MERRY CHRISTMAS

I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you all are surrounded by loves ones and enjoy the holiday.

We will be off to pa. on Christmas day, so I'm sure I will have lots of really good pics to share after we return.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS

Today (Dec.19) there are more Birthday wishes. Happy Birthday to my Dad and my cousin Natalie.......share the day!!

Getting Closer

It's getting closer to that special time of the year. Can you feel it? I am getting more done each day, which makes me very happy, my wish each year is to be completely done by xmas eve. I still have to find a way to bake my cookies around Logan and his nap time (don't want to run the mixer and take a chance on waking up the monster). Olivia is certainly excited and gets more excited every day. One more day of school (Friday) and she's done till next year and I feel I have done my job for the year! We get to sleep in and not have somewhere to go for lots of days! I did FINALLY get my xmas cards, so now I have to get them put together and mailed out.


We made these ornaments off a recipe I heard on tv. They are applesauce/cinnamon ornaments and they certainly make your house smell good! Who would have thought those two ingredients would mix together and make a mold! It's easy and not messy: equal parts of applesauce and cinnamon and 3Tblsp. of school glue for every 3Cups. Make your string hole with a straw. You can put them in the oven at 150 for 20min. and flip them if you want them to dry faster.

We did do our gingerbread house and it turned out really nice this year. We are getting better at it and I can't wait until next year when we have Logan's fingers helping us too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS

Happy Birthday to my brother Jimmy (dec.14) and I don't think I ever mentioned my mom's birthday on here in November, so Happy Birthday to you also (nov.21)..

Holly-Jolly

Ok, I feel a little bit more "jollier" now than the other day. Took some of my cousin's (Kim, thank you) advice and went on my way. I mean, what I'm I complaining about, I've got a roof over my head, heat, electricity, and a family and spare change, so doesn't that qualify me as one of the richest people in the world! No seriously I read that one time. Anyway,Olivia is in full swing for the season, I once compared her to a hummingbird, never stops it's wings even to eat, and that comparison still holds true. She gives me the kick in the pants I need, when I need it.

I have to tell you one thing that helped me get a little more in the spirit. I am so excited about what my kids are getting for xmas. My sister was out shopping yesterday and I'm soooo excited to see their faces when they open their gifts. Olivia is getting something that she not only didn't ask for, she doesn't know it exists! That is the fun part and she is going to love it! and I am going to love the look on her face! I am also excited to see what Logan does and how happy he will be to get some new toys........

LOVES to take everything out of my junk drawer(cabinet) and he got caught on camera!

Third Hair Cut

Logan is on his third hair cut today! My kid's are blessed with lots of hair! BTW...he was a perfect angel getting it cut.

Christmas Spirit

Christmas Spirit....where has it gone? I am been trying to figure out that question lately and to be honest still don't have a answer. I'm not talking, "Bah Humbug" or anything, I still absolutely love this holiday, but just doesn't seem like Christmas time. It seems anymore that the holiday comes and goes so quickly you don't have time to sit and enjoy. Now there really is no excuse for me not to have the spirit, after all i have two young children and that should be enough. Right? I have thought of maybe it's the fact that Olivia is in school all day and I don't have that energetic little soul reminding me all day about Christmas and watching shows and playing music in the car, etc. Now I do have Logan and next year he will understand, so maybe then it will come back, but in the meantime i would like to have it back this year.

So what is it? How do you get that feeling back inside you like before when the whole month of December was exciting because this month was special b/c of Christmas? I could always blame my neighbors who never put any lights or decorations up or I could simply blame myself for trying to make everything perfect and when it does not turn out that way, being bummed. There are a lot of life lessons we learn along the way, I have learned lately that I need to slow down, listen to what people are really saying instead of pretending I hear what they say and listening to my kids from their level. Maybe that's where the spirit has gone........I am not listening on a child's level!

Eyes....Check

Logan had a eye appointment today, which was a follow-up from the NICU. He passed with flying colors!! Doesn't have to go back for 2yrs.!! This is the first appt. ever that we had that we didn't have to go right back for or that something "could be" wrong! I am soooo excited.

