Christmas Eve and Morning

Christmas eve was so so busy. We spent all day cooking. The girls made sugar cookies and decorated them. I didn't get any pictures of that since I was busy making chocolate chip cookies and getting everything put together for our dinner. Here is Marissa's snow man cookie that she took a picture of "for the blog"! Marissa loves for me to blog everything and Alexis wishes I would blog less!









We had Grandma Smith and her friend Laura over for dinner. Later on my mom came over and both grandmas spent the night to be here for Jillian's first Christmas.












Not sure if anyone else will notice but there is a little bruise on Jillian's right eye. I was so annoyed when I picked her up on Friday from day care and this is what I saw. We had pictures scheduled for Sunday. Luckily Kiddie Kandid's was able to photo shop the bruise out of the pictures!







Alexis was happy that Santa brought her a gift certificate for a salon on our street so that she could get purple extensions put in to her hair over the Christmas break!























I really didn't expect much of a reaction from Jillian this year since she is still so little. We were so surprised that when we woke her up at 7 this morning she was in a great mood and even seemed excited each time we helped her open up a present. She was laughing and smiling the whole morning. She loved this little tickle me Elmo. I think Grandma Smith liked it almost more than Jillian did. She was laughing harder than the doll watching it wiggle around and seeing Jillian's reaction!

This was Marissa's reaction when she suddenly heard a phone ringing and figured out where it was coming from and that the ringing cell phone belonged to her. She got a Disney Firefly and was ecstatic! Totally made her day!!

We got to relax all morning and then spent the afternoon at Grandma Smiths house with some of Ed's family! I never look forward to all of the work that goes in to Christmas but I do love seeing the kids faces on Christmas morning! Our house is still completely trashed (toys from one side tot eh next) and I need to find room for everything. I just wish the day could last a little longer!

Christmas Pictures

I have been so behind with blogging lately. Last week I met with my friend Jen for dinner and when I got back the tree was all decorated! Ed and the girls did it without me.. I know.. RUDE!! but honestly decorating the tree has never been my favorite thing to do. Luckily the girls were smart enough to snap a few pictures for me though.

Looks like Jillian liked the feel of the fake tree! SHe has been pretty good over the last week at staying away from the decorations. Only one ornament broken so far!

Pretty sure Ed took this picture. One of his lovely Sports ornaments!

Then yesterday we headed over to Kiddie Kandids for our holiday pictures! Although we made an appointment it was still packed and they were about 40 minutes behind schedule which made it a little difficult. Jillian was NOT in the mood yesterday! Needless to say I wasn't impressed this time with the final product. I loved the ones we took over the summer at this place in a different location, but this particular store wasn't my favorite!

Not the worst picture ever but definitely not my favorite of all time!

Update

I realize that I need to update my blog but other than shopping, getting things together for Christmas and the kids basketball practices... I have not had much to blog about! Stayed tuned.. maybe something exciting will happen soon!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving day in Peddler's Village at the Cock N Bull Restaurant the same as we have for the last 5 years. 5 years ago when Ed's dad passed away just a little before Thanksgiving his mom decided not to stay in and cook all day but came up with the idea of going out for Thanksgiving dinner and we have done it every since. The first year it was just Ed, me, his mom and the girls. Some years we have had as many as 22 family members with us but this year... it was back to where we started but with one extra little girl ( Jillian). I love all of the little shops in Peddler's Village but unfortunately most of them are closed on Thanksgiving day so we usually just eat and then head back to someone's house. This year we spent the evening at his Ed's cousin Janice's for dessert and watching some old slides of their family.


Fake smiles...

and then Alexis started slipping off of the railing ....

Real smiles!

Just the 6 of us this year!!!

Maybe some day one of us will decide to go back to cooking and staying home but I don;t think it will be any time soon! This place has a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and the best part is that none of us have to clean it all up!!

8 Months Old

November 26 Jillian turned 8 months!! The time is going by so fast. You are such a happy little baby and so easy to take care of. It is crazy to me that you are the same baby that screamed for hours at a time in the first few weeks, making all of us think that we were going to go insane!

I love your tiny little fingers and your adorable little face. You are always smiling so big and making us all laugh. Your able to stand on your own and are almost ready to walk. For a very long time I thought I would only have 2 kids and could not imagine myself having a 3rd. Thank goodness I did, you bring so much joy to all of us! Alexis nad Marissa werea little worried when they first found out that you were on your way here, but now they are the best big sisters anyone could ask for. They literally can not keep their hands off of you. I don't think any of us can imagine life without you here! You h ave fit in to this family so easily and we are so thankful to have you in our little family!

