The 2014 Wrap Up

Way overdue wrapping up the year of 2014!  My last post was early November after one of Silas' soccer tournaments.  Since then, soccer lead to the holidays, the holidays flew by and now it's 2015!

So...November...
Ella had her first 6th grade social.   This is her "Stop! In the Name of Love" move.  I think I mentioned before but she is REALLY loving 6th grade!  She gets herself up at 5:50AM, makes her breakfast and gets me up to pop her contacts in and walk her to the bus stop. The extra 30 minutes of sleep does wonders for me :)

Justin's old white truck finally (pretty much) bit the dust.  It still drove like a champ but the radiator spewed fumes into the cab and there was no heat...it would cost more to fix than the truck was worth. So...it got donated and Justin got a new old truck!

He loves the cap and he loves having heat again!

I went on 2 works trips in Nov/Dec. - One to Tucson and one to Boston.  Both were pretty quick trips and I would have loved to have spent more time in Tucson taking some pictures!

I still never tire of taking picture of sleeping kids. This boy has to have the book yanked out of his hand every night - he's re-reading the Harry Potter series now and on book 3 or 4 again.

We got a beautiful November snow - perfect, beautiful, fluffy snow.  I took a walk on the Mudsock Trail and it was gorgeous.

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year - which we love to do.

I love having my family all together.

And lots of cousin love!

and some sister love too :)

Thanksgiving was late so Christmas came early...

We had Santa come for a little visit too (even though there were MANY moments that he has marked them in his naughty book this year).

Felix (aka Buddy) came back for a visit. Not sure how many years it's been now but it gets more complicated each year! His friend, Gino, now hangs out with him and they roam...around the house.  Usually around 4am or so. But sometimes they are just too damn tired to move. Or respond to the notes that Silas leaves for them.

We had a wonderful family Christmas party at Greg and Tracy's - and we celebrated Dad's 80th Birthday!!!!

So blessed to have parents that are happy, healthy and wonderful :)

And then it was Christmas! I tend to be the first one up now on Christmas - though I fall back asleep until Ella (who is generally the first one to wake up and then wants to get everyone up). Another year with all 3 at home which I'm thankful for.

Justin did surprise me with a little Happy Birthday party.  That was nice even though I was in pj's and hadn't showered - but then again so were a few of the attendees!

And it's never boring after Christmas either - we get to celebrate Silas James' 9th birthday!  He really wanted to go ice skating this year on his birthday...so we did.  And it was painful!!

Two hours doesn't seem like that much time but strap some ice skates on your feet and it can seem like an eternity! I cried uncle quite a few times.  

And we did have some cake and ice cream for the 9 year old (even if it was my leftover cake). He'll get a party and a real cake...maybe in FEBRUARY?

Ella edited this fantastic photo of Silas in his new Superman pj's. I love it!

He was laying on our couch in the family room and then she did the cloud edit.  So cool!

And then it was time to ring in the New Year - it was spent at some different neighbors (because of the OSU game on New Year's Day!) and then at home with the kids after 10pm.  It was nice and relaxing and felt like the perfect way to start 2015!

Happy New Year!  I feel like this one is going to be GRAND!

Where Did 2012 Go???

There are only 2 days left in 2012.  Honestly, I don't much care for how the year went.  Seems like all of 2012 was a blur, I spent it playing catch up at work and at home, and I lacked a lot of motivation...

But anywho, here is what we've been up to:

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year at our house after taking a two-year hiatus. I enjoy having it at our house.

My FB post: This morning I'm thankful that the children who were driving me nuts yesterday, are quietly playing together with a cardboard box (turning it into a spaceship). I'm thankful for a hardworking husband that is just as good at kissing boo-boos and caregiving as he is at building rooms and fixing just about anything. I'm particularly thankful today to feel healthy again. I'll be standing by in a Hazmat suit as Justin prepares the turkey. 
For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.
 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Mason had his Senior pictures taken by on of our extremely talented photography neighbors. I procrastinated to the point where we finally HAD to get the year book picture in and she very kindly squeezed him in! I thought they turned out awesome - very "him".

