New Year, New Post...

You are right. I have been neglectful of this lovely blog. However, with the Holidays, and other stuff, I feel that I can come back strong. We had Derrick over for Christmas and we baked, and baked, and baked, and baked. Did I mention that we baked? Well, once Derrick went back to New York and Jory left to spend New Year's in Mississippi, that left me some time for inner reflection. Some inner reflection that was desperately needed. I was able to set some personal and professional goals, as well as to take back the power that I have over my own life. I was tired of the snow-balling spiral of negativity and stress and stress and negativity and feeling pulled and pushed in multiple directions as opposed to taking control and steering my own life through these twists and turns on the road of life. I was able to work through my stress and emotions to get to the real core issues. From there, I was able to set some goals and now have direction in my life once again - FOR ME! I am feeling good and feeling happy because I am still working towards these goals, although I am facing my first real test of my professional goals.

As for the family, the happines wears off on them and makes us all happy. We have decided that once a month, we are going to have a family activity day. Our first one was supposed to happen this past Saturday, but unfortunately, we were unable to get to our activity. This did lead to a decision on what our next activity day will be and it should be good! Tony is well, happy, healthy, and analyzing his goals as well. Olivia is wonderful! She is social and happy and we are planning to sign her up for soccer this spring. She is very excited for this! Mia is great. She had her 15 month check up and is up to the 25th percentile for weight, 50th for height, and 75th for head circumference. This means that she is gaining weight!! She was down to the 15th percentile there for awhile. She is walking, running, and climbing already!

We are planning on our next decoration, which will be either Mia's room, the living room/foyer/stairs/hall, or the girls bathroom. We also want to replace the flooring in the dining room. We have lots of plans and goals for the year.

I'm sorry that this post is so long, but it's been a long time since I blogged!! Please enjoy these pictures! Here's Mia still recovering from her head's collision with the vacuum cleaner.

Mia eating. It seems like all the pictures we get of Mia are in her high chair. The reason for this is that this is the only way we can slow her down enough to get a picture.
Mia wearing Olivia's small fairy wings.The little fairy princess.Playing in the purple playroom.Sharing the blocks.Mia trying to motorboat her tongue and lips.My little artist.Notice the white streak of paint on her forehead.Hard at work, painting a shadow box.Mia on her scooter.Olivia and Mia together on their scooters.

Jingle Bell Rock...

Today we were supposed to attend Olivia's Winter Program. This morning, I was up early and was able to be productive and finish my Christmas cards. However, we had bought 32 cards and needed 37, so I was short by 5 cards and 1 picture since I had ordered 36 prints. I finished my cards, took care of the girls, woke up Tony, showered and went to Target to re-stock my cards while Tony bathed Olivia. I got home at 10ish and sent Tony to the shower after I had blown dry Olivia's hair. We were able to leave at 10:30 to pick up the last picture and get Olivia to her dentist appointment at 11. I dropped her and Tony off and found the post office to get those cards in the mail. We left the dentist at about 12:15 and were happily on our way to the Winter Program. Olivia was dressed to the nines in her christmas dress and was very excited. We made it to the school at about 12:45 and seemed to be the first ones there for the 1 o'clock start. This seemed a bit odd, so we took a look at the invitation. The program was for 10 - 12. We missed it. Oy.....

Pictures: This is from Thanksgiving-ish. Mia and Cari.Jory sportin' his super-awesome reggae dork hat.Olivia and GrandmaNo longer Thanksgiving - here's Olivia with her fairy princess wings and wand. She is very suspicious of other princesses.Mia with her remote. She loves this remote and tries to child-lock the TV over and over and over again.Olivia making one of her faces. At least she wasn't picking her nose - at least not during the picture.This one is from today. I had the camera for the program that we missed and stopped to grab a pic of Mia. She saw me and immediately came to me. This is Mia in motion moving towards mommy.
Hope that you all are having great Christmases so far!

Our 7 minute photo shoot...

So...since we are on a tighter budget this year, we couldn't afford to do professional Christmas pictures as we like to do every year. We decided to take the pictures ourselves!!! We dressed teh girls up, curled some hair, pulled on the tights, spread a sheet on the floor, and tried. We were done in about seven minutes and have sent our "keepers" to be printed so that we can get our cards out. Here are some of the "rejects"......


Olivia by herself with my assistants leg and fingers in the shot. My assistant was attempting to lure the other child back into the frame. Check out the expression on Olivia's face. Oy. Mia would not sit still, as those of you that have dealt with 14 month olds, can most likely atest to. This would have been a great picture if it weren't for the nice view up Olivia's nasal passages.Mia was very interested in her headband - when she could take it off of her head. I'm sure that my assistant was telling her '"no", hence the looking of in the other direction.Mia thought it was fun to pull her dress up and show us all the lovely detail on the inside.Ah...and the best. Mia upset and running to Mommy for condolences.

You will all receive cards with pictures in the mail. In the meantime, I hope that you appreciate our hard work in getting a few nice pictures!