THe best!

In times of stress and frustration, there is nothing better than the smile my daughter has on her face each time she goes potty and comes to tell me. She is so proud and her smile makes my heart melt! It is like the first time each time she goes. And she is so excited. And I love it. :)

THe Christmas Season Fast track!

Our Christmas Season begins with the annual visit to the Festival of Trees. We indulged the kids this year by allowing them to get their faces painted. It was too cute! I am glad I out my Frugal nature aside and let them do it!

Miss M the Snow Princess and J the Snake!

J wrote his letter to Santa!


Little Miss rode the train. J deemed himself "too old" for the train this year. Made me a little sad, as he has been riding this train since he was a year old!

A few weeks later, my baby girl turned 3! Where has the time gone? We had a family gathering, complete with a Minnie Cupcake cake.

M and her Aunt Neicey!

My baby girl!

Fast forward two weeks to Christmas Eve. We took Dad and Butch to church with us. It was a lovely service and dad got to see the new church we have been attending!

Then there was Christmas Day. Miss M got her own DVD player for the car.

She is really into Minnie Mouse this year, can you tell? and Princesses....

J got his own "ipad" aka a Kindle. Does everything he wanted it to do. Plus the first thing he did was read the book I bought for it! BONUS!

J wrapped up in an Angry Birds blanket while playing Angry Birds on his Kindle.

Then we headed off to our nephew's house for brunch. Actually it was breakfast--that is how early we were there. It was delicious! We got to see the Brennan side of the family and snuggle with out great-nephew D!

Grammy (Aunt Terry) and her grandson and her niece!

Of course, D got some CAPS wear! GO CAPS!

Great Grand mom and her great grandson D!

You can tell I was wearing down- Super tired. I hardly took any pictures at my sister's house. She and I hosted Christmas at her house. Which means she did most of the work and I helped pay for the food!

Miss M and my niece, hiding in the blanket!

We gave my dad and his fiance' Butch a calendar. They loved it!

(Did I ever mention that my dad is getting remarried?)

We had a super fun time that day but thought we'd extend the fun.

The next night the alumni of our high school was hosting a happy hour at a local restaurant. Since my dad, sister, brother and I were all in the same town all at once, we decided to go! ( My dad is a former teacher there)

We hung out with some former teachers and mostly just had fun hanging out as siblings. How often does that happen? NEVER!

Last but not least, My besties, Amy and Christy and I got together for our "friends" Christmas. Our brood has grown to 7 kids, aging from 8 years, down to 9 months. (Judy- if you read this, the little guy on the left was born the same day as your Will)

It was impossible to get all of the kids to smile so this is the best picture we got!

So there you have it. Our Christmas in Fast Track!

Happy New Year all!

GO CAPS!

We here at our house, have morphed into Washington Capitals fans. Paul and I decided since it was Kids Night the day before Thanksgiving, that we would give it a try and take the kids. Aunt Ju-Ju and Uncle Tim, and our friend Brain and his daughter came along. Boy did we have fun! Being the worrier that I am, I expected the worst. Melting kids, crabby mom, crazy crowds. But I was wrong! The kids were great, especially Miss M! J was tired an a bit whiny, but not too bad!
Miss M didn't have her own seat so she sat with Aunt Ju-Ju and Uncle Tim most of the night.

(Terrible) picture of me and my boy! (Remember that I had been at work all day. That's my excuse for the circles under my eyes.)

World's Cutest CAPS fan!

J made his own sign!

UNLEASH THE FURY!

I am so glad we went! We were so sleepy the next day so after our Thanksgiving meal, we took naps. Miss M slept for three hours! WOo HOO! I hope we get to take them to another game one day!

Halloween Fun!

We went to a Halloween Party last night for J's scout troop! This is the first year J wanted to be something scary instead of something "cute". boo.....Miss M got to be a "fairy witch" although it didn't come with wings so I just think she is a pretty witch.
Being the teacher geek that I am, I was trying to get her to quote one of my favorite childhood book characters, Ramona Quimby. In Ramona the Pest ,Ramona is a witch for school and ran around screaming, "I'M THE BADDEST WITCH IN THE WORLD!" but Miss M wouldn't do it. She just kept telling me that she was good, not bad!


Anyhow, the party was so fun. They did crafts, had dinner, trick-or-treated to each table and played mummy where they had to wrap a den member up like a mummy with toilet paper. J thought that was the best!

October...finally!

J's 8th birthday!
J and Miss M sitting by the campfire.

Hi everyone! I hope all 3 of you are doing well! ;)

September was the busiest month. Between J's birthday, camping with scouts, WORKING, and life, we were busy each weekend! Exhausting!