Bath time is your very favorite time of the day!

Alien Results

Since I want to move on and blog other things I have given up on getting any more comments on our alien debate.
Just so everyone is clear.. I DO NOT believe in aliens. I think it is completely ridiculous!!! And unlike Kristen and Tracy... please if you have one hiding in your house or know where I can see one.. let me know I would love to meet him/her! HA HA HA! Call me closed minded and a silly earthling.. or whatever else you wish. I'm not buying it!

Ed on the other hand.. totally buying in to it. This is one of very few things that Ed and I are on completely opposite ends of!

One thing that Ed said to me right after I posted the debate entry was that he thought it would come down to men seeing it his way and women seeing it my way, which going only by what people said on my blog was true. The anonymous # 1 was a man and I'm still not exactly sure who #2 is but I'm guessing that it is also one of Ed's male friends!

I LOVED Michelle and Merry Jo's comments.. I'm so with them... WHO CARES and why waste our time?? "One of you seriously believes in alien's "???? HA HA

I still don't think either Ed or I really got more votes, so we will just have to continue to disagree on the subject! The debate here at my house will just continue on but that's ok because I get so much fun out of watching Ed get so worked up when he talks about it and tries to get me to believe it and then so irritated at me becasue I won't even say ok.. MAYBE there is something out there! It cracks me up every time!

Thanks for all of your thoughts!

The Great Alien Debate

Ok everyone, the ongoing debate in our house (this has been going on for at least the last 4 years) is over whether or not there is life on other planets! One of us says there most definitely is and one of us says hell no.. are you crazy?

I don't want to post yet which of us (Ed or me) thinks which way because I want to get people's honest opinions on what you think.

One of us says that there are thousands of planets that we as humans have never been to so obviously there has to be some form of life on at least one of them and the other just laughs and says yea.. ok and I guess soon the little green men will be here on earth trying to abduct us for research! HA HA HA!!

One of us says don't you know that 1/2 of the people on earth agree with me that there is life on other planets.. and again the other one laughs and says yea... "the 50% of the earths population that is certifiably nuts"!!












So.. IF you are reading this and even IF you have never ever commented on my blog before, please let me know what you think..... even if you want to make an anonymous comment that is fine by me! I just want to prove that more people will side with me than with Ed!! Let's see what happens. In a few days I will post which of us thinks which way, just so everyone knows! Thanks in advance for your opinions!!!

Holiday Parade

Over the weekend my mom and cousin Aidan came to visit. Because of certain circumstances this is the first time Jillian and Aidan have played together. He is 2 months older than Jillian and they got along well this past weekend!












Sunday was our annual Holiday Parade. This year both of the older girls were in the parade. Marissa carried a flag for our local church to advertise for First Friday. (The first Friday in each month there are community activities all along the main road and all of the little shops are open). Alexis was in the parade this year with her school marching band.. she plays the saxophone!! This is her second year playing and can I just say...MY HAS SHE COME A LONG WAY!!! Last year was painful at times! LOL

Jillian is forever smiling! It was freezing out but she was a trooper!

Marissa and her flag!!

On Monday we had a visit from the "L" family. Amy Bobbie and Mrs. L were the very first people we met when we moved up here 5 years ago. They were our neighbors for a few years until Ed and I got married!

We Are Getting Way To Old For This!!!

Last weekend Rachel, Kristen and I heard that NKOTB was doing an after party at the Borgata in Atlantic City so what did we do??

We drove over two hours to get down there to stand in line at a club and wait for them in a standing room only bar! Did we have tickets to the concert there?? NO!!

Just went and waited, and waited and waited....

They finally made it to the club a little after 1am, by this time we were so tired from standing and waiting that after about 45 minutes of NKOTB doing nothing but leaning over the second floor railing... WE LEFT and drove over 2 hours back to Rachel's and then Kristen and I back to our area! FUN FUN FUN!!! Let me tell you. I didn't get any good pictures of the guys because they had this fog machine going the whole time!

Eventhough we didn't really get to see them it was a fun night out and I got to sleep til like 1pm the next day while Ed was sweet enough to keep the kids out of my room. He actually posted a note on our bedroom door that said "Don't wake up mom" HA HA and they listened!! AMAZING!! that NEVER happens.

I would definitely do this again, but next time I would position myself on the upper level of the club the second I got in there!

Marissa's Sleep Over Party

We have been so busy that Marissa had to celebrate her birthday almost a month late. Every weekend has been booked! Saturday night she picked to have a sleepover party. We invited 4 of her friends and only two could make it! Even better for me!! HA HA!!!



























