Year in Review

Unreal how quickly time passes as I get older...or, well, technically as McKinley gets older. I've noticed how much faster everything flies by when you have a child. We hold on to each morsel of time as best we can, and this year we have made some amazing memories, had our share of obstacles and enjoyed as much of life as we can.

What a big year it has been...once I was finally well in February (after a long haul of bronchitis)we had some renovating to do. A new HUGE and gorgeous window, a bath reno, a big boy room (sniff, sniff), a new playroom and paint, paint, paint...it looks pretty sweet! I'm proud of our efforts and our DIY-ish-ness (that IS a word...right?) More on the books for 2011...paint, paint, paint! hahaha! But below, our updated version of the post-Christmas playroom re-do. I LOVE how the PLAY hooks turned out, LOVE the new layout of the room (my smart hubby's idea!) and adore those stinking chairs. I recovered them myself, they were a vintage find, rusty and out of the 70's, I gave them new life after removing the rust and giving them a new cushion made of BASKETBALL! Who knew you could buy actual basket ball material???

We had some big festivities mid-year. McKinley was fabulous, best ring-bearer ever...I'm just sayin'. A fun little vacay to St. Louis with the Semmler Family - a total blast for us all and other trips in the works. McKinley's 3rd birthday and party, potty training and starting PRESCHOOL! This fall was packed (seriously...packed) with activities galore: field trips, our 6th wedding anniversary, Halloween and a party, DISNEY WORLD (which I proved I can talk about for days - see post below), Christmas program at school, and the best Christmas ever!

Tonight it is time to turn over a new leaf, see what 2011 brings us. So far it guarantees a milestone of 10 years as home owners, two ten year old cats, twelve years of Lynn & Cary, a four year old who is growing too fast and many other wonderful things, I'm sure.

To 2010, you gave us a run for our money in a few instances (late May was a major emotional challenge and we will never forget...), but we had a great one as always!

Happy New Year!

Lynn

P.S. My favorite family photo of 2010...Disney style! Well, okay...one of like 10 favorite...give or take.

Merry Christmas!

What a beautiful Christmas we have been blessed with! It's white, that's for sure!

On Christmas Eve, my Mom took McKinley out for lunch and to let him do a little shopping for Mommy & Daddy - how cute is that? Of course, he chose the movie "Despicable Me". Perfect! While they did that I did some last minute shopping, made final meal plans and got ready for our big night.

After Cary got home from work I made dinner (we opted out of our annual Chinese this year. Shakin' it up!) and we headed off to Christmas Eve Mass. Once we were home we set out to finish some Christmas cookies for Santa and put his treats out as well as some Reindeer Food and Santa's Magic Key (since we have no fireplace). While we were busy at work the Polar Express played in the background. Love that movie!

When we put the reindeer food outside in the snow, we repeated the little verse as we sprinkled the food around, then placed Santa's magic key at our front door.

Soon it was time for bed and our annual reading of "T'was the Night Before Christmas". We all enjoy that little tradition, I am so glad we started it four Christmases ago.

Not long after that our own child was nestled all snug in his bed...though I'm not sure he had visions of sugar plums, more like drum sets and bicycles - his biggest wish from Santa.

On Christmas morning, McKinley came to wake us. Cary sent him into the living room and we waited for a reaction. McKinley scurried back down the hall and came running into our room, "Mommy! Daddy! Come look! Santa brought me a drum set!"

Precious.

We opened a few gifts then I started a breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls. By the time they were finished baking McKinley announced he was ready for a break from opening gifts. Okay, so intermission? That's our sign we over did it.

Literally, several hours later, after we finished my Mom came over. She and I started making Christmas dinner while Cary and McKinley ventured outside to make a snowman, duly named "Frosty".

Once the boys got warm it was time to eat. It was yummy, but I was happiest with just having my very first Christmas dinner in our home. The carrots, we all agreed, should have been cooked longer despite our following the recipe, we had an insane amount of mashed potatoes. The ham and rolls were perfect, and the butternut squash gratin was different (I plan to tweak the recipe and make it my own...it will be much better when I'm finished with it!).

After dinner we opened more gifts - from Nonna and friends. We talked to Mammy & Grandpa on the phone and played with McKinley's new toys (while I immediately began making a mental plan on reorganizing the playroom - out with the old, in with the new). Everyone went to bed so happy. We had a wonderful day together.

A few days after Christmas we were able to have a little gathering with my Godparents and their Granddaughter, Shelby. We all had a great time visiting for a short while!

More Christmas recaps to come - weather has prevented us from seeing Cary's family. Sure has been snowy this year!

I am so thankful for another beautiful Christmas. This one was the best yet!

Merry Christmas!

