Simplify

This is the word I keep trying to say over and over in my head. Make life as simple as posssible with as little headaches as you can. I'm not sure if it is the time of the year or what, but I have felt the need to clean out the house. All unwanted and cluttery objects are up to the attic in anticipation of our annual garage sale in May. I know that May is quite a while away but I get some weird satisfaction from cleaning out and organizing the house when there is nothing else to do.

This is our special board in the kitchen. Anything that is sent to us or given to us that we deem "special" we try to put up on our board so we can glance at it daily. My favorite item today is the "SETH" postcard sent to us from The Gilbert's. We love homemade crafty items so this gets a spot on our special board! I also love the Yankees jibitz (AKA croc jewels) for Seth's crocs. We can't wait to buy a new pair of crocs for this year and put them on. Also, if you look carefully you will see a very special senior pic of the hubs. He is going to love that this is on the net, ahhhh!

Nothing else new to report. Our district closed early yesterday due to the crazy weather we had. So I was able to pick Seth up by 11am and spend the rest of the day at home. It was a great afternoon.

This weekend Ro and I will head to Cornell for an overnight to celebrate Justin's 21st birthday. I hope we can keep up, but we are very excited to try!

Legal

Happy 21st Birthday to my Little Bro...

AKA Justin !

AKA Uncle Justin!

We will be seeing you in a couple of days and we can't wait!

Birthday Madness to an End

The party is over and we are all partied out! It was a wonderful 2nd birthday party and all of our loved ones were there. Food was eaten, cocktails drank, presents unwrapped, candles blown out, cake eaten and most importantly the birthday boy played his brains out. We opted out of a kiddie party this year because it is the winter, we already have a large family and our house just isn't large enough to invite everyone we would truly want to invite so we had the core family plus my friend Kristen and her son Jacob. AKA one of Seth's BFFs! Next year I'd like to do a little kiddie party somewhere so Seth could play with all of his buddies together on his special day.
Anyhow, the party was a huge success and here are some of the pics...

Now we are onto yet another birthday. My brother Justin will turn the magic 21 tomorrow so Roland and I are headed to Ithaca overnight this weekend to help him celebrate! I hope we can keep up, but we are really looking forward to it. Mom and Tom are on babysitting duty for the overnight, but they are excited for some one on one time with Seth!

Guilty Pleasure

If you read this blog often you know that I am a TV junky. When Seth is to bed I'm relaxing with Rocky and Ro while watching some sort of something. Well, since the writers strike is still on there is nothing to watch. Last night we were flipping through the channels when we came across a show on VH1 called Celebrity Rehab. This show is going to be such a guilty pleasure. It is total trash, but you can't stop watching it. Why these celebs would subject themselves to this on national TV for the whole world to see is beyond me, but it is too funny! Check it out, Thursday's at 10pm on VH1.

PS: Big Brother is starting back up too due to the writers strike on CBS.

Weekend Itinerary...
Tonight: Shopping for Seth's party.
Saturday: Seth's party with the family in the pm.
Sunday: Recooping from the party!

Low key weekend!

No More Months

I can finally say that Seth is 2 and no longer try to remember how many months old he is! YIPPEEE! We had a whirlwind day and evening. Seth had a party at Pat's with some of his friends and Pat took the best pics for me. She is the best sitter I could ever ask for and I feel so lucky to have her! After school Mom and Tom came over to give Seth just his card for now, but boy did he LOVE it!

The funny part is that we just started flipping onto The Wiggles as Seth could care less about TV. Early in the morning we crawl into bed with all his books and turn on TV and The Wiggles are usually on. Now that darn song is stuck in my head ALL the time!

The rest of the evening consisted of eating, photobooths and presents! Check it out! Sugar High BowlingPizza Party for his Kitchen After our photobooth shot we took Seth to Walmart and let him pick out a new toy. He picked out Mr. Potato Head's Silly Suitcase and had so much fun with it! PS: If you want to see the photobooth pic go to www.fotolog.com/seth12306

Now onto the party this weekend. I have lists a mile long, but we can't wait! Seth is psyched!

2 Years Ago!

2 years ago today...

