AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!....

The anticipation of a brand new year!? I don't know what to think about it yet. I always hate the first few months of a new year because it takes me that long to remember to write the new date. I'm sure I will be writing 08' instead of 09'. A knew year also brings the obligation of a New Year's Resolution. I pretty much make the same one every year. to lose some weight. The only difference this year is the amount of pounds I wish to lose is up a few from last year. that's depressing. And of course I always vow to become more organized at home for the new year. The organized part will certainly come into play when I have to dig out the treadmill in the computer room in order to start on the first resolution. I will keep you posted on the success of this year's (continued from last year's) new Years Resolution.

The new year also brings me some sadness knowing that the kids will be another year older, They are growing up way too fast....which also means I will be getting another year older..yuck. And last of my pitty party... It will mark another year gone by without our loved ones who have passed on. This makes me sad.


I know The New Year is supposed to be happy. That's why we go out and party right? To Celebrate! So lets see.....Things I can look forward to this year are... My new body due to my Resolution (lol)...Income Tax refund... The end of Winter....The Beginning of Spring...Planting flowers...The Vegetable Garden...The new batch of Honey... The end of Car payments in August!(hopefully we won't need a new one)...and A Trip to Disney in November.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year's Eve tonight, and a Happy, HEALTHY 2009.

My Version of a Christmas poem:

The Stockings were flung behind the living room chair, And you could definitely tell that saint nick had been there. early they rose to see what they had gotten, then off to see family they dashed without stoppin. on kyle, on vivie, on kerrigan and gary. on car seats,on buckles on allison... be merry! Gary looked at me and said what is the matter? - why, we are off schedule, we're late! now get on with the clatter! There was laughter and love, all day long there was joy. You could see it in there eyes after opening each toy. When darkness fell on this family of five, we loaded up the presents and prepared the last drive. Back over the river and through the woods, the kids were so tuckered they fell asleep in their hoods. we stuffed kids into beds and gifts into piles. we discovered a mess that went on for miles. too tired to clean it, we longed for a rest. so we left it for tomorrow, we thought that would be best.

The End!

That was Christmas in a nutshell.

A very nice holiday - glad it's over though. The kids are having a ball enjoying their new toys. here are a few of my favorite Christmas moments in pictures.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wishing Everyone a Very Merry Christmas. May it be filled with Family!

please Wish me Peace and Sanity!


Christmas Schedule:
12/24.....
3:00pm...... leave work, head for home
3:30 ....... Get myself and everyone else dressed for Christmas eve dinner
4:45 ....... Head over to In-laws for x-mas eve dinner/gift exchange with cousins/games/"SANTA" visits at 7:00!
8:30 ........Head back home
10:00........ Continue to try getting kids to fall asleep
11:00........ if kids are sleeping, finish wrapping presents/stuff stockings
12:00am ......Fall asleep

12/25......
6:30am....... Wake up - Make Coffee - wake kids
6:45 ........Call Gramma and Grampa to come up for presents/stocking opening
9:30 ........Head to In-laws for Breakfast with Great Grampa V.
11:30 .......Back over the bridge to the farm - presents with my family/crock pot buffet lunch
pm
5:00 ........Back to In-laws for Christmas dinner/ Exchange Gifts / Relax
8:30 ........Drag our tired Asses back home and crawl into bed completely dressed

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

To Blog....or Not To Blog....

oh MAN :)- I got home from work today to find Gary leaving for work...AND dropping off ALL THREE children at his mom's! They planned a trip to tour the holiday lights. lets see...that gives me about 4 hours to...do....what?


My EYES were telling me it was a perfect opportunity to get some of that dreadful cleaning done that I can never get done with Monkeys and Munchkins demanding attention. I could finish wrapping presents. do Laundry. Dishes. vacuum. OR I could BLOG....


Arrggh! it was so hard not to sit down at the computer knowing there would be no distractions....but I didn't... I did the dishes(which required two full dishwasher loads), and the laundry, and swept the kitchen floor, and ....As you can see, Blogging has effected my housework. But I think I have it under control now.


So much to do in the next couple of days - tonight ( 11:10 pm )I still need to get a basket of tastefully simple together for Corin, Wrap up the Baby sitter's Gift for the girls to take tomorrow, finalize the last minute shopping list for my lunch hour tomorrow, and fit in some sleep before morning. - so you see... I have all the time in the world to be sitting here.
Ohhhh... so this is why most of the blogs I follow haven't been updated in like 5 days.

I'm Hit....

I have been tagged. Now I have to come up with 7 random or weird facts about myself. I have been worried about being tagged with something like this. In the bloggosphere I can't just "accidentally" hit the delete button and ignore it like it never happened. Thanks Corin. she is the tagger and she is also my sister. We are a lot alike- so now I have two challenges (1) to come up with 7 things I wouldn't mind the public knowing, and (2) trying not to duplicate some of Corin's 7.


