Girls Weekend 2012

My mom, sister, Morgan and I had our annual Girls Weekend a few weekends ago, before Morgan's basketball games started. We were hesitant about going because Morgan had a slight fever and was lethargic the night before we left, but she woke up chipper and ready to go...unfortunately that didn't last. We ended up going, but Morgan would become feverish and sluggish on and off throughout the whole weekend. She never wanted to go home though-she's quite the trooper! ;-)

My mom, Morgan and I met up with my sister late Saturday morning at Cranbrook Institute of Science. It's a natural history museum, so we weren't sure if a 5 year old would enjoy it, but she found some pretty neat things. We got a picture of this T-Rex for Blake and found out that they most likely were not predators, but actually scavengers....I had never heard that about them before!

This was pretty cool too! There was an area where they taught about diversity and there were some pretty neat holograms...I'd never seen a hologram in person before! The display of the room was all physically there, but the women and the boy were just holograms-very cool!

One of Morgan's favorite displays was the butterfly case. All sorts of pretty butterflies to look at. As you can tell, she wasn't feeling her best at this point.
Another favorite was when Morgan found Nemo! You can't see him well in this picture, but I took another...

There he is! :-)

Again, you can tell Morgan isn't feeling the best, but she still crawled into the turtle shell for a picture.

We also saw a show geared towards Morgan's age in the Planetarium there. It gave Morgan a chance to sit down and relax a bit. It was fun to watch her in awe of the stars and participate in the interactive portions of the show. Very neat!

After the science institute, we went out for lunch at a Coney Island. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but my sister ordered Flaming Cheese. I had never seen cheese lit on fire before...very cool (or hot) and tasty!

We then went to my sister's place to relax for the rest of the day. We made Morgan's Valentine's for her class, talked a bunch, watched a movie, ordered some Thai food, talked some more, drank wine (not Morgan of course), laughed, and just had a great night.

Sunday, we got up and had a slow start to our morning. My sister made us omelets and cut my hair for me as she does every Girls Weekend. We then went to see The Muppets. We actually got there a bit early, so we did a bit of shopping first. I took Morgan into Barnes and Noble (she loves looking at all the books) as my mom and sister went into Bed, Bath and Beyond...then we went and enjoyed the movie. :-)

Afterwards we did a little shopping at The Great Indoors. Between my mom redoing her kitchen and my sister having a new house, they both had a lot to look at there....I just dreamed ;-) I also thought the shopping cart escalator was pretty cool...you can't ride it the cart while it's going up the escalator...that was a bit of a bummer ;-)

That was pretty much the whole weekend. Mom, Morgan and I stopped for a bite to eat at McDonald's on the way home. We actually all got ice cream...a sweet end to a sweet weekend :-)

Christmas 2011

I'm finally getting around to blogging about Christmas!! It was a busy one! We kicked off the Christmas season the day after Christmas with the town's Christmas parade. We spent quite a bit of time on our Advents. We put up our Christmas tree and decorations. Morgan had her Christmas performances. And, as you'll see, we did quite a bit more!

The first weekend in December, we went to the Lighted Implement Parade in a neighboring town. Always a bunch of fun as you tell from the smiles on the kids' faces. Blake and I really had some laughs that night. I tried putting him on my shoulders, like Morgan was on Rich's, but each time I'd go to take a picture I'd have to let go of one of his legs, which made him feel like he was going to fall, so he'd grab my head right around my eyes....turns out that makes it pretty tough to take pictures! The whole situation had me laughing so hard I'm not sure I got the few blurry pictures I did :-)

The following weekend was the annual Firefighter's Christmas dinner. The kiddos did the best ever going up and seeing Santa....might have helped that Blake had just been Santa's elf in the local parade a couple weeks before. :-)

The kids thought their gifts were awesome! Morgan got a box of Crayola stuff and Blake got Transformers. Blake thought he got the bext gift out of everyone because he had helped Santa in the parade. ;-)

The following day was Morgan's Christmas sing at school. The next weekend I went to an annual Cookie Exchange as well as Morgan's dance performance. And the week before Christmas the kids had school from Monday through Wednesday and I was there each day with one or the other or both of them with their parties :-) Then Friday before Christmas, Rich's family, including us, got together with one of his uncle's families and spent the evening together. Morgan and Blake LOVE Rich's cousin's kids, so it's always nice to get together with them when they're home from Virginia :-)

Christmas Eve, Rich's brother got home from the Marines, so they cut down their Christmas tree that morning. It was a special tree from Rich's brother Doug's memorial garden. (If you can't tell it's also a Douglas Fir.) A young Douglas Fir will be planted in it's place in the garden and it will be cut down when it's the right size to use for Christmas as well.

