL!

The view from our seats before the show- we had GREAT seats and a great view!

The kids with Nana before the show. Always good to bring a Nana, because she buys all the stuff Mommies won't, like snow cones in overpriced cups, cotton candy, and Micky binoculars.

The Small World tribute, it made me so excited!
Grand finale with all of the characters

Everyone's favorites! Mickey and Minnie :)

Our Mickey Counter....

2009-09-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

If you are really observant (this would be considered stalking), you will notice that our Mickey counter went from 40 days to 74 days today.
We pushed our Disney World trip back from November to December. Eddie's work schedule has been crazy and without realizing it, I'd booked the trip at the worst possible time for my business. It was sneaking up on us too fast, so we decided to say Merry Christmas with Mickey instead! We will be going December 12-18. We're sad that the kids will be missing their holiday parties at school, but very excited to see the castle looking like THIS!

Still alive!

2009-09-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, we're here! I know there are so many friends and family members who check this blog to see pictures, but the last month is a complete blur! The kids started school, we are barely used to Neily being gone all day :( and I am working (what a yucky word!) non-stop. I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this!
I have a lot of pictures to put up, but this is the only set I have on my laptop for now. We took these pictures for Lindsay and Phil's anniversary. We only had a few minutes, but I think there were some cute ones. I really like Lindsay's idea to get a picture of them together for every anniversary, even if it's a snapshot.

On a side note, I'm considering moving the blog to Wordpress. I've been using it for my business website and I really like it! It's a lot more user friendly than Blogspot. Of course I'll post the link here if we do that.

2009-09-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

Nana and Papa, LOOK! Only a month and a half after the poor boy's birthday, we finally got around to putting together his Lego bulldozer. Jack really enjoys Legos, it is one of the few toys he will sit and play with for hours on end. We first visited a Lego store in Downtown Disney, and one just opened at Kenwood. He loves it and I have to avoid that section of the mall unless I want to go broke.
Eddie and I assumed there would be a lot of adult help needed to put this thing together, but Jack decided he was going to do it on his own. I could hardly believe it, but that is exactly what he did. He understood how to read the manual and went step by step, getting all the pieces he needed and putting it together. I wish I'd thought to video him, because this was very intricate and I feel terrible saying that I had no idea he was that good with Legos!
In the end I am glad that he was able to enjoy putting it together, because the stupid thing won't STAY together. It was definitely more about 'enjoying the process' and I think he has since turned it into a jetski for the Lego policeman. :)

Carefully reading the directions

Grandma will appreciate the tongue in all the pictures... I think it's the one trait he got from Daddy!

Nowhere near the finished product, I am ashamed to say that I didn't even snap one of him with the final version!

Jack's Last First Day of Preschool

2009-09-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yup, his very last 'first day of preschool'! Next year, it will be off to kindergarten. Rumors are swirling the district about all day kindergarten, so that will be interesting. This year, he is in preschool with Mrs. Carson for one more year and loving it so far. He left Mrs. Carson's afternoon class last year halfway through when a morning spot became available in Neily's school, so he was really excited to have her again this year. There were a few familiar faces, including Mr. Owen. One week of preschool down, and he runs out each day with a smile on his face! Poor Jack is getting a little bored in the afternoons without Neily around- he makes it until about 2:30 and then starts asking for her. Shannon and I are trying to keep the boys busy, and it amazes me how they never seem to get sick of each other and play so well.
Oh, and bonus points to anyone who can tell me what is so funny about Jack's first day of school outfit. ;)

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

First soccer games

2009-08-31T07:16:00.001-07:00

This Saturday marked the beginning of the games for this soccer season. Neily was up first and... let's not talk about it. She was in a foul mood and decided she wasn't interested. The one picture I have in this slideshow is the only one I took because she spent most of her time walking (yes, WALKING) behind the rest of the girls and looking at the ground. I was not happy and after she heard what I had to say after the game, I don't think it will happen again. She has always loved soccer and has a big smile on her face, so I'm not sure what was going on this weekend.
Jack was so happy! He was sitting on the bench swinging his feet and he looked up at me with this big smile and said, "It's finally my first game!" He has watched his big sister play so many games, he couldn't believe it was finally his turn. Neily loved watching him, she cheered and he did a great job. He was great on defense and such a good listener.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

There she goes...

2009-08-27T06:19:00.000-07:00

Neily is off to first grade! *sniff* I miss her so much and it's 9 o'clock in the morning! That's not good. She'll be gone until 3:40 every day, I just can't wrap my head around that. She has been SO excited all week, practically counting the hours, and then she had a meltdown yesterday afternoon and decided she didn't want to go. I think I'd said, "I'm going to miss you soooooo much" one too many times and she was really upset. She said she wanted me to homeschool her, to which I laughed out loud. I would be the WORST. Her teacher this year is Mrs. Stutzman, and I am in love with her already. She is everything a teacher should be, funny, warm, smart, loving. Neily loved her from the first minute. We were also really happy with her teaching philosophy. She's not a by the book teacher, and she is getting her master's in children's literacy, so she really believes that their overall academic success is dependent on a love of reading and reading well. Every subject that she teaches is based in reading, even math and science. Neily is a great reader so I think Mrs. Stutzman is a great match for her. The kids have their own desk this year and their own pencils and supplies. She also packs a lunch, which is hard to get used to! There are quite a few familiar faces in her classroom, and we laughed when we found out that Neily, Grace, and Ty are sitting in a row. That's not going to last long!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Let's try this again...

2009-08-24T09:39:00.001-07:00

I changed the permissions on the Flickr album, let me know if you can see the slideshow now! Also let me know if it shows up in your Reader (if you use one).

Grrr...

2009-08-22T09:56:00.001-07:00

I finally got the blog set up the way I liked it, and I was all excited about the FlickSlidr slideshow program, and I just realized it won't show up in a reader. I know that a lot of people use Google Reader and those kinds of programs, can you please leave me a comment and let me know? If you use a reader, or if you don't, that will help me decide if I should keep using the Slideshow format. For now, you can click on the blog title when you get an update in your reader, and then it will open the post in a new window. Sorry!

2009-08-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

We've been to Hilton Head so many times, but we had never been to (or even heard of!) Hunting Island. My friend said we had to go, and I am SO glad we did. For me, this was the highlight of the trip. The beaches were absolutely stunning. They were clean, open, and gorgeous! The shell hunting was at its best here. Jack was a little angry that we didn't actually swim here, we just let the kids collect shells and enjoy the water and sand. Once he got his shorts wet (which was fine with us), he was more than a little angry and wanted to leave. We had planned to be at the beach at sunset, and I packed outfits for a photo shoot with the kids. Those pictures will come later, I need to edit them! We changed them into the photo shoot clothes and when Jack got a tiny splash of water on THOSE shorts, he yelled, "Oh, MAN!" and never went near the water again. Neily loves water of any kind- she will jump in it, swim in it, surf in it, lounge in it, she is a beach bum. She is also quite the model and had more ideas than I did for her 'photo shoot'. We also climbed the lighthouse, which is higher than the Harbor Town Lighthouse, saw an 8 foot alligator roaming the park freely (yikes!), and took a long walk onto the marsh boardwalk to see the sunset and lots of wildlife. We saw a lot of crabs and met a couple 'crabbing' for their dinner! So cool, something we will try when the kids have more patience.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Sorry!

2009-08-22T07:55:00.001-07:00

I'm messing around with the blog today and screwing up all kinds of things. If you happen to stop by and see it all whacked out, sorry!

Hilton Head

2009-08-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

More from our trip to Hilton Head! We are back in the real world and really missing the beach, but we are ready to get back to school and be normal again.
We took the kids to Lawton Stables with the intention of letting them ride the horses, but when they didn't notice that it was an option, we didn't offer! How mean are we?! They still loved it and we took our $100 and had dinner out instead. *snicker* After the stables, we walked around Harbor Town and checked out the boats, climbed the lighthouse, and ate at our family favorite, the Crazy Crab. Don't ask why we like it so much there, it's basically the equivalent of Red Lobster but it's family friendly and a tradition with a great view! Jack took a picture with the statue of the founder of Harbor Town. Anyone who knows Jack knows how much he loves Halloween, ghosts, and anything associated with the 'creepy'. Well, he saw this man's plaque and statue and immediately wanted to know if he was dead, was he buried there, etc. He was very interested and probably would have stayed there checking it out for hours! I guess that's weird, but he just likes it! Oh, Jack. We also did just a little bit of shell hunting before we left, it was HOT and Mommy got very cranky. Eddie showed me this new slideshow tool, it's pretty neat! It will cycle through the photos for you, or you can click them individually. The only thing I'm not sure of is that it doesn't allow me micromanage and tell you about each and every photo.... *gasp!* How will you survive if you don't read about the goat standing on the house or Neily posing in the lighthouse?!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Hello from Hilton Head!

