Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas Day!

Ooh....did Santa come?

He did! And he brought the Barbie house!!!

The haul from the stocking.

Showing Sassy her new toys.

More presents.

Callie loving her new "bone."

Yay! A mini pillow pet!

Jeepers! MORE presents?!?

A cat amidst the chaos...

The day after Christmas we headed up to L&R's house and J&J met us there and we exchanged gifts with them and hung out and laughed and watched a movie and enjoyed our time together. What we didn't do was take any pictures :( 

Amazing Christmas season with all the people I love!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Happy Birthday!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas - Day 2

Christmas Eve at Auntie D's

Lots of yummy yummy food.

Lots of silly cuteness.


LOTS of presents!







LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of fun!!!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas - Day 1

So, that's it. We made it through the Christmas craziness intact and without any major incidents :)

Once again - there were 4 days of celebrations, though I only have pictures from 3 :(

Here's Day 1 - Christmas at Grammie and Bumpy's!!!!




Grammy and Bumpy were VERY generous this year (as usual) and Iz received clothes and squinkies and barbies and movies...the list goes on and on. Hubby and I got a new phone for our house (YAY!) and some green (always good!).

After opening presents with them we all headed over to a Christmas party at Hubby's aunt's house which was a ton of laughs and ever more yummy food!!!!

Monday, December 26, 2011

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

I know this video is dark - we were filming by just the light of the Christmas tree but I had to share it. Iz's reaction to her present is priceless. Listen carefully and you'll hear her voice crack - my sweet girl almost cried :)

It was definitely a very Merry Christmas around here - more pics coming soon!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Santa Came!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Santa came to our house and he brought a ton of stuff!
Most important is the big pink thing on the left...
The B@RBIE  DRE@M  H0USE!!!

Iz's reaction when she saw the house....Pricless!!!

Hope your Christmas is wonderful!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve

We got home from Auntie D's tonight with just enough time to get things set for the big guy to stop by :)

Cookies & milk and carrots for the reindeer.
(Thanks WW for the new cup/plate/letter set!!!)

Iz's letter to Santa - sort, sweet and to the point!

Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

What Happened?

Where have I been? Where are all the pre-Christmas pictures? What have I been doing? Am I done shopping? Am I done wrapping? Am I ready for the big guy in the red suit to come in a couple days?

Well, let me tell you...my laptop died :(

My whole LIFE is on my laptop - all my pictures, my documents, patterns, music, links...everything. I took it to the shop and it's DEAD. The good news is that there's nothing wrong with the hard drive so we were able to save everything (whew!). The bad news is that I'm back to using my old laptop which runs with Vista (blech!) and it doesn't ave a lot of space so I don't have pictures or anything on it to share at this point.

We will be looking for a new laptop after the holidays but for now I'm using an old, slow one. Better than nothing, right? The downside is that pictures and stuff take FOREVER so there won't be a lot of those for a while :/ I have a ton to share - they just have to wait.

Gotta go - cookies to make, a big gift to assemble and last minutes errands to run!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve Eve :)

Monday, November 28, 2011

DONE!

Mel was here at 7:30 on Friday morning and we hit Black Friday like it was nobody's business.

Now? Other than a few more stocking stuffers and yankee swap gifts I am DONE Christmas shopping!

There's a little girl in this house that's been asking for the same thing for THREE years and this is finally the year tha Santa is pulling through and getting her this:

There are a few Barbies from Grammy and Auntie R that will make this super fun to play with Christmas morning :)

Me? I'm getting this:


Saw it on sale in the big red circle store's ad this week and Hubby said go ahead and get it :) Yay!

Now to enjoy the season - we'll be decorating this week and starting our 12 Days of Christmas Cookies very soon! Iz is home sick today (poor thing) so I may dig out the Christmas dvds and spend the day curled up with her watching Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Emmett Otter and all my other holiday friends :)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!


Today, and EVERY day, I am thankful for....

... my sisters. As much as they drive me crazy I can't imagine life without them. They've seen me at my best and my worst. They've laughed with me and cried with me. They've been there when I needed them and they've let me stand on my own. They ARE the epitome of what big sisters should be. Love you guys! PS - Happy Birthday AUNTIE D!!!!!

... my Husband. He's my rock. He keeps me grounded. He understands me and he knows me better than anyone. Asking him out was the best decision I've ever made :)

... IzzyB. She's my sun - my whole world revolves around her and I wouldn't want it any other way. She is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me.

... Mel. What can I say? She's my person. (you'll understand that if you watch Grey's)

... GTP - I've known her since we were 5 years old. We can go months without talking and years without seeing each other but it doesn't matter.

... a wonderful extended family.

... L and R, J and J, SnL. Mimi, J, B and A....and all the other amazing "kids" in my life - most of which aren't kids anymore!

... a warm, comfortable house, clothes to wear and food to eat.

... a car that runs and gets great gas mileage.

... iced coffee :)

... being able to put Iz on the bus in the morning and be here waiting when she comes home.

... an upcoming opportunity for a little extra money.

... Iz's interest in trying new things - tee ball, soccer, basketball, tap...

... 60 degree days in November :)

... crocs

... contact lenses

... the hot tub

... the wood stove

...music - Wicked, SNC, Bon Jovi, the Beatles, Lady Gaga, Blood Sweat and Tears, Doughtry, Enya, Queen, The Allman Bros., and a million more!

... books on cd.

... my Kindle.

... grocery stores fairly near by that save me a TON of money!

... knitting.