I started thinking about Traditions at Christmas and just how many we do (or not do) or how many maybe I didn't realize we do. I refuse to stress myself out this year, like every year to make everything perfect, so I am kind of doing things as they come up and not going out of my way to make new "things" cause that's just too many "things". Are you following me here on "things"? I started thinking of the "things" that Olivia kept reminding me of through the weeks that we do (thank God for a 6yr. old memory). One tradition that I did start Olivia's first xmas was the ornament. Every year she gets a new one and now Logan. So that's one tradition. The other is baking the cookies and oh, we used to make lots of cookies. Last year not so much, with Logan and lack of sleep, that didn't get done, but the sugar cookies got made and decorated. So those are two traditions that we do, that I can think of. I would like to start going through the "drive thru" xmas lights on a "special" night and start that. I could even start one with ice skating down town, but Rich informed me he hasn't been on a set of skate's in forever (I was counting on him for this one, after all he did grow up on a lake), and myself, I don't know what that would look like, but I would have somebody ready with the video camera. I've never been on ice skate's, I was a heck of a roller skater in the day. I will see what my inner self lets me do...............

I did buy this wonderful ornament with all our names on it. My family is complete.

No Surgery

Logan drew the "lucky" card apparently on Friday. Because of his stuffy nose, they would not put him under and believe me when they told us the risks involved, NO THANKS! We were back home by 7:30am in which Olivia informed us that Grandma is still taking me to the bus stop. WHATEVER! So after having my mind set to what all I was in for and etc. we ended up back home and I can't say I wasn't happy, cause I was. There is a different feeling you have when your children are hurt or don't feel well and that's the feeling I was having knowing what to expect from last time. I know this will be done again, probably in Jan. or Feb., but maybe it will be better because xmas will be over then! Nah, I will have the same somber feeling about my little guy lying there and there's nothing I can do.

So with a lot of time left to the weekend, I put Grandma to use! Out came the xmas decor and she offered to do the tree lights. I have no patients for lights, to make them perfect. Apparently since her children are grown, she has them back. I didn't even have to put very many ornaments on, Olivia loved doing that! Oh so much better when they get older! Anyway, my mom had lots of help doing the lights and after raising 4 kids, she didn't seem to mind having someone little hanging on her pant leg! I was hands free for a while and Logan just kept with Grandma and a lot of help he was!

He was very funny with everything and to see the "what's this all about" in his face, was priceless. My tree so far is still standing and nobody has been found laying under it! I almost can't believe he has left it alone. Although Logan was sitting by it the first night and of course one lower branch kept tickling the back of his neck and he would duck and turn around and he couldn't figure out what the heck was getting him from the back..........seriously priceless!

Logan loves the magazines, mostly to rip and tear, but he did have the toy book and as you can see, he's pointing to what he would like!
"Why is this lite up?", "is it going to bite me?".......oh, the curious things we get into!

Now, shake 'em, shake 'em hard!!

Good job Grandma!!

I'm telling ya, he never left her side!

This pic is of my brother's Siberian Husky. She is so good with kids. Logan couldn't leave her alone and I think they made good friends.

My new addition this year to the lights outside. It's really cute when it's lite up and twinkles.

The Christmas spirit has started here! Starting with Rich maybe getting the lights finally done outside! This has turned into a 2 week job for him and trust me, we don't decorate like the Griswold's. It's looking awfully cute out there though, I have added a couple things this year as I try to do every year. I figure the festivities will start inside on Sunday. That's my plan of attack on the house. I've got more stuff than I do house, so it takes some organizing to figure it all out. I thinking the tree is just going to become a simple play toy for Logan. I really can't see him not pulling it over on himself or even letting it alone. I guess if I was him, I would be curious too. That should get interesting.

Olivia is upset that for the first time in my life, we are going with a artificial tree. I don't think it's the actual fact that it's fake, it's the fact that we are not going out into the woods to look for one. She whine's and complains every year about it anyway, so it's just something to complain to mom about! Oh, to be 6 again!! I wanted to go artificial for many reasons. Rich every year is working weekends and over time and it's hard to get out to look for a tree during the day. We end up waiting until the last minute, and it's up and then down already. The last couple of years the trees we've had have, the needles have been so hard that it's tough to hang the lights and such without getting jug to death! And last but not least, every tree has a crooked trunk and it gets rigged up every year to sit straight. This year is a test and see how it goes. Who knows what next year will bring!

