I'M HAVING ANOTHER NIECE!!

That makes 7 nieces an no nephews. Apparently our siblings are not equipped to make boys. Another princess for me to spoil!!


Myspace Princess Diva Graphics

In case you didn't get your fill of Hughie cutness . . .

Christmas Memories

We had a wonderful week full of family, gifts and lots of food. I'm sure my thighs will be paying for it for the months to come! However, it was great to see all of our family and friends. The kids are having a blast with all of their new gifts and I spent the day today doing absolutely NOTHING productive. I'm thoroughly exhausted and looking forward to having nothing to do in the coming months! And for the record I SWEAR that next year my children will wake up at HOME with presents resting under a real, live tree. I"m not sure how long I can pull off that, "Santa dropped off presents early at Mimi's for you."

As great as Christmas was this year, without my Mom-mom for time in 33 years, it wasn't the same. I have a feeling that it will be quite some time before the hole in my heart heals.

Here are some photos from the past week:

Checking out the trains and lights at Dutch Wonderland:


Making cookies with Mimi:



Keeping Pop company:




Santa and toys!




Hughie loves Maya:



Uncle Bill is 50!




Other stuff:

bakeeball

Here's a little clip of the first time I got Hughie to say "basketball" on video. He'd said it for the first time just minutes earlier! You have to pause my playlist and listen carefully or you'll miss it.

Memories . . .

Here is a photo slide show I made for Mom-mom's funeral. The quality seems to really stink on here, but you get the idea! It has music that was funeral appropriate, but I would prefer if you would turn that music off and let Natalie Merchant sing the background music (first song on my playlist).

In Loving Memory

Ruby Lee Seymour "Mom-mom" - my grandmother.

December 9, 1921 - December 12, 2008

She was, hands down, the best person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Well miss you, Mom-mom, until we meet again . . .

Family Photo

Here is a family photo that we had taken at my Mom's house. Can you believe I actually got a photo with BOTH of my children smiling at the same time? It's the first time that's happened in the last five professional photo shoots we've done.

Crayons, Cookies, Kisses and Dips

Tonight Mandi and I went to the kids' Christmas Program. Well, not so much of a program as the barely organized chaos of some 40 odd preschoolers. This year's theme was the "Colors of Christmas." Each kid had a giant crayola crayon and a line corresponding to the color of their crayon. Georgia's line was "Aqua was the blanket that kept him warm." Doesn't Georgia look grown up???? My baby! And Riley (Georgia's bff) was a total ham, as usual.






After the program the kids enjoyed cookies and juice and Hughie attempted to hiss his sweetheart McKenna. She was relatively receptive. Becky got it on video so we can use it as the intro for their wedding video!








Tonight F&M won their fifth game against Johns Hopkins. They are now 5-0, GO DIPS!!! (The F&M mascot is the Diplomat.)

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday visiting with both families. We hit Bellefonte first and I thought that I would earn some in-law points and take up a dozen Maple Donuts. YUM. So, I take Hughie and we carefully pick out 13 donuts and have them packaged up. I get out to the car, put the donuts on the roof of the car, put my coffee in the cup holder, put Hughie in his seat and settle in for the rest of my road trip. If you're doing the math there, you will realize that I never put the donuts in the car. They are somwhere on route 83 feeding a family of hungry deer. The worst part was that I didn't even realize that I had FORGOTTEN to put the donuts in the car until about an hour later. I'm telling Chris about all my delicious selections and it hits me that the box is not in the car. Sorry, Erin!!!

At Mimi's house we ate Thanksgiving dinner with most of the F&M basketball team. They had to practice on Thanksgiving this year, so some of them missed their family feasts. Not to worry says Roxie, I can cook for 15 hungry college boys (averaging about 6'3"). And she did. We had fun painting Christmas ornaments and decorating gingerbread cookies. I have so much for which to be thankful.