Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Well this will be my very last entry for 2008. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a safe & happy New Year's. Today (Christmas) was a wonderful day and I'm sort of sad it's almost over, but I'm looking forward to our trip to Myrtle Beach tomorrow. We'll be there until 1/3 and we get to celebrate Christmas with Sara (my stepdaughter), my parents and then with my sister & her family. Gotta love stretching out the holiday over another week! LOL.

So I'll leave you with a picture of silly ole Daisy who's tuckered out and stretched out on the couch after a long day of playing with wrapping paper, playing with her new toys, trying to steal food off the counter and just enjoying being the fantastic little kitten that she is!

Here's to 2009!

Before the end of 2008....

I have to take the time to do this blog entry.....

A little less than a year ago, I decided to make a New Year's resolution to start a blog and keep it current. I remember brainstorming the whole drive home from Myrtle Beach over what to name the blog (details details!). So here I am, about 12 whole months into it and I can say that I'm pretty proud of myself. I blog every month (maybe not in July when I was away? Maybe I blogged when I was home that one week for the Springsteen concerts). I had fun blogging. I had fun sharing photos. It was and still is exciting for me to read the comments many of my blogging friends leave for me with each post/entry. I tend to blog pictures more than just thoughts & words.

Today is 12/23... tomorrow our festivities will start (Christmas Eve spent with Dh's dad & Stepmom), then the big day is Thursday. Oh how I love Christmas. Oh how the boys love Christmas. Oh how Jim loves Christmas! We love spending the holiday here in our PA house, then hopping in the car the next day to head down to Myrtle Beach. We'll put the tree up down there and then celebrate with my parents, my sister and my sister's family. It doesn't take much to get us to draw out the holiday as much as possible. LOL.

So before I no longer have the chance to get online and post this, I decided to make this blog entry tonight. Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends. I hope you all have a fun New Year's Eve. (raising my glass)... Here's to a wonderful 2009. Maybe it be a happy & healthy one for all of us. ~Lisa

What are my favorite subjects?

The boys and the kitten, right? So how about a picture of both? Or all? LOL

I was wrapping gifts on Sunday and when I cut off the first strip, Matthew put it on his head and an idea was born. Make Indian headresses out of the strips! So Andrew had to have one, then I got to listen to them "woo woo woo" all around the kitchen for awhile. ;)

Today, while I was finishing up a few homemade gifts, Daisy just got right onto my Making Memories cutter and made herself comfy. She looked too cute and I had to take a picture.

Dreaming of a White Christmas?

This is too cute!

http://www.aroundmd.com/whitechristmas/

Finally.... we got some SNOW!

We had our 4th snow day yesterday, but it was the first real "snow day". The other 3 days were all about mixture junk, ice, etc... Nasty! It was so nice to finally have real snow. It started at 9am and pretty much snowed all day long. Jim even stayed home from work, which was a good call since they closed his work at 12pm and he would have spent most of the time in the car trying to get home in the mess! We had a great day - we baked cookies, watched some movies and just enjoyed the day. :)

Kitty vs. Webkinz!

I was talking on the phone with Linda, when I saw Daisy coming down the stairs with this white, Seal Webkinz that belongs to Matthew. I started cracking up and had to get my camera. It took awhile to get some decent shots, but you can see that Daisy is carrying it around in her mouth, wrestling with it, hugging it, etc.... Too funny! I threw in a picture of her sleeping for good measure. :)

Single Digits!

There are only 9 days 'til Christmas! Wow, where did November and December go? Why didn't I start all of my holiday prep (including shopping & our Christmas cards) wayyyyy back in September? lol. I've been trying to enjoy everything and not be stressed. I'm doing a decent job with that. So how's everyone else doing? I'd love to hear something positive that's going on in your lives this week and before Christmas, so please share!

She'll eat anything!

Daisy is a funny cat. She loves food. She loves people food. We have gotten her where she doesn't always try to steal food from us, but she's still a sneaky little devil some days. Tonight, Matthew was eating buttered Italian bread and Daisy decided the small hunk she got her paws on was now hers. She "fought" with this bread in the kitchen for awhile and pretty much just ate the butter off of it. She's such a goof!

Homey the Clemson Santa Claus

Andrew "dressed up" in this outfit yesterday and was all proud of himself. He reluctantly posed for a few pictures by the tree, but you know I had to have a picture of that get up! I also thought it would be nice to have a picture on my blog that wasn't of the kitten. LOL