We are gearing up for Logan's second surgery on Friday. If you need more explanation look at April's post! Once again for the Hypospadis. My parents are coming out on Thurs. to be here with Olivia Friday morning. Logan's surgery is at 7:30am so we have to be there for 5:30..............Once again I ask, WHO THE HECK MADE THIS APPT. TIME??? Ok, it was me, but for good reasons being he can't eat or drink before the surgery. I can't wait until it's over and to be honest, I can't wait for 2 weeks to fly by. He will have a catheter for about 5-6 days and then after that's out I can deal better with everything. Hopefully they will send him home this time, instead of keeping him. If all that fails, they are lighting the hospital tree Friday night!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I just wanted to wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING. We are headed off to Pa. tomorrow, as long as the weather don't hold us here!

To everyone black friday shopping, GOOD LUCK!

Deals

It's really not a deal, but it will save you money! Don't put rock salt on the ice during the winter. Mix dish detergent and warm water together and pour on ice.............I promise it won't freeze!!

Short Week

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is almost here. Seems like almost yesterday, the days were longer and the weather was warmer. Olivia only has school two days this week and then she's off until Monday. No, the first day of buck is not a holiday here! (all you Pa. kids have Monday off to shoot deer!) I have been shopping bargains, looking for more bargains, and figuring out more ways to save money. Rich's work usually ends for the winter right about Dec., so we have to button down the hatches and pray for a short winter! But I've learned through so many of these, what to prepare for, so I've gotten a bit wiser over the years. I am almost done xmas shopping for the kids, xmas cards are just sitting in cyber space waiting to be sent to the store to be made (I think you all will be impressed with the pic this year!), so now it's time to stock up on food and cut the spending.

I have a wonderful website that I use and if anybody would want to try it, it cuts your grocery store bill down so much, you won't believe it. I wish i had more time to spend on it (and money), but I am also looking into some articles they are printing in the paper here about other stores and how to get things cheap and free. I will keep you posted when I figure the whole deal out! On the site i use now, which is well worth the money I pay every two months, they have finally posted Walmart! This excites me b/c it was always the local grocery stores and it was hard to figure out walmart pricing compared to them, now you can see if walmart is really giving you a deal or not!! This made my whole weekend. Speaking of Walmart, their black Friday ad got leaked out and is now on blackfriday.info

On the home front, Olivia is still loving the snow, good thing I finally got her snow boots! She's anxious about going to Pa. for Thanksgiving(weather permitting). Logan is just into everything I own! He won't leave nothing alone! Please Santa, bring him some new toys to play with!!! I even had to take my plastic strip off the corner wall cause he kept snapping it! Yikes, Olivia didn't get into stuff that much................

Deals

Here's another website you can check out. It's called dealtaker.com You can see who has what on sale and who's offering free shipping and also product codes to use at the checkout(online) for extra savings!!

Ready, Set, SNOW

Today was our first "real" snow of the year, so far. Olivia could not wait to get outside this morning before catching the bus. This is unusual because in years past, she could have cared less about snow outside. Had me thinking maybe she really wasn't my child, seeing when i was her age you had to pry me to come home, soaking wet and all! We will see how this new found love of snow pans out in the future.

Olivia lost another tooth, a front tooth! Well she really lost her tooth. It was barely hanging on last night and quit frankly had me totally grossed out with the pulling and wiggling of this thing. I sort of thought that she would loose it during the night and possibly swallow it, hey I have swallowed a tooth before and yes, it was a front tooth. So as i am trying to get myself awake this morning and ready to deal with 2 very anxious children, she comes running in the bathroom to tell me that she lost her tooth and now she can't find it!! So I continue with my morning wake up(shower) and tell her i will try to find it when I'm done. I continued to think she swallowed it while sleeping and that was going to be hard to produce a tooth to put under the pillow, but instead, once again, mom to the rescue and it was on her bed. Whew!!!!!!!! I fondly remembered getting interrupted again with "Oh my gosh, have you seen the snow" and the bathroom blind being tugged open! All I ask is for a quiet shower once in a while. So anyway, as my mother reminded Olivia last night, she may want to add another item to her xmas list.............all I want for xmas is my 2 front teeth!!!!!!!
Logan has made us all very proud. He found out how to turn the tv off, not on, just off!!

