The Polar Express

I love that I am just now getting all caught up with our holiday fun on my blog.  Blogger fail.  But it must be documented...I have too much fun looking back!

So on December 1, on the tenth anniversary of Frank's passing, my mom brought all of her kids and all of her grandchildren to go on The Polar Express!!!  It seemed appropriate for us all to be together and talking about what Frank would be saying/thinking about all these ladies!

Before the big event, I let Scarlett watch the movie a few times because she wasn't familiar with the story and the book is just a bit too long.  By the time it was time to go, she was all pumped up to go to the North Pole!
Mission accomplished!

It was a really great experience for all the little ones, but I think Camdyn, 9, was a little too old.  They literally drove the train down the railway, stopped and said, "There's the North Pole," then drove back.  It was a total of one hour and pretty torturous for the adults, but the excitement on the kids' faces made it all worth it, cheesy as it sounds!

There was Christmas music playing after they finished reading The Polar Express and they served hot cocoa!  Santa even came along for a ride on the way back!  Perfect!

Of course, I have millions of pictures!

The granddaughters!

All of us!

Blurry, but all of us!

SANTA! ('s biscuits!)

Love their faces!

One side of the train: Scarlett, me, Max, Poppy!  (Sorry Clunies!)

The other side: Molly, Alyssa, Mum, Camdyn

An outside view of the train!

After this, we went to Whole Foods, so definitely worth the trip!

Kitties for days!

While my mom's husband is away for work, we've been socializing at her house all week!  It's been a party! 

One hilarious night, all the little ladies were coloring with markers while we were chitchatting.  (Yay for entertained babies!)  Though when we looked over, Scarlett had colored a black circle on her nose.  Mary, being the fun aunt that she is, said, "Hey, Scarjo, do you want me to make you a kitty?!"  Of course, Scarjo (and all of the other girls!) wanted to take Mary up on her offer!  So off to work Mary went, creating little kitty faces on Alyssa, Lulu, and Scarlett.  (Mum wouldn't allow Cam to join in because she's a little too old!)  

We all chuckled at their cuteness and went on with our gossiping!  

Scarlett and Louisa had a party splashing in the sink, and that took off some of the marker.  So when we got home, I just sat Scarjo at the edge of the sink to scrub her down with warm water and lots of Dove soap.  Her kitty whiskers faded, but refused to be washed off.  

Turns out, the markers that Auntie Mary used were for POSTERS and absolutely not waterproof!!!  SO, the girls got to be kitties again the next day, too!

SO. MUCH. NEWS.

Molly, Scarlett, me, Alyssa, Grammum, Tyler, Mary, Louisa

Clearly, March was not a successful blogging month for me.  I have been distracted and sick and then as more time went by, the harder it was for me to get back into my groove, so I just stayed away.  So to ease my way back into blogging, I'm doing a list!  Here it goes...

