Emily's Performance

Just a quick post to share some photos from Emily's Winter Program. She did a fantastic job, although, there was no triangle playing....we don't know either. She was SO excited today. She wanted to wear her red dress and sparkly shoes to school. It was hard to contain her until 5pm. Great job sweetie. We couldn't be prouder.

And little Miss Paige. To say that she loves her Jumperoo would be an understatement. She jumps and she jumps and she jumps. It's just the cutest thing ever. I would also like to say that I am proud Mama on both sides because my sweet Paige was such a good girl during her Big Sister's performance. She said quietly on my lap for most of the performance. She did spend some time pretending that she was back in her Jumperoo. Too cute.

Look what I can do!!

Paige can sit up, unassisted, for at least 40 seconds. Pretty cool. Even Max is impressed!! My baby is growing up. Next week she'll be driving.

This Weekend

Good weekend. No sleep. Not even a little bit. Baby who doesn't want to be apart from us. Decorated tree, house. Loaded Christmas CD's in the CD player. Gotta have my Amy Grant. Finished my book - Kite Runner. So good. I love to read. Snow on Saturday night. BIG snow on Saturday night. Snowman and french toast on Sunday morning. Yum. Big rain all day. Streets are slushy, as are my shoes. WalMart outing with the bluenovember.org group. Good food at Mongolian BBQ. No room for dinner. Emily has such fun with her cousins. Hope baby sleeps tonight. Foggy outside tonight. Christmas shopping online. Going to bed. Happy December.

The Jig is up - thank goodness

Just got back from my surprise visit to sunny, and HOT, south Florida. I am so glad all the sneaking around is over. You see, I am not a very good liar, and although I was never directly asked by anyone about my coming to Florida, it was still very hard to hold it all in for a couple months.

For those of you who don't know - I surprised my whole Adventure Travels office by attending my good friend Keri's baby shower. The only person who knew that I was coming was my partner in crime - Linda Freels. We both did an excellent job of keeping the whole thing under wraps until Wednesday night. It was so much fun seeing everyone's faces as they came into the room at Buca DiBeppo. Most everyone's first reaction was just to say, "Oh HI Allison", but then they realized that it was not a normal thing anymore for me to be there, and then came the "Oh my GOD!! Allison's here!!!" I do however think my favorite reaction of the night was Keri's reaction. I don't think anyone was more shocked than she was. It was great.

I would like to thank the lovely Lisa Hellman for taking such a great picture. You really captured it!! It so much fun to get the chance to do that to someone - gives you the warm fuzzies on the inside. I am still smiling about it.

Anyway, we had a great time at the shower. It was so much fun to get to see everyone - although it will just make me miss them so much more now. It's just not the same taking on the phone, or though email - but it's better than nothing, right? So, thank you Adventure so much for making me feel like I had never left. You guys ROCK. And Brooke - there are just no words...good gift.

I had a great Thursday afternoon with my sister, Amanda. She, bless her heart, sat though my visit to the office so I could catch up with those who were not able to attend the shower. We had a great lunch at my favorite place - LaBamba. And even got to get some Christmas shopping done at Towne Center mall. I got to see her new store that she will be managing in a matter of days - WAY TO GO Amanda! Stop by if you get a chance - Baby Cottons. It's a super cute store with super cute clothes for baby and kids.

Thursday nite was a fun night with all my south Florida girlfriends - Tracy (who was so sweet to put me up for my stay), Mary-Frances, Patti and Sheila. We ate at our usual spot, Carrabbas, and stuffed ourselves on gossip, stories and did I mention the food? Again, it was so great seeing you girls, and I now miss you even more.

One more thing....I would like to say thank you to all of you who let me know that you like reading my blog. It was so good to hear that so many are enjoying it. I think it's just a great and efficient way to keep up with everyone. I think everyone should have one!! So, if you promise to keep reading, I promise to keep writing. I am just going to warn everyone that this month's blog entries are sure to be either short or less frequent - December is a busy month for our family. Emily already came running into my bedroom this morning shouting, "It's December! It's December! Happy December!" With her performance this Thursday, her birthday two weeks from Sunday and Christmas, it's no wonder it's her favorite month. So, Happy December everyone!!