The kids also got their Christmas pj's from Grandma and Papa :-)

We then headed to my parents' for Christmas dinner with them. We opened presents, put together Happy Birthday Jesus cupcakes, played a dice/gift game that we used to play at my grandparents' and made little reindeer candy canes.

Christmas morning was nice at home. We had plenty of time to open gifts together. We started off by opening up the gift of Jesus (it was the Jesus from the kids' nativity)...it was the last activity of our Advent. Then the kids found the Christmas pickle before they could open any more gifts :-)

Morgan discovered her new Christmas stocking! I had been working on it since she was 7 months old, but I finally got it done-ish....I need to sew on a different backing and put the liner in it still.

Blake being his usual goofy self :-) He was definitely having fun :-)
After we were dressed, we headed off to Rich's grandma's for more gift opening, brunch and the Christmas shot (of whiskey or whatever everyone wants...none for the kids of course!) Then on to Rich's parents' for more gifts and dinner. The kids had a blast with their uncles ;-)

The Monday after Christmas we tried not to put much away because my parents were coming over that night to see what everyone got. In the meantime, we also had Rich's best friend and his family stop by. And since I don't have a chance to make Christmas breakfast like my mom used to, I tried making some monkey bread from scratch that morning-YUM! :-)

Tuesday morning the kids had a dentist appointment. Then that night Rich and I took the kids to my parents then met up with his parents and brothers to go to a Red Wings game. As we were trying to squeeze past people to get into our seats, I was nudged and looked up to see people from our church! What a coincidence to drive 2 hours away from home and not just happen to see people we know, but be sitting right next to them! After the Red Wings won the game, we headed out to get dinner (at 11pm) at a place called Pizza Papalis, where I had my first Chicago style deep dish pizza! We made it home at 2 am...not used to be up so late anymore!

Wednesday we picked the kiddos up and worked at getting the house in order.

Thursday, the kids had a Tea Party at Rich's parents' with their 3rd cousins in the afternoon, then that night we had dinner and exchanged gifts with Rich's aunt's family.

Friday was spent trying to get more things in order (it really does take a lot to try to find places for things in a tiny house) and then we used up Morgan's Book-It coupons, before they expired, at Pizza Hut that night. I always loved Book-It when I was little and I enjoy doing it with the kiddos now too! :-)

Saturday, New Years Eve, we had Rich's brothers over. He wanted them to come hang out with him for a little bit while they were home for Christmas. The kids had a BLAST playing with them! We didn't end up going to his parents' for their New Years party and opted for a New Years evening at home.

Sunday, New Years day, we went back to Rich's parents to celebrate his youngest brother's birthday before he headed back to the Marines. The kids ended up staying the night there. Rich went back the next morning to get the kiddos and say good-bye to his brothers since they were both leaving that day. I ended up putting away several of the Christmas decorations.

This last weekend we finished up all our Christmas activity with an extended family Christmas with Rich's Dad's family. It was a really nice time. We had a soup and salad dinner, then a gift exchange, followed by a group picture and a special pudding that I can't remember the name of. It's really good and FULL of calories! LOL!

Okay, I think that covers it! I had hoped for a more relaxing break with lots of time just doing fun things with the kiddos that we don't have time to do anymore since they're in school, but it didn't quite work out that way. If we weren't away, we were working at keeping the house in order so we could move through it-LOL! It was nice to have the time with the family though. :-)

Morgan's Christmas Performances

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I didn't plan on taking a break, but it ended up that way anyway. :-) I'm hoping to catch up blogging about all our Christmas activities we had real soon. For now, I have some of Morgan's performances that I wanted to share.

Morgan had a Kindergarten Christmas sing at the school, which was really nice. They sang 8 different songs and you can tell that they had a lot of fun learning them and singing them for all their parents and loved ones. This is their first song "Up on the Housetop".




Morgan's dance studio also did a few of their dances for a local nursing home. The performance happened to include both Morgan's ballet and tap routines, as well as the little routine that the studio had done for the town's Christmas parade. I tried for 2 DAYS to upload a video, but I couldn't get it to work, so here are a few pictures:

Morgan and one of her dance classmates in their tap costume.

Tapping to the song "Purple People Eater"

Morgan with her other dance classmate in their ballet costume.

Their ballet routine was to the song "Practical Magic".

**UPDATE: I was able to get the video uploaded to YouTube!! So, here the Practical Magic routine:

Our Christmas Tree 2011

We found a cute little tree behind Rich's grandma's house again this year.

The trunk was so small that Rich had it cut down before I could get a picture of him cutting it-lol!