1. I'M PREGNANT!  We found out super-early.  (February 20th) So I had to wait and wait for a successful ultrasound where they could actually see something (waiting is painful!), and so finally at 7 weeks, we saw the baby and heard the heartbeat!  Baby 2 is due on October 27, 2012.  
2. Scarlett is already calling Baby 2 her sister...we hope she's right!  ;)  Although this family really could use a BOY!
3. Lulu was on the FRONT PAGE of Sunday's paper!!!  Adorable!
4. We cancelled Scarlett's surgery on her teeth.  It was a huge, very difficult decision to make, but after many sleepless nights, we decided to cancel.  Scarlett's teeth are getting worse, but I just couldn't imagine putting her to sleep and having such an invasive (IMO) procedure done for cosmetic reasons.  It felt wrong.  We'll decide if we're going to have her bad teeth pulled once she turns three.  
5. On a more light-hearted note, The Only Way Is Essex rocks my world (during nap times)!!!!  I am addicted!!!  I love Lauren and Mark and Kirk and even Lucy!!!  I do miss Amy, though.  You will talk with a British accent in your head after watching this show.  Swear.  
6. Morning sickness sucks.  I thought that I was "sick" with Scarlett, but it turns out, I was being a drama queen!  With Baby 2, I have been siiiiiick since 5 weeks along.  Not. Fun.
7. On a positive note, now that I'm 11 weeks, I'm feeling like I might survive this pregnancy!!  
8. I have packed away the cloth diapers because Scarlett is potty trained!!!  Woohoo!!!   At night, she is still wearing a pull-up.  We're waiting until she goes a week with a dry diaper to try undies at night.  Her dry diapers are the norm, but every third night, she'll pee a little.  During the day, though, she is totally potty trained!  The first few days she had three accidents and then nothing!!!  Now we pick out fun, new undies when we go to the store!  (because I never do laundry!)  
9. Tyler is in Texas until the 26th with the catastrophe team...being a single parent is tough.  Yay for live-in entertainment AKA Auntie Mary and Lulu!  Oh!  Scarlett says, "Lulu" now instead of "Nenu."  It is hilarious to hear her stumble over those L's!!!!  Cutie-cutes!
10. Scarlett thinks this is "her song."  LOVE it!  I am obsessed with it, too, which makes me almost as bad as Mary.  She downloaded Justin Bieber's new song.  Shameful.
11. I just want to see a new picture of Blue Ivy.  I got all excited when it was announced that Beyonce released a new website, but there are no new baby pictures.  Bummer.
12. Now that Baby 2 is coming, I have to figure out a way to get Scarlett out of our bedroom and into her own room...wish me luck.  :-/
13. Bloom came out last week and to prolong the book, I've been going back to read Kelle's blog posts from around the time that the events in the book were taking place.  Normal fan or a little bit obsessed?!  
14. After her family, Scarlett's most favorite person in the entire world is our "mail-mail."  She diiiiies when he hands her the mail and if there's a package, that just confirms the fact that the "mail-mail" loves her back.  Turns out, I like to shop online, so the "mail-mail" brings lots of packages.  AND Tyler used to collect beanie babies (If I had known this, I'm not so sure I would have still married him!) and my MIL thinks it's that Scarlett needs all. of. them.  So every few weeks, more beanie babies arrive.  Great.
15. We are keeping our house!  I'm feeling more settled now that we've made a decision, but also disappointed that I'll be here for a few more years.  We met with a realtor and he was pretty sure that we'd have to take a significant loss if we wanted to sell in a reasonable time, so we're going to keep doing small upgrades and wait for the market to get better!
16. Has Jessica Simpson had her baby?  Apparently, OK! Magazine thought she would have had her baby girl by the time the latest issue hit news stands because this is their cover.  

source

My pictures are being wonky, so I'm adding them at the end!

Scarjo and Sexy Frexy

Lulu, Camdyn, Scarlett, Alyssa Lou!

Scarjo using "Alyssa's potty!"

Thankful.

“If you can't be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped”

I'm just feeling thankful today.  

Something happened to a college friend of mine that just puts everything into perspective.  He and his wife found out about a month ago that their baby, a little girl due in May, had some form of skeletal dysplasia.  Then just last week, his wife was admitted into the hospital for bed rest because she had preeclampsia and they were hoping to keep the baby in the womb until she was 30 weeks along, at least.  After a few days in the hospital, my friend's wife had an emergency c-section to deliver baby Evelyn at the gestational age of 28 weeks.  Sweet Evelyn survived for just 24 hours.  

This is such a devastating thing to live through and I'm praying for my friends, but for me, this tragedy is teaching me to be thankful for everything that I have.  So what if Scarlett has trouble with her teeth.  If that's her biggest problem, we're lucky.  I'm thankful for my house, even though it's a fixer-upper that we can't seem sell.  These things seem so trivial compared to what others are going through.  

I will say that after watching my friend go through everything with his daughter, when others start to complain about their trivial problems on facebook, it makes me angry that they're so ungrateful.  Things could be so much worse!  

I am just hoping that I can keep things in perspective...even while I'm at the dentist office next Monday to learn what the plan will be for Scarlett's teeth!  

"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."

-- Meister Eckhardt

On a lighter note, happy things that I'm thankful for:

Friends at Toddler Time!  It's always more fun to chit-chat than to stand and watch your child play.

Gymnastics!!!  Scarjo has way too much fun!  And to go with that...99 cent kids' night at Governor's!  It's so fun to have a place to go after gymnastics instead of just going home.  And there is a balloon lady who makes the girls' animals

No-Bake Cookies.  And husbands who bring them home for me!

Husbands that stick up for me when they're family is crazy rude.  Enough said.

Babies who nap.  Lulu is boycotting sleep and I'm glad I'm not Mary!

Dunkin' Donuts.  Their coffee is heaven!

Gifts.com...clearly I'm struggling picking out a 30th birthday gift for a certain someone.  I'm leaning towards the seasonal Beer of the Month club.  Any thoughts??

Mothers who force us all to all have our picture taken together!!!  Our last photo session came out great!  And I'm happy to have these photos forever!

Sunshine!  It just makes me happy, obviously, but it's so cold here, so the sun makes things less-miserable!

There are lots more, but I have to go re-look at all of our pictures...!!!  Happy Thursday!