365 Week Four Recap!-Snapshot Saturday

22. Party Prepping, Cookie Baking, & Actually Getting Along 

23. Family, Friends, & Celebration 

24. Colorful, Lost in the Crowd, & One of a Kind

25. Arts & Crafts, & Sibling Fun

26. Annoyed, Disgusted, & Sick of Snow

27. 18 inches, Trapped plows, & Everyone walks

28. Nap time, A tired Mom, & Finger Paints

No more snow please!

This has been one hell of a snowy Winter in the North East, with record totals for the month of January. I am beyond sick of it. Especially since I've yet to get my photo of the snow coming down. Just can't seem to capture it. Really ticks me off...

Anyway, this last storm that hit (18 inches here, on top of the few feet of snow already on the ground....) had brought me entire street closer together. I do not have neighbors who talk to each other unless it's to complain about noise or parked cars. Or children. Yesterday, not a car or foot print had even touched the snow at 9:45 am. Shocking, right? Then when the plow did come he got stuck. 10 or so of my neighbors were outside digging out cars. Sidewalks. Even the street. Hell, even the plow! Then for the first time in my life, I saw a plow driver get out and shovel! The neighbors and the plow dude came together, moving the snow that has taken over the cul-de-sac this past couple of weeks, and moving the cars that prevented the plow from doing it's job to the fullest. Unfortunately they didn't pay such close attention to the rest of the street and now my dead end, narrow road is one lane only. With no where to pull over. I'm waiting for a disaster here..

Anyway, like I said neighbors pulled together. Talking, laughing, and of course, bitching about the snow. People helped each other move cars and snow. I swear, nothing brings people closer than a big storm. I took a walk, with camera slung around my neck to the corner. A normally 5 minute walk took an 30 minutes. Yep, it took me an hour to get to the corner and back! I talked to so many people. People assumed because I had my telephoto lens, that I knew what I was doing. People, who are usually rude and bitchy, actually moved out of my way so I could get the shots I was aiming for. Wow. Even more shocking!

The coolest part of the whole day has to be the mountains of snow, some as high as street signs, some even higher. And then the sun came out and we saw blue skies! And, even more exciting about the giant piles of snow, it was perfect for making slides out of it, and sliding down. All without a sled. Oh yes, my boys loved this! And, lastly, this was the first snow that Bailey actually enjoyed, at least now that she finally figured out walking in her snowsuit.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

365 Week Three Recap!-Snapshot Saturday

365 Week Two Recap!

(Click to Enlarge)

We two was filled with cold, snow, sickies, laundry. You know, just plain life.

Saturday we went out to play in the snow, came in had hot chocolate and soup for lunch.

Then the sickies kicked in full force. Friday afternoon, Bailey had the pukes and shits. Saturday morning, the hubs did. I thought it was a food issue, as the boys and I were fine. At least at that point. 

About a half hour after lunch, Thomas got sick, and stayed sick until late Sunday. Saturday night, after bedtime, it hit me. And in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Collin got struck with the evil forces of this stomach bug. 

Monday, at lunch time, I finally felt good enough to actually eat something and made two amazing buffalo chicken wraps. Oh my! HEAVEN! Tuesday we tackled 3 weeks of laundry, plus all the vomit covered towls and sheets. I ended up folding laundry from 2 pm until bedtime. Wow!

Late Tuesday night, the big snow started falling. We woke to 30 inches of powder on the ground. The kids spent most of the morning staring out the window, waiting to go out and play. All three with their hats on.

On Thursday I could not get a picture I thought I'd like to post. I ended up standing behind the hubs on a chair, while he was cooking, and snapping a quick photo of him in action.

Friday morning it was FREEZING and we had to leave early to bring Thomas to school and get to Collin's last speech therapy session and I found perfect icy flakes on the windshield.

It was a typical week in our household, with just a bit more snow and cold than usual.

To follow my 365 project on a daily basis, head on over to The Unexpected 365!

Yes, Collin is about to turn 3. Three? How did that happen? Crazy to think that the year he was born changed our lives so much. We are still struggling to get back to where we were before his birth, 3 years later.

Photo courtesy of TheUnexpected365.blogspot.com

Small, sweet, Collin has learned such an amazing amount of new things since his last birthday. One year ago, he only pointed and grunted to communicate with us. Six months ago he had a vocab of about 20-30 words. Now?
Just this moment, while sitting here type this I've heard, "No, Mommis (Thomas) it my turn." "I shoot you boss." "I running around." "Stop it." And he is still talking!

We just had Collin's speech eval a couple of weeks ago. He has been receiving speech therapy over the past eight months through our state's Birth to Three program, and it has helped tremendously. The evaluation was to determine if he would qualify for other services after his 3rd birthday. While we still have a long ways to go with his articulation, we are so pleased to say, he no longer needs help. This coming Friday will be Collin's very last speech session. Wow.

