Xmas....finally

With Logann's worst day being Xmas eve I don't have many photos to share. Not much happened in way of tradition or excitement this year as our goal and concern was getting Logann better in time for Santa. I felt sorry for Sophia as I didn't have the time to do the intended baking and crafts we had planned. My mom helped her assemble a ginger bread house that I ended up throwing out after Xmas, having never been decorated.

Xmas Eve Sophia was very excited for Santa's arrival, so with Logann in bed sick I spent some time with her setting up Santa's cookies. We found a cute idea for creating a snowman cookie using oreos and marshmallows and licorice. It was harder than it looked and never stood straight up. But Sophia and I had fun attempting.

Hopefully next year will be a healthy one!

sophia's nickname of phia began with rob and judith's 2 yr old daughter kate. phia was all she could pronounce and it has stuck.

Favorite Gifts this year: Sophia requested a Christmas Toy from Santa. I was puzzled by the request and bought her this figurine, she says it was her favorite gift, strange kid! Logann loved her new Pixos and Jewelry set. Both girls received a bunch of Leapster games which are getting a lot of attention. And Logann's favorite gift was probably the jewelry box Grandma Hook gave her and Sophia. It has a ballerina that spins to Over the Rainbow music. She takes it everywhere!

Cheap Knock-Offs: so the girls asked for 2 gifts that after researching I refused to buy. One was a nail glitter polish machine thingy for Logann. Please! No! And Phia begged for a cupcake making machine. I considered this one until I read all the terrible reviews. So I'm cheap and I wasn't wasting $80 on more junk, I found for Logann in her left hand below, a nail glitter polish set at the dollar store which she loved. We used it once and I trashed it, perfect! For Phia I found a $7.99 cupcake making set at Borders. She was a little smarter and said, "Well this really wasn't the one I asked for but its great!" Always the pleasing child.

my poor Laptop

i had a funeral for my laptop today. after only 18mths with us, it caught the stomach bug and died. its currently rotting away, smelling up my office, awaiting a proper burial. Logann was playing on it the other night when we thought she was rallying. (see next post) After a couple crackers and some milk(god what was I thinking??!!) she proceeded to barf an enormous amount all over the keyboard. it was dripping wet with puke and immediately shutdown. no sign of life in 3 days! i tore it apart and i think the hard drive is salvageable(did i spell that right??) but man i wasn't planning on saying goodbye so soon. and if i can't recover my hard drive data i've just lost a lot of stuff! : (
so i guess i'm on the market for a new one, at least on a good note the timing isn't bad for deals on computers, got any recommendations.

Santa brought a stomach bug

actually it all started before xmas, last Saturday was day one. I came down with a really bad stomache and spent the better part of the day in the bathroom. Logann woke up Sunday morning in a puke covered bed and began throwing up, running a fever and having diarrhea. It was quite hellish! Everyone was trapped inside all week, running Logann to the bathroom, and trying to figure out a medicinal cocktail that she could keep down. We ended up at the doctor on Xmas Eve as she was still feverish and very sick after 5 days. They reassured us after some blood work and a urine sample, that it was only a stomach bug and wrote us a prescription for Zofran. We opted instead to give her Phegram(?) suppository, not much fun to administer but it helped. I think we scarred her for life though, she's still afraid to take off her underwear for fear of the butt shot as she calls it.
She woke up Xmas morning not realizing what day it was, but with enough energy to unwrap her gifts. Today she is 95% better thank goodness!
The stomach bug sure put a damper on the Xmas week. We had lots of activities and get togethers planned that we had to cancel but we still had a nice day and a lot less puke to deal with.

Quiet

gosh its so quiet here! my great neighbors took the girls to Red Robin for dinner. i've been struck with the nasty stomach bug and pretty much have been laying on the couch or dying in the bathroom all day. John is working til 7pm so it was so nice that Jeremy and Lauron offered to take the girls off my hands. I'm still on the couch, watching Syracuse Basketball, but so enjoying the peace and quiet of my solitude.

Mystery

Logann said the funniest thing the other day. Its probably one of those things where you had to be there, but I'm blogging it so I never forget it.

The girls and I were in my room. Sophia went downstairs and immediately started screaming "Logann you drank MY juice why did you do that!" Logann with a big smile on her face said, "I didn't do it" I then asked her well who did, and she said in the perfect Fred voice
"Well....... it looks like we have a mystery on our hands!"
Can you tell we love Scooby Doo around here?

