Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Ornament Party 2011

Luke’s teacher, Mrs. Keenan, hosting her annual ornament party for the kindergarteners. Every year she puts this party together for all her kids and the parents are encouraged to come and participate. This was my second year and, unfortunately, my last.
Luke was so excited and we had so much fun spending the morning together.



 

 Best Buddy Jack


 Lucas and Bella
The girl he is currently exchanging love letters with!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

This year, as always, we had our meal at Steve’s parents house.  His sister and her family came to town and Uncle Lenny was there.  Carol puts together a fabulous meal, the boys played until they crashed and the adults laughed and ate and ate and ate.
Thanksgiving night at 9:30 p.m. me, my mom and my friend Tiffany headed out the door to shop the sales!  We hit Walmart, Target, Panera Bread, the mall, Michaels, Kohls and a pit stop at McDonald’s for a large diet coke!  We did not spend an outrageous amount of money nor were we after any high ticket items – we just love being in the mix of it all.  We did not get home until 7:30 a.m. Friday morning.
While we were at my in-laws I had the boys sit so I could try to get a couple pictures for our Christmas cards.


This makes me laugh!

This is going to be the one.  


Cousins
Joseph, Jason, Gregory, Daniel and Lucas
 

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Homecoming 2011

Gregory went to his first homecoming dance this October. 
Him and Keirsten looked great and had a wonderful time. 
I’m so proud of the handsome young man he is becoming!








Sunday, July 24, 2011

~SUMMER~

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!  We have been busy with wrestling events, t-ball, basketball, swimming, birthday parties, zoo trips, cottage stays, crafting and plenty more.  We still have to fit in another cottage stay, a trip to the state fair, the Renaissance festival, more birthday parties and tons more swimming!!

Stay tuned and when things slow down, the kiddos go back to school and the weather forces us to stay inside I’ll post about our summer.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter

 

So, it’s Easter Sunday, the boys are all here, dressed and looked great and the sun is out.  What better time for some pictures!!  Steve had to work, so when my family came over, I made them stop with the Easter business and start snapping pictures!  I’m very pleased with how great they turned out.

IMG_2250

IMG_2253 IMG_2254 IMG_2255

IMG_2258

This one is my favorite, it shows the exact personality of each child – Greg just wants them to behave, quit horsing around and get the show on the road so he can get to his girlfriends, Joseph loves getting his picture taken and will smile the best smile and pose anyway you ask him to, Luke he just wants to screw around, try to make everyone laugh and pull off the funniest face!

IMG_2252 IMG_2260 IMG_2263

I love these guys!!

HAPPY EASTER

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Spring Concert

 

The first grade classes at Joseph’s school had a small spring concert.  I just love hearing all those kiddos belting out the songs!  They did fabulous!!

IMG_2230  IMG_2235

IMG_2231

IMG_2234

Spring Blossoms

 

Spring is in the air afghan!

IMG_2241

IMG_2240

For more details – check out our craft blog HERE!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Craftin’

Let the crafting begin!

We applied for and finally received our Federal ID number which means we can now attend craft shows and, better yet, are able to purchase items at Michaels – tax exempt!

The next step is deciding on and preparing our display area and finding shows. We have tons of ideas up our sleeve and have already researched all the shows in the surrounding areas.

Keep an eye for us this summer. For a preview – check out our craft blog by clicking - The Pineneedle Valley

Maggie May

Our kitty Maggie May is getting bigger – so much so that we really can’t call her a kitten anymore!

She still has a the feistiness though and is constantly playing, running and attacking my yarn.

013

008

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

At a Stand Still

 

Well, a few weeks ago I finished the last of the Sue Grafton Alphabet Series.  All is at a stand still until V is published!  I finished this book about two weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting it…..things have been crazy busy!!

*Photo courtesy of suegrafton.com

Saturday, February 19, 2011

S is for….

Silence

I finished up another book today and I love that I can start on a new one tonight!  I have already read T is for Trespass (back in December) so now I’m on to U is for Undertow and that will complete the series until V is written.

photo courtesy of suegrafton.com

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Winter Time!

