Remain calm...

Okay so I am trying to remain calm when really I am so nervous that I am going to forget something terribly important for our vacation. I feel like I have so much to think of right now, that it is just inevitable that something is going to be forgotten. I only have bits and pieces of all of our belongings set aside to go, so I still feel like I have so much more to do. And then I also have to make sure that I complete all of our Christmas items as well. Aaugghh! *insert chicken running with head cut off here*
And then last night I tried on a dress to wear for one of the formal nights and I felt like a cow in it. I know, I know how can I ever feel like a cow in anything? Well all of the dresses that I seem to find these days are form fitting and that doesn't work too well with my large muffin top thanks to that sick kid that was in my belly two years ago. He had to go and stretch me to the max. Yeah and I'm not so good about standing up straight and sucking it in, so I make myself look even worse. Anyhoo, I better actually get something done since my bags have to be packed by tomorrow night at 8. Thanks for listening to my moment of insecurities. I will try not to let it happen again.

All he wants for Christmas...

are his two front teeth, so he can wish you Merry Christmas!

Yep that's right. He moved it with his tongue this evening and it came right out. This is going to make for some great family photos on our vacation. Then Zac was feeling left out, so he had to show me his teeth.

Can you see the new one he is getting in on the right side. I think that is his last tooth for a while.
Thanks for stopping by. Nite, nite.

The Cookie Party....

Was a huge success and a ton of fun. I started baking on Friday with my parents and we made a lot of yummies. Here are a few just to get this post started.

Gingerbread man before going in the oven.

My fave, chocolate crackles.

When Zeke got home from school, he helped with rolling out the dough for the cut-out cookies. He was having a lot of fun too. He really likes to make those cookies.

And now for the party...

Zeke's decorated candy cane cookie.

Two of my nieces hard at work decorating.

My other niece showing me her "masterpiece".

My friend's daughter just spotted Santa Claus. Doesn't she look too cute? Seeing how excited some of the kiddos got when they saw Santa was priceless for me. That was the whole reason for the party. When the kids saw Santa, they all came in from where ever they were and sat down in front of him and waited for their gifts. They were super sweet and then they lined up and sat on his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. I enjoy seeing a child's perspective from time to time. It reminds me of simpler times.

They even waited so patiently for him to call their name.

This pic was taken because of our shirts, we were all wearing the $9.99 holiday shirts from Target. It was funny cuz we all had different ones on.

And finally, Stef and I had to tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas too. I am so glad that everyone was able to make it and that they had fun. Thanks for making my party a success.

No children were harmed in the taking of this photo...

Okay so I have come to the conclusion that Zac is constantly going to be my little boy that is going to keep me on my toes. First, he threw a yo-yo at the Christmas tree and had to dig in to the tree to get it, of course.

Who needs a dog when I've got Zac. As if that wasn't enough, he then thinks its a good idea to put bubble wrap on his head. Yeah, that's right, on his head. But of course I got a pic of that too.
CAUTION: WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS NOT FOR THE WEAK HEARTED AND HE WAS NOT HARMED IN ANY WAY! :]



This the reason we should not have any more children! He is way to crazy for me to handle sometimes oh but I love him like crazy.

They're coming out quicker now...

On Saturday night, we finally got to sit down as a family and watch a movie. We watched Wall-E since Zeke had been waiting for us to watch it with him. We are about halfway through the movie when Zeke says, "Look I pulled my tooth out". I look over at him and sure enough, he was holding his tooth and had a gaping hole in the front of his mouth. He makes me laugh when he loses a tooth cuz then he is anxiously waiting to see what the Toothfairy is going to bring him.

This time he got five dollars and was excited, he told me it was probably because this was a bigger tooth.

Well I hope everyone is on track with all of their holiday extravaganzas. I know I wish I was. I feel like I am going to be forgetting so much this year due to leaving early for our vacation and feeling overwhelmed. I haven't even started my Christmas cards and I am so looking forward to making them. I will have to squeeze them in somewhere. If you don't get one this year it isn't because I don't like you, it will be because I ran out of time. I am just really excited for my cookie party this weekend. I will have photos posted immediately following.

The things I love about Christmas...

One of the first things I love about Christmas is watching the tree lighting at the Rockefeller Center in NY on tv. I was super excited cuz my fave artist (David Cook) performed my fave song ("Happy Christmas"). I swear one year, I will make it to NY to see that happen live. I also love decorating the tree, building fires and watching a different Christmas movie with the kiddos every night. Last night we had a fire going and the tree was all lit up and we were snuggled up on the couch watching "Elf". I am most thankful for those moments and I wish there were more of them. Life gets too chaotic, especially during this time of year and that's why I love taking the time to enjoy it with my loved ones.
It is always at the end of the year when I reflect on how quickly time passes and that someday my boys will be all grown up and not around as much. Gets me all teary-eyed just thinkin' about it. Alright, alright...enough of that mushy crap. I've gotta go clean up after those little boogers.

as promised..

