Remembering

It's been a year since my grandmother, affectionately known as Nannie, passed on. She was 91 years old... she had a long, and relatively happy life. She had the usual aches and pains that's associated with aging, but no major illnesses to deal with, and she had lots of love surrounding her. She had two sons around pretty much on a daily basis, the other two were only a phone call away... she had daughters-in-law who loved her no matter what, and grandkids, and great-grandkids who adored her. She made friends easily, and she was content being in the comfort of her home, welcoming visitors whenever they chose to drop by. She did, of course, through the course of 91 years, deal with difficult situations, and tragedies as well; some of the main ones being the loss of her husband, my granddad, many years ago, and the loss of her two oldest sons in recent years. She also had some interesting times which included the many changes that took place over the last century, and she witnessed and experienced many things as well. When I look back on her life, and knowing that she passed away peacefully in her sleep, I don't feel the same sadness I felt with my dad's passing, but I do miss her. One thing that helps with this is knowing I will see her again one day.

This pic was taken quite a few years ago; back when she lived in her trailer. I believe it was either in the late 70s or early 80s. I like this pic; it shows her as I remember her... she was fun and silly, and she laughed a lot. That's a great way to remember someone, don't you think? :)

Christmastime 2011

Here are some pics of Christmastime 2011... This is a long post due to including everything we did the last couple of weeks. I didn't have time to post as we did each thing, so I'm putting it all in this one post.

I took these first three pics the night we put up our Christmas tree. We got it at Costco for under $50. Not bad for a huge, beautiful, fresh douglas fir... my favorite kind of Christmas tree. They sold out of them quick at the Costco near us, so we had to go to another Costco to get this tree. That particular Costco had two shipments of trees, whereas the Costco near us only had one shipment of trees.



See moi in the ornament? I take this kind of pic every year.



We put the fence around the tree this year to keep Bailey away from the ornaments and to keep her from climbing it, which I'm sure she would have done given the chance; that girl climbs everything!



I took the next twelve pics the night of Caitie's Kindergarten class Christmas program. She did really well... she was soooo cute. :)

This pic shows all Kindgarten children at her school... somewhere between 60 and 80 kids; not sure of the exact number. Caitie is on the far right second row on the end. You can't really see her, but don't worry, I got a few close-up shots of her in some pics below...



There she is! She was looking for us when the curtain first opened, but silly us sat on the wrong side... we were told where her class was going to be, which was on the right when facing the stage, but we got inside at the last minute and most seats were taken so we found available seats which were on the left side. I kept waving, hoping she would see us... and she finally did. She smiled and probably thought to herself... "what a moronic mama i have; i wish she would stop waving frantically at me", or somethin' like that. ha Actually, I think she was relieved to see us.



Michael and I both ended up standing for the performance... Michael got it on video, and I took pictures. I headed to the other side to get pics from that angle, which shows more of Caitie. Here they're singing 'Up on the Housetop'.



More singing...



And even more singing...



Still singin'...



I was now back on the other side... Caitie noticed that I moved...



After the performance we gave Caitie the choice of getting a special treat... we thought she would pick a Blizzard at Dairy Queen, but she chose Dunkin' Donuts. She loves that place.



See that fireman there in the background... Caitie flirted with him a bit. She's crazy for firemen...in a cute way, of course. He was nice and said hi and smiled a few times.



I got her dress and the necklace she's wearing at Kohl's. She looked so pretty. I wanted to curl her hair, but didn't have time.



Here she is posing for me in her santa hat and 'shades' that she wore in the program. The first song they sung was the abc song... they did it in a sassy way... acting all cool, and such, that's what the shades were for. Caitie didn't like the moves for that song, so she just sang it; she chose not to do the moves. But she did pose in a 'sassy way' for this pic. I took this pic after we got home from Dunkin' Donuts.



I took this pic when we got home as well. So pretty.



The next day was her class Christmas/Winter party. She had lots of fun. They did lots of crafts and games, ate sweets, etc. They also did a book gift exchange. She got a lot of nice stuff.



We went to the Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo that night. Caitie loves to ride the camels whenever we go to the zoo. I usually ride with her, but she chose to go it alone this time. She saw another girl younger than her go on by herself and she said she could do so as well. Did I miss riding the camel... No! I felt I did it a favor... I don't think it would have wanted my added weight bringing its back legs down to the ground. um, yeah...



Bailey loved the Zoo Lights as well. I took more pics than what I'm showing here... including some of the girls on the carousel, but didn't include them here. Bailey enjoyed it, even though the up and down motion was a bit unsettling for her at first.



