Ta-da!!!!

Jemma finished up her first session of gymnastics and loved it!  She and her class had their final show for us and she was so cute!  We have signed up for another session and we may even be throwing T-ball in there!  I want her to try lots of things so she can figure out what she really likes!  What do your kids do?

Ta da!!!!

Yippeeeeee!

I won a giveaway from Anne at Fiona and Twig!  If you have never been to her blog, go check it out.  She has an amazing talent in photography, decorating, oh, you name it... she can do it!  She finds the neatest things and just finished shooting her first magazine feature!

 She was giving away this book, and I won!!!!

Isn't that soooo me or what?!?  I can't wait to read it and learn more more more about photography!

Thank you, Anne!  I am so excited!

16 Years...

16 years ago today, this sweet, funny and patient boy

married this blushing young bride.

It was a day they would never forget.  Friends and family came from near and far to celebrate this special time with them. 

They promised to love each other always.

It was the first day of the adventure of their lives and what an adventure it has been so far.  

I am honored and blessed to be married to this wonderful man.  We have had our bad times, but we have always worked through it because ultimately we love each other and love always wins.  I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him.  He is my soulmate and my heart.

Happy Anniversary!

Your as Cold as Ice...

While you guys got all the pretty stuff, we got this...

But, it just means that I got to spend the whole day with this one!  Yippeeee!

A Surprise Party for Someone Dear...

I promise I will wrap this Christmas thing up soon!!!

We headed to Tennessee to spend Christmas with the family where Jemma got to enjoy being with her cousins.  We enjoy our time with all the family so much!

Not to mention the aunts, uncle and cousins spoil her rotten!  

We also had 5 inches of snow to give us a White Christmas!!  Oh yeah!!!!

The 28th of December was my MIL's 70th birthday.  We are all taking her to Ireland in June for her birthday present, but I couldn't let her big day go by without anything happening so I coordinated with my SIL and BIL and we planned a surprise birthday party for her.  I contacted people from her church, neighborhood, school group and Red Hat group.  These ladies all sent me lists of names and addresses.  Without their help I could not have done this!   The big day came and we all took her out to eat.  My husband told her that one of her best friends had called and asked us to stop by the church on our way back from eating to pick up a present.  As we pulled in the parking lot, she remarked on all the cars, but we quickly reminded her that there was a meeting and that is why Sally wanted us to come there.  Then she even said, "I bet it there is basketball here tonight!"  Yep... that is right... basketball!

She walked in to around 50 friends who all yelled, "Surprise!".  It was wonderful!  She had such a lovely evening and I am so glad I got to be a part!

Of course before we left, we had to play in the snow!

We came home and had a quiet New Year's evening eating spaghetti and watching Holiday Inn before going over to the neighbors to ring in the New Year.  After a champagne toast at midnight, we boogied to Just Dance 2 until 3:00!!!  My daughter is a party girl!  

 I wish each and every one of you a most wonderful New Year!  I am looking forward to many great things this year and hope you will continue to join me as I share a little bit of our lives and those moments that take my breath away!  Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve and Morning cont...

Well, I paid my $5 and I am back!!

 Jemma walked in the door from eating and announced that it was time for bed!  It was only 7:30!!!  We looked at Norad to track Santa and saw that we had some time as he was in South America.  We opened one present so of course she picked the biggest bag and found her new Pillow Pet!  We are the proud owners of three, and I must admit, they are pretty comfy in the car!  I got a picture from Germany and I bought Tom a picture of the Eiffel Tower from our favorite view point from Fifi Flowers.  Her work is beautiful!  Then we went up to put jammies on and sure enough Fred, our elf on the shelf, left a new pair of Christmas jammies.  I don't know if you know this, but if you are REALLY  good, elves bring you jammies!  This was our first year with our elf and the shelf and he loved her so much, he also brought her a robe!  Then sister demanded to go to bed.   We reminded her of cookies for Santa and reindeer food so off she went like a bullet!  We came back in and  finished our advent nativity scene and she hopped in bed with no reading, no books and wanted the lights off!  She was out in 10 minutes!  Santa needs to come every night!  

Meet Fred.  He is our elf from Santa.  He flies back to the North Pole every night from Thanksgiving to Christmas to report how Jemma was for the day.  Well, the night Fred came, she had been having a hard time following directions so she was very upset that Fred was here.  The whole next day she talked about how she didn't like him and she couldn't wait for Christmas to be over!  I finally said that we would send a note with Fred back to Santa and just let him know that we weren't quite ready for an elf just yet.  I then told her that I would just call or email Santa every few days to give him a report.  Well, she decided quickly that Fred would be better than Mommy so she told him he could stay!  

Every Christmas eve, I take a picture of her in her jammies in front of the tree.  I just love the silhouette of her and it is so neat to see how much she grows every year!  I am a bit sad though.  This is our last year with our big gorgeous tree.  We had two sections of lights go out.  I just strung new lights, but it overloaded it and the whole thing fried.  We would change a fuse and it would last maybe 15 to 30 minutes and out the whole thing would go.  I didn't even turn the lights on for most of Christmas eve or morning!  I did turn them on long enough to get my shot.

Christmas morning came with much excitement!  So much that I forgot to really take any pictures until the end.  Needless to say... Santa was good to all of us!  Jemma got her Felicity American Girl doll, Zhu Zhu pet, Tag Reading System and a Keyboard plus other things including a bike from Mommy and Daddy.  Yes... she is spoiled!  I am going to be lean and mean with my Wii and new bike and the hubs is stylin' in his new sunglasses.  

It was the most magical Christmas ever!

Christmas Eve 2010

Hello all and Happy New Year!!!  I just wanted to do a quick breakdown of our holiday season.  May I say that this was the best Christmas ever!!!!  Jemma was a joy and just full of Christmas spirit.  I loved every minute of it!

We got back from our whirlwind trip at Disney and enjoyed that last week of Christmas all together as the BHW was off of work.  Christmas Eve found us baking cookies and decorating them with Jemma's best buddy from across the street.  Then the girls and I made bags of reindeer food (thanks to TomKat studio for the tags!), and they delivered them to all our neighbors on the street.  We went to Christmas Eve service at our church downtown and then to dinner with our neighbors at Rue de Jean.  A gorgeous French restaurant downtown that has one of the best creme brulee that I have ever put in my mouth!

To be continued as I now need to go pay Picasa so I can upload more pictures!  Aaaarrggghhhh!!!