We have received the results, and my not quite three year old has the intelligence level of a 54 month old. What? A four and a half year old? My boy? Wow. He does have the articulation of an eighteen month old still though, which is what we need to work on. He cannot make a "k" sound in the beginning of a word and will substitute a "d" sound. He has a frontal lisp, and another "thing" I cannot remember the name of. But he is doing great. Over the next two months we have to work on phonics, letter sounds, pronounciation, all the fun stuff. We have two months to work on this. In two months time, if he has made an expected amount of improvement we will move on to get him ready to start preschool in the fall. Yea, preschool! I cannot believe he is almost old enough for preschool! If he has not made enough of an improvement he will receive speech services while he is at school.

Now, I just mentioned Collin has the intelligence level of a 4.5 year old. I wanted to share a few things Collin has been doing around here. Let me preface by saying, I have not done any drills with him to be able to do these things. Nothing. Like potty training, I've let him lead me, and when I've seen an interest or him beginning to do something, I jump in to help. No sitting at a table doing these things over and over again. Just him starting and me assisting.

A few months ago, Collin had started tracing. He was tracing his name, all 26 letters of the alphabet, numbers 0-9, coloring book pages, everything he could. Two weeks ago, while at the doctors office I wrote the alphabet on the paper that was on the exam table, for him to trace. Instead of tracing, Collin shocked me and wrote the letters underneath my alphabet. Talk about impressed. When we got home and were doing homework with his big brother, Thomas, I wrote his name on our dry erase board for him to look at, and spelled it out a few times, then went back to Thomas. When I looked back over to him, this is what I saw:

(Click to Enlarge to see what Collin was working on.)

Yes, my not-quite-three year old wrote this. Not perfect, one 'L' looks like an 'r', but amazing for his age, especially with his speech history. And H L L O, awfully close to "hello". Yea, I'm a very proud mommy. 

A few days ago, he did the whole alphabet for me, and we went over letter names. 

We got Collin a little workbook for him to do while Thomas does his homework. Just tonight, Collin spent over 30 minutes working on his "homework." The first few pages, where just tracing lines and scribbling. Then he worked on the letters A and B. Here is his "B" page:

I mentioned Collin will be going to preschool. We sent his application for Thomas' school out last week. We are fortunate to have sibling and neighborhood preference, and the pre-k-3 program is a lot easier to get in than pre-k-4 or kindergarten, so we are pretty sure he'll get the spot. It will be full day, 9:15-3:25, 5 days a week. They will instill the same beliefs they are instilling in Thomas, and Collin is already working on reciting the school motto. "Be kind. Be courteous. Always do your best. And always ask for help."

I still can't get over him turning three. I still regret not remembering so much of his 1st year, but I think with this last year, I've made it up to him. Collin and my relationship has changed so much this year. He clearly adores me. He hugs me and kisses me randomly through out the day. He has been known to run out of his room in the middle of the night to come find me to tell me he loves me. And to steal something from the pantry. His imagination is already right up there with his brother, who he loves to play with. And he has even become quite the big brother these past 12 months. He loves to play babies with his little sister, or to help her play with the boys. He is just an all around great kid. 

And boy do I love him. 

GoodBye 2010

I know I'm a day early and all, but based if my recent blogging habits say anything, it's that I have tons of idea's but haven't been posting. So while it's on my mind, let me write it down.

2010 was a very strange year all and all. We were newly living in a new, tiny apartment. Had a 3 month old baby girl. Dealt with a lay off already lasting way too long. Hubby went back to work. I quit my job. Stayed asleep more than awake for the first four and a half months of the year. Collin started speech therapy. Thomas "graduated" preschool. Bailey learned to crawl. Hubby got laid off again. Thomas started kindergarten. Bailey learned to walk. Hubby went back to work. And Collin only has one speech session left. And we had the very best Christmas ever.

Here are my personal top 10 blog posts from the year:
(All Clickable, links are showing like text....

1. Continuing the Fight
2. While She Eats
3. My Babies
4. Nursing in Public: Women's right or bad taste?
5. Mommy Why? -A Way Back When-sday Post
6. Behind Blue Eyes
7. A Letter From Bailey
8. Sweet Dreams, My loves.
9. Five
10. Us Parents Need To Hug Our Children

This year I have seen my daughter change from a tiny little blob, to an amazing little girl. I've seen my youngest son go from an intelligent little boy who could not express himself with words, to a little boy who always has something to say. I've watched my oldest child go from being pure and innocent to asking questions I'm not quite ready to answer. I've seen my husband suffer and struggle, wanting to just be able to provide his family with the best or to run away in fear of coming up short. My family of 5 is forever changing, growing, and loving. In the beginning of the year I struggled just trying to care for my three children, wondering how I could ever manage. Now, I can't imagine it being any other way.

