First week of March

Now that it is March, I'm starting to plan Ethan's birthday party. He will be 5!

I just invite our immediate family, we are all local except for T's brother. We're having it on his actual birthday next Wed. He chose Spongebob theme for this year.

I just made up these invitations and emailed them out tonight.

I have made up a photo incorporation of him with the invitation every year from year 2.

Not sure if I am making his cake yet. It would be fun to design a spongebob cake, but I don't think I have the skills or time for it to look realistic. I'm going to check with a bakery by my work to see if they design them better than the grocery store book one where they just add the characters to the top of a sheet cake.

I want to make my choc. chip star cookie suckers for his school treat and some cupcake cones to take to Mrs. F's daycare. I have never made those before & always wanted to. I found some good tips online already. How cute are these?

I actually haven't watched tv tonight. I've been online working on Ethan's party stuff. Still need to watch Days.

I did tivo our fav Monday night show, Jon & Kate plus 8.

Ethan loves to watch that show now, too! I don't know what it is about that family, but I enjoy watching them. They are completely different to our family in so many ways. I cringe at the ways that she talks to her husband though. T would so not tolerate half of what she tells her dh to do. So different.

Weekend recap:

Friday night - went out to dinner at Northwoods. Love that place & I loved that there wasn't a wait! When I came home from work T was already home. I decided to write down 3 restaurant options and let Ethan draw one out of a bowl. He seemed excited about it, too. Well, would have worked fine until E had to input a choice of his own....Ponderosa. Now I do enjoy Pondo for breakfast buffet, but just not in mood for dinner there then. I did put his choice on the slip of paper. Other choices were... Moe's, Jalapenos, Northwoods. T made a face at 3 of the 4 and I was actually wanting Northwoods the most, also!

As E was drawing the 'winner' I was telling T that you know what is going to happen right? As he was drawing he was asking me "which one is Pondo?" Amazingly enough, yes, he drew Ponderosa. Well, luckily he still can't read and I just grabbed it and laughed and said "Northwoods". So my 'fun drawing game' was anything but random.

I made T take a pic of us. I had the yummy pork roast with stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy and their spicy green beans. Ethan ate all of him mini corndogs.

After that we checked out the puppies at Alsips, which is always fun. They had a corgi. E just went up to one of the girls and asked if he could play with one. I guess he remembered doing that before with us. They got out the corgi for us. Cute little guy.

Saturday was so nice since I had time to shop by myself. I went to thrift store-for half off Sat. and found some soccer shorts for E & M, too. Then I went out to Old Navy to get these cool madras shorts for E & some flip flops (2 for $5) They were sold out online in every style in his size! So happy they had plenty at the store. I'm going to wrap it up for his birthday, though. Won't he be thrilled? He'll think the flip flops are cool, at least.

I didn't realize but there was a TJ Maxx a couple stores away, so I had to check it out. It was a nicer one than in Merr. I've been looking for nice leather magazine holders for my new bookcase. I found 2 olive green textured leather ones, $10 ea. They fit nicely, too!

E spent the night at T's parents on Sat. night, but was gone for 24 hrs. His bottom tooth was loose when his dad picked him up on Sat. so we told them to watch out that he doesn't swallow it again. When they dropped him off on Sunday he brought in a baggie with a tooth! C was checking how loose it was and wiggled it forward and it fell right out. He was happy, as I was, that we had the tooth this time to put in his little pillow for the tooth fairy.

Boys won their sectional tonight! T is so happy. He brought home part of the net. They haven't won the sectional in 10 years! 1998- before we were married, sorry to say I don't really recall that happening. He made a bet that if they won the sectional he would wear a tie to the next game, now he wishes he didn't make that bet! He'll look nice though.

Wed. - Ethan has wacky clothes day at preschool. I know exactly what his ensemble will be.

Nephew's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday, Matthew!



Yesterday was Matthew's 5th birthday. E & I went to their house for his party. T had to work, so didn't get out there in time.

He had a Superman themed party this year.
He opened presents...

We got him LiteBrite, Doodle Doug, a baseball long sleeved tee, green plaid button down shirt and matching green pants.

We sang to him and he blew out his 5 candles...well kind of.
Trying to blow out all the candles...click to watch video...

Then we had cake!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you are having a nice Valentine's Day!

T is sick...no card from him yet.

I made heart shaped chocolate chip cookies last night.

I got Ethan...
-a cute little black doggy holding a sparkly heart (Dollar Store & he loves it),
-rev-up car that is magnetic and has a loop track so it goes upside-down - plus on the refridgerator!
-little Whitman's Snoopy heart box of chocolates
-Marshmellow & choc. heart
-Reese's heart
-a cool Spongebob Valentine card

For T- a card, 2 Reese's hearts, Snickers heart

We don't do much for V-Day. Trent is sick right now, too. He always is busy at work. I hate the crowds at the restaurants anyway.

