Happy New Year!

I welcome this new year more so than any other.  It has to be a better year than the last year was!  Happy New Year to all of you!

Still recovering from the fun!

We are still in recover mode from all the festivities of Christmas!  The kids got a lot of fun stuff and by far their favorite is their Leapster explorers.  Although the mp3 player and speaker that lights up is a close 2nd for Grace!  My kids were very spoiled by their grandparents this year and I am thankful since we couldn't do as much as we would have liked!  Our best Christmas present this year was definitely David getting a job and the 'normal' paycheck that came on Christmas Eve as we were leaving for church!  We attended a wonderful Christmas Eve service to get us in the spirit of Christmas and then headed off to great-grandma and grandpa's house.  Christmas morning the kids slept in until about 8:30 and then we enjoyed a quiet Christmas here at our house.  I made pecan caramel rolls and David and I had a quiet breakfast before the kids got up.  After we opened our presents we visited our neighbors Bill and Wendy and told them all about what we got and saw the train that goes around their tree.  Then Papa Wayne came over and we had dinner and opened more presents.  It was a great day! I made some scrapbook pages on my computer already and I'll share a couple of them with you! I'm not completely done with them but you can see some of our Christmas this way!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Special People

 Ms. Staci who is just absolutely fabulous with all kids!  She has such a heart for children and she is the director of Sonshine Choir and we are so thankful for all the time she puts into it.  The kids are learning to lead others and they lead worship twice a month for the 4's and K's at church and it is such a wonderful thing for them to learn. We are so blessed to know her!

Our neighbors Bill and Wendy whom my children love dearly!  We go sit with them when it is warm and talk and the kids play on their huge driveway riding bikes or exploring!  They always have whoppers(malt balls) for the kids or popsicles in the summer and sometimes both!  Right now they have a gum drop tree out for Christmas which makes the kids very happy.  We try to visit with them every couple of weeks in the winter.  They live just across the street and they came to Andrew's concert and that made him so happy.  We don't have grandparents that are able to come to things like this.  Papa Wayne works a lot and if it happens on his day off I'm sure he'll go!

Sugarplums

I made these for Grace's preschool party that was supposed to be on Monday (20th) but she was sick and we didn't get to go.  I got the idea at Eighteen 25.  Click to go to the original post and see how cute theirs turned out as well.  I also added the tag that reads "may visions of sugarplums dance in your head."

Santa showed up at the Christmas Party we went to on Saturday night.  Andrew had no trouble talking to Santa and sitting on his lap but Grace wanted NOTHING to do with Santa!  In fact, Andrew said that Santa "cut off his words" when he was trying to tell him what he wanted for Christmas so he went up to him later to tell him.  It was the cutest thing! Below is the picture of him telling Santa that he wants a transformer for Christmas.

Below is Grace peeking over the couch at Santa.

And finally, Andrew and his cousins....Grace still wouldn't get in the picture.

Christmas Party

These pictures are from the day of Andrew's party at school.  In the top picture is the picture of Mrs. Green's gift.  We made her a movie basket.  It had a 2 liter of diet coke, 2 coca cola glasses, 2 bags of microwave popcorn, 3 boxes of candy, 2 popcorn buckets, and a gift card for movies.

A surprise for this week:  a post will be up each day with pictures!  That's my gift to you!!

School's Out!

School is now officially out for 3 weeks.  Andrew doesn't go back until January 10th.  That also means we are getting closer to Grannylou's visit!  Of course that also means we are closer to Christmas which I am not ready for.  This year I am making a lot of my gifts and actually I only have 3 left to do and once I sit down it will go quickly but I don't have very many days that I don't have to go somewhere which is the problem!  I wrapped a few presents yesterday but I'm really going to have to work on it when David is home to distract the kids.  He is working overtime through next week (which is good) but it makes the evenings seem so short!  His company is off the 23rd and 24th but he won't get paid since he is not salary yet.  It will be nice to have him home though to help me get everything ready for grandma's on Christmas Eve and for Christmas day.  There is still so much to do.  Does anyone ever quite feel ready (or finished) for Christmas? 

Well, I really don't have anything exciting to talk about so I guess I'll stop rambling.  I'll take some pictures of my gifts that I'm making so I can show them after Christmas!

Too bad I already made my Christmas card....

because I got some cute pictures of my kids yesterday before the Sonshine Choir concert at church!  The concert by the way was awesome and I really wish I could upload the whole thing for you guys to see!  The kids were so cute and did such a great job!  Andrew enjoys being up in front performing.  He was really, really nervous before it started but he just kept telling me it was b/c he didn't know where the kindergarten line was.  Poor guy!  He was Ms. Staci's helper and then hung out with Ms. Sarah until I realized what was going on.  Here's pics of the kids...