As I promised in the past, I said I would post my cookie party invites. Well I was almost out of them and realized that I hadn't taken any photos of them yet. Well here is how my cookie party invite turned out. What do you think? I hope all of you can make it. I look forward to seeing you all there. I will have tons of yummies and pics to take.


In other news, I have been using my dyson and boy does that thing suck like no other. I was vacuuming a rug in Zac's room and this is what I came up with.

Now mind you, this rug used to be in Zeke's room, so it's not the first time it has been vacuumed. Crazy huh?

I have also been busy trying to get Zac's bedroom all cleaned up so that he can finally sleep in there. I know, I know; he's almost two and still hasn't been in his own room. Well that is due to his many problems from the beginning but I am looking forward to him being in his new room soon.


I can't remember this room being this clean since we moved in. It has been a "catch all" but now that is our spare bedroom. Oh well, one room at a time. The whole house will be clean again soon.

What I am thankful for....

I hope everyone else had just as great of a Thanksgiving day as I did. I spent it with some of my friends and my family. We ate lots of yummy food. And had a ton of fun. It was filled with the parade, the dog show, a large family, some naughty items (my husband and his bro made a rather phallic display with a turkey bone, some rolls and sour cream), a trip to Michael's, more food, and planning out my shopping day. Both of the kiddos had a great time and ate well.

Here is Zeke enjoying his turkey leg. It's as big as he is.


Zac was enjoying his mashed potatoes.


Herschel enjoying his gravy. No he didn't really drink it but I am sure he could have. He ate most of it that was missing anyways.


So on this day we gave thanks, I am thankful for my boys of course. They constantly keep me on my toes and remind me of all of the emotions I have on a daily basis. They mean the world to me and I just hope they know it.
I am also very thankful for my parents and grandparents who do so much for us. Who else would push turkey dinner back an hour so that I could go to Michael's and get $30 Cricut carts? Thanks mom.

I am also thankful for Herschel's family and for my other family, my friends. And I am thankful for applesauce. :) Everyone that knows me, knows I can't exist without applesauce. This was my bowl at turkey dinner. Nothing beats homemade applesauce.

And, lastly, I am thankful for my Sara, without her I would have no one to mad shop with on Black Friday. We had another fun time this year as well. And I got all of the items on my list. Now I am ready to finish decorating the tree.

Happy Turkey Day!!

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving and that you are safe during your travels should you be going near or far. Eat lots of yummy food and enjoy the holiday.
Did you like my turkey? I made him with my cricut and the design studio program. I had to cut 100 of each feather and body and nose for all of the TB second grade classes. I hope the kids had as much fun making them as I did.
I will be starting my Black Friday shopping a little early. Tonight, Michael's has cricut carts on sale for $30. That's a steal!! I am hoping to pick up a few before heading off to my parents to enjoy dinner. I will have already eaten one meal at my inlaws, so I won't be withering away waiting for some yummy turkey.
I will try to post tomorrow, but I will be busy with girlies doin some mad shopping and then Zeke has been waiting to put up the Christmas tree.

Until later, Happy Thanksgiving!

Yank it out! Yank it out!

Well all last week we were trying to get Zeke to pull out his snaggletooth. It looked so bad because he refused to get rid of it. At one point last week, Zac and I were chanting "Yank it out! Yank it out!" and dancing around. Zeke told us that he wasn't pulling out his tooth because we were pressuring him too much. *Whatever* So on Saturday morning, I told him to get in the shower and he comes to me smiling. He said it came right out. I am sure it did since it wasn't holding on by much.

Trust me, I know what you are thinking. How can I tell he lost a tooth when all I can focus on is that blonde rat's nest he has on his head? Well the hair did get better but the tooth is so small that it's difficult to tell where it was.
After he got in the shower, I went to make sure he had all of his clothes ready when I found this:

Isn't that too cute. He was worried he wouldn't get his money because he was spending the night at grandma's house. He left his tooth under his pillow and when he returned from soccer, he was very excited to find that the tooth fairy had left him some money.

Excellent Report Card

Well so far the highlight of this week was our parent-teacher conference for Zeke. We had it on Tuesday morning. He did so well on his report card and we were really proud of him. However, his teacher was telling us that he is capable of a lot more. We pretty much already knew that but it was nice to see that she is aware of his laziness as well. I always knew he was too smart for his own good and now we have proof. I am happy school work comes easy for him and I hope that the more we encourage and push him, it will stay that way. I remember growing up and school wasn't always so easy for me. I had to work really hard. I am thinking that is how our little Zac is going to be, since nothing has been easy for him.

