Not so Baby Girl!!

Happy Birthday Maggie!!

Today my baby girl turned 5. :( She is growing to fast. Well here in the midwest we got hit pretty good with the winter storm. So we started our day playing in the snow since school was called off.

I had two great helpers make Maggie's birthday cake. The beaters and spatula are VERY clean.

After going out for Maggie's favorite dinner pizza. We came back for cake and presents with Maggie's grandparents.

Maggie got her American Girl doll from Maw and Pauk! (Grandma/Grandpa) A very happy and excited girl. I think someone is spoiled. ;) The cradle in the back is from Mommy and Daddy.

Happy Birthday Princess!!

92 Young

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

Today my Grandfather turned 92!! He still lives in his home for the past 60yrs. Still drives around town(daylight only). Enjoys his baseball games and visits my Grandmother in the nursing home everyday.

Today I sat with my Grandpa and talked about the things that have changed in his lifetime.

He lived through 2 World Wars, 5 conflicts, 2 wars, Pearl Harbor and 9/11. I may be wrong on the number of conflicts the US was involved in. He told me today that when they dropped the atomic bomb he was on his way to the pacific. If that happened I probably wouldn't be here today.

Just think of technology in his life time. With not every home having a phone to almost everyone having a cell phone.

No computers to computers taking up entire rooms to what I have sitting on my lap right now.

Kids played outside with a ball and a bat. Now kids play with a simulated ball and bat on a Television.

Wow what about Television. When he was born there was no such thing. Now look at what we have now.

Cars were a rare thing in his small town of Crystal City. Now we have cars running off of electricity. Grandpa remembers his families first car. It was a 1917 Dodge.

In his life time we entered space and walked on the moon.

Grandpa with the great grandkids. My three and my cousins daughter.

Blowing out candles. No we didn't do 92 candles. We didn't want the fire department called. ;)

You pick

Toy or Torture Device?

Well at first thought I was excited by my new addition. After forcing myself to complete 20min today. I have decided this is more of a torture device! ;)

Truthfully I am thrilled to have the new elliptical. It will allow me to get a work out in before the kids get up. In the long run it will give me more time during the day to work. I have also decided I am a much happier person when I am exercising and at a healthy weight.

So to get motivated I started a group at my local non for profit gym. We are doing a biggest losers group. I am heading up the group and keeping us motivated. With that it will make me accountable for my weight loss as well. We are also mking it a little contest. Everyone puts in $10 and whomever losses the most gets the pot.

New listings

Ending Tuesday

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Pets on parade

Pets on Parade!!

Well this Christmas we added a new family member. Riley recieved his LIZARD for Christmas. On Dec 28th we went to a local reptile Expo to pick her out. Met a really nice breeder in the area and got Velvet. (Riley named her. I LOVE it)

This pet that was suppose to be Tim and Riley's project has slowly become mine. :( She is cute and she doesn't bother me. It's the crickets!! Ick! I am having issues with this feeding thing. The unfortunate part is that everyone is gone expect me when she is suppose to eat. So that is the reason for me feeding her. ;)

Here she is. She is about 6" long and just 3 months old. She will get about 24" by the time she is an adult. Also mostly on produce!! These crickets are going to break the bank. UGH!!

Here are our Guinea Pigs. They are getting so big. I don't think I ever shared a picture of Fidgit. He is our vocal one. He loves to "talk" to you and tell you exactly how it is. ;) Poor Jack was sick and so we had to take him in to the vet. All better now!!

Now to figure out how to get allergy shots for guinea pigs. My mom is REALLY allegic and I am a little. So I am not allowed to hold them any more. :( Miss my little guys.

Maggie and Fidgit

Xavier and Jack

Christmas

Christmas & New Year's

What a great way to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Unfortunately my Moms severe allergies to our guinea pigs caused her to miss Christmas morning with us. :(

Kids with their Santa presents.

Riley got his terrarium for his soon to be bearded dragon. Maggie got her PeePee on the Potty doll. Xavier with his Reindeer Webkinz and geotrax airport.

Riley at my Dad's opening presents

Xavier in his Race Car helmet and wheel. ZOOOOOM!
Ms. Princess in her tiara from Uncle Paul. (Which this picture was taken by him. Can you tell who is MUCH better with a camera. ;) )
Maggie looks almost angelic here. ;)


Well to my awful blogging neglect I forgot my camera on New Year's Eve.

What a wonderful time. A friend asked us to join her for her annual bowling alley New Year's Eve Party. A local bowling alley closes to parties on New Year's eve. The kids took a late nap so they could enjoy the night. We had a successful non-whining good time. Maggie practice Wii bowling for a week before we went. ;) Well bowling is much harder with a ball. LOL! The kids stayed up until 1:30am and we all slept until about 9am.

December

December in Retrospect

December came and went faster than ever this year. It feels like Thanksgiving was just last week not Christmas. Since my busy schedule kept me from blogging I thought I would show a little of our December activities.

I unfortunatley didn't take as many pictures as I should have to document everything.

One of our first events of December was watching Riley sing at Our Lady of the Snow. It is a shrine that has beautiful Christmas lights every year.

One of my favorite events every year is the preschool Christmas program. This was Maggie's second year and next year will be Xavier's first. It is such a delight seeing the children sing there song and preform a little play for us.

Notice the microphone?? During the song Maggie kept leaning over to sing in it. ;)

A tradition at Riley's school is K-3 gets to make gingerbread houses. The parents get together to assemble the "gingerbread houses" a few days before the event. Then everyone sends candy in for the kids to decorate thier house. The kids really enjoy this activity. This was Riley's last year. :(

As room parent I get the priveledge to doing the kids class parties. This year we painted Christmas ornaments for the parents. Then we ended it with some yummy pizza. Since I am SOOO GOOD. We were done 1/2hr early so we played a rousing game of charads.
Finally we went to see Santa Riley's last day of school before the holidays. What a great day we had with the kids. After seeing Santa we went to see BOLT (what a great movie) and went to dinner. I think this will have to be a new family tradition.