december thirty-one

Last day of the year. Wow. Really. I cannot tell you where the last year has gone? It's flown by like you wouldn't believe. I feel like just yesterday 2009 began. Though I probably say the same thing every year!? And my parents were right, as soon as you have kids and get older, time does pass a lot quicker than you'd like. And each year goes faster and faster and faster.

I baked some fresh oatmeal cookies today. They are so easy to make and delicious and addictive.

We played with costumes today too.

Though I couldn't get my husband or Sean to take a picture wearing the 'stache. Mack wasn't 100% happy about it either and I think it may have scared him. Though, isn't this picture just too cute with him wearing it? I even tried to bribe Sean with 10 new marbles, 2 new hotwheel cars, and a lollypop and he still wouldn't take just one picture with the 'stache. Smart kid. He's standing on daddy's side with him saying "mommy is crazy today"...! Oh well.

We played with marbles.

Rather, Sean lined them all up in a straight perfect row.

He did a great job at it might I add.

We observed.

And we smiled and had some giggles.

We checked out the larger marbles that were too big for the line-up.

A very busy day we had on New Years Eve (Day!)

From our house to yours - Happy New Year! May 2010 be a great year!

Mack says hi too! And Happy New Year!

Here is my current progress on my Mara Shawl. While I was hoping to have it finished by the end of the year, (which is not happening), I really have no idea what on earth I was thinking that I'd be able to knit it within a week. Maybe if I didn't have 2 young kids and other priorities, I could have finished it within a week.

I do this every year sometime in December, but forgot about it until today:

MEME

The first sentence (or two in my case!) of each first post of the month for 2009:
January: January First. Wow. Where did 2008 go?
February: Sean is 109 weeks old today. (And getting harder and harder to photograph!)
March: Sean is 113 weeks old today.
April: Raverly decided that it would be a funny April Fool's joke to give everyone a hat.
May: I swore I would never talk about my child's bowel movements, ever.
June: Happy Birthday Madeleine! Hope you have a great birthday!
July: Mack is 54 weeks old today.
August: Mack woke up with 99.6 fever this morning.
September: his morning's drop off for Sean at daycare was a disaster again.
October: It's October first. This means the beginning of the Habs season.
November: Sean is 148 weeks old today.
December: I figured it out! I sat there during Twilight on Sunday night thinking "Wow, Victoria looks familiar"... but couldn't place her.
I love doing this Meme each year. Here's a link to my 2008, 2007, and 2006 ones!
Finally before I leave you for my guests whom are about to arrive shortly, to watch the Habs game that starts at 5pm, and then stay for a fondu dinner, I want to show you my finished objects of 2009!

In chronological order, I've finished: Satellite Girl, Mitered Earrings, I-Cord Necklace, Nite Owl, Caryn's Bridal Shower Afghan, Moss Block Cardigan, Norma's Mitered Square Vest, Chevron Scarf, Queen Anne's Lace, Misty Garden, Rhumb, Ishbel, On No! Not Another Clapotis, Jubilee, Macduff, Desirée's Sock, Sean's Daycare Blanket, One Round Bracelet, Mack's Best Friend's Birthday Blanket, Toddler Tube Socks, A List of Things, Child's Hat, Chemo Cap, Grape Vines, Go Habs Go Socks, Jordyn's Blanket, Bella's Mittens, Hackie Sack I, Mom's Seaweed Cowl, Hackie Sack II.

I am quite impressed with my finished objects for 2009. The include:

9 pairs of socks (8 of which are my own design. I actually designed 11 pairs of socks in 2009)!
5 items that are considered accessories
4 blankets
2 garments (sweaters in this case)
4 scarves
2 shawls
3 hats
and 1 pair of mittens!

I have 30 finished objects for 2009 and I'm entering 2010 with 5 UFO's. I think that's not so bad at all. I thought it was a lot worse, but it's really not.

My 11 designs for 2009 are: Possibility, Grape Vines, Desirée's Pocket, A List of Things, Jubilee, Rhumb, Tastes Just Like Candy, XX XY, Nite Owl, Amelah and Satellite Girl. They are all available for download on Ravelry. Shortly I will have them listed in my shop for purchase as well.

Here's to a wonderful 2010! May all your wishes in 2010 come true! I haven't yet figured out all my new years resolutions, but I will let you know when I come up with them in a few days what they are! Do you have any resolutions for 2010? If so, what are they?

december thirty :: 80 weeks old

Mack is 80 weeks old today.

He's one of my two future hockey stars. He's really gotten the hang of it.