I was having a rush of emotions. Was I prepared? Is it going to hurt? What can I expect once he is out? What do I do with him? How do I feed him? How do I change him? What do I do when he cries? I have to say that I "thought" I was prepared and now I know that there is NO way to prepare yourself. You can buy all the supplies, clothes, books and such, BUT you can in no way prepare for this life altering change. It was a rocky start, a rocky many months, BUT I would never take it back because we have the most amazing little boy in the world. He is so spunky, so clever and smart. You can have a real conversation with him. You can ask him to do a multi-step task and he is able to. He runs, plays, dances, talks, colors, sings, has friends.....

He is amazing! We are so thankful that Seth is in our life. We can't remember a day without him anymore and we can't believe it has been 2 whole years since he was inside me. Thinking back he was such a kicker so that explains A LOT now!

Happy 2nd Birthday Buddy! We LOVE You SOOOOOO Much!

Booty Shake

Just for Maya's viewing pleasure!

Loving Life

As I drove Seth to Pat's this morning I thought about all the fun we had over the weekend and I just started to smile for no reason, BUT there is a reason. I have a great life! I couldn't ask for more. Sure we all want things in life, but as a whole I have a GREAT life and I have no complaints. Here are some of the things that made me smile as I thought about my life.

* Seth has started to truly play with his toys and he has the most wonderful imagination. We just sit back and watch him. He makes pasta and cookies and hot dogs for us in his kitchen while he calls Uncle Justin and Jaime on the phone and chats. This is the extent of his conversation:

"Hi Justin, what doin'?"

"I playin', OK bye!"

PRICELESS!

* He LOVES his A to Z Learning Zoo. He lines all the animals up and talks to them, then tries to fit as many as possible into his farm.

PRICELESS!

* He LOVES his Mega Blocks and he makes the tallest towers possible and then says, "Dump them Mommy?"

PRICELESS!

We had such a great weekend. Friday night we intended to stay home, but due to the snow storm my Grandparents weren't able to make it down to my Mom's for dinner and they had a ton of food so they asked us to come over. Tom made chicken parm, broccoli and strawberry rhubarb pie. We all ate ourselves silly!

Saturday we drove down to SYR with our Friends Rod and Jen, then met our friends Rich and Lori at Ichibans and had as always an amazing meal! Thank you to Bonnie and Ro for watching Seth, he had a blast!

The boys being a pain!

Rod and Jen's Sushi YUCK, but they loved it!

Sunday, Seth and I drove down to Lowville and visited Gram and Gramp for a couple of hours. Long enough for Seth to tear apart their house. Gramp made his famous BLTs and then we had to head home. In the afternoon I went to the movies to see 27 Dresses with 6 other women. It was a mother/daughter afternoon. It was my mom and I, her friend Linda and her 2 daughters and then my friend Jen and her step-mom! Great chic flick!

Monday, Seth and I went to Jacob and Kirsten's for a playdate followed by lunch and more play at McDonald's Play Place! Seth then slept for 3 hours!

Now you can truly see why I feel so blessed! Every weekend is filled with such great blessings!

Happy Birthday Nana!

We have two very special birthday's in our family this weekend. Today is my Step-Mom Sue's birthday AKA Nana to Seth. Tomorrow is my Gram's 80th birthday. Then, next week is the big day for our little man. The BIG 2!

Not too much to report for the weekend. We are going to Ichiban's in SYR tomorrow night with two other couples for a delicious meal! I can't wait!

The rest of the weekend is unplanned which sounds great to us! Plus, we have Monday off and we have a playdate with Jacob!

Tuesday

Tuesday is my new favorite day of the week! You are going to totally laugh, but after Seth is all snuggled into his bed I get to watch my two favorite shows back to back and I get to lay on the couch all covered in a blanket and just bask in my relaxed nature. My hubs even watched with me last night, that never happens. I think I have gotten him hooked! My first favorite show, October Road is on at 10pm on Monday nights, now if you know me at all you know that I am dead to the world at that time, but thank heavens for DVR. I can now watch it on Tuesday night at 8 followed by my all time favorite show OTH which is on at 9! So basically, Tuesdays are pretty near perfect for me!

Now, Wednesday mornings are a little tough though because I stayed up too late and feel like poop today!

What else is going on... As you read our weekend was great. We even went to Panera for lunch on Sunday with our friends Erin, Jason and Storm. Ro was too hung over to eat, but I ate evnough for the two of us. I tried the soup in a bread bowl and it was AWESOME! Seth and Storm were two little angels, thank heavens! It was a fun afternoon!

Monday night we had Justin's good-bye/back to school dinner. I tried two new recipes that I will have to post and they turned out great!

