Cute

So last year I posted my fave Christmastime commercial.....Will Ferrel as Santa spouting off Christmas tunes.....

This year I have a new favorite and it is terribly cute. It is totally something that could and may happen sometime at our house.

Check it out HERE

Our 2008 Christmas Card

Well I tried to post a link to our card. It said I could blog it, however it takes you to a sign in page, so that didn't work. Then I tried the crazy hyperlink thingy and that did the same thing......so if you are on my christmas card list you will have to wait to see it. If would like a christmas card, send me your address via comments and I would gladly send ya one. Don't worry, the pictures arent anything you are going to ooooh and aaaah over......


I put Sean and I on it for the first time EVER!!!!! I don't recall ever sending a Christmas card with our picture. I figure some people would wonder what Sean and I looked like these days. Not my blog regulars.....those people we never see...
Sorry for the lack of posts...I've (we've) been SUPER busy with "stuff" and of course with the holidays fast approaching and our upcoming trip to Las Vegas....the blog is suffering.

House news....all the windows and glass doors are in. We have temporary steel "construction" doors where the actual front, side and back door will be. We have stairs to the basement and they are working on the stairs to the rooms above the garage. The garage floor is poured and the cabinet peeps are coming tomorrow or Friday for another measuring session...The front 3 dormers are incomplete due to the snow that has arrived in the midwest....hopefully it will clear for a few days enough to let them get that finished so they can concentrate on the inside of the house over the winter.

TTFN!!

Reverse Applique

If you read my previous post about the Turkey Shirt here is another shirt I made for Miss Finley. She is going to wear it on her birthday next month!!

The possibilites are endless!!!

The Windows have arrived!!

So Tuesday morning a Pella truck pulled up and dropped off our windows, including a 400 pound window/door combination that is in the kitchen (backside). They guys feverishly worked to get the North side windows in.....then it snowed more today.

Randoms

Here is LUCY.......freshly groomed, lookin' pretty!!

It's Sean and Megan on the couch at my moms.....see Sean, you are on the Blog!!

A Little Craftiness

I purchased an elf apron (child's size) from Kmart and embroidered the kids names on them....so cute. Oddly enough, the apron looks easy enough to make, but I will take a shortcut wherever I can.
This is a "reverse" applique of a hand turkey. It is actually the kids hand....turned out waay cute (hard to tell in photos) and both kids wore them on Thanksgiving. I am working on a similar one for Finley for her "3rd" birthday.

The First Snow

Sunday we woke to snow.....at 8:00......we ALL were outside in full on snow gear by 8:30. It was the perfect packing snow, however there were only like 2 inches. We did it all....snowball fight, snowman, snowball maker thing, sledding, shoveling......

Waiting patiently at the FRONT of the car for Daddy.....

He is sooooo sneaky, he came out BEHIND the car!!!!

Starting of the Snowman.....

Our Angel making an Angel

So my attempt at a "self portrait" of the 4 of us and the snowman didn't work...however it is the only picture of the snowman I have....

The Coziness of Christmas

So one of the best things about the Holiday Season is the coziness that consumes the house. There is such a homey feeling of the glow of the Christmas tree lights....both Sean and I love to turn everyother light off except for the Christmas decorations that light up. However, it does take longer to get to bed at night, wandering around turning EVERYTHING off.

I have to give props to Sean....it was his idea to attach the "believe" sign to the wreath instead of hanging it elsewhere....

the new tree....teee heee heee....it has 1500 lights on it....

Here are a few of our "Marshmallow"

I can't wait for the "teen" years.....

So our youngest, Finley, will be 3 in January. She is a through and through stubborn stinker, sneaky cat, miss priss....but is the best squeeeeezzzzeee hugger in the world. For all her antics, I wouldn't trade her for ANYTHING!!

Here are some randoms of her and her antics.....

Eating the candy BEFORE we could get it on the house.....and she is STILL sneaking candy off the houses....I should take an after picture. She snagged all the "spree" candies that were lining the roof.....
This is her....."hee hee, im doing something im not supposed to be doing" face. She is getting into her aunts beads......

Now when we ask her to smile it is this goofy crooked smile and her eyes dart in the opposite direction....

Or yells.....

And when she is mad or sad she pouts....usually on the bottom step. Can you find her in the picture.