My mom watched the boys for a bit this afternoon so I could run into work today to take care of anything that was really urgent and that needed taking care of. I didn't work last week since we were closed on Christmas Day & we had guests staying with us until the day before. There was a bit of work to do, and I took care of what was really important and left a few things that weren't so important for next week, when I'll be back in the office as normal. It's been a crazy last two weeks. It was absolutely freezing in my office today, but I did get my hands on a space heater. Also, my store manager has fixed the back door so no more cold air should be coming in from now on. Let's hope that helps as well. I can't really work at the computer with blue/numb fingers! Not so good. I am also really happy that I decided to leave the house today with my sweater, because sometimes I don't exactly wear it under my jacket. I did some groceries on my way home from work and picked up dinner for my 3 boys.

Tonight I went out knitting with some friends.

We had a lot of fun taking pictures of each other taking pictures.

I had a really nice time out tonight with my friends. It was a very peaceful evening with good conversation and good food. I am glad that I was finally able to eat food today, as I was feeling absolutely horrible last night. Whatever it was I had, passed, thankfully. I think I must have sweated it out in my sleep. I had a horrible night's sleep last night, but started to feel a bit better upon waking up this morning. So happy about that. Anyhow, I was able to eat dinner tonight, and I worked on my Mara Shawl. It's coming along very well and I am loving it. It's always nice to get some knitting done surrounded by good friends. I ended up taking a Caramel Fudge Cheese Cake home with me. I was only going to bring home 3 slices (1 for Jamie & I to share tonight, and 2 for tomorrow night (New Year's Eve)), but 3 slices cost 6$ each (18$ total) and the entire cake was 19.95$ so I opted to take the entire cake home for 1.95$ more. Smart decision. Yum! It's just heaven in a cake. I'm a huge fan of cheesecake, and to add in fudge and caramel just makes it 150 times better!

december twenty-nine

The laundry it never ends. Yep, everything in the above photo is dirty laundry. I figure there is at least 15 loads there. While I love my front loading machines, they are tiny and don't hold as much as my old machines did.

12:45pm - I had load 1 in the dryer and load 2 in the washing machine. It's never going to end.

2:01 pm - I had load number 2 in the dryer, load number 3 in the washing machine & dishwasher is currently doing load number 1. One kid is napping (Mack), and the other is sick but not acting it...! (Sean)

5:13 pm - I was stuck with a napping Sean on me for about 2.5 hours so load number 2 needs to be re-heated in the dryer, and load 3 is waiting to go into the dryer. I feel like I'll be doing laundry into 2010...!

6:12 pm - I was making some progress. Load 3 in the dryer and load 4 in the washing machine. Though, no folding has been done yet.

I am a procrastinator when it comes to folding the laundry. I resolved to fix this in 2010.

Will you be calling it two thousand and ten or twenty-ten? I haven't figured out what I will be calling it yet, but twenty-ten sounds a lot easier to say.

Sean woke up at 5 am this morning throwing up. He was sick all morning. Tried giving him water & crackers mid-morning, he couldn't hold it down for 5 minutes. He said by lunch he was feeling better, so after giving him Pedialyte every 3o minutes for a while and he kept that down, I gave him some toast and plain whole wheat spaghetti with nothing on it, because that is what I was eating, and he wanted some too. He did keep it down. So far, so good, he was better the rest of the day. I really hope that Mack doesn't catch whatever it was.

Mid-afternoon I started to feel horrible. Cold. Nauseas. I couldn't eat dinner. I couldn't eat anything the rest of the evening. Jamie and I just hung out this evening at home, and I was on the couch totally out of it. I couldn't even knit a stitch. That's how ill I felt. I really hope this passes as I need to go to work tomorrow since I didn't go in today. I didn't go in at all last week because of our guests at our house, so I need to get in tomorrow. My mom has agreed that if Sean doesn't become sick again, she'll watch the two of them tomorrow at our house for a few hours. At least I'll be able to get some work done then.

I really couldn't do any more laundry or much of anything tonight. I couldn't even really focus on the episodes of Gene Simmons: Family Jewels that we did watch tonight. I think I will hit the pillow early tonight and pray I am no longer ill tomorrow. It was just one of those days. It sucks being sick and having a sick child at home as well. I really hope there isn't something going around.

december twenty-eight :: three years old

Sean is 36 months old today. It's his 3rd birthday.
THREE!
I have a three year old!

Sean loves to be silly.

And even sillier.

He requested McDonald's for lunch today.

Mack thanked his brother for the good choice. I would have been happier with anything else for lunch, but that's what Sean wanted, so that's what he got.

