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Coffee anyone? Last night was a late one, although my eyes were closed before the ball dropped! Pathetic, I know. We spent the evening at Joe's cousins house. It was a blast. Today we are all tired, hence the coffee mugs. Joe and I had finished our coffee and the kids were pretending to drink coffee and would clank the cups together in cheers fashion and shout "cheers" lol!

2011 In Review

2011 was a fantastic year! I had just finished nursing school at the end of 2010 and was lucky enough to find an RN position shortly after, working in Neuro ICU. My career has had many challenging moments but I have learned so much in this first year that I wouldn't take back a second of it. An added bonus? I have met lots of amazing nurses along the way and even a few nurses that I will make sure I never become ;)

I started my photography business and although its a slow start I am loving it and hope to continue to make great progress in the years to come!

The kids have grown so much this past year. Veda started preschool and enjoys it immensely. She recognizes all of her letters and can write each one, spells her name, knows her address, and just has this amazing personality. She has a strong personality which I am so proud of but it certainly gets her in trouble at times!

Grayson is my little terror always looking for trouble! He is always smiling, unless of course he is in one of his short lived tantrums...usually stemming from not getting his way! This past year he has really sprouted his personality. He isn't much of a talker but we are working on that. He knows his body parts, animal sounds, and a few colors (so says my husband, but I have never seen him recognize a color) I became slightly concerned that he wasn't talking much but after some advice from a dear friend and a little more work on my end, and less work on Veda's end...he has begun to say more! I suspect he will be a little chatter box in no time!

Joe and I have had time to work on becoming more of a couple than strangers passing at shift change. Our relationship was on the back burner for a while it seemed. I was always doing school work and paying attention to the kids and by the end of the day I had nothing left to give. We have made it a point to spend more time with each other this past year, even incorporating date night at home into our schedule. It has been a wonderful change for our marriage and we will keep making the changes. Sometimes you just need to stop and look at the big picture and see what is missing and make the change. So glad we are connecting again.

We are looking forward to what 2012 brings us. We are challenging ourselves to work hard on becoming debt free, becoming more frugal, and spending a lot of quality family time together. All we know so far about 2012 is that we will be completing our family in June with our 3rd and final baby! I cannot wait to meet him/her! I plan to document more on the blog. I am challenging myself to the 365 project where I will post a picture and a blurb of what is going on in life at the present time each day! I hope to keep up!!

Christmas

I have to say that Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday, its such a magical time of year. I love everything about it. We started a new tradition this year. We adopted an elf, that the kids named Nixon...you know from "elf on the shelf". He arrived the day after thanksgiving and he was sent here by Santa Clause to watch over the children so that he could report back to the North pole each night and let Santa know if they were naughty or nice.
Nixon was a big hit in our house. He hid in a new place every morning, and sometimes Nixon was naughty and got into things. For example he toilet papered the Christmas tree, got into the cereal and made a big mess, and wrote on the kids faces with marker! Silly elf! Sometimes, he even left them a little something special if they had been behaving really well. So much fun! Nixon had to say goodbye on Christmas eve but assured the kids through a letter that he will be returning next year!

Christmas eve we always spend with tons of family at my husbands Aunts house, and we always look forward to it. Lots of food, great conversation, and plenty of children running about! This year was no different. We had a blast. However, I have to admit there was a moment during the kids gift opening that I nearly crawled under the table and was hoping not to be seen. Veda, as most of you know is a very honest, out spoken little girl.....much like her mommy. Well, she opened a gift that was a cabbage patch doll....and the look of sheer disgust filled her face as she blurted out... " I don't like this mommy" Oy Veh!! What do you say to that?? I was mortified. Luckily, her Aunt Heather, who purchased the doll was not offended and explained to Veda why she had picked this very special doll for her. Needless to say, she grew to like her new doll. I had to later have a talk with her about how we need to be thankful for gifts and such. It was a hard conversation because she didn't mean to be nasty and it upset her when I told her that she could have hurt Aunt Heather's feelings.

Speaking of gift giving. Although I don't consider myself to be a religious person, I am teaching my children the true meaning of Christmas. Veda and I baked a cake in honor of Jesus birthday. She was delighted and couldn't wait to share it with family and tell them the story behind it. I'm so proud of her in her understanding of the story.

Christmas morning came fast and furious! The kids were up around 8 and dying to open their treasures that were brought from Santa. We always let them open their stockings and play with the gifts that weren't wrapped until Nana and Papa arrive. Once they arrive, its game on! Veda was delighted to see that Santa brought her a doodle bear and La la loopsy doll that she asked for. Her big gift from us this year was a doll house and she loves it. I am enjoying it just as much as her!! Grayson was really into it which surprised me. When Veda was his age she could have cared less about opening presents. He loves playing with his tool bench and basketball hoop. Christmas was a success!

Hubby is blessed to work in a place that shuts down between Christmas and New Years and has had the week off to spend with family. Its been wonderful having everyone home. We get to enjoy coffee and breakfast together every morning and play with the kids. Perfect in every way. I will be extremely sad on Tuesday when he returns to work.