Lynn

You can't tell from this photo, but the array of presents start at the drum set and wind all the way back to the walls, under the tree and against the sofa and chair!

McKinley, tongue out like his Mama, in full rock star drummer mode.

A quirky elf, a cute little reindeer and a handsome snowman...

...all took part in some special Christmas deliveries today and had a blast!

I had this planned last year but I was so sick I just could not do it. I was bummed...so I have literally been waiting all year long for a re-do. Much to my chagrin, I totally got sick AGAIN at the first of December...but I am not going to let myself be sick AGAIN for three straight months. Uh uh.

So, I've been tackling this stupid-whatever-it-is like a mad woman and got myself well-ish. I have a cough still (and it's an ugly cough...) but well enough to bake with McKinley and my Mom and do fun deliveries decked out like a quirky elf (or Rockette-wanna-be...) with my family.

McKinley and I started out with Amy and company, at the salon (I adore this pic of Wendi, Mickey D's cups and all!). McKinley samples Amy's in-house cookies with every visit to her salon...so it is only fair we bring her some of our own. That, and we love everyone there so much!

Next it was on to Lincoln's house! Lincoln's Mommy & Daddy were home and everyone but Baby Ollie got in on the chocolate-dipped oreo's right away.

Our next stop was to McKinley's newest friend's house. Isabella and her family were home and so surprised by our stop-by! We also gave them a container of the hot cocoa mix we made for McKinley's stocking stuffers. Emily, Isabella's Mommy told us what a fan she was of the mix, so we thought it appropriate to hand out some more!

We took a break from deliveries to pick up our snowman and hit the Semmler's house with cookies galore. McKinley, Savannah and Austin got in some good playtime while we were there too - always a good thing.

More stops to be made over the next few days...it has been so fun to have a little helper this year. McKinley has enjoyed all the fun things we have been able to do to celebrate the season and as always I am so thankful to be celebrating with my family.

Lynn

Conversations

It is amazing what a tiny little nugget will inspire in the mind of a child. This evening, after Cary read to McKinley, I rocked him for our usual snuggle time before bed. As he gets older I hold on dearly to this special time and am always amazed by how it has changed over the last 3 and a half years...we have always read, then it would be bottle time while we rocked him to sleep. Then it became reading and water time. As he has become so, shall we say, conversational??? it has become our time to quietly chat about something that won't get him too riled up. So, knowing this, WHY did I say, "Hey, McKinley would you like to make Christmas Cookies tomorrow?"
Yeah, I don't know either.......
I think THAT was about all I said other than, "Uh huh" and "Oh?" and "Yes." for the next 30 minutes. And during that time I heard the following, in what seemed to be said in ONE.GIANT.BREATH.
"Mommy, can we have a bake restaurant? A Bakery? And can I invite Nonna to come help us? And can Daddy come home from work and help too? And can we have customers? In the living room? And can we make some cookies for Mammy & Grandpa & Nonna & Daddy & ME & you and...and...and...Savannah? And Robin & Rick? And Isabella & Emily & Ian? And Amy? (which is only fair that he return the favor and replace some of HER cookies...he loves HER cookies)
And can we make a sign???????!!!!!!!!!!!!
It can say WELCOME TO McKINLEY'S BAKERY!
And we can decorate it with stickers and markers and stickers of stars and sprinkles and trains and with snowflakes going all around and around and it will make people feel all warm and fuzzy? And can we bake in our comfies?
And can we put glitter on the sign? And lots of shapes? And we can make it wood with a string on it, to hang it up!
Oh
My
Gosh
It's like I am hearing my own thoughts when I envision a party, a gathering, any event really...
I literally had to stop him and practically threaten to take all bakery privileges away. It took him quite some time to chill from that conversation...oops.
Oh well, we'll be making some yummy cookies and some wonderful memories in McKinley's bakery tomorrow!
Feel free to stop by...in the living room...you can't miss the giant wood sign, hung by a string with glitter and stickers and snowflakes going all around to make you warm and fuzzy...It says, "WELCOME TO MCKINLEY'S BAKERY".
We'll be there!
Lynn

Tea Cups!

Click here to view this video

Okay, finally! I have been working on our Disney slide show and uploading video for WEEKS. Blogger has been a BOOGER so I gave up and uploaded video to my favorite photo site, Shutterfly. AWESOME! Done in 10 minutes. Sure beats the HOURS (yes, literally HOURS) I've been working on trying to get the video to upload via Blogger. Over it.

Anyway, how fun is this?!

PRECIOUS. Turn up your volume.

Lynn

I'm Dreaming of a Preschool Christmas...

