Merry Christmas

It was a very Merry Christmas in Giumarra Land. We all felt so blessed and much fun was had. Here are some pictures to highlight our Christmas magic.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

In my recent efforts to "journal" more... I wanted to use this blog to just give a little update on our recent going-ons and tribute to the things that make our everydays special.

This is a picture of my favorite people!

In true Sadie form, right when I went to take this picture, she had one of her many daily mood swings and refused to be in the picture. Luckily, as soon as the mood swing came, it went, and I got to capture this fun pic.

I had gotten these JETS pj's for Colin before he was born. It is no secret, I do not like football... but these cute PJ's were on clearance and I was excited about the idea of my son watching football and bonding with his dad. I did hear that the Jets are having a terrible season, so I don't know how much bonding Nick and Colin will share over football this year.

Nick's mom came over on Monday night and started off the Christmas festivities. We were able to exchange gifts. This was Colin's very first attempt of opening a gift himself. He was very into trying to eat his way through the paper. Both Natalie and Sadie were comping at the bit to help. It was funny to watch... Natalie kept telling Sadie to let Colin try on his own, yet Natalie was trying to help him too!

Here is Nick's mom with Sadie.

What an awesome lady...

This is Sadie and her best friend, Caleigh. I think this picture is priceless. Look at the look on both of their faces. It just shows pure JOY.

Here are Caleigh and Sadie on the "stage" that we keep out in the new room. It is were our girls spend a lot of time. Singing and dancing and trying to be as loud as possible. I wonder if boys will be any quieter?

P.S. - Check out the Rudolph balloon hat that Sadie has on. Caleigh's dad has a true talent for balloon art and made this for the girls. It is really very cool...

P.P.S. - This view is from the new room into the kitchen. It is really coming along. I was going to blog about that room too, but I decided it needs it's own.

How can I talk about our days without talking about snow.

Snow, snow, and more snow.

It has felt like one big snow storm after another. In fact, it is snowing right now.

There is lots of snow out there. About up to Sadie's waist or higher. It is actually too much for it to be much fun for her... she can't really get around in it. However, Natalie has been having good kid fun being outside lots and sledding with neighbor kids.

When is spring going to be here?

Sadie's preschool party with Santa. She wasn't so sure about meeting Santa... until she realized that he gave out gifts. I don't think she'd get much closer - but was sure to be in reach of the present.

Marc Brown!

This was so cool... at least for me, it might have been above the girls heads. Our local library recently had lots of renovations and had a GRAND re-opening. Marc Brown... the very famous mind behind Arthur, came and gave a presentation. Our kids have been BIG Arthur fans for years. I swear we have taken every Arthur book out of the library at least 3x each. I know many of them by heart. We have watch almost every Arthur TV show and even had an Arthur birthday party a couple of years ago. It was so interesting to meet Marc Brown and learn about where the idea of Arthur came fun. He even shared a picture of his own 3rd grade class and we got to see that all the Arthur characters are based on real classmates of his. neat, neat.

Today... Christmas eve.

Lots of festivities, family and fun.

16 days

16 days of vacation... all together... the 5 of us.
What awesome jobs we have.
What a lucky family we are.

Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year

Colin is 8 months old!

Our little baby isn't as much like a baby anymore.

Colin is now 8 months old.

This past month, he got his top two teeth (the same week that Natalie lost her first top tooth!). He started solid food and absolutely loves it. He has had Cheerios, bananas, chicken, hamburger, green beans and pasta. It is fun that he can eat on his own, but I am pretty sure that with all this new food, he will start to refuse baby food any day now. He is still sitting up like a pro, but he is kind of lazy in all his other developmental milestones. He does not like his belly and really does not like using his arms to help prop his head when on his stomach. I think, he thinks it is a waste of time... like why would anyone work hard on their stomach, when the world is so much nicer to look at if you are just sitting up. He still can roll over, but chooses not to. I don't know if he is just lazy or just working on his own time line. When Colin was in the NICU - we asked over and over again, WHY this had happened? WHY had our full term baby not been able to breath on his own and the only answer we got was.... "he's a boy." So is that the only reason for his lack of progress this month?... he's a boy??