Tuesday night Tom, Seth and I went to look at two houses with my friend Kristen who is in the market for a larger house. I love looking at houses so it was great! Tonight we are looking at two more houses on my street. It would be so great if she liked one of them. The boys would be inseperable!

Make and Take

With all of Ro's drunken madness I forgot to rave about my experience at our Make & Take on Friday night. My friend Sarah hosted a party and it was so much fun. I made 6 meals, one of which we will try tonight! We all brought some appetizers and wine and munched as we cooked. It was a great night and I made some great meals. I made Buffalo Chicken Soup, Mexican Meatballs, Calzones and many more. I love that all I have to do now is throw them in the oven or a crock pot. I also loved that Brad and Krista had gotten us a gift certificate for there for Christmas and our meals were basically paid for! YIPPEE!

Kristen & I

Our host Sarah!

Our Party Crew!

In other news, the tree removers came and cleaned up the whole mess. It looks like nothing happened except for the large hole in our fence. That will be repaired in the spring.

Also, any moms out there that would like to give me some advice, this one would be helpful. Seth is definately going through the terrible 2s. His favorite saying now is "Bad Mommy!" He will say it anytime he does not get what he wants and will even scream it in Old Navy's dressing room so I look like a bad parent. AHH Parenthood at its finest! This too shall pass!

Roland + Draft Beer = Utter Chaos

The following pictures will help to explain why Ro should NOT drink draft beer because he turns into a crazy hugging, dancing, kissing, grinding lunatic! It didn't help that an hour and a half of the Pepsi party was open bar too!

Ro & CaseyRo & OzzyRo & TKRo & Bill
Ro & Jill

Do you notice who Ro is not kissing??? His wife!

Forest

Watertown had a terrible wind storm on Wednesday...

Did you know that a forest of trees could come tumbling down into your yard in a city? Well, that is what happened at our house this week and here is the proof...

This is the tree that snapped in half and caused

the remainder of the damage in the following pictures.

So we are now dealing with tree removers, fence fixers and neighbors insurance companies to clean this up. We think the tree guys are coming Saturday or Monday to get it all cleaned up before more snow flies and then the rest will follow. What fun! At least it wasn't the house thank god!

Oh, also...We were supposed to have put Seth's playground at that very spot last summer and opted to wait until this summer when he was older. Thank god we waited because it would be FLAT!

Our weekend ETA is as follows:

Tonight: Make and Take Party with the girls

Saturday: Pepsi 2007 Year in Review Party

Sunday: Lunch with Erin, Jason & Storm then Relax

Video Thursday

Rock to a little Stevie Knicks with us this morning!

You know you are dancing right along with him!

Anticipation

The anticipation is over UNTIL next week. Ro was amazing last night, he gave Seth a bath and put him to bed so I didn't miss a second of my show. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I have so many unanswered questions now! I can't wait until next week!

In other news, we lost power this morning due to high winds so we got ready in the dark, but it was so funny when we went into Seth's room to get him. We walked in with a candle in our hands and he says, "Happy Birthday to Seth?", "Is it my birthday?" So funny!

Other then that it is day 2 of the NYS ELA for my kids and we will all be glad when it is over!

Countdowns...

We have a number of countdowns going on right now so to get them all out of my head I guess I better write about them.

11 hours until the OTH premiere!

15 days until Seth's 2nd birthday!

18 days until Seth's birthday party!

22 days until Justin's 21st birthday!

25 days until Roland & I go to Cornell to celebrate Justin's 21st birthday!

31 days until my birthday!

39 days until February break!

96 days until we go to Florida on vacation!

As you can see we have a ton to look forward to.

PS-Seth and I ran out to Michael's last night and I gave about 15 citations for outside Christmas lights and three for inside trees still on!

Citations

Roland and I first met our very close friends Nina and John Gilbert back in I think 2001 or early 2002. Roland started working at VAC with Nina and we all started getting together for dinners and parties all the time (before kids!). We instantly took to them, they were so different from anyone in Watertown and they made us laugh like we had never laughed before. I will never forget driving around town with them one evening in about February when they started giving out "citations" for people who still had their Christmas lights on as well as Christmas trees still lit. We were cracking up at them, but now I see their point. So in the spirit of Nina and John I ask today...

When can I officially start giving out citations for this year???

I totally understand still having your house lit up outside for a little while longer, but Christmas trees still?? It is January 7th??!!

What is your opinion??

