New Year's Eve...the year in review

Wow, a whole year has gone by and here we are, on the eve of 2009. The three of us are getting over strep throat and ear infections and we are all very much looking forward to turning the calendar to 2009 and welcoming in a new healthy year!

Much has happened in 2008. The picture above was taking on January 1st. I love this picture of Joe and Laina. Can you just see in Joe's eyes how much he adores that little girl. Wow, am I blessed to have such a fabulous husband and father to my little girl. Laina has changed so much since this photo was taken. She is now a full fledged little girl - no more baby. Sad but exciting too. She is her own little person with big ideas and even bigger opinions.

There's a lot to celebrate. My father came through quadruple bypass surgery with flying colors and is back to his old self these days (for better or worse - ha ha!). He was living with us when this photo was taken and could barely get himself around my house. He's come a long way this year. My sister Dianne is a full fledged breast cancer survivor. She finished up treatment in May of '08 and while she's still struggling with some aspects of her recovery, she has made amazing progress. The two of us completed the Avon 2 day breast cancer walk in October, which is something we spent the better part of the year preparing for (training and fund raising). We celebrated lots of birthdays. The first round of SPG babies turned 3 this year which is just amazing that 3 years have gone by since these little people entered our lives. We welcomed the newest SPG baby, Emily in July. Laina performed in her first dance recital at the Merrill Auditorium and is loving her dance class as well as her music classes and swimming. We visited Pittsburgh this summer and Laina met all her family on Joe's side for the first time which was wonderful. Joe and I also took our first solo vacation this year, which was challenging but much needed and truly restful. We enrolled Laina in a wonderful new school which she is really really enjoying. And most of all we're just loving watching Laina "unfold" into who she will be as a person. She's a smart little girl with a twinkle in her eye. She's a full fledged 3 year old which Dianne always warned me is harder then those "terrible two's" everyone talks about and so we surely have our days...but overall she is just a delight and Joe and I always shake our heads and remind ourselves that we made her...amazing isn't it!

Here's a picture of Laina taken today, on New Year's Eve. Happy New Year to everyone. May your 2009 be filled with joy, peace, laughter and love.

Merry Christmas to all...

Laina had a wonderful Christmas. She had but one item on her Christmas list to Santa, the beloved pink kitchen. Well, luckily the big guy came through. Laina got up Joe was downstairs waiting with the video camera and I was so wrapped up in enjoying the moment that I didn't think to grab the real camera. Oh well, we have it on video and I can go back and re-live it!

Here's the stash of presents that Santa left for Laina. He wrapped all her presents in Tinkerbell paper. He's one smart guy, huh.

And here she is with the infamous kitchen. Santa left it in the living room with a big blanket over it and when she pulled the blanket off, she very dramatically said "ohhhh, its my very own kitchen"!

Loving the kitchen. Santa also got her the apron, chef hat, oven mitts, new pots & pans and a coffee maker to go along with all the kitchen food, etc. that she already had.

Unwrapping one of the many many many Tinkerbell gifts she got!
She was in her glory.

And the big surprise was this dollhouse from Grammy and Grampy. We had it all assembled but left in the mudroom so that she wouldn't see it right away. We got up and did "Santa gifts" and then decided to eat breakfast before we opened the "tree presents". So, Laina finished eating first and hopped down from the table and out of the corner of her eye she saw something in the mudroom and went out there. She said "Mommy, what's this!?!?" and when she pulled teh blanket off she exclaimed "IT'S A HOUSE!" We hadn't put all the furniture and dolls in yet figuring she would enjoy doing that - and some things were wrapped and under the tree so when she saw that it was in fact an empty house she said "I need something to put in it!!!" She's been having a ball playing with both items.

Other highlights of the day include the box of dress up Disney clothes, jewelery and shoes I finally broke down and got for her. Generally I'm not a fan of the Disney princesses but Laina has really taken to them so I gave in! She also loves her new puzzles, coloring books, broom & dustpan (she's tidy like her momma), Melissa & Doug pizza party set, baby dolls, Tinkerbell dolls, PJ's, undewear and coloring books and many many other games and toys. After everything was unwrapped I joked that it looked like Toys R Us had imploded in our living room.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

So we hit all our traditions today. Here's the lowdown...

Lighting luminaria in the driveway with daddy.
(so that Santa can easily find our driveway from the sky).

Spreading the reindeer food on the driveway.Posing with mommy.A great pose with Daddy.Pouring milk and laying out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.Santa's going to love these treats.Reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.And a new tradition this year...tracking Santa on www.noradsanta.org.
How high tech is that!

We are so very excited for tomorrow. Laina was exhausted and crashed about a minute after her head hit the pillow. I purposely didn't give her a nap today so that she would go to bed easily this evening but we really paid the price for the nap free afternoon at 4pm church!

Merry Christmas to all.....and to all a Good Night!!!

Family Party in Massachusetts

Laina, Joe and I attended our family Christmas party in MA yesterday and despite the crazy weather getting there we had a wonderful visit. I've attended this party almost every year since I was a little girl and for whatever reason we've not been able to attend the past few years so this is Laina's first time attending the party since she was 3 months old. She got to meet lots of family and had a very fun time.