So here Goes....

#1 If you read Corin's 7 weird and random things, you already know that I too have crooked pinkies. Along with my two oldest children. My third child, who resembles more of my husband, has one crooked, one straight. Unlike all of them, I also have another physical strangeness. I have a tiny white dot in the middle of each of my pupils. I have no explanation for this. It has no effect on my eyesight.

#2 The book " The Eskimo Twins" is the only book I have read cover to cover. yes - I am 31 years old and I have only read 1 whole book....I was like 9... (not counting all of the children's books I have read to the kids of course.) It's not that I can't read, But I find that I would rather be doing something else, or it makes me sleepy, or I'd rather just wait until it is a movie. All of those book report assignments in school - it is amazing what you can get from a few chapters and the back cover.

#3 In the 4th grade, a baseball player from the team my father was an assistant coach for, taught me how to Juggle. This special talent actually comes in pretty handy. It won me a prize once at basketball camp when a speaker asked if anyone could juggle - I had to prove it, but I was the only one. It also comes in handy for entertaining kids - which prompted me to teach myself how to balance a baseball bat (or anything with a straight handle) on my nose. - I am a regular Circus act.

#4 Clutter makes my skin crawl - some of you are laughing hysterically right now - If you could see my house, you would know how uncomfortable my skin feels. We have too much "stuff" and not a lot of places to put it. I long for shelves, and totes, and other forms of organizing tools. I wish for a place for everything and everything in it's place. One of these days, I am going to do a clean sweep - everything will go out on the lawn, necessities will make it back in....one of these days.

#5 I am addicted to "Days Of Our Lives"... I tivo it all week and catch up on the weekends. While I am watching it, I am conscious of it's ridiculousness, yet I am still hooked.

#6 There is something about Tony Danza that reminds me of my Brother-in-law. I don't know how to explain it, and those of you who know Dan probably think I have been drinking. But through the years of " Who's The Boss", I couldn't watch him without thinking he was just like Dan.

#7 I crave a drink I have not had in about 19 years. As a child, we didn't take trips to the mall on a weekly basis like we sometimes do now. We went once in a great while as a family. While we were there, I looked forward to our "treats" of an ORANGE JULIUS! That place moved out of the mall years and years ago, and I didn't know they still existed until this post. I looked it up and low and behold the nearest one is 40 miles from me and they are now owned by Dairy Queen.

There - I'm done... Now I have to tag 7 others.

The Rules:
Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog *Share seven facts about yourself in the post- some random, some weird, *tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs, *let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs/ and or twitter.

My seven: is really six

Just Another Mommy Blog
Live.Laugh.Pull your hair out
In the trenches of Mommyhood
Coconut belly
Chasing dreams running away
seastars

SOME PLACE WARM

It isn't even Christmas yet and I am already sick of the snow. We have had 2 snow falls so far this year, but we are looking at another one tomorrow, one on Sunday, and another one next Wednesday.....Ughhh... I am one of those people that wishes it would snow on Christmas eve, AND THAT'S IT. I would be good with that for a whole nother year! I am looking Forward to a January thaw - and an early Spring.
OK - I'm done whining.

Reptile Kyle.......

First Birthday.... Favorite present - large rubber Brontosaurus from uncle Eddie
Age 3.... Favorite movie: Jurassic Park
Age 4 ....Favorite books: Animal Encyclopedias he called his "Great big book of everything"
Age 5 ....favorite TV shows: Jeff Corwin Experience, Dinosapian, Meerkat manor, Documentaries on the Loch Ness Monster and CHAMP
Age 6 .... Favorite past time: Figuring out how to talk Mommy and Daddy into various lizard/Reptile pets:(
Age 6 1/2... All of those favorites are still his favorites.


"When I grow up, I am going to be the guy that goes in the cages at the ZOO!"

This is what Kyle told us a couple of years ago - I think it was after we left the Rosamond Giffard Zoo. - We discussed this more on the ride home, about how he could be anything he wants to be when he grows up - The Zoo would be a fun place to work -
we have our fingers crossed that he will want to go into the field of zoology - Not just settle for being the cage cleaner!


We have definitely nurtured Kyle's enthusiasm for Animals, nature, dinosaurs, Lizards, - you name it , if it is a creature, Kyle is an expert. Animal Impressions are a specialty. It is actually one of the coolest things about him. Some of my greatest "talks" with Kyle have been about "wild things". When he thinks he can teach me something about an animal, he gets very serious... starts talking with bigger hand gestures... comes up with interesting theories - surprises the hell out of me that he is only 6. Just last month, we watched a Jeff Corwin special on the National Geographic channel about the disappearance of the world's frog population. at the end of the show, jeff told us to go to www.savethefrogs.com to see what we could do to help the cause. Kyle pointed out to me that by becoming beekeepers, we were helping the bee population, So we should do what we can to help the frog population too. I am going to try and get him this T-shirt for his birthday coming up in 3 months. I hope this donation will be enough. I wouldn't want to take on repopulating the frogs at the pond in the barnyard.