Blake thought the chain saw was a bit noisy, but he still liked it ;-)

We got it up and decorated within the next several days. The kids posed for a picture once we finished and the picture became our Christmas card this year :-)

Picking out our Christmas tree has become one of my favorite family traditions. Each year is the experience is different, but always good. It's great making the memories with the kiddos ;-)

Halfway through Advent

The kids and I are enjoying advent this year, but it sure is going fast! I added a couple more 'calendars' to our original two this year. The new ones are a little more involved now that the kiddos are older :-)

I've seen this done a few times, but never took the time to do it myself before. I wrapped up all the kids' Christmas and winter-themed books (plus a few mailing envelopes with notes to go to We Give Books to read a book, since I didn't have enough Christmas books.) I did it a couple days before Advent, stuck the books all wrapped on the shelf. The anticipation to see what those 'gifts' were was almost too much for Morgan and Blake ;-)

The other advent calendar we started, Countdown to Christmas, came from Focus on the Family's magazine "Thriving Family". Each day has a scripture reading and an activity to do with the kids (which they've LOVED doing.) The book also provides a link to sites where you can do even more like watch a video, do a craft or listen to a carol.

As part of the Countdown to Christmas advent, we also made a little makeshift advent wreath with a glass star-shaped candle base, clay, some spruce tree clippings and birthday candles. (The blue candles should be purple, but we didn't have that color.) We light the candles each Sunday during our scripture reading to start the new week of advent. (The candles are a lot of fun for the kids...they LOVE blowing them out!)

I have enjoyed these new advent calendars as much as the kiddos have. It's been so fun that I already purchased a new advent book in anticipation for advent next season! :-)

I have a Pot Rack!

I know it may seem minor to have a pot rack put up in my kitchen, but it's exciting for me! I've been waiting for six years for it to happen! When Rich and I were married, we received this nice set of pots for either my shower or the wedding. (See, it's been so long I can't even remember-LOL!) Anyway, there isn't enough room in the drawer under my oven to store them and if I tried, they'd scratch easily. So I've been using some old Teflon pots and pans waiting until I could get my nice new set out.
For my birthday, almost a year ago, my sister bought me this pot rack from IKEA. Well, it finally got put up last night!! I cleaned all the pots and pans today and hung them and now I can't stop looking at it I'm so excited! Now for a new kitchen to go with my new pots and the new pot rack! ;-)

Please Help Almost Home Animal Rescue

This is a guest post by my sister, Katie. Please take a minute to help if you can. (It would literally only take a minute!)

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Hello All! My name is Katie and I have a favor to ask of everyone. I live in Metro Detroit and happen to volunteer at an animal rescue called Almost Home. Almost Home is a great shelter and is absolutely 100% no kill! They rescue dogs and cats in the area and if they hear of an animal at another shelter that is about to be destroyed, they go rescue it if they can find an extra square inch of space to put the fuzzy little soul. On to the favor part. This shelter rescues all sorts of animals and some of them have extensive health bills. The shelter would also LOVE to expand to save even more animals from being destroyed. In order to do this, money is required. I’m not asking for donations. I’m asking if you will vote for Almost Home in Pepsi’s Refresh Everything program! There are 2 ways that you can vote. You can either follow this link and click vote or text your vote in by texting 109736 to 73774 (standard text messaging rates apply). If you have the time and means, vote both ways and get counted twice!

I love this shelter as it's the place where I was lucky enough to find Spot, my 1 year old Jack Russell Terrier and adopt her. She has been such a joy in our home and we love her soooo much! We do not know her story, or why someone would abandon our sweet little girl, but we do know that the shelter heard that she was to be euthanized in Toledo and they drove down and rescued her prior to her scheduled appointment. I am so glad that they did. Please help Almost Home create more happy tails! ;-)

Katie's adorable adopted dog, Spot.

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To learn more about Almost Home and see some of their dogs that they have up for adoption, please visit their website. I was just checking out the site and there are some super cute puppies!! :-)

Thanksgiving Weekend

We've been a little busy....and sick...lately. The five days leading up to Thanksgiving we had three birthday parties, two of which were surprises and the other was a little guy turning 4, so they were all fun :-) Blake and Morgan had colds throughout that time and then Rich and I got the colds in time for Thanksgiving...not so fun!

Thanksgiving day was spent with Rich's family. I made up some green bean casserole and a pecan pie, which was just a tiny contribution to the huge feast we had. Thankfully I was sick or I probably would have eaten WAY too much...I had enough as it was ;-)

Friday, we took it easy a bit throughout the day and did a little catching up and preparing for Saturday's Thanksgiving get-together, then had to leave for the town's Christmas parade at night. Morgan's dance studio had a little routine they had practiced for the parade to the song "We Need a Little Christmas".

