Hundreds of Pictures...

I literally have hundreds of pictures from the holidays...but, they aren't on this computer anymore, and I'm kind of lazy...

Eventually, maybe I will post some. Oh and EJ's 9 month pictures...since he is almost 10 months now. Sigh. Where does the time go?

For now, I'm taking a shot of Nyquil and heading to bed with my book...we'll see how long I last!

Happy New Year?

Life is getting in the way of my personal time lately!

I won't lie...I've been stressed out a lot lately. There is always something to worry about it seems (or maybe I just worry too much?).

Having two kids is so much more work than just one. Mara is in a difficult stage right now a lot of the time too, which doesn't help.

I feel like I'd like to get away from everything for a week of peace and quiet...but it would all be here waiting for me when I got back (plus more!), so it's probably not worth it.

Oh well...that's life I guess. It's hard to complain when we're all healthy and even if the kids are frustrating sometimes, the sweet things they do makes up for some of it ;)

Hopefully 2011 will be a great year for us, and for all of you!

Snow!

7:30am, Saturday December 11th. The car got stuck in front of our house for awhile.

11am, Saturday 12/11

3pm, 12/11

3pm, 12/11

Sunday morning, 12/12 - this is what we saw when we opened our front door.

Looking out our front door, 12/12

Yep, that's a huge drift of snow on our patio! 12/12

We've been stuck in a huge snowstorm all weekend! It started Friday night, and didn't let up until Sunday morning. It snowed all day Saturday, and the wind was really strong, blowing the snow around and creating blizzard conditions. We were very happy to stay tucked snugly in at home! We were supposed to go to a Christmas party on Saturday afternoon/evening, but that didn't happen! And on Sunday we were supposed to have a baby shower for my sister, but that didn't happen either!

It was definitely the biggest storm that I can remember for a long time, and to be honest, I still haven't been outside, and it's now Sunday evening! One perk of living in a townhouse is that we aren't responsible for snow removal! We finally got plowed out around 5pm tonight. It's very very cold outside, so I was glad to not have to be the one out there doing the work!

Hopefully roads will be ok in the morning and we won't see any more snow for awhile!!

EJ - 8 Months Old

This was probably the worst monthly photo shoot I've experienced! I got the one good shot, and then it was all downhill! Poor EJ still wasn't feeling 100% better that day, so that didn't help. I also didn't have anyone home with me to help me distract him while I took the pictures. EJ is super active and has to always be moving, and it was nearly impossible for me to get him to sit still long enough to take a picture. The second picture here pretty much sums up how we both were feeling after only a couple minutes of trying to get some pictures! Poor guy. He forgave me though! :)

So Behind!

I am very behind on my blogging! EJ is almost 9 months old and I haven't posted his 8 month pictures yet... It's getting close to Christmas and I haven't posted about Thanksgiving yet...

Sigh.

Oh well! I'll catch up when I have a few spare moments!!

For now, just a quick update on our lives! We're keeping busy. November was an interesting month for me, because Jay worked 2nd shift the whole month. That meant I was on my own with the kids every day (before and after work) and we only really saw Jay on the weekends. I figured out some routines that worked, and made it through the month, but it was a little rough at times! I'm definitely used to having that extra set of hands!! It doesn't look like he will work that kind of schedule again for awhile, so that's nice. I can handle 2nd shift, but 4 full weeks of it in a row was a bit much! Jay is enjoying his job though, so that's great!

EJ and Mara are both doing great. They both moved up to new rooms at daycare. Mara is officially in a preschool room, and EJ is with the 'big' babies! It was a little bittersweet for me. He seems to really like it in there and is doing great, but it makes him seem so grown up all of a sudden! Both kids enjoyed seeing Santa (pictures to come!) and are going to be in a daycare winter program next week!

I'm trying to finish up EJ's stocking in time for Christmas, as well as planning a baby shower for my sister, and all of the usual holiday hustle and bustle. Usually I'm done shopping by now, but I still have a few things to get...hopefully soon! Then I can start to wrap!

Busy, busy, busy... I promise to post pictures and more updates soon!

Harry Potter Mania!

I realized that I almost typed 'maniac' in the title...which really wouldn't be too far off!

I am somewhat obsessed with all things Harry Potter, so I had been counting down for a long time, to the most recent movie. Jay is the one that got me hooked on the movies (and the books!) and we've gone to all of them together. The newest one (part one of the two) came out on Friday, and we went to a 9:15am showing.

It was fabulous!! Well worth the wait, and makes me want to re-read the books (again...). I am excited and sad - only one movie left. I think it will be amazing, but bittersweet. The end is near...

Sigh.

But for now, I'm just trying to plan when I can go back to see this movie again!!

Halloween!

The kids wore orange to daycare on the Friday before Halloween. Mara loved her pumpkin shirt and was excited to wear it!

She was not as excited about her giraffe costume! :( She barely wore it all weekend. She put it on for a little while at her daycare party, but it's hard to tell what she is without the hood on!

EJ on the other hand...he seemed to like his Harry Potter costume! This was one of the only shots I got of him with the glasses on - he was pretty interested in his pumpkin at daycare!

Mara did a craft project at her Halloween party.

The three grandchildren, at Grandpa and Grandma's house the day before Halloween. Mara wouldn't wear her costume, but at least she had her pumpkin shirt on!

I just love this picture of EJ with the pumpkin! He looks just perfect, and so happy!!

We went to visit my Grandma on Halloween, and I got this cute picture of her holding EJ!

Mara put her costume on long enough to get a piece of candy from Great Grandma. Then she wanted it off again!

I did manage to get a few pictures of Mara with the pumpkin...maybe next year she'll pose in her costume!!