Oh, BTW - everyone is in one piece here in Michigan. Eric and my Mom did a super job holding down the fort.

Holy Snow Batman!!

So, it's really snowing right now. The snowflakes are the biggest that I have ever seen. Those "smudges" on the picture are the HUGE snowflakes drifting by. It's sticking to the grass, but it's making a mucky mess on the street. I am sure the people driving home from work right now are not too happy. Well, it makes me smile...but I am all warm and cozy in my house.

We finally finished the Christmas 2007 photo. It's all uploaded and ordered from Kodakgallery.com, and will be coming to a mailbox near you soon - that is, to those of you who are reading this that I know....the rest of you will have to see it sometime next month when I upload it to the blog. It was hard this year coming up with something to include both girls....and maybe it's not that exciting or original, but it'll do. Can't wait to see all of yours. Oh yeah....don't forget to make sure I can fit all your faces in my 2x2 square punch...haha.

Yet another update

I guess November has been a pretty busy month. I have only had a few posts this month, much less than the previous months. Well, I have been busy and for some reason cannot seem to find the time to blog. I am going through blog withdrawal.

In any case, Thanksgiving was good. We had 14 people (that includes myself) for dinner. We played a new game that I found by reading someones blog. I had everyone write down on a piece of paper the things that they were thankful for, and a bonus question of who would you like to meet, living or dead. Then, the papers, without names, were deposited into a basket. At dinner, everyone drew out a slip of paper, read it and tried to guess who wrote it. It was fun reading some of the things that people came up with - funny and serious. I won't bore you with all of them, but I enjoyed Clara's poem and had a chuckle at the fact that my Aunt Teresa wants to meet Chuck Norris. We also had our first real snow of the season. When we woke up there was a little on the ground and some on the roof. It snowed pretty hard around 2pm, but it didn't really stick.

Didn't really venture out to much on Black Friday. I did make it to Hallmark for some much needed gift wrap and teacher presents.

Today, Eric and I had the opportunity to ride on the North Pole Express. It's this real working steam locomotive that operates out of a small town north of here - Owasso. We were invited by a couple of members from Eric's train club that actually work on the locomotive. It was pretty cool. We got to ride in a real restored caboose - even got to sit up in the cupola (the top part) for most of the ride up and back. This locomotive was actually used in the movie "The Polar Express" - they used the sounds and drew the locomotive in the movie based on the one we rode on. Of course, Eric was WAY more into than I was, but I still thought it was pretty neat. It would have been fun to take Emily with us, but we were only offered two tickets, so we had some grown up time. Eric told Emily that we would be seeing Santa Claus - the train travels to the "North Pole". So, Emily went and got her most prized toy catalog and showed Eric what she wanted so that we could tell Santa for her. Too funny.

Here's some pictures from the last week:

Paige was four months old on Saturday - time flies doesn't it???


Finally, I found a good use for a Boppy!!! Gotta keep those ears warm. Sorry Honey, I could not resist!!
We got this marker board at IKEA - Emily and Eric love to draw on it all the time. Emily named this dude Mib Meef. I like his belly button.
See the snow on our roof? Very exciting huh?
Here's the Polar Express. Notice the number....1225.....and all that STEAM!!!
Isn't she just the cutest?
The group from Thanksgiving. From the top: Clara, Aunt Joan, Hayley, Sue, Julie (with Emerson in her belly), Ryan, Matt behind Julie and Ryan, Emily, Me, Aunt T hiding, Carol, Kelly, Eric, Uncle Denny and Paige.

A couple more things

I forgot to mention that Emily is getting to play the triangle in her Winter program on Dec. 6th. She is SO pumped. I asked how she got picked to do this, and she simply said, "I raised my hand Mom." Well, cool then. This is a picture from last year's performance. She was so cute - sang every song, did all the hand movements, was such a star to her daddy and I. We can't wait to see it this year.

I also wanted to mention that I just so love the new and quite improved, in my humble opinion, family room. I have had a couple days to really get the feel of the color, and I like it better everyday. It's got a tropical feel to it - especially with our dark brown furniture. We are also planning to rip out the carpeting with it's menagerie of stains, and put in wood floor to match the rest of the downstairs in the next year - and then the transformation will be complete. It's just amazing to me what a coat of paint can do.