2009-08-14T18:47:00.001-07:00

I promised the fam' a few updates from Hilton Head, so here is a peek at our first day. The drive went great yesterday, the kids only gave us a few 'Are we there yet?'s from the backseat, but luckily we had stolen enough of the Peters' and Russells' movie collections to keep them happy for the drive.
Look at what awaited us when we arrived in Hilton Head! An awesome rainbow! This is taken with the little point and shoot and doesn't do it justice, it was really bright and clear.

We drove into the community to find this gorgeous sunset. I soooo badly wanted to make it to the beach on time to take advantage of it, but we didn't quite make it.

Today we hit the beach even though the sky looked a little threatening. When we first got there, it drizzled on us for about an hour and then it was all blue skies and beautiful- just enough of a breeze to keep us cool. We couldn't ask for more than that!
We got the kids body boards and it's probably going to be the best $20 we spend on this trip. They absolutely loved it. Neily was pretty good at it, she looked like a little surfer girl. Every time I see her, I think she grows a little older. :( She has really lost that baby look and she looks like a little tween now. I can't stand it!

Jack was convinced that the best way to surf was to throw himself AT the wave and nothing we could do was going to stop him. Finally, he tossed the board on the sand and said, "It's broken," and just went on jumping in the waves.
Daddy getting in on the action

When the tide came up, we built a little river to suck some of the water away from the waves, and I told Eddie, "Take my picture with them so I can prove that I actually got dirty and played in the sand when they don't remember!" Before he did it, this sweet lady asked us if we would like a picture of the four of us, of which we have about 2! Um, SURE!

Lots of fun so far! We went out to dinner and then rode around in the golf cart to see the whole neighborhoos. Suffice to say Daddy is not a safe golf cart driver! Jack told him, "Move over, I'll drive, Dad!" and he was serious. We saw an alligator on the lagoon, and we all stopped and ogled. Jack seemed a little unimpressed, which was weird to me. As we drove away, we said, "Wasn't that cool, Jack? Did you ever think you'd see an alligator that close in a neighborhood?" and he said, "Wait... are you guys talking about the birds?" Um, no. We asked again if he'd seen the alligator, and he said, "The alligator bird?" See, I TOLD Eddie we should have renewed our zoo pass this summer!

Soccer has started!

2009-08-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

Soccer started last night, which is crazy to me because that means that the end of summer is here. Noooooooo!
Neily wanted to play again, and Jack is finally old enough! He has sat through three seasons of games and countless practices watching Neily play, and he couldn't wait to get in on the action. Juggling two kids in soccer is daunting with twice a week practices and overlapping games, but I think we'll make it through. For three seasons, we've been running a 'carpool' scam with our friends, and getting all the girls on the same team. It made soccer so much fun, and this year they must have wised up and didn't fulfill any team requests. :( I don't know how the kids are going to feel playing against their friends and we are especially sad to have to root against Coach Phil and Coach Jason. Both kids had some familiar faces on their teams, so hopefully that will ease the transition.

And this one doesn't belong to the Reds...

2009-08-07T10:33:00.001-07:00

The night after my birthday, we went to the Reds game with Craig and Kate. We had AMAZING seats. We were about 15 rows up directly behind home plate, and we are forever ruined for any other seats at the ball park! The view was great, until of course the Reds started to play. They sure make it hard to remain a fan, but we'll keep trying. In all the years I've known Eddie, we have yet to see the Reds win a game in Cincinnati, and we've seen more than a few. The only time we can both recall them winning was a crazy 18-2 game at Coors Field when we lived in Denver. We did see two sets of back to back home runs, which was fun! After the game, we headed to Newport (like all good Cincinnatians, running out of the city) and met up with Eddie's cousin Beth. After two bars that failed our test, we ended up drinking the night away on the Purple People Bridge- genius! What an idea. Cincinnati has several bridges that span the river between Ohio and Kentucky, and the Purple People Bridge is now only for pedestrians, used as a way to get between Newport and downtown Cincy. They had a bar set up and some live music for a festival. We decided we'd pool our money, buy the bridge and name it Pennington's Purple People Pub, all welcome of course. The best laid plans are hatched after midnight on city bridges, I tell ya.

First, some pre game Chipotle. He wrote His and Hers on the wrappers instead of whatever, chicken 1 and chicken 2, which for some reason is really funny to me and I just might have this framed over our bed. Maybe not.
At the park

Eddie modeling Pennington's Purple People Pub's Purple chairs.

Hello Chicago!

2009-08-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

This week, I took the kiddos up to Chicago to enjoy some beach time and just get a change of venue. Summer is almost over and we were running out of weekends, so I just went on my own with the kids. I felt a little guilty about taking a random 'vacation' without Eddie, but then I decided that dragging two kids around the city by myself and breaking up fights over sand toys is still work, even if we were in an awesome city! Neily and Jack love 'the city' and I think we should move there- I belong there, as told to me by a Facebook quiz, the source of truth. We spent the week exploring Aunt Lindsay's neighborhood, hitting the beach and enjoying each other. Most of the time. ;) For my birthday, I asked for a smaller point and shoot camera. I wanted something that I could always have with me and wouldn't be worried about dropping it, spilling on it, etc. I felt like we were missing out on some snapshots because I didn't want to/was worried about bringing my camera out. It has worked out great so far, I didn't have to worry about taking it to the beach or snapping shots around town.

On to picture overload!
At the lake:

Mmm, Scooters Ice Cream, don't feel sorry for Duncan, he got his cone first and wolfed it down, he was just being greedy:Jack and "Icky" at Giordano's. If I want straight up pizza, I don't really care for Chicago style, but pizza aside, it's GOOD stuff!

Night sky from under the awning in Grant Park

This was the first time we'd taken the kids to see the bean, they thought it was so neat.

Looking up into the middle

Now, I know the bean isn't going to go anywhere, but Lindsay and I both felt panicky when Jack (of course) tried to wedge himself underneath it. I still get chills thinking about it.

Happy birthday Jack and Mommy

2009-08-07T09:18:00.001-07:00

We have had a VERY busy summer, especially this last month. Sorry for the lack of updates, and I'm going to try and get a bunch of posts up all at once, so keep checking back today if you don't use Google Reader (and you'd better be using it, MOM!). They're probably going to be out of order, but get over it. ;)

Jack turned FIVE last week and I turned... you all know, don't make me say it. 30. In all seriousness, 30 does not bother me. I will say that when I realized I was "in my thirties" that sounded a little scary, though! I spent the last day of 29 counting off all of the amazing things that happened to me in my 20s. I got married, I turned 21 (haha), we had the beautiful baby girl I always wanted, I had the amazing baby boy that I didn't even KNOW how much I wanted (on my 25th birthday), and friendships began that will carry me throughout my lifetime. My favorite saying is "We don't remember days, we remember moments" and that was never more true than looking back on my 20s. I can remember bringing Neily home for the first time at 23 (!!!), the moment I first held Jack on my 25th birthday, seeing my sister get married and welcoming Phil into our family at 28, saying goodbye to Emmy and sending her off to college, taking the kids to Disney World, girls trips to Raleigh, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and New York, watching the World Trade towers fall on our second wedding anniversary, and losing my friend Paula to cancer. I smiled a lot and cried a little and now it's time for pictures of the little man's fifth birthday!

Jack waiting patiently to open his presents at Nana's house

Legos! He loves Legos! I'm ashamed to say that this set is still in the box because it's a daunting task to put together.

We got him his own tackle box and fishing pole, and I knew it would be a hit. We were right, it hasn't left his hands for a week!

Jack requested to go to Nana's house to swim and have quesadillas on his birthday, so I tricked him into turning his quesadilla request into tacos, so we both got what we wanted for our birthday! Mmm, a mexican feast with Nana's homemade corn shells.

My awesome gift from my parents, a vintage Polaroid. My mom started getting these for me a few years ago, and I have a small collection of old cameras, they are SO cool. This one is by far my favorite, it's so neat to look through the lens.

Mmm, cake! He wanted a soccer cake, and he saw this one at Costco and had to have it. It is supposed to feed 48 people, but oh well, we got it anyway!

The birthday buddies with my birthday key lime pie. Haha!

Happy first birthday Caroline!