I keep meaning to tell you this. Anybody wanting to get a sneek peak at the black friday ads, you can go to blackfriday.info and see what ads are posted!!

Sometimes........

Sometimes Olivia comes off with thoughts that I just can't comprehend at that age and proves to me that 6 yrs. old you really don't have a clue about relationships yet...take for instance....I have been hearing a lot about Eddie at school and on the bus. Now for what I knew, Eddie had a girlfriend, that Olivia said is very annoying and rides the bus also with them. She kept asking if she could show me where Eddie lives and go past his house. Now having been a kid myself and boyfriends, i know where this is going! So she says tonight, that Eddie is her boyfriend, so when I asked if he already had a gf, she says "yes, that annoying Katie". I precede to tell her that he can't have two gf, and the response was........Yes he can, he's mine during the classroom time(he's in her class at school) and he's Katie's on the bus and recess!! Can't you just see the cat fights coming in the future??

After bath time tonight, I was desperately trying to dress Logan, as he always just wants to go and not let me dress him, you know it's like dressing a octopus that won't stay still. Olivia then says, "your not going to have anymore babies are you?". "Why"? "Well they are too much work"........hoping she doesn't forget that during her teenage yrs.!!!!

Typical 6yo. pose???

Night, Night, baby!!!!!!!!

Trophy Day

I want to start out by saying THANK YOU to everyone leaving comments, it makes me want to write more!!

Monday night was the cheer leading banquet. I didn't quite know what to expect being we had never done this before. It was a nice time, Logan stayed with grandpa, Rich had a meeting, so I pretty much vegetated for 2 1/2hrs.!! Funny how many people you start to know when you child is involved with school. They got trophies! They got trophies for participating in cheer. Now I don't know about you, but when I was in school, you got a trophy when you WON (placed) in your activity??! Ok, I understand the theory of everyone gets a trophy, but really, what happens when you actually win 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place? Doesn't that take the air right out of your balloon, cause you already have 4 others at home? Don't get me wrong, Olivia loves it, but I am just not sure about this whole theory. You should have seen the age group older than Olivia, you should have seen the size of the trophies, I was amazed.

Ok, I will get off my soap box.........Logan has been chatting lately and some of it makes sense! He will repeat you now (to a extent), you have to hear him say Olivia! It's priceless, but you can understand what he is saying. Now, he won't say Mom as often as i feel he should, but he will say Olivia, do you see the conspiracy here? He recognizes the dogs, when he says dog, and bath when the water is running, so that has been really cool to see him develop like that. I am so proud of him every time he does something, he has had to try so much harder than other babies!!
Ok, well I'm off to eBay some more items, it's like a small business here with selling clothes, etc. Tis the season!!!................
Olivia and her bestest friend Amanda.

Thinking Ahead

About this time of the year, every year (ok, maybe earlier since I have learned lessons in the past) i start to think about xmas and who we buy for and the ideas start to turn in my head. Kind of makes me nuts, but I have learned the earlier you start, the better off you are. I have already made my list of names and ideas, done my layaway (with not a whole lot of success), bought the kids' wrapping paper, and got my photo for the cards! My gosh, I could actually make and get my xmas cards already! I guess in a way I drive myself nuts with it and Rich just goes with the flow....note to self, in my next life I want to be the male in all of this.......

We had teacher/parent conference Thurs. night and of course that went well. There's not really much to say, I think it makes for a boring conference and Rich insist, it's a good conference! She's doing so good, I really, truly couldn't ask for any better from her. i got to meet with her music, gym and art teachers also, which I might add are very nice people, and all had the same to say. Makes me so proud after all that hard work and it actually paid off, now to work on molding Logan.

