Goodbye Christmas tree. . .till next year!

It's time to take down the Christmas decorations. The feeling kind of reminds me of vacation. . .you can't wait to go someplace, have fun while you are there, but love it once you are home. Taking down the decorations is the same for me. I can't wait to put them up, admire them all season long, but once they are down, I love having my house back in order!

This year I procrastinated as much as I possibly could. I had major Christmas let-down this year once all of the festivites were done. . .I miss haning out with family and friends!!! Anyway, today is the day. . .everything is coming down. Matt took the outside lights down yesterday b/c it was 50 degrees outside, so now all we have to tackle is the inside.

Here is a pic of our Christmas tree. . .

Maybe I will listen to Christmas music as I take everthing down?! :)

The Twins!

I am still back-blogging as of yet. . .meaning that I am covering events that happened in our lives last month. Actually, it's a good thing. . .this month has been blessedly boring! :)

My sister and her husband welcomed twins to their (and our) growing family on December the 12th! Although we haven't taken the "formal" photos of the twins as of yet, I do have a couple of photos to share of them. They had a boy, named Kavan Roy, and a little girl named Lachlyn Rielle. At birth Kavan weighed 9+ lbs and Lachlyn was almost 7 lbs!!! My sister's belly was amazingly large before she delivered them!

Here are some of the pics we have. . .

This is Kavan! Look at those chubby cheeks. They just scream to be kissed!

Here's lil Ms. Lachlyn! She is ALL girl. So dainty and pretty!!
Mackenzie was SO excited that she got to hold Lachlyn all by herself. She would give her random kisses every once in a while, and was so gentle with her. It's amazing to me how big my BABY has gotten!
One more of Lil Ms. Lachlyn.
Another picture of Kavan. Isn't his outfit just precious??

Happy Day After New Year's!

It's over!? Already?? 2009 is here!? My vacation went way too fast. . .although if I stop to think of everything we did, it's quite amazing! We got to see Matt's entire family this year for Christmas, but missed out on seeing my grandma, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins. Hopefully we will see them for my father's retirement party in the next few months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one. . .Christmas wasn't the same without seeing them!

I have yet to process any of our Christmas photos, but can give you a hint of what is to come: my sister had twins(!) on December 12th, Christmas w/both of our families, a special Christmas dinner, SANTA!, my dad's b-day party (which is on New Year's Eve), AND New Year's Day!

OH, and I have made my New Year's Resolution!! You would proabaly think it was to blog more since I have started again after a bit of a lull, but the blogging is due to Matt's parents being on the three month sabatical they take at this time every year. You know, to keep them updated on our lives! My resolution is to find more time to do the things that I NEED and want to do. . .exercise, scrapbook, and listen to some fun podcasts (maybe while exercising and scrapbooking??). . .and I am going to try to stop worrying about everything (although I think that might be a lost cause. . .I am female after all!).

Happy New Year!!!

It's Novemeber? Really?!

So, um, I have been a bit of a slacker with this blog. I was doing so well, and then, working two jobs starting taking over ALL of my free time! But, for the moment at least, I am taking time to myself to blog the latest news. . .at least the latest since August 29th (the date of the last blog entry!). Geez, time sure does fly!

First off, I found these random pics of Mackenzie that I didn't even know I had. I absolutely LOVE them! Her face is so expressive. . .






Rocky & Leticia (Matt's brother & his wife) came for a visit in September, and brought Leticia's granddaughter, Jasline. She was such a cutie! And we all had the best time talking and catching up with each other's lives.

Little Ms. Jasline would bring me leaves as a present. She was rewarded by being tickled until she could barely breathe. Then, the whole process would start all over again. She would run find some leaves, point them out to me, and then proceed to be tickled all over! She was so cute!

ZACH was home! Yippee!!! He was home for a few weeks on his pre-deployment leave before going to Iraq. We spent many days/evenings with him, and loved every precious moment of it!

The family gathered around to play cards and chat.

Halloween Pottery!

Ok, so remember the last post where I gave hints about the pottery we were making for Halloween?? WELL, I picked it up yesterday, and boy does it look CUTE! I LOVE IT! Here are pics of the pieces we painted. . .




