New Year's Eve

Before we moved in with my parents last year we used to have a poker party on new year's eve. Last year my Mom and I made a great dinner that nobody else enjoyed. Not because it didn't taste good, but because Roy and my Dad were in bed at 8. PM. We were mad.

This year I think Chris (Roy's brother) is going to come over. You see with him you don't know until the last minute. Which makes food planning a little hard in this case. Either way, I am going to make appetizers (as a meal, am I the only one who loves this?) and we will play some Pop Culture or 80's Trivial Pursuit, or my new addiction, Mario Kart on the Wii. And drink. Now you think we are lame. I know. Just wait until Cinco De Mayo, you will change your mind. We are not big on going out tonight. There is too much craziness. So tonight we will be watching the countdown on tv together. And knowing my kids, they will still be up to ring in the new year with us. At least Morgan will be.

Have a safe and fun night tonight.

One Giant Andes Mint

My Mom bought Carter some jammies for Christmas. They are very cute and fit him pretty good. She made sure to get the ones without feet since he pulls his socks off as soon as you get them on, she figured he would sit and pull at the feet of them all the time. I put them on him last night and couldn't help but start laughing right away. Roy came around the corner and said what I was thinking. "He looks like a giant Andes Mint". These are now the mint jammies.

Is It Really Over Already???

I love Christmas (as I have mentioned before). But I am always disappointed on December 26th. Not because I didn't get the right present(s). But because I wait all year for this time of year. Come November I am counting down the days. And then in one day it is over. This year was especially great for me for a few reasons. First, Morgan knew what was going on. And she was excited. Second, this was Carter's first Christmas. Third, my sister (Kaisha) and her family came out from Mass. to be with us and got to meet Carter and David for the first time. We haven't seen them in a year and a half. They got here on Monday and are leaving tomorrow morning. This morning was full of tears and happiness. Her kids (Kyle & Anna) are going to come out in June and stay with us for 3 or 4 weeks.

We had another wonderful Christmas. All week we were busy and having fun. Morgan & I made soap for presents, we went to my parents for Christmas Eve, and we hosted Christmas Day. I made a prime rib and I have to say, I think it is one of the best cooking jobs I have ever done. Here are the pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Soap we made. I got the idea for the snow globes from SAJ.
I decided that my dollar spot cupcake molds would work for soap too. These were a huge hit for gifts. And Morgan was so proud of them. Oh Heck, I was too.

TaTa with Kyle & Carter.

My Mom & Dad bought this bed set for Kyle for Christmas but it had already been purchased by Santa for him. Instead of taking it back, my Mom altered it to fit a crib for Carter. It. Is. Awesome.

Our Christmas Tree after Santa came.

Morgan with her Brobee & Muno (Yo Gabba Gabba) Dolls.

Carter looking at Morgan's stuff.

Grandma & Carter.

Me, Kaisha & Roy.


Roy & (his brother) Chris.

Kaisha & Mark


Grandma, Kyle, Anna & Morgan.

Cousin Ben with Carter and Sam (soon to be Ben's wife) with David.

TaTa with Kyle & Morgan.

(If you look to the left of my ginger bread house you can see my OMSH Christmas post card).

TaTa with Anna & Morgan.

My Mom & Dad.

David. So Beautiful.

TaTa, Kaisha & Carter.

Morgan with her fish tank from Santa.

Morgan's fish tank.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. And have a Happy New Year.

All I Want For Christmas Is A Clipo, Clipo, Clipo!!

So. Apparently the Clipo is the big ticket toddler item this Christmas. I can't find one. The Target Kaisha called for me said they would get some more in before Christmas. My Mom told me that she heard the VP of ToysRUs say they would have all of the big items in stock until Christmas. Guaranteed. Roy told me he would go to every store he can tomorrow and see if he can find one. That is very out of character for him, so I am pretty impressed with him right now. Wish me luck. Morgan is counting on Santa to bring the Clipo to her next week.

A Christmas Letter From Kelly

This is an email I got from Kelly last year after she put up her Christmas Tree. I think it is hilarious, so I cleaned up the language (which was not as quickly done as one might think for a beautiful Christmas tale) and here it is.
Don't feel too bad for her. She got a new one at the end of the season last year for like 80% off. Thanks to me calling her and telling her to get to Target.

