a year in sessions ~ 2010

:)

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Our family photos in OBX

I kept meaning to do a slideshow of our photos that were taken by Kirsten Lewis (who is AWESOME btw) but never sat down and made the time. I did tonight! :) GO me!!!

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Chaotic weekend...

It may have been a long weekend, but it was busy and I"m tired, or rather, exhausted... I'll tell you all about it later. For now, suffice to say Christmas was GREAT! I've spent the last two days purging, tossing, organizing & rearranging the kids rooms. My whole body aches and I'm just ready for bed. I promise to tell more later because, as all of our events are, it was, umm, interesting & entertaining.... :)

Merry Christmas to all...

:) We had a super fabulous time at Nana & Poppa's house on Christmas Eve. It was chaotic, to say the least. The kids had the gifts unwrapped in a frenzy that lasted maybe 7 minutes. I was tired just watching... Sheesh....

I promise to fill in more details later. I'm pooped...

Puppy Doodle Doo...

I know I've mentioned the many, many things that Grady has eaten since he's lived here, including, but not limited to batteries, my couch, tupperware, cat pooh, shoes, zippers, mittens, socks, underwear, Christmas ornaments, kid's papers, etc., etc., etc. Anyway, on Saturday, when I awakened, I was happy that Grady had allowed me to sleep the whole night through. I swear, he's worse than an infant. He has me up at least one time every single night of my life... UGH.. As I said, when I came downstairs on Saturday after having slept the night without being awakened by my dog, I was feeling pretty happy, well, until I got all the way down the steps. As I got closer to the living room though, I could see that something had been destroyed... I got closer and I saw Grady's paws. He was laying on his back, on the couch, of course... LOL Yes, he's rotten and mentally challenged, but I digress... So, as I was saying, I saw Grades peacefully snoozing on the couch and then I saw the shredded pieces of tissue paper all over the living room floor. Grady lifted his head and I said "you're a BAD boy!" He shifted his eyes and made himself look completely innocent, of course.... While I picked up the tissue, I found part of a destroyed snowman ornament. He carefully bit the bottom off the snowman and then took all of the stuffing out of him.. Gah... I quickly discovered that not only had he shredded the tissue and the snowman, but he'd unwrapped Mrs. M.'s Christmas gift. He took the hand towel & the pot holder carefully out of the bag. He'd been so careful, in fact, that they were still folded just as they'd been when I wrapped them. He hadn't been so careful with the candle. Yes, he'd neatly taken all of the cellophane off of it, but the candle wasn't damaged, well except for the GIANT bite he'd taken from it. LOL I guess it didn't taste as good as he'd hoped because it looks like he only took the one bite... Goofy dog! I keep thinking that surely ONE day, soon, he'll be a good boy that I can trust... I actually googled the life span of a Golden Retriever, hoping to give myself some kind of estimate of when he'd be middle aged.... Surely, SURELY, I say, surely when he hits middle age, he'll be too exhausted to snatch ornaments from the Christmas tree and eat candles, right???

Kellyn's concert...

was tonight along with a yummy spaghetti dinner. The spaghetti was a HUGE hit. I think I sprouted several more white hairs as I hoped and prayed that Kellyn would NOT get spaghetti sauce all over her new sparkly snowflake shirt... She didn't! WOOHOO...

Speaking of her outfit, I'm SO happy that I decided to go ahead and pick something up for her. She came home from school on Wednesday saying that Mrs. M. said she couldn't wait to see them in their dressy new outfits. Kells asked me if I'd gotten her a new outfit, and I hadn't. I actually hadn't even thought about it. We did our Christmas pictures at the beach... :) Anyway, when I went out last night to get all the stocking stuffers, I made a little detour to my favorite haunt, Gymboree.. I met the NICEST lady there, she showed me all the great sale stuff and told me Santa said I'd been good this year, so she gave me an additional 20% off coupon! LOVE cute clothes, especially when I get them for an amazingly awesome price.

I took a bunch of photos at the concert, I'll post'em tomorrow. I'm tired and I need to go watch the cake show on TLC... :)

Wil's Christmas Concert - 2010

On Tuesday evening we got to go to Wil's first Christmas concert since he's been in elementary school. I don't know why they don't do it like we used to where all the grades sing a song or two, but they don't.. :( So, this was our first year for a Christmas choral concert. It was combined with Sunman elementary and they did a pretty good job.