Please take a moment to reflect on the past year, remember the good, the bad, the love, and the fun. Remember it all. Do all you can to make 2011 the best you can. And remember, to check our my other blog during the new year, where I will try to do a 365 photo project.

And now, I will leave you with my favorite photo's from 2010..

click to enlarge

 

 

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20 lbs GONE!

On October 6th of this year, I was 204 lbs. 

These photo's were taken 11 days later at 199.5 lbs.

As of yesterday, December 6th, exactly 2 months later I've lost........

20 lbs!

My very 1st mile on the treadmill, took me over 20 minutes.

Yesterday I did my shortest mile yet, 12:20 minutes! It was hard but I pushed through it!

I haven't been tracking my calories, but am still following portions listed on the packages. 

I still cannot believe my "old" size bowl of ice cream was four times the recommend serving size.

I am still hitting the gym a minimum of four times a week, plus working out with the Wii Fit Plus, Wii Active, and Golds Gym Cardio Workout. 

Now, I am just 5 lbs away from leaving an "obese" BMI and moving to the "over weight" catagory.

It hurts to be excited about being "over weight," but I'll take "over weight" over "obese" any day!

Christmas Cards

Seeing as yesterday we put our tree up, I thought it was the perfect time to take Christmas card pictures.

What I learned is, with kids, a 1/60 shutter speed is not at all fast enough. Especially in low-light conditions. I ended up having to set up a lamp with a huge piece of white paper behind it and still, they stink...

Now to decide, what photo's, what card, and where to get them made.

 

Shutterfly is currently offering free Christmas cards to bloggers! Can you believe that? So of course I am hoping to get those ones, the card choices are gorgeous! So many options, many you can add way more than one photo! 

These are a a few of the cards I am interested in since I still have so many photo's I want to use, including a photo of the kitty, or try to get one of Tom and I, I just know I need to get these done and here before the 12th!

SO MANY CHOICES!

Wordless Wednesday-Pretty in Purple

Way Back When-sday! (A wedding!)

It just hit me. I don't think I ever shared my wedding pictures here. Not that they are all that great. All taken with regular old fashioned one click film camera's. I still deeply regretting not having budgeted a wedding photographer. It is heart breaking to know I have no nice formal photographs from my wedding. It also stinks I don't remember all that much.



The few bits and pieces I do remember:

The Hubs repeating my vows after he had already said his and the JP, him, and I giggling.

My father drove me to the hall we were wed in, I was in the backseat. As we were pulling in front of the venue, my father and Made of Honor, my sister, started screaming at me to get down. Hubs was in the parking lot. I looked right at him and didn't recognize him. For a man who does not dress nicely at all, he looked amazing in his tux. The love had felt prior to that 1st moment I saw him at our wedding couldn't compare to the amount of love and lust I had at that exact moment.

Before my father and I could walk down the aisle we were both crying. Happy tears of course, but yes, we were both blubbering babies. And to think, we had just told my mother not to cry!

My ring bearer refused to walk down the aisle and his mother ruined the outfit we bought her by covering it with a black and white coat even my mother in law wouldn't wear. (my sister in law owns nothing nice, let alone formal)

My father in law, looked so handsome. I had never seen him "dressed up" before. He is such a sweet, caring, funny, weird man and before this day I didn't realize how much the hubs was like his father. He really is. In a good way.

Our first dance, to Led Zeplins "Thank You" was so awkward! Hubs and I do not dance. Just going in circles for what seemed like forever with everyone staring was so, so strange. And that is a long song!

Dancing with my father to "Butterfly Kisses" (Of course, what else) was actually much more relaxed. We laughed, we cried, he told me he was sorry for not being a good father to my siblings and I. That was the first day he really spoke to me about my soon to be first born. I will cherish that conversation forever.

After the wedding, Tom and I were supposed to find a hotel along route 1, then head into New York City in the late morning. We ended up getting lost and finding the "Rodeway Inn" around 4 am, after 6 hours of driving. Mind you, to get anywhere in our state takes less than two hours in traffic. This was 10 pm to 4 am! It was an over priced cheap motel.

We didn't have money for a real honeymoon. At all, as we were saving for Thomas' birth. We went to a NYY baseball game. It was also Mother's Day. I got a card for mother's day that year though I was only 5 months pregnant.

When looking back at the pictures of our wedding day, while it does upset me they're not the greatest pictures, they do show the happiness the hubs and I felt that day. Even if we are arguing and fighting about the most mundane things, looking back on the photographs from our "pre-children" days, especially our wedding pictures instantly reminds me why I am here with him right now. Looking at each photograph over the past ten and a half years I see so much love, happiness, and fun.