cockroach hockey!

ok, so there are no pictures of anyone playing cockroach hockey. but we did play that when i was in college. those suckers were huge and no one wanted to touch them. so we busted out our brooms to sweep them out.... then turned it into a game. we were just that twisted.

soooo, i lied. i thought i was going to take so many pictures this particular weekend and didn't. at least i brought my camera! i said in an earlier post that a college friend moved back to virginia with her family and came up to visit, which inspired her to decide to have a reunion of the '3rd floor babes' that lived close by (within a 5-6 hour driving distance). she sent out the emails and we then set the date. she suggested my mom's house (she has to room and considers my friends her non-dna children) and i 2nd it.... then told my mom about it. mom was very excited! one of the girls lived with us for a summer, one we were always giving rides up to NoVa so she could visit her family and the third was in just about every story i told when i was home for vacations. well, they were all in the stories. there were 11 of us that did everything together, but only 6 of us live on the east coast and within easy driving distance. as it turns out, one friend was supposed to come up as a surprise, but that plan fell through. i was supposed to be without my kids for the weekend, but at the 11th hour the daddy called and said he wasn't coming down. oh well, my kids had a 'mommy free' weekend.... so it wound up being ok! there will be another reunion!














we made a special trip (twice because i forgot my keys the first time) to my place to get all my old college pictures. so fun to look back at all the crazy things we did.... and then remember all the other crazy things we did but don't have the pictures to prove the stories.

since i was ignoring her for stories of the old days, sofi decided to snuggle up with the one person that would not ignore her... she let grandpa be her friend for two whole days!

yes, my child is just so lovely! we got them ready for bed at least three hours before they actually went to bed.

once they got off their sugar high (about 10:45pm) they crashed. because we stuck them up in the loft we could hear the snoring. and as far as i know, no one fell off the bed from lack of space.

she crashed first! and since we have grown up a bit... we just take pictures of the sleepers instead of sticking their bra in the freezer.

she woke me up soooo early. not a big fan of it. by now she was hoping my friends would wake up so i would leave her alone.

so engrossed he had no idea i got the camera out.

sunday morning cartoons are just as good as saturday... yes, we skipped church and no, we don't feel guilty.

thanks to my parents i was able to enjoy my friends visiting. they play the role of babysitter so well. (fyi - the 'beans' that go to the game my dad is holding WILL come back out of a child with little effort or pain....)

anyone that comes to my parent's home gets the 4-1-1 on momma's stove. she should get a job as 'aga endorser'... she loves her stove and people always have a ton of questions for her which she is more than happy to answer.

the real reason for the reunion.... to eat nothing but junk like we used to (ha ha ha). good thing i don't have a scale to yell at me anymore, cause i'm sure it would be makin some major protesting noises.

i'm not that tall, just wearin boots. aaaaaand, i look like i'm tryin to hard to make me look good in the picture (which i was). i think we finally got dressed for the day at 3:30 and the girls left soon after the picture session.

this is our favorite.... we call it the 'strangling picture'. i will always have a special place in my heart for these girls!

emma is just like erica... only two inches taller. funny thing is she is two years younger as well. they hit it off, too bad they couldn't remember each others name.

yes, she is wet down the front. no, it's not from diaper malfunction. it's from tryin to steal my friends water.

she wasn't feeling too good the whole day, must have been all that junk food the day before. jeeze, where was her mother?!

a beautiful ending.... sort of. the sky was all pretty like, just wish my kids were to each other once we got home.

Random Stuff

it's filler time! this is the post i put up between 'major' picture taking times. christmas was the last time and the next will be this weekend. but these pictures were just too cute to not pass along.















yes, that is my 2 year old child 'reading' readers digest. doesn't she look comfy? thanks to my brother i now have a nice and comfortable glider to sit in... now if i could get my kids to stay off!

blast from the past anyone?! my son has discovered and loves the game of 'cooties'. he made the red one and i made the other. we can actually get one game done in a half hour... without cheating!

this game is called 'topple'. but when we play it doesn't 'topple' once! we even played on the not-so-even carpet. i think we'll stick to cooties

the evil... i mean pretty stuff that caused all the school kids to cheer and the parents to groan. now, what should the kiddies do....

i'll tell you what they do.... they watch movies in their pj's. i think they were in them most of the day

takin a nap? noooooooo, waiting for erica to come home and pester her!

waiting for erica to finish homework so she has someone other than aidan to play with

doin the homework. not her favorite thing, just ask her and she'll tell you what she thinks of it

The January Blah!

ok, so january has been a boring month. it started out with a nice trip to grandma and grandpa webb's house for a late christmas. i took the kids up saturday morning and as soon as we got there they went nuts. they love their cousins, and since they moved to north carolina we don't get to see them as often. we had a great time visiting and, of course, eating. my mother-in-law is one fantastic cook. i swear, just looking in her fridge i gain a pound or two.

so i left around 8pm by myself! a christmas present to me. i like a quiet drive home after a few hours of happy insanity. and after having church at 2pm for a year, i was not looking forward to getting four people and a lesson ready for 9am church. funny though, services hadn't even started yet and i leaned over to my mom and said "i'm bored". she laughed.

