A little Christmas Survey

Since I have been so nonexistant lately, when I saw this on Melanie's blog, I figured this was an easy enough thing for me to post!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper...I could spend hours wrapping presents!
2. Real tree or Artificial? At the moment artificial. I love real trees though!
3. When do you put up the tree? Umm...usually the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'm sad to say I haven't had time to put mine up yet!!! :0(
4. When do you take the tree down? Usually right after New Year's
5. Do you like eggnog? Not fond of egg nog
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Nothing really stands out. I think I also have a lot of memories that I look back on!
7. Hardest person to buy for? Moms
8. Easiest person to buy for? Little Man
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail them...after I finish making them!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't know if it was the worst, but it was funny. My parents had stuff set aside they were going to sell for in a garage sale. My dad went out in the garage, picked out a few things, and wrapped them up to give to me for Christmas. We still laugh about it now!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Not really movie....but Rudolph, Frosty and such. We made it tradition to watch these every year growing up!
13 When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year I think we started in late September...and I've even picked up a few things for next year!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes I have...I'm terrible!
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Well...when my grandma was here, I loved her dinner on Christmas Eve. What I wouldn't give for her homemade pierogies!!!
16. Lights on the tree? Much to my hubbies dismay, we have white lights on our Christmas tree.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night...no specific artist. And any fun, upbeat music I can sing to.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Since most of our family is locak, stay home.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all....Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer....
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Actually, neither....but closer to a star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We always opened one present each on Christmas Eve and the rest were done in the morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Getting away from the true meaning of Christmas and feeling the need to spend soooo much money
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Since we started dating my hubby has bought me an Eeyore ornament from The Disney Store. This year, for the first time, they didn't make one. I don't know what I'm going to do!!!
24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? We always have ham and the trimmings.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? My family to be healthy and happy
26. Who is most likely to respond to this? Hmmmm....
27. Who is least likely to respond: Hmmmm....

Hope you enjoy...and have a Merry Christmas!

I think it's time to get back into this again...

I know, it has been far too long since I posted here. Well, I'm going to try again! I'm going to start off small.





Maybe I'm starting him a little young?!?! I only spent $10 on this little vacuum, but it's great that little man actually uses it! Now if only I could get him to do the dishes!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

On Saturday we took a road trip. We went to see a house being built by Extreme Makeover Home Edition. We had heard they were going to be in the town because my hubby's cousin lives on the same street they were building it. We figured we would take a ride because when would we ever have the chance to see this again.

I had been following the story on the Internet. They actually tore the house down on Wednesday and by the time we got there on Saturday, they were finishing the siding, gutters, landscaping, etc. I'm not sure how far they were on the interior, but they had put out a call for anyone who knew how to drywall and install hardwood floors. Darn it, I don't know how to do either.

There were a lot of people there...between volunteers and spectators there were hundreds. There were some kids selling water and hot dogs. There were tables of t-shirts that were being bought up. What an amazing thing to watch though. I wish we had gone on Sunday. That's when you would really get the opportunity to see everyone from the show. We did get to see Ed Sanders (he's in the pinkish-red colored shirt in a couple pictures). I'm not sure when the episode aired, but he is the one that cut his hand when he was working on a project for the show. He was in the front yard and turned to get the crowd to cheer on all those working. It was truly amazing to see how much all these people got done in a few short days!











Little man did pretty well all day. Right before we left, he started to have a meltdown. He had only napped in the car for less than an hour. We were really hoping he would take a little nap in his stroller, but he wanted no part of it. Five minutes after we got in the car, he was out...of course! Since we drive right past her house, we were going to stop and see my sister on the way home. Unfortunately we got detoured due to a parade and were past her house by the time we got back on our original route.

All in all it was a good trip. We're actually hoping to take another trip next weekend. We'll see though!

Early Morning Quiet and a Busy Day

I'm up bright and early. I usually am on the weekends. There is something about sitting in the quiet house before anyone else is up. I know the rest of the day is going to be spent taking care of little man. So I enjoy this hour or so of time to myself. My hubby is still sleeping too. We have a busy day ahead of us. I want to head to the local farmer's market, my mother wants to go to a dollar store, and we have a party to go to later this afternoon. Fun! I guess that's what summer is all about though!
Speaking of summer, just this past week I finally got little man's pool out so he could play in it! He's been using the one at the babysitter's house but not at home. He really enjoyed it. Toward the end though, he liked throwing the water onto the lawn more than anything else...at least the lawn got watered a bit! Enjoy the pictures!







