A Busy Saturday!

The only thing scarier than realizing I made it through Saturday, is looking at my calendar for the week ahead of me!

Saturday was absolutely crazy...and ended up going so well! I took Bradlee to his gymnastics class make-up from the snow day...then I took him to get gas in the car, pick up some flowers, and through the car wash! In the mean time, Tony took Emma to a birthday party for a friend! I got home with Bradlee, made him (us) lunch, then took him to get his haircut! He was SO good! He sat in the chair by himself for the first time and "helped" comb his hair with the combs Chrystal (our stylist) gave him to play with! She even made his hair spiky ("pikey!") when we left...he looks SO much older!!! So cute, though! :)

I took Bradlee grocery shopping and got back home just before Tony and Emma did from the birthday party. We had "rest time" (I would have said "nap time", except that would imply that someone actually napped!) and then got Emma ready for a big night!!! It was Tony and Emma's first Daddy/Daughter Dance!!! They had a wonderful time!

Tony and Emma left for the dance, I took Bradlee over to my parents' house for dinner at Fuddruckers! I left Bradlee with my parents, then went down to Holly to pick Emma up. Tony was then going to the high school to DJ the Snowcoming Dance! We went back to my parents' house and then just had a great time the rest of the night!! Kat and Garrett were there, also, so we had a nice time talking and just hanging out!

A great story of the night: Bradlee and Emma were in the living room playing, the rest of us were in the kitchen talking. All of a sudden, a car alarm starts going off in the driveway! Garrett looked out the window, and it was my mom's van. He put his shoes on to go outside and investigate. My mom turned the alarm off with her key fab. I asked her where the other key was (thinking the kids found it and were playing!) and she said it was hanging up right next to where her keys were. I went into the living room, and there on the table with some blocks was a key fab from the van! Last Christmas (2009), my dad gave my mom a remote starter for the van...they got 2 new key fabs (which they use now), and they still had the old ones in their living room! I picked it up and asked Emma if she had been playing with it and she said no. I then went to Bradlee and said, "Bradlee, were you playing with this?" He looked at me with those beautiful blue eyes and oh so innocently said, "Yep!" :) I asked him if he was pushing the buttons and he said, "Yep!" Mystery Solved!!!! We all got a good laugh, and my dad took care of the key fabs they don't use anymore! :) Bradlee got a round of high-fives from everyone for the good "joke" he played on us! :)

17 Minutes...

I only have about 17 minutes until House comes on, so I thought I'd share these few photos...

On Friday, if they took in a box of the "Drink on the Go" mixes to send to the troops overseas, the kids at Emma's school were allowed to wear "mixed-up" clothing to school! Emma took full advantage of it and helped pick out this outfit...she did have a pink hoodie sweatshirt on over the dress, too, but got too warm during the day and it came off. My favorite part is the purple & yellow knee socks...and you can't see them, but she has two different earrings in and her hair has half in a pig tail and half out! What a mixed-up kid! She had a GREAT time participating! :)

On Saturday, Tony and Emma entered a small derby car in the "Girl Scouts' Powder Puff Derby" in Holly. There were a ton of girls there racing their cars they each decorated, designed and named...and let me tell you, it was definitely a girls' race! There were names like "Pink Pony Princess" and "Hello Kitty" and, my personal favorite, "Prettiest Pink Princess". LOL Emma named her car "Bolt" (after the Disney movie...we were watching it at home when we asked her what name it should have!) She even designed it like the dog...white car, red lightening bolts on either side, and googlie-eyes, a nose and whiskers in the front. Well, here are Tony and Emma putting some final touches on the car (and adding a weight)...

Each car raced 4 times in the first round...one time in each of the four lanes. "Bolt" won 2 of those 4 races! She was really excited to see how fast it could go. Her car ended up finishing 5th in her Daisy division (of about 20) and 21st overall (of about 75)! The best part was that the girl who's car won the OVERALL 1st place (in all the divisions!) was a girl from her troop!! They had a great time, and Emma got her first trophy for participating...and of course a patch for Gramma to sew onto her smock! :)

Sunday was the Superbowl...and while the team all 4 of us didn't win (Steelers), we had a great time at my parents' house for their annual Superbowl Party! Here's Emma with part of the food spread! :) She had fun trying all the new foods and Bradlee had fun helping Gramma and Boppa cut up veggies for the veggie tray. Boppa would cut the onions (green), hand them to Bradlee to put in his bucket to rinse off, and instead, he would PULL off the rest of the green part, throw it in the sink and then save the white parts of the onion. When Boppa finally noticed what he was doing Bradlee's response was, "I fixing them." :) PRICELESS. We got pictures of Bradlee helping Gramma and Boppa, but they're on my dad's camera...