Classic

18 mth olds and Santa don't mix well. my neighbors daughter was not having it. Scarred for life but hysterical

my present

i bought myself a xmas present the other day. i'm not sure how excited i am about it as i'm hardly cooking these days. but its definitely time to upgrade and thanks to linens n things going out of business i couldn't pass up the sale.

Seeing Santa

Tonight we went across the street with some neighbors to see Santa at the Fire Station a.k.a the North Pole as the girls kept calling it. It was a fun event. About 10 of us, margaritas in hand, walked over (the benefit of living a block from the fire station) They had a great set up with a fast talking Santa, lots of sweets and toys at the end. What could make a kid crazier than that at 8pm.

The girls jumped right on Santa's lap, no hesitation.Santa was actually our builder's fix it man, and a volunteer fireman. A 300lb sweetie he made a wonderful Santa. Sophia was perplexed that he knew we moved, she kept asking me how did Santa know we got a new house this year, it was perfect!

Logann declared right away that she wanted a puppy that swims? No idea what that is. Sophia paused and paused and then said "I want Christmas toys." That means she doesn't need anything as far as I'm concerned. And what about the Wii I just bought?



I was excited about Logann's toy choice at the end. A light up Yo-Yo. of course she couldn't get it to work and threw it and its already in a few pieces. It was fun for me though.

ms.secure

don't think i'll have to be boosting sophia's self esteem anytime soon. tonight she comes up to me and says "mom guess what?, I LOVE myself!" it was funny, and awkward, but good i guess, especially considering most of her little girlfriends are already so insecure. maybe being blessed with that skinny little body of hers helps her confidence : ) she definitely is her own person, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks or does. she's in her own little world, but i'm glad she's happy with herself, how long will it last?

My Christmas Angels : )

playing beside the tree and lights.

10,000 miles

John hit a big milestone yesterday, 10,000 miles on his bike. Attached to his bike he has a computer that logs his mileage in case you were wondering.

I should look to see how many miles I have on my bike as we bought ours together : ) I'm sure I'm somewhere around 9,999,......................... feet maybe.

He's a nut, I don't know how he does it. Congrats on the accomplishment

cookie swap

my good friend kirstie had a neighborhood cookie swap sunday. it was a nice time getting in the holiday spirit, lots of wine was consumed, one too many cookies eaten, and the usual retellings of the stay at home mom sagas were told. same thing that always happens when 12 women get together. it is nice though knowing you're not in it alone.
p.s. you can't see my cookies here. this year i made white/dark chocolate covered mini pretzel sticks with mini m&ms and peanuts. sooo tasty and simple, and addictive. i'll send you the recipe if you need your fix.

!

princess ride

the weather has really warmed up around here. tomorrow we are suppose to hit 70! this morning it was so nice that the girls actually played outside. just when i was pondering the thought of selling their princess car they are all into it again. go figure! they don't have much longer though as sophia can barely fit her long legs into it and it tops out at about 2miles/hr when the two are in it.

Journal

Sophia is REALLY into school and learning. She loves homework and since she only gets it on Tuesday she often creates work for herself at home. Each day apparently they write a journal entry and illustrate it. This was the homework she made up last night just for fun. It was followed by a beautiful drawing. We had just gotten home from the mall.
"I am seein Stocls! It is fun! Do you wnt a pst? Yes I do!"
Thought the teachers in some of you would dig it : )

Should I be worried?

this is how i found Logann and Jackson playing in the living room. exchanging saliva with a dog is a little too close!

by the way thats face paint on her face in case you were wondering : )

Christmas Cards

my new favorite hobby, designing Christmas cards........hence the lack of blogging

Julia 17mths, an adorable, sweet, spunky, energtic little girl. She lives down the street and was my first and hardest "client" : ) She does not like my camera! And staying still is calculated in milliseconds in her world. But I love her! she's just too cute in all her designer attire.

Three's a Crowd Right?

how can you not want another child after photographing this angel? My baby fix didn't last long enough. I came home wanting another, even having been peed and spit up on.
However after reading the trials of life with 3 in Megan's blog I think I'll just see about borrowing him.

6 weeks old

highlights of our trip to FL

since logann lost our little pocket size camera I'm finding that I don't take as many pictures. Most days I don't feel like lugging around the SLR therefore this is the extent of our photos from the week.......

