Never a dull moment.....

June does a good job of keeping herself busy....and me running circles. After bath time she went for tights, shoes, and toothbrushes?

Getting Ready for Valentine's Day....

February will be here soon....So I thought I would get ready for Valentine's Day!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy New Year....Welcome year of the Ox.

A week in review.....

Well another week goes by and it was a busy one! I had lots of errands this week and responsibilities at the kids school so most of my days were spent away from home. June and I went shopping a few times this week, she is a good little shopper. On Tuesday we went to lunch at Noodles and Co. where I had one of those great adoption conversations. The cashier was a 20 something young man. I was holding June while ordering lunch. After I ordered he said, "That's not your kid, is it?". I, of course, replied, "Yes, this is my daughter.". It felt so good to say it, my daughter. I know I had a smile on my face as I walked to our table.

WARNING....this post is very picture heavy. Last night Russ and I attended my friend Wendy's 40th Birthday party. Wendy and I have been friends since the 6th grade and roomed together in college. We had a great time helping her celebrate her special day!

Wendy, Russ, and me.

Wendy, Sara, Cath, and me.

Although Chinese New Year is not until tomorrow, we celebrated today because Russ will not be here tomorrow for dinner. I decorated with paper lanterns, oranges, and red envelopes and we had Chinese food for dinner! The pictures below are of June celebrating her day!

Of course a weekend would not be a weekend here without sports. The picture below is of TJ playing indoor soccer. Jake and Max both had basketball games and all three boys spent a lot of time sledding out back.

All in all a good week. I enjoy Sundays because on Monday I get to start over, any projects I did not complete the week before I put to the top of the list and try again. Lucky for me there is always next Monday:). Have a good week!

Simply....JUNE.........

I love this little girl so much...I just can't get enough of her!

Rock-a-bye Junie...

I have been trying to get these pictures for a long time....

June likes to sit in her baby craddle...usually tipping it. I have never had the camera with me when she climbs in, today I did.

I took this picture of June with the portrait setting on my camera, I am trying to branch out and use other settings besides "Auto".

Is it Summer yet?

Freedom of Choice......

CatholicVote.com

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Okay, here it goes. For those of you who know me you know I am pro-life. I, right or wrong try not to force my religious and moral beliefs on those who read my blog. My main purpose of blogging is not political, it is to share my children with my family, extended family, friends, and those that choose to come along for the ride. Much has been made of the Inauguration of Barack Obama and I pray for him and our nation. One of the first bills that Barack Obama has said he would sign into law as President of the United States is the Freedom of Choice Act. This bill is abhorrent, I could go into detail, but all the details are on line for you to read if you so choose. My children go to public school and as such I am unable to ask the school nurse to dispense any medication to my children with out a Dr.'s order, rightfully so. However, under FOCA, my underage daughter can legally be sent for an abortion without my knowledge. As Americans it is our responsibility to make sure we know what the candidates we vote for stand for, sadly many do not. Tomorrow Barack Obama will take the oath of office holding President Lincolns Bible. I wonder what President Lincoln would think? Please watch the video on Catholic Vote.com it will not be available to post until tomorrow. If you would like to contact your Representatives is Washington to urge them not to vote for FOCA here is the number to call 202-224-3121.

A week in review....

What a day! Today was day 4 of 5 days home without school...lucky me, I went to work today and Russ handled the crowd. All in all I think everyone had a good week. Sports are center stage again. TJ had indoor soccer on Monday, his team won. If you have not seen an indoor soccer game you are missing out on some action. Imagine a combo of soccer and hockey...it is really enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately for me most of the games take place during June's bedtime and TJ gets a ride from our friends. I hope to see a few games this season. Both Jake and Max are playing basketball. We have games on Saturday and Sunday. Both Jake and Max scored 4 points during their first games this weekend. Last but not least is snow boarding...TJ's new obsession. We let TJ go with his friends to the local ski hill this weekend and he loved it!

As for June, she has started sliding into the terrible(terribly sweet and sassy) twos. She has always been strong willed and it seems to just get stronger! She is, however, a joy to be with, strong will or not. June is also putting more words together, two or three words at a time. She also adores her brothers and could not get enough of them this week while they were home. We call the basement "the man cave" because all the toys and electronics find their home there. June slides super fast on her belly down the basement stairs to find her brothers, too bad sometimes they would rather have her upstairs with me!