Other than that, last night I had my final challenge at Green Tangerines and I really liked my layout that I threw together in an hour. I didn't think I would be able to do it, since I am so anal about that stuff. I will have to post some pics soon. I have also been finishing up our little soccer books for the parents. We are having our end-of-the-year soccer party tomorrow night and I always make a little something for all of the kiddos on the team. I just have to glue down the pics for two more players. I am so much more on schedule this year than usual. I will also post some pics of those later.

Tiring weekend...

This weekend was a ton of fun but also very tiring. It started with a soccer game in the morning on Saturday. The game was way too intense for me and the poor kiddos lost big time, 4-1. The other team had some crazy wicked moves and worked together better than our team was. Zeke had a great breakaway but the goalie stopped the ball. I was hoping it was going to be a goal for him. After the game, I headed to Roseville for my scrapbook retreat. I had a ton of fun and got some cards done for this upcoming "cookie party" I will be hosting. Check your mailboxes soon as they will be arriving. It was a late night for me since the retreat went until midnight and then I still had to drive home. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Today, we got to relax a little. Hersch let me sleep in until he left for the Bears game. I got up and vegged out with the kiddos until Zac took his nap. After that I was cutting out some feathers for an upcoming Thanksgiving project at Zeke's school. I am about halfway done. After that we went to my sis & bro inlaws house for dinner and the kiddos got to play and Herschel watched the Blackhawks game with his brother. It was very relaxing. After that, I still had to do some work for tomorrow and I was a good girl and got it all done. If I get all my work done then hopefully, I will get to go and play tomorrow. Well, I think I am off to bed. Until later.

A lot going on...

I can't believe how quick this week has gone by for me. We have been very busy this week. Hersh started basketball this week and is gone every night until about 9 or 9:30 and he is also trying to report cards done for next weeks conferences. I am working more since my babysitter (aka mom) is back from her vacation. I feel like I have so much to catch up on. I had to order trophies for our soccer party next week and put together the lovely photobooks for all the parents. I am also trying to put together turkey kits for all of second grade at my husband's school. I have to do that before Thanksgiving, which is right around the corner. I also started this online class and I have barely had any time to devote to it. Yikes! I'm behind! And poor Zeke told me at dinner that he hates that he doesn't see daddy very much right now. I had to explain to him that I was the one who convinced him to take on the position and not to be mad at daddy. I was also trying to let him know that on our vacation, we will have plenty of time to spend together...all of us. I know I am looking forward to our vacation very much. Sometimes Zeke really knows how to put things in perspective for me.

So much fun....

We finally got to play a soccer game. It seems like forever since we were rained out last weekend and the weekend before we didn't play. Zeke was goalie the first half and he did such a great job of stopping all of the shots on goal. He even got kicked in the face with the ball the one time. During the second half he was on the field, and he did a great job. He had a couple shots on goal but one was caught and the other missed the goal. He also defended his goalie just in time to keep the score 2-1 with the Cheetah winning. I had such a great time watching him today. I love to see the passion come out of him. And of course it is because the season is almost over.

I am off for now, need to do some chores and hopefully watch a couple movies with Herschel today. We definitely could used some bonding time especially since he is going to be gone most of next week at night due to basketball practice. Oh well, it will be fun to go and watch some of the games. And I was the one who convinced him to take the position.

Well I am back and we had a cute afternoon. After I dropped off Zeke to hang out with some fun girls, Herschel asked me to bring him Starbucks. I 'bout fell over since he never has drinks from there. As requested I brought him a caramel machiato (sp?) but something happened to the end of it.


Apparently it gave Zac some energy because a little while later, I was cleaning Zac's room and heard some noises outside and this is what I found:


Zac was helping daddy move firewood to our patio. He was so proud of himself for helping. He looked so cute and he kept asking dad for more wood to carry.

Well since Zac is getting tired, hopefully we will get to watch our movies soon.

A visit to the cardiologist

So this morning I had to take Zac to see his cardiologist in Sacramento for a follow up appointment for one of the holes in his heart. When he was born he had two holes in his heart, one was tiny and the other was small. I was informed at the time that those descriptions are very different in size. The small hole closed about a year ago but he still had his tiny hole. When we were at the dr's office today, he did an ekg on Zac to check on the progress of the tiny hole. Apparently it is still there but because it is so minor they don't have to do anything to it. Also there are no effects to the hole. His cardiologist wants to see Zac back in two years to recheck the hole again. If it still isn't closed then they would have to do some procedure to close it but it doesn't require surgery. (thank goodness, he has had plenty of those already)

After his appointment, we went to Ikea and had lunch and walked around the store. I had a good time with him this afternoon. He was so sweet to be around.