I'll give the cousins a heart cookie tomorrow. I decorated some with icing, too.
2 weeks until my nephew's birthday. I need to get ideas for him. He will be 5, just 12 days before E.

I took one of those fun quizzes for today, too...

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

OMG! Just saw this on Ross Blog. Look who got to meet & interview!

He loves House Hunters as much as I do! So funny that she is really different in person & I didn't know she did stand up, wow!

So, Trent surprised me at work with a flower delivery on Friday. Check out my pretty flower arrangement. He always gets me an assortment of my favorite colors, I don't really have a fav flower. They did an awesome job this time, too!

He lost his first tooth!

Well, it happened today! Ethan lost his first tooth. I can't believe it!

T called me at work and said he was putting on Ethan's coat and he started crying. He was telling him that his tooth fell out while he was eating his sandwich and he swallowed it.

Yes, he swallowed his tooth! He was so upset, too! Over the weekend I had explained to him when he loses a tooth we will leave it for the tooth fairy and she will leave you money.

Well, I think he thought he didn't have the tooth so he wouldn't get the money. T said he was really emotional about it. But oddly, he didn't tell him right when it happened when he was eating. T thought he was probably scared to tell him because he kept asking him if he could just pull it out so he doesn't swallow it when he is eating.

Well, I won't go into that T actually thought I would want to keep the first tooth...yeah, actually sift through poo? I will admit I am a memoribilia freak, but not to that extent.

I talked to Ethan in the car about swallowing it to help him calm down. I told him we could take a picture of his mouth with the empty space and print it out to show the tooth fairy. This went over beautifully with him, quick thinking on my end.

I left this one in the little tooth pillow...

what is the going rate now?

Watched the new Big Brother tonight, Biggest Loser & Westminster from last night. We will tivo the finals tomorrow and watch it later. I just had to quickly change the channel on the news because they were starting to say the winner.

Ethan signed all 15 of his Valentines for his class, so they are all ready for school tomorrow. We got Spongebob ones this year and they fold up into a little box and included a little bag of yogurt raisins.

I really decorated a lot for Valentine's Day this year. I love the new light-up heart from Walgreens for the front window. E loves finding other houses that have the same one. Ok, I do, too. Love decorating in my apothecary jars, it just fun & festive.

I need to mail out Valentine's to Grandparents tomorrow. Hope they get them on Thursday!

Ethan has a loose tooth!

I'm not ready for this milestone. Ethan has a loose tooth. Its on the bottom and it is pretty loose.

I'm not ready for this yet. It actually makes me sad. Like really sad. Is that bad?

I know I will cry when it falls out. I don't want to scare him, I'm sure he will freak out with any blood. Where did my baby boy go?

Don't kids lose teeth in kindergarten & 1st grade? He isn't 5 yet! He will be in a month, though.

I catch him playing with it and can see it is pretty loose. He is worried about eating certain foods now. He noticed it was loose when he was eating an apple at my sister's on Friday. She checked it and thought it was loose & told me. A lost her first tooth when she was 5, but I think she was in kindergarten.I can't believe my baby is growing up. It's too fast!

We went bowling today with Swans. It was so fun! We played 2 games and remembered the coupons this time. It was Elliot's first time bowling and he did super! He is 2.5 yrs now.

We even went out to dinner together. The boys really like each other. Elliot's that age that he copies everything E does. So cute. We sat together at the game on Thursday, too. I got my 1 game in this year.

It is supposed to be a high of 4 degrees here tomorrow. I'm feeling it already. I'm not leaving the house tomorrow.

I ordered a tall bookcase for our livingroom. My mom has one similar. I like Sauder brand stuff.

It was so cheap at Walmart, too. I ordered online, so shipping directly to me. Even with shipping it is cheaper than Lowes, Menards or Kmart price of the same bookcase. It won't ship out for another week.

Need to get major cleaning/organizing done tomorrow. I hope T helps me.

Crazy weather here

Last night was so scary foggy. It was foggy during the day and the drive home got scary for me.
I was following people in rush hour so wasn't that bad, I couldn't see any buildings on the either side of the road.
When I turned off the main road to get E at Mrs. F it was a country road with no street lights for about 1/2 mile. It was so scary because I wasn't following anyone and no one was coming. It seemed like it was a white out blizzard. It was definitely the worst fog I have ever driven in.
I was so happy to make it home safely.
T even came home like 2 min after us. He went to play poker, but he said it got worse and couldn't see the lights until he was right on them.
WE are supposed to get 4-6 inches tonight. It hasn't started snowing yet though. It has been drizzling rain most of the day. I hope it isn't messy in the morning. Wed. are my busy day at work so I can't miss it with those deadlines. I hope it doesn't get too bad. We had about 6 inches on Friday and they called off school. I went in around 11am, after T snowblowed 4 driveways.
I watched Biggest Loser tonight. This is the first season I have pretty much watched every episode, oh I didn't see the first epis. I'm liking it.
American Idol-just watched the first 15 min, but it is tivoed.
Watched Days, which is getting kinda good. I predicted Colleen right and she being John's mother.
E has a pajama party at school tomorrow. He wants to wear his Spiderman pjs. I hope he is warm enough in them. He is excited he gets to bring slippers and his blanket & Edgar.
I'll need to take a pic of him.