2009-07-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

For anyone who doesn't know, Caroline is Neily's Bitty Baby. On Sunday, she informed me that Tuesday was Caroline's first birthday and she was going to throw her a party. I told her we could make cupcakes, and then I thought about all the mommy points I would win if I let her invite her friends over with their American Girl dolls to celebrate. We made cupcakes Monday night, and woke to find that Sully helped himself to them overnight. So, we bought the next round and kept them out of his reach. Called up the girls and invited them over for Caroline's party. Other than the food, we had everything else left over from other parties, and we just threw it all together. Neily was in heaven! My original plan was for Jack and Owen to go play on their own, but who knew they'd want to be at the party too? Haha! It was pretty funny to see the girls play along, everyone came armed with cards for Caroline's birthday.

With Caroline and Lily:

Sugar high!

Natalie, Neily, Grace- somewhere I bet I have a picture of these three at about a year old, and I should find it!
The crew- the boys were NOT going anywhere. They sang and everything.

Singing to Caroline-

I recently read a blog post about knowing when to be a "Yes Mom" and when to be a "No Mom". I often find myself being not so much a "No Mom" but very much a "We'll See Mom", so I was really happy to do this for her. She had so much fun and has talked about it every day since. :)

Impromptu visit to the sunflower field

2009-07-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

On my way to book club a few weeks ago, I saw this sunflower field and practically jumped out of the car. I couldn't get it out of my head, so I talked the kids into stopping there on the way to Nana and Papa's one day. I just wanted to check it out and see if it was even possible to stop there without getting yelled out. Turns out it is because EIGHT other families were there when we were. It's really beautiful. We stopped at noon, which is the absolute worst time for pictures, so I only snapped one of Neily, and I am going to try and get back one evening this week at about 7, when it should be perfect. Hopefully many more to come!

Crazy Jack

2009-07-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

We went out to my parents house last Sunday to swim and hang out, and Eddie snapped a few pictures of Jack being... Jack.

Our backyardigans

2009-07-07T09:51:00.001-07:00

It is so nice to finally have a backyard that we can enjoy. We are by no means finished back there, but it's not the Jungle Cruise it once was. On Sunday night, we ate outside on our patio for the first time as a family. We've lived here for ten years!
The midwest is practically on fire this week after two weeks of rain and cool temperatures, so we're trying to stay cool but I'm getting bored with the pool. We have rotated from Kings Island's water park to Lifetime's pool (our gym) to our neighborhood pool and we needed a change. We bought the kids squirt guns and filled up a big tub with water and that seemed to make them happy enough! Who knew a barrel of water could be so much fun?

We came, we camped, we conquered!

2009-07-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

Mason, OH, meet Holiday World. It's no secret that camping isn't exactly my first choice of recreation, so when the family decided to spend a weekend in Santa Claus, Indiana camping and hitting Holiday World amusement park, let's say I was not the most excited person in the house. However, the kids were counting down the days and very excited to see the sites.
We had originally planned to drive the van behind Grandma and Grandpa's RV, but in the end that just seemed silly, so we decided to hop in at the last minute and go together. Riding in the RV might have been the kids favorite part of the trip!

Neily and Grandma passed the time by playing cards, Grandma taught Neily how to play Hearts.

And Jackster, well, he passed the time in one of only two ways he knows how:

On the way- road rules don't apply to RVs! This was during a quick food stop, I took it out the window.
We're here! Boy, Mommy was excited!

So, our little Masonite children, who are used to having their choice of 3 movie theaters, 26,000 restaurants, Lifetime Fitness, 3 neighborhood pools, 6 Target stores and anything else their little yuppie hearts desire within 15 minutes, get out of the RV at the campsite, stand there and look at Eddie and I and say, "What do we do?"
We cracked up and said, "This is it, you camp. There's nothing else."
They looked at each other for a minute, seeming very confused, and then went off to get into trouble. It was pretty darn funny.
I have to admit though, even though camping wasn't bad at all, it's the packing up and loading/unloading that I hate so much. We'd been there for five minutes and the men started unloading all of our crap, and I said to Eddie, 'WHY do people like this so much?' It's just that camping seems like so much work to me, it doesn't seem so enjoyable.

Doug will teach them in a few years that THIS is how you camp.

Next day, on to Holiday World! I was a little scared (the amusement park is exactly as it sounds- holiday themed), but it really was no different than Kings Island and the kids had a great time.

Doug saw Gayle wearing the hat while he was on a ride and motioned his request for a picture of Grandma in the famous hat. :)

Daddy and Jack in line for... something.

Me! So excited! Loving it! I love to camp! Haha!

In the end, it was a lot of fun (I promise!) and although I will never learn to love camping, the kids had a great time and I did get to take a nap in a cozy camp chair. That wasn't so bad! I did hear some chatter about camping and caves, and I'm sorry to say THAT will not be happening with me around. I don't love camping, and throw in caves and I'm outta there. That will be a great memory that my kids will have to share with Daddy alone because me in a cave will probably never happen! ;)

Go Jack!

2009-06-22T17:29:00.001-07:00

We are so proud of our man! He learned how to ride a 2 wheeler!
He'd been asking to have his training wheels taken off for some time but we resisted because we didn't think he had a clue what he was getting into. Turns out, we were right, and he spent about 30 minutes whining, crying, freaking out and gave Eddie quite a work out because he wouldn't even TRY to balance. Then, just as I was about ready to give up, I looked up the street and Eddie had let go, and Jack was flying away all on his own. He made it about 20 yards and Eddie grabbed him. After that, he was like a little maniac, yelling, "Let go, Daddy, let go!" and racing away. I honestly cannot believe he picked it up so fast- that is not to say that he has it completely figured out, or that we won't be heading to the emergency room for a shiny blue cast in the next few days, but I didn't expect him to be going at ALL at this point, and he was zipping up the street within an hour. We love our neighborhood kids and friends, who all stood on the sidewalk cheering for him!

Eddie about to let go....

There he goes!

Showing off his muscles after his victory

And as usual, a night with Jack ends about like this. No, he did not fall. I still don't know what started this, all I know is that this kid turns into some sort of evil creature after 7pm.

A Neily funny

2009-06-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

This was so funny, but it is a little sad. A quick preface to this, at 6, Neily has lost 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom (front two with the help of banging them on Jack's head), and 6 of the permanent ones have come in. We talked to the dentist about it and she has a very narrow mouth, so we were concerned about the spacing. She will have an expander put in in August to widen her mouth to allow the teeth to come in straight.
So... on to the story:

She has been at camp this week, and today she tells me, "I have a new bff."
Now... first I had to get over the shock that she'd turned into a 14 yr old, going all 'bff' on me. Once I did that, I said, "Oh yeah? Who?"
She says, "Drew, this boy at camp." Uh-huh. Always a boy.
Me: "How do you know he's your bff?" (feeling like an idiot for using that term)
Her: "He always wants to sit by me, and he likes my teeth."
Me: "Really? How do you know that?"
Neily: "Because he sits next to me, and tells me I'm fun to be with, then he asks to see me smile. Then I do, and he says, "Those are ENORMOUS!"
At this point I nearly peed myself. She goes on to tell me proudly, "He calls them buck teeth!"
She obviously had no idea what buck teeth were, and she apparently thinks enormous is a compliment. I told her the other day after we found out about the expander, "Neily, big teeth are *in*, you're lucky."

Slip N Slide Fun

2009-06-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

$10 was well worth it for an afternoon full of fun for a cul de sac full of kids! Neily and Jack were so excited to invite the kids over to play on the new Slip N Slide. I stayed out to get a few pictures and everyone was so well behaved, I went inside to put away groceries. Within 3 minutes, they had moved the slide and created a new way to slide that was apparently way more fun- they dragged the slide to the base of the swingset and wet the slide, creating their very own little waterpark. Give 'em an inch... ;)

Froglets

2009-06-08T14:48:00.001-07:00

We're just a regular zoo around here lately. First we had the butterflies, then Jack was on a caterpillar craze for a while (sadly, when we went to PA we forgot about him and he did not make it). Over Memorial Day weekend, we were at Grandma Gayle and Grandpa Doug's and the kids were really into the tadpoles. Neily was a little concerned as to what was going to happen to them when they opened the pool for the summer, so we decided to take in a few strays.
After reading a little about them online, we wondered if we'd bitten off more than we could chew. There are only about 43,267, 892 varieties of tadpoles and frogs, and they all seem to eat something different. And, apparently, the reason that there are millions of tadpoles is because only a very small percentage survives into froghood. Great. So thanks to my brilliant idea of bringing home tadpoles, we were now going to end up with dozens of dead frogs?
The fun began the night we got them home and Neily dipped into her water to show us that she had a frog already, only to find that he was no longer with us. She poked at him a little bit and when reality sunk in that he was definitely gone, she was REALLY upset and I felt horrible!
Knock on wood, but it seems like we have some success. We've been feeding the tadpoles dried seaweed (Petsmart) and they are eating it and mostly alive. One tub is doing well and the other entire tub croaked.... so we lied and told the kids that we combined the tubs. We now have about a dozen tadpoles with legs and arms, and we have (I think) 3 baby frogs. They are REALLY tiny but seem to be making it out of the water onto the rocks and lilypads okay. Except now we don't know what frogs eat, or when we should release them into their new home, the creek that runs through our neighborhood.

