Christmas lights

I love Christmas...especially as time goes on and I can share this time of year with my kids. I love decorations at Christmas, although I have never been very good at decorating. I have started decorating our house and I never expect great things from my imagination, but it sure is fun to do. I hope to pick up some Christmas decorations in Boston or New York this week.
I wanted to get some pictures of the kids in front of the tree. The only way I could convince them was to have lights to play with. I think it worked out well! Christmas lights are so pretty and I think it is so precious to see the way they light up the kids faces.
Clara sure loves Donovan, it is so cute to see how she is always taking care of him, reading him stories and trying to teach him how to walk. He definately doesn't need help getting into trouble, because he does that enough on his own. He always finds something to put in his mouth. I could clean my floors all day, but I would always miss the kind of things he finds to choke on. He definately keeps me on my toes!! I feel so blessed to have two wonderful children who are angels that have been sent to me! They may give me a run for my money, but what fun would life be without that?!

UFE Celebrations

Jeff had a busy day on Friday. After recieving his results he went to work for some celebrating. The office took everyone to lunch and then everyone went their seperate ways for a few hours. Everyone met up again with spouses and parents or whoever was invited for appetizers and some mingling. Along with some rowdy celebrating!! After this get together we went home, only Jeff had no idea what was in store for him. I had planned a suprise party for him. Our whole family, minus one sister, and a few friends were there waiting for him to congratulate him. I think he was pretty suprised and it went really well. It was a great night and I hope he realizes how great his accomplishment was and how proud we all are of him. It was a late night for some one who had to get up and pack for his two week trip to Boston, and then leave shortly after that! He managed though.
This is a picture of him when he got off the elevator at work with the kids in tow.
 

THE BIG DAY

Today was a big day in our family. This morning at 8am Jeff got his results from his UFE exam(which is the big test that accountants have to write to become accountants, they say it's one of the hardest tests out there). He PASSED!! We are so excited and relieved. So after a few months he will recieve his letters and become an official CA and then he can persue the career he really wants. There are so many options for him out there and he can't decide which one is more intriguing to him. This morning he went to work and all the people who wrote the test go up the elevator to the 27th floor of the office and everyone from the office is up there and cheers and celebrates as they get off. Jeff took the kids up with him for his big entrance!! Now the rest of his day is just full of celebrations, that are very well deserved. It was a long 2.5 years to get to this point. I am so proud and so happy!! Congratulations!
 

Clara's Celebration

Clara's birthday gathering was on Saturday. Both sets of grandparents were there, here Uncle Andrew and Aunt Dawn and also her greatgrandma and grandpa Childs. She was spoiled for a little girl but that's what her day is supposed to be like. With not much of a kitchen I decided I would keep it simple and I just made cupcakes, they were little butterflies, but the picture just doesn't show that very well. When we sang happy birthday, Clara started crying, she was so scared!! I felt bad for her, but she got over it once she realized that she got to eat the cupcake.

Sorry about this picture(Jeff took it and didn't think to leave the bald and white heads out of the picture)

She was so cute...everytime she opened a present she would be like WOW! These are Clara's new shoes, she got 3 pairs, pink, blue and purple. All have matching purses, and boy she loves them!!

Here It Is!!

Well...here it is!! There is still quite a bit of work to do in this kitchen, but it sure is nice to have the major things done. It has been a long couple of weeks not having a kitchen and trying to keep the kids out of the kitchen. It really has been a life saver to have my sister in law Stacey so close so we can invade their house. I just have to say she has been the absolute best, she has made us meals, (because our kitchen is useless) she has let me spend hours and even days at her house, but most of all, she has just been such a good friend to help me keep my mind off this disaster!! Thank you so much Stacey!!
The cabinets turned out to be incredible!! I absolutely love them!! The countertops went in today and I sure love those too. I believe now that granite is worth every penny. It is just so beautiful and it just finishes the kitchen. What an incredible kitchen this will be when we are done with it!! I love my new sink...it is almost as special to me as my fridge is!! I can't wait to have everything done!!! I was just so excited about the kitchen once the granite guys left I was dying to call someone, but no one wants to come see it, so posting pics is the next best thing!!


Now all I have to do is get this mess back into the right places in the kitchen...then our house is one step closer to being liveable!!

Happy Birthday Princess!!!

Well, here's my little angel. She turned 2 yesterday. We have been practicing holding up 2 fingers for about a month now, sometimes she gets it, but usually she just can't figure it out. It's so cute to watch her try. If you ask her how old she is she will tell you TWO!!! That's really cute. I can't believe how fast time flies!
We haven't done anything for her yet, because we are going to have a small party for her on Saturday with her grandparents and my brother and sister in law.

It's hard to believe that out little girl has gone from this tiny to this big!!

Snow White and the Lion

Here are some Halloween pics. Clara wasn't feeling so hot, so she was quite grumpy, and she didn't love her costume either. She isn't big on puffy dresses I have figured out, even though all day she kept saying, where's my pretty dress? She doesn't quite get Halloween, but she sure loves to eat the Candy!!! I took the kids to the mall, and she enjoyed it but she had a hard time understanding that when she got candy she couldn't eat it right then. If she had her way it would have been all gone by the time we got to the car!! She did manage to con me into giving her 3 suckers, 3 packages of rockets and a few chocolate bars in a 40 minute time period!! I wanted to make Donovan happy dwarf because he is always so happy and I figured Snow White and Happy was a good combination, but this lion costume was so adorable that I just HAD to put him in it. It was so cute!! I am not sure if lions are supposed to be cute, but he sure was!!
I took Clara trick or treating that night to probably 5 houses, she loved it!! She kept saying, that one? She figured out that every house she went to she got more candy, so she wanted to go to every house. Unfortunately I didn't have the energy to go very far because she was making me carry her. We went to Derek and Julie's house because it has become a tradition with Jeff's family. All the cousins get together and trick or treat. Clara is too young for it still, but we go to socialize, it's always a good time!! After that we stopped at my moms house and she was giving out full size chocolate bars and Smarties, so Clara got hooked up there. Who am I kidding? Jeff and I got hooked up ourselves!!



This is Clara by the end of the night, Smarties box almost empty and fast asleep!!

Pumpkin Hunt

We went to Butterfield Acres for their pumpkin hunt on October 28th. Clara had fun, but it was really cold and she was tired, so not a great combination. Donovan just sort of hung out and stayed bundled up. Clara wasn't so interested in decorating her pumpkin until her dad started decorating it, then all of a sudden she was right in there. Her pumpkin was something special when they were done with it!!
She loved petting the animals, if they weren't so smelly I may have gone in to pet them with her, but yuck!!



Here's the finished project!!