Mommy's Christmas Gift

For so many reasons I love Christmas. The smell of pine, the cold brisk air, snowmen, and the thought of Santa squeezing his fat white booty down the chimney always make me smirk. So this year why would it be any different? And did Santa let me down? NOOOOOOOPE! Mommy got a new lap top~ Yay! Perfect timing considering I start school next Tuesday! My mom also got me this great new soft bathrobe I was eyeing too......and I don't ever ever want to take it off.










For many reasons I won't mention, I had a rough month here. I won't go into the gory details, but walking by Mema's picture last night I asked her to please just be with me and to give me a sign that she was here watching over me. Now if you aren't the type that believes in this stuff, well just believe this........Samantha came out of her room and said "is there a Stacey here? Stacey? I have a message for you"..........this girl is just learning how to spell 3 letter words so I think nothing of her scribbled note.......until I saw the name on the top: Here it is: exactly the way my grandmother spelled her name....."Stase"........now I know she is truly with me. Merry Christmas to me......from heaven.

Merry Christmas to Everyone

Here are a few fun shots we took on Christmas....Grandma is using a dress up rack/shelf we got from Brian's sister as a photo frame for her and the girls.....I thought it was too cute to not post don't you agree? The girlies love their "Grandma".....

Here is Samantha opening her favorite gift, Squawks McCaw, a fur real pet parrot. I originally despised this thing! Every time I walked by it in the store it blurted out "Hello" in an annoying voice! So when Santa brought it to our house I let out a nice loud "ooooh nice" in my monotone "oh this toy is so annoying" voice. Well, as I was cooking dinner, Samma left him on the table and all I heard was "whatcha doin" and it was the silly parrot. So now he's my new friend and we even can make him do gag things like "fart".....it's awesome. I'll get video footage of him later.....and last but not least......

Brendan's precious face the moment he opened his cell phone! I cannot believe that we caved and bought him a cell phone, however, he has shown so much responsibility this year and has kept his grades excellent. He also wants to go to all his baseball and basketball practices by himself now and also wants to walk to friends houses so..........I need to be in touch with my boy!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..........

Natalie is running up the stairs and locking herself in with the gate....none of that white cold stuff for her!

Well we got hit with some serious snow this past weekend and the kids were loving it.......everyone except Natalie of course who cannot stand the feel of cold on her skin. Delaney ran out in the pajama bottoms (my kid would dress like a hobo right?) and run outside to see how it really and truly is.......of course, we warned her the number one rule of snow.........anyone? anyone? Never eat yellow snow of course! So here she is, soothing her incision site in the throat while Natalie is running for cover!

So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Bring it on baby! I'm not afraid. Nope. Not one bit.

Christmas tree.........oh Christmas treeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

When we first put our tree up this week, we couldn't understand why Natalie, also known as Little Miss Mischievous would not want to touch the tree. She would walk away from it and sometimes she would get a bit closer only to run in the other direction. Then she tried using her ride-on dora bike to get close and she backed off again. Here she is today, enjoying her view of the tree.......touching the branches and exploring. Now instead of Rocking around the Christmas tree, we're playing "peeka boo" around the Christmas tree!

It's been a while........

since my last post but things were crazy with Delaney being sick and well, with all the kids fighting me for the computer and all, I swear someday I will post more again! Delaney is finally feeling better and is almost back to her old self. Brendan just had his school musical and christmas shopping is almost complete! It's hard to believe that Christmas is such a short time away! In 12 days we will be going loopy in this house and it will look like a wrapping paper tornado hit Braintree!

So we finally got the tree up last weekend and now we are just doing last minute Christmas stuff. Tonight I am taking the girls to the Nutcracker at the Opera House compliments of Della's godfather Higgy. Della just loves it and so doesnt' Sam. They even have matching dresses so I will post them as soon as I can tomorrow so you can see how adorable they look.

I'm off to start my morning, but I just thought I'd finally come on and say hello!