Here is what Lori said about Mason:
Mason - Hilliard Bradley Class of 2013
What a great way to end my Fall senior sessions tonight with this equally handsome and charismatic senior. I was very impressed how comfortable Mason was not just having his photos taken, but how well he kept up a conversation with me. I don't remember being able to talk this well to adults when I was in High School. 

I know the next 5 months are going to go crazy fast as we try to prepare for Mason's May graduation, figuring out college and his 18th birthday in July...phew...scary!!

Sadly, 3 days before Christmas:
FB - We were very blessed to have Zoe as our family companion for 15 years. Today we said good-bye. We will miss our sweet Zoe girl. She'll always be with us though...there's not a chance in hell we'll ever get rid of all the dog hair in this house.

Fifteen years with a pet in your house is a long time.  My kids don't remember a time when she was not with us.  I was looking back at old blog posts and pictures of Zoe and saw this post from 2009.  We will miss her so much :(

With that all going on, I was feeling very unprepared and not much in the mood for Christmas and birthdays.  Christmas Eve morning I was still out finishing up my shopping and hadn't wrapped a thing.
It managed to get all pulled together (by 3am)...

And we had a very nice Christmas morning

The only bummer was that Mason had to work at noon, so he missed the Christmas dinner and festivities at Mom and Dad's. He was less than happy about that...

And on the 26th, we celebrated Silas' 7th birthday!
This boy is growing up way faster than I can keep up with.  My Smiley Siley isn't a baby anymore.

And now it's time to try to recover, clean up, get organized and prepare for a 2013 that doesn't get away from me quite like 2012 did.  It will be a challenge!!

I Gave In...

...to peer pressure.  I was swayed to the "Elf on a Shelf" darkside!

He left this little note:

December 2010

Dear Mason, Ella and Silas:

Santa received a letter from Ella requesting an Elf for your family.  I am the Elf that Santa is sending to be with your family for Christmas each year.  I am excited to meet you!

Each day, I watch to be sure you are doing your very best to be good, and then I go to the North Pole and report back to Santa each night.  I will come back to be with you again each morning.

Do your very best to be good – I hate giving Santa bad news!

With Christmas Cheer,

Your Elf

P.S. – please name me soon!

Let's hope I don't regret this!!

What's been Going On?

So, what have we been up to since we got back?  A lot of picking up around the house and trying to get ready for Christmas!!  We spent 17 of 33 days in New York and Christmas has completely ambushed us!

Last weekend Ella and I went to a Girl Scout mom/daughter gala.  It was a "formal" and I had nothing to wear (unless you count my wedding dress) so I ran to the consignment shop and got this dress that maybe someday I'll get to wear again. We had a good time eating cookies (girl scout of course), drinking tea and dancing!

We also went and got our Christmas tree last weekend.  It's not romantic or pretty but we go to Lowe's and get the tree, pay our $15 and get down to the business of getting it trimmed while sipping on eggnog. 

It was getting pretty snowy and bad out when we went to get the tree and we saw this car go off of the road...

oopsie!

I love the shape of the tree - quite lovely for $15!  I think we broke the record for how fast we threw the ornaments on this year.

We've been getting a ridiculous amount of snow and frigid temps (in the single digits) for the last week. Crazy for this time of year!  We've been holing up inside a lot excect for when we MUST go out. Or to play in the snow a little bit.

This is the kind of weather we typically get in February...not December!  I hope that after Christmas we have a very mild winter!!

It's difficult to get into the Christmas spirit this year - I think the kids are doing okay...they are very focused on the presents and Santa of course.  Silas has been coming up and giving random hugs, which I love. Justin and I have been in "be productive" mode.  Getting lots of stuff crossed off our list. Justin is taking time off now until the new year to work on admin for the business.  I am still trying to get caught up from being out so much between surgery and NY trips.  I really just want to get to 2011 and pray for a better year.  And a year for cleaning out the basement!  After the last few weeks, that has become a #1 priority!!

I hope that we can find a way to remember Grandpa J in each holiday - and during those times that he would have spent with us.  It's so important to me that the kids remember as much as possible - his quirkiness, his visits, his birthday calls, the cartoon wrapped gifts.
We have some fun parties to look forward to, our annual Christmas Eve of wrapping and drinking and a New Year's Eve with friends.  Hopefully that will help get us more in the holiday mood!

