Happy New Year - Toddler Style

I took the fabulous little Miss Rowan to the Children's Museum Of NH today for their annual New Year's bash for kids. It was super cute... they handed out noise makers, had a "make your own New Year's hat" room, and champagne glasses full of ginger ale.

At noon, they had a big countdown with a giant clock and a dropping disco ball to ring in the "New year" a bit early. It was so cute... all the kids were so excited, jumping up and down and playing their noise makers. Rowan seemed a bit overwhelmed by it all but after when we were eating lunch, she said.."Thank you mama... thank you for the party."

She's always so thankful. hahaha

Until Death do us Part

I had a conversation with the hubs the other night about marriage. We were watching Food network and the Ace of Cakes fella had made a cake for a couple's 50th wedding anniversary.

After doing some math in my head, which I'll admit took me quite some time, I figured out that we'd be 77 years old when we hit that milestone. 77 years old.

This just got me thinking about us, and our marriage. I really can't imagine spending my life with anyone else... When I think of Barney and I, I think of forever. I can't think of a single thing that would ever make me want to end our marriage... well aside from him having an affair... but Barney is a good honest man, and although his eyes may stray... I know his heart never will. And even through something like that, I can honestly say that I would put effort into working things out if he told me he was still in love with me. When I said "through good times and bad" I meant it.

So I asked him...."Boo, do you see us making it that long? Being married until we're 77?" I was curious, curious to see if he thought of our marriage as being as permanent as I did... he said....

"of course I do... I wouldn't have married you had I not thought this was forever... and I still do."

My heart warmed..... and I wondered if his ass would be just as hot at 77 as it is now.... hmmmmmm

2008 in Review

Now, for the Year in Review!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Made something crocheting other than a square… not worked for more than a maternity leave type of absence, learned to trust in God with all my heart, gone to Disney, I voted!

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

ha have you see how big my butt is? Damn it… and yes that’ll be my resolution again, nothing like setting yourself up for failure

3. Did anyone close to you give birth
My sister in law had little baby Molly

4. Did anyone close to you die?

not this year

5. What places did you visit?
Disney

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

A job, or a financial way to stay home with my daughter

7. What day from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

The day I was laid off

8. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?

Going back to church, giving my life over to God and being able to trust the plan he has for me, as opposed to the plan I have for me

9. What was your biggest failure?

gaining more weight… damn fat ass

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really.. other than minor colds etc

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Oooh hmmmm… a really good flat iron, I don’t buy much haha

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

My hubs..he was so amazing supporting me through the lay off and the emotional meltdown I had afterwards. He was my rock.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

My employer’s…. 5 years down the drain.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Daycare and mortgage

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Christmas… it was so fun this year… Rowan is turning into such a big girl.. sniffles

16. What songs will always remind you of 2008?
Intergalactic, by the beastie boys… its Ro’s fave and we listen to it daily.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
 a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?
Happier, fatter and poorer… but all worth it for the happier right? Hahah

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
exercised, eaten less, more chores less fun.. I’m such a sagitarius!

20. How did you spend Christmas in 2008?

At home, with Rowan, Boo bear and my folks.. we opened presents and then I cooked a ham supper.  it was fabulous


21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I fall in love with the hubs often


22. What are your three favourite photos of 2008?

wow that’s a tough one. 1… the family Christmas photo I took of us, 2.. a pic of Rowan by the beach in May..she’s wearing a cute little sun hat and a pink tube top style dress that draped over her large belly perfectly… 3… a picture of Rowan on her 2nd bday.. she is bending over and curiously looking into the camera lense.


23. What was your favourite TV program?

Top Chef, America’s Next Top Model, and Whale Wars

24. What did you do for your birthday in 2008?
I went out to the Movies with the BFF to see Twilight

25. What was the best book you read?

Twilight of Course

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Hmmm… Elmo’s greatest dance hits hahaha

27. What did you want and get?

a closer relationship with God…

28. What did you want and not get?

well I had this big plan for my career and how I’d work my way up… I was at the point of getting my promotion and then wham… layoffs… awesome.

29. What were your favourite three films this year?

Twilight, Super Bad (I saw it this year), and Kung Fu Panda.. what is was good?

30. Did you make some new friends this year?

not really..

