Happy Belated Birthday...Grandma Jo

I have been so far behind, lately. Grandma Jo's 65th birthday was the 25th. Happy Belated Birthday, Jo!!

The new door

After lots of requests. We finally got the last coat of varnish on our new front door. It is dry and up. Just keep in mind that the trim is not painted yet. New storm door too, yay!!!!

Thanksgiving 09

Well, the Saupp crew headed to IL for Thanksgiving this year to Mom and Dad's. We had a great feast. Mom, Dad, all 5 of us, Craig, Nic, and Mamma were all there. Pampa Bud and Gig were feeling a little under the weather with sore throats so decided to stay home. Craig and J wrastled it up and regardless of the 30 degree weather, the kiddos insisted on going for 4 wheeler rides, so Pop, Uncle Craig, and Daddy all took their rotations. No one, not even little Soph Bug wanted to nap. Way too much excitement. We had a great time visiting but as usual never seems like enough time to get to visit together.

Then, Eric and I headed up to Aunt Cindy's to visit with the Roberts's and Coombes's. and OF COURSE, to see baby Hannah...aka "Hannie". Hannie is so cute, starting to get a molar already and she reminds me of J. She is 3 1/2 months and wearing 9 month clothes. J was the same way...now look at his skinny little butt! She was a doll. I couldn't stop taking pictures.

We stopped and visited Pampa Emmett and ate dinner with him on the way home.

Mom and Dad kept the kids until today, Sunday. Awesome time alone with my wonderful husband. Thursday night we stayed up late and watched movies, Friday we slept in, did a few things around the house, got ALL of our Christmas shopping done, ate our favorite restaurant and had drinks then we went to see the movie "Blind Side" with Sandra Bullock, which is one of the best movies I have seen in several years...except for "New Moon", of course! Then on Saturday, we really slept in, went out for dinner and got a few groceries. By this morning, I was ready to go get my babies, who had a great time! J won Chutes and Ladders 3 times in a row and traced and colored some amazing pictures.

Lovin Lincoln Logs

J and Tootie recently rediscovered the Lincoln Logs and have played with them daily for the last couple of weeks. Here are some pics.

J's Thanksgiving Feast at School

J and I were responsible for the pumpkin pie last Monday for his feast at school. Here is our pie. Basically, I made it while he sat and talked to me and ran and got me ingredients. He had a great time. He was one of the indians. He came home with the cutest little headdress until Toots ripped it but luckily, J was very forgiving and there were no meltdowns.

Happy Thanksgiving 09

We had a great Thanksgiving and so much to be thankful for. We are so blessed! This was Sophi's first Thanksgiving!! We went to Mom's for lunch and she had all of the fixings. It was sooooo good and we even escaped with some leftovers and left the kids behind for the weekend. We broke free....Ha Ha!

We went to see Baby Hannah, who is now 3 1/2 months old. What a cutie; I can't get enough of those feet!! We had a great visit with Cindy, Larry, Cara, Ryan, and of course, Hannie, who loves to growl, by the way.

Danielle's Birthday

I took J to his friend Danielle's birthday at the Play N Fun Center in Avon, today. They all had a blast as you can tell with all the little sweaty faces.

Behind on Blogging

I know that I'm behind on blogging, lately. It has been a busy couple of weeks with Pamps in the hospital and Eric working a lot of nights and evenings. The kids always put bedtime to the test when I'm here by myself. Not really anything new.

Sophi will be walking soon, I'm afraid. I wish I had a little more time to get Toots potty trained before Soph takes off on me, but yesterday, she pulled up to the kitchen cabinets, let go, and balanced there for a little while before she fell on her butt.

The kids are totally enthralled with Disney. Every morning they want to get on the website and look around and add something they want to see while we are there.

Monday, is J's Thanksgiving lunch at school. He is in charge of the pumpkin pie. So we're going to get a pie pumpkin and make it the old fashioned way.

Going to Mom's for Thanksgiving next Thursday and Nene and Pop are going to keep the kids for 3 days!!!!! Eric and I are so excited. Can't wait to go Christmas shopping, see a movie, and go to our fav restaurant.

These pics are of Sophi after eating ravioli. She is full force on regular foods now and says forget the crappy baby food.

