Christmas concert practice

This year is the first time TJ is invovled in our Sunday School Christmas Concert - and I'm way more excited than he is!! It's so funny, I try to practice with him and there is absolutely no way that he will let me. He turns his head away or says "NOOOOOO" like I'm not allowed to say that poem. The other day I had to bribe him with a cookie in order to say his poem. The other day when I was on the phone with my mom, TJ had an interesting version of the poem... In order to understand the whole story, I'll let you know that when my parents came here for our early Christmas celebration with them, there was a big deal made with the fact that Grandpa's trunk was all full of presents! I have heard of this trunk full several times since then!

TJ's poem goes something like this:
A baby was born long ago,
Joseph and Mary loved him so,
The Shepherds came to worship and pray,
The Wisemen brought gifts from far away,
This baby was Jesus you see,
He came for you and for me

TJ's NEW version:
A baby was born long ago,
Joseph and Mary loved him so,
The Shepherds came to worship and pray,
The Wisemen brought gifts in the trunk!

Love you TJ!!

FINALLY...

The WINNER is Tina Hunt! Sorry this took SO long to post (sorry Stacey), it's been a crazy few weeks here. A short list of the things that went on, my parents came to visit, Christmas with my parents (early since we are not going to see them this Christmas), birthday supper for my Dad's 50th!! celebrating TJ's 3rd birthday, my last Signature shows for the year, having daycare kids a few extra days a week (I have them 3 days normally) and an extra evening, roommate moving out, Christmas baking for cookie exchange, women's Christmas party, running errands dropping off Epicure party items for my guests, dropping off Signature orders, finishing last minute Christmas shopping, writing Christmas letter, addressing (that includes finding addresses, lol) and mailing our family Christmas picture and letter, hmm thats all I can think of for now, oh and making chocolates.. yeah that's the shortlist.. Here are some pics to enjoy :)

Making Gingerbread cookies

Christmas with Grandma and GrandpaSleeping with her new baby from Grandma and Grandpa

Talking on the phone with Grandma :)

Signature Winner Coming soon!!

I am just wrapping up my November shows and then I will draw my winner. So watch for the WINNER announced soon!

Pictures are worth a thousand words...

My two cuties, getting ready for bed..

Watching the breadmaker :)

Nap time for TJ and George (the monkey)

My cute shopper girl :)

Halloween costumes

Some snow... and other stuff

So we finally have some snow that might stay... everytime we get snow it seems to melt before the end of the day!! I have been super busy lately, hence no posts, between parties, kids, daycare kids, concert (which really was a night out for me), trying to find babysitters for all of the above, having people over, and then all of the regular mom stuff.. there have been a few things put on the back burner :) A friend of mine just had her baby (welcome baby Ava!!), and I am expecting to hear more news like that within the next few months from other friends of mine. I also just found out another friend of mine just found out she's expecting (just! since she is due in July) - it's like baby central all over again... No I'm not expecting again, I feel really good about where I am in this point of my kids lives - but the thought runs through a person's mind when pregnancy and newborn babies are all around!

I have found it very interesting how my son seems to learn. I have been trying to teach him the alphabet and his numbers and it's like he wants to do it on his own and doesn't want my help! Like he won't sing the alphabet with me, but just this morning he took a box and identified all the letters on it! I was floored! Like when did he figure that out! or when he counted to 10 by himself (I only had to help him with the number 4, and he did the rest). It's been very interesting! It's so funny, even K sometimes counts, I'll say one and she says two - since she hears me giving her brother the countdown :) Anyway I hope to get some interesting pictures up soon - maybe for tomorrow :)

You can WIN *UPDATED*

UPDATE: This contest has been extended until the end of November - more chances for YOU!

My Challenge is to sign up 5 people with Signature HomeStyles and if you want to win a cube/basket set you can: blog about the contest, book a party, suggest someone you know to sign up, or sign up yourself! By signing up you get a greater chance at winning the prize. PLEASE read HERE for full details!

November - ALREADY!!!

November has come, and it's still beautiful here!! Today was awesome! I got a new (new for us, but used, but also FREE!) mattress for TJ's bed (thanks FreeCycle!!). So I got a question for all of you handy dandy recycling, green type people... is there anything I can do with my son's old sponge crib mattress? All of the vinyl is ripped to pieces and the sponge (I know this is kinda nasty) has been peed on (as in potty training bedtime accidents) - Can the sponge be washed somehow and reused at all, or possibly re-covered? Or is it a complete loss and just throw it all out??