Lesson Learned with a 4 yr old

Look what Ethan learned to do...

One day I added that Hi-5 cd set to my 'watch' list, when I was playing with Ethan. He wanted to see the Hi-5 stuff offered on Ebay. Well, that auction had ended a while ago. I had the window open and was buying something for my mom. I left it open, but he was playing a game on another window. Luckily I checked my email later that night and noticed I bid on this??

I think the max offer is funny and it would never have gotten that high. Obviously, he doesn't understand decimals and just entered the exact amount "1190". I have no idea how he knew to even enter anything. I was so relieved that I was able to retract it, though. The seller was from Malaysia, too!!

Christmas at my parent's house

Just made this photo collage from Christmas at my parent's house. They just moved this summer to a new house, so I wanted to take pics of the new rooms all decorated for Christmas.
I think my mom did I really nice job, didn't she?

Ethan said some funny things during Christmas. I love how he totally believes in Santa. At T's parents when he was opening up a gift from Uncle D, he was so surprised by it. He said, "How did you know I wanted this?" We just said he must have talked to Santa. HE said the same things to my mom and my sister, too! Just amazed that Santa must have been to their house for him!

I'll be missing using "Santa's watching" line when he starts acting up. He would get really upset when we would say you aren't being nice and Santa might not bring you what you asked for. I even told him the hall light was a Santa cam and he is watching your behavior.

Ethan had told us a week before Christmas that we have to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas. How sweet! I'm assuming he was told that at preschool. Well, we started opening stockings and realized we did not sing it yet. I can't remember if I remembered or Ethan. Well, I let him hold the baby Jesus from our nativity set and we sang Happy Birthday. He was so happy, which made me so happy. So nice that a 4 yr old would pause in the middle of opening gifts to sing to Jesus. Amazing. He is such a blessing to me.

Here he is opening stockings...

Christmas Eve at T's parents...

At my parent's house on Christmas, amazed that he got the LightSketcher...

Christmas Tour

I decided to be included in BooMama's Christmas Tour. It has been so fun to see everyone's decorations. Here is our holiday house...

Our Gold & Silver tree...I love it so much. I added 2 sets of twinkling lights this year, so just a few lights blink, at various speeds. T calls it a disco tree now.Some of my fav ornaments. I have the silver mirrored bell spinning on one of those rotating hangers. Love that!

My nativity set is Fontanini, a gift from my inlaws over a couple of years. I love it so much. It is the perfect size and I love the creche.

We had to get new stockings this year due to the old ones smelling too musty from the leak in our downstairs.My snowmen collection display...

Nothing says Christmas like an animated Santa & Mrs. Claus...I love them. Mrs. Claus doesn't move as fluidly as Santa now though...Our small kitchen doesn't have a lot of decorations...basically the window areaLooking downstairs...

Downstairs bathroom with my collection of Santa mugs...odd place to display them, but I like it.

I added a 4 ft tree downstairs this year. I just made it really colorful and fun.

Our dog, Ashton by tree.

E has 2 Rudolph's now. This was the first one, he had to have. It doesn't play the song or light up anymore. His grandparents got him the one from Build A Bear, too. He named it Reindeer Reindeer.

I still have to take pics of upstairs bath that is purple/green/gold, plus E's room and our entertainment center area.

Thanks for all the awesome links to everyone's decorations, BooMama!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Big snowfall Sunday, Dec. 16

I think we go about 10 inches at least. T plowed our driveway out early Sunday, then did 3 more driveways.
The snow was really coming down at 1am, when I was going to bed. It was really blowing alot. We even got snow on our covered front porch. Doesn't it look nice on my lit fake topiary tree?

Santa E

He did this on his own in the tub last week. He actually said "Who am I, Mommy?"
I added the hat & had to take a pic.
The more I look at it, it looks like a real beard and kind of creeps me out.

Snow Angels

We had our first real snowfall on Saturday. Ethan wanted to put on his boots and go outside immediately. I told him he didn't need his boots, it was just little flurries. I was going to help T with lights outside.
Well, E just spontaneously decides to make snow angels in our driveway. So cute and I'm glad I got it on video.


It got pretty icy out later, too. You can hear the snow/ice falling.
T put up the lights and it was snowing the whole time!
We tried to rake up leaves some on Sunday. Then it suddenly downpoured on us!