Wheels and Getting Air

Monday Jeanne wanted to check out our roller skating rink. They boys love to rollerblade and we used to go on Fridays when they have a special that is never crowded. I was a little nervous with it being school vacation but it wasn't that bad.

Before we left, we had lunch. I wanted to share this picture because people think I am creative and I wanted to show that it runs in the family. Auntie Chris was taking some credit too but I wasn't there for the conception. The pile by the way (left over from the footprints is dino poo).

Jenna wasn't quite sure about it at first.But she warmed up to the idea. The boys were rockin it out!

Joshua stopped to take a little break.

Jamie was getting into the groove but wasn't letting go of me. As long as she stayed off my toes we were good. :)

Tuesday we went to the Bounce U before they left. I figured it would surely tucker them out for the plane ride home. I later found out they didn't nap. Shocker.

I love the faces this girl makes.

Pooped out cousins hanging out watching some cartoons. It was probably the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. They rewound it about 8 times to watch the fart scene, their favorite.

Bye Bye

We're in a mini depression. We brought Auntie Jeanne and the girls to the airport today. My poor Jacob is heart broken. Usually I am the one in tears after they leave but this time I have company. He is so sad that his little playmates are gone. We will miss them terribly. It was a treat to have them here near Christmas. That has never happened. Of course when they left, I came right home and started to take down the tree ornaments. Thank you Jeanne for coming!!! I will post some pictures of the last two day's fun when the lump in my throat clears.

Visiting fun

A table for 11 dinner at home (thank goodness 2 were out), another night of sledding, McDonald's playplace, a trip to the local Walmart (they need to check them all out) and a night of craft painting sums up our last two days. Here are some of the highlights in pictures. The shutterfly site wasn't working yesterday so I could post more.

Snowball fight!!!!!

A booger flicker??? We are so bringing this to Auntie Jeanne's to try out.

This is another reason why the kids love when Auntie Jeanne comes, a trip to Walmart always yeilds some craft time fun.

Jamie's creation.And she facepaints.

We've Got Company

And they love the snow. Jenna and Jamie are here from Tennessee and we wasted no time getting them out into what little snow is left before the rain. They were lovin' it!

Jaimie says, "Who needs a sled?"

Christmas was quiet and enjoyable. We all cozied up inside, ate some yummy food and played a little Family Fued that Auntie got as a Christmas gift. Here are just a few pictures.

Exercising my creative bone

The days are dwindling and all of this snow is really putting a monkey wrench to the shopping scene. The boys love the snow, Jim has been busy plowing the snow and I have been braving the snow to shop. I really took advantage of some online shopping this year which was a help.

I made the boys' teachers a cute little frame I saw on another blog. Kinda like my sisters mother in law's soup that never tastes as good when I make it, they don't look as good as the ones I saw but I think they are as cute as heck.

Auntie and I also made some yummy goodies for her work friends. They started out as chocolate covered pretzels but there weren't enough whole ones in the bag. Instead we made some pretzel bark. Who doesn't love salty/sweet. First it loooked like this and then we broke it up into bark pieces.

A few weeks ago Auntie came over with a recipe she wanted to try. Another salty/sweet. The chips aren't just in the background. They went into the cookies. They were a bit dry as the only liquid was an egg yoke and a teaspoon of vanilla, but anything tastes better with chocolate on it, which we drizzled all over.

Snow

Here are some pictures from yesterdays/last nights/still going won't give up even though another one is coming tomorrow storm.

What a Week...

Happy Birthday Kristi!

The week started off with schools being cancelled due to no power. The boys were home through Wednesday and Jim was out of work (tough time for construction). Today I took a personal day since Joshua had a doctor appt. but now due to the impending storm, schools were called off early so we're all home (Jim's working-thank god).

We can thank my niece Jenna for the snow. Auntie Jeanne and the girls will be visiting the day after Christmas from Tennessee. Jenna had big plans of 'sliding down Auntie Michelle's big hill because it was covered with snow'. Of course, at that time we had not a lick of snow around. This week we will have had three storms after Sunday. Now there will be plenty of snow for Jenna. Of course if she was old enough to understand, she would know that Auntie Michelle needs every last minute for Christmas shopping and this snow is a bit of a damper on the shopping scene. On the other hand the snow is good for Uncle Jim's plowing.