(I have 7 minutes!) I was having a crummy day today...I woke up with hives all over. This hasn't happened in quite a long time (use to happen all the time when I was little!), but it was getting worse over the course of the day. I have no idea what caused them, but my doctor gave me a few medications to help them go down, and to help with the CONSTANT ITCHING! :/ However, I can always rely on my kids to brighten my day and make me smile...I used to make these "pillow hats" when I was younger...I first learned how to make them at Interlochen and then I utilized my skills throughout high school! :) The kids LOVED them....I think Bradlee's was a little too heavy for him...he had to rest his against the counter so I could get the picture, but he was laughing so hard, you can't even tell! :) LOL

Have a great week! :) (I still have 4 minutes to spell-check and post!) :)

Snow Day #1!!

I was so thankful for the snow not coming until late last night because I could go to rehearsal for the Flint Symphonic Wind Ensemble! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the music we're playing and we have 2 performances coming up that we really need the rehearsals...while we only stayed about an hour, we accomplished a lot as a 3/4 band (about 1/4 of the members didn't show up) and makes me feel that much more confident in our performances! Since we knew quite early that Emma, Bradlee and Tony wouldn't have school today, I took Emma to rehearsal with me! She LOVED sitting with me in the clarinet section and listening to the music and watching all the different instruments. She also took some coloring items so she wouldn't be bored! :) Some of the other members of the band loved having a little girl there, too...especially one that was so curious about all the instruments!

Before Emma and I left, her and Bradlee were running around wearing Tony's and my boots that were drying on our rug by the door. Here's Buzz, ready to defend the snowy galaxy! :) Yes, that's a CMU hat he has on!! Sorry for the fuzziness of the picture, he wouldn't hold still! :)

So Emma and I left rehearsal and got home in decent time...no snow yet, just cold and windy! Boy oh boy was it a different story when we woke up!! I had set my alarm an hour earlier in order to give myself time to get to work...after all, banks don't close for weather (well, unless the county orders it...and that has happened once in the last 26 years!)...so I was all prepared. Got up around 7am, ready to walk out the door at 8am...brushed off the car and got in, ready to drive to work (to be there by 9am)...and I get stuck. I don't mean stuck for a minute...I mean STUCK. Couldn't move forward, couldn't move backwards...the best part of the whole thing, was that I was still in my driveway!! So I got out, called my boss (who had already called me earlier to tell me the bank was open!), changed my clothes and went out to shovel and snow blow. It took FOREVER. I figure I started about 8:15am...and I didn't get back inside until 9:30! Granted, I'm a perfectionist and made sure I did a good job, plus we do our neighbor's driveway, also. Nonetheless, it took a long time. I was able to move the van out of the way to get the driveway, then moved it back up to the top, then went around my car (still stuck), and did the whole bottom of the driveway...this is what I had to work with!

It looks like I was taking a picture of the snow blower...but I was using that as a gauge as to how high the snow was! This was the first time I went out...when I finished the bottom of the driveway and the sidewalk and the neighbor's, I tried moving the car again...no luck. I called my boss again and told her I wasn't going to make it in. Not only could I not move my car, but it was snowing again, the bottom of the driveway still had about a foot of snow, and NOTHING had been done with the street...I was out of luck. Damn.

Yes, I was disappointed. I love my job. I love doing my job. I hate other people doing my job. I hate having to not go to work because of something stupid like SNOW! :) Oh well...I took it for what I could. Nothing else I could do! I poured some salt under each of the tires of the car, on the driveway and porch and went inside to warm up!

About 4 hours later it didn't even look like I had shoveled! So I headed outside, started up the snow blower again and did everything all over again...this time, when I was done with the snow blower, I grabbed the shovel and basically dug out the snow that had melted and was now slush that was under my tires. Got in the car, said a prayer, and the car moved! :) I pulled it up the driveway and there it sits right now! :) I cleaned up the rest of the snow that was under my car, sprinkled some more salt, and went back inside!

Whew! I was exhausted! The kids wanted to finger paint, so I got out the paints and paper and let them go at it...predictably, they went after themselves, too!!

Bath time followed, then dinner and a movie (BOLT!)....now everyone is quietly sleeping...and that's where I'm headed, too!

Tomorrow's another snow day...I wonder what adventures the day will bring?

One more for January...