After we got in from lunch we put Mack down for a nap and then we gave Sean his birthday gifts. We waited to give Sean all his gifts on his actual day. We didn't really give him any Chanukah or Christmas gifts this year, since everyone else in our family spoiled the boys this year.

His favorite toy was this one. I picked up the Mcdonalds Cash Register back in October at Target when I went to Rhinebeck. It's been killing me for over 2 months not to give it to him already! He loved it soooo much that he didn't want to open up anything else after opening this gift. I am so happy he loved it. That's exactly how I thought he'd react to it.

Tonight for dinner we went to Jamie's work belated Xmas dinner. It was for his job at the head office where my family also works. Since I used to work there as well, I still go to the dinners, and since it's my father's company and my husband works there, I still go. The kids come too. The restaurant we went to wouldn't have been my first choice for Sean's birthday dinner, but it was alright.

Wow... Sean's really 3!

I remember him this small, a few days after he was born.
(I miss those days)

Sean on his 1st birthday.

Sean on his 2nd birthday.

It's been a wonderful 3 years getting to know him so far, and I cannot wait to get to know him more as the years go on. He's a wonderfully smart child and I love him more and more each day. I hope only the best for him (the same for Mackenzie as well) and I hope he becomes a beautiful young child with a thirst for thriving in whatever he chooses to do with his life.

Today Mack figured out how to open my bedroom door. It's over. There are still 2 doors in the house that the kids cannot open even though they are not locked (one of them being my office door - I can't even sometimes open it!)

Tonight after the kids went to bed, I watched Robin Williams : Weapons of Self Destruction. It was really funny. There were some stuff that I didn't find funny at all, but I did find myself laughing out loud while watching it. I definitely recommend watching it. A lot of political (American politics) stuff in it though.

december twenty-seven :: 156 weeks old

Sean is 156 weeks old today.

It takes forever to get a picture that a) doesn't have any heads cut off, and b) Sean is actually looking. There are a lot of out takes before we get 1 good picture. This is a funny one (above) from today.

While I was out today I picked up 2 Pokeballs. My friend had been over the other day with her 2 boys and Sean was fascinated with her older son's Pokeball. He almost wouldn't give it back when it was time for them to leave. So I saw these and got them for him, I will be giving them to him for his birthday tomorrow. I really hope that it doesn't unleash a whole new world of something else in our house. I was hoping to keep Pokeman out of our house...! He already collects hockey cards, I really don't want to start collecting Pokeman cards as well. Hopefully he'll stick to just one type of cards. Sean was fascinated with the fact that when the Pokeball is thrown against the floor, it pops open. Are your kids into Pokeman? If so, how bad is their obsession or maybe it's not an issue for your household? Please share your experience with Pokeman. My friend's son, who was over the other day, his entire room is decked out in Pokeman, his halloween costume was one of the Pokeman characters, and is just completely obsessed.

Today I found the missing phone underneath the den couch when looking for something else! I totally thought Mack had thrown it out in the garbage. It's been at least 2 months since I last saw the phone. Now, if only we could find the original Sling Catcher Remote... wouldn't that be nice. However that one, I really do think he threw out.

Tonight we went to my parents house for a very belated Chanukah party.
The kids got spoiled from their cousins & great-aunt & great-uncle.
Even my mom had a few more gifts for the kids.

Since we were all together we took a family portrait. I think it's been years since we've had a group photo of all of us taken. Though, we were missing Henri, Jenn's son, who was already asleep for the night, so Jenn's holding up a paper plate that reads "Insert Henri Here" - very cute. It's nice to have the entire family get together. It's always fun times. We ordered in pizza for dinner and did a 10$ gift exchange. We all had fun.

Here is the current progress of my Mara Shawl. It's growing VERY rapidly!

I hate taking photos with flash, but I wanted to take a picture after finishing the first ball of DIC Classy, since I wanted to continue working on it after the ball was finished tonight. So above, is exactly one ball of DIC Classy. The yardage is just amazing on these skeins. I believe there is 250 yards in one skein. It's just incredible!

december twenty-six

Today was a relaxing day. I hung out with the kids. Jamie went into work for a bit. So maybe his day wasn't as relaxing as ours, being craziness at the store for boxing day, but it's Saturday. Saturdays are for relaxing. Sean played with his new semi-hauler that he got for his birthday.

We watched some tv.

Mack drew.

I noticed one teeny tiny error all the way down my Mara Shawl, and HAD to fix it.