My sister-in-law, Kathy, and I made a scrapbook for our cousins for the bonfire they hosted last year. We had so much fun that we wanted to say thanks in an unique way. So we scrapped our pics. Well, once we finished, we decided that we liked our creation SO MUCH that we just had to have a copy. So I scanned in the pages, uploaded them to mypublisher.com, and ordered a couple of books for ourselves. It helped that I had a buy-one-get-one coupon. I LOVE SAVING MONEY. Anyway, the books were delivered yesterday too. It was a fabulous day. . .pottery was done. . .books delivered. . .you know. . .the little things that make me smile.

I LOVE the books. The quality is awesome!!! Take a peek for yourself!

Harry Pottery!

We have a local paint-your-own pottery place in town that we visited for the first time yesterday. My Aunt introduced me to the idea in her hometown in Kansas, and when we visit her, we also visit the pottery place. Luckily the place has been there since before Mackenzie was born, so we have made plates, bowls, mugs, etc. with her handprints and footprints. Well, my very cool Aunt (HI AUNT B!) sent me a photo of some pottery that she insisted I make with Mackenzie. Once I saw the photos, I totally agreed, but since we weren't going to be visiting my Aunt anytime soon, we ventured to our local joint.

The place was awesome, and operated in similar fashion to the one in Kansas, so we weren't completely at a loss for what to do. When I mentioned to Ms. Mackenzie that we would be going, she said, "I can't wait to go paint HARRY POTTERY". . .or maybe she meant "Hairy Pottery"!

Upon arrival, we had to pick our pottery - a big platter. . .

Next we had to pick our paint. . .black, orange, and green. . .

The final step was simply to get busy. Mackenzie was a crazy-excited woman until we got to painting, then she calmed down a bit. . .good thing too, or we might have had to pay for a lot of broken pottery! I promised in a previous post that I would take photos, and I did. . .actually, MATT took most of these. . .I sure love that guy!

Here's Ms. Mack waiting to have her feet painted. . .we thought it wise to do one at a time. . .

One down, one to go. . .
Here's the 2nd foot. . .Mackenzie was VERY good during this process. . .something that made us both VERY, VERY happy. The paint can be washed if you mess up, but then it has to dry, and it's a mess, and quite frankly, a big hassle.
While I was finishing the platter, Mackenzie painted her own little pieces. . .a cupcake, some stars, and a moon. . .
Look at that concentration!
Here I am adding the border to the platter. . .
Matt, the pro, was helping Mackenzie with the bottom of her crescent. Our goal is to write the words, "When you wish upon a. . ." and then write the word, "Star" on one of the stars. Then hang the two stars and the moon in her room. Cute, eh? It goes with her princess motif.
Can't you just see her little cogs turning? She is most definitely a little sponge. . .absorbing everything. . .I LOVE that face!

We will get the finished pieces back on Thursday. . .I will take MORE pics and post them for you to see!! Woo Hoo!

My sister's having TWINS!!!

We've know for a while now that my sister is having twins! How FUN is that?!?!?! Or rather, how much fun WILL that be once they are sleeping through the night??! I was lucky enough to go to her lastest ultrasound to get a peek at those precious babies. She is having a boy and a girl. . .both are doing wonderfully, and gave us quite a show while we were there. Baby "A" is the girl, and she is in the position to kick her brother anytime she wishes. I bet he will have something to say about that once they are born!

Here are a few pics that I took while we were there. . .

This one is one of my favs. . .the little girl was looking right at us!!!!

Happy Saturday!

I love Saturday mornings. . .they are usually the only mornings that I get to sleep in, well, that's if you consider 6am sleeping in. Little Ms. Mackenzie is an early riser. So around 6am I have a small finger prodding my face, OR, I have a small face hoving centimeters above my face all the time whispering, "MOM! MOM! It's good morning time! Look outside, it's good morning." OK, OK, if you say so, Mackenzie! Actually, I wake up with a smile b/c she is just so darn cute, and I realize every morning just how blessed I am. . .even when I am totally exhausted! :) This morning I got up at 7:30am. . .I still had the help of a certain four year old, but I totally apprecitated the extra sleep.

Today should be the start of a wonderful week-end. And one where I promise to bring my camera. I do have some pics to post of my sister's ultra-sound, but I haven't downloaded them to my computer yet. . .we have been busy!

Today, Ms. Mack, her father and I are going to paint some pottery. It's going to be a secret what we are going to paint for now, but I can't wait to share the finished photos. Other than that, we are going to clean the house. BLAH.

So, you ask, what have we been up to lately? Why the lack of blogging? Well, I have actually been spending a bit of time scrapbooking! It's been two years since I last touched my books, and I have a lot of catching up to do! Although the process is long, and there isn't that sense of "instant gratification," I have been LOVING every minute of it!