The other day I brought out a movie for the first time to see if little man would watch it. I put in Elmo in Grouchland, and he actually would watch it off and on. Well last night he was really cute. He loves to go over to our dvd's and pulls them off the shelf. He always manages to have a huge pile on the floor before I can get to him. Yesterday he kept walking over to the shelves, and I kept steering him away. Finally last night he got over there before I could get him. He pulled some dvds off the shelf and then started walking over to me. Wouldn't you know he had the Elmo in Grouchland dvd. So cute. I didn't think he would know what one it was...but he loves Elmo. So I put it in and we snuggled together and watched it. How I savor days like that because I know the time is going to come that he won't want that!

Visiting Baby Girl

Last Saturday after little man got his haircut, we took a little day trip to visit my sister, her husband, and baby girl. We had just seen them a few weeks before when they moved, but we didn't get to visit amongst all the chaos. It's amazing how big baby girl is getting.


I still get nervous when little man gets around baby girl. The picture looks all sweet...but about two seconds after I took this picture, he tried to hit her! UGH! We're trying really hard to teach him about "nice touches!" Hopefully he'll get it soon!








Baby girl wasn't sure what to think in her exersaucer. I just kept taking pictures though hoping that I would get a good one...she is so cute!

In a few weeks we're going to go visit again...hopefully I'll get more pictures then!

Happy 4th of July

Graphics and Myspace Layouts at pYzam.com

It is officially 12:00, but I hope everyone had a happy 4th! Tonight we spent at my brother-in-law's house. It was alot of family and friends, eating and having a good time. At 9:30 we watched the fireworks on their front lawn from a nearby park. It was little man's first time to see fireworks (it's sad, I can't even remember what we did last year!). I have no idea why, but it made me kind of sappy and emotional. All these firsts we go through with our kids that we'll never have back. He actually really enjoyed the fireworks. He even clapped after the "big finale." You never know what type of reaction you are going to get from them!

Other than that, my brother and his family drove to the city the airport is as they are leaving to fly home at 6:15 tomorrow morning. It was nice to visit with them, and I hope they can come visit again soon. I actually think it would be great to go visit them since we haven't been out there in three years. I just don't know how little man would handle a plane ride! We'll see though.

Visiting with family has been fun. My vacation ends Sunday, and it's back to work on Monday. Sometimes I really wish I didn't have to work. Maybe someday!

A trip to the zoo

This past Saturday we decided to take little man for his first trip to the zoo. We have a zoo locally, but I hadn't been in probably ten years. So like the good, researching mother I am, I went online and looked to see what they had there. It didn't seem too bad, and they it looked like they had a lot of animals to look at. Little man gets in for free until he's three, and we had a coupon for buy one, get one free admission for mommy and daddy. We only had to spend $6 for all three of us to go to the zoo...not bad. Well.....our zoo is not very exciting....and left me a little disappointed. What did we get to see? Well, 2 buffalo, 2 goat (who were quarantined), 2 reindeer, two animals I can't remember what they were, a handful of some monkey-type of animal and 2 sloths, 2 tigers, 1 leopard, an otter, 2 or 3 penguins, a wolf habitat...but didn't see one wolf, a variety of different birds, and the last animal was inside its "house" so we didn't get to see it. Now I know we're not from a huge city, but....I think we could do a little better. It only took us about an hour to get through the zoo...with the first half of that being spent walking up the hill to look at all the displays and the second half just basically walking back down the hill to the exit - no displays. It was a beautiful day though, and little man enjoyed being in his little buggy and watching everything and everybody. His favorite animal was the monkey things - they made him laugh when they jumped toward the window. I told my hubby we should plan on going to a bigger zoo next time, so maybe little man can see some of the bigger animals!


Just starting out...


Little man's favorite....kind of blurry through the glass


What's over there?


The beautiful, bald eagle


The leopard...trying to stay cool


Little man and hubby...on the way back down!!

Even though we were a little disappointed with the zoo, it was great to spend some time as a family!!! Who could ask for more than that?