Daily Celebrations

Almost every day of the year has something being celebrated somewhere. It may be serious, it may be educational, or it may just be for laughs. Starting with the New Year- here are some things being celebrated:

January 1: Not only is it New Year's Day, it is also "Z Day". A day to appreciate the letter Z. I always take a nap on this day, so instead of napping- I am going to say, "I'm going to catch some ZZZZ's!" & see if I can teach Katelyn how to say Zebra.

January 2: National Science Fiction Day - Since I like to write, I'm going to write a short, one chapter Science Fiction story.

January 3: Drinking Straw Day -Even though I try my best to reuse and recycle them- I love straws, so I'll be sure to use one today!

January 4: National Spaghetti Day - Guess what we're having for dinner?

January 5:  National Bird Day! - "The survival and well-being of the world's birds depends upon public education and support for conservation" Take a few minutes to just stare out the window at all of nature's beauty and see how many birds you can spot. Katelyn and I will be counting.

January 6: National Apple Tree Day - Much too cold to go to the Orchard, so Katelyn and I will color one of these Apple Tree coloring pages.

January 7: Harlem Globetrotter's Day - You can dress up if you want, but I think Katelyn and I will just spend sometime bouncing the basketball around the house.

And there is the first week of fun goodies for the first week of the New Year.

Merry Christmas!

Last week I was in a panic over not being able to find my Nsync Christmas CD. Thankfully, I have about six of them and was able to scrounge one up from the basement pretty easily.

{I keep on in my car, because I love it that much- and I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure the rat who broke into my car this summer and stole my GPS must have stolen the CD too...but they left the Evanescence CD?? - No I am NOT loosing my mind nor playing tricks on you. The Nsync CD is gone, the Evanescence CD still there!}

Anyway- Poor Victoria got stuck standing there while I showed her all the pictures of me and my *Nsync obsessed bedroom. Yes, I'm talking wall-to-wall posters and NSYNC painted in huge letters on the wall. No, I'm not posting pictures because I don't feel like going down to the basement again.

Enjoy the video- and your family!

Christmas Eve!

I started my search for a cute Christmas Eve photo to post, and the first things to pop up were photos by "you" (ME in this case)- And I thought it's be fun to share again! These are from The West Family Christmas 2006. (Makenna was just a wee-one!)

 

Here comes Santa Claus...

Minus the two oldest, here are the younger nieces and nephews with Katelyn and Victoria. The Village Mall is no longer more depressing than the Marquette Mall in MC....but we still have the outlet, hehehe.

College bound...again.

Hehe, College text books arrived last week for the Spring Semester. Just studying for fun this time around. Katelyn keeps me busy, but school will (hopefully) be a welcomed distraction from chasing her around all day.

Candy-Making Good Time

Victoria and I made over hundred pieces of candy Tuesday morning. This is my Aunt Marianne's recipe. Usually I add Butter flavoring, but this time I used Butterscotch- and they are ohhh, soooo-FANTASTIC!

A Monkey Eats....

Bananas!

And my little monkey loves Bananas too!

 

Smoky Mountain Christmas

This is from my favorite Christmas Movie - "A Smoky Mountain Christmas" with Dolly Parton. I'm not real keen on he witch, but I love the rest of the story, and the music in it is absolutely wonderful!

Christmas Lights

Found this on YouTube. Is it the super coolest? Probably not, but it's not far from our town, and I think it's fun. Enjoy.

House Concert with Daphne Willis

This year has been amazing. Chris and I have been to two house concerts, and now I'm hoping to have one this coming summer. Because our house is on the smaller side, we may follow in Stuarts footsteps and actually have the concert in the backyard if we are actually able to pull this off.

We'd like to thank Brent & Amanda for providing us with such an entertaining night! I'd heard Amanda talk about Daphne Willis before, but I just never remembered to look her up once I got the my computer, but after being introduced to her music in such a magical way...I'm head over heels. (The food was great too!! Pot Roast over New Years, anyone??)
 ((Sorry had to get that request in there)) <<<Lame, I know.

