Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!
We have had a very fun and busy morning!! The children woke up at 4:45 am... and even thought they begged and pleaded, we made them wait until 6 am to open their presents.
That didn't keep them from rummaging through their stockings, or sizing up their presents though!
They were super excited, which really makes Christmas fun. Christmas through the eyes of a child is really the best way to experience it.
We made the kids wear the elf hats while opening their gifts!! They agreed of course just so they could get their loot! But I think they look adorable.
Opening presents probably took all of a half hour! We just let them rip through their gifts and I stand there and take pictures.
And when they're done, Art and I exchange gifts off to the side while the kids open practically everything they got!
Santa was very generous at our house, and I hope he was at your house too!
We have a busy day of visiting and partying ahead of us...
Merry Christmas to all, and most importantly,
Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Look at Kaden!

We visited with my Dad, Becky, Brittani and Kaden last night. I was very nervous but I think it went very well. I was amazed at how big Kaden has gotten. He is 6 months old now, and he's a little person with a great little personality!
Here are a picture of dad with his kids- Amy, Mike, Tracy, Kaden and Dad!

And here are some adorable pictures of Kaden!! Wow, isn't he a cutie? At first he was scared because he is just starting to have stranger anxiety and really, we are all strangers to him... But once he got used to everyone he really opened up and I took some great pics!

The kids enjoyed seeing their "Li'l Uncle Kaden" and also Papa. It's hard not seeing them often but I guess that makes it even more special when we do.

So much going on!

It's been snowing here in NY!! Finally, as the kids say! Last Thursday it snowed all day, and so much so that the kids were sent home early from school.
I took this picture of Colby, Desiree, Will and Adam playing in the backyard. I love that you can see the snowflakes! And there are the boys making their "peace" signs- their new thing!
It isn't snowing anymore, but we had a little storm yesterday... between the snow and the freezing rain and the wind... it really did a number out there!!
I did bring the kids sleigh riding out in the pit! That was fun! Although the walk there is quite a hike considering you have to walk through a foot a snow!! :)

But as the snow was falling, we were toasty warm inside, working on the basement! Here is a picture of the bar... on the front is the mosaic Art and I did with the tiles. (He did three, I did the one on the far left!) That was fun. It still needs to be grouted though (which Art is doing right now!)

Something cool thing that happened Saturday-- we got our couch!!! This is our new sectiona!! I love love love it! It is so big and comfy! Here are the kids (and Desiree) hanging out on it. They all really love it!

I cannot believe that Christmas is just a week away. Wow! How did that happen? There is something on my schedule every single day from now until then. Tis the season!!! I'm just SO HAPPY that the basement is done for this!
We also decorated our tree on Saturday, and it is so pretty to lay on the couch and look at the tree all lit up in the dark!!! Love it!
Happy Monday! Better be good this week!

Look at our basement!!! WOW!!

I am so super excited about our "new" basement!! Art has been working very hard these past weeks and it is so obvious!! I am so happy to be able to post these photos!
The top photo shows Art's bar (that he designed and made all by himself, he is so talented!) and also shows the new carpet.
The bar isn't done... he is going to do a mosaic of tiles in the 4 open rectangles in the front. The tile will match the tile on the other side of the basement.

This picture shows the stairs! They have carpet on them!! Woo hoo! Jay just put this in last night!! And it is so soft under my feet! I love it!

The stairs aren't done, of course... the rails and sides all need to be done. But we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!!!

This is a before picture of the bar, and the floor.

It is so great to have this so close to done!! We are definitely going to have Christmas in our basement!! We are all so excited about it. The kids love the carpet-- the boys keep running downstairs and just playing on the floor. Almost makes me not want to put any furniture down there....almost!!

On another note, it is SNOWING!! A lot! Roads are awful, school is closing early, Will's concert is cancelled tonight. (Sam had her very first band concert last night! And chorus! She did awesome and had fun). Now we need to wait and see when Will's will be postponed to.

Meet Izzy!

Samantha has been working on a "crayfish" unit at school. When it was over, her teacher said the kids who wanted a crayfish could have one, as long as their parent signed a permission slip. It was a lottery drawing. And guess who won?
Yes, yesterday Samantha brought home "Isador" and she calls her Izzy. She showed us that she is female, and she even told us quite a few other things I didn't know, like the crayfish is cousins with the lobster, it pinches, it can take its eyes inside, and some more that I can't remember. She's not afraid to pick her up, either, even though she *almost* got pinched a couple of times!
Her friend Sarah also won one! And we thought it was neat that Sarah's was "H" and Sam's was "I" and together they spelled "hi"! :)
They had a little crayfish race in the living room yesterday, and showed how to see their breathing using food coloring. It was pretty neat!
Welcome to the family, Izzy!

Tuesday Chatter

Look, it's tile! Art has been busy with the downstairs, putting in the tile. The isn't the best picture but at least you can see the tile and where it is. He is actually further now, he grouted last night. As soon as I get a better picture I will post it. The basement is really coming along now! Art is now working on "other" things... like the bar, the lights, the heat, you know, those things that I don't even think of!

Other things are going well too. No snow yet, which is a little disappointing. It's certainly cold enough for it!

Today the drama club is announcing which play it will perform this year, and Samantha is staying after school for that. She is really excited and looking forward to being in the drama club. I'm really proud of her-- she has her "own" likes and goes for them and doesn't worry about what the other kids are doing.

Colby starts basketball this Saturday. Luckily, he only has one one-hour practice/combined with a game each week, always on Saturday morning. Of course, that does conflict with Will's bowling, but one of us can go to each. It will be interesting having all three kids play basketball! Already, this Saturday, we have 3 basketball games!

Call me crazy, really, because this is in addition to the other activities. One of which is Girl Scouts, which I just found out last night that my troop is bridging one year *earlier* than we thought, and we just started working on our Bronze award. Now we need to work out that kink.

Not to mention, it's the "most wonderful time of the year"!! Luckily, I can still use the Santa threat on Colby. The other two aren't falling for it anymore :( At least they aren't publicly denouncing Santa. That would just break my heart. I'm not ready for them to grow up!

Have a great Tuesday, I'm off to continue my cleaning!

Sugarland ~ Stay ~ Jennifer Really Crys

This song really touches me. I love how she is crying in the video. And even though I am a horrible singer, this is one of my favorite songs to sing!

See our tree!

On Sunday we decided to go and tag our Christmas tree. We looked in the newspaper and we found a place near Burden Lake advertising trees for $15! That was screaming our name, and off we went. Their was a nice little map in the paper too, so we brough it along. Well, about 5 minutes into our trip we saw a big "TREES" sign, and followed it, thinking it was our place. Turns out it wasn't... but these trees were $20 so we decided to go with it!!
However, we were told that we *could* tag a tree, but they couldn't guarantee no one would take it anyways. Nice. So, we cut one down. Yup, it's short! But we figure since it's going in the basement, it needs to be short. It was a COLD day, so it didn't take us long to decide which tree we all liked, on account of, we didn't want to keep looking! Thank goodness we brought Shea, she made a good tree-puller! ha ha ha. Really though, she did a fine job!
The highlight of our trip, though, was PEANUT! Peanut is a little dog who lived on the farm. We had brought Shea of course, and this dog Peanut followed us all around, playing with Shea. It was so cute! Who knew Shea would have an impromptu play date?? And the kids loved Peanut as well... I think they wanted to take her home! I think this is a really cute picture, just wish I could get a shot like that with *our* puppy!