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.

Leaves, Grabbing and Paint

Well, that's an interesting title...whatever does it mean? It pretty much sums up my last few days. I have busy preparing for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Now that I am an adult, I think that Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday. It's all about family, food and thankfulness. What could be better? You don't have to shop for a gift for anyone, just a turkey - and that's easy. I don't even think the food prep is anything scary. So, I can't wait....bring on the elastic pants!!

Anyway - I think I was channeling Martha Stewart when I thought of what I was going to do for place cards for our meal. I made some cute one's with card stock and fall colored flowers last year, and I would use them again....but BORING. So, this year I decided that I would use the 20+ multicolored leaves that we collected on our hike a few weeks ago. I was just going to put the names of everyone coming on them, but I went one better....

I put every body's picture on the leaves. I just happened to have a picture on file of everyone coming. I cropped each picture to a 1.5 inch square, printed it, cut it and adhered it to a leaf. I then wrote every body's name on the leaf with either a white or a black paint pen. I think it turned out pretty cute. And, everyone has their own individual keepsake to take home.

Paige has learned a new skill in the past few days - grabbing things with two hands. She has been grabbing fistfuls of my hair for awhile now, but she never really was doing it on purpose. Now she is actually playing with some of her toys. It's so cute. She is also grabbing things like my full cereal bowl (luckily I have fast reflexes), my arm, and my hair - again. She also has a strong grip - I have to pry things out of her hands.
And finally - something I NEVER thought we would be able to do....Paint the family room!!!! Well, with much complaining from my dear, darling husband, we did it. We had to rent a scaffold to reach the ridiculously high ceilings, but it is DONE!!!! Just so you know, I had nothing to do with the scaffold. Thank goodness my husband has no fear of heights - he did all the high work. He did describe building the scaffold as "terrifying", but he was diligent, and did it. Even Emily ended up on the scaffold with her daddy - we picked her up over the railing so she could be up high with Daddy. Surprisingly, she wasn't scared.

Now the room before: (this was taken right after we moved in)And after:I love the color - it's a yellowish green. Very warm, very not beige. Don't get me wrong - I love beige, but we already have a beige kitchen, and bedroom. We need some color in the room we use the most. I figured it would ward off the winter doldrums. You really can't appreciate how high the ceilings are in these pictures - it was daunting, but actually easier then we thought it would be. We started Friday night with taping, furniture moving and a little trim painting. Then on Saturday morning, I started rolling the bottom half of the room at 11am. Eric got the scaffold at 1pm and got it together by 3pm. We finished painting at 11:30pm. We did have to do some touch up this morning (Sunday), and it did take the better part of the day to get everything back in it's place - but it went much smoother then any of us anticipated. Yea for US!!

Sorry for the long post - I promise I will be better in the next weeks at updating. Have a great Monday everyone.

Aunt Ingi was here

Oh my goodness - it's been over a week......so not like me. Well, I have been busy and then after I was busy, I was sick..well I am sick. A cold. No fun. Even Paige has her first stuffy nose. Should I save the first snotty tissue? Has anyone ever scrapbooked that? For some strange reason, I think someone probably has.

Anyway, Friday was a crazy day. Emily had no school because of Parent teacher conferences - which I went to. At the same time Eric and Emily went to the airport to pick up Ingrid. Emily is doing great so far this year. Her teachers have really seen an improvement from last year - much more outgoing, and a big jump in reading readiness. She's doing really well in math as well. I have no doubt that she will be completely ready for Kindergarten next year.

We had a very nice visit with Ingrid. ***By the way, I like to spell Ingi with an "e" on the end, but apparently that is wrong. I would like to go on record that INGI looks weird*** It was not the greatest weather - cold, gray and generally rainy. We did make it out to IKEA, which was fun. Emily was very happy to see her Aunt and cannot wait until the next visit - either here or in Florida.