These were the only ones that would upload.  I'll try the others tomorrow when my storage is updated.  I had to purchase more storage space to continue adding pictures!  Everything is linked together so in order to upload more pictures to picasa and add pics to the blog I have to have more storage.  Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures!

Employed

Yep!  You read that correctly!  My hubby is now employed and starts work on Thursday!  We are so thrilled that this has happened and even before Christmas!  We (and a lot of other people) have been praying for this and we have been so very blessed with this news!  Although he has only been home for 12 weeks, we've know for about 18 weeks that he would need a new job and began looking immediately.  It's been great to have him home but I have to be honest....it will be great to send him back to work!  I've had a vacation for the last 3 months but now it's back to reality!  I know he is going to miss his kids very, very much and I feel sad for him.  It's so hard to leave them to go to work and I don't have to go every day so I can only imagine what it's like for him. He is so involved in every detail and loves taking them to school.  In fact, I asked him who he was taking tomorrow and he said both b/c it's the last time he will get to for a long time!  Poor guy!  Please pray for him as he has to go back and be on probation for 3 months and get used to working again and being away from the people that mean the most to him!

Something cute that happened tonight....Andrew was using his fingers to draw letters on the carpet and he said he drew the 1st letter of each of our names and a B.  When asked what the B was for he said for the baby that we are going to have in a long time!  Doesn't that just warm your heart?  I would love for that to be reality right now.  He has talked about it so much in the last year since we were pregnant and lost the first one.  I didn't even tell him about the 2nd time b/c I knew it would just break his heart if it happened again.  One of these days I think it will happen and then he can write the letter for that little one along with ours.

rambling....

It's been super busy around here yet again...guess it's never going to slow down!  Last week I ended up subbing in a 5th grade classroom for 3 days which I enjoyed!  We had our volunteer appreciation last Wednesday and I have some cute pics from the photo booth but I can't get my scanner to work so I can't upload them. On Thursday I had a craft night with the girls and on Friday was the craft fair!  Finally!  I sold a few of my crayon rolls....I can't remember exactly the number.  I was hoping to sell more but for now a friend is taking them to her kids' school and I'm sending some to my mom to try to get rid of.  Whatever I have left will probably get used for Christmas presents and then birthday presents throughout the year!

Today I had a Christmas party for church and tonight was my last night of bible study.  I'm working again tomorrow and then hopefully I will get a little break this week from all the craziness!  David got a job offer but nothing is concrete yet.....meaning we have the offer but no paperwork has been signed and there isn't a start date yet.  Hopefully we will get a date soon and get this show on the road.  We are so thankful that this is happening but anxious b/c we are tired of waiting.  We got really excited and started telling everybody that he got an offer but that was last Thursday and we haven't moved any further in the process.  It's hard to wait but that's what we are doing!

We finally got the Christmas decorations up and the kids decorated the tree.  Grace chose to hung all of her ornaments close together and one of the branches was hanging very low so when she wasn't looking I had to spread them out just a bit!  They tried to do it all on their own but since they aren't very tall I had to step in and help.  I'm ok with them hanging all the ornaments all crazy but couldn't stand that the top half of the tree was empty!

Have a great week and I'll be back soon.....hopefully!

Thanksgiving

I know it's a little late but thought I would share a couple pics from Thanksgiving.  Andrew had his first Thanksgiving dinner this year!  In previous years he would just eat bread and pumpkin pie!  This year he requested turkey, stuffing, a roll and then pumpkin pie later in the day!  Yes, I even took a picture of him with his plate!

 

Grace's plate is on the other side and she only wanted salad (like her older cousin) and didn't eat a bite of anything.  She had an upset tummy for about 3 days last week and didn't eat much of anything.  

Here is a pic of the kids outside in their outfits.  Someone else was taking their picture and he was on the ground which is why they aren't looking at the camera but I still like the picture!

Easy Baking

While my day in the kitchen baking was unsuccessful, the kids had a blast and were successful!  On Thanksgiving, Grandma and Grandpa sent home an easy bake oven with us and had no idea if it even worked or had been used.  They found it in their rental house when the people moved out.  Well, the kids found it in the garage today and thought it was the coolest thing!  David helped them make brownies and blondies and they cooked all the way through and the kids ate both pans.  They were very small pans as you will soon see.  I've heard many horror stories about easy bake ovens but this was a success!