We went to a sporting goods store, The Bass Pro Shop, on the east side of town, located in Mesa, to get a free pic of the girls with Santa, but after trying two times... meaning, two trips there, we didn't end up with a pic. Both times the line to sit with Santa was closed. The only reason we went there the second time was to pick up the stroller we left there the first time. We should have known better than to go back at around the same time we did the first time, but we thought it would be okay since it was a Thursday night instead of a weekend night; the line was supposed to be lighter on a weeknight. We weren't too happy, but we did enjoy the first night we were there... the girls got build-a-pet animals, Caitie played a target game, and she wrote a letter to Santa as well. They also rode a carousel that was in the winter wonderland area, near Santa. It had wintertime animals and reindeer. The girls loved it, and rode it over and over again. The animals didn't go up and down, and it didn't go very fast, but they didn't mind. They rode it the second time we went as well; that's about the only thing we did on the second trip.

Here's Caitie on a reindeer on the carousel...



And here's Bailey on the carousel. You can't tell in this pic, but she was on a moose.



Here's Caitie at school on 'PJ Day' on the Friday before Winter Break. It was an early-release day. As soon as we got there Caitie noticed that all the kids had slippers or tennis shoes on... she was the only one with a sleeper with no shoes. I felt like the 'moron mom' for having let her go to school that way. I wanted her to wear PJs, but she insisted on wearing that particular sleeper. A couple of her friends were supposed to wear monkey sleepers as well, that's why I allowed her to wear it, but they didn't end up wearing them. I guess their mothers won that argument. ha Caitie had a good time anyway though, and that's what counts.



We decided to take the girls to see Santa at Arrowhead Mall. We almost didn't get to see Santa then either, but Michael and another lady that was wanting to get her kid's pic with Santa as well, worked it out with the people at the booth, and we all were allowed to get in line, even though it was closed. We were the last ones to sit with Santa that night. I took this pic while in line waiting to see Santa.



I'm glad we stuck it out and got a pic... and Caitie got to tell Santa what she wanted... He was a nice Santa. I think the pic turned out cute. Bailey wasn't too thrilled, but that was to be expected, especially since she won't let normal looking, nice people hold her; one wouldn't expect her to let a big white-bearded guy in a funky lookin' suit and hat hold her. ha They took three pics, and this was the best one out of the three.



We went to Uncle David's on Christmas Eve. Caitie enjoyed playing with this sweet little boy named Josh; he's a friend of the family. They 'played pool' for quite a while, and really enjoyed it.



Little Pool Hustlers... um, yeah...



Bailey played with Caitie's LeapPad for a bit. Pool and video games... gotta love the way the younger generation entertains themselves.



Bailey got in on the pool action too.



We didn't get home until almost midnight... we still had some wrapping to do and stockings to fill. So we got the girls to bed and got to it. I took this pic when we finished, which was around 2am, I believe. We then headed to bed.



Caitie awoke to find Santa left her a puppy in her little stocking. I started leaving a little stocking on her door last year. I, ummm, I mean Santa, put a little doll in it last year, and this year he left a puppy, which she loved. This is how we make sure she goes to sleep right away the night before so we can get the wrapping done, etc... I tell her if Santa comes and checks in on her and she's not asleep, that he might decide to leave without leaving presents. That's when I decided to leave a little something in a small stocking on the door handle. Caitie loves that part.



I took pics while they opened their gifts, but I had to take them fast, and most were blurry, so I didn't include them here. But I did want to include this one... Here's Caitie with a doll she got from Santa... can you see how it matches the girls' sleepers? I didn't notice when we bought it that it matched their sleepers... I had other sleepers I wanted them to wear, but forgot to make sure they were clean before Christmas Eve, so they wore their purple sleepers, which is Caitie's favorite anyway, and I was glad I did when I saw how they matched what the doll was wearing. I even let them wear them to the grandparents house that morning since Caitie took the doll along. Bailey was wondering what the hey was up with another baby bein' in the picture... she was a bit concerned... ha



Here's Bailey with her grandpa... he was wheelin' her around on her new little bus toy.



And here she is napping not long after... near the Christmas tree.



I took Caitie to the little park across the street from her grandparents house... Yes, I took her in her sleeper... we didn't care. It was beautiful out.



I even took her for a quick walk around the neighborhood. She's a bit big for this stroller, which I now use for Bailey, but we decided to give it a go anyway. We looked a bit silly, but we didn't care.



And that was Christmas for us... How was your Christmas? I hope you had a happy one. :) And I hope you remembered to include the real reason for the season... the birth of Jesus Christ, in your celebration. I read books to Caitie explaining what the true meaning of Christmas is... and she even made Jesus a birthday card, which I thought was really sweet.

