NEW HOUSE

Justin and I have been looking to move for awhile now and we have finally found the perfect house. We have kept it a secret from everyone because it was under construction. Below are the pictures of the construction process. Unfortunately the builders were pretty shoddy and we are not going to be able to move in any time soon. We took pictures as the construction process took place. SIGH, we won't be moving. :(

GOTCHA!

Wonder

Christmas Wonder

Band Concert

Madison had her first 7th grade band concert on Thursday evening. All of the kiddos looked so great dressed up and ready to impress. The kids did a great job! Months ago they were learning how to assemble their instruments and all we heard were squawks and squeaks. They have all come a long way.

Broken Rules

So after my last post I received more comments than ever. Maybe I need to vent more often, ya think? Anyway, I have already broke two of my rules of things I wasn't going to do, the Christmas letter and Christmas cards. I like receiving the cards and I figure someone out there does to, so it is MY JOB to ensure that they get more Christmas cards. I see it as spreading good cheer. As for the Christmas letter goes, it was short and simple and I am only putting in those cards for family and friends that I haven't seen or talked to very often.

While writing out cards we watched to classic Christmas movies. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Madison thought is was really cool because they are reading the play in school and she is the ghost of Christmas Present.

After that we watched another classic, A Christmas Story. I LOVE RALPHY. I don't think we actually watched the movie, I think we just recited it. We enjoyed some ice cream from Rusty's Frozen Custard. By the way, ice cream in December is just not a good idea = freezing!

All in all we had a good family night and enjoyed our time together.

I'm Over It

I have had this post circling around in my head for quite some time now. So hear goes. Christmas for many of us is a romantized holiday. We all think that this is the best holiday ever and we have wonderful family time and traditions. We remember Christmas as it was for us as a kid, happy, mysterious, full of surprises and lots of memories. Unfortunately, I believe that most of us as adults feel (but won't admit) it is excessive and don't enjoy Christmas as much as we think we do. For example:

1. Christmas items on shelves the day after Halloween (I HATE THIS)
2. "Holly Jolly Christmas" being played over the load speaker of your favorite super-center, mall or department store before Thanksgiving.
3. Black Friday - which has now really turned into Black Week. Deals galore the days before Thanksgiving, the frenzie that follows on Friday and the insanity of it all.
4. Attending your Christmas party, your spouse's Christmas party, kids Christmas parties.
5. Playing Silly Santa, Dirty Santa, Secret Santa or any other kind of Santa other than the one that arrives on Christmas day.
6. Bringing a dish for the office pot-luck.
7. Getting the Christmas photo taken.
8. Getting photo cards taken.
9. Writing out the annual Christmas letter.
10. Stuffing an envelope full of photos, letters, cards and then yes - LICKING the ENVELOPE. Seriously haven't done that in years. The thought of the Seinfeld episode still lingers in my head.
11. Baking cookies and breads for every single person under the sun. I love to bake, love to bake, love to bake. But I'm OCD, I want everything perfect, which means no helpers in the kitchen.
12. Buying teacher gifts, office mate gifts, and day care teacher gifts.
13. Eating way too much. Think about the enormous amount of food that is constantly around from Thanksgiving through Christmas partially due to #11. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat it all, thus, the problem.
14. Spending, spending, spending. Does anyone make a budget anymore and does anyone really know how much they spend (see posts above on all the little things). Small gifts add up quickly when you have buy for 10+ people. Baking ingredients are expensive when you bake for a small army. Photos, letterhead and OMG the cost of Christmas cards.
15. Christmas lights. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the lights. I am taking about the one neighbor (or more) that everyone has that is related to Clark Griswald. Enough said?

SO NOW WHAT?

If you have read this far and if you were in the holiday spirit, you are probably not now. NEGATIVE right? Not so much. Maybe you do some of these things. Maybe you do all of these things. Maybe you are able to go through this month with all of the excess and never get stressed out. Well, for me I am making POSITIVE changes. So, now what?

This year we are going to:

1. We are NOT going to do most of the things listed above.
2. Make cut out sugar cookies with the kids. They cut out whatever they like, decorate them however they like and eat them while they are still warm.
3. Buy gifts for our family and family only.
4. Curl up on the couch and watch the great Christmas movies together.
5. Drive around and look at the Christmas lights, even all of the Griswald families out there.
6. Make hand-made ornaments.
7. Wrap gifts together and however the kiddos want (even with an excessive amount of tape)
8. Sit with my family on Christmas Eve and listen to Christmas music.
9. Assisting families that are need of help, we all know lots of them are out there.
10. ENJOY Christmas for what it is.