 

 Here they are putting their pans into the oven.  They sat them inside and then used that purple arm thingy to push it in all the way.

Here she pushed it to the edge with the special tool and will get it out using the same tool.  Andrew almost used his hand at this point and freaked me out but I caught him in time.

That's the other end of the arm thingy (can't find a better word) that grabbed the pan when it was done.  The kids let their brownies cool off and then gobbled them up!

Wordless Wednesday

Handsome

Here is my handsome boy!  This is his kindergarten picture! I think he did a fabulous job and I bought the cd so I could print out my own!  Just trying to get something up here since I've been really behind with this blog.  Hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and cherish the time you have with your families!

Disneyland Pictures

So I guess the link isn't working to see the Disneyland pictures and for some reason I can't get it to work. (Thanks Liz for the update!)  Instead you'll have to go through my sidebar where it says My Pictures and click on ourlittlefamilyoffour picasa pictures.  It will take you to all the albums and the Disneyland album is the first one.....just in case you want to see all the pictures. Have a great day!

Disneyland

We made it to Disneyland and did almost everything on Andrew's list.  We didn't make it to the pirate ship or Winnie the Pooh.  We have done Winnie the Pooh several times before but we always miss the pirate ship.  We did all the things they wanted to do at California Adventure and even saw Santa!  Andrew wore his Mickey shirt with his name on it and when he walked up to see Santa he wasn't too sure about it until Santa said "Well, hi Andrew!  How are you today?"  Andrew was so shocked that he knew his name and after he told his daddy that Santa knew his name!  He was truly surprised and of course we never told him that his shirt had his name on it!  CUTE!

After California Adventure and the huge ferris wheel that Andrew and David rode with the swinging gondolas we headed to Disneyland.  By the time we got there people were already lining the streets to watch the parade over an hour before the actual start time.  Plus we were at the end of the route which meant we had to wait 15 minutes for the parade to get to us.  So, I went and got lunch and David and the kids found a spot to sit on the curb so we were in front.  And so we sat.....and sat.....and sat!  David and the kids walked around a little and thanks to our large stroller we were able to save our seats! The parade was great!

Then it was off to see the princesses!  Speaking of.....isn't she beautiful????

 We watched the end of story time with Belle and then Cinderella, Snow White, and Princess Aurora came out on stage for the coronation ceremony (I think that's what the schedule called it but really it was a little dance thingy). We got pics with those 3 princesses and then took Andrew to ride a few rides since he was so patient waiting for Grace to see the princesses.  Well, he wasn't exactly patient but he got through!  It was the 1st day for the Holiday Parade and lights and trees and it was REALLY crowded.  More so than I thought it would be.  Didn't kids have school yesterday?  Our district was out but I thought most were in on Friday.  Maybe they just don't care and made it a 4 day weekend!  We didn't get to do a lot b/c of the lines but the kids were satisfied and after the fireworks (which Grace did NOT enjoy b/c of the noise) we rode the train around the park and Grace fell asleep and as soon as we got off and in the stroller Andrew was out!  It wasn't until we got almost to the parking garage that Grace woke up and said but I wanted to ride my favorite ride again!  She LOVES It's a Small World!  If you want to see the pictures of our adventure click HERE to visit my picasa albums! I also uploaded our Halloween pics finally and some other random pics from the last few weeks!  Is anyone still here?

Have a great weekend!

Heading to..............

DISNEYLAND!!!!!  We still have our {free} tickets from David's work (ex work that is) and the last time we planned on going Grace ended up getting a fever the day before and we didn't want to chance her not feeling well.  So tomorrow we are finally going! The schedule says that tomorrow starts their holiday season and parade!  Can't wait!  I'll definitely have pictures to share after we get back!  Have a fabulous weekend!  I have to go charge my camera and pack the snacks!

Another Busy Week!

This week we have minimum days at school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and no school the rest of the week for Veteran's Day!  Andrew gets out at 11:49 each day so it makes it kind of crazy.  Today I helped in the classroom and I have a million things I should be doing besides writing on here! We still have ballet class today and then I have bible study tonight. David is still searching but I have orientation for subbing tomorrow so hopefully I can finally start working and helping out with bills.

Grace has been playing dress up which means she drags all of her clothes out of her closet and drawers and makes up all of her own outfits which are very funny!  Of course then she just throws them in a pile outside her door and leaves them for me to put away....not funny!  I'll get some pictures of her outfits and put on here!  Her daddy did not think it was funny last night when he was trying to put her to bed and for an hour she kept coming out with a new outfit on!  I was at church so I missed out on the whole thing!