After some frustration (they say to never work on something when you're frustrated, but that didn't stop me) and a phone call to Jenn for some "talking through" as I'd never picked up a stitch in garter before, I managed to follow a tutorial online and pick up the stitches correctly (it was about 15 rows of garter I had pick up to fix a twisted stitch). I got it. I'm proud of myself too.

Current progress on my Mara Shawl.

Tonight we were trying to think of what to make for supper... I was all out of ideas and then it dawned on me. I was going to try to replicate what my SIL made this past week while over. She made it for herself and her boyfriend for lunch one day, and I tried some and it was really good. And VERY easy to make as well.

You boil your pasta as you normally would. In a wok you fry onions, and any vegetables you'd like. We had carrots on hand, so I used those. I wish I had baby corn and celery, but I didn't. You add in a can of any cream of "whatever" soup - we had cream of broccoli, so I used that, with a touch of water, and you make your cream sauce - very easy. Once your pasta is ready, you strain it, and then add it slowly into the wok and mix it up. Serve & eat. Yum! Simple & Easy!

We were watching the Habs game tonight before Sean went to bed, and while eating some popcorn and Sean says to me "Remember when Egg came over, and had popcorn at our house?". I laughed. I couldn't believe he remembered that. Mona brought Egg over on October 24th, 2009, over 2 months ago! Kids... their memories are just incredible.

Tonight after both kids were in bed and the Habs game was over, Jamie and I watched Star Trek. While I am not a Trekkie, I did enjoy the movie. I found Chris Pine who played Kirk to be very cute, and I like Zachary Quinto who played Spock, who also is Syler on Hereos. He's pretty darn cute himself. The characters were nice to look at, and I got a lot of knitting done on my Mara Shawl. I'm not complaining. It wasn't a total waste of 2 hours and 7 minutes.

december twenty-five

Xmas morning. Ice.
Even my flag was frozen solid.

Santa came last night and brought Sean something he asked him for. (I put it by his bedroom door, because where else is a Jew supposed to be a gift from Santa for a little boy?) Even though we celebrate Christmas with Jamie's step-family, we don't have a tree in our house. Maybe next year, we'll see. I think celebrating all holidays is a lot of fun.

Sean finally woke up. The kid can sleep in. I think he's going to be one of those teenagers that I'm going to have to dump buckets of water on to get out of bed! I can just see it now!

I was shocked to find him in just his diaper, and he was shocked to see that Santa brought him something and left it at his door. He was not expecting that at all. He did have new clean pj's in his hands, but he was dry when waking up, so I don't know why he wanted to change his pj's. He's been quite obsessed with doing everything himself lately, so he probably wanted to change his pj's to show me that he did them by himself.

At this point, he was like "Santa brought something for me? WHAAAAT?"
(The "what" was the funniest part too...) I actually recorded him re-telling the story and he even repeats how it all happened. I'll try to get that loaded online.
I said back to him "Well, didn't you ask him for something?"
He said "Spiderman blocks"

So he proceeded to open the gift.

And was so happy to get those spiderman blocks that he HAD to build them right there & then.

He was super happy. Mission accomplished.

And Mr. Mack was 100% content with playing with the wrapping paper and box. (Mack received some hard board books this morning, to build up his library) (Though, they do share all books).

Mack, who just turned 18 months is finally in 18 month clothing. He's super tall and super skinny. Always been on the 10th percentile for weight, and 75th for height. While he needs the larger sizes for height, the waist usually falls right down. It's been a challenge keeping him dressed properly. This is an outfit my sister got for Sean (I believe for his first Chanukah back in December 2007), well, it now fits Mackenzie.

We had fun hanging out this morning in the playroom. Mack loves the table & chair set and sits and watches tv in there. It's really cute.

My parents came over for lunch today - leftover Chinese Food from dinner the other night. We had so much leftovers that we needed help eating it! Mack, Sean & my mom were having fun talking on the phone, I had to grab a photo of them!

Sean was actually on the phone with my dad, who was sitting at the table as well. It was funny.

This evening we had Christmas dinner at my in-law's house (Jamie's dad & step-mom). It was a nice dinner, my parents & my brother were also invited. It was a nice dinner, and now we're all stuffed! Sean was super cute in his Santa hat.

I got home just before to this picture in my email. Mack left bunny at my in-laws. It's being held ransom. Luckily I have a back-up bunny (which actually REALLY needs to be washed, as well, somewhere his daycare bunny, which also needs to be washed before he starts at his new daycare on January 4th), so we're safe. See, that's why I have 3 bunnies and 3 of Sean's nunu! I recommend having back ups to any parent!

Hope you had a very merry Christmas! What did you get as gifts? Do share!