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

losing a lot of weight… finding a job right away after the layoff or maybe winning powerball

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

comfy and laid back. I did my best to stay out of my pj’s all day even though I was home for ½ the year haha

33. What kept you sane?

Rowan and Barney, my parents, they’ve been very supportive

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

Getting rid of bush and anything that moved towards that

35. Who did you miss?

my work friends.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

tough one.. I haven’t really met anyone… I guess I’ll go with rowan’s new teacher.. she’s a sweet heart

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

God has a plan for us, and no matter how hard you plan your own lives, it may not work out that way. Trust in Him and what he has in store for you, because only he can truly know best… follow him with all your heart.

Kids say the darndest things

Monologue One

"Daddy ro want something else to eat"

"Ok what do you want?"

"Roro pick"

Barney carries rowan to kitchen, and stands her up on the counter in front of her snack cabinet... and yes she has her own cabinet with all her own snacks

Rowan peruses the cabinet.... it is 6:45 and bedtime is in 15 minutes...

Barney says... "hurry up kid, your stalling...."

Rowan makes some sort of tongue clucky sound indicating she is still deciding. She picks popcorn.... air popped kind of course, which is a large project involving the taking out of popcorn popping equipment from the dreaded dead end under cabinet that no one likes to open due to the excessive avalanches of crock pots and dehydrating contraptions that will land on your foot.

Barney.. "no honey, that takes to long.. pick something else"

Anger flares... and a small toddler high pitched voice lashes out in contempt "ROWAN PICKED IT.... ROWAN WANTS IT!!!!!!!"

oh goodness.

Monologue 2

Its 12:30... nap time. I take Rowan up to bed. I am tucking her in for a nap.

Me: "Ok honey... its nap time, I'll see you when you wake up."

Ro "Daddy be home?"

Me: "yes, daddy will be home shortly after you wake up"

Ro: "daddy no working tomorrow ok?"

Me: "daddy has to work tomorrow... but you get to stay home with mummy again, that's fun right? You had fun shopping with me today right?"

Ro: "shopping fun.... roro have fun..." her faces lights up with a big smile full of thankfulness "Thank you mama for my new Erwin.... Thank you mama.. I love you"

Me: heart melting.."I love you to Roro, your welcome"

I bought her a Little Pet Shop pug toy at kohl's while shopping.. it came complete with a pooper scooper, a newspaper with a pee stain on it, and a pile o' dog poo... it was a pug... that looks like our pug Erwin. She was very excited about it, and even put the poo into one of the plastic doggy bags Barney keeps in our cabinet for when he walks the dog...

Christmas in Review

What a crazy busy fun day. It would have been alot better had it not been for this cold I have, I'm at deaths door and I had spend the entire day cooking. The meal was damn good though, and well worth it.

Rowan truly did have a great time. She was so funny opening her presents. She had to play with every one of them for at least 15 minutes before she'd move on to a new one. Needless to say, it took a few hours to open presents haha.

When the power had come back on (see below post) I rolled over in bed and told Boo I was going downstairs to put the roast into the crock pot. As soon as Rowan heard that I was going down, she sat up in bed (she was in ours) and said..."Mama, Claus!!!!!" hahaha So after that, there was no keeping her sleeping. We came downstairs where my parents were waiting (they slept over)and Rowan surveyed the presents.

She went first to the new doll house my parents bought her. Its huge compared to her little tiny baby one and she was very excited about. It took quite a while for her to get through opening all the different rooms for the house.

Santa had also brought her Tinkerbell (the movie) and a set of Tinkerbell dolls/action figures. She's very into princesses and fairies and all that fun stuff.

Another big hit was the Barbie doll and horse she received. She spent a better portion of the day playing with and feeding the horse. It was quite cute.

She also received some books, and some other assorted toys like doll clothes for her dolls.

After supper my parents headed out for the long drive home, and we packed up into the car to head over to my SIL's to exchange presents with her and also my MIL/FIL.

We only bought for the kids.... I gave baby Molly her crocheted Bunny and Toby Jr really loved his Cars movie. Rowan was very excited to get some new washable paints from her Aunty Shawna.. which is good because right now she uses all my professional paints from my own art supplies and they are NOT washable. She has a set of painting clothes she wears when ever we paint... now we wont' have to worry about it :)

Nonnie and Pops got Rowan her very own Hello Kitty digital camera. She is super excited. Unfortunately I had not AAA's to put into it, but once I buy some today while grocery shopping I imagine she'll be taking many pictures of the ceiling and our ankles hahaha

Overall it was a truly blessed day, and we had a ton of fun. Its amazing how much more fun things get the older Rowan gets.... next year she'll be nearly three.. sniffles!!! I can't wait though... this Mom gig is the bomb.