It was a crazy day leading up to the concert, because I realized at the last moment that they needed to wear BLACK pants & a white shirt... Umm, Wil doesn't have any black pants that fit him. I grabbed my pal Stephanie from work and we RAN over to Kenwook at lunchtime for pants. I checked online before we went and thankfully called Gymbo before we left so they would save me a pair of black cords. While I was waiting in line, I also found a great deal on a crisp cream shirt. I thought he'd look dapper in it and both items will work for Wil and for Wade, so I got it too. :) He did look SOOOOO cute and grown up all at the same time. Goodness, where is that baby I brought home again?? Whew, anyway, he looked darling, shame the music teacher put him in the BACK row?! WTH was he thinking??? I could only see fleeting glimpses of his little blonde head. For the 3rd grade only songs, he was seriously standing next to THREE GIRLS who were at least a foot taller than him...

Ahh well...

snow........

and Wade could not WAIT to get out there in it. I actually denied them going out that first day because it was SO cold. He was SO mad at me too... heck, he even woke up the next morning still mad at me.. :( Poor guy or rather poor me, putting up with Mr. Attitude... Sheesh...

I did eventually let them go out. Wade was out for what seemed like HOURS. Kellyn didn't last nearly that long & Wil decided against going out all together. He stayed inside & read his Harry Potter book. He's gotten through the entire series since we got back home from our Outer Banks vacation. :)

Back to Mr. Wade... He loves being outside and he didn't seem to care that he was the only one out playing. I was baking and running in and out to check on him. Most of the time he was playing in the front or back yard, so I'd pop away from the oven & peek at him out the window or open the window to talk to him. Tim did eventually go out and he gave him a plastic bag to ride down our obnoxious hill.. Our sleds are for CRAP, how I wish Santa had thought to get one.. Boo on Santa! LOL Anyway, Wade slid down on his make shift sled about a bizillion times and loved ever single second of it. I didn't get pictures though, probably for the best, I'd have FREAKED out if I'd seen him going down the hill on a plastic bag... AHHH!! lol

He & Kells also made their fair share of snow angels. :)

Wil Warren turned NINE !

I've been bad about blogging. I've been so busy getting things ready for Christmas and everythign else, that I just didn't make time to sit and do it. For shame! LOL

So, on Saturday last weekend we had Wil's NINTH birthday party. It's so hard to believe that he's NINE, really 9?! Off topic, but I was making calendars for 2011 & marking our personal events and I was forced to write Wil's TENTH birthday on 12/2/2011?! Has he nearly had my heart for almost a decade???? Mercy, time flies by... Anyway, he wanted to do his party at Lazer Craze, a cool place to play laser tag & video games. :) I wasn't sure how I'd feel about them stalking and shooting one another, but to my surpriese, it was beyond fun. The kids enjoyed it and I think I had about as much fun watching as they did playing... My kids were not the best shots, but I think they put forth a great effort! They're already asking when we can go back again. I guess it'll be fairly soon because Wade AND Kellyn want to have their parties there... Somehow it's hard for me to picture a princess themed laser tag party? LOL

We hadn't really planned to Kells to play, but after we got there, she said that she wanted to. We bought an additional kid into the party and then she refused to go for the first round... The second round, Wade offered to take her with him. He's like a mother hen to her. He kept her right by his side as he showed her what he knew. She was like glue on his side. By the end of the third round of play, she'd found her confidence & left Wade in the dust... He's such a sweet guy and I can only imagine how he's going to be when boys start becoming interested in her.... Look out.... LOL

Wil wanted a Grady decorated cookie cake, which we had delivered to the laser tag place. It was YUMMY! I think he ate it for nearly every meal the next few days... :) He also got some really great gifts. We, along with Nana & Poppa got him the Hogwart's Castle lego set, which nearly sent him over the edge with joy. We gave him those on his actual birthday, so he had them done by the time the party happened. He got a Lego gift card, some Harry Potter & Atlantis Legos and a Bop It game. As soon as we got home his focus was on assembling the lego sets. After that, he set his mind to the Bop It Bounce game. O.M.Gosh, it sure is hard to watch a person who can not lose learn something new. He played that thing All.Evening.Long. I went upstairs just before bed to see what was up, and he was sweaty & red faced. He showed me some of his moves, then he'd say, "I'm gonna rest for a minute." He'd rest and in less than 3 minutes, he'd be back up trying to master that thing... So funny... LOL

It was a super, fabulous day and we were all exhausted when it was over... :) Happy Ninth to my sweet WilBug Doo... Love you with every ounce of my heart...

my poor girl...

