December Daily Catch Up (Friday December 19th) Whoa!!!!!Snow day! Alert the press everyone I actually went out into the snow with Gracie today! Not only that but I had fun. I am trying to get a ll my bonus points in for the end of the year Mother of The Year Submissions! I know, I know I am so funny. Anyway, we got over a foot of snow and my van got plowed in so Gracie was "helping" get the van out. We had a really fun time going out into the fluffy white stuff while Q was napping. We are looking forward to sharing the snow with Q later today or tomorrow. He loves this stuff just as much as Gracie so it is great to see them out there together. In addition to being in the snow with Gracie I also went sledding down my little hill. It was fun going down and Gracie was amazed that I actually did it! She said " MOM! you are sledding? You don't sled!" So telling those kids are.

December Daily Catch Up (December 18th)

Today I had a little photo shoot with none other then myself. Ok, so I would hardly call it a photo shoot because I took all of 2 minutes to try and get a decent photo of myself to send out with my Scrapblog Christmas card. This was as good as it got....thanks to my little man and a busy day filled with trying to get my scrapblog card out to over 100 people as well as keep the house in order so that there is a nice clean house to open presents in on Christmas morning. I know I am so fun today!!!! If nothing else at least I put make-up on today. He he. :)

Merry Christmas fellow bloggers! I thought I would send you a virtual copy of my Christmas card. I sent out 25 paper copies of them today and feel good that they are finally all done! Here they are all neatly placed out before they got stuffed into an envelope!!!!

December daily 16th

Today Gracie was home sick again but I think tomorrow she will be able to attend school. Tonight the sweetest thing happened. As you can see from he picture above my children were all cozy with their Bapa on the rocking chair while watching a "Wheel-Wheel" show. It is a very rare occurrence that you find Q in one position for very long not to mention hat I was able to grab the camera in time to snap a photo. He actually sat there for close to 5 minutes and a few nights ago he fell asleep in this position with my Dad and Gracie. Isn't it just so sweet? It really makes me take stock of whats important in life. Often times around the holidays we can all get wrapped up in the who-ha of the holiday and forget what's really important. Sure you can wrap up a toy or a sweater but it's the things in life that you can not wrap that really mean the most. Thanks Dad for making a difference in my children's lives!

December Daily December 15th

Today Gracie was sick with some sort of flu like bug! So there really is not much to report besides the fact that it is bitterly cold outside and Q keeps taking "Baby Tanta" over to the window to look at how all the "now" has melted. I feel very excited for the aproaching holiday. Gracie is making sure I am fully aware how many days until we reach Christmas. This year I am more excited then I can remember being for many ofthe past years. I just feel so blessed!

Today we watched to above movie. It has been somewhat of a tradition for our family for many years. It is my favorite Christmas movie. It is pretty chessie but I like it and it reminds me of my childhood. I remember my little sister Melissa watching it at age 5 year round. She would sit in her room watching this movie no matter what the season, especially whne she was sick. Gracie came back from a trip to Green Bay with her Daddy and she was feeling alittle under the weather. So I cuddled her while watching this movie. I love little moments like this. :)


I also wrapped most of the kids Christmas gifts before the arrived home from their little trip to Green Bay. It felt really good to get them all out of the way so early. When my Mom wrapping them frantically on Christmas eve sometimes as a kid so this year was super early in her book. Now it's really started top feel like Christmas. Happy Holidays everyone.

Well two things happened today for Mommy! My little sister came home from Whitewater for a visit and I was able to go out with my friend Elizabeth to JoJo's Martini Bar. It was a good day and I was even able to squeeze a nap in there.

