'09 Books

Honeymoon (James Patterson)
Best Friends Forever (Jennifer Weiner)
The Missing (Beverly Lewis)
Twenties Girl (Sophie Kinsella)
The Last Song (Nicholas Sparks)
The Associate (John Grisham)
The Penny Pinchers Club (Sarah Strohmeyer)
On Every Side (Karen Kingsbury)
The Unlikely Disciple...One Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University (Kevin Roose)
The Secret (Beverly Lewis)
Swimsuit (James Patterson)
Mommy by Mistake (Rowan Coleman)
The 8th Confession (James Patterson)
Family Tree (Barbara Delinsky)
While My Sister Sleeps (Barbara Delinsky)
Handle with Care (Jodi Picoult)
Guilty (Karen Robards)
Multiple Blessings (Jon & Kate Gosselin)
Very Valentine (Adriana Trigiani)
Run for Your Life (James Patterson)
Dewey (Vicki Myron)
Testimony (Anita Shreve)
Time of my Life (Allison Winn Scotch)
Breaking Dawn (Stephanie Meyer)
From the Heart...Eight Rules to Live By (Robin Roberts)
Eclispe (Stephanie Meyer)
New Moon (Stephanie Meyer)
Twilight (Stephanie Meyer)

Miss Sydney :)

Couldn't forget my girl!! It's been hard to get a picture when she's at school all day...by the time she got home we hardly had enough light! It's nice to have her home during the day again :)

Girls day out!!

Sydney and I ventured out by ourselves today! She's been wanting to see the new Princess and the Frog movie for the past couple weeks so today was the day! When she woke up this morning she told me, "Don't forget we're going to see the movie today!"

We headed out to the mall this morning...hoping to beat the bad traffic!




The movie was really cute! We got popcorn and Sprite (her favorite) to munch on too which made it perfect!

Then we headed over to Chick-fil-a for lunch (another Sydney favorite) and met grandma there. We did a little shopping and Sydney spotted the trampoline thing in the mall and really wanted to try it!

Thanks to Grandma she got to jump! We wondered how well she would do being so small but she went up pretty high! She was all smiles :)




Traffic was really bad getting out of the mall and on Ward's road...we managed to get over to Target to return something and I was so glad to get out of there! It was pretty crazy!! It was nice to get back home! Now we are counting down till Santa gets here!!

The big snow!

Well, we ended up with 13 inches of snow Friday night/Saturday! Once it started it didn't stop until late Saturday afternoon! It was great!!

Here's my before and after pics looking out the front door:




Sydney and Carter woke up Saturday morning and we heard them running down the hall. Sydney said, I looked out my window and there's a LOT of snow on the table outside (patio table)!!!! They were soooo excited about all the snow and begged all morning to go outside!! It was snowing really hard at the time so we waited and waited but it never seemed to slow down. Finally we got dressed and headed outside to play!



It was hard for Carter to walk!!




Sydney was moving pretty slow too!


She finally plopped down and made a snow angel...


Emma had a hard time at first...I found her in the front yard at one point struggling to get to higher ground! ha ha! Once we had been outside awhile she started hopping around in our footprints which made it a little easier for her :)


Kevin did an official snow measure...


The snow had drifted in several places but we figure we got 13 or 14 inches :)




We weren't sure how sleigh riding would go but Sydney and Carter are so light they glided right on top of the snow! But once they got to the bottom of the hill the snow was too deep for them to walk back up!

Carter moved on to the playground...he dug out his loader and started hauling snow...


It was a pretty good day! Kevin got a fire going in the fireplace and made some awesome hot chocolate with cocoa powder, milk, vanilla extract and sugar! It was soooooo good! We were all pooped by the end of the day!

Santa Claus is comin' to town...

He's making a list
and checking it twice
gonna find out
who's naughty...

and nice...

Santa Claus is comin' to town!!

waiting on snow...

Can't wait on the snow to get here!! It's gonna be a good one :)


This morning, Sydney got to wear a Santa hat to school! She also had her Christmas party to look forward to and school let out 2 hours early!!


After we dropped her off, Carter and I headed to Target with about a million other people. I needed some tall snow boots and I got one of the last pair left...I couldn't believe they actually had my size.

Then we went to Chick-fil-a for a little chick'n mini pick me up. I crave Chick-fil-a so bad it's not even funny. Seriously.
Carter doesn't mind though...


As we came down Wards Rd. I couldn't believe all the cars at WalMart. Craaaazy! Every parking space was filled...glad I didn't have to go there!

This afternoon we waited for the snow to start falling...Sydney was getting a little impatient! Finally around 3 we looked out and a few flakes were coming down...didn't take long for them to start sticking!! Here's my before shot...wonder what tomorrow will bring??




Now Kevin and Sydney have 2 weeks off...I think they are both equally excited about that!! :)

another project...

Thew this together one afternoon...I let Sydney and Carter make a snowman out of cotton balls. I got everything ready and they went to town. Only wish it would have taken longer to finish ;)





And here's my little Santa man...

Yum....

We made some cookies yesterday afternoon...

Sydney couldn't wait to eat some cookie dough! Carter was happy to stir...