is sick... She started vomiting around 1 a.m. Thursday morning. I awoke when I head the unmistakable sound of puke hitting the carpeting... Eww.. No fun for any of us... Anyway, she puked, she bathed, Tim put things in the washing machine, while I scrubbed vomit out of my carpeting. She rested for a bit. No kidding though, as soon as I got back into bed, I heard her up gagging again.. Boo! :( She was up for about an hour, up and down, up and down & so was I... She finally settled and then I couldn't immediately fall back to sleep. Of course, when I did, the dog got me up, twice. The first time he actually had to potty, the next time, the little brat just laid down on the front porch! AHHH!! After all that, I went back to bed and around 4, Wil got up, told me he'd had a bad dream and that his throat hurt. Next thing remember was my alarm sounding at 5. I'm tired. I've decided that I'm way too old to handle this up and down/broken sleep thing. My hiney has been dragging all.day.long... In my haze of exhaustion this morning, I neglected to grab my big old mug o' coffee on the way out the door, so I was down a little caffeine on top of being tired anyway. As if that weren't bad enough, my friend brought me an order that I'd placed for her daughter's fund raiser. It was Yankee candles, which I LOVE... Well, I love them when I'm not already down on caffeine & exhausted. The smell of the votives overwhelmed me and gave me a dull but throbbing headache. I fought it all afternoon... :( Yuck! By the time I got home, I was desperate for tylenol and a coke. LOL The headache is a little better, but I'm SO ready for bed.. GAH... I hope we all get some rest tonight..

In other Kellyn news, Tim was home with her today. I think it's safe to say she has some kind of belly bug happening. She had the Big D, in addition to the vomiting. She ate next to nothing today and when I got home, she hadn't thrown up since before lunch time. I gave her a few oyster crackers and a few sips of water. It wasn't long before that came back up. Obviously we skipped dance class tonight, but I think we're also skipping her recital tomorrow. She still hasn't eaten and it'll be just over 24 hours from her last vomiting episode, and that's IF she's done vomiting, until we're supposed to be at the church. :( She's disappointed, but it's obvious that she doesn't feel very well.. Poor baby girl....

Since it's Wil's big 9th birthday party celebration, I'm praying to GOD that he (or quite frankly anyone else in the house) doesn't get whatever she has.... Fingers crossed...............

Pizza....

BUSY day, but now it's nearly over... Where does the time go??

I'm working now on a couple of last minute Christmas cards. I'm happy to report that I finally ordered ours yesterday. I'm SO late this year... I already have prints to put in the cards, just no cards. I should probably spend my time while I'm waiting for them to arrive, making LABELS, but I haven't started that, yet... I may go to staples tomorrow at lunchtime, so technically, I could pick some up... Hmm.. I still need to get those dividers for the recipe box too. I think I want to do some mod podge on them so that they'll match the box... I could probably stand to get some recipe cards to put in it as well, but.... the gift exchange is on Thursday (next week) so I may or may not have time to get that accomplished... LOL

Wait, I just got sidetracked, and look how quickly that happens when I'm writing.. ADD?? LOL Grrr, I know you don't know it, but I'm so angry right now... The boys have been acting like maniacs, running and screaming upstairs, then bounding down the steps to wrestle & run down here. I'm soooo over it. I just whacked both of their hiney's and sent them to bed. Yes, I know it's not even 7:00... Maybe I'll have a moment of peace... Gah....

Anyway, what I was saying was that Wil came home yesterday with this paper that he'd written about Pizza. I thought it was awesome and showed how utterly and completely genius he was, not to mention what a fabulous sense of humor he has... LOL

Ok, I hear commotion upstairs, again, and I guess I'm gonna have to go back up there and find my MEAN Mommy voice......... Grrr....

Tuesday, Tuesday!

Another busy day about to be put to rest... Work was crazy busy again. Hopefully things will start settling down over the next week or so.. Well, I'm crossing my fingers anyway! LOL

On my way home tonight, I popped by Larosas to pick up dinner before stopping to get Kellyn from E's house. After we ate, Wil, Tim and I went out to finish putting up the outside lights. All I can say is, it's cold out there! I stood on the ladder and put the velcro hanger things on the house, while Tim held the ladder & Wil put the rest of the lights on the bushes. I was a little worried that the velcro things weren't going to stick to the house like the package said that they would because the first try at putting the snowflake lights up, the hanger fell straight to the ground... Grr.... We decided to put up all the hangers and then string the lights through them. Thankfully, that worked. :) I think it looks pretty good, so good, that I think we may go back and get a few more strands of snowflake lights and put the up over the garage doors.. We'll see...