Every year at the party there are various Christmas themed games to be enjoyed by all. This year the highlight was "The 12 Days of Christmas". Everyone was assigned a different role to play in the song, we sang it as a group and each time your part came up, you had to jump up and perform your role. It was pretty funny. My personal favorite part of course was that Joe and Laina played the role of "the partridge in a pear tree" - - Joe was the pear tree and Laina was the partridge. Every time this part of the song came up (which of course is all 12 verses) , Joe would stand up and be the pear tree, while holding Laina up and she would flap her wings as the partridge. It was adorable! I didn't get shots of every part of the song, but here are the highlights (or low lights as the case may be) - it's of course funnier if you were there to witness the insanity!

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree....

4 calling birds (Joanne, Larry, Kris and Di)

5 golden rings (Lyn, Uncle Neil & Jim)

6 geese a layin' (Uncle Donald)

7 swans a swimming (Marylou)

eight maids a milking (my dad)

ten lords a leaping (me and Tom)

and of course, the game master and ring leader of all Christmas party activities....Uncle Dan

We're Gearing Up For The Big Day!

Here we are, just over a week away from Christmas! The gifts are purchased, the wrapping begins, the holiday parties are going on and today we decorated our gingerbread house!

Here is Laina meticulously placing her candy pieces in just the right spot!

The artist posing with her masterpiece!Laina's letter from Santa arrived, postmarked from the North Pole! The black smudge is just me digitally blacking out info about us! Can't be too trusting here on the web! You just never know who you may find on the internet (ha ha).

And the letter from Santa...

And finally, just because it's cute...here's Laina perfecting her super hero pose!

A Merry Christmas Wish From Laina!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here's a little song from Laina.

Olivia....we posted this one just for you! Laina had SO much fun playing at your house on Saturday!!!

SPG Holiday Extravaganza!

We got together with the girls yesterday and had a wonderful time. Laina had a blast playing with Olivia, Tess, Jack & Riley and was exhausted by the end of the day. I had a lot of fun visiting with everyone. We missed Merce and Shantini who couldn't be there. Here are some cute pics.

Joe & Emily

The SPG Preschoolers and Toddlers

SPG Preschoolers, Toddlers and Infant!
(Emily wasn't very impressed with her 1st SPG photo shoot!)

Fun Visiting

Hugs...

Hugs...

and more Hugs!

Superhero SPG Babies
(GREAT gifts from Auntie Rachel)

More Super Babies!

Auntie Amy - the BEST Baby Wrangler EVER!

Stephie Came To Visit Today!

Stephie is Laina's former daycare provider and we haven't seen her since her last day at Laina's former daycare on Halloween. She came over for dinner tonight and we had a wonderful visit. She brought Laina a Christmas present, this adorable blanket that she made as well as some new hair pretties. I was so touched that she took the time to make this soft snuggly blanket for Laina. Laina has decided she wants this to be her new school nap blanket. We had a really nice visit with Steph and can't wait to do it again very soon! Laina had Stephie reading all sorts of books, building puzzles, playing cars and showing her all her toys. After Steph left, Laina snuggled on the couch and watched Rudolph again. Doesn't she look so cozy!

Trimming The Tree

Laina's been very excited to get our Christmas tree and we told her "on Wednesday we will go get our tree". So, yesterday she and I were coming home from another visit to her new school and she said "Mommy, is today Wednesday?" and I said "yes, why" and she said "we're going to get our Christmas tree!" These kids...they never forget a thing you say! So, unfortunately it was raining here all day Wednesday but there was no way we were postponing the outing! So, in the afternoon we headed out to get our tree. We go to the same place every year, sponsored by the Little League Teams. They have great fresh trees. Here's the play by play:

Deciding on just the right one

It's a keeper!

Stringing up the lights!Putting the angel on topThe first ornament this year, a dancing fairy!

Let the decorating begin!

And we're done!

Every time Laina walks past it she says "wowwwwwww"

You Can Leave Me Here Mommy...

We decided to make a change in Laina's childcare and so today, she started over at "big girl school". She's been with 2 of her daycare buddies since she was four months old so I was a little concerned about how the transition was going to go. Last week Joe and I sat her down in the living room and told her that we think its time that she go to school for bigger girls now and we were all prepared for her to say "no way, no how" and what we got was "ok, can I go play now mommy". All last week and over the weekend she just kept talking about going off to big girl school. The most precious thing she said was "what are my new friends names going to be mommy". I just love the innocence of just knowing that everyone in that new classroom is going to be your new friend. When does that change? It's not like if you tell a 7th grader that you're moving and they are going to a new school they just say to you "what are my new friends names going to be" right? When do we lose that innocence?

So today was the big day. I planned a week of transition visits figuring Laina and I would visit together for the first few days and then next week she could stay there on her own. Well she had a great time today. She painted a cookie for Santa, played dress up, did a bunch of cooking, cut up pieces of paper at the sensory table, enjoyed lunch, met lots of great new friends and the best part - her new school has this huge indoor gym and when its too cold to play outside the kids can go run around in the gym and climb on the rock wall and the climbing toys. It was fabulous. We stayed through lunch and then when the kids went down for nap, we left to come home. My non-napper has been up in her bed for the past two hours napping. I think her new school tired her out! So I asked Laina if she wanted me to come back with her to visit more and she said "you can leave me here mommy". I guess she's handling this transition thing pretty well.

Here are a couple of cute shots of the Queen Bee...