Oh, something cute that Grace said.  She wanted to read the Peter Pan book and instead she said "I want to read the pee in the pan book!"

Have a great week!

Very Random Post!

I've been busy sewing my crayon rolls for the craft fair on December 3rd and actually sold my 1st one at bible study the other night!  YAY!!!!  That pays for my table at the craft fair!

Last night I cut my finger and thumb on the lid of a can.  It was pretty bad and I had a hard time getting it to stop bleeding.  There is a possibility that a doctor should have been involved but since we don't have insurance I am toughing it out and praying that it will heal on it's own.  This is the 2nd time I have done this in the last 6 months and probably needed medical attention then as well but it finally healed about 3 weeks later.  It was still sore for quite a while after as it healed inside.  Yeah, I know!  Don't stick your finger in the cans or grab the lid!  I'm actually going to buy a safety opener that doesn't leave sharp edges on the can.  I used to have one but I'm not sure what happened to it and obviously I need it!  At this point it really doesn't matter if I can afford it b/c I sure can't afford to go to the doctor!  Andrew was worried my finger would fall off....poor guy!

David began painting the trim on the house which makes me incredibly happy!  It needs it and true value is closing and they had their paint half off so we decided to go ahead and get the paint!

HA! Just looked down at my phone and it has been on for 4 1/2 hours!  CRAZY! 

See, Random!

Oh, I go for my orientation for subbing on the 9th!  I've been waiting to be able to get in as a sub and it is finally happening.  David is waiting to hear from an interview.  They said he is the top candidate but we've heard that before and they just had someone apply internally so they can't make a decision yet.  No big deal!  God has a plan and we are just waiting and learning to be content!

Grace has a doctor appointment tomorrow.  It's not a big deal just can't get rid of her congestion so I'm concerned about a sinus infection and possibly a bladder infection b/c she has been having a lot of accidents.  It could also be stress just from life being so different right now.  I figured we might as well go get her checked out and make sure everything is ok!

Well, I guess that catches you up on our life and what's happening!  I'll be back soon with hopefully something more exciting and less random! 

Pumpkin Party

 Grace and her prince charming!

 Cleaning the seeds out of the pumpkin at preschool!

The outfit I made for Grace and she got lots of wear out of it this week!  Monday to preschool, Tuesday to the library, and Thursday to church!  Grace had a pumpkin party on Monday and they cleaned out pumpkins and put seeds in a baggie to take home.  On Wednesday was the actual party and they dressed up in their costumes.  

Last weekend we went to the Fall Festival at Andrew's school and the kids got to wear their costumes.

It has been a busy week full of fall activities!  Tomorrow night will bring it all to an end when we go trick or treating!  Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!

shirts and invites

I made these invites and shirts for my friend Leigh's twins for their first birthday party. They had a fall birthday party and she needed help so I made her a card.  I only did the digital part and then when she printed them out she added the card stock and ribbon and I think they turned out great!  I was at Joann's one day and found this material with fall leaves and knew that I HAD to make them shirts also to go with the theme.  Just thought I would show everyone something I made!

Nascar

David and Andrew got to attend the Nascar race a few weeks ago.  Andrew loves Jimmie Johnson and was very disappointed that he didn't win.  They had a blast and I am so glad that Andrew was able to go with his daddy and spend the day! He talked about it for days and knew all the details.  It amazes me how much he remembers when he gets home!

It's Been A While!

So last Friday (the 15th) I left for a long weekend.  It was my grandpa's 90th birthday and I flew home to surprise him and the rest of my family.  Actually my mom flew me out there to surprise him!  I got in at 1:20 after a short delay and my mom and Jenny picked me up at the airport and we were off on our (almost) 3 hour drive to my mom's.  We got in town at 4:30 am and drove straight to my grandpa's house and the lights were on so we stopped and surprised everyone!  They were all up early b/c my brother had to work early that morning and they were sitting around the table drinking coffee.  Good thing I brought donuts!  I think my grandpa was very surprised, along with my brother! 

Here I am with the birthday boy!  We went out to dinner with the whole family to celebrate! 

The morning I left I woke up not feeling too well and ended up going to convenient care that day and getting 4 medications for a sinus infection!  Didn't start out too well! 

 Here is my family!  Dad, Kathy, Grampy, Me, my brother's fiance Randi, Mark, and Zaine.  I fell in love with that little boy! He was so cute and became my little buddy while I was there! 