The good news is that he is super, duper cute and we love him tons. Don't you love the picture of him showing off his new teeth!

Are you willing to take the Challenge?

Those that know me well, know that I can be pretty sappy. I am the friend that cries at all Hallmark movies, I may even shed a tear at a touching commerical. I am drawn to things that are emotional . For example, if I say a book was good... it usually means that the story was based on some emotionally charged crisis, where someone was unfairly treated and had to climb a major hurdle to find hope. So... with that being said, bear with me during this blog while I write about Rachel's Challenge...

Yesterday, Queensbury High School hosted a presentation called, "Rachel's Challenge." Nick was going to be taking 2 of his classes to this presentation. Since I, too, live in the school world, I had heard of this presentation and was anxious to see it myself. I joined the "parents presentation" in the evening and found myself so moved and touched that I now feel the need to share this challenge with whoever finds themselves reading this little blog.

Rachel Scott was the 1st student killed at the Columbine High School shooting back in 1999. In her 17 years of live, she had made it her mission to treat others with kindness and truly felt that by doing this simple act, over and over, that she could touch many. In a high school English essay that she wrote just weeks before her death, she created a theory that in essence said... "if she could treat others with kindness, that it could create a change reaction of kindness and compassion." It was almost eary to hear about how she had shared with all her close friends and family that she knew that she would die young, but that she was at peace with it because she knew it was her calling to reach out to millions of people and touch their lives.

In this presentation, they asked you to accept 5 challenges and apply them to your own life. By accepting these challenges, one can make an incredible difference in thier own life and in others by creating a chain reaction. Her 5 challenges were...
1. Eliminate Prejudice. You can do this by always looking for the best in others.
2. Dare to Dream. Set goals and keep a journal. (or just blog...)
3. Choose Positive Influences.
4. Use kind words.
5. Start your own chain reaction.

Ok, now I am going to sound really cheezy... but just think. If we all found the best in others, exposed ourselves to good things and used kind words with others and then what if they went on to do the same... imagine what it would create!

I highly encourage you to check out their website.

http://www.rachelschallenge.com/

If you work with youths, you must share with them her story and ask them to accept this challenge. The presentation was amazing... maybe you can find a way to bring it to your area for youth's to see.

Teeth, more teeth, less teeth...

Lately there has been a lot of teeth talk at our house. Colin has been working very hard on getting his top two teeth. There has been many tears and sleepless nights, but they finally popped through this week. At the same time, Natalie seems to be losing all of hers! Just yesterday, Natalie came home from school with her 1st top tooth gone. Her smile is full of holes and her wallet is full of dollars! It's kind of fun to be excited about one losing teeth at the same time we are excited about another getting the very same ones! Check out their latest smiles.

Once again, Opinion's Needed!

So this worked out well for me last time, I thought that I would try it again and see what opinions were given. Below are some pictures of the new fireplace. I'll just take a sentence or two to brag about my incredible husband. Check out the mantle that he has created out of scratch. He started with nice oak wood pieces and created this really, really beautiful mantle. I am so very impressed. Anyway, we are now talking about staining it... Here are some of the thoughts:
1. a clear polyurethane.
2. a stain to match the stain on the top beam (it is in the top 2 pictures... a dark, redish color).
3. a antique looking white stain... so you can still see the grain in the wood.
4. a high gloss white paint like the trim of the window.

Let us know what you think!

All opinions accepted.

Celebrating Christmas!

The Christmas season has officially started. We began our celebrating by going to Queensbury's Holiday night. There were games for kids, a horse drawn sleigh ride and of course meeting Santa. We went with Sadie's best friend, Caleigh and her mom! Here are some pictures from our night.