Happy New Year!

Wow - 2009 is here already! It's hard to believe that another year has flown by. I can't believe Christmas is over, let alone all of 2008.

For Christmas Eve we managed to get the last 3 seats together at the 4:00pm children's mass (at 3:15!). The kids did great despite being at church for double the time. Then we enjoyed dinner with Nana and Grandpa and Mike's sister's family. The girls both fell asleep in the car after a busy day, so getting to sleep Christmas Eve was a breeze.

Lindsay woke up first at 7:20 and patiently waited until 7:30 to wake up Katelyn. I've never seen Katelyn wake up so quickly. I've already threatened to wake her Monday for school by saying "Katelyn, do you want to see if Santa came?" My guess is she won't fall for it.

There was no sign of a down economy in our family room. The piles of wrapped presents extended far beyond the reaches of the Christmas tree branches....and it took maybe an hour for the girls to unwrap everything :) Thanks to all of our wonderful families for sending gifts! We really are very spoiled! (Real thank yous are coming soon.) On, Christmas Day we went to Kelly's for brunch and then to Nana and PopPops for another delicious dinner and of course more presents.

We had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year with lots of neighbors and friends. Even the kids made it up to welcome 2009!

Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2009!

Christmas Eve

I can't believe it's actually here already, but more shockingly I can't believe I'm actually ready and not stressed out this year! The house is all decorated, presents are all wrapped, cookies are baked and we're not hosting any meals at our house, so very little left to prepare.

Decorating this year has been interesting.

First, with our ladder and step stool at the lake, adding the tree topper proved to be a bit difficult. After a few failed attempts dangling Katelyn in mid-air, we opted to wait until we could get a ladder.

Lindsay is very much into pretend play. She's often playing with babies or little dolls having quite the conversations. It shouldn't have surprised me, but I did get quite the chuckle when she started arranging my ceramic Santas so they were knocking on the doors or peeking in the windows of the various houses on my coffee table.

I was able to go to both of the girls' class Christmas parties this year. Katelyn's was very fun with a tissue paper snowball fight! And Lindsay's class enjoyed a visit from Santa.

Katelyn and I love to go to the Children's Theater in downtown Charlotte. This year, she and I saw "Peter Pan" and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". But on Sunday, we got to introduce Lindsay to the theater when all 4 of us went to see "The Velveteen Rabbit". She did great sitting still and being quiet - until she yelled "Wake up Bunny!" But I think she really liked it since when the show was over, she wanted to stay for another one.

Yesterday we had lots of fun baking Christmas cookies. Katelyn, Lindsay and their cousin, Ally, made sugar cookies in all sorts of colors and shapes - even bunnies. I made the old stand-by peanut-butter blossoms and then finished off my baking day with kolachky - walnut and raspberry!

So after sampling lots of cookies yesterday, I decided I better start my New Year's exercising resolution today...we'll see how long it lasts!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Not too late to be Thankful!

So, I know I've been considerably absent from posting in quite awhile. I often think of great things to write about and foolishly tell myself that I'll post a little later when I have more time. I'm slowly but surely realizing that that time NEVER comes! Now I have the issue of what to write about....it's far too late to ramble on about how great Thanksgiving was, but I guess I will start there anyway :)

It really was a great holiday. We have so much to be thankful for after a year full of health issues. We started the weekend before celebrating with Mike's Dad and Ruth and the whole family. The cousins all had tons of fun playing all day!

Then we started our drive up to NY on Tuesday. Our travel plans changed about 10 times trying to figure out whether the kids would sleep in the car, could we drive through the night and still function the next day, was the weather going to cooperate or were we going to get stuck with everyone else who decided that flying was too expensive this year. Lindsay did ask about 10 miles after leaving our house if we were almost to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but all in all the kids were great travelers (Thank God for car DVD players and Katelyn starting to outgrow carsickness!)

For Thanksgiving day, we went to my Babci and Dziadzi's - this was particularly special since my grandfather is home now recovering from a stroke this summer. It was so good to see him up and around since when we last saw him he was in the hospital! There was still a little bit of snow left in the yard, so Katelyn and Lindsay (and me since Linds is connected to my hip these days) got to go sleigh-riding. It was the tiniest of hills, but my kids don't know any better so had a fabulous time! They even made a little snowman with Grandma.