 

 Grampy and his boys

my dad, Uncle Gary, Grampy, and Uncle Steve

I am so glad I got to go and see everyone.  I hadn't seen my cousins in 10 years.  Hopefully it won't be that long again!

I came home on Tuesday and it was not a good day for flying.  So Cal was having a lot of bad storms and it delayed my flights and I got stuck in Vegas for 2 hours b/c of lightening and when we did finally take off the flight attendants weren't allowed to get out of their seats and it was a rough flight.  I was terrified that night and then the pilot came on and said, "Well folks, sorry we aren't able to serve you drinks tonight and you are unable to move about the cabin but for your safety we ask that you remain in your seats with your seat belts pulled tight. It's going to take us a little longer than expected due to severe weather. It just isn't a good night for flying."  Really!?!?!?!  Did you have to say that out loud?  I was so scared all the way.  The poor girls that sat next to me really wish they hadn't. 

Busy and Birthday

I have been so busy with Andrew's school, PTA, and church.  I felt like I was really getting my to do list smaller and then I got sick.  It just started as a sore throat and low grade fever along with an achy body and each day I felt a little more and then today I woke up with a lot of congestion that is just stuck in my head but I can breathe fine.  Anyone wanna bet on a sinus infection coming on?  I get one just about every year and hopefully this weekend will NOT be the weekend it happens!  I have WAY too much going on this weekend which I will definitely share with you in a few days......hopefully!

My Grampy turned 90 this week and he is still going strong!  He still drives and takes care of himself.  Up until a few months ago he also cooked all of the meals for himself and my brother and nephew but I was told he know has help from my brother's girlfriend.  Here is a picture of him....he is the sweetest grandpa and I miss living close to visit with him.  I get there about once a year to see him and I really wish it could be more as I know our time is limited. He is doing very well with nothing against him except his age. 

This is my family when we had the kids dedicated.  We chose to have the dedication in IL so all of my friends and family could be there.  This picture is 3 years old but I don't really think my grandpa has changed that much!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

My Boys Bake! (and more)

David and the kids made banana bread this last week and it was so yummy!  David got tired of waiting for me to make it.  I really didn't plan on attempting it again b/c mine never turns out good. I always let it bake too long and I haven't learned yet!  But now, I have David and the kids to make it instead!  YAY!

I have a looooong list of things I have to do and I'm running out of time to get it all done.  I recently joined the executive board on the PTA at Andrew's school as Historian.  That means I am in charge of keeping a notebook of all the flyers, activities, all the volunteer hours and tallying it up for the year and also keeping some sort of scrapbook or album of the events.  I'm also on the programs and activities committee and we have our fall festival coming in 2 weeks and I am in charge of a lot of stuff. Tonight I finally finished the photo tickets and printed them out.  Tuesday when I go to the school I will use their paper cutter so I don't dull the blade on my little cutter.  I still have to finish the volunteer food vouchers and make the signs and banner for the fall festival.  My goal is to make the banner this week.  It's a big project and I would just feel better if it got done this week instead of at the last minute. 

I'm also making crayon rolls for 2 craft fairs in December and need to get busy.  Tonight I changed it up a bit and made one for colored pencils and I like it.  I think I'll make a few of those and then some for matchbox cars also.  It's takes a couple hours to make each one so I have to sit down every chance I get and sew.  I'm going to try and get a bunch of them pinned together so they are ready to go.  I may even make a few that have notepads and either crayons or colored pencils inside.  They are great for taking in the car or to the doctor's office for kids to corral their crayons. Here's the picture of the one I made tonight.  Hopefully people will buy them at the craft fairs.  I already made some for my kids for Christmas.  I am making one for Andrew's cars also.  I'm sure Grace will want one for cars as well but maybe I can come up with something else for her.

Well, this picture is sideways and I'm not sure why b/c I didn't take it that way and it's not that way on my computer. It won't let me rotate it either.  Oh well, at least you can see what it looks like. 

The crayon roll holds 24 crayons although I plan on making some that hold less.  Not sure how many yet.  Maybe some that hold 16 and some that hold 8 and maybe some for chunky crayons.  Here are two I already made that hold 24 crayons each.

OK, so I know that was a long post and I'm sorry.  I should have broken it into 2 separate posts but thanks for hanging in there and reading all the way to the bottom.  When I get more examples done I will show you.  I plan on getting a few things done this weekend and then after the fall festival is over I can concentrate on sewing!  Have a great Sunday!