New Year's Eve Festivities!

Our family joined G & G and Grandma's sister for New Year's Eve. Our evening started off by going to a Chinese Buffet, it has kindof become tradition to do this. Grandma and I love to get crab legs their and Brandon liked to eat the octopus they have their! Then we went to see the movie The Waterhorse. It was really good. I hadn't read the reviews of the show before going and some of it was over the kids heads, but nothing a little popcorn couldn't keep them busy with and a cute little baby waterhorse! I do recommend this show as a do see.
Then back to G&G's house for some yummy snacks and games.
Then we got serenaded by P herself. She got a new microphone and little amp for Christmas.
H jammed on his guitar for us.
The evening ended with the tykes staying up till midnight (a first time for them!) and banging pots and pans out on G&G's front porch to ring in the new year! (It's a tradition of mine from growing up.)
We had a great time- Thanks again G&G for sharing your holidays with us and making them memorable! Here's to a Happy and Healthy New Year 2008!

Frosty/Snowflake found in my Yard!

This is what I found in my yard on New Years Eve after a huge snow fall.
Here are the culprits- Dad, H, and P. Our huge snowman got named Frosty by P and Snowflake by H. So Frosty Snowflake Snowman it is!

My Own Little Snuggle Bunny!

I have to tell you about my own snuggly bunny! She comes in the form of my daughter. She is sooo snuggly and I still love to pick her up at night when I go to bed during my last tuck in for the night and she still let's me snuggle her! Santa got it right and found a "Snuggle Bunny" shirt with a little white bunny on it, as seen in the pic below. P will run up and jump up on me and say you are my snuggle bunny with a hearty "mmmmmm" following. It's our own little saying and something we love to do any snuggly chance we get!
I hope my little Miss P will never give up being my Snuggle Bunny!

*Do you have your own Snuggle Bunny?*

My Own Recipe!!!!

The Recipe For Traci

3 parts Laughter 2 parts Whimsy 1 part Silliness Splash of Glamour Finish off with whipped cream

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

I got this off of Laurie's blog and had to join in the fun! And it sounded quite right! Now it's your turn to get your own recipe!!!

Pink Christmas 2007

Wow!!! I was so excited to join in on the Pink Christmas this year hosted by Kristi. She did such an amazing job of getting it all pulled together with sponsers, prizes and all. This year was really special since we got to help my a donation in the honor of her sweet niece Claire who is undergoing treatment for cancer. Claire is always in our prayers along with her family for a happy ending to it all.
The Pink Christmas Sister who got me is named Elisa. Let me tell you of the amazing things she sent my way- She made these wonderful flowers out of scrapbook paper! They are so beautiful and way creative! I have never seen anything like them. I also got some handmade soap that she and her husband makes! I so heart handmade soap too! I want to give a big shout-out to Elisa for such wonderful and thoughtful gifts! They are much appreciated. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning

This morning I wake to the sound of pitter-patter going down the stairs. I wait a few moments to see if I hear anything else, and not too much happens. So I go to the stairs and say H is that you? He said there is millions of presents down here! I told him to come wake his sister and dad to join him. H received a Flying V electric guitar from mo and dad, since dad has been teaching him to play a little! Now he has his own size to play with!
All P asked for was a brown teddy bear and that is what she did get! She kept saying I was waiting so long for this bear and I just knew Santa would get it for me!
The unwrapping frenzy! Which lasted a good hour. Then of course a big Thank You to Santa was shouted! P was in hopes Santa was dropping by too. I told her he was probably in bed!
Mudslide was too funny. She came down shortly after we had been downstairs and she immediately jumped into my lap wonder what the heck was going on? When we finally made it over to the stockings is when the fun began for her. We gave her her stocking and the sniffing began, then unwrapped one of her gifts which was a stuffed squeaky beaver and then some treats! Then it was all over, Mudslide was chasing her new toy around eating bacon flavored treats and then the hunt through all the unwrapped gifts to see if there was anything else she could find that belonged in her mouth!
It really had been a wonderful Christmas and I am so blessed to have my little family to share it with too! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Santa's coming tonight, tonight, Santa's coming tonight!

I think the Big Man has already come and gone in the blink of an eye tonight! We are ready!
Even the stockings are stuffed.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Christmas Eve Party!

At Grandma & Grandpa Bayley's. We had a little bit of this going on: daddy taking a snooze,
A little bit of piano playing sing-a-longs,
A little bit of present exchanging - P with Grandma Carla,
And a little bit of excitement after the gifts were opened! H with his Hot Wheels! (note the kid chairs in the background that Grandma Carla made all the grandkids for Christmas!!! Too Cute!)
Thanks again Grandma & Grandpa for hosting such a fun evening with a Prime Rib dinner too!

Pig Tails!!!

Miss P finally, finally let me put her hair in piggy tails!!! She always used to cry when I put her hair up, so I had kept it short. It's growing out and I asked if I could put pig tails in and she gladly said YES!!!! When we got done I told her to go show dad, in doing so, I told her that she looked like Gwen Stefani! Well, that was it, she was all over that! We are fans of Gwen Stefani at our place!
Sorry, this isn't the best piggy tail shot!