Congrats Eddie and Erin!

2009-06-08T14:41:00.001-07:00

We are finally coming up for air around here after about a month of traveling. I still owe everyone our San Francisco pictures but they'll come later. Right after we returned from San Francisco, we headed to Erin and Eddie's wedding in Pennsylvania. We saw a whole lot of the above on our 7 hour drive there, but it was great to get there and be a part of their big day! As always, it was awesome to hang out with Lindsay and Phil and Erin looked beautiful!

This is what happens when you have had a few glasses of wine and try to use an expensive camera.

No one drank a drop. Really.

Thank you again to Eddie and Erin and hope Aruba was amazing! We certainly loved it when we were there.

Mini Facelift

2009-05-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

A mini facelift for the house!

Please tell me what you think... I love, love, love the black shutters and door against the red brick. I loathe the blue siding, and the black seems to bring out the gray and makes it less baby blue. Next up will be painting the siding, but for now, this will have to do. What I'm not sold on are the black garage doors. The garage sticks out so much because the tree hides a lot of the front, so it seemed like painting the garage would be perfect and really change the look- but I'm afraid it looks strange? It constantly looks like our garage doors are open to me. I am really not happy about the idea of possibly painting over the black, so maybe I just need to try and get used to it? Whaddya think?
Here is the before- it just looked so dated.

My helpers:

That's right, they're wearing bike helmets. Don't ask, it's a dangerous job.

The after:

The front door/windows:

I guess my initial reaction is, it couldn't be worse... right? I don't normally like colonial style, but the black and red reminds me of that, and I actually DO like it. I think... I need some reassurance. Maybe some cute hardware on the doors to break up all that black? Some carriage style brackets? And obviously street numbers. LOL!

We're back!

2009-05-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Maybe you didn't even know we were gone. ;)
Eddie and I spent the week in San Francisco to celebrate our tenth anniversary... which is not until September but who's counting? We had an AWESOME time and came home to two very well cared for, happy children that we missed very much! Many, many pictures to come but here is just one. We had some great weather, even though it was actually warmer here in Cincinnati.

Hilarious!

2009-05-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

This might go down in history as one of my favorite photos. Emily snapped this of me and Sully having a showdown on Mother's Day. I made it black and white so as not to embarrass Nana- the chair I am sitting in is being recovered by Nana but it's currently a very scary shade of orange.
I love Sully but he has issues in public!

Mothers Day

2009-05-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day to me! :) And Nana and Grandma Gayle, of course!

Sunday morning, we hit the zoo with Grandma, and I'm glad we got there early, because on our way out, it was absolutely packed. The animals were really active and it was a lot of fun. The kids were so excited to feed the giraffes at the new giraffe overlook, but that was a little disappointing to me. First of all, Jack at his cracker instead of giving it to the giraffe, not really his fault as he asked the dorky worker, "Can I eat this?" thinking it was for him. The worker answered "Yes, blah blah blah" telling him that they were safe for humans, but not meaning to actually EAT it... Jack only heard 'YES.' and it was gone. *sigh* That's our boy. Second, it's crowded and they're rushing you to feed it and move on, so the giraffe eats the cracker and they want you out of the way immediately. It was actually much more fun to watch OTHER people feed them than do it ourselves.
After the zoo, we headed to Nana and Papa's house, where the weather turned on us a little. It would have been nice to enjoy the day on the deck, but that was not to be! Papa made us a GREAT dinner and we had a great day!

A little more of our Blue Dolphin

2009-05-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

Neily played goalie again this past Saturday. I think this is one of her favorite positions, and she is actually really good at it. She is more aggressive as a goalie than any other position, and she really seems to get what she's supposed to be doing. She had one great save and dove on the ball, she did really well! She paid attention the entire game, which is our main goal for her. LOL!

Butterflies!

2009-04-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Grandma, our butterflies started to hatch today! For Easter, Grandma Gayle got the kids a butterfly habitat. We patiently waited while the larvae grew bigger- it was amazing how much they would grow in just one day! Then we watched them (mostly) all form cocoons. We put them safely into the habitat and left it to hang in the dining room. I glanced up at it today and there were two butterflies drying their wings! We went about our business for an hour or so and came back to find two more. Headed to the store to get them food (flowers with sugar water and orange slices) and came back to find another. Four so far and waiting on four more! They've all been named, so we have Bendaroo (he has something going on with his wings and they're kind of folded over), Orangey (the first to find the orange slices), Matt (the one who won't leave the mat they were 'born' on yet), and Climbey (likes to scale the walls).
FYI, I'm going to start watermarking our blog photos because I have some friends who have found their blog photos in really scary places and I guess you can never be too careful. Sorry if it's in the way.

The last photo is Bendaroo- can you see how his little wing is folded?
We'll get to keep the butterflies for about a week and then we'll set them free. The book we got with the habitat says that butterflies tend to stay close to where you release them, so they might hang out in the backyard. Eddie just might get his butterfly garden this year, so that we can entice them to stay for a while. :)

Saturday in spring!

2009-04-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Just the way a Saturday morning should be in spring!
Eddie and I were cleaning out the garage and realized we hadn't seen the kids (or the dog) in a while. Never would have guessed I'd find them here!
Hope you're enjoying your Saturday like we are!

Hip to be a Square

2009-04-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

Last night was Neily's kindergarten music program, Amazing Shapes. We have been hearing about this recital for about three months, asking how many months, weeks, and days were left. She was as excited about this as she was for Disney World, I swear! The morning of the recital, Eddie went to wake her up and I heard her pop up and say, "Today is my recital!" Neily seems to have quite a flair for the dramatic! ;)
Each class had a shape song and had to dress that way. Her class was 'square' and their song was about square dancing.
Showing off her 'square'

Her speaking part that we heard no less than 496, 783 times- "But what is its name and what does it do? If I find out, I'll share it with YOU!"

YEE-HAW!

I helped to create the scenery boards for the show, and I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture of THAT, because I'd blow you all away with my fabulousness. HA!

Happy Easter... a little late!

2009-04-22T12:44:00.000-07:00

I was so sick over spring break and Easter that it's kind of like it didn't even happen for me... found these on the memory card and whaddya know, we DID have Easter after all. ;)
All credit for photography goes to Eddie, I'm sad to say that I barely got off the couch the entire day. He may not know the technical side of the camera (yet) but he actually has a much better eye for creative photography than I do! He always catches great moments. :)

GOAL!

2009-04-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

A moment three seasons in the making! The Blue Dolphins soccer team started their season today and... drumroll please... Neily scored her first goal!!! We could not be more proud of the little punk, she has been on cloud nine all day. EVERYONE was there to watch her, all grandparents and Jessie, so maybe she was just waiting for her audience. I have to say, there is no better feeling as a parent than watching your child succeed at something and being there to celebrate it with them. We felt lucky to have friends and family there cheering just as loud as we are, I felt very blessed in that moment. I didn't think I was shooting at all during the goal, but I did get some of it.

She gets the ball.. is this finally it?! She had to WORK for this goal, she took it 3/4 of the way up the field to the goal.

Oh, yeah... she knows it's going in!

GOAL!

Getting a congratulatory hug from a teammate, the sweetest thing! I was cheering so loud that I did miss the excitement on her face, and I'm sad that I don't have a picture but the image I'll always keep in my mind of that moment is much more precious!

Jackster and Papa cheering on the Blue Dolphins!

We're very excited for soccer to have started up again and proud of our little punk! Can't wait to see more this season, Miss Neily!

Our weekend warrior project

2009-04-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

When we (I) saw that this weekend's weather was supposed to be nice, we (I) decided it was time to shape up the backyard. Our backyard is my nemesis. We back up to woods and see lots of critters, which is fun, until they help themselves to everything you just put in the ground. There has been a long-running deck/patio argument that isn't being solved anytime soon, plus we lost a tree in the yard last fall that changed the entire yard- where we had spent years growing shade plants under our tree, that is now full sun and completely fried.
This is the before, that I am truly embarrassed to show. It still has that sad post winter look- no plants, bare grass...

