Paciholic

My son has decided on his own and with great determination that he likes pacifiers. We gave them to him when he was born and he kind of cared about them but we were never the kind of people who had to know where the paci was at all times and make sure we had one and a spare and a spare for the spare. Now....we are. He found one a few weeks before Thanksgiving and has not given it a rest since. Santa even put 2 brand new ones in his stocking on Christmas morning. The other night, he just couldn't decide which one he wanted more. He's just like his Daddy! (ha)

I've been tagged!

OK, I've been tagged by my friend Tia and this one sounds fun! Who doesn't love to show off pictures!?!? (although its been very difficult to narrow it down to only 5 so I have an honorable mention as well!!!!)

The game is: Your top 5 pics of 2008 and why. Does it bring back a good memory? Do you look smokin' in it? Any pic and any reason works, but you can only choose 5. Sound fun? I hope so. See end of post for taggees.


Here they are in no particular order....

This one I just think looks so adorable and I love the way the coloring is in the background. It was such a perfectly sunny fall day and I was playing around with my new camera. I've had several people even ask if it was professionally taken! So cute!

This picture of Morgan and Emma was actually the first picture that popped in my head as my favorite picture of the whole year. This was on Morgan's first day of school and Emma woke up just in time to see Morgan get on the bus. I was standing out in the road to take a picture of Morgan when Emma ran out and hugged her and kissed her. I didn't even prompt them. I get this out and look at it on the days when they are separated in their rooms for the 14th time for fighting with each other.

This one is my favorite picture from our trip to Valencia, Spain, and our first trip overseas. It was such an exciting trip and a fun time and a neat experience. I missed the kids terribly, but it was worth it. Such an amazing trip.

This one I love for 2 reasons, I love the way Carter and my mom are looking at each other with such love...but I also love it because being on the boat is my Mom's most absolute favorite place to be in the world (maybe 2nd to being on the jetski along side the boat) and for my kids to share that love with my mom is so priceless. (I also grew up on a boat and love it as well....but probably not as much as my mom!)

This one still cracks me up to this day. This was at the dentist's office on Emma's first trip to the dentist back in January. She was less than thrilled to be there. I think the photo speaks for itself.

This one is my favorite because, really....kartwheels on the beach in Florida at sunset? Does it need an explanation?!?!

So there you have it! Such fun! I will now tag Lee, biz, Kristen, and Kari!

Chris again

I sent this to the blog with my cell phone and I couldn't figure out how to get both pictures on one post....so here is the other one!

Chris' New Favorite thing!

Chris has decided his new favorite thing is the Guitar Hero for Wii. I must say it is pretty darn fun, although tonight, I got 6 strikes in a row on Wii bowling! I even beat Clay! YAY! We had a lot of fun at the Arnett's for an awesome dinner (thanks Carey!) and Wii playing! I love having great friends!

My budding musician...

Yesterday, the whole family tagged along when Chris had 2 appointments in Indianapolis. One was with Tim Dawson who was our Paige's Music Representative when we were teaching (Chris' at Triton Central and mine at Waldron) He became a very good friend of ours while we were there and was one of the few people I could honestly vent to about things who would give constructive and caring advice/support. Anyway, he is now a client of Chris' so we went in and said hello and introduced him to the kids. Since we were in the biggest music store in the state, the kids were looking all around. He offered to take them into the orchestral section where there were tons of instruments in. Morgan walked in and said "there is a bass!" and he was really impressed so I said "watch this!" and then asked her what the "smaller ones that looked like a bass" were called and she said "those are the cellos" all matter of factly. Then, she looked up and said "and there are the violins" There were a few violas hanging under the violins and for those of you who don't know, the violin and viola look exactly alike except the viola is just a teeny bit bigger....so just to be funny, I say "ok, smarty pants, what is this one?" and pointed to the viola fully expecting her to tell me it was another violin and she said "I believe that is a viola" *jaw drop* We were all very impressed! Here she is getting to try out the viola that she so accurately named.

After our cultural experience, we headed to dinner at On The Border (have you had their fresh tortillas? YUM!) to meet with Ryan & Erin Siebert and their kids Olivia and Britton who are the exact same ages as Emma and Carter. Ryan went to HS with Chris and they roomed together one year at BSU and they are also clients of Chris' so every time they have their annual review, we all get together for dinner to catch up while they are talking business.

We got home around 7:30 and put the kids to bed. Fun day!

Christmas Day at the other Day's

After Grandma and Grandpa Day's house and Great Grandma O'Leary's house, we headed back to Chris' parents house. Here are Emma, Morgan, and our niece Hannah waiting (very patiently) to open their presents.

Emma's new favorite game!

Carter's new ride

Chick Magnet!

Carter finally sacked out after a very long day and not feeling too great on top of it!

We had a very fun day and enjoyed being with family....I love Christmas!