December 12th Daily

Took the kids to go see the lights in the Miller Valley. It included myself, my Mom, my little sister Kayla who was so thrilled to be on my blog. So Kayla this is a shout out to you! As you can see by the chocolate on their faces that it also included a chocolate chip/m&m cookie. The lights play to music. It was a little reminder of how much I love Disney at Christmas time. They have the Osborn family spectacle of lights there that is like nothing I have ever scene before! I wish I could be there this year to see them. That's OK, it will just make it more spectacular when I see them sometime in the future! Oh and by the way those fabulous photography skills above are one of mine and one of Gracie's. We were in constant motion and my poor little camera just isn't doing well these days. I am hoping that Santa will get my letter that I sent about bringing me a new one because I have been a really good girl.

December Daily December 11th

As a child one of my favorite activities around the holidays is the countdown to Christmas. We had a magnet board that you would place a new magnet every day up on the board. I remember getting so excited to do it every time it was my turn which was every three days. Leaving the other two for my little sisters to do. It is so funny to me how that little daily activity that took less then 30 seconds really stuck in my memory. I vividly remember the arguments I would get into with a 2 and a 4 year old over a silly little magnet placement. Now that I am a mother I totally get why my Mom would look at me like what is your deal you are 11, just let the little ones do it!!! I also had another one from before my little sisters were even born. I think I was around 6 when my Grandma gave me one that you would open up the little boxes everyday and another piece of the nativity scene would be in there. On the last day a little baby Jesus was in there. So once I became a mother my first instinct was to find a count down calender that we could open a new box every day. I finally found the one pictured above when Gracie was 3. It is so exciting for me as the Mom to go find little trinkets every year to fill the boxes and exciting for the kids to open them up. Last year I put littlest pet shop toys in there. This year I had to fit something for both kids in each drawer, since Q is old enough to want to participate, so it was a bit more of a challenge to fill. I found stickers, magnets, temporary tattoos and mini chocolate Santa's to fit inside. Every morning the kids are elated to see what item will be in there today. I hope that they develop as strong of a memory about the count down as I did.

Time To Catch Up Again On My December Daily (December 10th)

This picture is what I finally decided upon for Holiday cards this year. It has a simple yet funny story as to how it came about. Last night on the 9th we went to go visit Santa at our local Mall. The kids were getting dressed up anyway for thier picture with Santa so I thought well, I might as well get my Holiday sweater on so that if the oppertunity arises I can snap a picture of the 3 of us for our Christmas cards. It really never came about. Then finally when we were getting all ready to go we saton a black bench in a hallway to put on our coats and winter weather gear. I had both kids next to me and click! this is the picture we got! Then today I did a little magic in photoshop to change the colors and get ri of our red eye. Isnt that funny how you can take one picture and it wokrs??? I love it and can't wait to share it with all my firneds and family.

Yes, my little man was not to sure about Santa, but just as we were ready to walk away he said bye and gave him a hug! So sweet! Finally Gracie is over her fear. This was really the first year I could get her to sit with Santa without getting upset.We didn't even have to wait in line to visit with the big C. Thanks to the snow that is pictured below, everybody was afraid of the snow and stayed home leaving us a lot of time with Mr. Clause.

Yes my friends it is snowing again! I am so sick of the snow it is crazy! Q and Gracie sure do love it though. It took us 2 and a half hours to get Gracie to school and then back to the house again. I am really thinking that today really should have been a snow day but who I am i to say, I am just a Mom who has to drive forever int he snow to get to school every day while people are driving 20 miles an hour on the highway. OK, I know it's pretty yucky out there but I think we can at least go faster then 20 on a freshly salted and plowed highway!!! We were supposed to go to the mall tonight to go see Santa with the kids all dressed up in there holiday best, but it won't be happening if it continues along like this. Not because I am afraid of the snow, but because I don't think I can handle all that driving. it will most likely take us another 2 and a half hours to get Gracie from school and then a trip to the mall would put us at about 6 plus hours in the car!!! Maybe I will get the kids all dressed up anyway and we will do a little photo shoot here at home. I really need to get a decent picture so that I can send them out with my holiday cards. OK, now I need to get back to the daily grind.