Started with a loooooooooooooot of wood chips.

Then came the flagstone. I *heart* flagstone and I was so happy to finally use it in the yard.

Almost done! We put a stone border around it and it is now affectionately known as the Hidden Mickey patio. I told you we love Disney World!
We also laid the wood chips around the playset and bordered it with more stone.

Oh my gosh! He's smiling! Imagine that.

We only ran into one snag in the project. Lucas didn't want to give us the chair back and he wasn't kidding.

Ta-da! The results! When we're clear of frost, we will be adding boxwoods and some color in the 'Mickey ears'. I think the plan is also going to make a path to the swing set and another path to where our tree used to be, and put in a fountain now that the kids are old enough to trust around water.
I can't believe we got it all done in a weekend! And that included buying all the supplies, which took all morning yesterday. Like it? I'm REALLY pleased- it's exactly what I wanted. I really wanted a more informal, free flowing plan, I really didn't want any major hardscaping. Every time I look through pictures, I gravitate towards this look so it turned out just as planned... which is NOT often around here!

Can we do a project? YES!

2009-03-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I love reading other blogs. It's a hobby, I guess. Can that be a hobby? I usually stick to the decorating blogs, but sometimes I find cute ideas of things to do with the kids- baking, projects, etc.
I saw this one and filed it away, and they asked me today if they could do a project and I thought of this one immediately. They were in HEAVEN! I think it was mostly because of the usually forbidden aspect! This is from a Montessori blog which has a ton of great ideas.
We used straight pins, and they stuck them into pillows (actually our couch cushions) to make designs, letters, whatever they wanted. Then they could use string to trace around the designs if they wanted to.

It was really neat to watch them do this project because it was very interesting to watch their brains work. Jack made patterns and then ended up doing a little town, where he rescued the people with a lasso (not how I intended the string to be used, but oh well), and Neily wrote out her name and then spread all of the pins out evenly and used the string to make abstract shapes.

And then all at once, they decided enough with that and they wanted to use the string for their very favorite pastime, playing puppies and 'walking' each other. I'd say they do this about 75% of their time together. LOL!

Some tassel goodness

2009-03-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

This post is mostly for my mom, because she's one of few people who would appreciate this kind of insanity. Only a select group of people (and I don't mean that in a good way) would see a ceramic baseball bank in a dollar store and think "Tassel!" Most people would probably think... bank.
Anyway, I think it's adorable. I used some navy chenille yarn (which you really can't see) at the base, then a variety of 'crap' to junk it up. A few different kind of ribbon, a fringe that I liked, etc, etc. It was fun and turned out exactly the way I wanted it to! That never happens to me. I kind of thought tassels were too girly for a boy's room, but this was too cute and hangs in the perfect place in Jack's room.

Did you say diet?

2009-03-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

Lucas does not speak "diet".

People see Lucas and absolutely have to comment. How could you not comment on a cat that is larger than many small dogs? People usually want to know what he is, which prompts a mini-story about his life. He really is the sweetest guy, but he has absolutely no idea that he's a cat. And I'm really not sure that he is!
He weighs in at about 24 pounds and Neily tried to pick him up the other day. I was laughing so hard I had to take a quick picture. It's really ridiculous. He is now almost ten years old and has pretty bad arthritis, so he only moves when he wants to eat, which as you can imagine, is only making the problem worse.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2009-03-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

Well, we weren't able to catch that stinking leprechaun at our house either. He scampered back to Ireland and didn't leave anything for us but a MESS! Neily's class tried to catch him all week but the closest they got was a penny and his shirt (Neily's trap was the lucky one to catch his shirt!). She worked so hard on her trap and it looks like she almost caught him. I really thought that gold would fool him. ;)
This morning, *we* woke up to find that the leprechaun had scurried in the back door and gone straight for the fridge. He messed with some bananas and then turned our milk and yogurt green! Little stinker! The leprechaun was smart enough to dump out the container of milk into tupperware and turn only a small amount that we would use today green, and for that I say thank you! What a smart little guy.
He also made off with a few of our homemade Thin Mints (or Figments as Neily calls them).
Happy St. Patricks Day!

Mischievous little footprints!

Grr!

Our Thin Mints... he ate a few.

Neily's leprechaun trap. Right under the gold, at the end of the trail, there is a little spot that is a trap door. Neily's idea was that the rainbow would trick him into coming for the gold, and he would run up, then when he jumped up to get the gold, he would fall into the trap door and he wouldn't be able to get out. Just in case, she smothered the inside of the box with glue so that he would stick. Smart girl! But they are trickier than we realized.The note he left for us. Oh well! 364 days to figure out how to catch him next time. ;)

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2009-03-05T04:39:00.001-08:00

This was from a Facebook game, but I know the grandparents would appreciate that kidisms that they came up with. I treasure things like this, somehow the answers are always so 'them'.
Answers provided by Jack (4) and Neily (6).

1. What is something mom always says to you?
J: "Eat at the table!"
N: "I love you."

2. What makes mom happy?
J: "Be calm and play with your toys."
N: "Me cleaning up after myself and playing calmly."
Ding ding ding! I don't ask for much in life.

3. What makes mom sad?
J: "Being crazy."
N: “When I don't behave well."

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
J: Just do fun stuff like tickling us and.... tickling us. Until it's not fun."
N: "Tickling me."
Don't think I do this often?

5. What was your mom like as a child?
J: "What you mean?" "Hm."
N: "You played with American Girl dolls."

6. How old is your mom?
J: "I don't know."
N: "Uh... Mommy, how old are you? Um... 28?"

7. How tall is your mom?
J: *climbs up on chair and puts his hand on my head* "I'm gonna see. That tall. You're this tall."
N: Jack pipes up, "Measure her!" Neily says, "When you stand, you're as tall as the cabinet." and points to a cabinet that is 8 feet tall.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
J: "Make crafts with us."
N: "Give hugs and kisses."

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
J: "Do work."
N: "Clean up."

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
J: "What you mean? What does famous mean?"
N: "Being a rockstar."
All right. A rockstar. ;)

11. What is your mom really good at?
J: "Baking food." At least someone is impressed.
N:"Being a mommy."

12. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
J: "Trader Joes."
N: "Nana and Papa's house." My favorite? Or her favorite?

13. What is your mom's favorite store?
J: "Hobby Lobby!"
N: "Trader Joe's."
Poor Jack once told me on a morning shopping excursion, "Hobby Lobby has everything we need!" So true, little man.

14. What do you like to do best with your mom?
J: "Snuggle."
N: "Play American Girls if I had enough. If not, play Polly Pockets." Subtle hint from Neily.

15. What does your mom do for work?
J: "Clean dishes... I mean, take pictures!"
N: "Take pictures."

16. What does your mom like to drink?
J: "Diet Coke!"
N: "Coke." Jack chimes in, "DIET Coke, Neily." Neily corrects herself and Jack says, "Good job."

17. What does your mom like to eat?
J: "Pineapple!" Huh?
N:"Shepherds pie."

18. Does mom like to stay up late or get up early?
J: "Get up early."
N: "Stay up late. Cause you never get up early."

19. Is mom a good driver?
J: "Uh-huh."
N: "Yes."

20. What is your favorite thing about your mom?
J: "Giving me hugs."
N: "I really like every day how you smell. Well, maybe how you make me and Jack lunch too."

There you have it. I was a little afraid to ask some of these, but it turns out I guess I'm doing an okay job. LOL! Enjoy!

Happy birthday Neily

2009-03-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

The cake
Her 'flowers':Pure happiness!
With Papa, Nana, and Jack

She's SIX! Hard to believe. :) And in some ways, it's hard to believe she isn't twenty six. ;)

Come to Mama!

2009-03-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

One of the happiest days of my life!

Isn't she pretty? Her name is Ruby and she's my new baby. ALL MINE! I needed to be able to proof and have a little more mobility. By mobility, I of course meant the ability to take it with me on trips, to meetings, etc... of course not the ability to move from the living room to the bedroom. Which is what I've done so far. ;)

The 6th picture tag!

2009-02-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

Darby tagged me for this fun one! :) I'm racking my brain on 6 people I know that blog to tag them, but I'll try! She stole half of mine. LOL!

The Rules:

Go to the pictures folder on your computer
Choose your 6th file
Choose your 6th picture
Tell us about it
Tag 6 more people

This is a picture from August 2006 (our files are alphabetical, so a few years of April and a few years of August and there you have it). I knit this little top for Neily and was so excited to have her try it on. I was taking her picture, and she cooperated for a few shots, and then I got this. This was one of my favorite things that I ever knit for her, and it was quick and easy. Her favorite color at the time (and up until recently) was yellow, so I picked this sunny shade for her. :)

I am going to tag:

Christi
Abby
Katina (come on, this should make you update your blog!)
Jessica
Emmy
Anna-did Darby tag you? I can't remember and I'm too lazy to check!

