Last Year's List

Last Year I made this list of things to work on in 2007. Being the last day of 2007, I thought I might check back to see how I did...

1. Try to shower daily - I'm still working on this one but, I NEVER go 2 days in a row without a shower. So that's an accomplishment, right?


2. Get dressed every day, even if failed at #1 - I've been pretty good at this one, as I tend to like to leave the house daily, but I must admit, at this point I consider wearing yoga pants being dressed.


3. Shave legs at least once a week - That was an easy one.


4. Eat less chocolate - I did well until, oh you know, Easter maybe?


5. Read more books - Believe it or not, I have read a couple of books in 2007!


6. Try harder to keep up on current events - Who's running for president?? I suck.


7. Repaint living room - I repainted the ceiling, then decided to keep the wall color.


8. Refinish bedroom furniture - ahem.


9. Paint master bedroom - I've actually started this project! I've painted the ceiling and have chosen, but not purchased yet, the wall & trim colors.


10. Paint exterior house trim -hahaha.


11. Make prints of all digital photos - FAILED miserably at this one.


12. Organize all digital photos (after printing) and put into photo albums - Dido.


13. Frame (and hang) more photos - More could mean one, right?


14. Complete at least 2 paintings - Does "pin the fin on Nemo" count as a painting?
15. Continue with my quest to find the perfect Margarita - Still working on it. I've discovered that Legal Seafood makes a fantastic Mojito, though.
16. Make it a point to see people even when I'm feeling lazy - Hmmmmm.
17. Stop being lazy - I'm not really lazy. I should have never put this one there in the first place!
18. Get to the gym at least twice a week - I've been pretty consistent with this. Something has got to balance all that chocolate eating!
19. Go to the movies more often - The last movie I saw in a theater was Shrek III. That was THE ONLY movie I saw in a theater in 2007... bad. bad. bad
20. Get my hair cut more than once this year - I actually had my hair cut TWICE in 2007!!

Well, it's about 2pm-ish on the last day of 2007. I should probably get busy if I am going to complete this list!

Smashed Pumpkin

What a pumpkin looks like after it has been sitting outside for three months, frozen, buried in the snow, defrosted, and then punched by a three year old:

Merry Christmas!!!

... A very belated Merry Christmas!

Blah, blah, blah, Christmas. It was nice. Annabelle was as sick as a dog, throwing up all night Christmas eve, and all day on Christmas. Nick cooked, we had my parents, and my sister and her boyfriend, over for dinner. In between wiping puke and opening presents, I somehow managed to do some baking, set the table, and take a few pictures WITH MY NEW CAMERA!

Yes, it was a nice Christmas. I finally got to play with my new camera, the one that had been sitting in it's box, tormenting me for over a month.

It is every thing I had hoped for and more... I am in love.

But enough about me.

Christmas is about the children after all...

Here Nick is showing me how his new iPod works. He was very pleased with his present, and we were all very pleased that he managed to knock out Christmas dinner with that thing in his hands!

Annabelle was so excited, yet so sick, on Christmas. The poor thing spent most of the day lounging on the couch, watching Jack play with all of the toys.The day after Christmas, she managed to muster up enough energy to take the car out for a spin, despite the fact that she was still not feeling well.

Much to my surprise, Mr. Jack was not as excited about the big car as I thought he would be. Yes, he liked it, and spent a good deal of time sitting in it, but he was more interested in playing with the Geotrax Grand Central Station, that Nana had given him on Christmas eve, than opening any of his presents!

Ice Skating

Annabelle and I went ice skating on Saturday!

I haven't been ice skating in probably 15 years and this was her first time so I was a little nervous about taking her... In case I fell on top of her or something! But it was all good. After about 3 seconds it all came back to me and I was even able to show Annabelle a few tricks.

Annabelle was so excited about going ice skating. She had been asking to go for about a month, since my mother gave her a shirt with a big ice skate on it, so she has had a lot of time to "prepare". On the drive to the skating rink she kept talking about what a great ice skater she is (did I mention this was her first time?) and how she was going to make a "figure eight" and do all sorts of stunts. I think it was a bit of a shocker for her when she first stepped onto the ice and realized that it might not be so easy!

She did surprisingly well though... She was, understandably, a little nervous at first but she held on to the side and did a complete lap around the rink with minimal assistance from me! By lap number two she was ready to let go and head out into center ice to practice her stunts!

Annabelle was so funny. She spent a lot of time checking out what the "big kids" were doing and trying to mimic them. She was also checking out what they were wearing, particularly their skates. Some of the kids were wearing hockey skates and others had nice clean white skates... Annabelle had dirty white rental skates, and she was VERY annoyed about that!

So of course I had to promise her that we could get some nice new CLEAN ice skates for the next time we went skating... But in the mean time she would have to eat some cotton candy to help ease the pain.

Sparkley Red Fingers!

Annabelle has been begging me to paint her nails for a while now -since she saw that nail polish in the shops a few months ago and just had to have it. Last night I finally bit the bullet. I have to admit, I was pretty impressed at her ability to sit still while her nails dried... She only got one spot of polish on the sofa and two on her pajamas!

Just Another Day

This video clip is really dark, but I thought Jack was being very cute so I posted it anyway.
Also, Annabelle's singing is pretty funny too...

Snow Angel

Acceptance

Since the start of the Christmas season the Christmas music has been on, pretty much nonstop, here in the Monkey house. I've discovered that having the music on constantly has caused quite a few bouts of unconscious singing. Mainly by me. On the occasion I found myself randomly singing "Silver Bells", I heard a small angry voice behind me say, "I'm NOT silver"!