Auntie Michelle was asking about traditions on her blog. We really don't have any besides the comerical advent calendar which is why I adopted the 24 books to Christmas idea from Letti's blog. This week (the one good weather day) I brought my students on a Christmas shopping fieldtrip to the Christmas Tree Shop. I found this cool advent idea that I am excited to try out next year. I will have all year to find trinkets to fill it up with...no peanut gallery comments :)

I bought myself a Christmas present since I had to pick it out and needed it for Christmas. I got a new camera. I am a creature of habit as many of you know and have only had Kodak Easyshare cameras. I really wanted something with more zoom and better lighting. I got the Nikon P80 figuring you can't go wrong with a Nikon. So far, I'm not so sure. It seems when you try to get fancy, the picture taking is not as easy. It is still a point and shoot, but the more you zoom the more super sensitive it is to movement (even pushing the button) and the result is blurred pictures. I hope I can figure it out because I know I will never hear the end of it if Jim hates it. He also needs easy, straight forward.

Why do they have to grow up so fast???

Before we lost power, we borrowed some movies from the library. I discovered that the library has many movies and even some newer movies. It works out perfectly because for one, it is free and for two, the Blockbuster near us moved. Joshua has been wanting to watch The Christmas Story (You'll shoot your eye out...) so we borrowed it planning a Friday night with popcorn. Since we had no power, it was postponed to Saturday when we watched it at Auntie's house (she had power). As we were watching it I was reminded why it isn't a good movie to show at school despite it's PG rating. Lots of 'son of a b$tches'. Joshua didn't even flinch. I fully believe that kids don't actually know what swear words are until someone fills them in. Apparently b$tch hasn't been added to his repertoire. A couple of weeks ago he asked Jim what a certain finger gesture meant and if it was a swear word. Jim told him it was without giving the real word. Well this morning Joshua asks me, "Mom, is F U * K (spelling) a swear word?" I of course immediately asked him who told him that (and immediately put that kid on the do no invite over list) and told him if he ever said that he would get in the most trouble he ever got into. Now I just wonder how long it will take him to get educated on the connection between the gesture and the word.

Two Days of H E double hockey sticks

It's been a couple of days, that is for sure. We're recovering from an ice storm and have been without power (heat, hot water, tv, cable, video games, sponge bob.............sanity :) It has been the longest two days in my entire life. It came on back this evening, the first thing I did...laundry (that was sitting in the washer) and some online Christmas shopping. These two days took away some shopping time. They way others may not get power back for days, I will be thinking of them for sure.

The book countdown continued even through the lack of power. We tried to read before we ran out of daylight. Usually we have one with more enthusiasm than the other and it is not the same one each day. The fun part though is that Joshua now wants to read the short books. It is so cool to see him wanting to read to us.

Not too late to start...

I found this idea on a blog of a blog. We don't really have any traditions besides decorating a tree and opening a door of a countdown calendar, so I thought this would be fun. She did the 25 days to Christmas. I started it at 19 but you could even start it at the 12 days til Christmas for this year. You wrap a book for each day left until Christmas. Each day the kids unwrap a Christmas book and we read it. We only have about 2 or 3 Christmas books so we went to the library. They are due on the 20th but I can renew online so we're good. The boys have been excited about it so far (2 days). They like to be able to open something and like the mystery of what the book will be.

I bought a new printer last week so the Christmas cards are ready to go. We didn't get a family picture since Jeffrey is with us so little and it is hard to get it on a weeknight when we don't have much time. As you can imagine, it is quite difficult to get 5 people to cooperate for a picture. They will be hitting your mailboxes soon. What a process cards are, signing, addressing, stamping, labeling........

Today was a day of trying to catch up and feel like I'm on track. Hence, we made a gingerbread house (assembled and decorated). Today was not my day so it was not as enjoyable as it usually is. Thank god this one came with it's own base with indents for the house to sit into and the pieces were really well made. This activity could have really put me over the edge.

Sound Advice

My grandmother has always shared two pieces of advice. The first one is "The person with the pen always wins" and the other is "The shortest way is the way you know". I always share these but today I did not take my own advice. And as I sit here eating a HUGE caramellow bar to make myself feel less stressed, I wish I had.

As you know I did not register my car on time. I could even have done it online-mistake number one. I went to do it yesterday but the phone lines were down at city hall and I could only do part of it and of course it was 4 and too late to head to Milford or Manchester-ugh. Today it went into the shop to get inspected (all but a sticker because you need your registration first) to the tune of $650. After school (mistake number 2, I should have just taken the day off to get my s#$*t done), I rushed up to Manchester figuring it would be shorter because it was on the highway even though I knew where the one was in Milford. So after calling Jim (mistake number three) and not getting much help to find the place, Jacob and I waited 20 minutes in line to only find out that I was still at the wrong place. So now I am home, no registration, no inspection sticker and about 400 extra calories consumed. Long story short...the shortest way is the way you know. Had I gone to Milford, I would have my registration, my inspection and hell I would have eaten the caramellow to celebrate!!!

Would this have had less calories???