Morgan had the letter "E"

I tried getting a picture before dark and before I ended up in the parade behind them pulling a wagon. :-)

Blake was almost in the parade with Morgan, but ended up riding in the Fire Department's Kabota with Santa and his Daddy. Santa asked him if he was going to be his little elf and I think that made Blake feel special. ;-) Here, Santa had left and Morgan hopped on for a picture after the parade.

After the parade, the we went home and made hot cocoa and popcorn, set up the air mattress and we had a fun family movie night watching Shrek the Third and camping out in the living room. :-)

Saturday we had Thanksgiving at my sister's. I planned on leaving for my sister's between 10 and 10:30, since it was a 2 hour drive and dinner was at 1:00pm, but that didn't work out so well. Right at 10:15 Rich got a fire call and was gone. I almost left without him, but decided to wait and he made it back so we were only an hour and fifteen minutes late for Thanksgiving. (Not too bad for a fire call!) We made it home by 8 pm, were exhausted, and fell asleep before 10...which is not like us!

Sunday, we took down all the Halloween and Thanksgiving decor and set up the Christmas decorations. We won't have the tree for a couple weeks, but at least it looks a bit like Christmas here. We also watched White Christmas and enjoyed the day together resting and trying to get well. (We're still not better, but we're getting there!)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving like we did! :-)

Wordless Wednesday: Pictures with the New Fire Engine

A few of Rich's fellow firefighters flew out to Pennsylvania about a month ago to pick up the department's new fire engine. We went to see it the next day to get some pictures and check out all the special bells and whistles....quite literally! ;-)

This is the special bell that they had put on it.

Morgan and Blake posing with the bell.

Isn't it pretty.

Since it was in the bay, I couldn't get a full picture of it, but it sure is pretty!

Happy W.W.!! :-)

Record a Story Keepsake Storybook Review

When I think of my favorite time of the day that I spend with the kids, it's the time we spend together reading bedtime stories. I love everything about it. I love seeing the joy in their faces while they pick out their favorite books. I love how they run to their places on the couch and start looking at the books before I even get there. I love cuddling with my favorite two little ones, while reading books that spark their imaginations and foster their love for reading. I even love that they still want that time after a super long day and they both fall asleep while I'm reading so I have to carry them to bed.

Being that reading bedtime stories is my favorite time with my kids, it's also the time that I miss most when I'm away. And if I miss it, I'm sure they do too. So when I first heard about Record a Story Keepsake Storybooks, I thought it was an awesome idea! I thought it was great that I could record myself reading to my kiddos and they could look page through the book together and listen to me read it whenever I was away. It'd be comforting to me that I could still read to them, and comforting to them to still hear my voice before going to bed.

I was fortunate to have Publications International, Ltd. contact me and send me their Record a Story Keepsake Storybook,"Good Night, Sesame Street", to review! Take a look at the short video to see how the book already reads when it first comes in the mail:


One thing you may have noticed when I was turning pages was that the book has a tendency to start the music up for the wrong page. The reason it does that has to do with the lighting, so the book should be read in a well lit area. I also didn't show the whole book, if you're wondering why the book seems so short ;-)

I actually decided not to record my voice in the book, since I happen to know a little one who LOVES Elmo that I'd like to give this to. I'm sure she'd rather have her mom or dad's voice over mine. But I took a look at the directions for recording and they're super simple. The directions also tell the reader how to unlock the book so their voice can be recorded and how to lock it again so their voice can't be recorded over. The locking switch is inside the battery compartment, so little fingers can't get to it. Great features! :-)
Since I won't be keeping my review copy, I was looking into which book I'd like for Morgan and Blake:

I like this one for the times I'm gone.

With Christmas coming, I like this one.

Whichever one I decide on, I'm sure the kiddos will love having their mom reading to them whenever they want and especially the times I can't be there for bedtime stories :-)

Be sure to check out their other cute storybook selections here.

Publications International, Ltd is also doing what they can to help keep military families connected this Christmas with their Record a Story Keepsake Storybooks. This is what they have to say about their Operation Record a Story program:

"This fall and into the holiday season, military parents about to deploy will have the chance to arrange for shared story time with their children even after they leave for their tours of duty, through United Through Reading's Military Program. Operation Record a Story, a program sponsored by Publications International, Ltd. (PIL), has donated thousands of books, many from its award-winning Record a Story collection, to the nonprofits USO and United Through Reading. Through these organizations, service members can record the stories for their children before they deploy. The books, along with a DVD of the parents recording the story, will then be shipped to the kids for the holidays."

I think what PIL is doing for military families is wonderful and if you do too, you can find ways to make a donation here.

Buy it!: If you'd like to purchase a Record a Story Keepsake Storybook, they run $16.95 to $19.95 and can be purchase on their website here.

*Disclosure: I was sent a Record a Story book for review and was not compensated in any other way. The views expressed in the post are my own.