I got Sydney to put some chocolate chips on top of the cookies before we baked them...


so they would be all soft and melty when I took them out of the oven...mmmmmmm!



And them today we decorated a gingerbread house...


This has to rate pretty high on the mess factor...let's just say there are a lot of little candy pieces all over the floor!
And we are not Martha Stewarts so it hardly looks like the picture on the box! They had directions on how to make these pretty little houses but I just laughed and gave up before I even got to step 2!!
But it's still cute and they certainly had fun putting the candy all over the thing!


Such concentration...


There was a lot of this going on too :)


And finished!

Little brother...

This is what happens when a little boy has a big sister...



He gets put in girly tutu's and princess shoes! I think there's a feather boa in there somewhere too. I am still picking feathers up off the floor from that one!!

Christmas pajamas...

I finally got around to pulling out Sydney and Carter's christmas-y pajamas the other night! Carter loves his...they are flannel and really warm! They make him look like an old man though...ha ha!

It's a GIRL!

Well it's official...another girl is on the way!

The ultrasound was really fun! She was be-bopping around the entire time! Her little arms stayed up around her face and we could even see her stick her hand in her mouth and suck her fingers! Her legs were crossed at the knees for a bit and then at one point they were up by her head! I could have stayed there all day watching her move around!


After the ulrasound chick got all the measurements I asked if they could do 3D pictures and she said, yep, let's play!! The machine takes a series of pictures then stiches them together to make a 3D image of the baby. She was moving around a lot which meant a lot of the pictures didn't turn out very well but we did get several good looks at her! I didn't scan them all...they don't show up quite as well scanned for some reason. Here's one...I labeled her little arms...


Anyway, she is healthy and everything looks great! And since Mr. Carter was a whopping 11 lbs I get to have another ulrasound at 38 weeks. So maybe we can get one more look at her before she's born!

Sydney is super excited about another girl! I picked her up a bit early from school and the first thing she asked me was "do you know what the baby is??" She did a little hop when I told her!

Carter on the other hand still insists it's a boy! Guess he and Kevin will be sticking together a lot ;)

boy or girl???

I'm watching the clock today...waiting to go to the dr. at 1:30. Today is the ultrasound! I thought I might be able to wait it out and not find out if it was a girl or boy. But as the weeks got closer and closer that proved to be easier said then done!! :) And I don't know who is more excited to know...me or Sydney!

So anyway, we went to see the Big Island Christmas parade on Sunday...it was a little chilly but they had fun! Carter got to see every firetruck in the county, a few tractors and some "racing cars" as he called them (or hot rods!) Sydney liked the Grinch in the marching band, some silly bird riding in a car and of course Santa!

Hello December...

Well...so much for writing anything in November!! Don't know where that month went but hello December! The trees are up, decorations are out, Christmas songs are playing and just counting down to Christmas!! It's gonna be a fun month!

Today is the halfway mark for this pregnancy too! Well, knowing me and my 8-9 day late babies it could be longer, but I am thinking positive! Can't believe how fast it's going by...I think I am finally over the tired phase too. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever get better...every day I would have to lay down for awhile at either at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Then I'd drag myself around until about 8:30 which was bedtime! It's so good to have some energy back!! :)

Got some pictures but they'll have to wait until next time...

oldies but goodies...

So there are a ton of pictures from Pennsylvania and I am still going through them!! I threw a few together because it's hard to pick my favorites!

These are from Cherry Crest Farm...

We spent about 4 hours there the first day of our trip! It was pretty calm there most of the day...we started off with a tractor ride through the corn maze. Then we moved on to the "barn jump" which is a huge air mattress/trampoline. Sydney and Carter's favorite thing was the slide...you sat on a potato sack and raced down a hill! They went down over and over and over again!! We headed out in the pumpkin patch and found the biggest pumpkins I have ever seen in my life!! They also had a section of farm animals to visit...the sheep was Sydney's favorite of course!

After we left there we drove around looking at farms and the scenery! We ended up stopping and taking a buggy ride through the country. Sydney and Carter sat up front with the driver and myself. After that I remember eating dinner at an Amish restaurant then we were all exhausted and went to the hotel and went to bed!



The next day, we went to several Amish shops that I wanted to check out. Bird in Hand bakery was the first place...they had a playground so the kiddos played while I went inside and drooled over cakes and pies! Then there was a furniture store that had the cutest bird houses and furniture...too bad we didn't bring the trailer along to bring lots of stuff home ;)

That afternoon we went to the Strasburg railroad...we missed riding the last train for the day but we did get to see in coming in. And to end the day we found an awesome toy store filled wall to wall with John Deere tractors. Kevin and Carter were in heaven! Carter even got a cart and started filling it up with toys and pushing it around. He put in a quite a few Santa requests while we were there!

Sydney and Carter enjoyed every minute we were there! They were even excited about the hotel room...go figure! They made up a little song and I wish I had a nickel for every time they chanted; Super 8, Super 8, Super 8, SUUU-PEEERRR EEIIIGGGHHHTTTTT!

So our little getaway weekend was very busy and went by very quickly!

Then I got to come home and turn 30 which wasn't so bad. Ate dinner at New London Steakhouse...yummmm! Got a surprise cake too!