What a fun, fun morning! St. Pat's preschoolers, parents and teachers braved the 2 hour delay, snow, ice and wintry weather for good reason today...the Christmas Party! When McKinley and I arrived we began putting McKinley's stocking stuffers in the kids' GIANT stockings. McKinley, Nonna and I worked together to make the hot cocoa mix we bagged with marshmallows and placed inside the "color your own" Christmas mugs for everyone. I tied a bow around each of them with an adorable little Christmas Tree slinky and made tags as well. McKinley LOVED throwing them into the stockings...I just hope they all arrived home in tact!

We ventured in the room where McKinley and his friends began by singing and dancing, jingle bells in hand, to Christmas carols. Soon, Miss Kymberli corralled the kids for prayers and the good times began!

Truth be told it was all kind of blurry, good blurry because it was so fun, but I can't remember if I did our craft then. Hmmm. Anyway, I signed us up to provide the craft for the party and had a lot of fun in my quest for a good preschool craft. I settled on a wooden spoon reindeer and they all turned out so cute! I think the kids had fun...and mommies too...except maybe for all the glue dots that got stuck on each of them! Quickly we moved on to the next thing...SANTA!!!!!!!!!

Santa was a great surprise for everyone. The children were so happy to see him! McKinley was very observant, watching each of his friends take their turn on Santa's lap. When it was his turn he took it pretty seriously. He answered all of Santa's questions in a very matter-of-fact way, and when Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas McKinley very seriously explained he wanted a big bicycle and a big drum set (at which time each and every mother in the room - and there were a lot of us - breathed, "OHHHHH. A DRUM SET????" Yes, my fellow mommies. And I have asked Santa for migraine meds! But how fun it will be to have a musician in-house...look out John Mayer because McKinley can rock it and he is just as handsome! Seriously, I CANNOT wait!).

McKinley got down, took his candy cane, thanked Santa and then requested I take off the wrapping of his candy cane. Ooof. Other children had done the same, so how could I say no? You can see the evidence left over on McKinley's chin/mouth area in the group photos. Nice! hahahaha! After Santa left it was time for treats! This is a special party so non-healthy treats are totally allowed! Cupcakes! McKinley took that very seriously too...

With treats, Santa's visit and our craft over it was time to go. We picked up the GIANT stocking and all headed on our way to send off our kiddos for a sugar-induced nap before the big Christmas Program in the evening. I had so much fun being a part of McKinley's school party. What a great day!

The evening was just as much fun too! The inclement weather meant the Cary's parents and my Godparents were unable to come - the roads were TERRIBLE. Icy with snow on top = not good for travel. So our big dinner plans came to a halt, but Nonna joined us for the program. I got to go 'backstage' with McKinley (THAT brings back many memories of my own stage days) to get him ready. I felt like a stage Mom! hahaha! And I loved it! We were all back there getting the kids ready. McKinley's buddies Dominic and Isabella were PRECIOUS as a cow and an angel, respectively.

Soon it was time for them to hit the stage, so stage-Moms out. Cary recorded the entire 3 minute song while I tried to snap some photos from a mile away (when will I remember to bring that telephoto lens???). McKinley was the first sheep on stage. What a big boy job! He had to lead his fellow sheep to their spots, right next to Mary and Baby Jesus! That's my boy! See? He DOES have some of 'me' in him! He was a natural!

We were all so proud.

And yes, I totally got teary.

I just cannot believe he is in school already.

We let McKinley play in his classroom with some of his friends for a few minutes after their performance and soon headed out for dinner. Nonna didn't want to join us, but the three of us enjoyed some yummy Friday's! Our performer's choice!

What a big day for our little boy. Like I said - I just can't believe all the amazing things he does already.

This has been such a fun Christmas!!!!!!!!

Lynn

Miss Kymberli's 3 year olds: Dominic, McKinley, Eleanor, Isabella, & Valentina

A weekend of Christmas Events

With inclement weather undoubtedly on its way, we decided to make our second annual trip to the Christmas at the Zoo on Friday evening. Along for the ride was Savannah, much to the delight of all! I was pretty impressed with how quickly Cary and I and Robin threw this trip together!

We began our journey by listening to the Polar Express, the we listened to some Christmas Carols, and Savannah even grabbed a quick nap. When we arrived at the zoo, Cary and I strapped the two strollers together with Robin & Rick's handy-dandy-stroller-strappy-things and in we went to the beautiful zoo.

I made hot cocoa for the trip, which proved to be a real bonus for the kiddos, keeping them toasty on the inside. Before we even got inside I was doling out some yummies, resulting in chocolaty mustaches all around. Too cute!

Our visit started at the Oceans, where the seals and sea lions were all too happy to be the first entertainers. What a welcoming crew they were! Savannah and McKinley laughed and laughed as they swam by so fast.