Anyway, I know my mom wanted to see some vids, so here you all go! The first is the first song she sang, and the second video is her sharing a story.






It's cool if you're digging some Daphne now. Just click on over to **Daphne Willis Website** and buy some cool junk.

Family Name Rankings

Well, Chris and Victoria rank in the top seeds of popularity, Katelyn comes in second, and I am in dead last....waaaaay- far down the list. (But I like my name and the fact that it is not very popular, but it seems to be the only one on the rise.)

 

The Neverly Brothers

This is for one of my favorite ladies.. Missy! She loves, loves, loves, this band- and even had them play at her Graduation Party!  (That's her on stage with them!)

The Neverly Brothers:
A Rock 'n Roll Evolution - From Elvis to The Beatles!
Fasten your seatbelts for a guided musical tour through
rock 'n roll history in a truly one-of-a-kind retro rock
MAGICAL HISTORY TOUR!

The Neverly Brothers put on a super great show. Chris and I can not wait to find them at the Blue Chip to rock again. Check out their website: The Neverly Brothers and see when they are coming near you! Just as they claim, they are so knowledgeable on the history of the music, and you will no doubt learn some interesting things while you dance the night away.

Family Photos

 

This years family photos are finally taken. We'll be taken our "new family" photos after the new year with Victoria. We tried to schedule them around all of our schedules, and it just couldn't work because of the Holiday Rush at the photo studio! There was one time slot when it would be almost possible, if we got in-got out in record time...but before I could book-it, someone stole it! I had to do Katelyn's "birthday photo" (at 14 months, shh) with her anyway, so we snuck in a family one at the same time.

Thanksgiving Trip

We had an amazing Thanksgiving Holiday in Washington D.C. Why Washington D.C.? Because when we asked Victoria what is the one thing that she has to do while she is in the United States, she answered, "Go to the White House"! Since she will be traveling to Spain in the Spring, this is the best time we could think to go.

 

We weren't alone for Thanksgiving though! Don't worry. Chris's cousin Cathy, her husband Brad, and Jamie were mega kind in letting us spend the week with them! They opened the doors, and let us make ourselves right at home. As for the holiday dinner - We joined them and their family for a very delicious feast!  

 

 

It's been awhile, but we're still here. We had to buy a new computer since the screen got busted on the other one. I am busy catching up on some writing projects and loving on Katelyn. =) However, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and trip to Washington D.C. - I'll be posting about it once I get everything else caught up. Love you all!

Picture Post

K Represents

Little Miss K was caught stealing daddy's beanie and representing Brasil. She was pointing to it like, "look where I want to go". Super cute.

Finger Paintin' Pumpkin

 

I know this post is way late with Thanksgiving just a week away, but I really wanted to share the pictures. I put them on FB, and forgot to post them here. I found some homemade Finger Paint recipes to try, and I must say that they turned out really cool, and Katelyn had a blast with them.

They are not exactly "edible" as in LUNCH, but there is nothing harmful in them for when they do eat it.

What You Need:

1/2 cup Corn Starch (or Flour)

3 TBS Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

2 Cups Water

Food Coloring

Containers

 

For this simple fun time, just combine all but the food coloring into a saucepan. Stir with a wisk and Heat until sauce thickens. Remove from heat, let cool, spoon into containers. Add food coloring, and enjoy. I used empty baby food jars, and this amount filled four of them perfectly.

 

I was surprised that the coloring actually did not stain our skin that much. Blue was the first color that I made, and not thinking I put like 5 drops in it...it was very bright!

 

 

Here are some links to other sites for Finger Paints.

http://easiepeasie.blogspot.com/2010/07/homemade-finger-paints.html

http://www.momtastic.com/parenting/activities/171489-kids-activity-edible-homemade-fingerpaint

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/06/squeezable-homemade-finger-paint/

http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2012/06/homemade-finger-paint/

Victoria got to carve her first pumpkin! It was awesome on the front porch.

