Little Blue Box & too many toys!!!

Well today was very exciting for us... it was Reesie's first Christmas!! :) It was so cute watching her with all her presents!! I think she was very over whelmed! Brian got a new watch & clothes and some movies and small other small stuff...and I got my little blue box!!!:) Brian was very sneaky how he gave it to me..he wrapped it in a cricut jukebox box!! (a box his mom gave to him). I was so excited..in the box was my charm bracelet I have been wanting! The bracelet was from Reesie..so in graved on the heart charm was the word "MOM".. I can't wait to start adding more charms to it!! I also got the cricut expression (get ready Cindy to help me with it) and a G.C to Victory Secert!! Reesie got toys and toys and more toys and also some pretty outfits!! Sanders & Brutus and new bones,ball and a new baby! This was a great first Christmas with our little Family!! Then this evening we went to Beth's house for dinner... Mike & Julie and the girls got in town around 7:30p! We had a good time..it is always so cute to see Reese with Ana and Olivia..they have a good time playing together!! Tomorrow we are going over to The Hoover's (Brian parents house) for Christmas with them..we have to be there at 9:30a. Then hopefully around 2:00p we are going to leave to go to N.C to be with my family for the holidays..BUT..today we notice on the truck that we have this nice size crack in the window shield and we need to get it fix before we drive to N.C!! So hopefully we can get it done sometime in the morning or early afternoon..but if it looks like it going to be later in the day when it can be fixed we are going to leave at 6am on Saturday morning!! So lets keep our fingers crossed it gets done early tomorrow! I hope all of you had a great Christmas!!

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas..hope you all have a wonderful one!!

Can't believe it ...

I can't believe the Christmas Eve is tomorrow...I still have some things I need to do! But at this point if they don't get done then they just don't get done! I do this every year..wait to the last minute to do somethings and run out of time..you would think I would learn!! Oh well there is always next year!! note to self: be more prepared & allow more time for special projects!!

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cookies,cookies,cookies!!

Well this passed Saturday Jerry and I decided to make Christmas cookies..this has become a tradition with us for about the last 5 years..and in the last 5 years we have only screwed up 1 batch of cookies..until NOW!!! We decided to try out some new recipes... so we made all this dough..sugar, lemon and ginger bread...we doubled the recipe so we could split the cookies up. All the dough had to be refrigerated for a couple of hours...oh I forgot to mention that I got a new "Kitchen Aid Mixer" for an early Christmas present from my parents & Vivian (it is wonderful).. so with my new mixer we were flying through making the dough..we made sure all the ingredients were measured out right and put in..but something went terribly WRONG!! When it was time to roll out the lemon dough it was all crumbly and flaky!! So we thought.. OK we will just throw this in the trash..and try to make it again..we weren't sure what we had done wrong. So we decided to work on the sugar cookies..and wouldn't ya know the same thing had happen to this dough..so it ended up in the trash too!! At this point it had been about 4 hours since we had started making cookies...and all we had to show for it was 2 things of dough in the trash...I was so frustrated!!:( So we pulled out the gingerbread and crossed our fingers...FINALLY this dough was perfect!! So after 6 hours we had gingerbread man cookies...we decided to call it quits for the day and get together on Monday (we were both off work) and re-try making the other doughs again! So on Monday we were bound and determined to get these doughs right!! Well something we found out that we should not have used the first time was Crisco cooking sticks instead of butter...big NO NO in making cut out cookies. This time we used butter.... it was a success.. the cookies were awesome!! Then we try out these 2 other new cookie recipes..Brown sugar butter cookies & Cherry tea cookies! They turned out great..so now our confidence is re-stored in baking!! Thank God!!! We ran out of time on Monday so we got together on Tuesday after work and finished up on all the baking...and now on Thursday we are going to decorate the cut outs...what a job this has become!! I will post the finish decorated cookies and pics on Thursday!!

Christmas Card!!

So we decided to take our family photo for our Christmas cards...well after it seems like 100 tries.. this is the best picture we got!! Its not bad but I wish that little miss Reese would have smiled. She probably would have if we had someone take the picture for us..we had to set the timer and do it ourselves. But of course right after we were done she was full of smiles..she is such a little stinker..oh well better lucky next year!! I have decided this year not to make my Christmas cards..this is probably the first time in about 10 years I haven't made them. I just don't have the time right now..so maybe next year!!

more pics from Girls Night Out!!

Girls Night Out!!

Wednesday night was girls night out!! There were 8 of us girls going to see the Rockette's but first we went to dinner at this place called Boston's..they are known for their pizza and I have to agree...very good pizza. Then it was time for the show! The Rockette's were amazing to see live..I have seen them in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade every year but to see them live...wow!! The show was great..Santa was the narrator. The Rockette's had many dress changes..their costumes were so beautiful! I really don't have a fav..because I loved all of it!! I would diffidently recommend to see the show if you haven't seen it before or if you have. see it again...I know I will!!

Reesie loves her Barbie tree!!