Then back to Mom and Dad's to relax with my brothers and visit with Aunt Kathy. I was able to get in some of my "food fixes" like Tony's (well...Nick's now I guess), Nirchi's, Romas, and Cider Mill....so much for watching my figure ;) It was a bit colder than last year, but the cider press came out and the girls enjoyed making their own fresh apple cider.

Our trip wouldn't be complete without visit Jeff, Christine, Ryan and Emily. I can't believe how big all the kids are getting -- or that they could all fit on the slide to make our own little totem pole!

Before Thanksgiving, I remember feeling on top of things with our annual family pictures done and Christmas cards printed. Now I'm not sure where the last three weeks have gone and how Christmas is possibly going to be here next week when I'm not nearly done with my shopping and haven't baked a single cookie! So stay tuned to hear more of what's going on with us, but keep in mind that I cannot write or post anything while out shopping, at kids holiday parties, or up to my elbows in cookie dough :)

Free Country

Usually Lindsay is the one that comes out with the one liners, comments or stories that really make us laugh. But the other night Katelyn caught us both off guard. To set the stage we were all in my bed watching the Country Music Awards. Depending on the song, the girls were getting up and dancing and just in general bouncing around. After about the hundredth time of being bumped and kicked, Mike asked Katelyn if she could just sit still and watch. Her response: Dad - I need some freedom. This is a free country! I think it's just a side effect of all the political discussions lately, but I'm a little nervous now of what the teenage years will be like ;)

Here's a few of Lindsay's funny conversations:

Lindsay: Mom, I was tough today.
Me: Why, what happened?
Lindsay: I was wrestling at school and I got hurt and didn't cry. But my teacher made us stop.
She sounded genuinely disappointed that she and her friend had to stop wrestling, but very proud of herself that she was a tough girl and didn't cry. If only she could be that tough when I tell her "No"!

Lindsay (after pealing a banana and dropping it): Mom, I dropped my banana wrapper!
(Do you think maybe there is a bit too much packaged food these days?)

After several requests for candy, fruit snacks and any other junk food in the cupboard and me offering crackers, fruit, anything remotely healthy:
Lindsay: Mom, can I have sweet things?
Me(annoyed): No, Lindsay I told you no more sugar or junk food.
Lindsay(protesting): But Mom, you said I could have sweet things.
Me(protesting): NO, I said no more sweet things.
Lindsay(crying): But you said I could have sweet things, like at school.
After looking in the cupboard again, I had a lightbulb moment and realized she wanted "Wheat Thins"!!!

P.S. Hope you like my new blog background...so many fun ones to choose from!

Happy Halloween

With each year Halloween is becoming more and more fun. The girls are getting into it earlier and earlier - planning their costumes and designing their pumpkin faces. Each year they go to Nana and PopPops to paint pumpkins. Mike and I were not prepared for what they brought home. Nana definitely outdid herself this year. I wish I knew of a pumpkin decorating contest nearby because these certainly would have won a prize!

Pumpkin carving is one of my favorite things to do with Katelyn and Lindsay. I remember growing up and choosing the shape of my pumpkin top and all the features as my Dad was carving pumpkins for me and my brothers. I remember year after year choosing more challenging features - especially eyes. Well, technology is giving my girls an advantage I didn't have. This year Katelyn found a pumpkin designing wizard on starfall.com. She and Lindsay each designed their pumpkins and gave me a printout to work from! I'm also glad to see that my girlie girls are finally able to enjoy scooping out pumpkin guts without being grossed out :)

Trick-or-Treating with their cousins, Ally and CJ, couldn't have been better. No more wagons to pull the little ones. Lindsay made it the whole way without needing to be carried -- although her pumpkin full of treats was too heavy for her after awhile :) Does that give a hint as to how much candy we now have??? (At the 10:15 am - the time I'm writing this I've already been asked at least 5 times for candy...I don't suppose that will slow now until sometime after Easter! Who decided we needed candy at every holiday anyway?)