Pay It Forward

2009-02-19T11:49:00.000-08:00

This is how it works...

The first three people to leave a comment on this post
will receive a gift from me during this year.
When and what will be a surprise.
BUT,in order for you to receive your gift,
you have to post this on your blog first.
(Which means that sometime during this year,
you'll send a gift to three people as well!)
Get it?

So, the first three people to comment will be the lucky ones!
Good luck!
**And since I usually get between 0 and 2 comments per post, well, then this should be interesting.**

Mr. Will

2009-02-12T12:53:00.000-08:00

How cute is this little guy? Does his mommy look familiar to any of you Jendas? ;)

Mmm! Found his hands during our shoot and I loved it!

He was not going to give them up!

Very interesting in the camera! Or giving me the stink eye. ;)

Smiles!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea for the kids to make a little Valentines Day votive, and so we did it this afternoon. I turned on a tv show for them while I could set it all up in peace, and when I called them in to do crafts, the little snots said, "We want to keep watching Drake and Josh!"
Um, no. You're going to do my good mommy craft and you're going to like it. LOL!

Took this one especially for Nana because she loves little Neily hands! :)

Concentration. Jack works very hard on his art! Even if he loses interest after only two minutes.

The finished product! Very cute.... except I realized I had everything except the little candles. Oops!

Some craftiness

2009-02-12T12:26:00.000-08:00

A few quick projects that I've finished in the last week! First up, my 'new' hutch! I had been searching around for one for a month or two, trying to find exactly what I wanted without much luck. I knew I was going to paint it, so I didn't care what the finish looked like, but the details were important. I'm kicking myself because I can't find the original 'before' picture. Sufficed to say, it is an improvement. It was a yucky, dark, drab wood.
Now it's my fun, shabby chic hutch! We have so much black furniture, I was looking for something lighter and a little more 'beachy'. It's not as purple as the photo would lead you to believe, it's a smoky blue gray color.

Fun knobs. TOTALLY stolen from another blogger! Sadly, the first time I'd stepped into Anthropologie in years. I missed that place but when I saw a metal shelving unit for $7000, I remember why I hadn't been in a while. ;)

My favorite part of the whole thing! A little organization, finally! Our kids love art more than anything else. They spend hours coloring, drawing, writing, playing school, etc. I love that but finding fifty cut up pieces of paper and half colored pages all over at night was starting to wear on me! They have always had free reign to their art and have not needed much supervision, but they started to test their boundaries a bit recently. I found marker on the baseboards and that was that. All art goes in one place where I can see you and that's that!

My favorite! Another completely stolen idea. Cute little vintage valentines and I just printed them out and glued them onto a cardboard circle then coated it with a layer of Mod Podge. I'm so in love with it, I keep staring at it!

Snow Cream

2009-01-29T16:27:00.001-08:00

It was going to bug me until I got the rest of the pictures, so here they are!
This was a recipe from a friend who felt sorry for us all cooped up. Thanks Dana! It was a HUGE hit.
Very easy- gather up some *clean* snow ;) Then in a bowl mix about a cup of milk, 1/2 cup of sugar, and a tablespoon of vanilla. Then add snow until it's the correct consistency. We used about a full bucket of snow (although I knew better and scooped equally from the buckets of BOTH kids). It was still pretty soft, but I don't think it was getting better than that. We added chocolate and yum! It was very tasty, but I couldn't finish mine. I couldn't get past knowing that it was snow and it just wasn't that appetizing to an adult. The kids were in hog heaven!
Gathering up their buckets of snow- I gave strict instructions on where the snow should come from and watched very carefully. With a dog in the family now, there is no such thing as too careful. ;)

All set!

Yum! We had to add chocolate syrup, it just didn't seem right without it.

As usual, Jack approves!
And just a quick view from the backyard- the sky was blue and beautiful and I thought all the snow covered trees looked really pretty. But every day I'm stuck looking at them, they're slightly less beautiful. By Sunday, I might consider chopping them all down!

Day three of being snowed in....

2009-01-29T15:32:00.000-08:00

Well, the title pretty much says it all. We are on Day Three of being snowed in! On Tuesday, we got about 6 inches of snow. Then Tuesday night, we got about two inches of ice. THEN we woke up to 6 more inches Wednesday morning. It's not the snow that's keeping us in, it's the ice in the middle- when the trucks finally came around to plow, they could only scrape off the top layer and then left the ice and more snow underneath, which only made things worse. Haven't heard on school tomorrow, but I have a feeling they won't be going tomorrow. I don't see how a bus could safely make it up the street.
We are trying to make the best of it, and Daddy did a great job with that! He even braved it while it was STILL snowing. Mommy's excuse? Sorry, I don't have warm enough clothes! Bummer.

See? Sully and I are just fine in the sunroom.

Sully didn't last long, though, he was too tempted and came out for a romp. He wasn't too sure what he thought- he loved it, then hated it, then loved it again.
Jack used it like a trampoline. ;)

Today we made some more crafts, did some heavy duty organizing and made snow ice cream! That was really fun but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet. Soon! ;)

Snow Day!

2009-01-27T16:20:00.000-08:00

Today was a snow day! For once the weathermen were relatively spot on- although they couldn't be bothered to be totally correct as we have gotten actually DOUBLE the amount they said we would... but I suppose beggars can't be choosers, eh?
The kids were happy but Eddie was happier, he hopped out of bed to check at 5 am. Sadly, he had to go into work anyway, but got to come home early and won't be going in tomorrow, since they are just calling for more.
We had a really great day around here- we knew we were stuck in so I decided to be creative and make the best of it, which is not always easy for me!
We baked zucchini bread, mostly because I knew if I didn't, they would rot!

We made paper snowflakes, which was my kind of craft- super easy and kept them busy for nearly an hour.

I loved this shot- she was concentrating so hard and had that tongue just stuck out there. Totally looked like Daddy to me!
I'm not telling which ones I did.

Finally let them go outside! Lucky me, we forgot to put the screens back in the front windows after we took our wreaths down at Christmas, so instead of freezing my arse off outside, I sat in a cushy chair with the window propped open just a bit and gave my telephoto lens a workout.

Poor Sully wanted to go outside SO bad but I didn't trust the little bugger.

We also had a picnic lunch inside, which was totally the highlight of their day, who knew?
Looks like we'll be staying home tomorrow, which I can't guarantee will be as much fun for anyone. One day of being snowed in? Creative and fun! Two days in a row? Everyone gets cranky. Keep ya posted! ;)

A little more for ya

2009-01-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

This is what I'm doing this afternoon.
Our dvr messed up last night and didn't record The Office. I knew I could watch it online, so I am doing that right now.
While the kids do THIS:

That's not even the best part. First, I turned their volume down really low so that I could hear the computer speakers. That's probably why they're sitting so close. Second, I took these photos with my phone and emailed them to myself so that I wouldn't have to move at all. ;)

All kinds of material this week

2009-01-21T09:29:00.000-08:00

Last night, we had a family movie night. We watched Horton Hears A Who (save yourself, don't!) and baked brownies. Yum! Half with powdered sugar, half without for some picky family members. ;)
Why does my living room look this way, you ask?

Well, Sully decided he wanted brownies too. He needed a late night snack on my WHITE couch. And any time I take the slipcover off, that equals party time for the kids and they've been busy making tents, jumping on things and just generally destroying the house.
I don't know WHY it didn't occur to me to snap a photo of the brownie destruction until it the evidence was gone. So sorry about that. The one bright spot is that I get to make an Ikea trip, because after a couple washes, I can see that all the bleach and detergent in the world is no match for brownies mixed with dog slobber.
Oh, and do you see a new piece of furniture in the living room? The dog crate? Yeah. Keep ya posted on that, but I'm not sure cleaning poo out of a crate is actually worse than coming home wondering what he's destroyed today. I don't need to hear any "I told you so's", my head is telling me already. Despite all of the demon's troubles, I still love him when I find this:

Gosh, must be a sugar crash after all of those brownies.

Keeping It Real Without Pictures

2009-01-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to prove that I'm serious about this week.
It's 8:30 and both kids just left for school. I had planned to go to the gym this morning, that's logical.
Instead, I decided the second I woke up that I would be climbing RIGHT back into my unmade bed and enjoying my kid free morning properly with a warm cup of tea and a movie.
Maybe I'll go to the gym when they get home. Or not.
(and so answers the question of why I will never be 15 pounds lighter like I want to be)

Had to update just to say that I did in fact make it to the gym later in the afternoon and was quite proud of myself. It was the last thing I wanted to do yesterday! I only went because I knew Eddie would ask me if I had and if I said no, I'd run the risk of having my membership cancelled!