After we nearly froze our booties outside hanging lights, we came in, warmed up and decorated our tree. I do think the decorations helped tone down the ultra bright lights a little. I don't hate them as much as I did. I do still think I'll get something different for next year, but for this year, I'm ok.

I just heard that Elizabeth Edwards died. I didn't agree with her politics but it breaks my heart to think of the children she left behind. I always thought she was a really strong lady. She lost her young son Wade when he was 15-16ish, then had 2 other children. I think her "baby" is about Wil's age and the older young one is a couple of years older. :( Those poor kids. They lost their father to a stupid affair, their big brother to a car accident and now their Mom to cancer.... I hate cancer... I do feel good though, knowing that Elizabeth has been reunited with her baby boy... God give the children she left behind peace...

Monday, the 6th

Today was a busy, busy day at work. We're crazy finishing up the other cost report that we do. We're hoping to have it done by the end of the week.. I'm definitely crossing my fingers AND toes for that. ;)

I went straight from work to dance class. It was a make up class from last week and we kind of needed it to be ready for the big show on Friday. It's at St. Anthony's Church again this year. They are scheduled for perform at 8:30, we have to be there by 8:15. The dance is cute and the girls are darling! LOL We have another regular practic on Thursday, so here's hoping that everyone is ready for the big event.

Tim went out for more lights tonight while we were at dance class. I just ate & finished putting them on the tree. It still looks like something used to guide in airplanes, but I guess it'll have to do. Maybe the ornaments will tone it down a little? A girl can hope, right?

Lowes was out of those hanger things that hold up the lights by putting a bit of the hanger under the shingles, so we ended up buying some velcro things. Here's hoping those work. In other Christmas decorating news, I can't, for the life of me, find my window candles? Gah, I know I had them last year and it's making me REALLY mad that I'm not able to lay a hand on them thi year, yet. My search is not over, but I'm wearing out for sure... Sheesh..

Wade passed his preliminary spelling test today and was the ONLY one to get every one of them right. YAY! He gets the challenge words this week!!

I'm also getting excited and a little nervous about Wil's Lazer Craze birthday party on Saturday. We've never "done" laser tag, so I'm not exactly sure what to expect... I guess I'm gonna find out, huh?!

Hmmm, what else can I share... Nothing because Wade is killing me to get off the computer... LOL I'm off!

PS, gotta LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how excited the crew was when we found our Christmas tree yesterday... LOL

too long, since my last entry..

because I've been crazy busy, personally & professionally. I've been swamped at work and swamped at home and swamped with photos. I'm not complaining, but I've needed a few days/weeks to regroup and find my mo-jo again. I've been feeling totally burned out. Today, I picked up my camera again, for just me. I got back to putting this year's blog into another book. I think my battery is feeling recharged and I'm feeling back to my old self...

Lots has happened since I last really blogged. I had a fabulous Thanksgiving with my family, I got to do some awesome Black Friday shopping, we're pondering a new car (CRV), my baby turned NINE, we saw Annie, I got the Christmas lights mostly up and today we got our Christmas tree! Goodness, it's been nuts!

I haven't been shooting many photos for the last week or so, but I've been working hard finishing personalized cards, collages, etc. for my fall clients. I guess I've been sinking all of my creative energy into that area.. Lol This weekend, I worked pretty hard on my supervisor's Christmas gift. I haven't hand made a real gift (other than baked goods) in a long time. I love doing it, I've just run out of time to do it. This year, C. told me at some point that her recipes were a mess. She's really hard to buy for, so I held onto that tid-bit of information. :) I decided that I'd make her a recipe box. I worked very hard on it all weekend, and I think it turned out pretty well. I need to buy some dividers and some recipe cards. I hope she'll like it. :D

As I mentioned above, we got our tree today. We had planned this big "deal" to go out and cut a tree, but it just never became reality. We ended up at Lowes. LOL I like the tree. We bought some new lights to put on it and honestly, I hate them. They are those new LED energy saving whatevers and I hate them. I guess they're meant for Santa to see from miles above the earth, because there is NOTHING warm and cozy about them. They are bright and cool and just plain old yuck... BAH!

Hmmm, I think I finally finished up my Christmas cards. This is SO late for me, but I'll order them tomorrow. Then I'll get'em out! LOL

I need to scoot for now. Promise I'll be better about posting regularly! ;)