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!!

All Things Christmas

We had a wonderful, though insanely fast, Christmas - the entire month of December just flew by so quickly. I know they say that time goes faster the older you get, but this is getting a bit crazy!    

The week before Christmas, in-between Christmas shopping, cookie baking, holiday parties, etc, I was able to get baby Barrett over for a few pictures.  I had seen a neat idea on Pinterest so I had Ella be my stand-in model so I could try to get the lights right.  

I made the mistake of touching B with my cold hands and that set him off on some crying.  Oops.  He did give some smiles to his mama though even if he was a little cranky at me!

We thought we'd put him in a stocking, but his stocking was too small to put him in, so I found my stocking from the hospital and put him in there.  He didn't seem to mind too much.

He's such a cutie pie - it's fun to have a baby in the family again, especially one that I don't have to get up and feed at all hours of the night ;)

It was neat when we decorated the mantle this year - Silas had brought home his Gingerbread man from school and now we have Mason's kindergarten snowman,  Ella's kindergarten Gingerbread girl and Silas' kindergarten Gingerbread boy. A complete collection  :)

On Christmas Eve we had a nice, non-stressful evening.  Abby and Carson's mom, Jennifer, had taken Ella and Silas to the zoo lights the day before, so Justin and I were able to get EVERY present wrapped, and didn't have to do it at midnight on Christmas Eve. It was wonderful!

Instead, we got to decorate Christmas cookies that Aunt Amanda and the kids had made.  Some of the cookies got a little blobby as they baked, they puffed out quite a bit.  That gave the cookie decorators the idea to get creative with them - kinda like "what's that cloud look like?" only with icing.

Silas had made some reindeer food with a new recipe at school.  So before bed, he and Ella went out and sprinkled it on the lawn. 

After the kids were in bed, Justin and I had our eggnog by the light of the tree.  One of my favorite parts of Christmas :)  We had a wonderful tree this year - from Lowe's again.  The shape was perfect, the size was perfect for the space and it barely lost any needles at all.  I wish we could box this one up and use it again every year!

The last look as I was going up the steps to bed...looking at this picture reminds me of my Christmases as a kid, probably because of the vintage look of the picture. Just the tree lit and everything all quite...I love that.

Christmas morning the kids slept in until 8am.  I was pretty impressed!  Especially with Silas because he had been all excited and was bouncing off the walls at bedtime.

Yes, Mason is a grump-butt!

Ella and Silas both got iPod Touches from Santa (now maybe they'll leave my phone alone!!)

Mason got a PlayStation 3 gaming system.

Silas was SOO excited about all the Legos that he got.  He spent HOURS at the table putting them together.

We spent the afternoon with the family at mom's and dad's and managed to get a picture of the kids all together.  Fun stuff!!

 

All three were very happy with their gifts and have played non-stop with the stuff that they've gotten. Mason even smiled a time or two :)  It was a great Christmas.  I hate that I do this, but it was on my mind that we are getting closer and closer to not having all the kids living at home for Christmas. Mason is a Junior now and in just a few years, it's hard to say where he'll be going off to.  I love that we have this time together NOW...maybe something that I need to work on for 2012 - to stop getting ahead of myself!!

Keeping up With the Youngers

It seems that we're trying to pack all kinds of fun stuff into this Christmas break!  The week before Christmas was busy of course, just because it's the week before Christmas and there was plenty of shopping and wrapping to do.  We also got to see the Balletmet Nutcracker at the Ohio Theater on the 22nd.  I had planned to buy tickets but kept putting it off and then - I won tickets from KidsLinked.com!!!   I was so excited - they gave us 5 tickets so that our family could all go.  The only downside was that it was pure chaos picking them up at Will Call!

Since this is one of the few times that we were all gussied up, I set up the tripod and managed to get a family photo before we headed out.

I LOVE the Ohio Theater!  Ella loved it too - she said "it's SO fancy!!"

The kids really enjoyed the performance - well, Mason maybe not so much...I only saw his eyes open for about 10 minutes of the show, but Ella and Silas enjoyed most of it.  Si got a little bored at the end and it was a late evening.  All in all, a great family evening!

Christmas Eve was packed with last minute preparations, our usual Christmas Eve festivities (a drink or two and wrapping!) and making everything perfect for Santa's arrival. Cookies and milk for Santa, carrots and yummies for the reindeer.  The house finally looked magical by about midnight!

Christmas morning, Ella was the first to wake us up at 8:20am.  She ran into our room asking if she could wake up the boys.  She ran to Si's room first.  He JUMPED up on his bed, yelling "Oh My Gosh, Oh my GOSH!!!  I forgot that it's Christmas!!!!"  That woke Mason up and down the stairs we went. 

I was still pretty sleepy and did not get a very good or focused picture of the kids on Christmas morning.
Ella was thrilled that Santa brought her a Squier Mini guitar, but Silas cried when he didn't get the remote control gorilla that he'd apparently been hoping for. Santa must not have known...Santa did bring the family a nice new big TV to go with our new digital cable, so it's kinda fun to watch TV now!

I think Mason looked pretty dapper in his Christmas t-shirt :)

I got my birthday drink hour in with Jodi and Joyce and then, after spending Christmas evening with the family at Mom's and Dad's (where Tracy gave me a wine glass bigger than my head!), we got up on the 26th and celebrated some more...

We had a Campbell Christmas party and then came home to open Si's birthday presents and have some cake and ice cream!

I still can't believe that my little man is 5 years old!  Makes me sad that he's getting so grown up!

When we were in New York, the kids were disappointed when we didn't have time to go ice skating, so we promised to take them over Christmas break.  Yesterday, we did just that - we went to the Chiller and had some ice skating fun!  It had been at least 20+ years since either Justin or I had been on ice skates, and this was the first time for Ella and Silas.  They did a really great job! 

We had a super fun time and plan to go back again soon.  Next time maybe we can drag Mason with us...though it looked like the older kids were having a harder time on the ice than the young ones.  I've never seen so many gawky arms and legs go flying as when the teenage boys fell down.  Ella had new jean with a fleece lining and boy, those came in handy for ice skating and falling down - I was jealous (though, happily, I did not fall :)

Tonight we are going to see the Harlem Globetrotters and tomorrow night, the Zoo Lights (if the weather cooperates).  Need to get the Christmas decorations down, go to some New Year's Eve parties and then - Phew! - hopefully sit and do nothing (accept remember to pick up Aunt Amanda at the airport) on New Year's day!