Reesie was mommy's little helper wrapping gifts!!

where have I been?!?..you are wondering

OK so I know it has been a very long time since I have blogged but I have been very very busy!! First of all my parents were here for a little over two weeks...we had a great time with them!!:) Reese loved spending time with Grandma & Grandpa..I am glad they were able to spend that time with Reese..I think it is very important!! On Thanksgiving we went to Brian's parents house & my parents went to Vivian's son's house..(Brian & I are very good about rotating Thanksgiving with the Families). We had a good time with the Hoover's..Mike & Julie and the girls came in town... and Beth & Ryan & Grandma Hoover and Grandpa White were there. We played Wii.. it was a lot of fun. The food was wonderful..turkey was nice and juicy!! I was suppose to bring a app and pumpkin pies..everybody said they were delicious.
Then the next day was "SHOPPING DAY"!! My Mom & I go out together and shop & have lunch..it is something we have done together for about the last 18 years..wow where does time go!! We had a lot of fun together..we got a lot accomplished (mostly for Reese) :)
Then later that night we meant Donna & Gary & Cindy & Don over at D&B for dinner and games..OH GOSH..I almost forgot to included my brother ( he came in the Tuesday before Thanksgiving & left Saturday after Thanksgiving). We had a lot of fun that night.
For the rest of the time my parents were here we kept pretty busy..visiting family & friends. It was nice because when Brian and I had to work my parents watched Reese. We also put up the Christmas trees (we have our big tree in the living room and the other is a Barbie tree in Reesie's room..I have been collecting Barbie ornaments since 1983) and decorated the rest of the house for Christmas. We had a very nice long visit with them..we will see them the day after Christmas..we are going down to their house for a little over a week to have Christmas with them!:)

My Parents are coming in town and crawling!!

Today I am cleaning the house and getting ready for my parents visit!! They are coming in town tomorrow sometime (not sure yet what time they will be getting here)..we are very excited though!! They will be here until December 1st..so it will be a nice long visit!
On a different note: Reesie is starting to crawl..she still does the army crawl but not has much! She is also saying Mama now..it is so cute..she has been saying Dada for awhile. She is growing up way to fast..I can't believe it!! Oh also another new thing she is doing is pulling herself up on things..she loves to hold onto our ottoman and play with her toys on it..it seems like something new everyday anymore!!

SNOWING!!

I woke up this morning to find snow on the ground and I have to say I was excited!! I love this time of year..its hard to believe that Thanksgiving is a week away and Christmas is around the corner!! I can't wait because it is Reesie's first Thanksgiving & Christmas! So at breakfast this morning I put on some Christmas music why we ate and Reese was dancing to it in her highchair it was so cute!! After breakfast I decided to get all my Christmas projects together that I need to work on. Lets just say I have a few to do (A lot!!) so I need to get cracking on them so they will be done before Christmas. Wish me luck!! :)

TOUGH TIMES!!

I can't believe how tough things are getting in the economy..I know things have been getting bad for sometime...but now its hit HOME!! This past Wednesday I was at work when I got a text from my brother saying "Dad just lost his job"...I immediately got sick to my stomach!! See.. now both of my parents have lost their jobs do to the economy...it sucks (no other word describes it)! My Mom has been without a job for about a year and half now..she has been trying like crazy to find something but is having trouble finding work..and now my Dad!! My Dad worked for MI Homes..and we were worried for him because the housing market sucks right now!! My parents moved to North Carolina because of my Dad's job..Columbus housing market started to go down about three years ago..so MI relocated my Dad to N.C...and NOW he has lost his job down there!! So I called my parents to get the full story & to see if they were ok! When my Mom answered the phone the only thing I could do was cry...so of course I made my mom cry..I asked if they were ok..and Mom said yes!! Then she put Dad on the phone and I start crying more...Dad told that everything was going to be ok..that he got a nice severance package! He said it was very hard on his boss to let him go and if things start picking up that my Dad will be the first person they call back! So lets hope that happens soon!!

Chinese,Bird Place &Crawling!!

Chinese: On Friday we were in the mood for Chinese..so we went to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants..Joey Changs. It's located in Mill Run..they have really good food at a reasonable price! Reesie had her first taste of it and love it!! She was so in ahh with our waitress...she is the same waitress we get every time we are there and what is really bad is that we don't know her name..we refer to her has "The Buckeye Lady". She loves the Buckeyes.... it is all she talks about..she is so cute!

Bird Place: On Saturday night we went to dinner with Cindy & Don and Zach (I think Mason was either with Barb or his Grandpa) we went to the "Bird Place"..for those of you that have no idea what the "Bird Place " is...it's "Red Robin". My Mom calls it that..she for got the name of it but she remembered that it is was named after a bird..so it has stuck with us and now we call it the "Bird Place." We had a really good time with the Daylong's..after dinner we all stopped at Kohl's..Cindy wanted to get new pillows..then we came back to our house and we had some of my delicious hot chocolate...I have a hot chocolate maker..I love it!! We ended up watching a movie called "Premonition"...Cindy & I liked it but I don't think the boys did (Zach was asleep in our bed for the whole movie..he has a hard staying up late)

Crawling: On Sunday we went to Brian's Parents house.. Brian was going to help his dad plant a new tree in the back yard ...it was to replace the one they lost in the wind storm. Pam & Reese and I were chilling in the living room talking about the holiday plans & gift ideas for certain people! When the guys were done with planting the tree.. they were ready for dinner..I guess they worked up an appetite. We had some beef stew that Pam had made. After dinner I was helping Pam clean up in the kitchen..Brain & Jeff and Reese were in the living room playing on the floor. All of a sudden Brian yield out "Come here and see what Reese is doing"...so we went into the living room to see what was going on...well Reese has now gone from stage one of trying to crawl to stage two " the army crawl"! She is really starting to become my BIG girl!

feeling very un-organized!!!