Paige has a bit of a cold, but she is dealing with it just fine. She is also sleeping better. No, not through the night, but two good naps during the day, and most of the night. She's even learned to fall asleep on her own - BIG PLUS. She has also learned to shreek like a pterodactyl. It's pretty funny. I didn't think it was possible, but she's getting cuter and cuter everyday. We measured her yesterday, and she's already 25 inches long. Almost four months old. Is that possible??

Funny thing Emily said the other morning: "Mommy, I am SO tired. I was up all night watching my dreams." Any excuse to sleep in.

It's Christmas Time again

I got this great idea from the new Ali Edwards book. Ali got tired of hanging onto all those Christmas cards and photo cards, but could not bear to throw them away. So, she decided to take a 2 inch square punch and give each card and photo a punch. The result is a great one page layout that is as much a keepsake as it is a scrapbook page. I think that I will find some place in my house to display this - it makes a great decoration. So, please help a girl out and keep this year's pictures small enough to fit in my square :) To those of you who are not scrapbookers...this was pretty easy to do - you should try it. If I can convert three more non-scrapbookers into a scrapbookers, I get a toaster...just kidding.

In case you are wondering - the stitching at the top and bottom are a rub-on.....still haven't figured out my sewing machine yet.

A little Snow

So we got a small sprinking this morning. It's all melted now. And here's Miss Paige looking so cute this morning. Normally don't like those headband things, but I do like this one with the flower on it. Got it from etsy.com - it's handmade.

No Snow Yet

But we are prepared..........

Snow is in the forcast....

Since we have moved here to the great state of Michigan, and have become a stay at home family, we have become quite the newspaper addicts. We, Eric and I, practically fight over sections everyday. I like staying current - it makes life so much more interesting. Even Emily gets into it - she always wants to know what "color" we are. What she means is on the last page of the local news section is the weather forecast. There's a map of Michigan, and it's color coded according to temperature. There's also an extended forecast with pictures of suns, clouds, rain clouds and yes, the snowflake. So, the picture for tomorrow is a snowflake.

I would also like you to know that I do look at the forecast for other places in this world....for example, I know that y'all in Florida had a lovely day in the low 80's....hope you enjoyed it.

This weekend, Eric and I did something that we haven't done in quite a while - actually I cannot remember the last time.....we went to see a rated R film in the theater. We saw "Into the Wild". It was, as Kelly put it, INTENSE. For those of you not familiar with the story - it's about this young man, Chris McCandless, who is searching for the meaning of life I suppose, and he goes off on a two year adventure with practically nothing. He ends his adventure in the vast wilderness of Alaska. He ends up starving to death. It's a true story....I am not telling you anything that hasn't already been told. Anyway, it's based on the book of the same name, which I just finished prior to seeing the movie. What a up and happy movie for date night right? We liked it - I just wasn't expecting to really see him die in the movie....the book basically said "He died." That was the intense part.


Now for something much happier.......Emily and Eric having their driving lesson.

The "real" boss in the office. She has been so good lately - during the awake hours. She has been a handful at night - she has been waking up practically every hour....oh what fun. Have a great Tuesday and check back here later for possible snow pictures. Oh yeah, I tried to get better pictures of Paige in her Pea costume....not happening. Note to self....three month old babies do not need a Halloween costume. Well, at least the costume was not expensive. Hey, if any of you need a cute costume in 0-6 month size....see me.

Turbo Halloween

So, normally I would have some pretty spectacular pictures from last night - but it all went so fast, those pictures just never had time to happen. We went out at six, which came upon us really fast - we rushed through dinner, and getting the costumes on the girls, so no real time for pictures. Emily had a great time trick-or-treating with the neighborhood kids. She managed to keep up with the "fast" kids, and our group quickly got separated from most of the girls. I call it "Turbo Trick-or-Treating" because they were literally running from house to house. I got tired just watching her. Paige also enjoyed her first trick-or-treating adventure - she napped in her stroller all cozied up in her costume. The weather was a little windy, but the temperature was perfect - crisp and fall like.

I also took a picture of our beautiful maple tree. The color this year is really pretty. Happy November everyone. I think I am going to try and take some better pictures of the girls later today.