A Week of "Keeping It Real"

2009-01-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

So, my girlfriend and I were having a conversation about how blogging and how perfect everyone's life seems. Of course most people are going to post the positives, but it definitely seems like some go above and beyond to make their lives look pretty darn awesome... which just makes the rest of us feel like losers.
Well, I doubt my blog makes me look like the best mom on the planet, but JUST IN CASE, I'm 'keepin' it real' for a week around here. Should be interesting. Or not.
Last night, Eddie's company hosted their winter/holiday party. It was actually a fun night, he works for a small company and everyone is friendly and knows each other. He works with some really fun people that remind us of the days of Old Anthem. ;) It was nice to be without the kids (Keeping It Real). Oh, and in the interest of K.I.R, as we were leaving them at my parents, Jack hit Neily and she was crying for Daddy (screaming actually) and it annoyed me so much that I yelled at both of them, told them to knock it off and then left. Yup. Then I felt guilty so I called back and told her I was sorry... but that she really did need to knock it off a little. LOL!
Eddie and I on our way to the par-tay! Can't show you a picture of my fabulous red shoes because... the dog ate the fabulous red shoes. K.I.R.

The dog, surrounded by bits and pieces of the fabulous red shoes. All those little pieces on the floor? Hard to see but that's the shoes.

And the K.I.R finale for the day, this is what I woke up to find in my kitchen. The trash on the counter so the dog won't have a heyday in it. Dirty dishes. Cups of dinosaurs and mermaids growing for the kids. A game that we haven't played in years? And instead of cleaning it up... I'm going to go and watch American Idol and hope that my parents don't try to bring the kids back home until at least 4 o'clock.
How's THAT for Keeping' It Real?

Family "Fun"

2009-01-11T19:13:00.000-08:00

We went to the gym this morning like good little boys and girls, and we took the kids to play on the soccer field when we were finished. Normally that would have been about it for a Sunday around here, but I had spent about 45 minutes on the elliptical without my iPod, and the local news kept running the same tickers about local happenings. After I saw "Kids skate free on Fountain Square" for about the 10,000th time, I thought, "We should do that!" Neily had actually seen it on the news last night and gotten all excited, and we kind of dismissed her, so I thought she'd get a kick out of it.
I asked Eddie if he wanted to go, and being a good sport, he said okay. He would never say, "Yeah, they'd love that, it would be fun!" I think it's because he's grumpy, but maybe it's because he's just smarter than me.
Ice skating, downtown on Fountain Square, awwww... we'll file this under "Things That Should Be Fun But Aren't." I am no pro skater, so there was no way I was taking my camera down there on the ice, but I knew I would want pics, so we took Neily's camera. It's some kind of Kodak from 1876, so please excuse the quality. ;)
In the end, it WAS actually fun. Sort of. The first thirty seconds on the ice were filled with, "WHY in the hell did I think we should do this?!" but it got better. And then it got worse. And then it got better again, and it was fun.

All ready to go:

We saw a LOT of this:
*Don't think badly of me for not helping him! I actually hit the button when he was standing and smiling, and the camera from 1876 has about a 3 minute shutter delay, so this is what I got! I wouldn't leave him laying on the ice on purpose. Well, I might, but this time I didn't!*

Neily was ready to give up after about a minute, but then she started to figure it out and really got the hang of it!

By the end of our time, she was actually skating for about 6 or 8 feet on her own before reaching for the wall, and she has asked to go back already!

Jack seems to have forgotten that he was mostly miserable and decided he wants to go back too. They're open until the end of February... we'll see! Maybe Daddy and Neily can go together!

2009-01-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

So, I managed to stay home every day this week until Friday. That is a major accomplishment and to say that I enjoyed it is even bigger! But it's true, we had a great week- I even cooked dinner- real dinner!- every night. But, I woke up this morning and knew I needed to get out. However, I really, truly wasn't in the mood to spend money (what's happened to me?) but I was kind of the mood to create something, so I knew it was a thrift store kind of day.
First, Jack and I hit Hobby Lobby, where as Jack will tell you, "Hobby Lobby has everything we need!" Poor kid. As I was getting him out of the car, I remembered I had a gift card from Christmas for Hobby Lobby! I was almost giddy. I ended up with a good haul of stuff. I had this old headboard in the basement that I walk by every day and think, "I'm going to recover that one day!" Well, today was the day. An hour and $12.43 later, I have me a new headboard, folks! We got home at 11, and by the time Neily got off the bus at 11:40, the project was done. It was THAT easy. I was actually eyeing a leather headboard but this turned out to be much better suited for the room, so yay!
*Excuse the lumpy bed, Henry jumped off right before I snapped the photo!*

A little closer look at the fabric, if you care. Just wait until you see what I have in mind for the remnant of this fabric!

THEN, we hit my favorite thrift store, where I spent all of $18 to get all of these beautiful items. I thought Eddie was going to vomit when he saw them, it was like an 80s living room had exploded but it's going to be fabulous! The best find was hands down the chandelier. I am not very good at waiting and searching, but I knew if I was patient (so! hard!) I would eventually find the right one. I wasn't worried about painting it the correct color, but my biggest requirement was that the lights point UP so I could put shades on them. Everything I found over the last few months went down, how annoying! Thanks to sweet Jack who spied this one for me, "Mommy, the lights go UP!" I spray painted it black and can't wait to see the final product. As for the rest of it... you'll just have to wait and see!

Festival of Lights!

2009-01-09T20:15:00.001-08:00

This holiday season, we FINALLY made good on our goal to go down to Festival of Lights at the zoo. When we had a pass, we somehow managed not to get down there, and last year because of our busy summer and the kids schedules, we didn't renew. Mamaw and Grandpa Doug had passes for us, so we headed down. It was FREEZING the night we chose to go, but we had a great time. This was the first time we made this type of trip (mall, zoo, amusement park) without a stroller, it was so weird! Jack is just so much easier in a stroller and he doesn't fight it, so whenever we go somewhere like this, we've just always taken it. We felt like we had forgotten something all night! It was nice, not having to figure out where to park it, not running people over... but there was also nowhere to stow your crap and certainly quite a few extra "Jack, please watch where you're going"s that night.
Just a few from that night- I find pretty much no enjoyment in being fancy at picture taking in the dark and I hate my flash, so I didn't even use it much.

Love this one!

Neily riding the carousel!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a happy new year. We had a fun week here and I am truly sad to see the holiday season come to an end. The kids head back to school tomorrow- I am sad to see our little family vacation come to and end but I'm craving normalcy and schedule again. Surprising, huh? We had a really great time over the last two weeks. We rang in the new year with our friends and neighbors the Robinsons. We ate way too much and let the kids run wild. We laughed that only the truest of friends could have partied like we did- all of us laying on the couches like bums making fun of the latest pop stars and reminiscing about Dick Clark. My kind of night out! ;) On New Years Day, both Penn State and UC played in bowls, so we had planned a party. It was a full house and way too much food to cheer on Joe Pa! The kids looked super cute decked out in their Mini Nittany Lion t-shirts but all the roses and navy blue we had in the house were not enough to make it through. We had high hopes for UC later in the night but I'm not sure exactly who that was on the field that night? Certainly not UC. *Choke, choke* Luckily, we had awesome friends to soften the blow for us. The house sounded empty for a good day after everyone left. Haha!

Now that we're back in the swing of things, I have some goals for the new year! I'm not a New Years Resolutions kind of girl, but this year I had some definite changes I was ready to make. Over the last year, we got quite a bit accomplished in the house- I tossed clutter and crap left and right, we paired down and nearly every room got a makeover. Over the last year, this really became a space I love... save the fact that I want to expand every room by about 4 feet! I realized that it may not be perfect, and it certainly isn't big, but every single room is one that I love and reflects us as a family. So, that led to goals for the new year! I'm putting them here because putting it in writing will keep me accountable. ;)
They are... in no particular order:
1. Continue to 'finish' projects around the house

2. Look my best ever on my 30th birthday- I have seven months!

3. Stay HOME and enjoy it! I would say after this last two weeks, I'm well on my way. Yoga pants are my friends.

4. Spend more thoughtfully- go for quality and things I really love and want, not mindless spending. This is hands down going to be my toughest goal, a direct combination with #3!