I Voted....Did you?

I dropped off our absentee ballots this morning. I must admit I am still a little nervous about some of the propositions. Either way, it will all work out in the end. I realized that no matter which presidential candidate wins tonight, it will be a defining moment in history. We will either have an African American president or a female vice president. A first for our nation. Ooooh exciting. I have a feeling we will be switching thru channels to catch up-to-date info tonight. No matter what happens, there will be some major changes during the next four years. I hope they are going to benefit many than not.

Thanks Marg and David....

Yesterday we dropped the kiddos off at my inlaws and got some food and had dinner with Angie and Kevin and then we went to David's 30th birthday party. I had some beverages before we left the house so when we got to the party, I was nice and toasty. It was nice, I didn't have to be the dd for once. David and Marg's house was very cute. I was so happy we were able to make it. There were a lot of fun moments:


There were some shots.


A "small" cupcake fight.


Some salami. We all know how much my husband loves meat!


Some presents. Every birthday party needs presents.


Some kissing. Also some fuzzy handcuffs. I don't have any pics of that cuz I was the one in the handcuffs. The birthday boy thought it would be funny to put them on me.


Some 'smores made my the ever lovely Stephanie. Oooh yummy!!


And of course, great friends.

Thanks Marg and David for having us over for your great party.

Oh what a day and night...

Yesterday was a very busy day for us. Zeke and Herschel had their field trip and I went with them. We went to the Chico Nature Center. It was a lot of fun and we got to learn about some animals and to check out some cool trees. We were also supposed to go to Caper Acres, which is a park for kids to play but due to the rain we were unable to go. Luckily it wasn't raining when we got to the Nature Center and the sun even came out when we had lunch.

Zeke found a really big leaf that was on the ground. It was the size of his head. It came from this tree. I really like the tree.

There are some things I really miss about Chico and one of them is all of the trees when the leaves change colors. They have so many gorgeous trees.

Since we were only going to the Nature Center, we got to leave early and since I was driving Zeke we got home pretty early. I made him clean his room before trick or treating. And I still had to finish up my Halloween Cards. Yes I am a procrastinator. I am very good at it too. We finally got all of our stuff and headed to my in-laws. Once we were there, we got some food and then went trick or treating. The rain managed to hold off until we were just about done. It was great timing.


Zac as Darth Vader and Zeke as Janga Fett (Bobba Fett's father), both from Star Wars. They are too cute. And Zac made a great Darth.


The cousins waiting to get some candy. This particular house didn't come to the door, but when we were walking to go to the next house there was a family riding around on bikes handing out candy. It was such a cool idea. They had their bikes decorated with lights and they had their messenger bags filled with candy.


Walking back with daddy after a busy day.

Where did all that smoke come from?

I went outside earlier to take my sis-in-law home and we couldn't believe all of the smoke in the area. I stopped to get the mail and I could barely breathe. We cancelled soccer practice because it is so bad. I am waiting to hear what it could be from.

In other news, my poor Zac has been so cranky lately. I don't know what's going on with him these days. One minute he is fine and giggly and the next he is crying and clinging to my leg. I hope he gets over it soon cuz he only wants me to hold him and carry him around and he is way too heavy for me to do that.

It must be something with the brothers cuz Zeke hasn't been behaving very well lately either. The worst part is that he knows he's doing something wrong but he's not really doing anything to make it better.

We will have to figure something out with those boys.

Alice in "Wonderland"

Well I had a really busy Saturday. I woke up and got ready for my Scrap Pink with my sis-in-law. She picked me up and she drove me to Roseville to my fave scrapbooking store, Green Tangerines. There, she made some very cute Halloween cards and I worked on soccer books for all the kiddos on Zeke's soccer team. I got pretty far with them and now I need to start printing the pics. We got lunch and dinner, a cupcake bar (very yummy), cupcake make and take and a "goodie" bag. I had a lot of fun.
We had to leave early because I was also going to the Sillman's Halloween party. I changed into my costume at Green Tangerines and all of the ladies were giving me whistles and great comments. My sis-in-law dropped me off where I entered into a crazy zone. Nothing like crazy adults in fun costumes.

Here is my dear sweet husband and I. What did he put in that box?


What's in your box, no, what's in your box? They have way too much fun together.


Even the St Pauly girl was gettin in on the action!


Where's Waldo? Senia's brother went as Waldo and he is randomly placed in some pictures. I thought this one was great.


Chef Stef cookin' up some goodies with Alice.


Where did the Big Lebowski come from?


Some of my girls and I having fun.


Very naught, she touched his "package".



As if you couldn't tell from all of the pics, yes we did have a great time. I had to post so many so that all of you at home could see just how much fun we had.