Happy New Year

Happy New Year Readers!

We are looking forward to 2010. This year will bring me my 30th Birthday(Jan), Zak will hit the official age of a teenager(Feb), (hopefully) March will find us in Norfolk visiting friends for Spring Break, my baby Sister will get married(July 10), the followinfg week will find us in San Diego for my niece's wedding, the boys will enter their last year at St. Ann, we will move to to Annapolis in August(maybe??????), Bella will hopefully potty train, loose the paci and the bottle, and before we know it 2010 will be over!

2009 has been a great year. I hope this finds you all looking forward to a great year. I hope all your dreams for the year are met!

Happy New Year,
Jana and Crew

Guess who came to our house today??

"Hi Santa.....I love you"!

Bella was really excited to tell Santa she wanted babies for Chirstmas.

Bella had a little one on one time with the man in red.

My three kiddos with Santa.

Larry and I had Christmas for the kids at home this morning. The boys were very excited as they were not sure how presents ended up under the tree while we were at Mass. It is all in the magic of Christmas......

We decided to have Christmas at home early because we are heading to Il on the 23rd. It is really hard to take it all with us, so we had it early. Bella walked in the room and yelled "PRESENTS"!

Bella would open one gift; play and play with it and then was so excited there was more! We had a hard time getting her to open it all by the end.

We had a great day at home! Merry Christmas!! Love you all.....

Wordless Wednesday

What do three children at Disney look like on day 4?????
She was cashed out! They were out as soon as they got their showers!

Bella was soooooo excited to see Mickey and Minnie.....then......it was our turn:)

Do I really have to wait in line again???? Yep, this is her rolling on the floor.....

Sweet hats! Nik did not have his yet......his is super cool too!

Hollywood Studios and Epcot

Here are a few photos of our trip so far.....we are having a great time! Bella is being a trooper and the boys are a great help!

Cool greenery at the entrance of Epcot

Bella and Zak ready to go!

Osborne Festival of Lights

The kiddos enjoying a small treat.

All tuckered out!

Zak, Nik and I love this ride

Bella is not so sure of the characters

I love this hat.....not sure why, but I think it is really cool!

The kids on our way into Hollywood Studios

Fireworks can be seen from our window

Maybe I will use the camera as a source of income.....what do you think??

Wednesday a mom at school mentioned her family wanted to get photos taken while a good majority of them were in town. I volunteered to take some for them and I think they turned out well. I really did not intended to use the camera for a source of income, but after Saturday I just may start advertising my services. I enjoyed the hour I was with everyone and I made enough to cover the first payment on the camera! Take a look and let me know if you would hire me....Wendy and Kelly you are the only ones that read this:)

Photos.......

Bella where are you????

Happy Birthday Baby girl!

Mommy and Bella on her birthday

Bella's favorite gift.

Presents for me?

Her little cake

All done...."ceen me up mommy"!

Mommy and Bella looking cute before work last week!

Her first dinner in her booster seat!

What a big girl!

Where oh Where have you gone time......

My title has more than one meaning for this post. I will begin with why I have been absent for a month!

Hang on.....let me grab my Palm so I can remember why I have been absent.....
1. Mary left after Halloween and we had a pretty clam week.
2. The weekend following that calm week was full. Larry and Nik camped while Zak and I entertained 3 teenage boys. All of who were really sweet and good. They played video games and never left Bella out! Can you imagine.....4 teenage boys playing with a 2 year old? There she was video game controller and all right in the middle of all the fun.
3. It was so fun to watch Bella play with the BIG boys and it gave me a chance to get my NEW PROFESSIONAL GRADE camera up and running. Yes.....I finally did it, I bought the big daddy of professional cameras(the one for armatures). I LOVE it and am offering free photo shoots:) Just kidding I have no intention of becoming a photographer, just want to save money by taking my own super quality photos!
4. Larry and I went out on an date....
5. Bella turned two.....that leads me into the second meaning of my title.....
6. My sister and Carla came last weekend to visit!

Bella turned 2.....what did that mean to her.....nothing....she just gets to say "I 2" when we ask her:)
What did it mean for her Mommy? Emotionally it meant missing her little baby girl......and sadly wishing for one more! When do you stop replaying the day your child was born on their birthdays? I did it last year, but chalked it up to it only being a year. I did it again this year and am beginning to think I may by a little crazy???

What is Bella up to these days as an official toddler? It may be easier for me to answer what is she not up to.....haha
Recap of the new Bella things......
1. She is sitting on a booster seat now instead of in her highchair.
2. She is putting sentences together.
3. "What dat mommy"....her favorite phrase! I hear it about 1,000 times before dropping her off at Ms. Ann's.
4. She carries her phone in her pocket and randomly answers it. She will pull it out of her pocket and say (hello ~insert name~yah.....ect....). She will have an entire conversation with herself and even laugh at herself.....adorable!!
5. She picks out her own clothes. Oh let me tell you......this happens to be my least favorite new thing.
6. She tells us "I go nigh nigh now......peese mommy".
7. She sings at Kindermusic.....so cute!
8. She remembers people. She will walk into school and say hello to the people I work with. She even calls them by name.