Katelyn's Capelet

Another super easy- 20 minute (or less) project. It's a simple capelet. Pretty much, no skill required.  It's a little big for Katelyn at the moment, but I'd like for it to fit her in the Spring. My next project was going to be some super cute pajama shorts for myself, but I think I am going to attempt to manipulate a pattern to make a stroller cocoon-type-thing for Katelyn to keep warm this winter. We'll see!

I used Simplicity Pattern 4434

Baby Bunting

I won't say that I've been super busy, but now that Katelyn has decided she owns my sewing area- it's impossible to sew while she is awake. But, I got two projects completed. (Well, four if you count fixing the tear in K's jammies, and the rip in Chris's jeans.)

This is the first one- a baby bunting, it is fleece and super warm. I'm hoping my friends baby will love it! I used Easy Sew Simplicity pattern # 5720, and pretty much followed the pattern. It took me a couple days, but in reality without K's distraction- should only take about 45 minutes from start to finish (if that).

Puppy Love.

It started as a simple idea, but then I couldn't find any Dalmation spotted fabric...So, we had to hand stitch every single spot on to the costume (and it took forever!). I want to be sure to thank the special people for helping me. Victoria cut all the panels out. Ashley helped stitch some of the spots on, my mom stayed up all night stitching spots on, and Chris watched Katelyn when we got home the next night so I could stay up all night stitching on spots and sewing it together. I'm super happy with the costume- even though I was a dim-wit, and closed my casing for the elastic on the hat. (Never to find the time to fix my error, but we didn't stay out in the cold long, so it was ok.)

 

 We hit up the neighbors to show off her costume, and to see thier grandchildren's costumes, and then set up camp to hand out candy. Chris had the fire pit nice and toasty in the driveway for us when we returned from showing Victoria how we Trick-or-Treat in the United States. Next year Chris wants to have an Apple Cider Bar set up.

I used Simplicity Pattern 1797 as a guide. A little tweak here-and-there never hurt no one. ;)

Schedule Maker

The photo above may have been a perfect picture to describe my everyday life since Katelyn. Cooking, Cleaning, Caring for Baby with the two weekly trips to the Grocery, and the occasional StoryTime fun when we were up and felt like driving into town. The point is, I at least had the option to make or not make an event depending on how K and I felt, but that has changed. THIS is the first week of many where Katelyn's sports and activities run my schedule.

Here is our week:

Monday: Stroller Baby Group
Tuesday: Swim Class
Wednesday: Story Time
Thursday: Swim Class.

At least Story Time is still optional (optional being cost free) - There is a little hope that I can remain in my pj's until leaving to go pick up Victoria at least one day each week.

PLUM*CRAZY

Now that I am all finished with the Sookie Series, I've started another one! If you watched the movie *One For The Money* then you have basically read the book. It was almost a perfect play-by-play, and I loved it. I had just as much fun reading it as I did watching it on the television. (Ok, that's not true. I really didn't LOVE the movie until the end, but the book is amazing!)

I've now finished Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly, and this morning I finished Four to Score. Each book is so fast paced and action packed. I love that I haven't had to force myself to suffer through any one section (although, I disappointedly did find a typo where the wrong characters name was used, and had to stumble back a few times to make sure I didn't skip a page or something in Four to Score.) Eh, those things happen. No biggie though. Still an awesome story.

The misadventures of how Stephanie Plum keeps falling into these scenerios is kept refreshing so far, and while not always seemingly the best choice, her choices have never been too far out of the scope of possibility for keeping the misadventures alive.

I really like the way Janet Evanovich writes. Last year, I read MetroGirl and stumbled on Motor-Mouth (The second of the Barnaby & Hooker series) earlier this year. I hope they get another story soon. (*hint*hint*) (I may be in love with Hooker.) (I may want to see this one be a movie.) (I may want to work as a spotter for Nascar now...or not...maybe.)

So, if you are looking for some good reads..there you go! Pretty much grab anything by J.E. and you're set.