How I am ending 2011

I was supposed to take this week off for some "me" time. I had shopping ventures planned, lunches with friends. Instead of my kids going to daycare as planned, i have had all three of them home almost all week with me....and I couldn't have "planned" it any better. Working full time, I miss the simple joy of just playing in the morning or making breakfast or playing in the snow. This may not have been how I planned my week, instead much better!

I will catch up the blog after the holiday with pictures of what we have been doing Until then, happy new year. Hoping for health and happiness in 2012!

Wordless Wednesday- Our Holiday Card

Christmas Parties!

I don't know how it's been so long since a real post. So- not even able to remember everything we have been doing lately, I guess I'll leave it to pictures to help remind me...

We had our annual Christmas party at work. It was amazing...

Owen has that I'm so over it look...

And then we hosted our annual Christmas party at our house the following night. It was smaller than normal, I think we had about 23... but it almost made it better. we were able to talk to everyone and spend some good time with people.

Looking forward to this week. I was very ahead of the game this year...but still have so much to get done.

Wordless Wednesday

I have been so busy between work, the upcoming holidays and just life in general... I promise to post more later in the week. But until then, my wordless Wednesday:

Quinlin put the animals in time-out.... I love how they are all facing the wall. Apparently this little lady knows a thing or two about time-outs.

what a difference a year makes

Remember these school pictures? Owen and Quinlin had this year's batch taken. This time, reverse, Owen smiled fine, Quinlin was not impressed.

Quinlin last year:

and this year:

Owen's last year:

and this year:

and then they even took a picture of the two of them together...

Maybe next year, they'll both smile... one can hope!

Funny Things said

Owen's words to Quinlin in the tub "stop touching my pirates"....it's privates, little man. Privates.

Sean and Hunter have had a nasty stomach virus the past few days. "Daddy came down with the sickies. I caught some sort of bug". Owen's response "was it a caterpillar?"

Thanksgiving Recap

We had a really nice Thanksgiving holiday. My sister came to town from Indiana and we all went to my in-laws for the holiday. It was so nice to have time with both of our families. With the kids and chaos (and ping pong competitions), I always feel like I dont truly get to "visit" per se. But- I guess enjoying each others company is enough.

Hunter didn't get to celebrate with us. He was with his dad and finally made it to Sean's parents house at about 8pm, and at that time, almost everyone had left. Just means we get him longer at Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday- Thanksgiving Edition

Ok- so this is supposed to be wordless...but I wanted to write how truly thankful I am for my family and friends, my wonderful husband, my three beautiful healthy children, for fantastic parents and in laws, my sister and sibling in laws, both my job and Sean's job and most importantly our health. I have learned that I don't need material things, we may talk about wanting a bigger home, needing more money, but I am truly blessed with what we have. I read a quote ..."there are people so poor that the only thing they have is money." Maybe this will be my "thanksgiving" for tomorrow, I'm just posting a day early. I'm not rich in the monetary sense but I'm SO thankful that my riches come from so many other things that money could never begin to buy! And enough sappiness....

Quinlin brought home the best Thanksgiving art from school yesterday:

in my wordless Wednesday fashion- wishing you all a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving

Daddy Phase

My little diva has turned into Daddy's Little Girl. I should have known when she was born that she would be wrapped around his finger- able to do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. This daddy phase is getting pretty bad... She is to the point where only daddy can do things for her like getting her out of bed in the morning, getting her dressed, changing her diaper, getting her milk, etc. I can handle that, that part is fine. What I can't handle is how mean she gets. "No mommy" she yells while pointing her finger at me. "Daddy do it". She points her finger, pushes, shoves. Fine.

This morning I got the "No mommy, Not you" and instead it kept sounding like she said "No Mommy, F You". Ugh. Let's hope this doesn't last much longer. Not sure how much more I can take.

I do still love her to pieces... do not get me wrong. And she does let me put her to bed at night. So- that's a plus. At least I have my boys.

Wordless Wednesday

At least I know that they are learning something in swim lessons...

First Snowfall

We had our first snowfall overnight and the kids were so excited! It started with a text message from Hunter as he left the house this morning for the bus stop at 6:30am.