Do you remember being a kid and going outside ALL day and crying when it was time to go inside?  I do – even in the middle of winter I loved being outside.  We got a good amount of snow last night and since Luke set eyes on it this morning all he wanted to do was go outside – how could I resist?

Joseph had his first sleep over last night so when he came home, he immediately fell asleep.  I bundled Luke up and out we went.  Steve had just snowplowed so there was a huge snow pile – I started digging a small hole telling Luke I’d make him an igloo but we decided to turn it into a tunnel that came out the other side.  In the middle we made a big area where they can sit and hide.  I know forts like that can be dangerous and collapse (speaking from experience) but the boys are never outside unsupervised so all is safe! 

I dug and shoveled snow for two hours.  I can only imagine how I’m going to feel in the morning.  And to top it all off – I start a new job!

IMG_0545IMG_0544IMG_0543IMG_0546IMG_0542

(yeah that is our cat’s hind end above Luke’s head – he played in the fort too)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Book Two

 

I just finished my second book of the year

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

by Stieg LarssonThe Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest [Book]

This is the third book in Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy and it was just a great as the other two.  I was immediately hooked when I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and then I flew through book two - The Girl Who Played with Fire

Monday, January 24, 2011

The Bella Hat

I’ve updated our craft blog.  I’ve been “hooked” on making hats lately!

Check out this sneak peak….

IMG_2158

For more information or just to browse, head on over by clicking HERE!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

FIVE!!!!!

I can not believe that our baby is now five.  It has been five years since Lucas has joined this family and on one hand the years have flown and on the other it seems like he was just born.  I’m missing having babies in the house but not the diaper changing, sleepless nights and fussy crying. 

No matter how old you get Lucas, you will always be my baby.  We love you so much!

IMG_2151

IMG_2152

IMG_2153

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Book Journaling

Like I mentioned in my resolutions, I’m keeping a record of all the books that I’ve read in 2011.  The first one finished is….

* Photo was used from Sue Grafton’s website www.suegrafton.com

I love to read and when a book is part of a series – I love it even more.  Sue Grafton has started a series of books named after each letter of the alphabet.  She is currently up to “U”!

Happy New Year!

The new year is finally upon us – what will it bring?  2010 was a pretty good year for our family and friends so here’s looking to an even better 2011.  I’ve made a few resolutions for myself:

  • Blog more often!!  There is just so much going on, sometimes it’s hard to find the time to sit and write out all I want to say – but that should be my reason for taking time and journaling all that is happening.  Time is slipping by so fast, I want to remember it all!  I also have a craft blog that my Mom and I have started – so I’m going to stay on top of that too!
  • Journal the books that I read for a whole year.  I read all the time and Steve is amazed at how many books I can go through.  I thought it would be interesting to keep a list of all the books that I finish in 2011.  I just finished reading “R is for Ricochet” by Sue Grafton.  She has written a whole series of books starting with “A is for Alibi”, “B is for Burglar”, “C is for Corpse” and yeah, you get the picture.  I’m going to finish them all!  Steve bought me three new books for Christmas so I can’t wait to crack a new one open tonight.
  • ORGANIZE.  It seems that many things are in disarray around here and that is coming to end!  The boys’ room (particularly the TOYS) will be cleaned out along with closets and drawers.  Our attic is refinished and Greg occupies one side and me the other side – it stores all my crafts and it is atrocious!  It used to be hard to go up and settle down to craft with the boys little, but now it’s a breeze.
  • Get home improvements done.  We’ve already done tons of work to this house, but there is more to do.  My plan for the next couple months is to get the stairway, hallway, bedroom and stairway to the attic painted and the rug in the dining room, living room and on the stairs torn up!
  • Get my pictures in order, hang them up and get the scrapbooks caught up.  I have so many pictures and they are all over the place – on my phone, on my laptop, on the desktop, stored on two cameras, stored on three thumb drives, printed ones in boxes for each of the boys and thrown in a tote in the storage closet.  When my stairway and hall get painted they will showcase all our family and friends pictures – tastefully!  I’ve got it all planned out in my head so we’ll see where it goes from there….

This is a short list – at least my goals for the next few months.  When Spring shows up, it will get updated for sure!