Neighbor Baby

One of my neighbors and friends had a baby last Thursday.  I had the privilege of taking some pictures of him today.  It was a fairly informal photo shoot, but we got some really sweet pictures.  He weighed in at 9 lbs 14 oz, and oh my, he is such a doll!!  I so enjoyed having an excuse to cuddle him! :)

Without further adieu, little BR:

Birthday No. 14

Sweet G had a sweet party this year.  It was a pajama party (not to be confused with a sleep-over), so everyone came in pj's.  They watched a movie, had pizza and snacks, and played a charades game.  She opened her gifts, had cupcakes and then played Just Dance until everyone was picked up.  It was super fun!  A great group of girls made it fun for mom as well.  :)  Happy Bday, Sweet G!!!  Love ya!

She was very gracious and made all her friends feel very welcome and happy to be here.

Such a dazzling smile and cute jammie pants, too.  :)

Showing off her flexibility and awesome light-up necklace.  Yes, she gets it from her mother.  ;)

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Yes, this post is a little late.  I haven't been posting much at all these days because my camera won't download and it just takes away my blogging spirit to not have pictures.  Well, I got a card reader yesterday so I can now get the pics off my camera!!!  Hallelujah!
I already posted a Christmas collage with pics off of Teeny Bopper's camera, but I took some of the family decorating the tree that I think are fun.  Good memories!  I love my family.

Digging into the bin to get just the right ornament to hang:

The girls in their jammies decorating with delight:

Tailgunner's pants are about to fall off, and you can see DH off to the side finding just the right Christmas tunes to play.

It was so cute to see Tail Gunner so into the tree this year.

HA!  I can't remember what was going on in this picture, but Teeny Bopper is obviously saying something incredulous to Blondie and Little Miss.  Sweet G is oblivious to all but the serious business of decorating that tree.  :)

 Candy canes were a big hit this year, real and fake.

Little Miss had the honor of putting the star on the tree top this year.  She was the easiest one to lift up to do the job.  :)

A night shot of the tree on Christmas Eve, all ready for Christmas!

Holiday of Love

We have a bone of contention around here.  February 14 to me is Valentine's Day, or as Nie Nie says, "Lover's Holiday".  To my DH this day is Statehood Day.  Of course, he knows he would be in major big trouble if he ever just blew it off and didn't do anything romantic or lovey on the 14th, so he willingly obliges in that area.  All day I say "Happy Valentines Day!" and he says "Happy Statehood day!".  Now, we've been married long enough that I think it's cute and usually by the end of the day he gives me a "...and Happy Valentine's Day, too."  I am cool with that, it's who he is.  :)  Just like he's cool with how I am.
To start the day I made heart shaped pancakes.  Dinner was a lasagna, garlic bread, and salad meal.  Yum!

Here is my gift from DH this year.  I LOVE it!  It's a perfect illustration of US-

Awesome.
And to go along with this, he gave me a letter of "100 things I love about Sally".  Melt. My. Heart.  He is the cutest, sweetest husband I've ever had.  :)  I LOVE that man!!!  (apparently he loves me too!  Yessss!)

My gift to him was a version of this:  (if my kids are reading this, don't follow this link until you are older.) :)

The Game of Love.  It was proclaimed the best Valentine's gift EVER.  (yes, he actually said Valentine's day!)  And, it's re-usable!  I did mine a little differently than shown above.  Instead of drawing the shapes on a sheet, I got a polka dotted sheet from Wally World and just made squares by connecting the dots.  Super awesome!!!

It was a wonderful Lover's Holiday.  We are looking forward to next year.  :)

Little Niece-y Poo

I had the privilege of taking some 1 year old pictures of my cute, adorable, sweet little niece E this weekend.  Oh  my, she is positively delicious!!  She is such a happy little thing-loves everyone, crawling like crazy, walking a bit as well, down-right baby heaven!!!
Here are a few favs:

See what I mean??  Serious adorable-ness.  Her happiness is contagious!  You can't help but smile when she give you such good smiles.
Her mommy brought a cake in hopes of getting some good shots of her diving into it and making a big cake-y mess, but she didn't want much to do with it.  No, the streamers were MUCH more entertaining.

She tested a finger or two in the frosting, but finally mama pulled off a chunk and fed it to her.

She ate that piece, but didn't go back for more.  Big brother got in the scene to try and help her out.  So cute together!  You can tell by her face that she is not wanting that cake on her lap anymore!  LOL

Living without

There are some things I would NOT want to live without.  Things like my dishwasher, indoor plumbing, washer and dryer, piano.  There are some things we have discovered lately that we CAN live without, and I am enjoying it very much.  This would include TV, mindless internet use, ipods and microwave.  The first few things were on purpose.  Both DH and I had the same impressions a couple weeks ago.  Upon discussing it, we had a family counsel (not to be confused with family "cancel" as the little ones say, HA!) and decided to have a month of detox from things we feel are hurting us as individuals and as a family.  So...no ipods, no Facebook or blog surfing, etc.  No TV-even on weekends for any of us.  No movies, even.  No video games, except for Just Dance because it is a fun family activity where we are interacting and not just sitting there.  And basically only using technology as a tool when we need to, not just for wasting time.
It has been tough!  But, I am feeling so much better!  I admit that today I checked a couple of friend's blogs, but other than that we have stuck to it.  I am so happy not seeing Teeny Bopper with her ipod on 24/7.  I know that is a tough one for her, but she is doing very well.  I have especially been happy that Dr. Destructo hasn't been on the TV or Wii.  He is addicted, and at his age I am aware that it is my fault.  Well, I have taken matters into my own tentacles and turned it OFF.  He is doing great!  I love it, too.  There have been a couple of times that I have wanted to turn on the TV just to get some "space" and clean or do something without interruption.  But instead of turning on the "babysitter", I have sent the kids outside or pulled out the playdoh or dug into the toy box for a long lost toy to keep them occupied instead.
At the end of the month, we are going to reconvene our counsel, and discuss how we have felt and establish some limits for re-introducing these things back into our lives.  As for the TV, I am voting for one movie on the weekend and that's it.  IF we have something we really want to watch.  I guess we'll see what happens...
As for the microwave, that wasn't planned.  It quit working.  But knowing how unhealthy they are, I am actually kind of happy to be forced into not using it.  There have been 2 times in the past week that it would have been really convenient, but we used the stove instead and took 5 min instead of 30 seconds.  Totally worth the extra 4 min and 30 sec to feel better about our food.  :)