The shopping extravaganza aka Christmas ends!

Christmas is over. I would enjoy the holiday season so much more if it was not such a financial drain! The kids received so many cool gifts. They have been playing, reading like crazy. Maddie got some very cool books this year. (Nick too) I am not sure I can pinpoint a favorite this year but Nick got a set of wireless remote control cars and they both play with those without fighting. I think I need a 3rd for the big kid I married. :)

Santa brought me one of those Scooba things. It is an I-Robot that mops your floor. For those of you who have not been to this house, we have all tile, and I hate cleaning the floors. Very excited I can sit around while it cleans my floor. I used it for the first time today and it missed a few spots but even if it gets 90% I am a happy camper. :)

I got a new camera and am still learning the bells and whistles but I did get a few nice pic with my old camera so I will put those on and then add some of the kids later.

I can not believe we are just days away from 2008.

Merry Christmas!!

Wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I know this is the pic that I sent in the Christmas card but I looove it! The kids look so cute here. They even look like they like each other a little. :)

Weekend update

We had a very nice weekend. My Uncle Tim and Aunt Mary were in town and they come over for lunch with my Aunt Kathy. We had a really nice time and were glad to see them. They brought along some of the best caramel corn I have ever had and some gifts for the kids. Uncle Tim gave Nick a new google site to search and he is having a great time on google earth.

Sunday morning Maddie had a performance at the church for her pre-school. She was so sweet and looked adorable in her holiday wear. When Maddie was born mom and I were so excited to have a little girl we could play dress up with... we were in for a big disappointment. When I was getting her dressed for the show she was throwing a fit!!! I mean she was tearing at her shirt, screaming and kicking (just imagine a 3 yr old tantrum)... then when she saw she had black socks she LOST her mind... Pete and I had to hide our laughter, it was so dramatic and ridiculous. But she did eventually put it on (yes I used bribery).

I love her performances. She is at such an adorable age.

These are some of the photos of the show. My brother-in-law videotaped it so when he send it to me I will post on here. He also got some other really good pictures that I will be putting on here as well.

Virtual Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!!

Click on link below for a personal holiday greeting from the Vitacco4

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1300864467

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza Day 2

Day 2 was a success. We had 3 friends instead of 2. We let them each decorate 12 cookies. We had a great day. The kids had fun and are currently burning off a sugar buzz in the backyard while I am doing this. The 5 kids used the kitchen table, then I set up our (I say it is ours but actually it belongs to either my dad or sister) looonng table for the adults. It was a lot less messy than day 1 of the cookie making. Yesterday was a mess because of all the flour. I think we decorated around 90 cookies today. But with 5 kids and 6 adults we were done in about 2 hours, cleaned up and everything. I wanna say thanks to everyone for helping clean up. Michelle did my dishes yesterday and my kitchen looked so nice :) It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas despite the t-shirts and shorts.

I think I fixed the problem

I have been told by several people that they are unable to leave comments on the blog. I think I have fixed the problem so if you were one of those people, you can try again..

Day 1 of Christmas Cookies

We started our annual Christmas cookie extravaganza today. Day 1 is the cutting and baking of the cookies. Day 2 is the decorating. As you can see Maddie got more flour on herself than anything else. But she had fun and that is all that matters, tile floors are not hard to clean. We invited 2 of the kids friends to join us for the decorating. I am going to give each kid a certain amount of cookies and their own bowl of colored frosting. Those are the cookies they get to eat and decorate. I prefer my cookies made with unlicked fingers. I am sure I will have some messy pictures to post tomorrow.

Wall climbing

OK I guess I can only put 5 pix per entry so here are the other pics I wanted to post of Nick.

Notice the kids are in short sleeves/shorts... I love winters in Florida :)

First performance of Frosty.

Here are some pictures of Maddie's first dance performance of Frosty. They did not even have their costumes yet. I think they were asked to perform 2 or 3 days before the actual date..This performance was sponsored by Lee County Hospitals Children's Center (or sometbing like that) It was very nice. They served free hot dogs, hamburgers, soda, water, chips, fruit etc and they had a ton of stuff ofr the kids to do. I am putting some pics of Nick doing the wall climbing. He did really well and tried very hard. He was able to do the beginner wall. The intermediate wall he was just a step away from ringing the bell. Maddie spent a lot of time in the bounce house after she "danced"

Having fun at Dance class

Here is a video of Maddie at her dance class. She really likes dance.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Here are the pictures the kids took with Santa. I have one of them together with Santa and was gonna use that as our Christmas card but I am having problems cropping and still getting to a 3x5. Gonna try and get some cute ones of them on Saturday when we have our annual Christmas cookie decorating day. Maddie has the biggest forced grin on her face. She really wanted to not be nervous of Santa but she was.... Nick is starting to wonder if there is a Santa. We all watched Polar Express over Thanksgiving break, that seemed to help, that and Santa wrote him a letter from the North Pole. Hard to question when the postage stamp says the North Pole. Who else would mail from there???

I am ALLOWED to be rude??

When we were on vacation over the summer we went to Ed Debevics. For those of you not familiar with that restaurant it is a place where the wait staff is rude to you. Brandi had been there before and she knew the game and was prepared with her one liners. Nick had never been there and could not believe that he was allowed to be rude! When the waiter came to our table he said something rude and Nick blurted out "Get me some chicken nuggets, french fries and a sprite on the double!" Every time the waiter would come to the table Nick would get that face he has in the first pic and demand something from the waiter. He loved it. I admit, it was hard to let my child be rude. It was a great night.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth

Here is a picture of Nick this summer. He had just lost one of his front teeth. His Aunt Diane helped him pull it out. I think he looks so cute here.

More pix from this weekend

Here are a few more pix from this weekend. We are so proud of Maddie. This dance class has been so good for her. She looked so cute in that shirt. I also invluded a photo of the drive into the hospital. I wish I could take credit for the pix and video but my brother in law did it all. Thanks Tom.

Saturday night performance

This is her Saturday night performance. It was another tree lighting ceremony. This one was at the Lehigh Hospital. Santa was there before the performance so the kids got to see Santa and have cookies and hot chocolate. This one came out a little dark. Maddie is the one who is not moving her feet back and forth.

Maddies dance as Frosty

This video was taken Friday night at the tree lighting ceremony at the Towne Center . It was so fun to see all the girls (and boys) I had permasmile the entire time Maddie was up there doing her thang. I thought she would have stage fright because there were about 200 in the auduence, but no way she was excited and not a bit nervous. She is the one on the end,