We saw a lot of very cute costumes this year, but I must say we definitely have the cutest witch and princess fairy by far!

Catching up

Ok, so I know it's been way too long since I've posted, but we really have been busy - busier than usual I promise. I seem to recall mid-August as the wear-and-tear of shuffling Katelyn from one camp to the next week after week was reaching its peak wishing that we could get back to the routine of the school year. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?! Don't get me wrong it's nice to know that the kids have pretty much the same schedule every week, but how could I have forgotten how busy the evenings would become? To top things off I signed up to teach Katelyn's religion class this year - which is great - but I'm really missing my Monday evenings where I had time to read a magazine or talk on the phone (Stef, now you know why I haven't made my Monday night call in awhile!)

With Katelyn in Brownies and tennis lessons I don't feel like she's overscheduled in comparison to what some kids are in, but when you add in Mike's golf night and a few scrapbooking nights for me we very quickly don't have a single night off. Tuesday is usually our free night. Somebody must've clued in Katelyn's school, because they've decided to have "Chick-fil-a" night and "On the Border" nights on Tuesdays now so we can have yet another event to attend.

So even with the weeks being so hectic and football games on many weekends we've still managed to fit in some other fun stuff.

We had a great time with Nana and Pop-Pop, Kelly and Keith, and Ally and CJ at the Cabarrus County fair this year. The tea-cups have become a favorite ride. Katelyn has gotten the hang of spinning it really fast and Lindsay just LOVES it!

Pony rides are a must and the new bumper boats were definitely a hit!

Katelyn and I went to the Children's Theater with Kelly and Ally to see a live performance of Peter Pan. I don't know that Katelyn really knew much of the story before seeing the play, but both she and Ally thought the play was fantastic. Unfortunately no pictures to share, but the highlight by far was watching Peter Pan and the other children flying across stage.

I just had to include this one. There are many things I love about living in North Carolina, but it being warm enough for the kids to run through the sprinkler in October definitely ranks right up there! Here are Katelyn and Lindsay with one of Katelyn's best buddies from school after an afternoon in sprinkler:

Ally's birthday party at the gymnastics center only cemented the desire of both girls to sign up for classes. I've been feeling guilty for awhile about not having Lindsay in some type of class like we did with Katelyn at her age. It's looking like it may be gymnastics later this fall :) She's definitely a bit of a daredevil and loves trying to flip. She hasn't tried the bars yet, but after watching Katelyn I'm sure she won't be far behind.

My Uncle Joe and Aunt Shufen came to visit all the way from Buffalo. The girls loved having a new audience and Uncle Joe was certainly a good sport while playing school with Katelyn, especially when being tested on his spelling and reading comprehension all before his first cup of coffee Saturday morning!

And finally, I can't leave out our trip last weekend to the pumpkin farm with Nana and Grandpa. Besides the standard picking of pumpkins, the girls got to feed goats, sheep, peacocks and chickens, paint pumpkins, get their faces painted, play in a giant sandbox filled with corn kernels, ride a wagon pulled by a tractor and launch green tomatoes into a field with a giant slingshot!

Phew! I'm tired just from reliving the last 5-6 weeks let alone from writing about it all! No promises, but I'll to not take so long to post next time :)

On wheels again....

...only this time it's good news!!

Katelyn had her last leg x-ray at the end of August and was cleared for all physical activity again. This prompted a renewed interest in her bike. She decided that she was ready to learn to ride without training wheels. We had a pretty wobbly start -- she was not a huge fan of feeling like she was going to fall over. After a few trips back and forth with me holding her steady, my neighbor saved us! She gave us the wonderful tip that they learned from a local bike shop -- take off the pedals!! I thought the idea sounded a little odd at first, but it worked. She was able to sit on the seat, push with her feet and learn to balance while coasting and not worrying about pedaling -- plus her feet were all ready for when she lost her balance. By day two, she could coast pretty well and wanted her pedals back. She needed a little help getting started while getting used to pedaling and balancing at the same time, but by day three she was off and riding. Absolutely amazing!!!!