Thursday already??

The boys went to Grammy's again today....

Kris' mom took the boys to their church and they played for a while. What fun!!

Happy Owen! Grammy and her boys!

Well Owen looks messy and Wy man looks a little tired....

I think Grammy is pooped! She had the boys since last night. It makes for a long day. Kris and I enjoyed my work Christmas party last night and I did more of the same today, work, clean, pay bills, run errands...etc! When will life ever slow down?? That may have to be a post in itself....

The boys saw santa!!

Santa visited our favorite coney island last weekend. Wyatt wasn't quite sure what to do with him but he sat on his lap and was a good little boy.

Our boys!Owen was so eager to go sit on Santa's lap and tell him everything he wanted for Christmas.....that kid wants a lot of stuff! Our usual server was the one who set all of this up and was taking the pictures. I think she did a nice job.....what a nice memory for the boys to have!

And just today Owen told me that he no longer likes marbles. He has been crazy about marbles for months now and of course Kris and I got him a huge marble set for one of his gifts. I'm not sure what to do....I'm sure when he sees it all set up he will LOVE it!!

I hope you are all enjoying the joy that the Christmas season brings.....we sure are!

More pierogi

Kris decided that he wanted pierogi for his birthday dinner this year. So we made some today, about 120 to be exact. Just the two of us! We have been together for over 10 years and married for over 7 years and have not once made pierogi together.

We had some leftover dough so Kris decided to make the big mama potato pierogi you see in the pan below.

He said it tasted "awesome".

We are excited to have his family over next week to celebrate his birthday and also to try our amazing homemade pierogi.

I hope they like it as much as we do.......

Cookie Day 2011

We had our third annual cookie making day today. We were eager and very efficient and finished in almost no time at all......I'm sure Kris' mom was beat though as she had made all the dough this morning so we really just had to bake and decorate.

Here is Wyatt eating every Hershey Kiss he could get his hands on. If you look closely he actually has a wrapper hanging off of his upper lip. Silly boy! Look at my concentration while decorating! Wow!

Owen rolling some dough. Wy man partaking in some delicious cookies! He was only really interested in licking the frosting off of the cookie! Smart boy.....

Yummy!

We made about half of the cookies we made last year and it still seemed like a TON of cookies. I'm sure we will enjoy them for a while.

Traditions are fun! Every family should have their own. Cookie day will certainly be a tradition that we will look forward to for years to come! It prepares us for the Christmas season and reminds us what Christmas is all about!

We would no longer win an episode on TLC's Hoarding, Buried Alive

For months, and I mean months, our basement would have made us a very good candidate for TLC's Hoarding, Buried Alive......

I'm not proud of this fact and we probably could have used the help from an organizational expert. But I'm pleased to say that I tackled this project yesterday and moved all of these bags to the salvation army. It is a little bittersweet though.....probably half of the stuff was all baby related. Baby clothes, burp cloths, rattles, baby toys, changing pads, soft baby blankets....and the list goes on. It saddens me because I'm not sure if we will have anymore children, and I so desperately want to have a girl. Finally taking all of these bags to the salvation army, to be donated to much more needy families than our own, means no more baby talk for a while.

We have two adorable boys and I know I am blessed beyond belief....so this chapter has to close and we have to move on. In the coming years prayerfully I can have my health restored and we can start talking about having children again at that time, but for now I must be content with my family of four. A perfect family of four. A blessed family of four. Two boys that make me crazy insane and yet they are my boys! My boys who I love beyond belief. I am forever grateful and I thank God everyday for gifting them to me!

So- here are the after pictures of my hard work and determination of a clutter free home. I will no longer be embarrassed to have people over to our house! In fact I just may say, let's have the kids play in the basement today!

I must say Wyatt sure does look exactly like my cousin's youngest kid in this picture....a Campbell?? Maybe!

Kris set up three different train track sets today for them.....they were having a blast. When Owen first saw the basement all cleaned up this morning he said, "wow mom, this looks awesome! Good for you!" I can always count on Owen to lift my exhausted spirits and was relieved to know that my efforts were appreciated!

So now there is talk of painting and new carpet and a new drop ceiling......maybe even a new TV for Wii games......

It was totally worth all of the work. Thanks to my mom for helping me take everything to the salvation army.

We really are truly blessed with all that we have. I'm excited to have a play area back for the boys and who knows maybe I will be posting before and after pictures of a remodel soon!!

Advent season has begun....want some chocolate?

A conversation that took place just a few minutes ago....

Me: "Hey Owen, if you eat your lunch I'll give you a piece of chocolate from your advent calendar that Grammy gave you."

Owen: "I don't like that chocolate."

Me: "Why not?"

Owen: "Cause it tastes like poop!"

Me: "How do you know what poop tastes like?"

Owen "Because I ate that chocolate yesterday!"

Okay Owen, you win! How can you keep a straight face during a conversation like that?!

Thankfully I bought them an advent calender the other day too so I will see if he is more satisfied with the chocolate in that one....

Greenfield Village Dec 2011

Grammy and Grampy took the boys to Greenfield Village today.

The boys had a lot of fun looking at all of the trains. Apparently Wyatt made a new friend! Owen in one of the trains.

Wyatt and Grammy

While the boys were gone I cleaned out the basement and took about 20 bags filled with stuff to the salvation army. I had such a productive day and surprised Kris with a clean basement.

Now of course I want to paint and get new carpet down there!!