Today in the car she asked for something.....

I say "Just a minute Dear"

she replies "Im not a Deer, Momma, Im a GIRRRRRRL"

GOTTA LOVE HER!!!!!

Want to hear a great Christmas song.....take Canon in D (common in weddings, including mine) and add beautiful children's voices....

Christmas Canon





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New Traditions

So have you seen "The Elf of the Shelf". It is all over specialty catalogs, christmas websites and our local Hallmark. I had seen one last year and thought the kids were a little young to get involved with the Elf. The story goes that the elf is assigned to your home via Santa and is there to "watch" you and report back to the jolly old soul in the evenings while you sleep. Then in the morning the elf is in a different spot. The fun for the kids comes then...trying to find the elf everymorning. It's a cute story and you get to name your elf and write it in the back of the book. We (Braden and Finley) named our elf "Marshmallow" and he arrived tonight.....we read the story and the fun will begin tomorrow. I am sure Sean and I will fight over where to put him and argue over who had the best "spot". I will post pictures throughout of Marshmallow and his perched spots.
Get your here........elfontheshelf

House Update/Progress

So I haven't posted much on the house recently, because there really wasn't much to report. It seems to be going so slow right now...weather hinders working and they are working a lot on ladders and scaffolding. They had to make at least 6 girders, on the spot which takes time....email me if you want the definition of a girder. Basically it is what makes the "overhang" of the roof. They also decided to extend the roof line over the laundry room/garage connector. So that took a little time as well. Today they are putting the sheeting on the main portion of the house.....rain in the forecast tomorrow...but none next week. Hopefully that is finished next week. The garage floor is ready to pour, just waiting for the plumber to come and run some pipes in there so it will be a "heated" floor.
The shingles have been ordered as well as the garage doors. The windows only take 2 weeks to be delivered so hopefully they will be ordered next week so we can get this puppy closed in for the winter. We had the gas set up so they will have heat in there to work ALL WINTER LONG!!
I have met with the cabinet people, liked their appearance and bid...so much so that we are going to have them bid out the pantry and laundry room as well. So those will probably be ordered soon...wont need them till Feb/March, however there are a lot of cabinets and they take a while to produce. Any suggestions on my Craft "crap" Room set up? I can't decide if I want cabinets, shelves, cubbies, bins, on and on and on....
I tried to "layout" what you are looking at....hopefully if you click on the image it will enlarge.

good view of the girder on the "jut" out...

!! B U N C O !!

Christy, Alyssa, Emily and I started a BUNCO group....we each invited 3 ladies to play with us the second Tuesday of the Month.....understandably so, some weren't able to join us so instead of 4 tables of 4 we had 3 tables. The first meeting was Tuesday at my house and we had A BLAST!! After the initial...."how do we play this"....we were all keeping tally in our heads instead of on a sheet by the 2nd round. It was fun because you switch tables and partners after EVERY round...unless you are the Queen Bee winner....D and Em......

It was fun to get away with a bunch of ladies, have some food and drink, laugh and possibly win 8 dollars.....yes you heard me right....8 dollars......

See you all on the 9th!!

Dont Ask

The Forest House

While at the wedding last weekend we stayed at Grizzly Jacks Resort. It is in Utica, Illinois.....Starved Rock area. The hotel has an indoor waterpark, arcade, mini amusement park, outdoor putput area and play area. We stayed in this townhouse/condo thing which was big enough to sleep 9. The kids had a blast at the waterpart....so much so that it was a little difficult to get them out to make it to the wedding. There was a hottub, lazy river, 2 large waterslides, a baby slide, medium slide, waterfalls, zero depth pool that was a wave pool for 10 minutes every half hour, and a baby pool "Ley's Pool" as Finley called it.

In the foreground is the baby pool/slide. You can see the medium slide/zero depth/waterfalls in the background.

fountains

wavepool....fun!

Brent and Gina's wedding

Okay, these are all backwards....Last weekend (11-8) Sean was the Best Man in his friends wedding and Braden was the ring bearer....we headed to LaSalle-Peru for the festivities....It was learned that our children are dancing FOOLS....and both had their first "boy/girl" dance. Braden's was with Paige, the flower girl, and Finley's was with some random boy....geez they start young!!

aren't they two peas in a pod?