It's been 365 days...

since the last time someone reminded you it's been 365 days... that's a lot of days... how much is that times 46? I'm not far behind you... but what bothers me isn't the amount of days it all adds up to, it's that you age so freakin' gracefully! That's the woman's job, one of which I've failed at. So stop aging so dang nicely, okay?!? ahem... Anyway... Happy 365 Days, Michael! May you get a wrinkle or two within the next 365 days... PLEASE! Do it for me, k? :)

The girls think it's great they have such a young lookin' dad... they don't hear you groan when they get through riding daddy the horse though, do they? At least you show a tiny sign of aging... at least that's something, now I don't feel quite so bad. um, yeah...

Here's an e-card from 'em...

Click on the 'play' button to view the e-card.

Ever have one of those days?

Caitie's been having one of those school years... It's wreaking havoc on her... See what I mean? She's a bit frazzled...



She's had strep throat so many times I've lost count, and now she's dealing with an upset stomach, which has resulted in vomiting twice, once was dry heaves and the second time her dinner came up. We're not sure if it's a stomach virus or just stomach irritation. Either way, I'm keeping her home tomorrow to keep an eye on her. Each time she's come down with something, someone at her school has had the same thing right before she does... gotta love the public school system.

When I dropped her off at school this morning her teacher gave me her school pictures. I ordered the picture pack that came with one 4x6 and four wallet size photos and a CD. The CD allows me to print how many pics, and what size pics, I want. I decided that was better than spending a lot of money for the full picture packet, which included 8x10s, 5x7s, etc. I think this year's school pic came out better than last year's school pic. She has a bit of a forced smile, but overall, it's a nice pic. I love her hair. I curled it the night before, and the curls stayed in; they were a bit loose, but still looked nice.

Actually, things aren't that bad, the above pic is a bit exaggerated... here's the actual school pic...



Even though Caitie has missed a few days of school due to strep throat, etc., she is enjoying school. I'll be posting about her Christmas program and other activities that have been going on in her class so far this year in an upcoming post, so be sure and stay tuned for that.

*I used a program that came on the picture CD to make the 'frazzled' pic. Caitie approved it before I put it in the post; she had fun using the program as well.

It's been two years...

but it seems like only yesterday...







We miss you, Dad.

The girls took over...

and made this e-card... but not really... or somethin' like that.

Click on the 'play' button to view the e-card.

Say Cheese, Please

Caitie has strep throat... AGAIN! I think this makes the third or fourth time since September. I'm really thinking homeschooling now... seriously! I cannot believe she's had it this many times. She's on Amoxicillin again; hopefully she doesn't become immune to it. Today is picture day... for the second time. It's for retakes and for kids that missed out on the first picture day, which Caitie did due to having strep throat! And here she has it again on picture day; funny how that worked out. But this time she was able to go to school since she started the antibiotics over a day ago. Children can go back to school once they've been on treatment for strep throat for a day or more. The ear infections both girls have had recently have probably been due to strep throat. The school nurse sent out an e-mail again letting parents know about the latest strep throat outbreak and what to look for... ear infections is one of the things to look out for. Now I have to keep a close eye on Bailey. The last time she had an ear infection in both ears was most likely due to her having strep throat at that time. I think we've been to the girls' doctor, as well as seeing other doctors at that office when he wasn't available, somewhere between 10 to 20 times in the last few months. Just guessing... but it does seem like we've been to the doctor's office almost every other week since school started. I'll say it again... I'm really giving homeschooling some serious thought! I just thought about it... nahhh... I'll just stress more to Caitie about washing her hands properly and staying away from anyone in her class who has the slightest cough, and anyone that has a strange look on their face, and anyone who yawns. Maybe I'll just ask the teacher to put her at her own table at the opposite side of the room than the other kids are on. If I try to homeschool her it would be more like noschooling her, or somethin' like that. See what I mean? I'm not 'teacher' material.

Anyway... back to picture day...

I curled Caitie's hair last night, but after the cold, blowing wind this morning, and the taking on and off of her jacket and backpack, I'm not so sure the curls stayed in. I asked her to not run on the playground, or play rough, until after pics are taken, to make sure her curls stay put, but even after asking that, I decided to just stand at the gate with her until the kids were called off the playground to line up and go in the classroom. At least I 'controlled' that part. I don't use hairspray on her hair; I did use a bit of styling cream that Michael got a while back when getting his hair cut, which he never uses... but I used maybe half a dime size of cream on her long hair, so I doubt that will help hold her curls. She should have her picture taken by now... they were to be taken around 10:30am, I believe. I hope the curls lasted... we shall see.

I took these two pics this morning before taking Caitie to school (it was cloudy out, so the lighting wasn't all that great). I hope she gave the school photographer the same smile she gave me in the first pic, which is more of a genuine smile; she had more of a fake smile in last year's school pic (this is where the post title came from, in case you were wondering; if you weren't wondering, well now ya know anyway, or somethin' like that. um, yeah). :)

Such a nice smile.