On a beautiful Christmas note, I put up my twice hand me down Christmas tree today.(This is where my sarcasm, and true feelings are revealed) Well, I attempted to raise the sun of a gun, and since the thing is older than I am, it started shedding fake green needles throughout my house, and then the actual branches began to literally fall off. Once the tree was finally up, I got out my favorite lights in the whole world and started putting them on the tree. Imagine my surprise when the last two strings would not light up. There was no twinkling, there was no beautiful soft glow coming from the top of the tree....it was dark. And because I was such a genius when I bought these "perfect" lights, of course I got just exactly enough lights to cover the tree; not even a extra strand for just in case. These are not your everyday, run of the mill twinkle lights; these are "Dew Drop Lights." They are supposed to give your tree a "magical" glow. These are the lights that I hid in a suitcase at Target waiting for the day after Christmas sale so I didn't have to mortgage the house to buy the expensive things. After 30 minutes of replacing the little dew drops one by one, they finally came to life!! It should have gone smoothly from there right???? WRONG!!! Imagine putting a new, gorgeous ornament on a branch, backing up to commend yourself on a perfect positioning of it, and then watching the damn branch break off, and your gorgeous new ornament shatter to pieces. I can describe this moment again for you, and just replace the color of the ornament since this lovely situation happened another 4 times. There was also a very close call with another ornament, but I figured out that when the branch starts to sag, it's probably a good thing to take the ornament off of it, and just rip the branch out!!! I finally started to realize something; this tree is revolting against Christmas, and is begging to be donated to Goodwill. I would take it to Goodwill right now, but since I wasted time to put lights on it and put numerous ornaments on it, I've decided that this will be the Christmas with the chest hair tree. What do you mean you say...well, you know how men get patches of hair on their chests, and there are always patches that have no hair as well, my tree is like that, only branches instead of hair. As you can tell, it was one hell of an experience, and I have decided that next year, I'm not having a Christmas tree. I hope your tree erecting goes smoother than mine did.
Merry Christmas From Kelly!!!

I hope you laugh as hard as I do every time I read this.

Our Weekend

What a crazy week. I am sure glad it is over. Matthew is in pain and still hasn't heard anything from anyone. I am not sure what is going to happen, and I am having a hard time thinking about how screwy the insurance companies are. It seems that they don't realize that behind that payment they get every month, there is a person. A real, breathing person. And that person pays them every month so that when they need help they will get it. Or will they??

The weekend was good for us. We had Roy's Christmas party last night. The guy he is doing work for is so nice. Him and his girlfriend had all of his guys (contractors) and their wives over to their amazingly beautiful house. And had so much food that his GF was sending people home with some. It was fun. Marly watched the kids for us. She brought stuff for her and Morgan to make cards. It was Morgan's first experience with glitter. And Marly doesn't do things small. She brought a huge jar of glitter. Morgan had a blast. I think my house has a new permanent sparkle. Marly swept the floor last night and I swept it about 5 times today before we had Roy's family over. Still sparkling.

And today Roy's family came over for our Christmas with them. I learned something. If you plan on making a Christmas style feast, go to the store at least the day before. I was planning on going yesterday but I cleaned up my house and had two grumpy tired kids so I decided I would get up extra early today and go. When I decided this I forgot the high today was supposed to be 15 (it got up to 18) with snow. So I was waiting to see what was happening with the snow, and I wanted to talk to Roy's aunt to make sure they were coming. I was at the store at about 10. They were coming at 1. But I pulled it off. I bought a spiral sliced ham (fully cooked) and I made sweet potatoes, a potato gratin, green bean casserole and had a veggie tray and chips with dip. I forgot dessert. And heavy paper plates. But everything turned out great and we had a real good time. When they left Roy and I watched The Dark Knight. What a movie. I am still not sure what to say about it. It was great, but I am still speechless.

The weather is supposed to be cold all week. We are going to have a heat wave Thursday or Friday and it should climb up to the 30's. WooHoo. I really wish I didn't have to go Christmas shopping. But I really want to at the same time.

I bought the best Christmas cards today. I was going to make some but can't locate my embossing gun. So I am going to sign and address those tomorrow and get them sent on Tuesday.

HP Magic Giveaway From Stop, Drop & Blog

I have been a reader of the blog Stop, Drop & Blog since before it was Stop, Drop & Blog. I love reading about this particular family because we have children close in age. This family is a fire family. They are FireDad (the fire fighter), FireMom(writer, wahm), BigBrother (just turned 3) and LittleBrother (just turned 1). The Fire Family is one of fifty blogs picked to host the HP Magic Giveaway. This is a prize of $6000.00 worth of HP Goodies.

There are different ways to enter (this blog post is one of my entries). So here is what this would mean to me.

With this gift I could replace my computer that won't even recognize the cd burner or play regular computer games without freezing up.

I could give said computer to my brother who has a dinosaur computer his is still running windows 95 or 98. No. I'm Not Kidding.

I would use this gift for my husband's billing and for writing on my blog.

I would also love to use photosmart and finally do something with the thousands of pictures I have of my kids on my computer, and would also play around with pictures of my niece and nephews.

This would make our holiday so special because as it is we don't have much of a budget for Christmas (as is the case with most people this year), and presents are going to be slim, even only buying for (all of) the kids. My husband is a carpenter, and as everyone knows the winter is not a great time to be a carpenter.

And finally, if you read my post about everything that happened to us this week you know that we are not having a good week. This would really give me something to have fun with myself and with Morgan.

What In The World Is Going On?????

