Sunday, December 30, 2007

Guess who got a digital camera for Christmas??

Her first 'subject'

Enough of that - take MY picture!



This shot was taken by Cameron ~ Kennedy was wrestling with Daddy


To keep her off of mine, I got Kennedy a digital camera for Christmas. It's really cute ~ Fisher Price and completely made for kids. I must say, I was a little surprised at the quality of the pictures. Pretty good for this little camera!! Should I be concerned my kid likes to have her picture taken??!

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Christmas RECAP ~ 2007

After Santa left ....ahhh look at those beautiful 'new' floors!

Our guard dog protecting all the presents Santa left ...

Cameron and his 'tars'

Kennedy's reaction after I told her we were going to see Hannah Montana ... stone cold and then said "Can Daddy get us backstage?"


Christmas was exciting this year at our house! Cameron is finally old enough to understand at least the 'opening presents' part - the hard part was keeping him from opening presentst that were not HIS! We were lucky enough to sleep in until 8:30 and then the craziness started. Cameron's big gift was the train table. Kennedy got a bike from Santa and although Santa did not think Cameron would care about a bike, it was what nearly started World War III right here at our house. SO, luckily, Cameron has a birthday in just a few weeks and he has requested a 'tismas' bike or a Spiderman bike. Ask him - he'll tell ya -- he wants a bike. Chad and I did not exchange gifts this year, although "Santa" did bring an xbox 360 (dubbed the 'family gift' although only one BIG KID has even played with it so far) and he left a beautiful new set of Wolfgang Puck cookware!! Chad and I were really trying hard to get our children to understand the true meaning of CHRISTmas ~ Santa did not go overboard either ~ for the first time in 5 yrs!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and here is wishing you the HAPPIEST of New Year's!!

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Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas to all ...

 


Cameron just opened a singing Spiderman ~ he was delighted!

Wishing you all a peaceful day full of yummy food and cozy naps!

Merry Christmas!

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Friday, December 14, 2007

2007 Christmas Coffee

 
 
 


Last night, I hosted a table at the church that Chad and I attend. The purpose of the event is to raise money for the benevolence mission at our church. We watched a video and it said our church has gifted over $30,000 in gift cards to those in need. The admission to the coffee was a minimum $15 gift card. Some of the tables were completely over the top. I decorated mine very whimsical as my inspiration came from a table cloth I purchased last Christmas. It is The 12 Days of Christmas and has bright beautiful colors. We had a GREAT time and I look forward to doing it again next year! You can see more pictures:

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Only because ... well, because it's funny ...

I have a twin sister ~ most of you that read this blog know that. When my Mom was pregnant, she was told she was having roughly a 10 lbs baby boy .... uh huh, imagine her surprise when she woke up (heck yeah, she was asleep ...) and she had TWIN girls. We were 5 lbs a piece and born 4 minutes apart. I remember reading letters my Mom wrote to my aunt saying "I can't believe this happened to me", etc etc etc -- she said she even thought to ask the dr if she could pick just one to go home (my Mom, ever the jokester). Anyway, here is what is funny .. my sister's name is Jennifer. Her maiden name is Jennifer Carol Bell. She married a guy named Shawn. Shawn Carroll....yes folks, so that means her name is Jennifer Carol Bell Caroll (technically) or Jennifer Carol Carroll (quite FESTIVE!) or Jennifer Bell Carroll (which is what she ended up taking legally) ~ we like to call her Jennifer Caroll .... I think she should have a CHRISTMAS song written about her.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Were they in my house??

This is SO how it is .... I think I need to sue for copyright infringement.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

My new indulgence ....

My girlfriend, Shannon, told me yesterday that we would be leaving at 5pm to go 'somewhere' and to be ready to go! We left and she said "Merry Christmas ~ we're going to make dinners at Dinner Done!" ... this is something I have wanted to do since we moved here and discovered the 'you come in and assemble it and we clean it' kitchen places. It's awesome. You go in, tell them your name and they point you towards the recipes that you signed up for ~ and they have a fantastic variety of foods. You have freezer containers, you make everything, wrap it up, place a sticker on it and put it in the freezer when you get home. We made 4 different dishes, and split them, so I have 8 different main meals. We made Pork Loin with cranberry sauce, Everything chicken, beef filets w/bleu cheese~walnut stuffing, and Chicken and Asparagus (this is actually parmesan breaded chicken stuffed with monterey jack cheese and asparagus) ... funny ... Shannon told me to snap off the ends of the asparagus. So off I go, snapping off the ends. She yells "What are you doing??!?! That's the TIP!! STOP!!!" ... I just looked at her and said "Well, that is why I don't cook because I DON'T know what I'm doing" ..... I have read about those clubs where the ladies cook all day, freeze it and swap. Well, this is more up my alley because you just pay for the session and you make it and walk away - they even CLEAN UP AFTER YOU!!!! I'm HOOKED!!!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Mommy ~ I saw "Littlest Pet Shop" in the attic ...

Mommy: "WHAT???!??!"
Kennedy: "Oh yes, I did. I went up in the attic and saw it all right there!" (Insert incredibly huge grin here)
Madelynn (Kennedy partner in crime): "Yes, Mrs. Natalie, it's up there"
Mommy: "No, surely you guys don't know what you are talking about!"
Kennedy and Madelynn: "NOOOOOOOOOOOO, really, it's up there! Can we have it??"
Mommy (to Mrs. Shannon): "Must go now .... see you later. Wine later?"
Mommy (to Kennedy): "Go inside and change for cheerleading. When you are changed, you can go back up in the attic and if it's there, you can have it"

Now, imagine, a finely dressed 32 yr old mommy in heels, dress pants, nice top, trekking up into the attic entry that she LEFT DOWN because she was going to take the boxes from the Christmas stuff up after she changed (not thinking a nosey 5 yr old would climb up there .. who am I kidding, she is MY KID) .... scurrying up into the attic, sweating because it's freaking 90 degrees in DECEMBER, trying to 'adjust' what one child MIGHT have seen.

Kennedy comes out, several times, albeit giving me ENOUGH time, thank goodness, to remove what Santa MAY HAVE ALREADY LEFT AT OUR HOUSE because his sleigh was too heavy (that was what I got out of my emergency phone call to Shawn Trotti for HELP!!!!) and climbs back up in the attic and she turns around, big huge grin KNOWING she is about to get some Littlest Pet Shop stuff and low and behold, IT'S GONE!! She had the most blank look on her face. It took everything for me NOT to laugh - acutally, I did laugh, told her she was crazy and to get down, we needed to go to Wal-Mart. She kept saying "I SWEAR it was up there" .....

This is soooooooooooooooo something I did 25 yrs ago to my own mother, except it involved a boat and a beating and to this day, I swear I was only looking for wrapping paper.