a good friend from college has moved with her family back to virginia and came up for a visit one day. too bad i didn't get any pictures. it was great to visit with her and to meet her husband and cute little boy. aidan loved having a new friend as well. the visit soon sparked the idea of a reunion of the "3rd floor babes", i'll get pictures of that when it happens next month.

so other than two visits and some snow, not much has happened this month. which is the reason for a serious lack of pictures. oh wait! did i forget to mention that i have been accepted and will be attending JMU this spring? right now i'm waiting on financial help, but i am way excited. so take a look at what few pictures i have and then just wait until next month.

little maggie! her hair was everywhere, but that just enhanced her cutie-pie-ness.

my nephew andrew got to open the first present. we tried for order... that lasted maybe two minutes.

aidan gets into his jammies as soon as it gets dark. doesn't matter if it's only 3 in the afternoon. he was the only one ready for bed before dinner was even started.

December, so far

ok, i was all ready to keep up with my blog. i had taken some pictures and was gonna post after each event. but then i had it out with comcast, the devil! we just couldn't see eye to eye anymore so i 'broke up' with them. so, yet again, a long post. early december was packed with events.... sort of. the town had a tree lighting ceremony that i decided, last minute, to take the kids to. luckily the library had an open house at the same time, so while we waited for the ceremony to start we sat in the warm library and had cookies and hot chocolate. i'm sparing you the pictures from that event. then i took the kids to my parents home to help decorate their tree. my funny nephew, carter, came down just for that. then we had our tree decorating. i had the tree up since the beginning of the week, but decided to wait until daddy came home to decorate. still with me? then my little sofia had her second birthday, which we kept very low-key. and finally (i know, too much) we had a special holiday musical that the 2nd and 3rd graders put on for the families. only a few pictures turned out good.... so now, to view!



















while waiting for the tree lighting at town hall.... we saw santa! aidan was happy to see him, but he was more interested in his candy cane.

my nephew carter and erica helping to decorate grandma's tree. see that fire, technically carter and i started that. he helped me burn some papers...

he was very careful after his first 'oops'. luckily we didn't give him or the others ornaments that were 'priceless'.

had to throw in a picture of my parents house. it would have looked even better if there was snow on the ground.

don't know what they wanted to do more.... decorate the tree or watch 'the santa clause 2'

i let her put up a few non-breakables before she was off to bed.

i couldn't do this... we had to wake 'he-man' up so erica could put the star on.

the finished product, this day. every day i come downstairs to see the tree looking just a bit different. the kids love to move the ornaments around... and sofi loves to break them.

just after breakfast... she actually snuggled with me for a good 20 minutes. too bad that sippy cup is in the way.

do not disturb the little princess when she is watching 'toy story'. it's her new obsession.

i let erica help make the cake. she still hasn't learned how to crack and break the egg without makin a mess. but she had fun. only two small shell pieces for me to dig out.

daddy gave airplane rides to everyone. but after a while he would only give them to sofi... she's lighter.

this made me nervous, but erica loved doing the piggy-back rides for sofi. and of course sofi loved them.

not a huge fan of the 'candles' (matches, i forgot to get candles) and of the singing. i think the others blew out the 'candles'.

open wide!

eating her cake while erica plays with her new 'jessie' doll. sofia steals erica's doll all the time, so i figured this was fair.

i know... where's waldo. i tried to help this time. can you believe that this is all three of the 2nd grade classes

out of the five songs, she got to do something special for one. i don't remember if it was the kid in front of her or another, but one of them was twirling the mallets like a drum stick any time he could. it was funny!

A baptism, a dress and food!

november was a quiet one, thank heavens! one of erica's best friends was baptized and we went to that. i wanted erica to see what it was so when it's her turn she'll be more excited. other than that, we just had a nice thanksgiving. like i said, a quiet month. we went to my parents (i will go anywhere i don't have to cook) and most of the family came. it was a beautiful day and the company was great. mom and i laugh at the fact that my brother's family, my mom and dad and i finished the appetizers before any other family got to the house. their loss! my little nephew carter didn't want to leave and erica didn't want to lose a good play buddy, they always have so much fun together. well, after ten hours there i finally took my little crew home and within two minutes of getting into bed, we were ALL out!















best buddies! and so beautiful. they were a little sad that they weren't all in the same class this year (hasn't happened yet). the moms and i agree that might not be a good thing.















"mommy, take a picture". don't know why sofia was all upset.

daddy's home, mommy is no longer the favorite. which means i'm left alone for more than two minutes at a time.

my mother-in-law gave this dress to my oldest back in 2003. i have been waiting for the time that little sofi could wear it. it's still my favorite dress.

talking and watching whatever football game was on. and yes, waiting for the dinner to be done.

the best way to sit in front of a fire! my grandpas had the best seats in the house.

my nephew killian wasn't impatient, he just wanted to play with the forks. a little drummer in training i think.

good food, good meat come on let's eat! and we did! my fav... green bean casserole. my brother puts cheese in it, so yummy!

the only one not sitting at the table. she wasn't too happy this day until much later.

we have never all fit at one table. but this year there was no 'kiddie table'. you took the plate where you wanted to sit.

the damage has been done. and can you believe it... i came home with no leftovers. i could have, but didn't.