The Lists

Well, Christmas break is over...the kids are all tucked in bed, getting ready to head back to school. It went incredibly fast.  I could have used another week off, bickering and all.

I had 2 lists for break.  One was for stuff to do around the house - organizing, cleaning, etc. The other was stuff that I wanted to do with the kids. 

On the "fun" list was...

 1.  Make Christmas cookies

We made lots of cookies and a really BIG mess!

 

2. Go to see the Wildlights at the zoo.

 

The zoo lights were beautiful!  We went on a pretty cold night - it was about 20 degrees.  It started snowing when we were on our way there and by the time we got there, it was coming down pretty hard.  The kids started complaining because the snowflakes were pelting them in the eyeballs. It made the lights even more beautiful though.

 

Ella got very cold and about 45 minutes into being there, got a nasty earache. 

 

They did have fun riding on the Merry-Go-Round - it was warmer in there!

 

After that, we decided the weather was getting worse, everyone was cold and tired

and we headed home (making a pit stop to pick up some Caines Chicken).  It was REALLY snowing hard and difficult to see much on the road.  Warm pj's for everyone when we got home, and Motrin and a heating pad for Ella and her ear.

#3. The Main Library and the train display.

 

With the kids' school schedules/times all being different, it's hard to find a good time to get down to our awesome Main Library. 

 

We took Aunt Margie down there with us.

Saw the train display, the kids picked out a ton of books and played in the

Children's area - wow, has that changed since I worked down there.

Apparently you aren't supposed to take the book baskets out into the lobby area - 

the security dude jumped all over us about it.  If I want one badly enough, I'll have to steal it from Kroger instead...

Two things that did not get crossed off our list were Graeter's Ice cream  (lots of gift cards to spend but who wants to eat ice cream when it's 9 degrees out??) and the Franklin Park Conservatory.  Those will have to wait until we have a no school day or some weekend with available time.

On the NOT so fun list, I admit I got less than 1/2 of my items crossed off.  And my Christmas tree is still up until next weekend. But I feel like I spent a lot of time resting, spending time with friends and family (3 family birthdays, several family Christmas gatherings, a fun NYE party/birthday party and a Buckeye victory in the Rose Bowl!), had a lot of fun with the kids and the mess will still be there when I get to it.

One thing that Justin accomplished is getting my under the cabinet iPod radio mounted (a Christmas present for me).  Love having the free counter space!

 

What did not get done is cleaning up the kids' rooms, sorting though my piles of papers, taking the tree down (like I said), starting on the basement cleanup...all in due time.

*I do have a special request.  Over the holidays we found out that Justin's dad, Grandpa J, has cancer (lung). Please keep him and the family in your prayers.  I hope to update more later when we have more details. Until then, prayers and positive vibes are greatly appreciated!

Happy New Year-

May it be a blessed one for us all!

Christmas '09

Christmas 2009 has come and gone.  Wow. The last few months have been a complete whirlwind of activity and I wasn't feeling 100% prepared this year, but then again I'm usually not 100% prepared for anything!

Christmas Eve was the usual flurry of appetizers, wine, (having Margie, Tim, Sarah and Brian over to help with some) wrapping, reindeer food, cookies for Santa, more wine...

I love after the mess is cleaned up, kids are long asleep (or faking it well) and I get a few minutes of quiet time before heading to bed for a few short hours of sleep.  The time to reflect, to be excited for my kids, to remember that Christ is the reason for the season and to appreciate the many blessings that we have as a family.

The kids all slept in until almost 8 a.m. They were patient enough to wait for us to make coffee before they started digging into the presents.

 

Silas was excited about his Cars racetrack

 

Ella got earrings from Daddy and loved her Nintendo DS the best.

 

Mason had hoped and hoped that he'd get an iPod Touch,

which he did, but we wrapped it in a Pokemon video case.

We spent the afternoon at Mom and Dad's with all the family - whew, there are a lot of us! At the end of the evening, it's about all we can do to get the kids in pj's, teeth brushed, and keep our eyes open for a book or two.  We tend to perk up long enough for a glass of wine before crawling into bed ourselves.  

(I've been liking quotes a lot lately...)

"Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world."
~ Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)

Presidential message (December 25, 1927).