I have also been reading a lot more lately. I really missed losing myself in a book. . .even if it was just for a few minutes a day. Got any good recommendations?!?? I am looking for some! Ms. Mackenzie and I have even been going to the library to expand our reading horizons.

Oooooo. . .my tummy just grumbled. I think it is time for me to go prod someone in the face. . .

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH Matt! It's GOOD morning time!!! Booo ahhh haaa haa haaa!

Taylor's 4th Birthday

This past week-end was very busy. Friday night we met with some fabulous friends at a wonderful restaurant in Old Town St. Charles called The Vine. The food was great and the company even better! We had so much FUN. Hanging around adults and having grown-up conversation allowed us to escape reality for bit.

We had a late night Friday night, and an early morning on Saturday. .. with about 4 hours of sleep we went to New Town in St. Charles for a photo shoot. (I am almost done processing the photos, and they will be online soon!) The family was amazing, and like almost all of our photo shoots, they made us realize how much we love our "job". . .the people we get to meet, and the memories that we get to share with them are amazing.

Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for Taylor. . .one of Mackenzie's classmates who turned four. Her birthday was so much fun, and very different from the others we have gone to this year. Her party was held at the Stuffin' Station, a place where you stuff your own "animal", give it a name, and love it forever. Ironically, it was located NEXT DOOR to The Vine! Here are some of the pics from the party:

Here is Mackenzie stuffing her Snow Tiger
This is the birthday girl, Taylor. Isn't she adorable??
Here's Mackenzie naming her Tiger. She named her "Chowder". . .where she got it I don't know, but I thought it was cute!
Here is the wish that went inside of "Chowder". . .
"Chowder" being stitched up. . .
Mackenzie's expression said it all . . .It's like she was thinking, "If I pacify her for one picture, she will (hopefully) leave me alone!"
After all of the animals were made, the kids played hot potato.
Then they tried to get "bees" aka clothes pins, into a jar.After the games, Taylor got to open her presents and see what kind of cool loot she was going to play with at home.

Here is the birthday girl blowing out her candle.

I was too busy gabbing with the other parents to take photos of the cake, but I got this pic on the way home. Notice the purple lips. One of the goodies in the goody bag Mackenzie received after the party was purple princess chapstick. It smelled like grapes and could be worn as a necklace. Mackenzie LOVED it as it filled her desire to be royalty!

Monster Cookies. . .YUM!

So I have been a little preoccupied lately. . .reading the "Twilight" Saga by Stephenie Meyer. If you haven't read it, DO!. . .I mean, seriously, the books are wonderfully written, and the storyline is amazing! I finished the 4th book of the series, and now that it is over, feel a bit sad. I started a new book, but it's just not the same.

Anyway, when I wasn't obsessively reading, I was still living lift to the fullest. Last Saturday we went to the birthday party for a one year old whose name is Blakeli. Blakeli's parents just bought a new home, so we decided to celebrate Blakeli's b-day and their housewarming all at once. We got Blakeli a gift certificate to our local paint-your-own-pottery place. Honestly, it was probably more for her parents than Blakeli, I mean really, it's not like Blakeli really cares about how cute her hand prints will look on a plate or bowl. I hope they all enjoy the gift certificate. . .we have painted pottery each Christmas with Mackenzie, and I love the pieces we have created as a family. I will have to post those sometime. . .but alas, I digress. Back to the party.

For the housewarming gift, Mackenzie and I went to Target for an adorable cookie jar. What home is complete without a cookie jar?! I found exactly what I was looking for and made immediate plans to fill the jar with a recipe that I couldn't wait to try. A month or two ago, while watching the Food Network, Ms. Paula Deen was making Monster Cookies. I waited, and waited for an excuse to make them, and when the housewarming party came up, I was elated! Trust me, the cookies were wonderful! Here are some pics of our labored (ha!) effort!

Mackenzie is ready to go. . .
Apron on. . .Check
Mixer. . .check
Ingredients. . .check
Slightly obsessive mom with a camera. . .check. . .


Adding the oatmeal. . .
I love drop cookies. . .they are so EASY! :)The cooling process. . .
The finished product. Isn't the cookie jar cute? I think I might have to go buy one for myself! With the chalk spot, you could put most anything inside the jar. Think of the possibilities. . .crayons, pasta, coffee. . .