I can't believe it's the last day of January. It seems crazy to think that Christmas was OVER a month ago!

This past weekend, my mom and I went on our annual retreat at St. Mary's Retreat House in Oxford, Michigan. We left Friday afternoon, stopped for dinner and then came back home Sunday afternoon. It was a great weekend...filled with thought-provoking conversation, prayer, restful times, more praying and just some time to get away!! The only thing missing was Snookie, my grandma! She was unable to attend this year.

This is my 8th time on retreat with my mom...she figured that this was her 28th year! I have tried getting others to come with us, because it's really a nice weekend...so if any of you reading would be interested in coming next year, please let me know! It's always the last weekend of January we go!

When I was packing to leave, Emma started crying, saying how she didn't want me to leave! So I believe we've started a new tradition where she has a notebook that she writes in while we're apart! I figured she would either forget about it, or totally write me a book! LOL She wrote a few things that she did each day, and I'm going to save it for her to do the same thing next year. It will be fun to see how her writing progresses over the years!

No pictures for this post...sorry! :) Instead, I tried posting a song, but it didn't work... :) This is probably my favorite song right now...it's called "Follow Me There" by Third Day...you may recognize it from the TLC show "Sarah Palin's Alaska"...the words are great and I listened to it over and over again this past weekend...you can listen to it HERE!!

Bowling!

On Friday afternoon, Tony and I decided we wanted to do something fun with the kids...just the 4 of us...that we hadn't done before, or at least in a long time! So, Tony made some calls, and we found a bowling alley close by that not only had open lanes, but had a "family night" deal, too! So, we loaded the kids up in the car, didn't tell them where we were going, and went bowling as a family! We had a BLAST...and here's the proof!!

Neither kid minded wearing the "special" shoes! Bradlee's size 7's were SO cute! :) He was more interested in his juice box, though!

At first, Emma would walk up to the lane, spread her legs apart and then swing the ball between her legs and down the alley. After trying that a few times, I suggested that she try to bowl like Daddy and I were, only instead of walking while throwing the ball, she just stand still and throw it....it worked MUCH better and she even managed to get a few spares!! Check out her form! :)

Bradlee's attention span lasted about 5 frames...then it was fortunate that we brought the diaper bag, complete with his coloring stuff! He colored pictures and Emma bowled for him! :) He also ate 2 pieces of pizza and finished a juice box and a a small Sprite! He had a few mishaps where he would try running down the lane...but fortunately, Tony either caught him before he got too far, or he would slip and fall, allowing Tony to catch up! :) He did have fun and LOVED using his pink bowling ball that we found! The first time he threw it, the ball went so slow that it actually STOPPED at the end of the alley! It started rolling backwards, then stopped. Dead. We had to call up to the desk for someone to retrieve it for us! It was quite entertaining! :)

We had a great night as a family, and need to do it more often. We seem to be on a roll, since we all went to see "Tangled" last weekend, too! :) Here's our final scores from the first game we bowled...we ended up getting through another 5 or 6 frames before our 2-hour time frame was up...not bad for our first time! :) Notice, though...I beat Tony! :) I made SURE to take a picture!!

Jammies Jammies Everywhere!

Well, it's been a busy few weeks...and I think that would be an understatement!

Back at the end of December, my friend, Lauren, visited on their way home from visiting her family in Grand Rapids. Her, Scott (her husband) and Will (the new baby!) brought the kids pajamas for Christmas!! Bradlee's are a flannel 2-piece jammie set with skiing moose on them...and I absolutely LOVE them!!! Emma's are from Old Navy-Canada, and have a peace sign, heart and a maple leaf on the shirt and all over the pants...super cute! :)

I also noticed that I have a lot of pictures of the kids in pajamas...and here's one of my favorite ones of the "kids" over Winter Break! :)

And yet another one of Bradlee in his "Buzz" jammies! I just love how these fit him...and when he wears them, he runs around the house yelling "iffity an ye-yond!" ("To Infinity and Beyond!") :):)

We were over at my parents house a few times in the past week, and we just get the biggest kick out of their cat, Arwen. She lets the kids pet her, pull her whiskers, scratch her tummy and, of course, feed her treats! She's the most laid back cat I've ever met...and one of the fluffiest! We had a game out and Arwen decided to make herself comfy in the lid of the game! :) The kids just LOVED this, too...

