Goodbye 2009

What a year of highs and lows.

I was joking with Craig this morning about how much money we had lost this year. Selling our monster house in VA is is tops on the list of things I want to forget about this year. Well, it was all for a good cause. I imagine we can call it freeing ourselves from a materialistic lifestyle and bringing our family home to a place that matters. We have surrounded ourselves with love, support, and simple comforts and living 500 miles away in a 5000sq.ft house never compared to this feeling.

I want to spend more time teaching my girls this year instead of just doing. I'm in the habit of just doing everything to get it done. I'm going teach my girls how to do the things we might take for granted. They are little, but they are no longer babies and I think it would benefit us all I let them have more input in our decisions. They're not going to be doing their own laundry or making their own dinner daily! But we can start with limiting our wardrobes choices for the day and putting our laundry and dirty dishes where they belong. :)

I want to travel this year. We're not moving again for a long time, if ever, so I want to have a family vacation. Disney would be fantastic, as we've haven't been, but I would be absolutely content with a little break somewhere closer. As long as it was interesting & not just Buffalo! :)

I want to take more pictures this year and write more stories.

I want to be a better mother, wife, & person this year.

And if by chance I finally find the natural blond hair I had and the body I once had this year would ABSOLUTELY rock!

editing photos

Lost in the land of editing photos from December. Be back soon, isn't this one silly?! Totally completely Charlotte!

blizzard...

Dec. 3rd

Manhattan Square Park

Skating Rink

Roch., NY

Dec. 4

same place

Can't get enough of the ice skating.

Well...I'm not skating...just walking Pinky who pulled

a Marley & Me at the rink.

You know the ocean scene. Yuck.

Dec. 5

missing photo.

Craig & I went out for Chinese.

I have a picture of Craig drinking a flaming volcano on my cell.

Dec. 6

Strong Museum

Allie & Lulu
Madeline's Christmas

Dec. 7

Making marshmallows
YumDec. 9
Snowed.
I actually shoveled the driveway.
Proof.

Dec. 10

Blizzard

That's Craig shoveling the driveway.

The tiny black speck is him!

Difference between Rochester & Richmond

We don't cancel school when it snows.

December what?

My December daily is kicking my butt and it's only 5 days into the month.

We went ice skating 2 nights in a row which should have provided me with a ton of great pictures, but really didn't.

Hmm...we're going to make Martha Stewart's recipe for vanilla marshmellows. If I don't get a cute photo today, I may have to reconsider this project!

Hello December

December started with a snowfall!

Nice.I'm attempting a December Daily.

For non-scrapbackers, it's a monthly journal filled with pictures taken daily

and the thoughts wriiten down to remember the day.
I like a snow shot for my first entry. It kinda sets a nice wintery

tone to my journal.

Things to write about on December 2nd.

Aunt Sue watched Charlotte while I volunteered in Nora's kindergarten class.

I tried to watch a tivoed Rock & Roll 25th Hall of Fame Concert.

Charlotte wanted to know why Bono was doing the pee pee dance.

He does spent quite a bit of time semi-hunched over tapping one foot.

Hmm.

I never thought my 4yr old

had anything in common with him.

Nora thought Mick Jagger was old and why does he sound funny?

Good valid questions.

I definitely thought that myself about ol' Mick.

Counting down Xmas ABC family style

Things I'm doing to kick off the Christmas season.

1. Getting up at 2am to start shopping on Black Friday.

It was wild, it was crazy, and there's a rumor that I may have been

a little extreme in my reaction to $7.50 puffer vests in Target.

When I was through, they needed CSI to make sense of it all.

2. Getting a two hour "nap" after returning from Black Friday

2 little girls jumped on my head waiting

for me to get up so I can start Christmas decorating.

3. Hop out of bed and go to Home Depot to get a real live tree.

Where an unforeseen meltdown occurred because I would not

purchased a seizing reindeer for my front yard.

4. A picture does not convey the wretched state of this reindeer.

He's my nightmare and a 4yr old's dream.


5. Yay! A shot with the flash when all else fails.
We're happy we found a tree.
That lost a thousand needles in the back of my minivan.
And through the house.
That I vacuum up everyday.
It smells real nice though.






6. A tree lovingly decorated by the hands of 4yr & 5yr old.



7. I can take the pictures to prove it, but I'll leave it to the closeups
to convey the serenity of a loved tree.

8. Me - "Nora, can I take your picture by the tree?"

Nora: "uh huh."

Me: " Can you look at me and stop watching 'The Dog who Saved Christmas'?

Stranger in a strange land.

Hello sweet freedom!

Yep. We're healthy again and both girls are back in school.

Charlotte wanted to play with her leapster this afternoon and told me she wasn't going to school.

Hmm.

I almost had a mini panic attack and then a firm "Put your shoes on,

Leapster will be there when you get home", may have been uttered by yours truley.

And out the door we were!

Crisis averted.

( bad picture of this layout. It looks very cute in person. This photo...not so much!)
It's bad enough when I have made little trips out of the house I feel like a stranger

in a strange land. Now is not the time to be disorientated.

I've got to be on my game to get all those toys that are wanted by my twosome.

Charlotte has already discovered one present. I have to find a good hiding spot in this house.

She's quick. She found it in my closet which she's never gone in before. Nora neither.

Oh well. At least it was only the one.