Also, only one more day until the big premiere, so excited!! Channel 14 @ 8pm Tuesday, be there!

OTH

The wait it almost over, set your DVRs for next Tuesday, January 8th @ 8pm for my favorite show. I have seasons 1-4 and I have been watching them like a mad woman in preparation for the BIG EVENT! I can hardly sleep in anticipation of Tuesday's show. I know I'm a dork, but I am so excited!

You can even go to this website for video clips about this season (http://www.cwtv.com/thecw/fastforward)

The countdown continues, only 4 days left!

In other news, well there is no news. We have no plans for the weekend and we are loving it! Have a good one!

RESOLUTIONS

I read a couple of my daily bloggie friends blogs and got to thinking that I should make a couple of resolutions for the year 2008! I got to thinking about the type of person I am and the type of person I want to be for my son. Someone he can look up to and be like in the future.

So this year I will strive to...
* Hold my tongue, when I want to say something negative about someone or something, just hold my tongue because no one likes negativity and where does it get you in the long run right?! It might be tough, but I'm up for the challenge.
* Have more Sunday night dinners with our families.
* Bring Seth up to visit my grandparents more often.
* Let go of guilty feelings about lost friends. I feel as if I lost a couple of friends this year and as tough as it has been and the sadness I have felt I guess I just have to accept it. Maybe in the future it will all come around full circle, but for now I will try and look forward and hope for the best.
* Potty train Seth! AHHH! I totally dread this whole flippin' process, but I'm thinking POSITIVE!
* Recapture date night with Ro. With all the fall craziness I can't remember our last date night so I will try and plan one at least once a month or once every other month and surprise him with it!
* Stress less on all fronts and RELAX more!

Vacation in Review

It was brought to my attention that I have been lacking in my blogs lately so here is the super sized vacation/holidays/festivities in review if I can remember that far back.

Let's see, where to start...

The Sunday before Christmas we celebrated Christmas with The Charlton Clan and it was the first time since Luke was born that we were all able to be together. It was a great afternoon and evening filled with family, food, gifts and more food.

Monday, Christmas Eve we went to my Dad's for the afternoon. Ryan, Katie and the girls came up from Potsdam and Chad was home from FL for his first time in over a year. It was great to see him and catch up. I am truly proud of him for leaving and making it on his own AND for now planning on going back to school and getting a degree! We hope that he can drive down to visit us while we are in FL in April.

After our afternoon of food and family on Christmas Eve we headed to church and then to Aunt Virginia's for a little more food and family until I literally busted out. One of Tom's nieces, Joanne makes these butter cookies that melt in your mouth and taste like heaven, so I think I had at least 8 if not more and I came home with a major belly ache!

Christmas morning was so much fun. We opened our gifts as a family and then Mom, Tom and Justin came over to do gifts as well. Seth had a blast tearing through all of his toys and just playing like a mad man. He konked right out for a nap at 11:30am, that never happens. After his nap we went to Lowville for Christmas dinner and the last of the gifts.

Needless to say our house now looks like a mini Toys-R-Us so for Seth's birthday in 21 days we don't need any toys. We are thinking of getting him either a tricycle or a table and chairs. Our toy limit has exceeded!

Moving on... Wednesday we had our whole family get together (Mihalyi Family) and we had a family portait taken in Lowville. This is an exciting year for our family. It is my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary, my Gram's 80th birthday, my 30th birthday, my mom's 55th birthday and my brother's 21st birthday. So we got the whole family together, 13 of us, and had a portrait taken. Seth was amazing and we got the BEST smile out of him. We then surprised my Gram with a luncheon that was the most delicious food I have ever eaten.

The party was a huge success and that finally concluded our week of holiday festivities and traveling. We tried to recoop the rest of the week and undecorate the house.



Friday we had our first official playdate with Storm where he was mobile and the boys had the best time together. They played so well and most importantly, they were excellent while Erin and I ate lunch at Panera.

Saturday we had yet another playdate with Morgin and MJ. We took the kids to Velocity and they had so much fun! I was so proud of Seth. He could do mostly everything on his own and he had far less fear then I expected. It was good to get some of that energy out.

Sunday we were invited to Mom and Tom's for dinner which was great and Seth had a blast.

Monday we went to our friends Rod and Jen's new house for a kid friendly New Year's Eve and everyone involved had so much fun. I think the key word in our vacation was FUN!

Now I am back at work and trying to catch up from being a bit lazy before vacation!