Awnry Toots

I tell you, Tootie is so much awnrier than J could have ever thought to be. The other day, I was working on the bathroom floor and she disappeared. I found her in the kitchen and she had located a red PERMANENT marker. Luckily she had only colored in her "Dora" coloring book, but I took it away and hid it way up high in my spice cabinet. I returned to my cleaning and she came in with her red watercolor marker and proceeded to color Soph, the playpen mesh, and circles on the floor. I cleaned it up, placed her in timeout, then came in the kitchen to find that she had tried to move the chair over to the cabinets but couldn't reach so she wrote on my kitchen cabinets instead--ALL the island cabinets. Thank God for watercolor marker!!

Eric worked nights most of this week doing training, so the kids got into trouble for not going to bed and jumping on the bed, etc. I went upstairs to scold them and found Toots jumping on her bed. Somehow along the way, she got into her closet and found my witch hat from last year.

Last night, she located a necklace she got at a birthday party (which I should have thrown away when she forgot about it). She remembered she could open it and decided her lips were chapped and glazed her face with lip gloss. I just laugh and let her be. Eric, however, doesn't handle messes of this caliber as well. He was very anxious for me to clean her up and dispose of the gloss!

We went to Chuck E. Cheese tonight to celebrate a week without notes from the teacher. yay! That means he listened and did not criticize the teacher's choice of stories. Before, I had kids, I would always say that I would never do this or that (including bribary to modify behavior). Then I became a mom, and now I realize you do what you got to do and this works well so don't mess with it since it works. Moral of the story...Never say never, especially about parenting because it will come back and bite you on the butt.

New Bathroom

I've been behind on my postings lately. We have been working on the bathroom almost nightly. We finally finished tiling. I put the 3 coats of grout sealer on yesterday. We used a sandstone type of tile which the grout got stuck in the crevaces and so I ended up cleaning the tile in the shower, shower floor, and floor 5 times!!! Then I used my floormate today and I think I've about got it. We still have to put up trim work, the door to bedroom and door to closet, and I am going to get the vanity Thursday. Eric was so excited to take a shower. The other pic is of the J and C playing outside and Sophi wishing she was out there really bad.

Disney here we come

Well, Eric and I are taking J and C to Disney World in March. I booked the trip, yesterday and I am SOOOOO excited. I think I am the most excited person in this house and that is saying a lot!!!! Mom had a great idea of taking a vacation for a Christmas gift instead of lots of toys. Like my kids need anymore toys! Yikes. So anyway, the dream became a reality and as part of our Christmas Mom and Dad are giving us part of our trip. Yayyyy!!!!! AND they are keeping Soph bug so Eric and I can take J and C and not have to worry about Soph's naps and early bedtimes. She'll go next time. We would like to go each time one of them turns 5. They are so excited about everything at J's age!! J and C sat next to me while we looked at the Disney resort we are staying...Port Orleans Riverside and we looked at all the parks and attractions and everything. Tootie literally squealed with excitement and of course, J says "Mommy can we PLEASE go tomorrow?" I called and made character reservations for each day so one morning we are having breakfast with Lilo and Stitch, then Mickey Buffet with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, the Princess Dinner at the royal table on the second floor of the castle. J is getting a pirate makeover. We have so many things planned. It will be one of the best trips ever!!!!!! If anyone has been since 1986 (the last time I was there) let me know what the kids would like or where we need to go or what to do (wink wink Uncle Sean...the pro disney goer)

I love these pics of Sophi in my old rocker that then became Tootie's. J puts Soph in this chair while he is doing a puzzle on the floor (otherwise she chews on his puzzle pieces) and she just sits there and watches him or Sesame Street. Hilarious! So far we haven't fallen out yet.

Bathroom Remodel project

Well, we are coming right along with the bathroom. I officially know how to use a tile saw. Very well, I might add. I would measure and cut while Eric laid the tile and it went rather quickly. I have some new pics. We can't wait to get the toilet and vanity in. Then the carpet, then the interior doors and we are having our front door installed in 1 week. Yayyyyy!!!!!!! 5 years in the making and the house is almost fully remodeled. And Eric did it all himself except the windows and doors. What a man!!!!!

Tootie is still wearing her costume as you can see! I did manage to sneak it off of her at naptime and throw it in the laundry. Then she woke up crying and luckily it was dry and I threw it right back on her!!