Happy New Year and a new project...

Today is the first day of 2009 and I am starting a new family scrapbook. It is called Project 365. Becky Higgins is the creator of this cool concept. You can read/ watch videos all about this kit on her web site/ blog www.beckyhiggins.com  Basically, it is taking a picture a day and journaling each day of the coming year. Sound overwhelming?....Totally, but SO MUCH FUN at the same time. I am super excited about it and have already taking pictures and journaling...Check it out....it went on sale today. I can't wait to document all of the little things about our family's little life. 

12.31

There was a little excitement at the end of Eckar street while I was at work. Apparently, we have a new UPS man and he didn't know that the best way to get to end of our street is to back down. You can't tell from the picture but there is a fence just to the left of his truck and a car in front of him. From what we could tell, we think he slid in the snow exactly sideways. The guy literally only had about 2 inches to spare between the side walk and the car. He eventually had to get a tow truck to pull the front back pointing the right way because there was not enough room for him to get out. As you can see, we got about 1-3 inches of snow while I was at work. Leave in the snow and come home to snow....gotta love NY in the winter...NOT!

12.29 and 12.30

Monday was Mom's birthday and this is the first time in a LONG time that I have seen her both for Christmas AND her birthday! The kids went in and pooled resources and gave her a chest for her silver, which she was really excited about. I was glad that we actually thought of something to get her that she needed, but hadn't already bought herself.

GREAT grandmother Marion was a trooper and came over again to babysit while we went out to, yep, you guessed it, dinner!  She played around with him, fed him dinner and then put him to sleep. She spent the night and even got up with him on Tuesday morning so that Jeremy and I could sleep in a little and get stuff packed up! Thank you so much, Grandmother!

Another fun family dinner to Celebrate Moma's birthday! Happy Birthday!

It was very sad times having to leave after enjoying 10 fun filled days in Mobile. (Yes, that is a random person in the picture, but I wanted to make sure the plane was in the picture and didn't think I could ask him to move out of our field of view.) We left Mobile at 3:50pm and didn't get back to Irvington until 1:30am after the drive from Hartford, CT. (Why Hartford?....see 12.19 post!) I have to be up by 6:30am tomorrow for work.....YIKES!

12.27 and 12.28

Saturday night was the Nutcracker Ball which is a charity ball that honor's young ladies making their debut into the community. It was a fun night out and this was the first time Luke was baby sat by someone other than family. Her name was Pam and she works at the church.

Our cousins, Callie Cunningham (above) and Mary Kate Murphy (below), were both honored. They both looked beautiful!!!

The Greats enjoyed their night out on the town as well!!! There was also a silent auction and mom won a 3 day vacation to Grayton Beach and a USA college of medicine desk chair. 

The boys were having fun, but I think they enjoyed the late night pizza we got when we got home best of all!

Sunday, Mom and I sang in the choir and then we all went down to eat lunch at the hospital, since Doc was working. That night we left the baby with Mimi and Jeremy and I actually went to a MOVIE! I cannot remember the last time we went out by ourselves to the LATE movie! It was SO much fun. We saw Australia and it was one of the BEST movies we have seen in a very long time. We HIGHLY recommend it!

12.26

It was another warm December day the day after Christmas and we enjoyed being outside for a while. I LOVED riding around in my new wagon!

Great Grandmother Marion brought her sister, Sarah, over after they went to the beauty parlor for a quick visit.

I still enjoy swinging on Mimi and Doc's back porch. Everyone else likes it because it keeps me confined, at least for a few minutes.

After eating Mexican food and yummy cheese dip for dinner and after Luke went to sleep, the rest of the gang decided to play some games. It was Liz, mom, and mimi against Jeremy and Kyle {Doc was on call :(  } and the girls SMOKED them TWICE. It was great. At about 1:15, we decided to play bananagram (a new game jeremy got from Santa). It is kind of like Scrabble with a twist. We all decided to head to bed some time after 2am! SO much FUN!

12.25

Waiting on the stairs to see what Santa brought....

Running to see what Santa had brought....

Wow, an Elmo Live AND a radio flyer wagon. What more could a little boy want?

This Christmas truly was the Christmas of Elmo! Check out my Elmo slippers below. And just think that Daddy said before was born that I would NEVER have any Elmo stuff! Boy was he wrong! Haha!

Aunt Liz and Uncle Kyle gave me this cool tool bench! 

The big boys got race cars and I got a hold of one and could make it go around and around in circles. Man, was this a great Christmas or what?

The big kids went in together to get Mom and Dad a GPS this Christmas! I think Mimi and Doc really liked it!

Mimi and Doc gave the Greats a round trip plane ticket to Irvington to come up and see our home town in the Spring before we head back south for good! We can't wait. It will be two trips to look forward to!

We had the traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, spinach Madeline, and green bean casserole. It was delicious! What another WONDERFUL Christmas!

12.24

Jeremy and I met Paddy, Doc, and Michael at Picklefish for some yummy white chicken pizza , while Mom stayed at the house so that Luke could get a nap. 
At 5pm we went to the Candlelight service at Spring Hill and since Luke's cold was in full swing, Mimi stayed home with him so that the little ones in the nursery could be spared the germs. PS. You won't see anyone you know in this pic, b/c I "borrowed" this off the internet b/c I didn't have my camera in church, not that I would have taken a picture even if I had it with me. There was a serious rain storm when we left for church, but I was so happy that we went b/c the candlelight service is one of my very favorite services to attend.
After church, it was on t0 Laurie and Randy's house (Uncle Jeff and Aunt Janet's sister and her husband) for some Christmas Eve gumbo, shrimp, oysters, and other dips and snacks. Mimi left around 9 with the baby, so that he could get in bed for Santa. Jeremy, Doc, and I left around 11:30, so that we could get a good nights rest for Christmas morning, while Paddy, Liz and Kyle stayed at the party until the wee hours of the morning playing guitars, singing, and hanging out on the awesome back porch!