So far,We have allowed various "dinosaurs" such as a Senegal Chameleon, and a red eared slider turtle, to co-habitate with our family at Kyle's request. In fact, we have all kind of stepped into Kyle's unique world of reptile interest to a point. I think we all had fallen in love with Camo the Chameleon, he was actually very cute. Not in a cuddly kind of pet way, but in a very cool pet for a very cool boy, kind of way. It was a very sad day when Camo passed on... The funeral was painful to watch. Then we got Lila - She is pretty easy going, seems to be a lot heartier than Camo. not as delicate. Kyle's new interest......I meant to say OBSESSION! - is trying to talk us into a Bearded Dragon. - He has spent all weekend surfing the net for these spiky dessert dwellers. He has been sent to his room a few times for the constant whining because Mommy says - " No - not right now - we cannot get a bearded dragon. No - Santa does not bring lizards for Christmas - it is too cold for them at the North Pole!"
BLAH BLAH BLAH - he doesn't want to hear any of that - So we had a long talk about how he should be thankful for Lila right now, and that I'm not saying he can NEVER have a bearded dragon... just not right now.... Maybe sometime in the Future.
KYLE: " oh - you mean, like, my BIRTHDAY????"

God help me!

Hey, you never know.....

This is a link to a survey given by Lands' End. I am going to take the survey - I could win a gift card. Now that I told you all about it on my blog, I will get 2 chances to win! - great! good luck to us all.

Lands' End had this to say:

Lands' End is one of those companies that really value moms' opinions. Here's a way to have your voice heard and really make a difference when it comes to summer clothing and summer safety.

Please take a few minutes to complete the Lands' End Sun.Life 2008 Survey. The survey consists of 22 multiple-choice questions. Upon completing the survey, your name will be entered to win one of five $100 Lands' End Gift Cards. To be eligible to win, you must complete the survey by midnight (CST) on Friday, December 19th.

Cookie Artists

I am not much of a Christmas cookie baker. I don't know what it is about it that makes me lack the motivation to want to tackle a few Dozen every now and then. Thank goodness the kids have a Meme that plans a Christmas cookie night every year so the kids can really get down and messy. They enjoy the cookie experience lots and lots. I found that I enjoy spectating and photographing it.

This year, the girls' ensemble was complete with new hand made Christmas aprons.
The cookies were under way in no time. flour was flying, rolling pins a rollin', cookie cutters cuttin', ovens buzzin', and colorful icing and candy were perfecting.
These were not just kids baking cookies - this was cookie art. and the masterpieces were down right delicious!

I look forward to learning from these cookie genius' again....same time next year.

smile....SMile....SMILE!!!

Christmas is right around the corner...what do you give grandparents and great-grandparents for Christmas that they don't already have??? Why a Family Photo of us of course!
Yup that's right we have never had a family photo taken of all of us. until now....
Yesterday, we invited Corin to come over and take our Family picture at our house. Let me apologize to her right now. I don't think she knew what she was getting into. It is really exhausting trying to take our picture. and for us trying to get a decent one. I told Corin in the beginning, I was glad it was her taking the picture - she would be able to tell us if we needed to adjust ourselves as to hide any unnecessary rolls or extra chin exposure. YEAH Right - like we had the luxury of worrying about that - it was more like how fast can we snatch Kerrigan as she runs by, get everyone looking the same way, smiling and eyes open before she decides to get back up and run for the camera to see the picture on the back. - We even tried bribing her with chips. "I will give you a chippy if you go sit on mommy's lap." (Fools)
I think there were about 55 pictures taken total, and I like 1 of them. Gary and I agreed that it isn't really one that we would blow up and place over the Mantel, but it will make a great gift this Christmas.
Of the 55 pics taken, some are pretty comical.

after a while it became a continuous shoot and hope for a good one. Good job corin,you had a tough job, but somebody had to do it.

I will reveal our favorite one....drum roll please.....

Robeez Footwear

Guess what? - I haven't had any companies contact me yet about reviewing products:(
It will probably take a little time. - While I wait, I think I will practice reviewing, by telling you about one of my favorite baby items. This will be my product review KICK OFF!

Robeez footwear
For infants and beginner walkers: Robeez Soft soles
"Barefoot is best, choose Robeez next"

These soft soled baby shoes are fabulous! - When I think about all of the baby products I have tried over the course of 3 children, I am most impressed with these shoes. It has now become number one on my list to tell new mothers about. - A definite favorite for a Baby shower gift as well - The mom will thank you. They are easy to get on those squirmy, squishy, plump little feet - And the Stay On!!