J's birthday was at a bouncy place. I don't usually spent that much on a birthday but he didn't get a party last year AND they offered a 20% discount! :) The kids had a ball and we had fun watching them all play till they dropped!

The next weekend was camping. We had a ball. Miss M did great! It was cold but it only drizzled for a few hours in the afternoon.

The following weekend, Paul went to the Washington Capitals convention with his sister and was gone Friday into Saturday night. To keep the kids busy, we went to see The Lion King in 3D. I could have done without the 3D. I love that movie! The kids again, did great! That afternoon we had dinner at my moms. Busy but fun day!

This weekend Paul and J went to a CAPS game and yesterday I GOT TO GO OUT! I went with my BFFs and another friend to a winery for GNO! We ate yummy food, had a glass of wine and talked and laughed. It was so nice and relaxing! I so needed that!

The kids have been giving me a run for my money lately (or my sanity). Miss M has started getting up before 5 AM! No matter when I put her to bed she gets up. I know it is a stage but I can hardly handle it! J has been mouthy, stubborn and be clash a lot! I pray each night for wisdom and patience on how to deal with his new behaviors.

Anyhow, I hope to post again before another month goes by!

Irene- The unabridged version

So I left school Friday with the anticipation of the first day of school, being two days away and with a fear of the impending weather about to strike our area. Little did I know.
Friday evening I cleaned out a cooler, readied the flashlights, put batteries in the radio. Charged the cell phone and Ipod.
Saturday, got up, went to the store to get a few items. and at around 1 PM, the rain started. Paul got home from work around 3:30. At around 5 we noticed a drip coming from the ceiling in two places. We quickly moved the furniture and got buckets to collect water. Paul went outside and inspected the downspouts. in the pouring rain, I held the ladder for him. All looked ok.
We put the kids to bed, as the wind picked up and the rain came down. We watched the coverage on tv and around 11:30, we called it a night. I was feeling anxious and was praying that our power would stay on.
Well it didn't.
at 2 Am I heard the power go off. Does that make sense? Miss M's sound machine went off but since i am such a smart mom I remembered to put batteries in it. BUT I had to go in, unplug it and then it would turn on. Of course, she woke up. I had a flashlight and she was crying. Took about 10 minutes to get her to go back to sleep. I crawled back in bed, hoping that when I got up, the power would be on.
It wasn't.
The kids got up. We at Peanut Butter sandwiches for breakfast. I quickly got the ice from the freezer and put the milk and a few other things in the cooler. No coffee for this mom. ug.
By 9 Am the kids were going nuts. So was I. I was wondering how I was going to deal with all of this on my own. Paul had to be at work. So I went into talk to him and started bawling. I guess I just lost it! God love him, he got on the phone and called out. Love that guy! IT helped me feel less stressed. at least a little.
So I sent him out in search of ice and a land line phone. I couldn't find the one I keep for reasons like this. An hour and a half later, he brought home 4 bags of ice for the coolers I pulled out of the shed. He also brought home McDonald's breakfast and coffee. He said the whole area was out of power. We decided to go out and search for a portable tv. I need to watch the news. I am a storm coverage junkie. Well, there was one Walmart open in our county. Everything was without power. It was creepy!
When we got home we had to decide what to keep (food wise). We filled up our coolers and decided to head to his mom's house to see what we could fit in her freezer. (She had power restored pretty quickly) School (the first day) was cancelled since 49 schools had no power and so we decided to spend the night.
We fit most of our stuff in her freezer/fridge and the rest we kept in the cooler on tons of ice. We got the kids to bed and Paul and I laid down to rest our weary selves. I prayed for patience. There were so many people who had a tree through their home or 6 inches of water in their basement. No power was nothing compared to that. But still, I was so anxious.
We got a call from a neighbor around 11 PM that the power had come back on. I was so relieved. We got up the next morning and brought our food home. I spent the day putting things back, cleaning up and such so was glad to hear of the school closing for Tuesday. I needed a day to recoup.
We were so blessed to have stayed safe, to have minimal damage to our home, to have saved our food, and to get power back so quickly. We went 21 hours without and some people are going on day three.
We survived. and I learned a lesson in patience. I truly learned that I am not in control.

The first day of school...almost

I am too exhausted and have too much to do to blog about the whole thing but to some it up, today WAS the first day of school until Irene gave us a visit. Hurricane Irene.
We had a lean in the living room. We are all safe but we had no power for a long time, we had to pack up and move food, I had a few meltdowns but we are all ok. Power is on and so it is time to clean up.

No first day of school today. Maybe not tomorrow, but perhaps. Many schools still w/o power.