"Hello Winter" he captioned it.

Owen ran down the stairs and was so excited to see the snow.

And outside- so excited!

 Instantly wanted to start throwing snowballs.

 Quinlin didn't know what to make of it.

We left for school with a promise to play in it when we got home. Not sure if there will be anything left, but hopefully. I know we will have our share of snow for sure within the next few weeks. On a side note- happy 22 month birthday to Quinlin. Only 2 more months until 2 years old! 

Wordless Wednesday- Playing in the Leaves

Sean picked up the kids from school early yesterday to enjoy the warm  November weather. I was slightly jealous as I was still at work, but I enjoyed the video that he sent me and saw the joy in Owen's eyes enjoying a simple fall day.

Weekend Recap

We had a pretty low key weekend. They all seem to be that way lately. We're in the middle of a saving money kick, so not really planning as much to do. Friday night we were limited as we had to take Hunter and his buddy to the mall and then go back later to pick them up. It's so funny to think they are off doing their thing, walking around, talking to girls, seeing movies and then texting us when they're ready to come home. I feel like I was just doing those things myself!

Saturday morning we woke up and went to swim lessons. Owen took swim lessons when he was about 8 months old, but due to constant ear infections, we stopped going. So- we started it up again. Quinlin's class was first at 9:20am, and Owen's class started at 9:25am. I had a big fear that we would show up to swim lessons and both kids would want to swim with Sean, so I prepped Owen all week about he and I swimming together. When we got to class and Quinlin's class started, I looked around and no other parents were in bathing suits. Just the parents in the younger class. I asked the teacher and they said the 3 year olds go in on their own. No biggie I thought. Well- apparently it was a big deal. Owen wanted nothing to do with the class, leaving the side of the pool, etc. So they said I could go in with him and ease him in. After about 10 minutes, we all realized that he needed to be in Quinlin's class, and not with the 3 year olds. So- we swam with them and had a blast. It was so fun to be there together. Sean and I took turns on who had which child. Quinlin loved every second of it. She is fearless. Jumping in the water, learning to float, blowing bubbles. Once Owen got comfortable enough, class was ending. So- we'll see how we do next week. I may need to recruit Hunter to come with us and take some photos.

After swimming we rushed home and showered and then headed to Sean's parents house. He watched the kids and his dad and I went with my sister in law and his mom to look at living room furniture. She picked out a really nice set and hopefully will be delivered before the holidays. We came home, napped and hung out and then my parents joined us for dinner. I made crockpot cream cheese chicken and pumpkin pie. Since I got put in charge of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I thought I better practice! It turned out well, but I'm the only one who eats it in my house and I have a feeling it will be tossed before it gets finished. We stayed in Saturday night, got caught up on our jersey shore episodes and called it a day.

Sunday was uneventful. Watched some football, didn't feel great, etc. The daylight savings adjustment didn't phase the kids too badly but for some reason, we were all up at 7. We played around the house and Sean cleaned out his hunting closet and organized our storage room. The kids were so intrigued by the hunting items.

 I love the way she is looking at Owen in this picture.

 Practicing their deer calls

 "You cant see me"

 Camouflage

And then there was Monday. My Monday that started great... we were up early and ready and out the door on time for work. I dropped the kids off at the daycare when one of the mom's pointed out that I had a flat. We knew my tire had a slow leak but were hoping to just keep filling with air. When I looked, it was fully flat. Luckily Sean left work and met me at the school and put the spare on.

 The culprit- a roofing nail.

 And my donut I had to drive on to get to work.

Luckily my office has a nice relationship with a local car dealer. I got to work, they picked up my car and brought it in for service. About 3pm, I got an email saying my car was back, the hole was plugged, the rim was fine and there was no charge. I lucked out for sure- we had visions of having to cut back on holiday spending if I had needed a new tire and rim. We still will cut back a bit... I like to think now.

Wordless Wednesday

Somebody apparently did not want Halloween to end...She dug through the Halloween costume bin yesterday and played for an hour wearing the head to her costume. So cute- love her!