Christmas Getting to Know You

Feel free to borrow this idea for your own blog! :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Mostly wrapping paper, but a few gift bags when convenient
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real (blue spruce) here in PA - artificial in MB
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the first weekend in December, but we got ours last weekend when Sara was still here. We'll put up the MB tree on 12/27. lol
4. When do you take the tree down? 1-2 weeks into January. 2nd weekend if I had my way. We take the MB tree down at Easter.
5. Do you like eggnog? Nope. It's yucky.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My turntable and anything Barbie related.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Jim
8. Most you've ever spent on a Christmas present? I'm not even sure! Probably a watch I bought for Jim a few years ago. I like a lot of smaller gifts vs. big ones.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a white one made by AVON
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A set of bowling salt & pepper shakers
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life or Holiday Inn. As for specials, I love The Year Without a Santa Claus (love the meiser brothers!)
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Sometime in fall.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope, but I'm thinking about doing something with the salt & pepper shakers. Does anyone want them? LOL
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Baked Cream Cheese & Almond Crescent Cookies
16. Lights on the tree? Large, colored ones here in PA. Small, white ones in MB
17. Favorite Christmas song? I can't name just one. "Baby Please Come Home" by U2. Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bruce Springsteen. I love any/all traditional Christmas songs. I love them all.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home, but leave for MB the day after.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yep - Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen & Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel here in PA. Star in MB
21. Open the presents Christmas eve or Christmas day? We open on Christmas Day. Jim & I wait 'til later in the day, though.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Items being out of stock and finding a parking spot.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? We buy dated, ceramic handmade ornaments and they are my favorite ones.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We don't eat a real dinner - just lots of appetizers and yummy things. Bring on the spinach triangles, leek soup dip, baked cream cheese, shrimp cocktail, etc... burp!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Sex and the City DVD, a new Cricut Cartridge, the 2009 Passport (Disney Guide book), a Disney strap for my camera, Rascal Flatts Greatest hits CD, some new fuzzy socks and PJ bottoms, scrapbook stuff (of course!).

Homework Helper?

Daisy is just too funny. She wants to be right in the middle of the action. Today, she decided she was going to lay down in the middle of Andrew's homework. She was either right on the sheet he was writing on or lying on his folder. I added in a few other new photos of her, too for good measure. ;)

New Daisy Pics

So Daisy has been wtih us for 6 weeks now. She's definitely gotten bigger and it makes me sad that she's not that tiny little thing anymore. It's actually amazing how fast they grow. She's a really wonderful cat. She lets the boys hold her, even when she's sleeping. She really took to Sara and her boyfriend, Kevin, who were just up here for the Thanksgiving holiday. She loves to play and we are really thankful that she's a part of our family.

I have to say that the picture of her sitting there, belly up, is one of my favorites. It's so hysterical that she would just sit like that and I was lucky enough that she didn't move when I ran to get the camera. We were joking that she looks like she wants to scratch, drink a beer and switch the channel. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Our plans include watching the Macy's Day Parade, watching a few football games (Go Cowboys), eating a lot, playing some games, enjoying having family together for the day, etc...

I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful that we're all happy & healthy. I'm thankful for quality time spent with family during the holidays.

So pig out, enjoy the day & be thankful!

Things I've done in My Life....

This was something we did on Scrapfreak today and I wanted to share here on my blog. Thank you Kristin for the idea! I also thought it would be nice to have a "non kitty" blog entry. LOL.

The things I've done are bolded. Umm, if any of you know of things I *have* done, but I forgot about, please let me know. ::: snicker :::

1. Started your own blog - well yeah!
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to DisneyWorld (never to Disneyland, though) - I've been to DisneyWorld over ten times. Woo Hoo
8. Held a praying mantis
9.Climbed a mountain
10. Sang a solo - visions of elementary school chorus!
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty - school class trip
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. seen the Mona Lisa
20. Slept on an overnight train - the autotrain to Florida!
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill - oh heck yes.
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run - I loved softball!
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling - snorkeling in Bermuda was awesome.
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater - The Ledgewood drive in!
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check - no comment. lol
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy - I've got my teddy bears.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial - 8th grade trip to Washington, DC
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - my dad was driving it!
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car - I've had 5 new cars. :)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox - I was in 3rd grade and my brother also got them. We drove our mother crazy!
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous - Cyndi Lauper when I was in highschool.
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (or two)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day - I used to read Danielle Steel books on the beach when I was a teenager and I'd polish them off in a day.

She's almost 10 weeks old!

I thought it was time to write up a bit of an update on the kitten vs. just sharing another picture. So I'm going to share a bunch of new photos & also write a few tidbits about our furry little girl. We adopted her almost 4 weeks ago. Where did 4 whole weeks go? She definitely looks bigger to us now and has a maturity about her. She seems to really love living here. She is all over the house and turns into "Schizo cat" sometimes where she just tears all over the place. She'll play with pretty much anything and likes to steal things (she stole an almond from me one day and she'll eat the paper while Jim tries to read it). She likes to get under the covers with Jim at night. She's a little rough with our hands and doesn't know that we're not her toys. She loves to eat and will even steal, then eat pieces of pasta! She goes nuts for any meat and loves eating leftover chicken. This has led to a bit of a round belly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She lets the boys play with her and isn't always scared off by their antics. She wants to play a lot - in the one picture she was trying to play with me as I was putting scrapbook pages away and she's biting her own layout as I was sliding it in the page protector. In another picture, she's peeking out of the box that was part of Andrew's magic kit - she loves to go in one end and out the other. She'll do flips in the air to try to get this seagull that's on the end of a stick. She still climbs up me and the boys call me the "Statue of Mom" since the cat acts like she's scaling a building. She's been such a wonderful addition to our family and I love that she loves us as much as we love her. :)

Daisy & the Boys

The boys were just hanging out on the living room couch playing Nintendo DS and Daisy got up between them. She decided to snooze while hanging out with her "Brothers". Jim saw them and said "That's a cute picture", so I had to get the camera and take one. You can tell she's getting bigger, huh?