Swimming with Daddy

John was such a fun dad. The girls had a blast in the pool with him. He made up a game of alligator, elephant, snake where he pretended he was one of the above and went around chasing them trying to capture them. They loved it! Mommy on the other hand had fun watching from the lounge chair, soaking up the sun and relaxing. It was a nice break for me.

this is where we still stand swimming. logann the little fish spends most of her time underwater or in the bathroom peeing out all the pool water she takes in. Sophia however is still treading at the top usually with that cautious look. She is gradually getting better and made it as far as getting her nose under water. But she is a long way from the old days in Baldwinsville when she would jump into the water by herself.

Venice Dog Beach

our last night in FL was fun! we all took Jackson to the dog beach close to my mom's place.

handsome dude

The sun was just setting and other than the smell of dog pee everywhere it was really neat.

The girls loved playing with all the different breeds. They ranged from the tiny french bulldog

pup,their favorite,

to the 200lb+ super sweet and submissive Great Dane.

Jackson did well interacting with all the dogs, we weren't so sure as he hasn't been playing with other dogs since we moved here really. Poor guy hasn't made any friends in NC!

In addition to the dogs there were tons of dolphins jumping close to the shore. It was really neat watching them. Of course it was really getting dark out so my camera couldn't capture their fast jumping from afar. You'll just have to believe me. It was awesome.

Photo Ops

they love each other!

my favorite child..... I mean favorite son : )

i love how john captured the girls playing behind me neat photo i thought, well except for my ugly face!

returns

today, black friday, i stupidly decided to return some things to walmart. as i was standing in the usual LONG line, i was humored by the old couple in front of me. They somehow succeeded in returning a bouquet of flowers that they told the woman they had bought 3 weeks earlier and had died!! hello! how do people get away with this stuff. one things for sure the couple's probably loaded after all their returns. maybe i'll start a new career of returning. although that would require more patience than i have i'm sure.

xmas photo attempt

i've been taking lots of fun family xmas photos this month. i figured while we were in FL we could get ours over and done with as its always something i dread. my mom was in charge of the camera today(scary!) as she is know for chopping off heads. unfortuanately the bad photos weren't a result of the photographer. this was the mood of my children today..... needless to say i was pissy.

scary turkey

i think logann is on her way to becoming a vegetarian. just about the only meat she eats is chicken nuggets. today she refused to eat anything off her thanksgiving plate.
this morning i thought it would be fun for her to help baste the turkey with butter. big mistake! she was totally freaked out by it and a bit confused. when the turkey was done cooking and cooling on the stove she ran out of the kitchen saying she was scared of the turkey. i wonder if i have forever ruined her thanksgiving dinner? she asked me a few times later in the day why we ate the turkey and where the feathers went.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are celebrating our first Thanksgiving in Florida this year. My mom retired in June and is staying down here in her condo for most of the winter. The thought of Tgiving in 70 degree weather seemed strange but I must say we're loving it! The girls have enjoyed swimming and going to the beach and of course spending time with Grandma. I've been relaxing, reading, napping and eating/drinking way too much. Luckily John and I have begun running again this week after a two month hiatus. My knee is finally not killing me anymore, I can't believe how much better I feel after some exercise. I also can't believe how quick my belly grew with no exercise. I guess they're right about that post-30 slow down in metabolism.
Today was pretty low-key. But isn't Thanksgiving always, kind of a boring holiday. After our run this morning, the girls and I watched National Dog Show and tried to decide on the breed for our next dog. The Pointer, which has always been a favorite of mine, took best in show. They prefer a dog from the toy group, something tiny and fuzzy!
We ate our turkey early, went swimming, and then after dessert drove around my mom's neighborhood looking at the Xmas lights. Can't believe people are so quick to decorate! The chore of unpacking the tree and accessories, hanging the lights and all the other Xmasy stuff doesn't sound appealing to me just yet.

Tag

Ok I am sooooooo out of touch lately with my blogging! My friend Megan apparently challenged me to a game of tag so here goes. I had to post the 4th picture of my 4th folder. Right now I'm pretty much only dealing with other people's photos, since starting my photography business(if you can call it that). So here's my pic 4th photo...I love this little boy Jake, he's 5 and a sweetheart with adorable dimples.

Happy Halloween

Everyone had fun at Halloween! The "devil" and the "Bratz cat"were so much more into it this year. I kept saying that the girls should have switched costumes as the devil suits Logann's personality so much more : ) They both looked adorable though and had no fear about running up to people's doors. We went out with a few of our neighbors and only hit about 15 houses as we don't have too many houses in our new neighborhood. But the girls still managed to get plenty of peanut butter cups and almond joys for mommy!