... LOVE <3

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

THANKFUL

Since the beginning of the month a lot of my "friends" on FB have been posting something they are thankful for every day. I've been saving all of mine for tomorrow. For today...a little of my feelings on giving thanks :)

Thanksgiving gets a bit of a rip off in the grand scheme of holidays. School starts and, immediately, the Halloween decorations are out in stores. Before those even come down you start seeing Christmas trees and by the middle of November stores are awash in green and red, silver and gold, glitter and glitz for Christmas. Thanksgiving gets lost in the shuffle and that's a shame. I'm a firm believer that Christmas decorations shouldn't go up until the day before Thanksgiving at the earliest - though, if I had my way, they wouldn't go up until the first week of December.

Now, admittedly, Thanksgiving isn't my favorite holiday but I like the idea of it. I like the idea of taking a day off specifically to give thanks for all that I am blessed with. I like the idea of stopping to appreciate just how good my life is and how lucky I am.

To be realistic I'll admit that a typical Thanksgiving for us revolves around two things: FOOD and FOOTBALL! Our family is not the type to go around the table and name one thing that we're thankful for or get all mushy and talk about how lucky we are to be together for the holidays - that's not our style. If you look past the craziness though, you can see it.

Look past all of us crowded into Auntie D's living room/kitchen eating off plates on our laps. Look past all the yelling at the tv for whatever ridiculous play just happened during the football game. Look past the fact that everyone's in jeans and t-shirts, there's a lack of fancy place settings and centerpieces and not all of the plates and serving platters match and you WILL see it.

You'll see a family that loves each other. You'll see a family that's there for each other and that stands up for each other. You'll see a family that has each other's backs.

You'll see a family that is THANKFUL.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Straight No Chaser

Auntie D and I are going to see these guys tonight!


I say "Straight No Chaser" and you probably think I'll be needing some aspirin in the morning....

Noooo....I'm not drinking heavily tonight. I'm going to see the coolest a capella group out there!!!

Never heard of them? Check THIS out :)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Upta Camp - Creativity

When we were Upta Camp last month Iz and I walked down to the river and she collected some stones while we were there. She then proceeded to spend HOURS playing with them...mainly by making designs and pictures. 

We've got quite the creative girl on our hands :)

Bird and nest with eggs.

Bird sitting on nest.

Girl.


Letters. Z A D

Boy and girl.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

OcSNOWber

Remember the other day when I mentioned that we might get some more snow Saturday night? 

Well, the weather men predicted 5"-10" . . . they were a *little* off :/


EIGHTEEN INCHES. Of SNOW. In OCTOBER. Sheesh! Ridiculous!

Not everyone was so unhappy about it. The other girls in this house LOVE the snow!!!\



Not fun. Not fun at all. Hubby had to drag out the snowblower and everything. A lot of it has melted by now but just the fact that we got a foot and a half of snow on October 30th was a bit of a shocker.

Here's to hoping that early snow means early SPRING!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Trick-or-Treat!

Iz had 2 costumes this Halloween (lucky girl!). The frist she wore to a party last weekend and *almost* won first place in the costume contest!

Our Cute Little Paper Doll

The second was part of the dress-up box she got last Christmas and she had decided it would be her Trick-or-Treating Costume months ago!

Little Red Riding Hood


Look who else joined us on our quest for candy!

Little Red & Abby Cadabby :)

It was a cold on but we hit up 10 or 12 houses and that was good enough for all! When we got back to Auntie D's house Iz sorted her candy then started wheeling and dealing with anyone who was willing to get her basket of candy to a point where it was ALL stuff she likes! A girl after my own heart :)

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Friday, October 28, 2011

What?!?

When I looked out the window this morning, I saw this:


No, that's not a heavy frost. It's snow. SNOW! In October! Seriously!!!

The worst part? They're predicting a Nor'Easter TOMORROW NIGHT! When it's STILL only October! I mean, we live in Maine and the weather is unpredictable but this is ridiculous! We'll see how it all pans out. The weather is saying potentially 5-10 inches of snow.

Looks like it's going to be a white, um, Halloween :/

Friday, October 14, 2011

Catching Up

I'm a slacker. I know it. You don't have to tell me.

If you've been looking at the blog for the last MONTH you probably noticed that I've posted nothing. Nada. Zilch. That all changed today. It's not that I've had nothing to post I've just been busy. AND my laptop ahs had issues. But I back-posted a bunch of stuff this morning and here it all is for quick reference...

Hurricane

Soccer

Apples

Photography

Birthday

Camp

There. That should get you all caught up :)

Monday, October 10, 2011

Upta Camp - October '11

Auntie D and I have been planning on going upta camp Columbus Day weekend for about a year now and, surprisingly enough, the weather actually worked out in our favor (for the most part). 

Day 1 was super cold but that didn't stop Iz from spending a little time outside enjoying the new addition to camp since the last time we were there!

Sweet Kiko :)

Ta-da!

Day 2 was much warmer so we all piled in my little car and drove almost to Canada :)

Silliness makes the any car ride go much quicker!



We drove almost to Canada to hike this path and do a little leaf-peeping!



This was our goal...Moxie Falls :)


A glimpse of the river.

Top of the Falls.

Looking down...scary!


Moxie Falls
Awesome. Beautiful. Frightening. LOUD. Amazing!



These steps weren't nearly as bad going down to get to the falls as they were going back UP. UGH!

We saw a sign on the way home for a "historic site" so we had to pull over and check it out.

Click to enlarge and see what happened right here in little ol' Maine :)

A view of the river from the historic site....gorgeous!


Super-fun trip to camp (as usual!)....can't wait to go again. February vaca maybe???
 

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