Catherine's 8th Birthday

She did it....she turned 8! I can't believe it's been 8 years since I had this sweet little girl and I finally became a Mommy! :) She has enriched my life with such fun, her enthusiasm for life is just contagious...she's such a happy girl - sweet beyond belief and a true friend to those lucky enough to be around her.

She couldn't make up her mind for her birthday and finally ended up with Chuck E. Cheese (I always swore we'd never have a party here...but at 10 - 11:30am Saturday it wasn't bad) party. All the kids had a great time - she got lots of great gifts and had a fabulous birthday. Friday, her actual birthday, we ate at Red Lobster (one of her favorite restaurants) then went to the mall (I finally got an MP3 player....Pink Zen V Plus) then meet up with our friends to pick up one of Catherine's friends to spend the night...before her birthday party Saturday morning.



Sunday, we went to a gymnastics party for our friends (Ben & Jeannie) daughter Olivia (one of Abby's best friends)...the kids had an absolute blast! Jeannie had face painting done as well....isn't that amazing?!? The kids loved it...complete with glitter and jewels.
Sadly I had to wash it off of them before going to bed...much to the kids dismay!

It was a great weekend!

Happy New Years my Friends!

Happy New Years!!!!!!

We brought in the new year with lots of friends...the kids were all running around playing, watching movies - they even got their own sparkling cider to bring in the New Year!

We all toasted the New Year with Champagne and a kiss!

We danced, sang karaoke, we played games, we watched fireworks over the valley, we heard gunfire (this is PA), the kids popped their New Years Poppers receiving small prizes, there was cheering and laughter with everyone having an absolutely great night. Bringing in the New Year with family and friends is a wonderful thing!

This will be a great year...I hope everyone has a great 2008!

Last Sunday of 2007

I just finished taking my last Sunday afternoon nap of 2007...........awe that was refreshing!

Tomorrow we will be going over to a friends house, lots of our friends will be there, bringing in the new year together....the kids will be running around having fun getting to stay up late too! I've got to figure out what snack I want to bring to help contribute to the food.

Yesterday we had some friends over...they brought their wii (that is so much fun to play...I wouldn't mind getting one for us...it's so much fun, and it gets your butt up off the couch!)
They also brought over this cool 10MPH mini coop that's meant for kids...this is powerful and freaked the kids out...but Bobby and I had fun riding it! ;)

Today we have friends coming over to play some board games/watching movies and stuff. Oh...Santa gave us the Disney (2nd Edition) Scene It game...that's fun...and I love it...it's a trivia game that I'm actually good at! :)

Gotta love the week between Christmas and New Years....it's a great time to hang out with friends!

We've been elfed!

I sent this to a few...but just incase you missed it check us out as elves!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas!!!

The kids were so excited yesterday. One of our traditions is that the kids get to open one gift on Christmas eve (the lovely jammies their sporting in the pictures) and Abby asked all day if it was time to open a gift. The girls showed so much excitement and happiness over the jammies. I was really impressed with their gratitude, it actually overwhelmed me. Catherine was funny, this year she realized that for the last 3 or 4 years she's received PJ's of some type on Christmas Eve....LOL :) They were really cute. They laid out the sugar cookies that we baked on Christmas Eve, and the pictures they colored for Santa and went to bed.

We kept the kids up a little later than normal so they'd sleep in a bit (8am isn't too bad for Christmas Morning!). They woke up with so much excitement. They woke us up, and we pulled ourselves out of bed...and we all came downstairs (I left all the Christmas lights on downstairs so it was all aglow this morning). The kids sorted out the gifts into everybody's pile. Abby knows her name, but if it was for someone else she'd place it in a pile, we'd catch her and she'd say "Oh, I can't read that" or "Oh, I didn't know" it was cute. Catherine of course did a great job...however mentally counting each gift as she placed them in the piles (that girl reminds me so much of how I was growing up)

The girls got lots of games, fun toys and tons of stocking stuffers. They didn't complain, they enjoyed every gift they asked for...they never mentioned the other things that they may have wanted that they didn't get. They were really good, I'm very pleased at how grateful and sweet they are.

Special gifts include:

Abby getting her Baby Emma that she wanted, baby bottles, cute blankie, Barbie Hair-do, Make up (first time) and shiny pink bag, lite-brite, etc...

Catherine getting her easy bake oven (Disney Princess Cool Air Bake), Nintendo DS Catz game, Bratz make-over doll, High School Musical 2 DVD, make up, etc...

Girls Big Gift: Personal DVD player (the girls got 2 DVD's each) & Pink Carrying case, 2 sets of sparkly pink ear phones (band less loop over the ear), princess autocolaunts to decorate the DVD player and case.

Bobby did a great job giving me wonderful gifts. He is so sweet and thoughtful.

Christmas Eve while I was preparing the cinnamon rolls he gave me a gift - it was white slippers - perfect! Today I received Bath & Body works Sensual Amber gift set, Starbucks teacup and saucer, and my favorite chocolates in the world...Ferrero Rocher. Plus a stocking filled with goodies. Oh, and the jewelry....

He got some goodies in his stocking, plus a few gifts that he'd been wanting....he got several gifts before Christmas though...like XBox 360 game Call of Duty 4...and other stuff.

Honestly...the kids posing for a couple pictures...and Bobby taking some of me and the kids was one of my best gifts....if they only knew how much that means to me!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas. I gave a lot of thought to all my friends today, and I hope that everyone had a great day with their family, and that everyone knows how much I love them. I know I didn't call and talk to anyone today (we seem to keep to our immediate family on Christmas day...but know that you were thought of!).

Love you all!

Merry Christmas Eve

Okay, technically it's Christmas...but I haven't gone to bed...so, I'm going with that! :) But anyways.....Santa has arrived!!!!


I've made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow...using the cinnabon recipe in the morning I'll make the frosting for them and reheat them.



Here are a couple fun gifts I did this year....this went to Bobby's cousins that live here in PA....it's a "Warm Wishes" for a Merry Christmas (everything inside is to help you stay warm) Starbucks coffee beans, peppermint mocha frappachino's, hot cocoa's, cozy socks, home made fudge, lap blanket, gloves, etc....)


Home made fudge for teacher gifts... I wrapped them up in clear bags and tied with Holiday Treats ribbon :)

The eve of Christmas Eve

Yesterday was a bit of a family day...we got the kids back from a sleepover. They caught up on some of the Christmas Cartoons while Bobby and I got ready. We went out and ate lunch at Applebee's then went to the Movie theater to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was sooo cute!!! We put the girls in between us and we hoped to catch a nap....no chance - the movie was way to cute! I would almost be willing to buy a couple of their songs.........uh almost! :) Very cute though...fun little updated songs though. At the end, during the credits, they played music, Catherine jumped up and danced...she's so cute.

Then we went over to a friends house until late. The kids all played together...us adults played trivial pursuit. Let me say that I hate playing that game - at least the adult version. I'm much better at the jr versions! :) It was especially hard playing the genus version...I completely stunk! Bobby is much better at the game..that stinker knew almost every answer...it's not fair! :) LOL

Today was a nice lazy day...trying to catch up on sleep and all. I've got to finish wrapping the gifts so that I can relax tomorrow. So I'm off to make me some diet hot cocoa (I'm 131 lbs right now...and very happy about that!...just a few pounds from 120 something!) and pulling out the last of the gifts to be wrapped.

Love and Happiness to you all with much love of the season!