December Daily catch up from Yesterday

This little ceramic gingerbread house could keep my kids occupied for much longer then I ever thought humanly possible. Gracie got it for Christmas form my Aunt Karen over the weekend. To the right of the door you press a little button and it plays music and lights up. Both of the kids think it is the greatest thing. Who would have ever thought that a 6 year old and a 21month old would find this so amusing. They dance around their room and Q says "(A)gain, (A)gain!!" over and over again. It sits on Gracie's dresser right next to her pink tinsel princess tree which is of course another Christmas must, right???

December Daily

While I was taking a shower the kids got out the princess tea set and decided to have a club called "High School Musical 3" Don't ask me why but that's what it's called. This is a club activity to have a Christmas Tea Party. It included Christmas shaped cookies, out of the box of course, soy milk for Q and orange juice for Gracie. Q was extremely jealous of the little tea cup that Gracie had so he attempted on several occasions to take it from her. He also was not a fan of the cookies on the plate so he proceeded to dump them off the plate and eat them straight off the table. Gracie spoke in an english accent the entire time. Now the tea party has turned into chasing each other around the house and giggling through the whole thing.

Continuation of today!
The kids enjoyed a little time in the snow before I took them over to their Dads house. They had a ball and really love to shovel. Go figure!

Happy St. Nicks!!! This is what the kids madeout with today. Along with one larger item each. Gracie got a Princess Clipboard with some art supplies and Q got a Wheel-wheel puzzle!


My little Q was not interested in anything but the "Can-ee" He grabbed his stocking and immediately stuck the green candy cane in his mouth plastic on and all! Gracie was so giggly over this. She was thrilled to have a new little pet shop for her ever growing collection. It was really stinkin' cute if I do say so myself. It's a little mouse in a cupcake. They were both so stuffed with sweets that neither of them ate much of a breakfast. Oh well it only comes once a year. :)

December Daily- December 5th

Nothing all to important today on the Christmas front. Q finally learned were the button was on the singing snowman/penguin/puppy combination. He was pretty darn proud of himself! Today Gracie went swimming with Girl Scouts at the YMCA for a try-it requirement. She was excited about the free-swim time but not the class because they made her go under water!!! God forbid she places her face in the water. What a silly girl she can be sometimes.

December Daily-December 4th

Gracie and I practice making Candies for my Tupperware parties. We made both peppermint bark as well as chocolate covered pretzels. It was so darn easy. Then we took groups of the Chocolate pretzels and put them into the round Tupperware containers, tied a bow around them with a snowflake ornament and we will give them out as gift to great-grandparents and aunts and uncles on Saturday for the extended family Christmas party. Gracie loves white chocolate so she really enjoyed licking up the extra chocolate on the spatula. Then when all was said and done she had a bit of a stomach ache. Poor little lady a had a bit of Chocolate over load. But do you think that stopped her form then eating a chocolate covered pretzel later in the evening. No way!!!

December Daily-December 3rd Q was modeling both the "Gracie-wacie" jammies and a Santa hat all while saying "Ho-ho" yes he omits the the Ho. He seems to only be able to put two syllables at once. Any way he says it it's the cutest darn thing! A little back story on the "Gracie-wacie" Jammies. Gracie loved these lavender Jammies as a little 2 and 3 year old. She insisted that we keep them and pass them on to a sibling when one came along. I asked her what if its a boy? She replied " It's OK, boys like purple too!" So, per her request they were saved and when I was pregnant with her brother we found them. She was so thrilled! Pulling them out of the box saying "the Gracie-wacie " jammies!!!!" I could not believe that she had remembered something from 2 or 3 years ago. But how sweet of her to keep that on her little brain and still be so passionate about sharing those very special jammies with her little brother. If I do say so myself, he still looks like a dapper young man, even if in lavender.

More December Daily December 2nd. Quintin was so desperarte to get out into the snow! He even went as far as getting MY old snow boots on. It had it with the snow leaking into my old boots so Q and I went to the mall and got some new snow boots for Mommy. So, of course that means that my old ones are all for Q. He even wanted to wear them to pick up Gracie from school!