Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season, have a save and wonderful Merry Christmas!!!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Conor is 7 years old!

On his actual birthday, we took him out to eat at the restaurant of his choice - The Golden Corral. Then he got to open one present on his actual birthday - a game which he, Ceara, and I played.
We had his birthday party on Saturday (the 12th). Only one other kid was able to come, but it was Gage and that was enough for him!
It was a day of chaos for me, lots to do - cleaning, cooking, the cake. I had made cupcakes for his school party on Friday and forgot that I had ran out of one of the ingredients for the icing. Jeff had taken Conor to visit Grand dad and I had to wait for him to get home so he could run to the store for me. I was still finishing up the cake when the first guests arrived. They didn't mind, though - they were helping out and eating the icing.
Jeff came up with the idea for a camouflage cake - I was drawing a blank because he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

He got a much needed new coat from Nana, which he was planning to buy for himself with his birthday money. Since he got one, he has all this cash burning a hole in his pocket.

He tore through the presents rather quickly.

Clothes.
Screecher.
Gloves and a hat.
More than one hat.


He got coloring books;
Toys;
Games;
A telescope (which I didn't get a picture of).
They a few days later, he got a package in the mail from his Aunt Naomi and Uncle Jerry with lots of cool stuff in it. Clothes, DVD, computer games, Wii Games, hat, gloves, a stuffed tiger, and $7 were all wrapped individually and put into a box. One of the T-shirts she got for him has a tiger on the front and his eyes lit up when he saw it. He loved opening it all.



He had a great birthday! He loved everything he got - even took his Screecher to school for show and tell the following Monday.
Now we (aka I) need to clean out his closet and make room for the new stuff. And Christmas is a little over a week away!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas at School

We went to an event at Conor's school at the beginning of December, not really knowing what to expect. I was thinking a packed gym with parents standing around while the kids screamed and played. I was wrong, and glad! :)
I randomly chose pictures to post here, there were too many and very small so I couldn't see which ones I was choosing. I hope it is a good sampling.
The kids were split into small groups and moved every 20 minutes to a different class room and different activities.
Story time with Mrs. Claus;

Exercising and making reindeer food;
Toy room;
Present wrapping room;

Visit with Santa;

Ornament making room.

Letter to Santa room;

Gage and Conor were in the same group so they got to do it all together. Conor had a lot of fun, and I think it was really fun for all the kids. Every one seemed to enjoy it.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Thursday, December 03, 2009

22 Days til Christmas!

*NOTE* BLOGGER IS DRIVING ME MAD WITH THE SPACING ISSUES! I put the correct double space in between all of my paragraphs. And when I publish it, they get altered to more or none. I HATE it. Done ranting. But forgive the spacing issues!


Thank you to those of you who voted on Alli's hair color. She has agreed to not re-dye it black (as was her plan) and we will work on getting it to grow faster and do something to get rid of the black at some point.


There have been several events that I should have written about, but it has been a busy few weeks. I have quite a few pictures to share as well. Maybe in another post. Here are a few of the events, and not particularly in the order in which they happened!


Jeff and I went on a "date" - and Conor got to go with us for 1/2 of it - the dinner. Then we dropped him off at my mom's and went to the movies to see The Blind Side. Excellent movie! And of course I took tissues! If the trailer brings tears to my eyes, of course the movie will make me cry at some point.


We've had Thanksgiving - one with my family, one with Jeff's. I didn't take many pictures, though... actually I didn't take any at all. I did give my camera to Alli and Ceara and asked them to take some of the kids outside playing and that was all I ended up with.


As much as I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and even though I bought a turkey, we chose to go to our family gatherings and save the turkey for later.


Alli and Sara walked in a Christmas parade in a neighboring town last weekend. They wore pink to represent a local pet grooming business.


Alli is going to therapy for her back - turns out all those complaints she had were quite valid. Even though they seemed to only be convenient complaints (when she didn't want to do something), she has a mild case of scoliosis. She also has broken her tailbone at some point in her life, and when that happened it caused her spine to compact and chipped a little bit of her vertebrae. So the therapy is to help stretch it back out. In my defense, I did take her to our family doctor and she didn't diagnose anything. So that Mother of the Year award is still within my grasp, right? RIGHT?!?!


Ceara has braces now on her top teeth, but they are pretty clear and you can't see them very well from a distance. She is having problems talking and eating at the moment - but I'm sure she will get used to them. She gets the bottom ones after Christmas. Or the week of Christmas. I forget.



We all went to see Disney's A Christmas Carol in 3D - Jeff, me, Alli, Ceara, Conor, Sara, Adam, Alice (my mom), and Barb (Jeff's mom). The movie was great - the 3D was awesome, and a good time was had by all. After the movie the kids got into one of those photo booths and made goofy faces. I have a strip of pictures, and I will share them too - when I get them scanned onto my computer.



Tonight we went to an "Evening with Santa" at Conor's school. It was fun - I wasn't sure what to expect, but they had stations set up in different classrooms for the kids to go to. I will go into that further when I post the pictures. Sorry, I'm too tired to right now!



This weekend, I am hoping to take the kids to a Christmas parade and also get our tree and decorations put up. I also need to fit a little bit of shopping in somewhere! I'd like to make a dent in the Christmas shopping and also my baby boy is turning 7 in a week!




I'm sure there is more, but... I gotta get to bed. My pillow is calling out to me.




So, I will leave you with a few teaser pictures of the kids.







Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Cast your vote! What's your favorite hair color?

OK, I told Alli I was going to do this. I'm going to try to get as many votes as I can. Please pick what your favorite hair color is for her:

Natural blond:

(She's the one on the left, in case you don't know her!) Of course, the pictures would turn out better if they cleaned the mirror they were taking the picture in!

Another natural blond, since the first one is a bit blurry.

Here is her school picture for this year (by Lifetouch) where it is blond on top, dark underneath. Not her natural blond, but still blond.
Here is brown:
And another brown, although it looks a bit light due to the sunlight.
And black:

(The one in the middle below, if you can't figure that out by now! :))

Some people already know which one I don't like. But I will not try to sway you one way or the other. Vote for the one you think looks best, because her friends tell her the one I hate looks the best and she won't believe me when I tell her they are lying! :)
Just please... click on the comment below and cast your vote. And please put your name somewhere in the post if you choose anonymous so she knows who is voting.
Thanks!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Hayley - Conor Exhibit Man Cave Series Premiere

Hayley - Conor Exhibit









Meet Conor and Hayley - two young up and coming artists












The two artists prepare their work










the medium










Conor prepares yellow










Hayley prepares green










Hayley mixing blue










Hayley working with red







"Dragon Andromeda"
Conor -artist






"Phoenix Arises"
Conor -artist










"Mardi Gras Finale"
Hayley -artist




















"Terrapin Holiday"
Conor -artist










"Pumpkin Metamorphosis"
Conor -artist














"Frolicking Otters"
Jeff -artist














Jeff prepares the red













"Oops!"