I have been working on a project of going through Olivia's clothes and saving the really good stuff, saving what Logan could wear some day, and ebaying what else is good and sending the rest off to Goodwill. This has turned into a massive project. who knew the kid had so many clothes to go through. It's taking much longer than I had hoped and trying to find the time to sit down and work on it for more than a hour at a time, is a little frustrating, but it's getting a little better. I should have plenty of extra xmas money by the time I'm done and I will indeed help the economy, once I can get into this project full speed ahead............

Haircuts and VOTE

Just wanted to say that I hope that everybody who's registered (and you know that everyone that reads this is!!) got out to vote today. There are no excuses, especially when me and Rich have to take the kids with us. This will be good for Olivia and challenging with Logan, but we will do this!

It was once again time for haircuts. Olivia needed one really bad and know that cheer is over I was getting it cut off! She agreed, she hates it brushed and fixed, etc. so this was right up my alley. The place we get them cut at was doing a fundraiser and offering 1/2 off haircuts. So I loaded the kids up and off we went, not knowing how long we would have to wait. Turns out, we didn't have to wait that long and they both looked absolutely gorgeous afterwards. I hadn't realized how long Logan's was getting until she cut it, Olivia's turned out so wonderful and I won't tell her this, but kind of brings back her baby face...........don't tell!!

Trick-or-Treat

The deprived child that I was, never got to trick-or-treat at night! We always had it during the day, on a Sunday. This year we were staying in Oh. for Halloween and it was on Friday night from 6-8, so this was going to be a first for me. Good thing we got those flashy lights to wear from the zoo! I am a die hard TOT(trickortreater),you go from the time it starts, till it ends and you don't skip any houses. Olivia is finally starting to go further and not complain so much about going home and her legs hurt. Logan on the other hand, had had it about half way through. Rich wanted to go home and I said, "no we will keep going till my arms fall off." At this point I was carrying Logan, a 22lbs. turkey! Not a easy task and my arms felt it the next day. All went well though and we finished at 8, all kids were in bed shortly after, another successful TOT night..........

This is one tired little turkey!
Olivia's class party, by the end of the day, Rich said she looked like a deranged Easter Bunny!! Once again, I fought with Logan holding him...........

What is this? This is what we are doing all the time now. Makes me nervous, but you got to fall and get back up again, to learn to walk. He won't take any steps, but in due time.

Hold your applause.....oh please, Martha couldn't have done this good!! LOL, just kidding. Cookies for school, they did turn out really cute though. I got lots of compliments on them.

The finished work. Olivia insisted we put faces on them, so actually she did the faces and good thing she did, they probably wouldn't have gotten done that night.

Somebody, Please let me out!!!

ANYBODY

Is anybody out there really reading this? I have had no comments left in forever, don't be afraid to say something, I can't bite through the computer!! LOL

Happy Fall Y'all

I finally got some good outside pictures the other day. Olivia wanted to rake a leaf pile and desperately wanted Logan to come and play with her. I don't know what she was expecting him to do, she's got high hopes about one day he will run and play with her! Well Logan wasn't very sure at all about the leaves. In fact he pretty much only touched them with one finger at a time and then wanted nothing to do with them, but instead enjoyed and laughed watching his sister jump!! He has been laughing a whole lot at Olivia lately and he's even got that devilish laugh when he does it, which makes me scared of what's to come in the future............

Go Blue!

Just wanted to give a shout out, to all the PENN STATE fans back home! There are a lot of dissappointed OHIO STATE fans here today...........including my husband.

On The Go

Logan is moving all through the house now and he especially spends lots of his time in my kitchen. He has blocks and balls that he throws and bounces all through the kitchen on the hard wood floor. He likes to get himself into a little trouble doing this also, like the drawers (already had a pinched finger), dog dishes (already bathed in them), etc.

Olivia finally had another tooth come out. This one took a little longer to let go. That's two now and there are lots more loose!
Peek-a-boo........loves standing on his head.

Mr. Innocent......please don't think that too much, look below.

This was the end result.....