On we went, walking through the darkness and enjoying the beautiful lights - it was gorgeous. We found Santa's village, inside we purchased two cookies for the kids to decorate. Both of them were BIG fans of the sprinkles. Mounds of sprinkles atop a strangely shaped cookie...love it! We sat down with a few other treats and drinks before heading onto the next stop, McKinley's favorite: THE TRAIN!

The line for the train was crazy long, but worth it! McKinley and Savannah insisted on sitting together, which meant a little cozy seat for me and Cary - and a great and rare photo op of the two of us! McKinley and Savannah were snuggled side-by-side under the blankets, grinning from ear to ear the whole time.

When the train was over (and beautiful it was...as always) we ventured to the carousel. Savannah said she wanted to ride an elephant, we found one right away! It was in between a monkey - for McKinley, and a horse - for me, as requested by Savannah. Fun, but cold...that horse was really, really cold. Funny how you don't notice those things when you're little.

Our night was far from over, time for the dolphin show! The kids LOVED the special Christmas show and were itching for the dolphins (or whales, as Savannah called them) to get the 'meatballs' (the small balls suspended from the ceiling of the arena). When they finally got them I don't think two kids in the entire place were louder than our crew.

After the dolphin show we finished our walk around all the pretty lights - I really liked the way the splash park was lit with a sound and light show. Very creative! Savannah noticed a light display of a raccoon, which honestly resembled a cat more than a raccoon. She was eager to point out that it was Valentine! So nice of her to remember our girl! McKinley really liked the 'turkey' - aka peacock. And the falling lights tree was breathtaking and enjoyed by all!

We left the zoo and walked to the White River Gardens. It is always so beautiful, but huge Christmas tree and the butterfly observatory are amazing with the holiday displays. The poinsettias in the observatory are insane.

The kids enjoyed visiting with the reindeer. Savannah said, "Wow, Lynn, they have really big ant-a-lers" How cute is that??? McKinley begged for pennies to throw in the little coy pond. And both kids loved looking at all the beautiful trees on display upstairs.

As with most things the Vernon family does, we closed the place down! The kids were pretty pooped and we were all hungry, so we quickly loaded up the strollers, blankets and stuff. Equally as quickly, we agreed on Red Robin for dinner.

McKinley and Savannah happily drew pictures for one another while we waited for our food. When we were finished, Savannah could stand it no more and suddenly ducked under the table, reappearing on the other side, next to McKinley. She threw her arms around him - surprising him so much he turned to me and said, "Mommy! Savannah is hugging me a lot...really hard!" He loved it. The hugging ensued and a small crowd gathered. Savannah said, "Lynn! Take a picture!" Of COURSE I left the camera in the car...so cell phone to the rescue! Just after I took the photo both kids simultaneously fell onto the booth, still hugging and laughing hysterically. It was a moment...

We piled in the car and settled in with blankets. Soon both kids were sound asleep...a good sign that the night was in deed a success.

Below, some of our fun pics! Also mixed in are the Clabber Girl photos -- the blog is acting up and won't let me put my pics where I want them! Grrrr!

The next morning we had plans with the Semmler fam to go to the Build & Grow Clinic and on to Clabber Girl's annual Country Christmas. The four of us were pretty tired from the zoo trip, so we agreed to pick up the kits and make it a late date at Clabber Girl. My Mom came with McKinley and I (sadly, Cary had to work today...) and we met the Semmler's and immediately dug in for some Christmas Crafting fun. McKinley and Savannah had their faces painted (McKinley, a candy cane. Savannah, a snowman) got a special personalized gingerbread cookie, they helped make a 'mouse' cookie, created an elf out of a little rolling pin, a reindeer out of a clothes pin and made a sweet bottle of sand art and a cookie-cutter ornament. We all had lunch together before Savannah and her fam had to leave for a family gathering. My Mom and I took McKinley over to see Santa. He still remembers that last year he got to watch Santa come back from his break by way of an elevator. This year, Santa waited for McKinley in his sleigh, but was his usually jolly old self. Santa asked McKinley what he would like for Christmas, McKinley told him he wanted a big bicycle and a big drum set. Santa asked if McKinley had been a good boy, he said, "Uh huh." Santa said, "If you get that bicycle, promise me you'll wear a helmet with it, okay?" McKinley said, "Okay". He was a little taken by the red-suited one this year. Not afraid, just feeling it!

Sadly, we had to opt out of the horse and wagon ride with Bud (we've really gotten to know Bud well over the last 2 years...). It was too rainy, but under my umbrella we gave Bud some love...who promptly nudged my umbrella. Hey, Bud, that's Coach...watch yourself! hahahaa! Guess Bud has good taste...

McKinley had a wonderful time at Clabber Girl. I'm so impressed with what they have to offer each year...good wholesome family fun and a beautiful atmosphere!

Happy Holidays!

Lynn