Crazy Book

Ok so I have been reading the Twilight series. I read the first three books in about two weeks and then I did not have the fourth. {I am a person who has to read every night before bed. It has never mattered if it was 9pm, 10pm 2am...if I was utterly exhausted or maybe even that one time I had too many glasses of wine} :) so, I did not have the 4th book yet and planned on getting it the next day. So, in the mean time, I picked up another book on my nightstand, *The Shack* {which was a great book by the way}, and for some odd reason it took me forever to read it?! But I bought *Breaking Dawn* the next day nonetheless. Well, 3 weeks later it's Christmas and I got a new book by James Patterson {whom I read WAY TOO FAST} instead of picking up *Breaking Dawn*, I read *Cross Country * (good book, typical Patterson with way too much intriguing violence with a somewhat happy ending). Now,FINALLY, I pick up the 4th and final book in the Twilight series and once again I am sucked right in! Bella is Bella and crazy with the vampire sex thing and yadda yadda yadda I don't want to give too much away if you haven't read it BUT (this is what I have been trying to get at with all this other rambling) it is giving me NIGHTMARES!!! Crazy Bella's Baby and I am having Nightmares! I never have nightmares about books...what the heck is going on! In my nightmares, I am being hunted by some crazy thing that is trying to kill me! Anyone have an interpretation of this dream for me????? HA! :)

I {heart} this boy!

I walked into my room today to find this. It was so dang cute to see Garrett 'reading' a book to Steve {the cat}. But even better was the actual book Garrett picked out to read to him, "If you give a cat a cupcake"! I think my heart melted.

History. Hope. How far we've come.

We witness history today. We have seen an unprecedented moment in our lifetime that I am not sure any of us, not that long ago, thought we would see.

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics".
-The 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama

Here's to Hope. and Hard work. 1.20.09 Hoo-Rah!
~side note~ {He's a lefty!!}

Mateo turns 3

Garrett's little friend, Mateo, turned 3 on Christmas day but instead of confusing the little guy his parents had a party last weekend. It was fun. Three year olds doing what they do best...eat cake, open presents, and then fight over who can have all the toys. Happy 3rd Birthday Mateo!

Winter Wonderland

It snowed again here in Cleveland today. I think it's been snowing for a week straight now, unbelievable. It has snowed so much this week even I got the snowblower out and used it all by myself. {You should have seen Garrett's face when I told him I was going to use the snowblower. He said "YOU MAMA?" with a little smirk on his face}
So out the boys went again this morning to snowblow not only ours, but 2 maybe 3 other neighbors out from the snow we are getting. Ugh! Cleveland winters are so much fun! :)

Christmas in New Hampshire

We were in NH for Christmas and New Year's this year (as we have been every year)it was a lot of fun. I took a million, well actually I took 841 pictures while we were there. I will not post all of them but I will post a bunch from different days we went out and had fun. Christmas was great. We spent it at my sister, Rita and her husband Oliver's house with their 2 kids. They are just so funny with Christmas and get sooOOoo excited about it that it makes me laugh every year. A true delight of the day. Garrett really seemed to 'get it' this year. He knew Santa was coming and when Alex woke us up (at 7:30am this year not 5am yipee) Garrett yelled "Mama get up. Santa came to see us"! The presents were opened once again in record time and everyone was happy with what they got. My parent's came over in the morning to see everyone too. My parents and other sister and family came over later in the morning. We had not seen them since we arrived in NH so it was great to see them so early in the morning! It was a great Christmas.


We used to have a tradition of the whole family (cousins included) going skiing on December 26th when we were growing up. We have now started up this tradition again since all of the kids are old enough to go now. We even put Garrett on skis this year and he LOVED it. He was particular about his helmet color and did not want to start on the kiddie slopes. Nope not my child. He wanted to ride on "that" he said...yup, the chair lift. First time on skis, he could stand and that's about it, and up he went on the chair lift to the top of the mountain. My brother-in-law was so nice and took him down the slope with Garrett between his legs holding on to the ski pole. It was such a moment in my life that I almost started crying. Garrett had a smile from ear to ear.

Another day we went bowling. It was fun and something we have done a couple of times with all the kids. Garrett had no interest because he liked the arcade much better.


New Year's eve was great fun too. Wolfeboro (the town my family lives in) puts on a great First Night. We started the day out with face painting and then went to see a couple of shows. One was a drumming group and the other a juggling show. We made masks and Garrett had his face painted with a butterfly. It was so cute. Then we went to the parade and fireworks. This was Garrett's first time seeing actual fireworks so he was very excited.

Once again we had a wonderful time and everyone gave us great hospitality. Home cooking from both Mom's and visiting with our family is always so nice. We miss you all already and can't wait to see you again soon.

Time Flies!

We have been out of town visiting our families for the last 10 (or more) days in New Hampshire. I have lots and lots of photos and stories about our trip...but I wanted to share this picture. Garrett was so excited to meet Santa. We walked in to where Santa was sitting, Garrett handed me his hat and mittens, walked right up to Santa {with hand on hip} and says "What are you doing here?" It was the 22nd of December and Garrett knew Santa was suppose to be at the North Pole working on getting all those toys ready to be delivered... You just never know what is going on in that head of his! :)

more to come soon! Happy New Year!