Christmas Day at the Day's

Our next stop in our Christmas Extravaganza was at Chris' Grandma and Grandpa Days

First, is this picture (taken by Morgan of Chris' Grandma)
I did have a picture here taken by Morgan of Chris' Grandpa who had skin cancer treatments last week but since I can't even look at it without feeling sick to my stomach, I didn't figure anyone else would want to look at it either. It can only be described as his head looked like one of those documentaries you see where the person was stranded in the wilderness for 26 days and had severe frostbite and now their skin is dying and peeling off. We love him and I am not making fun of him at all, but it was BAD. Really, really bad. Shockingly bad. I think I'll put the picture here, but put it behind a cut so you can see it if you want to...but I'm not joking, it will make you feel sick. Again, I am not making fun of him. He is one of the sweetest people on the planet...it was just very, very shocking (and a good reminder to ALWAYS WEAR SUNSCREEN!) and did I mention he sat right next to me at lunch? Not a good combination.

Click here, and don't say I didn't warn you

Wishing you hadn't clicked it aren't you?

Here is Carter enjoying his new toy! A shape sorter barn. He loved it!

I didn't even get any pictures of the girls, I guess. There wasn't too much else happening. A dinner of scalloped potatoes (that Chris' Grandma makes really well!) lunch meat sandwiches, chicken and noodles (That Chris' Mom makes really well) and Carter ate the Day Family Men Traditional Persimmon pudding. (all the Day men like it....except Chris, because he's a Campbell his mother informs me! HA) After we opened gifts, we headed to Grandma O'Learys where we also didn't get any pictures. (I'm slacking) Then we headed to Day's house and that will be in the next post!

Christmas Morning

Morgan came into our room at about 6:40 Christmas morning and told us she'd been up since 4:40. The first thought I had was that she was going to be just delightful by 6:40 PM! We had her go back to her room until 7 and then let her wake up Emma. We let Carter sleep as long as he could though because he didn't really get the whole Santa thing anyway and we had a long day ahead of us. We came downstairs and the girls ripped into their presents!

What little girl doesn't want Santa to bring her a magnetic responsibility chart?!

Emma couldn't believe she had more presents!

Carter woke up and dug right in too! (He had some eye issues from having his sinuses all backed up and hs eyes were really gooky and matted shut when he woke up)

Santa brought Carter TWO pacis in his stocking! He didn't know what to do with them. He'd suck on one and hold the other, then switch, then switch back. It was a riot.

Morgan playing "Monster Bowling" which was actually Carter's. I'm celebrating her strike!

The girls were kind of bummed when everything was done and then suddenly, Morgan remembered their stockings!

Gotta love Dollar Tree for stocking stuffers!

Mommy and Daddy got some nice gifts too, but there are no pictures of those. Oops. :)

10 Things We Love About You book

Here are the pages to the book I made my mom for Christmas from the kids. I asked the girls what things they loved the most about Grandma and used as many of them as they gave me and then had to come up with a few more. Then I tried to find pictures I had that related to those topics. I made the pages on the computer and then I just uploaded the pages to Shutterfly and they shipped me a beautiful book all hard bound. I will do this for every gift giving occasion now, I think!

Christmas Eve at Grandma Swank's

Side note: Is there something I'm missing here? Is there an easier way to upload picture than by doing them one at a time in groups of 5 and then having them show up on here in the wrong order with big spaces between them? Ok vent over..thank you.

On Christmas Eve, Chris had to work in the morning and he got home about 1:30 in time for me to run a few errands and get a few last minute gifts since I'd been sick. Around 5, we headed over to Grandma Swank's to have dinner and open gifts. Here are the girls with Grandma checking out the loot.

The girls' big gift was iPods (well, they were cheap MP3 players but they think they're iPods so....work with me here) They were thrilled.

Taking a little break between opening, dinner, and more opening to play some ball. It looks like it should be one of those "what is wrong with this picture" things you see in Highlights Magazine!

Emma listening to her "iPod"

Carter still trying to get the hang of opening gifts

I got a Crock Pot!! And a Vacuum!!! And I was excited about it! (When I was 16, I would have shot myself thinking that in 16 years I would be excited about getting a Crock Pot and a Vacuum!)

Carter says he's done with taking pictures, thankyouverymuch!

Here is Grandma opening her "10 Things We Love About You" book that we made her on Shutterfly for Christmas. She said it was her favorite Christmas present ever! (I'll post the book too soon)

Carter's new book!
Emma modeling her new umbrella that Morgan got her! (My mom takes each girl shopping each year and lets her buy presents for each other and Chris & I...they get to pick ANYTHING they want and its usually something we'd really like! Very cute!!)

In front of the tree with Grandma Swank!

Our family!

The toy that Morgan bought for Carter

We had a wonderful time (and always do!)