Time has marched on very quickly the past 11 weeks. I have 2.5 days left of the maternity leave I am working. I am very sad that it has come to an end. I LOVE the kids and I must say I am very good as their teacher. Teaching has had two meanings for me.....1. I proved to the administration at St. Ann that I am a fine educator and 2. I CAN work full time and keep my family and house up! There I admitted it! I CAN DO IT! Best of all.......I DID IT!

Well, that is it for this post. I will try harder to keep up. I am back to being a SAHM, so what else will I have to do:) HAHAHA!!!

BTW, I think I have forgotten to mention Larry and I decided to take advantage of the Disney Salute to Military deal! Larry will have to stay back because of school. My Mom, thankfully has decided to join us! We leave in 12 days! I cannot wait! I have taught Bella to say "Mickey.....Minnie.....Princess.....and Disney"! I am going to the "happiest place on earth" with my kids at Christmas! I cannot believe how blessed I am!!!!!

Thank you for checking in on us. Sorry I have not posted in so long! There are not a lot of photos to go along with the blogg post because I do not have the energy to download the photos from the new camera......one step at a time:)

Dog Gone Fun Halloween Weekend

Aunt Mary decided to spend her last weekend in the states with us this past weekend, so our Halloween weekend was extra special. Bella had a blast "trick or treating" on Saturday night. She would walk up to a door ring the bell and give it her best shot at saying "trick or treat". We would then tell her to say thank you by saying "say thank you Bella", she would literally say "thank you Bella". All the houses in our neighborhood got a kick out of her. Her brothers were hotdogs, and a big hit.
I bought Bella something for her birthday. It came in a box filled with packing peanuts. Here she is right after I dumped them on her.

She loved to throw them in the air!

It is snowing!

Yah!!! This kept her entertained forever on Saturday.

She would climb in the box and say "Bella's house".

Bella and Aunt Mary. Bella was a "goggie", so I bought some cat ears for me.....just being silly. As soon as Bella saw my ears she had to have them. Here she is in the "goggie" costume and my ears.

Our lil puppy

How cute is this lil puppy?

Miss Ann, Ginger, and Bella




We said so long to Mary this morning and got busy doing stuff around the house. I got all the Halloween decorations put away and all my Thanksgiving decorations out. Our laundry is done and the checkbooks balanced. Now off to iron at least enough sutff to get me through the week.

Wordless Wednesday

Too much pumpkin patch fun!

Zak and Mom before his first dance

Strapping Young Men

Zak and Nik on the first day of Winter Uniforms! Look how old Zak looks!

Because I was looking for a punishment.....

Are there ever times in your life when you wake up and think WOW this is a great idea? I had one of those mornings on Thursday last week. I had cleaned out the boys closets a month or so ago and know they needed some new clothes. So, Thursday morning I decided Saturday morning would be spent buying them new clothes and shoes. I wanted to take the two of them together to get it out of the way, but I had hoped that Larry would keep Bella. Ooops I forgot it is hunting season and he is not able to help in any such way. So, come Saturday morning I head out with three kids on a quest to find jeans, "good" tops, sweat pants, and shoes for the boys. For the record the boys would rather been at home cutting the grass with scissors, so you can imagine the mood of the morning. I (of course) have searched the Internet and found all the best deals and have a budget set. We made it out of Target $1.50 under budget....yah me! Do not ask about the rest of the purchases. Let me just say when it came time to buy the shoes, Zak got a pair of original Wallabees(which I swore I would NEVER pay what they want for them for a 12 year old, BUT) and Nik got a pair of Timberland boots. Truth be told, the store had the right sizes and I was so tired I did not care how much they cost as long as my credit card was accepted! Mark my word....I will NEVER do that again(the taking 3 kids shopping)! From now on they will get to go separately and Larry will be on babysitting duty.

To top the weekend off, I decided in August it was a good idea to volunteer one night to be a chaperone at the Jr High Fall Dance at school. Honestly the dance was far easier than the shopping!

Pumpkins

Since the flu hit the high road and left us all well we have been.......

Playing with brooms in the kitchen.......I was told that if you stood a broom up in your kitchen on Oct. 9,2009 and faced it North it would stand on its own. We tried it and low and behold it did! Pretty cool don't ya think.....

Mommy and Bella one morning before work. Yes, I said morning. We are all so use to the routine, we are able to have some down time every morning before we leave for work and school.

Bella will say Mommy "cheese peeese" and that is my indication to get the camera out. She will pose like the top and bottom photos. Once I snap she runs over to "see"! She is me through and through!

Looks like a lil tea pot:)

This is Bella and Calen. Calen is sporting her Hanna Montana/Mile Cirus look. Calen was headed to Mile's concert when this was taken! I cannot wait for Bella to want to do stuff like go to concerts all decked out!

Bella is enjoying a tea party with her friend "Wa Wa Wallace". Wallace is the granddaughter to one of my friends from school. She and Bella have a blast together.

Wa Wa paaaay! Peese???

Here is my lil monkey sporting a super cute new fall outfit! Wish I could revamp my wardrobe entirely every season!

Mommy and Bella at the Pumpkin Patch.

Heading out to look for pumpkins.

Nik and Bella posing with their pumpkins. Nik bent down to be closer to Bella and she had to do exactly what Nik did. She insisted on carrying her own pumpkin but would continually huff and say ewwww....heavy!

I got it Mommy!

My lil pumpkins! My boys are such good sports!

We made it out! I was up for a challenge, so I headed into a corn maze with all three kids and the boys leading the way!