What I am Thankful For....Travel Version

I am thankful for:
1. a van that will hold an enormous amount of stuff
2. coffee
3. iPods
4. mother nature provided clear skies and no bad weather for the travel days
5. my own bed with my electric blanket
6. visiting family that you haven't seen in a long time
7. lots of good food

8. watching cousins play
9. diet Dr. Pepper

10. fabulous in-laws
11. Taco Johns

12. a van that can play DVDs at the push of a button

13. the Disney movie Cars ("ightning mckeen" and "mater")

14. multiple bathrooms

15. a fantastic brother and sister-in-law (Kayla you rock, even with a nasty cold)

16. a fourteen year old nephew that chose to stay with his family instead of go to a movie with his friends

17. Spencer NOT falling down the stairs and requiring a trip to the ER

18. Spencer NOT breaking anything from all of the balls thrown in the house

19. casual pictures

20. Spencer learning LOTS of new phrases, "AHHHH, MAN"

21. an awesome house-sitter

22. an oil-less fryer

23. a husband who braved the 14 degrees to cook the turkey

24. pumpkin pie

25. two happy, wagging tails to greet us at the door and who showed their love

Packing

When we are getting ready to go on a trip, I tend to annoy the living daylights out of my family. I get stressed, very stressed. Adding to that stress is trying to pack for a 2 year old. One which requires an insane amount of extra things. So, there I sat in his room carefully planning out his outfits for the week. As I laid them into the suitcase, in went Spencer. He decided he was going to help me pack.
He decided that his goal was going to be plan out the number of diapers he would need for the week. So, in went his little arm into the drawer and he began to bring me diapers. I brought them into the next room where is diaper bag was and began to pack. He on the other hand, had a different idea.

He decided to line them up all in a row.

After this shot was taken, he added about 5-6 more on both ends. He eventually moved the laundry baskets and the magna-doodle out of the way in order to squeeze more in. He was VERY proud of himself.

After the packing, he worked up an appetite, so he decided to feast on some chips and salsa. Ah, can't find good help these days.

A Great Arm

Out of the hundreds of toy options that Spencer has, his favorite is a ball. Any kind of ball. He is simply fascinated by them. He has no qualms about throwing them either. He will throw them in the house or outside. He will throw small ones, medium ones, large ones and balls he can't pick up he will kick. If it isn't a ball, but it can be thrown like one, it will be.

Upon picking him up from daycare one of the dad's comments to me was, "he has a really good arm! I have never seen someone so young that can throw like he does." Great compliment right? My response was, "Do you know how many times he gets put in a corner everyday for throwing?" Unfortunately, it is true. Timeouts don't work. The nose in the corner works for a bit, but not long. The boy doesn't get it or simply doesn't care. He is going to throw anything and everything that resembles a ball.

This weekend's paper was filled with the toy catalogs from Target, Walmart and Toys R Us. I thought it would be fun to start looking through them for ideas for Spencer. I sat at the table with sharpie at hand ready to circle away. I came across a Weeble set. Cute, age appropriate...wait, he would throw the weebles. Nope. Every possibility that I came across, my mind immediately looked for the parts that could and would be thrown. Our wish list was limited to books, a sit and spin and legos. Legos technically can and will be thrown, but since he actually builds and stacks them, I let that one slide. I did find the perfect gift for him..... a nubby sensory ball.

A Very Dark Halloween

We started the afternoon cooking a big pot of chili. About 5:15 the power went out. We decided to go ahead and get the kids ready, hoping that the power would come back on. Spencer was hysterical when we tried to put on his puppy costume. He ran in terror, so we improvised with regular clothes and he went as a golfer.
Madison was not trick-or-treating this year, but wanted to hand out candy with her best friend Alexis. So Madison was the patient and Alexis was the doctor. They were hilarious!

We took off trick-or-treating while we still had some daylight and after about 1 block, we headed home. It was simply too dark. No street lights, no porch lights, the only light was flashlights or some lighted candles. It made things very difficult.

Spencer has already figured out the candy thing. The candy bowl is now on the top of the refrigerator: out of sight, out of mind. All in all, not a very good Halloween.

Teenager in the House

It is official, we have a teenager in the house. Madison turned 13 the day we were traveling back from New England, so there wasn't a lot of hubba-ba-loo that day. We had a small party on Saturday night. She invited three friends over and I took them to see the movie Secretariate. CAUTION - SIDETRACKED - GO SEE THIS MOVIE.