In other news, I'm in the 14th week of pregnancy and everything is going great. I am started to gain more energy and I think I have even felt a little flutter or two! How exciting!! We found out during my first trimester screening that we are probably expecting another little boy!! Yay!! This will be confirmed sometime in February at our big ultrasound. Nonetheless, I will be thrilled with whatever gender is growing in my belly!

finally, here are a few pictures taken from the holidays!

Christmas already??

Where is the snow??? I am desperately waiting for the first big snowfall so I can bundle the kids up, make snowmen and snow angels, and drink hot chocolate! They are getting anxious as well. I cannot believe that Christmas is next week. I have to say I am terribly behind this year. I feel that I have come down with every illness possible in the last 2 months. I still have ornaments to make, cookies to bake, presents to buy and wrap. Oy! I have some long nights ahead of me!

In other news, I am currently 12 weeks 5 days pregnant and the baby is looking fantastic, fingers crossed that everything remains that way. I have been having kidney issues the last few days and was even threatened with a hospital admission. I have stones and hydronephrosis. The docs are just going to keep a close eye on things for now.

The kids are doing fantastic. Veda amazes me everyday with her growing knowledge. Preschool has been an amazing adventure for her so far this year. She is really blossoming into a little lady. She is quite the entertainer as well. She loves to put on "shows" for us at home. She will come out of her room and sing songs and dance for us. Just tonight she was singing "Oh Christmas tree" while standing in front of the tree, then she kneels in from of the tree, puts her arms out as if she were going to hug the tree and says "Oh Christmas tree, please shine your lights bright so Santa can see" Sooooo stinking cute!!

Grayson is in his terrible two stage right now. He has quite a temper. If you don't give him what he wants he is sure to let you know by stomping his foot, flailing his arms and sometimes even throwing the unwanted object to the floor.We are trying to get these tantrums under control at this point and its quite a challenge. On a positive note he is talking a lot more these days and understands everything we tell him. I was worried for a while because Veda was talking at 15 months. I have heard from many people including my doctor that boys are normally slower to talk than girls. He is starting to catch up and I am certain he will be talking just as much as his sissy in no time. Then I am sure I will wonder why I was so worried about it! :)

Here are a few recent snapshots of the kiddos. They run from the camera these days so the snapshots are far and few between!

Thanksgiving (Way late)

Unfortunately I don't have pictures to share from Thanksgiving. It seemed like such a rushed day. I worked the night before and also had to work Thanksgiving night, this however didn't stop us from enjoying dinner with our families. We drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan to Aunt Mary Ellen's house and had a wonderful dinner and great conversation with loads of family.

The most memorable event on Thanksgiving was when Veda said Grace in front of the entire family. My heart nearly melted into a puddle. She stood at the table with such confidence and belted it out. I wish I had it on Video to share. Such a sweet moment.

Now that its December we are celebrating Christmas and trying to instill the true meaning of Christmas into our children. Veda understands that its Jesus Birthday and we will begin the tradition of baking a cake to celebrate his birthday in the same manner as we celebrate our own. We still get excited about Santa, presents, holiday treats, gingerbread houses, and snow! Its such a magical season and its so much better with Children to share it with!

Guess What??????

Yep its true!! Baby #3 is due June 26th! I found out I was pregnant October 16th. I am so incredibly excited. This will be our last baby so I plan to thoroughly enjoy every second of this pregnancy. I am 9 weeks tomorrow and had my first ultrasound last week. Baby was looking good. Heartbeat was 166 and I have a sneaking suspicion that this baby is going to be a girl! I guess we shall see. I am feeling under the weather with a nasty cold that keeps me up coughing all night and have nausea here and there but otherwise doing well!

Can we say neglectful?

My goodness, what is going on here? I can't believe it has been nearly 2 months since I have blogged. Shame on me! I guess I will start with some updates and add some pictures.

Veda is really loving every second of preschool. She has learned to spell her name and is able to write out the entire alphabet. What a huge accomplishment. She has made some new friends that she talks about daily. She is still quite a sass and has added dirty looks, feet stomping, and slamming her bedroom door to the equation. I am certainly in for it when she hits the teenage years...lord help me!

Grayson is my little monster. In to EVERYTHING. In fact, just the other day I heard Veda screaming that he had a barbie shoe in his mouth. I went to fetch it and it was already gone.....and we still haven't found it...if you know what I mean. He is talking alot more, even if I am the only one who seems to understand what he is saying...lol. He is very interested in the potty, although we have yet to have any successful attempts. I'm not sure I am quite ready to dive into potty training yet!

Joe and I are doing well. I am still having a difficult time adjusting to my night work schedule but its what works best for me and the kids. I am so thankful to be able to be a working mom that also gets to spend a lot of time with the kids even on days I work. I recently started my photography business and it has been doing great (slow right now but I am enjoying my extra time with the kids)ok, enough chatter......here are some pictures of the kids enjoying fall :)