She wants to be a Parrot

Daisy likes to climb up me (she'll jump on my leg and claw her way all the way up). Yes I have many scratches on my body. Or sometimes she'll jump on me from the counter. Then, she'll sit up on my shoulder like a parrot. She's actually going to get too big to do this very soon (which will make me sad). She's growing up way too fast.

Venom The Kitty

Here is Daisy playing inside of Andrew's "venom mask" (it's a character from Spiderman). She was so funny going inside the one end and out the other, especially when she'd come out the mouth side (with the big ugly tongue). She's such a hoot to watch.

Think she's spoiled yet?

We went to Petsmart on Saturday and spent $85 on pet stuff. Trust me, we could have spent way more. lol. We were going to buy her one of those kitty condos, but man those things are pricey. We ended up with this soft pyramid thing - it has a ball hanging from inside and she goes in there to play, but she won't sleep in there like Andrew wants her to. She's a feisty little one now and she was running in and out of it while I was trying to take these pictures. You can see that she's ready to pounce in the one picture. She's really getting big already, but she's maturing in other ways that are fantastic to watch. She loves to run from room to room like a banshee and she loves to play. I just wish she'd stop trying to eat & scratch my hands - it hurts! I really love that she's starting to purr all the time. :)

My little, furry Scrapbook helper

Whenever I'm scrapping at the counter, Daisy gets very curious about what I'm doing. She cries to get up and she checks out all my stuff. Today, she decided that my Stickles looked quite interesting and they became fun for her when she realized the bottles would roll. She's just too darn cute and yes, I know, she shouldn't be up on the counter. ;-)

Me & Daisy Jane

Well I've shown you a few pictures of Daisy so far, but none with me in it. The boys helped me take a few pictures tonight and I thought I'd share. This little fur ball is so lovable. She will just cuddle up on my lap and fall asleep when I'm on the computer. She'll let me carry her around in the crook of my arm & she'll sleep sometimes. She doesn't even mind being on her back. She's just too cute!

It was the Pole's fault!

Last night, when I picked up DH's prescription at CVS, I scraped the yellow pole as you enter the drive thru lane. It's on a bend and I had cleared it past my door & didn't realize I was too close. When it was our turn to move up, I was shocked to hear the scraping sound! I was seriously upset and had a lovely crying fit over it (once I got home). Dh wasn't mad, but he's enjoying making fun of me (told me I put racing stripes on the car). It was a good opportunity to talk about how moms make mistakes, too (the boys were in the car with me when it happened. **** sigh **** I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to have it looked at and hopefully it'll be good as new before I know it.

1 Week Later

Do you think Miss Daisy has settled in? This is Daisy hanging out with the boys in the living room tonight while they were watching The Disney Channel. She's such a stinker and right before I took this picture, she was trying to bite their hands. She's already getting bigger and we've only had her one week!

Happy Halloween!

Whew! I'm actually glad it's over! I look forward to Halloween every year because I loved it as a kid and I love going trick or treating in our neighborhood. After school, we carved our pumpkins and got them situated on the front stoop. Around 6:30, the boys got dressed up and we walked around the neighborhood with two other friends & one other mom. We ran into so many friends & neighbors, which is always fun. Andrew had to show off his "wings" that popped out for everyone. lol. Jim stayed home and gave out candy. We guestimated that he gave out about 70 candy bars this year with plenty of leftovers (like I need all of that in the house? Ha). I'm posting a few pictures including one of Daisy since she had to get in on the Halloween action. :)

She's into everything!

Daisy is into everything! She's such a social girl and wants to be in the thick of everything. If she can't get up by herself, she will climb up me (by holding onto my clothes). This is Daisy with Jim last night - she was literally falling asleep on her feet, but wouldn't go lie down in her bed. She had to stay where everyone else was. Too cute!

Look where I found Daisy Jane...

She was sleeping with Matthew! I couldn't resist going downstairs, grabbing my camera and snapping a picture. She loves to snuggle! The best part is that Matthew has never really been "sure" about having a cat and he's not a huge fan of dogs. Today, he really seemed to bond with Daisy and to see the smile on his face, earlier in the day, when she was playing with him & allowing him to pet her was priceless. I bet they become fast friends! :)

Learning Mommy's Bad Habits Already

Lookit Miss Daisy Jane wanting to do everything I do today. She's figured out how to get up on the computer all by herself and has even tried out the keyboard. She wanted up on the counter to see what I was doing when I was trying to scrapbook. She's a very curious girl. :)