So now after a long day I am signing off for the evening....have a great week!

Crazy cold!

Just a little weather update...the air temperature here is -21 degrees before the windchill...YIKES! Day 2 of a 5 day weekend has begun.

-32 degrees and no place to go.....

Today the boys had no school due to adverse weather conditions. Planning ahead I went to the grocery store yesterday and bought supplies to make cookies. The kids were excited because lately the only cookies I seem to have time for is bake-n-brake. Everyone helped, even June. We made the famous Neiman Marcus cookie and a cranberry white chocolate. The only problem is we made both types of cookies today...I fear that school may be closed again tomorrow and I am out of cookie supplies. Perhaps the boys would like to clean closets and do laundry! On a cookie note, I have been making what I thought was the "Neiman Marcus" cookie for years, it is our family favorite. However, today when I started to look for the recipe to post I found out the recipe I use is not the true NM recipe. The true Neiman Marcus recipe can be found on their website. The one I make is the one urban legends are made of. Urban legend or not it is a great cookie!

TJ and Junie working on the cookies.

Jake measuring brown sugar.

The Neiman Marcus cookie. (recipe)

White chocolate cranberry cookies. (recipe)

Junie enjoying the spoils!

Everyone coloring in the morning.

Max being Max.

I just liked this one of June. Yes, she is wearing a onsie again. June has decided to take her clothes off any time she feels like it....I have a feeling there will be a lot of pictures in onsies until she starts a new phase!

Let's hope it warms up by school tomorrow.....otherwise I fear a 5 day weekend, thats a lot of cookies!

Oh my darling, oh my darling......Clemintine.

As I said in my last post, June has taken a liking to "Clementines". Today, she pulled a small box of them off of the buffet in the dining room. I had not put them in the fruit basket I keep in the kitchen because, again, as I said in my last post she climbs on to the kitchen table to peel them. Well, it appears she can find the clementines no matter where I put them.....So as Russ said just a few minutes ago..."Oh my darling"...

I posted a few of my favorites, I took so many I had to collage them. On a non-clementine note, June and I met her Godmother and my oldest friend(we have been friends for 36 years)for lunch today....thanks Cath we had a great time!

A week in review......

Well, it was the first week back in school since December...yeah!!! We started off with a blast, back into sports. We have indoor soccer on Monday and basketball on Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. Actually it is not a bad schedule. Russ will be coaching Max's basketball team which helps out on practice nights and game days.

June and I enjoyed having the house back this week. As you can see by my earlier posts this week we had some good "mommy" time. I don't know if I have mentioned lately but June is a BUSY girl. She keeps me on my toes at all time. Her new skill this week was peeling and eating (mostly peeling) clementines. If I turn my back for more than a minute she would be on the kitchen table peeling a clementine! The girl even peeled an avocado and enjoyed a snack while I was less than 10 feet away. June is also skilled at opening cabinets and doors. All the kitchen cabinets have 2 kinds of locks and June can open them in seconds flat. She also enjoys opening the sliding glass door and grabbing snow off the deck.....the list of business goes on and on and on....lucky she is so sweet!

We did finally take down the Christmas tree, I am sure this is the longest we have ever left it up. So all Christmas is packed away and I can get started on my long to do list, however, right now it seems as if my everyday life is getting in the way of the organizing to do list. I guess I should be thankful my junk and disorganization is not going anywhere and it will be in the same place until I have time for it..UGH!!! Like my Friday post said I did take some time to work with Photoshop. I hope someday to learn half the amazing things that program can do. I am not very crafty(can't sew or make things), but I do LOVE to digital scrapbook.

Well, time to get back to life...bills, schedules, lunch money, and laundry all still await me this evening. Have a great week!

Nothing to do...........

I have decided to leave the Christmas tree up until next Christmas...because of that I had plenty of time today to play with "Photoshop". June and I played in the snow this morning and these are the highlights!

A Little bit of cleaning....very little!

Since June awoke at 4:30AM today I have decided to throw all my organizing plans to the wayside. June and I have done some laundry and cleaned the kitchen...as you can see June is a BIG help. As soon as I started cleaning June grabbed her "cleaning shoes" and vacuum. I love having my little helper clean with me! Now if she could learn to help me with the closets:)

June's favorite "DOO".....

June has decided she likes "pony-tails" in her hair. This is day 2 with the same look. It makes her look like a little girl instead of a baby....