Because all things revolve around Annabelle, obviously this song, "Silver Bells", is about her, Annabelle... But she'll be the first one to tell you that, she is NOT silver.

So naturally, being the evil loving parents we are, and knowing how this song annoyed her so, Nick and I started to sing "Silver Bells" on a regular basis. Each time Nick or I would sing "Silver Bells", Annabelle would follow with a, "I'm NOT silver!!"

This has been going on for several weeks now.

A few times she thought she was being clever and started to sing, "Silver Jack", but we just laughed at her. Then there was the time she actually sang, "Silver Brother", but again, the laughter ensued and we quickly chimed in with a chorus of "Silver Bells."

Because we love to taunt our children.

Yesterday when I sang a quick verse of "Super Belle", Annabelle decided she liked that much better, and that the song wasn't that bad after all.

Earlier today, when I informed Annabelle that "Silver Bells" was playing on the radio, she looked at me in a very defeated way, let out a big sigh and said, "I guess I am silver."

Happy Erica!

Annabelle came home from school today with a dreidel that one of her little classmates had given her. She told me that Rebecca's mother came in, told them a story and gave each of them a special spinning top. When I asked Annabelle if she remembered what the story was about she told me that it was a story about Erica. When I questioned her further, she told me that it was a story about Erica and, ya know, you light candles and stuff. Why would Rebecca's mother tell you a story about a girl who plays with fire? Then I realized that she was talking about Hanukkah!

The Santa Picture

The Santa picture isn't the best this year but it will have to do. This is actually the least offensive of the second round of photos taken. In the first round, Annabelle was wearing a hat and making crazy faces, and Jack was grabbing at the basket of candy canes next to him, out of frame. The first few pictures were so bad that the woman taking them asked us to go walk around the mall and come back to try again! It was a bit disappointing because there were some cute moments where the kids were laughing and looking right at the camera, but the woman missed them because she was too busy talking to someone else. It was a real struggle for me not to grab the camera and take the picture myself!
But they had fun ... Annabelle told Santa that she wants a camera and a remote control jeep and some purple floam and Jack told Santa that he wants cars.

Snow Globe

Dream

Last night Annabelle had a dream that spiders were climbing all over baby Trey (neighbor boy), and he was laughing.

Hide And Seek

Now that it's too cold and dark to play outside after supper, the winter indoor games have begun. Tonight it was hide and seek. Annabelle hid in that same spot... Every. Single. Time.

We can see you, Annabelle.
When playing hide and seek, one must always wear their hat, mittens, and puppy slippers.

Tiny Dancers

Torture

My little Canon point and shoot is busted again. I turned it on yesterday and it made some horribly sad struggling motor sounds and then beeped an E18 message at me. I did some research (gotta love the Internet) and found that there is actually a whole web site devoted to the E18 message, which apparently, is a pretty common problem. But what exactly is the E18 message? According to the web site, and I quote; "Canon E18 error happens when the lens gets stuck while trying to extend". That would make sense, since my lens got stuck when it tried to extend!

So this morning I took the camera back to Best Buy. They were the ones who "fixed" my camera back in August (when I dropped it on the lens while it was extended), and I'm guessing that they didn't fix it properly, because after I got it back 90% of my pictures were out of focus and I thought I needed glasses! Turns out, it was most likely E18 related all along. They are going to take another stab at repairing it and I should have it back in a few weeks.

Anyway... Since I was going to Best Buy, and know exactly what I am getting for Christmas from Nick, he agreed that I could pick up my present while I was there dropping off the point and shoot. I really want a new camera more than I want to be surprised at Christmas, so I was more than happy to pick it up myself. Little did I know, not only was the camera of my desire on sale BUT there was also a promotion, and I was able to get an additional lens (55-200mm), a camera bag, an extra battery and an instruction manual, all for about half the price of the lens alone!

So there it is, my new Nikon D40x and friends. In the box. Torturing me until December 25Th.

Conversations At Our House

Jack: "Mommy, I'm pooping."

Me: "Do you want to go sit on the potty?"

Jack: "No thank you, I want to change my diaper."

Annabelle: "Jack, you have to go on the potty so you can wear your big boy underwears. You really like them, they have cars on them, Jack. They have Mater on them, and McQueen, and The King, aaaaand Ramone! You really like Cars, Jack. You should try them. I'll go get my little potty so you can use it because I'm too big for it now. It's just the right size for you. You can have it if you want, and then you can wear your big boy underwears with Cars on them!"

Jack: "No thank you." "Mom, I need a new diaper."

Mr. Mischief

When I Have My Umbrella, You MUST Take A Picture Of Me

French-Fish Feast

Annabelle had a friendship feast at school today. It was basically a mini Thanksgiving, complete with a turkey dinner served on long decorated tables in the school auditorium and a performance by the pre-K's finest. The kids all got up on stage and recited a poem and sang a song. Some of the little ones got stage fright and broke down in tears, not Annabelle, she stood tall and proud and looked right at home up there. She did a great job!

Each child made a flower arrange-ment and a place mat, which were displayed on the table during the feast and then later taken home, and a beaded necklace, which they swapped with another child in the class. Annabelle traded her necklace with the little girl next to her in the picture -in the blue stripey shirt.

Last night, in anticipation of today's big event, Annabelle kept asking me if the french fish feast was tomorrow, which made me chuckle every time. As funny as french fish feast was, we spent a good while working on the phrase "friend-ship feast", which is much easier to say than "french-fish feast". She must have practiced saying it all night because when she woke up this morning the first thing she asked was, "is the friendship feast today?", and she pronounced it perfectly! ( but I still like french fish feast better)

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