With my first 2 children, I thought it was a waste of time and money to put teeny tiny shoes on a baby - They never stayed on, and so they ended up in just their socks anyway. Especially when they started crawling.
Around the time my 3rd baby was about 8 months old, I had gotten a gift certificate from my mother-in-law to use on Amazon.com to buy something for the kids. I decided to go ahead and "splurge" on something I wouldn't normally spend my money on. ( the price of the Robeez brand might be their only downfall) I had heard a few good things about Robeez products, and it was getting toward winter and I wanted the baby to have warm feet at daycare. SO I ordered a pair of absolutely adorable ( so many cute styles it is hard to choose) size 6-12 month PINK Shoes. The cost was approx. $27.95
I fell in love with them! They held up very nicely right up until she grew out of them. and she was even able to begin walking with them for quite a while, which was great, because the soles kept her from slipping on the kitchen floor too. They clean up very nicely - if they get dirty from dragging on the floor, a baby wipe works wonderfully. robeez also has other shoe styles to grow with children up to age 4. be sure to check them all out.

I was sad when she grew out of them. - I had bought a second pair to have as a spare, but they were a different brand. They served the purpose and were just as cute, but I don't think the leather was as soft and the elastic around the ankle seemed to be a little tighter. That brand was Ministar
and they were only about $13.00 sold at Target

My second reason for reviewing Robeez footwear is to let you know that they have a
Holiday promotion

If you send a robeez holiday greeting, The Robeez company will donate $5.00 worth of product to children in need. the reward for me writing a post about it on my blog, Robeeze will donate $25 more dollars. Their Goal is to donate $250,000 worth of robeez footwear to children in need this holiday season in partnership with Kids In Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.)

Thanks for reading my first product review!

Product Reviews

OK - I wanted to try something. I have seen on a few other blogs that companies are willing to send you products to try if you will write a review about it on your blog. I asked a couple of these bloggers how to go about doing this, and the advice seems to be to just write about it on my blog, and companies might start contacting me to start testing! As if there is some sensor that tells a company that someone is interested? It sounds a little too easy to be true, but I will try it.

So here is my Shout out post to any company that would like to send me a sample of their product. I would love to try out some new cleaning products, read a new children's book to the kids and report on their reactions, the family dog is even willing to try out the latest and greatest chew toy. or perhaps I could test out a new baby product - that would be fun. I promise to be thorough and truthful when it comes to my opinion on your product. We are a family of 5 - Mom and Dad in their early 30's , a son 6 yrs old , a daughter 3 1/2 yrs old, a daughter 18 mo. old, we also have a fish, a turtle, and a Labrador retriever. If there are any companies out there that would like us to review a product, we are here to review it! thanks

amillis26276@roadrunner.com

There - I hope that was what I was supposed to do.
I will let you know if I get contacted by anyone!
And If I don't - I might just start reviewing stuff we already have. Cause we got a lot of stuff - some great, some junk!

Elf Fun

I jacked this Idea from someone els's blog - it was so cute I couldn't resist. ENJOY!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I couldn't resist adding another one! - Gary elf cracks me right up!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

BugBeGone!

I am happy to report That the Stomach bug has left the building! It went through everyone in the house EXCEPT ME!! - which I am also happy to report. Lets see, it took 8 days for this virus to go through both girls, Then Kyle, Then Gary, and then my mother-in-law. I think I was puked on a total of 6 times. - Gary says I am the lucky one- I can handle getting puked on, therefore I am rewarded with not having to puke myself. I will go with that! Goodbye puke bug! and don't come back!

In other news - I tried photographing a perfect Christmas card of the kids . ha ha ha. Kyle and Viv are pretty well trained by now when it comes to posing for pictures. Even Sandler is becoming quite the poser.
Miss kerrigan is another story! I may be forgetting the age that Kyle and viv became good picture takers, but Kerrigan and her mind of her own makes it pretty difficult. My goal every year is to put up the tree, get the kids to pose in front of it with the dog and all in pajamas. This year Kerrigan insisted on sitting on the dog. Sandler is ok with that, but it just wasn't working. I asked Kyle and viv to help out, but if they interfere, she starts hitting. imagine that Christmas card! - So what I ended up doing taking a few pictures and then Cropping out the best of each kid, putting it into a card format that holds 3 different pictures and ordering them that way. Not my dream pictures, but they came out cute anyway! - Kerrigan's picture definitely depicts her mood at the time. - So for those of you who get one - Enjoy! I will include a picture that was pretty good, but didn't make the cut only because the size of the picture wouldn't work in a card due to cropping disasters where either heads or dogs were cut off.