Elfsters!

I have a great group of girlfriends that I get together with monthly to watch Grey's Anatomy, talk, eat, laugh, talk, eat, laugh, talk, eat, laugh....do you sense a pattern here?! I have been best friends with Bridget and Kara since Jr. High, and now that they work at the same school together, they have connected me with a whole network of wonderful girls: Susan, Stacy, Lisa, and Heather. There's nothin' like girlfriends! It's nice that we all teach because we just "get" each other. We have started a yearly gift exchange, and this year, Kara found this cool website called "Elfster." It invites everyone to participate, and once we've all accepted, it randomly assigns you someone in secret to shop for! It was really fun because we could make a wish list and ask each other questions, and Elfster kept the names a secret. Today Susan was the "hostess with the mostess," and we got together for lunch and our exchange. As usual, we had a great day together!


Do you recognize Holden's girlfriend, Natalie? (Bridget's baby girl) Look how much she has grown! Do you see why I want her to be my daughter-in-law someday? How beautiful is she?! I thought she deserved a collage devoted entirely to her cuteness.

Susan goes all out when she hosts. She got out her good china and set us up in the dining room for our Avanti's lunch. Here's the whole group: (from left) Stacy, Bridget, Lisa, me, Heather, Susan, and Kara.

Party girls!

Gift time! Kara is expecting a little girl in April. I am sure she will be thrilled with the shot of her modeling her new pj's! I love my new hot pink slippers and my cute new shirt, Bridget! As you can see, I spent a lot of my day getting my baby fix with Natalie. I just miss that stage where they are so cuddly and like to sit in my lap. I think I am getting the "baby bug" again....

Merry Christmas to "my girls!"

My snow baby

Here is a video clip of Holden in the snow today. We are actually in our neighbor's yard because it was so slippery that once we got down there I decided to stay put for awhile! Remember to pause the music so you can hear it. =o)

Hockey game and a SNOW DAY!

I woke up today feeling hungry and full of energy...the flu is gone! Woo hoo! To further my delight, school was cancelled due to some major ice that we got during the night and morning hours. It was my last day before break, so I'll have to go into my room sometime and get all of the Christmas decorations down, but I don't give a hoot today. =o) Holden has been wanting to use his new boots from Memaw, and as soon as he woke up today he started saying, "SNOW!" and "I GO OUTSIDE!" So we bundled up and headed out for a little while. It was very slippery, and the snow was a heavy, wet snow with all of the freezing rain we'd had. Holden could have cared less. He clomped around in his boots, had fun punching the snow with his mittens, and waved to anyone he saw. When his nose started getting red we headed in. I need one of those face masks for him! It was fun seeing him so excited. It's the simple things!

Last weekend we went to a Prairie Thunder hockey game with Grammy and Papa. (My parents.) Holden looks so serious in these pictures, but he was really happy and had a great time! He couldn't take his eyes off the players, and all the action. He loved dancing to the music, yelling "Go, go!" and clapping with everyone. Daddy introduced him to his first taste of Dip n' Dots, and as you can see it was a hit. =o) The only traumatizing experience was the mascot, Chip, who is a bull, and seeing Santa sitting in our section of seats. Let's just say we won't be going to Disney World anytime soon!!! We have a bit of character phobia at the moment. I need to scan his Santa picture from the mall so that you can see what I mean. He likes him in the books, but not so much in person!!

Song List

I have been wanting to add songs to the blog for awhile and finally got around to it. The three of us love music (even if we can't sing or dance to save our lives!) and I know Holden will enjoy it. All of you who know him will know why Shake It had to be added to the mix even though it can get obnoxious after awhile. No matter where he is, if he hears that song, he will drop everything and start dancing, hands over his head, big grin in place. Most of the others are ones that have special meaning to our family. A lot of them just remind us of Holden. =o)

"Santa? Is that you???"

Look who I caught peeking out the door in his Santa hat...

hoping Santa will bring some presents his way???

Sick Day

I am home with the stomach flu, bummed out that I am missing my kids' Christmas party and their program this evening. I am feeling much better today but just very weak; didn't think I could manage a whole day of activities with 25 active first graders! Jay has been wonderful today. He took the day off and took Holden out all morning so I could rest. I have done a little updating on my blog this afternoon since I am going stir crazy! The buttons on the top right are two blogs that I am following. I found MckMama's blog this summer when she was dealing with a complicated pregnancy; her son, Stellan, was predicted not to live once he was born. I am happy to say that through many prayers and God's grace, he is a healthy 7 week old! She has a huge following and her posts can be controversial, but she also has a huge heart (and a hilarious sense of humor!) and I always love checking out her new posts and her awesome pictures of her little ones. The website about baby Kayleigh is a new one that I found through MckMama's site. It absolutely broke my heart and took my breath away with just the opening picture of the wedding band on that tiny little wrist. Her life is really hanging in the balance right now, so I added the button in the hopes that more people would check in and pray! I have also added a new blogger to my list. Adrienne and I have never met in person, but have become friends through the blogging world. We both have adorable (I'm not biased at all!) blond little boys, and while our journeys to motherhood are vastly different, she is someone I really relate to in the daily joys and sorrows of motherhood. Adrienne recently had a failed adoption and I have been so impressed with her incredible grace and faith as she handled it. Lastly, I finally figured out how to add some cute little counters to the bottom of my page that I had wanted to do for awhile. One is counting down until Holden is 2......not so far away! My baby is growing up! The other counts how many hits my blog gets. Although I think a lot of them today are from myself trying to check in and see if I got everything working how I wanted! ;o) I will post new pics of Holden soon from our trip to the hockey game Sat. night with my parents. We had a great time!

PS Heidi and Mark are friends of my friend, Ali. (If you followed that!) =o) They have a very sick baby girl at the moment and could really use your prayers.

To keep updated, please check out their blog... http://dekorne.blogspot.com/2008/12/sad-day.html
Hospital care page... http://www.carepages.com/carepages/Kaiya (you'll have to create an account)

December fun

My staff Christmas party was Friday night. I took way too many pictures, many of which would get me in BIG trouble if I posted them here! Let's just say everyone enjoyed themselves. ;o) Here are a few that won't land me any revenge! (We went to dinner at Gill St. and then bowling. A lot of people went out after that but Jay had to work and I had to get up with Holden, so we called it a night. We're old!)

Holden adores lights, so he is enthralled with the tree. Here are some shots of him "helping" during my wonderful lighting difficulties of last weekend! I am now able to post them and laugh.

His latest obsession is shoes! He really likes to put mine or Jay's on, whichever are by the door. (So that means usually mine) =o) Then he clomps around in them. I love how seriously he takes it!