Marissa Maddy and E















































Marissa and Maddy met in Kindergarden and have been best buds ever since!


Maddy gave her this cute little best friends hoodie. You buy two jackets and then they have a zipper all the way through them that you can unzip and then switch with a friend so instead of all white or all blue they are zipped together with half of each jacket.
I have never seen these before! So cute! I remember when I was in school all they had were the little necklaces that looked they were broken in half and then could fit back together.























Most of the girls were asleep by about 1am and then were up this morning at about 7:30. Not to bad. Still can''t believe Marissa is 9 though. I say the same thing every year... where does the time go?

NKOTB

Danny, Donnie, Joe, Jordan and Jon ....together again!!!

Here are some of the pictures from last night! I know we are huge dorks but this concert was SO MUCH FUN!!! It was like going back in time! Except this time we were actually old enough to be served alcohol. None of us were drinking, but there were many that were which made for an interesting night. There were grown women flashing their "goods" and someone threw a bra on to the stage which Jordan decided to pick up and fling around. HILARIOUS!! The woman in front of us was so wasted that she fell down through 4 rows of people, hit the wall and was then promptly escorted out by security!! HA HA It was crazy to see that the place was pretty much sold out! (guess we are not the only ones that were so happy to see them back together again) When we walked in and looked around it was like stepping back to 1990. They were selling the huge NKOTB pins with the guys pictures on them. T- shirts, sweatshirts.... and people were actually buying them!! Rachel and I kept saying how crazy that was. I mean for goodness sakes we are 32 years old.. what on earth are we going to do with huge button?? or better yet where we would go that we could actually wear a NKOTB t shirt and not have people laugh at us!!! LOL

I know he was not most girls favorite, but Danny was always my favorite New Kid!! I was totally infatuated with him 17 years ago!! And let me just say that he is STILL my favorite today. He is close to 40 and still has an awesome body and can still break dance like a mad man!!! LOVE HIM!!!!

If they come back around I will definitely be going again.. I'm ok with being a dork!

It's kind of interesting to me that none of these guys have been very successful as solo artists but you put them all back together and they sell out the Wachovia Center!!

My Last 20 Years

I saw this little thing on a blog I came across a while ago and decided to post it on mine.

20 years ago I was 12 and in the 6th grade. Rachel, my life long best friend was already established. She is still my best friend today. We had a sleep over at my house almost every Friday while I babysat my brother and sister! I had big puffy hair and was just starting my journey in to puberty!

15 years ago I was a jr in high school. I cared very litttle about my grades and very much about my social life!! I worked a part time job at Taco Bell and lived for my time spent with friends!!

10 years ago I was 22. Young but still responsible. I had just gotten out of the Air force and was living in Hawaii with my ex husband and Alexis. she was less than 2 years old and I was a stay at home mom!!! Marissa was not even thought of yet!

5 years ago, my divorce from my first marriage was finalized and the girls and I were living in a little apartment near my moms house! I had two crappy paying jobs, but we were all still happy and healthy! I met Ed that summer and had butterflies in my stomach every time I saw him!!

Yesterday I worked all day and then spent the evening with the girls while Ed worked!

Today, I'm married to the sweetest man on earth and we have 3 beautiful girls! I'm off from work today with the kids (they are off for election day) and we are headed out for a movie and maybe some lunch!

Tomorrow I'm reliving old times and going to a NKOTB concert with Rachel!!!


If your reading this, please post your last 20 years on your blog... I would love to see how other peoples lives have twisted and turned!!

Found one

I just remembered that I had a printed copy of one from 2007 hanging on my fridge. I just scanned it in. Look at those sexy legs!!! HA HA I was pregnant last year and had a horrible time finding a costume so I finally decided to get some scrubs and be a plastic surgeon! Hopefully I can get Matt to dig up his pictures from last year!

Everyone always says how much Jillian looks like Ed.. Let's say a little prayer that this is not what we have to look forward to ! LOL

Matt's 5th Annual Costume Party

Saturday night was our friend Matt's 5th annual costume party. As always it was a fun time! It is one of the few times during the year when the whole group is actually together! Seems like everyone is so busy!

Here are a few from past years. I'm missing all of my pictures from last year. Our computer crashed a few months ago and Ed fixed it just long enough to back up all of our pictures, unfortunately for some reason last years Halloween pictures didn't make it. I will have to get Matt to send me a few because it was the best year.. Ed was dressed as a woman.. SO FUNNY!!

2006

2005 (ed was a gorilla, but didn't have the head piece on for this picture!)

2004