For those of you that don't know me very well...I am a freak about things not being organized & clean..and I am starting to feel very un-organized with my house!! We live in a very small house & we have done our best with trying to find places for our stuff... but now with Reese here it feels like the walls are caving in & the rooms are getting even smaller!! We are hoping that next year we can start looking for our own house to buy (we rent right now). But for now we have to make do with what we have! So when I start feeling this way I make a list of what I need to do in each room & then I start re-organizing..I do it by room by room! I want to try to have it all done before the Holidays..wish me luck!! I am the type of person that when I start to feel this way I can't do anything fun until things are ORGANIZED!! And I have a lot of Christmas projects... that are presents.. that I need to get done! The basement is going to be the BIGGEST organizing project of all..I am going to go through clothes & boxes and get rid of clothes that don't fit & things we don't need!! IT'S TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE :) !!!

New Chair!!

Today when I was at work..my client stopped by and dropped off this adorable little chair that her little girl used to loved to sit & play in. When I brought it home I sat Reese in it ....she loved it!! The chair sings, lights up and talks...Reese was hitting the lamp that lights up and turning the pages in the book that talked. She looks like such a BIG girl in it!!!

Spaghetti Face & Trying to Crawl......

Reese loves spaghetti ....has you can see here!!
























She is trying so hard to crawl...she is actually getting very frustrated with herself because she is not crawling yet!! We keep practicing though...it won't be long..and then we are in trouble!!

BLOG!!

OK...so I think I am getting the hang of this blog thing...I was playing around with the format and came up with this..what do you think??? If you don't already know this about me ... the whole computer thing is like a second language to me..so I was proud of myself to be able to come up with this!!

Vote for my better tomorrow!!

Well..I hope you all did your part today and ...Voted!! We went this morning all three of us... and luckily we only had to wait for about 30 minutes...thank god!! Reese helped Daddy..she loved watching Daddy press the screen...and of course she wanted to help!!

Trick or Treat SURPRISE!!!

Well we decided to go somewhere a little different this year for Trick or Treat! How does North Carolina sound!! We decided to go down and surprise my Mom & Dad this past weekend..they could use a little cheering up and we thought what a better way to do that then a visit from their little Reesie. It has been almost 3 months since we all have seen each other and I think we all needed it!!! So here is how the plan went down: My Brother was in on it and help us, he got the information we needed.. he made sure Mom wasn't working at the book store or if they were going anywhere, which they had no plans. Until we showed up!! We were going to leave around 2:00 on Friday afternoon and hoping we would get down there around 9:00.. Their Trick or Treat was from 6-8pm so we knew we wouldn't be down there by then..we did very well on time though we got down there around 8:45p. We pulled into the pool parking lot(which is right down the street from my parents house) and got Reese dressed in her costume..then we drove up to my parents and parked the car so they wouldn't be able to see it. We put Reese on her bike in front of the door and then rang the door bell and we went and hid! When my mom opened the door an saw Reese on her bike her face expression was priceless! We pulled it off!!..they had know idea we were coming! We had a great short little visit with them..we were just staying until Sunday! On Saturday we got up and mom made breakfast for all of us and then we decided to hit the mall..we did a little damage there. After the mall we went back home and got dad (he wasn't feeling so hot so he stayed home why we went to the mall) to go get dinner at one of our favorite places to eat down there "Lancaster's"..they have the best deep fried pickles!! Reesie had her first taste of a deep fried pickle and loved it! She is a true southern bell now....she loves sweet tea and now deep fried pickles!! So after dinner we ran to Target (one of other favorite places!!) we needed to pick up a few things..then we went back home. Ryan had a Halloween party to go to.. he dressed up has a "dork" (not that he needs to dress up much hahahaha!! just kidding) the rest of us watched the Texas/Texas Tech game and played with Reese. After a busy day we decided to hit the sack!! The next day we were leaving but first we had some breakfast with Mom & Dad and Ryan..then we packed the car. Before we hit the rode we needed to do a little detour to the mall... I needed to run in and exchange a couple of the shirts that we bought Reese that didn't fit.. so we followed my parents to the mall and mom & I ran in real quick. After all that we were ready to get on the rode to head home..we said our goodbyes (it wasn't that much of a tear feast because we are going to see them at Thanksgiving..they are coming up). I am so glad we made that trip...it mite have been short but it was very sweet to see them!! I miss them so much!

more pics from Chicago!!