She stood out in the cold without a jacket on for me to get these pics... I had to take them quickly, after just a few snaps of the shutter button, she was running inside. ha :)

Let's Talk Turkey

There's been a turkey invasion at our house... Caitie's Kindergarten class went turkey craft crazy this month. Look at the cute turkeys she brought home, and a cute little owl as well. The owl was a fall craft. There were more turkeys than you see here, and other crafts as well, but decided to just show a few of them here. All these crafts were done before Thanksgiving.

Her class makes a lot of 'hats'.



I love this hand turkey. It's Caitie's handprint with a googly eye and legs added; so cute.



This owl matches her room decor. It's on her nightstand.



This turkey was a family project. I had so much fun with it. I did all the extra stuff on it and Caitie colored it. She wanted me to do all the gluing... she can't stand it when glue gets on her fingers; silly gal. Some of the orange toes kept falling off; they're orange beads. The red thingy (i forget what it's called) on the turkey's neck are red beads. There is a googly eye. There are pipe cleaners in between the tail feathers, and the brown wings are felt. I wanted it to have lots of color and texture. We were to design it however we wanted. I think it turned out pretty cute. We now have a Christmas Tree project to do that's similar to this turkey project. Should be fun! I can't wait. ha :)

Have any Thanksgiving traditions?

I do, even though it's not meant to be tradition... I end up baking dessert the morning of Thanksgiving to take to Uncle David's (per caitie) house. Michael doesn't like me baking the day of a planned family gathering, my baking usually makes us late. But it seems to happen no matter how hard I try to avoid it. I turn on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for the girls to watch while I'm baking. I must admit, I do love the smell of somethin' sweet bakin' while watching somethin' good on TV. Not that I'm much into parades, but there's something about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that I enjoy... maybe it's the location... NYC, and it being cold there, and the history linked to that particular parade... or somethin' like that. Anyway, I did try to do all the baking the night before... I started to just take the acorn cookies Caitie made, but decided there weren't enough of them and decided at the last minute to make some chocolate chip pretzel cookies, that are actually brownies, but they're called cookies for some reason... don't ask me why... and I decided this at about midnight the night before Thanksgiving. Michael decided it was okay for me to get some sleep before bakin' the brownies... I mean cookies, or whatever you wanna call 'em... and just do them the next mornin'. I should have left well enough alone... they turned out awful! The pretzel crust was... well... there was too much of it! Long story... one Michael would rather I didn't go into, I'm sure, since he helped me with that part. I'll let you wonder about that. ha Here are some pics from the night before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Day...

Caitie makin' the cute Acorn Cookies.



She did a really good job!



Aren't they cute? :)



Thanksgiving Day. The girls were waiting for me to finish getting ready to go. They were already taking a nap, and they hadn't even had any turkey yet. ha



One of the things Caitie looked forward to at Uncle David's was playing with the three dogs. Here she's playing fetch with one of the dogs.



She loves to play pool too...



She usually tries to hit a ball into a pocket by hitting it with another ball, but she decided to try a pool stick this time... it wasn't long before she went back to doing it the way she loves best... ball hitting ball into pockets.



Remember my mentioning our fifty somethin' Caddy last Thanksgiving? Well, it's still at David's house. It's been there over a year now. It won't be long before it's home though, they're almost done workin' on it. It will soon be fully restored. I didn't get many pics of Bailey, but you can see her in this pic... a bit blurry.



I finally got to drive the Caddy. My two girls, their daddy, and their Uncle David let me drive them around the block a couple of times. The Caddy has no seatbelts, the steering is a bit off, and there are no brakes... it reminded me of my '67 Mustang. It was a bit disconcerting to try and stop a 3000 ton (?) (all i know is it's big and heavy) vehicle that has hardly any brakes... I was told this while trying to stop; the brake pedal went all the way to the floor before the car even began to slow down. Yes, it brought back memories of that ol' Mustang of mine. I'm happy to report that we made it safe and sound back to the house.



Another fun thing to do at Uncle David's is play the slot machine. With that and the pool table, it's almost like bein' in Vegas... we were just wishin' there was an actual payout... she kept getting three in a row.



She hit the jackpot (get it? the above pic, and now mentioning 'jackpot'... um, yeah. i need to stop writing posts at such a late hour) when it came to Tinkerbell stuff... one of David's inlaws gave Caitie a bunch of Tinkerbell stuff. Caitie loved it.



And that, my friends, was our Thanksgiving. Oh... I forgot to mention, we did head to Kohl's at midnight for their Black Friday sale. We walked in, and walked back out about 30 seconds later... we should have known better than to go in after seeing the full parking lot. It was a madhouse! No surprise there. We decided to not try any other stores after that.