This past Saturday, Tony was announcing for both the women's and men's basketball games at Mott Community College, so I got to spend the entire afternoon with my babies...the last thing we did before Tony got home was pull out this stuff they got for Christmas called "Moon Dough". It's like Play-Doh, only it doesn't dry out...and in my opinion, much better! I don't mind Play-Doh, but if you get it on clothes or anything fabric it's a pain to get out. If it get on the table, it makes a mess. It's just a pain and the things you use with the Play-Doh, to play with it, don't clean very well, either! The problem with Moon Dough, though, is that it's flaky. I can't really describe it...so maybe a few pictures could demonstrate it better....make sure you check out the floor...

Nice, eh? I suppose it's okay, though, because I could just sweep it right up with a dust pan and broom!! The little barn actually makes 3-D animals for the barnyard, too! Super cute. We had a nice time playing with it! :)

Emma had one of her cavities filled back at the beginning of the month, and the other one done this afternoon. Apparently, the dentist is also watching two other teeth as well...the ones right next to the ones that were filled. It's not actually cavities IN the teeth that were filled, it's some decay on the outside/between the teeth...so we have to keep brushing and flossing really well to prevent any problems. Once her permanent teeth come in, I'm hoping she can have the pit and fissure sealant applied that I also had done, to prevent any problems with her permanent teeth...that's a ways down the road, though, so we'll have to see! :)

Well, that's all the news for now. Have a great week!

So Many Pictures...So Little Space!

I took over 800 pictures over the last 3 weeks! Yes, over 800! I didn't think my camera would hold that many!! :) So, due to lack of time and space, I've just pulled some of the good ones! :)

My favorite Christmas story is about Emma and Bradlee. As you know, Bradlee was a cow for Halloween. Well, we had asked Emma if she wanted to be an angel at the Children's Mass on Christmas Eve. Of course, she did! Bradlee kept saying, "Emma be an angel. I be a cow!" So the weekend before Christmas, Emma and I went to mass on Sunday night. After mass, she asked to talk to Fr. Tom. We went to see Fr. Tom and she said, "Fr. Tom, my baby brother wants to be a cow for church when I'm an angel because he was a cow for Halloween." Fr. Tom looked at her, paused, and said, "I like cows!" :) SO, for the first time EVER, we had a cow at the manger scene at the children's mass!! Fr. Tom just loved him, waved to him and even said, "Hi Cow!" when he was walking back down the aisle after mass! Then, my mom's friend, who went to the 10am mass Christmas morning, said Fr. Tom was even commenting on the cow during his homily! What a great experience for Bradlee! Plus, he was an AWESOME cow and so well-behaved! :) He was fascinated with Baby Jesus and stayed close to keep him warm! :) Emma was an excellent (and serious) angel, too!

After mass, we went over to Tony's parents' house for dinner (pizza!) and presents. It was a great time! Both kids were really into it this year (since Bradlee is older, now!) and we had so much fun watching them open presents, their expressions, and especially just spending time with everyone. Bradlee LOVED all the wrapping paper!

That night, we went home, got cookies and milk out for Santa, read "The Night Before Christmas" and went to bed! :)

Lucky for Tony and me, the kids slept until 10:30 Christmas morning!!! HOORAY!! :) We all got up, Tony went downstairs to "make sure Santa didn't fall asleep at our house", and we started Christmas!!

All Bradlee asked for was M&M's and suckers! He got 'em!!!!!

Emma and I went to see "Spookly the Square Pumpkin" when she was about 2 and a half at the theater...and Santa found it on DVD and left it for her for Christmas!

Once the gifts were opened, breakfast eaten, and we were showered and dressed, we headed over to my parents' house and celebrated Christmas some more! Emma had gotten an American Girl doll named Kit from Karyn for her birthday, so Karyn, Kathi and Emma all had their dolls there to celebrate, too! :)

We, of course, had a fabulous dinner and my grandparents and Tony's parents, and Paul all came to join us as well!

It's become a tradition the past several years for Emma to stay the night at my mom and dad's on Christmas night. This year was no exception, but with an additional sleeping buddy: Bradlee had his first sleepover with Aunt Kat, Uncle Garrett and Aunt Karyn!! :) They had a GREAT time, watching movies, playing with their new toys, making pancakes for breakfast!

New Year's Eve we spent at Tony's parents' house, playing the Wii, talking, and I even went through my coupon box and threw away all the expired (or expiring that night) ones! :) It was fun, and the kids even made it until midnight! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The kids were SO excited to get back to school, and I was glad to get them back, too! Unfortunately, out house still looks like Toys R Us with all the Christmas gifts!! Once we get the tree and decorations down, though, it will be better....then I'll get to organize and put things where they WILL go! :) Happy New Year!