Where do I begin. Yesterday started out so normal and good. I had to go and get the Christmas pictures of the kids. That was my big plan for the day. On my way home I had to pull over for a passing ambulance. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then I ran over some slippers in the road that reminded me of Avon slippers. If I had only known. They were Avon slippers. Matthew was in a horrible car accident. He was hit while going through an intersection which caused his truck to spin into a traffic light pole and flip. He thought that he was okay and didn't go to the hospital. Roy went and picked him up and brought him back here. I took him to work and then the hospital. He was complaining about his shoulder hurting. Long story short he has a broken neck (his c7 vertebrae) and a broken rib. So now not only is he with a broken neck, he can't work, he has no car, and he has a wife and new baby to take care of. I feel so bad for him. Matthew has pulled some crap that worried me before, but this wasn't his fault and is the most worrisome event ever. The broken vertebrae is right next to a main artery and they are worried about swelling cutting off the artery. And to rub salt into a wound, he still had temp tags on the truck. He is so special to me. I always said I raised him, even though we are only 15 months apart in age. I wish there was more I could do for him (them).

And that was only one person affected by the bad mojo going on over here. His friend got a ticket on his way to take his brother to the courthouse to fix a missed court date, and the courthouse friend was arrested at the same time. My SIL's Mom went to the hospital for what turned out to be kidney stones and a kidney infection. My best friends sister went to the hospital for (again) what turned out to be kidney stones. Another family member was arrested this morning for a civil matter (this is a ridiculous arrest). And the courthouse friend's Mom is in the hospital tonight for what might possibly be another heart attack. I am bunkering down until something good happens to anyone I know.

One Tired Baby

The kids and I are sick. We all have colds. Carter seems to have it the worst. He is usually the happiest baby in the world, but the past couple of days he has been kind of grumpy, and even though his grumpy is still pretty happy, it has been rough. So this morning I was getting stuff ready to take to the post office (yay, I sold some stuff) and I put him in his walker with some crackers. He started to get a little whiny and I kept telling him I was almost done and then I would put him down for a nap. Suddenly he quit making any noise at all. I looked at him, and this is what I saw.

Poor Baby. He must have been done. And no Mom, he is not still sleeping in his walker. I only left him there long enough to snap that picture. He is sleeping soundly in his crib.

Holiday Fun Stuff

We have been busy busy over here. I bought one of those pre baked ginger bread houses. So we put that together. And it looks decent (at best). I forgot to ice the front part of the roof so I am going to do that today. And as I already posted, I put the tree up, with help from Morgan of course. And we made ornaments. They aren't painted yet, but they are cut out and baked. We might do some painting today too, since it is snowing and the high is supposed to be 21. Don't worry about the cold though, tomorrow it is supposed to be 57.

But the best thing we did was go and get Christmas pictures taken. I haven't written on here about our previous picture taking adventures. They were (again, at best) horrible. Morgan is so shy that it was just a photographer snapping away and me hoping they got a decent shot worth paying for. I was pretty lucky and he did. But this year was different. David was going to be there, and I got her real excited about picture day. And I thought it would be great fun with Carter, who smiles when you look at him. Morgan did great, as far as sitting and even being moved around for pictures, Carter did great too, as far as sitting on a couch and only trying to dive off a few times. But, of all the pictures she took, I don't have one of either one of them smiling. Not one. Not even smiley face Carter. I couldn't believe it. He looks so serious in all of the shots. I didn't expect a smile from Morgan, heck I didn't even expect participation, but I thought at the very least I could count on a smile from Carter. Then after the picture taking was done, we were standing at the computer deciding which photos to order and he was smiling and talking and laughing. Maybe next year I will get some smiles. Like these. But with cute clothes and brushed hair.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh ....Apple Tree???

Max and Ruby, Ruby & Max. Morgan lives this show. By that I mean she thinks she is Ruby and Carter (or anyone she is talking to) is Max. Everyday there are at least 4 episodes of M&R being played out at my house. It is not uncommon for Morgan to start running around the house with her back pack on yelling "You can't catch me Max" (from the episode where Max is it in a game of freeze tag with Ruby and her friends), or for her to say things like "Orange Dream Boats are too heavenly to describe" "Ready as brownies in the oven" That's a good one Ruby, I'll have to use that" (from the episode where Ruby earns a Bunny Scout Merit Badge by working Candy's candy store) and the other day she walked up to me with hangers on her wrist and told me they were a charm bracelet, and the charms are very special. (if you look at the TV, Max And Ruby is on)

Every once in a while she pretends to be Max, and goes around being a vampire. She also re sites a rhyme while pretending to jump rope, it goes like this

Bunny Scout, Bunny Scout, Dressed in green,

Wave to bunny scout leader curtsy for the queen,

Now count all the way to number thirteen

But the best one is when she pretends she is playing with Ruby's friend Louise but Max keeps interrupting them because he wants an apple. Ruby goes and picks him apple after apple until finally he has a bucket full and he tells Ruby he want apple pie. Morgan acts this one out all the time. She gets her stool and puts it in the middle of the living room, or next to the plants, and stands on it and reach up to pick apples. She actually reaches and twists her wrist to get these apples, then she will walk up to us and say "here Max, a nice juicy apple", it is hilarious. The nice ones of us say thank you and pretend to eat our nice juicy apples, the not so nice ones (meaning Roy) will say "I. Am. Not. Max". So it should have come as no surprise to me that our Christmas tree (yes I already put it up, and I did a bunch of other holiday type activities, I will post those later today or tomorrow) would double as the best apple tree over here in Bunyville.