My second really exciting thing.... wait for it... wait.... I FINALLY put up our outdoor Christmas lights!!! Yeah, I know it's barely November, but it was a beautiful day here and I had the opportunity (kids were sleeping)! I bought lights last year but we don't have a ladder and it just didn't happen.. and now since I have it done - I will leave them up there all year round I think.

This last week has been interesting at least - I had my wisdom teeth pulled, or two of them at least. I didn't realize it was such a long healing process.. mind you I consider myself lucky since things seemed not to take too long to recover. But trying to watch more than your own kids while on Tylenol 3 can be interesting.. and trying not to fall asleep! :) We took it easy tho (thanks TreeHouse and Disney) and I seemed to have made it without getting the dreaded dry socket (an awful possible side effect that can be caused by bending over or heavy lifting - try not to do either of those with small kids!).

Time change this weekend went pretty well for the kids (it can really throw them off sometimes) so that's good - they didn't get up crazy early :) haha.. anyway, we're ready and set for another busy week! (sorry no pics today)

Silly Kids

The wonderful moments in my life:

My cutie pie, being silly :) He needed a new pair of socks I guess! (my oven mits if you can't tell)
My son was being really stubborn, but I was more stubborn! I wouldn't let him leave his chair until he ate his lunch... so, he just fell asleep on his chair :) I guess that's one way to win a battle :)
Sunday afternoon - I was exhausted and curled up on the love seat, my son was equally exhausted I guess, and decided to lie down next to me on the floor for a snooze too :)

I think my daughter is going to be such a 'mom'. She's 'feeding' her friend his sippy cup even though he's actually older than her :)

Routine or not?

Ok, since this is the second time I'm writing this, it probably won't be quite as in depth :) So since September has come and gone and October is on the way out - I don't think that I'm gonna have this routine thing down pat. Oh we do have somewhat of a routine to the kids day, but around here we have to be flexible - as in, one phone call and we have to leave for a one day trip out of town :) This week I am getting two more daycare kids - so I am going to have to step it up with my day management! So I do the things up town, like grocery shopping, on my 'free' mornings (cuz we all know how happy kids are shopping just before bed time). Laundry and such chores will have to be done when the kids are here so as not to take up the 'free' mornings :) I think it will be good though, the kids are very much the same age as my two!

On another note, Thanksgiving meal was great at our house! I made my very own first Thanksgiving dinner all by myself and it turned out great!! Well I did have to make a few calls to my mom for a few opinions - and Michelle helped out in some prep work and such - but regardless, I was farely proud of myself :) There was very many of us eating but I did send a bunch of food along with a friend of my hubby's for a few bach-ing guys.
So my two wonderful kids, whom I dearly love - and are so sweet and cute - also have a lot of their own personality and bossy-ness. My son (2.5yrs) is always telling my daughter (1yr) what to do and taking stuff away and sometimes being just mean (regardless of my teachings!!) and today he finally got what was coming to him - K bit TJ!!! yeah, like hard (but not bleeding). Although I in NO way want to encourage a biter, it was like finally TJ got some back of what he was giving out. It was hard not to smile a little - sometimes they need to learn a lesson from someone their own size I suppose :) Anyway here are a few pics of my wonderful loving cuties :)

Trade Show!!

So this weekend was super busy - I was working a BIG local woman's tradeshow - Saturday and Sunday, ALL DAY!! Needless to say my feet are sore and my legs are tired, but it was all worth it!! I booked quite a few shows for Oct and Nov, so I'm really excited!! It was great to get out of the house and interact with a lot of people - I love the social aspect of meet and greet. That's what I miss so much about not working, getting that social interaction! It was great coming home though too! My son exclaimed, "Mom, you're home!!" and gave me many big hugs and kisses!! My daughter ran into my arms too and wanted her 'lap' time with me :) It makes it so much more obvious how much I mean to my kids and makes me feel so warm with love inside! It definately makes up for the difficult times with them!

A little tidbit - me and my GF and a few other friends are going to the Backstreet Boys concert - next month, we got row 5 tickets!! I know this may sound cheesy, but it's like the back in high school girl has come out in me :) It's gonna be a blast - a silly, fun, screaming, giddy, laughing, once in a lifetime chance!