Anyway, the girls loved the movie and I enjoyed watching them sit on the edge of their seats waiting to see if the horse won the triple crown. They were shocked and amazed at the end of the movie when I told them it was a true story. They all loved it.
We came back and had some cake (um, yeah, the BEST cake - chocolate mousse from La Baguette. The girls played Wii and I of course took photos (no they are not posted here). Below are some interesting facts (13 to be exact) about our wonderful daughter, Madison Jo.

1. Favorite Movie: Secretariate
2. Favorite Food: Smoothies
3. Favorite Color: Purple
4. Favorite Song: You Think You're Cooler Than Me
5. Favorite Musical Artist: Ke$ha
6. Favorite School Subject: Reading (no surprise on this one)
7. What she does in her spare time: Playing Zelda, Wizard101, Reading, Playing guitar/clarinet, writing stories/books
8. Best Friends: Alexis, Jamie, Abby and Bailey
9. Favorite Outfit to Wear: red cami, gray and black striped shirt with angel wings (rhinestones) and jeans (oh, don't forget the jewelry)
10. Book she is reading now: The Rescue, Book 3
11. Where she would like to go on vacation: Kings Island (Ohio) or Sea World (San Antonio)
12. Who she admires and why: "My best friends, because we stick up for each other and they are like no other friends that I have had"
13. The thing she likes most about herself? "That my style is different than others and it makes me unique"
    

I love my girl and am very proud of her.

New England Day 5: Massachusetts

Today we headed south to Massachusetts. We first made it to Salem. I really wanted to go to the memorial for those that died during the Salem Witch Trials. The traffic was horrible and as we soon realized, visiting Salem two weeks before Halloween was insane. The town is creepy to begin with and then you add in all of the townfolk who dress up (WEIRD, CREEPY, dressup). They all get into character and parade around town celebrating witchcraft and witches. This is really sad when the whole point was that the women and men really were NOT witches. Okay, promptly left Salem and headed to Glaucester (pronounced Glostah).
Gloucester is most well known for the location for the movie The Perfect Storm. We visited the Fisherman's Memorial, which was very cool and the Fisherman's Wife Memorial. The town itself is a blue collar fishing town. This is also where Kayla (my sister-in-law) and I split a lobster. This was the first time I have had lobster and especially the first time cracking one open. I can say that I have done it, I don't know if I would do it again - kinda gross. We could see a very beautiful stone church, so we decided to check it out. It is named St. Anne's. GORGEOUS!
We headed to Rockport after Gloucester and did some great shopping and of course took pictures of some fabulous scenery.
Rockport is much more sophisticated and artsy, so the shopping really was good.

Fisherman's Memorial

St. Anne's church in Gloucester.

Inside of St. Anne's church.

Gloucester's Town Hall.

Really cool door along the streets of Gloucester.

Church in Gloucester.

Motif #1 in Rockport Harbor, Massachusetts.

Boats tied up in Rockport Harbor.

Gateway to a home in Rockport.

LONG DAY!

New England Day 3 & 4: Throw out the GPS.

Yesterday was icky!!! The winds were horrible and the rain was constant, so we didn't do anything exciting during the day except buy two winter hats. We did make it to the Museum of Art yesterday and got to see a Monet and Renoir.
Today started out much better. We set out to see some lighthouses and anything that was interesting along the way. We tried to use the GPS, but realized it wasn't worth it because we kept finding things and go a different direction. So, we just drove, with no time schedule and no particular schedule (SOOOOO not me).
We stopped at Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth. This is an active lighthouse and it is the only one that you can go into.

The Portland Head Lighthouse is the most famous lighthouse. The rocks surrounding the lighthouse make for some pretty fantastic photographs. Yesterday during the Nor'Easter, the waves were crashing 30-40 feet into the air.

The next stop was Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse also in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. This was off the beaten path a bit, so a lot less traffic. On top of the rocks was a really cool worn down brick building, which made a really cool backdrop for some pictures.

I took a picture of these cattails because they seemed so perfect.

This is the Irish Heritage Center in downtown Portland. I absolutely love the architecture. The steeples are amazing, the doors were large and wooden. This place was just really neat.

This is a church in Kennebunkport. I LOVE the clock on the top of this. This whole church is just beautiful.

My favorite location thus far. This is an old, hand laid stone Episcopal church on the coast of Kennebunkport. The sunset was hitting this stones and it was just magnificent.

This is the door to the church, the round, hardwood door with the metal hinges and cross are amazing.

Sunset on the beach of Kennebunkport. Ahhhhh.

I will be posting MUCH more tomorrow. I have a ton more pictures from today, but don't have time to get them all uploaded. We haven't been in bed before midnight this entire trip.