Christmas at my Sister in Laws:

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas morning was a blast! Oddly we lost power at around 3 am, and I laid in bed praying to God that it would come back on, because otherwise we were having leftover Chinese food for Christmas dinner... it came back on around 5:00 am... Thank you God!!! And thank you to the poor utility worker that had to be out fixing powerlines on Christmas morning.

Rowan came down the stairs and made a bee line for her new doll house.... She did really well opening all the presents but it took forever! Everytime she opened a new toy, she would play with it for quite a while before she was ready to move on.

The big hits of the day were her doll house and her Barbie doll horse stall/pony toy.

Now we're all sitting around, watching Christmas movies and playing with toys. :)

God Bless you All and have a wonderful wonderful Day!!!

Video Goodness

Christmas Cookies

Today Rowan and I are home together for Christmas Eve. Barney is working but only this morning and will be home soon hopefully.

Part of our big plans for the day were to make cookies for Santa, and boy was Rowan excited about it! She's so into Santa this year, I love it. Every night as I tuck her in, she asks me if its Christmas yet... I always say, "no honey.. a few more days"... and she retorts, "No mama, Christmas now, ok??" hahaha She can not wait to open presents and for Santa to visit.

So we just finished up making our cookies. Please no jesting at the store bought package. She's 2 and I coudln't imagine trying to make cookies from scratch. She'd probably get bored half way through. With the store bought cookies, she was able to seperate the the peices and put them on the pan all by herself.

Her favorite part??? Eating them of course! We just had some for a mid morning snack... gotta love holiday food!

She also picked out three nice cookies to put on a plate for the big guy himself.. I can't wait to take a few bites out of them tonight after she goes to bed, and to show her how Santa ate some when she wakes up tomorrow :)

Blogging

I came across this here and I thought it was pretty darn funny.

Another Elfing, it just makes me want to pee my pants laughing, its all because of Barney's face

There's one part where he's sitting on a hay bail up high, and kicking his little legs and I just lose my shit laughing haha

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elfed out!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

For Cali - Snow Porn

This is what I woke up to this morning, and its a balmy 6 degrees outside... brrrrrrr And last night we got about a foot of snow. I had to throw Rowan over a snow bank this morning to make it to the car... but we did... and miraculously school was not cancelled.

Covered in white


Can you see the little bird snuggled up in there?


The maple in front of my house.


My kitty Grafton staying warm and cozy while enjoying views out the window.

Christmas Kitty

Grafton Kitty getting festive. :)

Weekend in Photos

Chilling out in our jammies Saturday morning, after sleeping in until 8:00! Thats an all time record for us.



She loves these fleece jammies, made for her by Barney's grandmother.




This is Rowan this morning, she is playing with my very expensive white gold hugs and kisses bracelet. She insists its a snake, and that I should not touch it, because he will bite me.



She insisted that Daddy's jacket was a race car firesuit. She wore it around the house telling us she was driving a race car. Barney's fire suit has a strip across his chest, so I think its the stripe on his coat that made her think it was his fire suit. Either way, it was funny.



And lastly, the best part of the entire weekend. We got about a foot of snow today and I'm very thankful to have a white Christmas!

ABC's

We've been practicing singing the ABC song lately with Miss Rowan. She's not perfect at it yet, but she tries like heck! Here's a video of it... yes she's naked... and yes she spends quite a bit of time at home naked haha no worries, I was careful not to let her flash you.

White Christmas

Well it's going to be white alright! Last night and into this morning we got about 6 or 8 inches of snow. It's the beautiful white fluffy kind that flies away in swirls when you step in it.

Last winter we spent quite a bit of time outside with Rowan in a baby sled, but this year she's old enough to really enjoy playing in the snow. I had gotten a new purple big girl sled for Christmas but once I looked out the window this morning I knew we were going to have to surprise her with it today.

I sat her on the couch and told her to close her eyes, ran upstairs to grab it from it's hiding place, and then SURPRISE!!!! She opened her eyes with a big smile and said.. "mama, its a big one?" hahaha

So outside we went. We were out there for a good hour before she finally caved and admitted to being cold... thank goodness because I was getting darn cold too! Especially after she stole my scarf haha. It was fun though... she went sledding down a few hills and even made a snow angel. My little snow bunny!

Here are some pics and a few videos.