Christmas Checklist 2007

Here is our list of things we did during the holiday season-
put up and decorate Christmas tree
make gingerbread house
look at Christmas lights
get gifts for giving tree at church
donate to charity
listen and sing to Christmas songs
do Christmas cards
made a little goody
got a new nativity set (Playmobil)
talked about the true meaning of Christmas
got gifts for family members
read Christmas stories
wrote letters to Santa
played in snow
had hot cocoa
played with visiting cousins
used our advent calendar

Still need to do our little dress-up and read the Christmas story in the Bible, which we will do on Christmas eve with the cousins. This really has been a great year and so fun to watch the tykes grow-up, yes it does go fast! When I tuck them in bed and give them kisses,they are such innocent little angels and I always want them to stay that way!
Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you too have been enjoying your holiday!

Book Give-Away and Parties- All In a School Day

Can you imagine 8 tables packed with brand new children books to give away for free??? Well, this is what our PTO does twice a year for the whole school! Each child gets to come into the library and pick out a free book. I got to help out and was wishing I was one of the kids myself so I could get a free book. There were alot of good ones.
Here is H with a girl from his class named Taylor, ( I think H may have a crush on her too! He was blushing when I asked her to get in the picture!!)
Here is P with her new book. She was sooo excited about it too! The event got canceled last week due to the weather and no school that day. P was in tears thinking she wasn't going to get a book. I had to quickly remind her that no one was getting a book that day since there was no school.
Later this afternoon, I got to help with H's class party and brought in 50 some odd sugar cookies H helped me make the night before for his classmates to decorate and eat. It was loads of fun for all! I love seeing all the sprinkles that kidss put on themselves!
Here is H's final products!! He decided they were too sugary and ended throwing some of them out, but kept his plate in which his teacher and I watched as he slowly started at the bottom of the plate and lick his way to the top to get all the frosting off. We couldn't help but laugh!!!
Thanks for a fun day. I really do enjoy being a part of my children's school experiences and to know their peers, teachers, and what goes on. Kindof nice to walk down the halls and kids are saying Hi H's mom or Hi P's mom. Having the principal know who you are ( I am the PTO treasurer, so I have to have her sign all the PTO checks) as well as other grades teachers and the janitors too!

It's Looking A Lot Like Christmas!

I have been meaning to post a few pics of the decor at our home for the holidays. I grew up in a home where my mom always decorated for all the holidays and I too have picked up the tradition and love it, as do my kids!!! Here is our tree- yes, it's a fake one. I scored it a few years ago from my mom-in-law who wanted a bigger one. I sooo heart real trees, but hey a few bucks saved around the holidays and saving a tree, I am just so glad they make pine scented candles!
The stockings are hung by the chimney with care!
This is our newest nativity set, thanks to Kristi, who had posted about this set from Playmobil, I had to have it! For only $17, not a bad deal. Miss P loves to play with it and take it all apart. I find all the pieces in the front window sill, where I get to pick up and put back together!
I bought this soft one a few years back. I really wanted ones the kids could touch and play with.
These 2 sit on the entertainment center. I scored the one of the left- made of wood at the Goodwill last year. I love it. The one the right is a beautiful ceramic one my grandma Claire made me the first Christmas I was married. It is one I will always treasure since my grandma no longer does ceramics. We all looked forward to Christmas or our birthdays when grandma would make us a ceramic piece. I still have one she made me when I turned 8! Thanks grandma!
Thanks for seeing a little bit more into our world and Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, did I say snow?

We got snowed in today!!! It was a nice relaxing day at home with the tykes running in and out all day long to play in the snow. Here is P enjoying herself out back.
Picture from the back/side door of the house. Tons o'snow we got!!! Ok, looking at this photo now and it was still early in the day, it doesn't do it justice to all the snow we really did get since it just stopped snowing around 8pm. The snow started around 10 this morning too!
This was a nice treat the hubby made for us (His work let them out at 11:30) poppyseed muffins and hot mint cocoa, Yummy!
Here's H with his treats, except he and daddy opted for hot cider instead of cocoa.
It was a fun-filled and quite relaxing day at the home front watching the snow fall all day by the heater!

Christmas Through a Child's Eye

Since we got tonz o'snow today, there was no school. H decided to use my camera to take more than a billion photos!
Thought I would share a few of them with you!
Fun to see what kids take pictures of. I had to delete a bunch that were of things on TV since they were all blurry!
H thanks for all the fun pics to look at. Maybe photography will become a hobby of yours just like your dad and grandpa!

You've Been Flocked!

This is a fundraiser our school has been doing for the past month- Flocking!!!
Our family helped transport a few flocks to their new residence for a day, but you had to do it at night and not get caught. So, someone pays to have the flocks sent to someone else's house with a sign that says- You've Been Flocked!" Then on the other side can be a personal message from the person who sent the flock.
These pics are from our PTO presidents house. The flocking was over and she had gone out of town, so us fellow PTOers decided to send the WHOLE Flock her way! What a surprise she came home too!

It's Hot In The Hot Tub!

This is what we were doing Saturday night! How about you? Grandma & Grandpa got their hot tub fixed, so we were the firsts to try it out! It was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g out their, of course till we got in the hot tub. Thank goodness grandma & grandpa had the fireplace roaring with a nice toasty fire when we came back in. (Note: candy cane in the hot tub. I think these things have been attached to my tykes hands for the past few days.)
H decided to pose for the camera on our way out. Doesn't he look snuggly! Love the head tilt he did too.