5. Grow my business and learn new skills.

6. Spend quality time with Neily and Jack every day.

7. Keep our master bathroom vanity clean. Every single day. Oy.

8. Organize my time more efficiently.

9. Continue to grow friendships that are important to me.

10. Be really, really happy with the way things ARE.

So that's it, that is my list! Those are the things I think I need to work on the most and we'll see if a year is enough time. Hahahahahahaha!

Christmas Day!

2009-01-01T08:47:00.001-08:00

We hosted Christmas Day at our house again this year, and this is a tradition that we LOVE. Staying home has allowed us to adopt some very special family traditions that I never want to give up! I think Santa was very good to Neily and Jack this year, as well as Mommy and Daddy. Santa dropped off our presents early, though- a camera upgrade for Mommy in November and a new tv for Daddy about two weeks before Christmas (Santa would have brought that but Mommy couldn't unload it from the car alone and I figured he would notice it in the van...).

Every Christmas Eve, we still have to put up a babygate because we don't trust that our kid wouldn't start without us a la Christmas Story.

Happy Jack with his Bendaroos... don't even get me started on these damn things. I can tell you where every Walgreens in a fifty mile radius is!

Neily and Tini Puppini- the dog that Santa brought EVEN THOUGH he really thinks it is disgusting and ugly.
Santa is really, really nice.

Every Christmas morning, we have a special breakfast of french breakfast puffs. The sole reason for making this a holiday tradition is because these puffs are so bad for you, it should be illegal to eat them at any other time. Only on Christmas when you can pretend it doesn't matter!
Jack testing out the Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
Emmy and Icky setting up Martian Matter with Jack. Another Santa score! ;)

Packaging! UGH! Why? WHY?

Icky playing Santa

Neily kicking butt on the Wii:

Jack doing what he does best:

Neily and Jack all cleaned up for Christmas!

Good night!!!!!

We had an amazing day. It was so much fun to have the house packed to the walls with the people we love. We didn't get Nana on the Wii, but we'll keep working on her. :)

Christmas Eve with the Coles

2009-01-01T08:25:00.001-08:00

It was a Merry Christmas with the Cole family, as always. :) We headed to Larry and Donna's this year, which was such a treat! I am going to hire Larry one of these days to wave his magic wand over my house because I love what they have done to theirs! Just the basement alone, I have such jealousy! It is always fun to see everyone, and the White Elephant game was definitely the highlight for us!Doug looks like he wants to have his picture taken, eh?
Don't let Grumpa fool you... I saw him smile when no one was looking. ;)

Sweet Emma!

Santa arrived! We had told our kids in advance that Santa would be there and that this wasn't actually Santa- for a few reasons. One, Neily has been mighty suspicious this year and asked a lot of questions, sniff sniff. Two, this Santa brought presents from Grandpa and we wanted them to say thank you to him. Three, we have a strict policy that Santa only comes to our home. Mostly because we are selfish and one day want them to know how hard we worked, lol!
HOWEVER- I'm not sure that either kid believed that this was not in fact Santa. They were completely taken with him! Check out Jack's face in this one!
Neily was pretty excited for what was in that bag!

The best gift that Jack could ever have received! This snowman sings "Deck the Halls" in a rock style, and every morning since Christmas, we've awoken to the sound of Jack literally rocking out KISS style in his room with the snowman!

Liz's first White Elephant pick! Very useful for a 13 year old, no? Of course it was a hot steal though.

Jessie's gift
Eddie coming away with the most coveted win of all- a dinner of Grandma's famous spaghetti and meatballs that only Beth has been able to perfect!

Merry Christmas Cole family! We always have fun with this crazy group. :)

Merry Christmas!!!!

2008-12-24T22:33:00.000-08:00

Santa just stopped by to leave his goodies and I thought I'd say Merry Christmas! More to come, of course.

The loot for the kids- it may look huge but we are so proud of ourselves, we showed a LOT of restraint this year. Well... as long as you don't count the Wii. Whoops!

Of course Sully, Lucas and Henry cannot be forgotten. Christmas Day is also Sully's birthday, so he also got a dog bed. Sullivan probably will not use it... but Henry hopped right on, so I'm sure he'll borrow it if Sully is not interested!
Eddie absolutely could not wait one more second to play with the Wii. I got him the tv as a surprise last weekend- he got it early because I could not get it out of the car!- and he pretty much has just stood in this location for a week watching it. ;) He hooked up the Wii tonight saying something about 'calibrating' but I think he's lying, he just wants to play before he has to let the kids have a turn!
At first, it was a complete debacle because the tv didn't fit in the bookshelf where the old tv was. So, it sat on the floor for about 4 days before we extended the bookshelves and created more of a wall unit. I was not happy about my mantle redesign but I fell in love with it and can't believe I doubted it- it looks awesome and it's the perfect spot. Hopefully he will share with the kids when they wake up in the morning!!!!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! Lots o' pics to come!

Need a good laugh? Then watch me!

2008-12-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

I was reminded not so subtly that I never put Disney pictures on the blog! Really?!? I had to go back and double check, but sure enough, that fact is correct. Unless days start lasting for 25 hours, I don't have time to upload Disney pics from our September trip, but to tide you over, I have possibly the BEST video ev-ah. Yes, even better than the dancing elves. Seriously. Watch at work if you dare, because you WILL laugh out loud.
In Downtown Disney, there is a funhouse mirror in Goofy's Candy store. While we waited for our candy to be made, the kids discovered it and just this one video made the cost of the video camera worth every penny! I am convinced they put this mirror in the shop for parents to have a giggle, rather than for kids.

A Mason snow day

2008-12-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

We got a "Mason" snow day today. A Mason Snow Day is not your average snow day. Anyone who lives in Mason knows about the Mason Bubble, which is the apparent but invisible bubble that shields us from pretty much any and all precipitation. Is it pouring rain downtown? It's sunny in Mason. Did Indiana get 7 inches of snow? Well, we didn't see a flurry here! Time and time again, we have literally watched these horrible red lines of storms- snow or rain- come right at us on the radar only to dissipate and break up right when they hit us. It's VERY weird but true. Ask anyone! Haha! So, today was no different. The weathermen called for 2-4 inches overnight and we woke up to find nada. Took the kids to school only to glance outside at noon to see a complete white out. For about an hour, it snowed like crazy and we got about an inch. That's about all we ever get around here, so my poor kids think that's snow. *sigh* I spent 6 years in Michigan and a few more in Denver, THAT is not snow. ;) One day we'll show them.
All decked out and ready to go:

Jack wonders if this is really necessary?
Snow angels! Sort of.

Neily, Cameron, Hannah, and Jack freezing their rears off:

2008-12-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, so my posts are going a bit out of order, but oh well! On Saturday, we put up our family tree! We have always had a tree in the living room, but last year since we were hosting Christmas, we decided to put up a fancier, matchy matchy tree (okay *I* decided) in the living room and a fun, family (read: all of the crazy ornaments the kids bring home) in the den. We also really wanted a live tree, so we decided that the den tree would be a perfect match. Actually the plan was to cut our own tree down, but 25 degree weather and snow altered our plans, and wouldn't you know that the kids were just as happy picking the tree out at Lowes. ;)
We have a family tradition of hot chocolate (I swapped out mine for vanilla spice egg nog) and Pepperidge Farm cookies- Neily sees the Chessmen and Milano cookies in the store and says, "Christmas cookies!" Yum, yum, yum. It was a lot of fun now that Neily and Jack are old enough to remember traditions and ornaments. Jack can't keep his hands out of hot chocolate, digging for mushy marshmallows, though, so be forewarned that you should NOT share a sip. Just tryin' to help. :)

It's here, it's here!

2008-12-09T06:49:00.000-08:00

I ordered a canvas of the kids, I'd been dying to have one, but I was waiting for the perfect picture. I wanted something really different, but, well, my coupon code was about to expire so I chose my latest favorite. It arrived today (funnily enough, as I was pulling up the FedEx tracking information to stalk to truck, the doorbell rang) (oh, and Jack ran to the door and answered it in his Spiderman mask, lol!) and it! Is! GORGEOUS! Now I see why people get addicted to these things, they are worth the investment. This is art... so pretty! I need to figure out a way to put a picture of this on my website so that people see how awesome they are and order them. Truthfully, my profit margin on canvases are not that high, but they are THAT beautiful that I think everyone should have one! I just want to stare it all day. My next order is going to be the one of the tree in my previous post, won't that look cute out during the holidays?

2008-12-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

The tree is up! Snapped this 'magical' moment after we got it up, but don't be too fooled- this included a lot of bribery and Eddie standing just to the left forcing Jack to stand still and keep his hands off the Santa. Merry Christmas!