Kris Kringle

My mother informed me today that all the ladies at her work have decided Rowan looks like Kris Kringle from the 1970's claymation movie..."Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

What do you think?

A bunny for Molly

Continuing on with my "home made" Christmas gifts, I fashioned this little bunny for my 4 month old neice Molly. I think its perfect!

You can find the pattern here

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60480A.html?noImages=0

Silly Girl

A few fun pictures of Rowan while we were cuddling on the couch the other night.





And this is after I ripped the nuk from her mouth, can you say toddler crack?

Stolen Craft Project - more "hand" made Christmas gifts

So last year, in Rowan's daycare, the teachers had all the kids make these for thier parents as gifts. I loved it so much and thought it was so adorable that this year we made them for all of the family. :) We had them laminated and attached a small peice of yarn and then she helped me gift wrap them.

Here is the one we made for our own tree along side the one she made us last year. :)

The newer one is on the left hand side :) Her hand hasn't grown all that much. I wish I had thought of it when she was an infant, it would have been cute to have her tiny hand.

Miss Crafty Crafterton

Well as you all know, I was laid off at the end of the summer. And therefore I've got no money to spare. So, this year I've gone bananas making Christmas gifts, and all I know how to do is crochet.. so that's what I've done.

Case in point.

Exhibit one, completed gift for Rowan's teacher, Mrs. Legeuex. A "Fruit" basket :)



Exhibit two, this is a scarf I whipped out for the student teacher in Rowan's class, Miss Sarah. She's young and in college so I thought she'd enjoy the fun colors.



Exhibit three, the burger plate I've already shown, for her yankee swap amongst her toddler peers :)




And lastly, is anyone interested in purchasing this Rainbow scarf? Personally I love rainbows however my hubs seems to think that all rights to the rainbow have been purchased by the gay community and therefore I look silly in it. He's probably right, and frankly I'm quite bitter that the rainbow has been thus stolen... damn you gay friends, damn you all to hell haha

New Hampshire - and the great ice storm

Yup, so we lost power on Friday morning, and we didn't get it back until Friday night. We had no heat though, so we went to a friends house who had a generator to have a sleepover. Rowan was excited because Lily is her BFF and it was her house.. woo hoo!

My hubs got the generator going and we had heat, one light and a TV, can't beat that.... then as we hunkered down for our nights rest.... kapooey! The generator kicked the bucket... so sad.

Thankfully we called a friend at our condo, and the condo's had power back! woo hoo.. its a miracle because supposedly 1.5 million people in the state are without power.

So in the middle of the night we packed up the two girls, ourselves, and all our junk to drive back here for our sleepover.

Its been fun! and now the entire state is coming to our house to use the shower lol

good times.

Basket of Fruit

I crocheted these today also as a gift for Rowan's preschool teacher. I will put them in a simple wicker basket. I thought they'd be useful for her classroom to use as teaching tools and for fun! :)

I'm almost a bit sad to part with them.

Yankee Swap

Rowan's class is having a Yankee Swap the day before Christmas break. There is a 5 dollar limit however which as everyone knows, doesn't buy much these days.

So I created this over the past two days.

A plate, cheeseburger, curly fries, dollop of ketchup and a pickle!

I bet all the cute little toddlers will be fighting over who gets it :)

May the mayhem begin.


ps. the plate is lined with cardboard to keep it stiff.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree...

Over at http://uncomplicate-me.blogspot.com/ there is a Show me Your Tree contest going on so I thought I'd participate. Growing up I had one of those trees covered in tinsel puke, with cheesy tinsel garlands and Christmas bulbs from the 1970's. So when I grew up and moved out, I was on a quest to have a gorgeous "out of a magazine" tree. Now I'm not saying I've accomplished that feet by any sense of the word, but I do have a lovely tree and figured I'd share. I thought the 2nd shot was particularly nice since you can see the lovely New England snow falling outside of my window. :)

Good Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Today is our "getting ready for Christmas" day. We picked up our tree this morning. We got it at Home Depot...normally we go to a tree farm however we had a gift card for the Depot that we used to buy it, so you can't really argue of an almost free tree.

After nap time, and after the tree had enough time to settle and drop we decorated a ginger bread house and then our tree! I also forced the hubs to sit with us and do a cute little family pic... it's our first one hahaha so he really doesn't have much to complain about.

We're leaving shortly for Portsmouth where we're going to watch the Holiday parade and the lighting of the tree :)

Cheers!