It's really cold now......anyone know the way to Florida?

Baby it's COLD OUTSIDE

While Delaney is still on the mend from her surgery this house is getting stir crazy! My truck is in the shop as well so I don't even have a way to get anywhere so we've been housebound.

Yesterday afternoon, Delaney took a nap and Natalie saw Brendan through the big window sledding in our neighbor's yard. She wanted out! So I dressed her up and opened the door and she went out into the freezing cold. She was in the sled that Mema bought for Brendan for Christmas when he was 2. She was in the swing. She was in her "pretend" dora car. She was loving it.......

So here's a few photos of her having some Winter fun with her brother.

All I want for Christmas is ............

a new bottom front tooth! After many months of waiting and watching all of her "younger" friends loose many many teeth, Samma finally came out of her room tonight ecstatic because she pulled out her own tooth! She wiggled and pulled! Mema would be so proud!!!! Anyway, she was so excited and went to bed with a spring in her step talking about the tooth fairy. She didn't get away without me taking the "I lost my first tooth" photo.........

No serious, All I really want for Christmas is.......

well, I think Samma wants lots of things. However, she really wants her T-W-O bottom front teeth! That's right.....two. In one night. She wiggled one and pulled it out. Then she came out and said "what would happen if I lost two in one night" so we proceeded to tell her that she would get "double" the money. She came out and said "this is going to be a fun night" and was holding another tooth.....................She looks so cute. Don't you agree......?????

Last playdate for at least a week........

Well, here she is.......Lil' Ms. Della having her last play date for at least a week. She will be having her tonsils out this morning at 9:30 a.m. and then she's going to have a hole in her ear repaired as well. I'm a nervous wreck. I was supposed to take her into Mass Eye & Ear this morning, but I have this enormous pit at the bottom of my stomach and got really emotional so Brian took her instead. She should be home this afternoon if all goes well so please keep her in your prayers & thoughts today.

Here are a few photos of her and her best friend, Maeve. She has known Maeve since the day they were born (they are only two months apart) and I figured it would be good for her to have a play date before she was recovering. So what do children do when they are bored? They pretend they are hermit crabs of course! So here they are pretending to be hermit crabs. And here's another shot of them holding hands with Samantha. I cannot believe Maeve is only 2 and she is almost as tall as Samantha!

Well, wish us luck. I probably won't be back on until things settle down. I don't truly know how miserable she will really be until she gets home. Thank goodness for Tylenol with Codeine!

Any pony tail shot.......

Hi everyone!

Do you like my ponies?

It has taken me forever and a day to get to this point, but honestly, I love having a baby with hair! Della just recently was able to let me pull some ponies into that head of hers, but Natalie.........well, she's a different breed here! Check out my baby girl looking so grown up!

Happy Birthday Mema

Happy Birthday to my mema.........

It would have been a wonderful Happy Birthday

There were so many things that Mema loved and one of them was Thanksgiving where she could make her bean salad (sewing needles included) and her tossed salad with her famous salad dressing that I still to this day, cannot make. She loved family and she loved nothing more than spending time with everyone over a good hot meal.

Mema also loved her birthday. She loved getting and opening presents and it always made me smile because she was like a little child when opening presents. The glimmer in her eyes always made me laugh because she was so young at heart.

So today, on Thanksgiving, not only am I wishing my best friend a Happy Birthday in the afterlife, but I am also going to celebrate the way she would want me to. I am going to be thankful that I got to spend all the time I had with her. I am thankful that she got to see Brendan grow into a toddler. I am thankful that she was as close to me as she was. Mema and I shared a special bond which no one could have compared. I miss her terribly and constantly wish that she was here to tell me to just relax and enjoy every second of my life. She reminded me constantly that life was short and that I should not get angry. That I should try not to be frustrated with little things. But this isn't about me now is it? It's about a wonderful woman that I miss and love with all my heart.

Happy Birthday Mema. I know you are here in spirit.

Last night we all went by Christy and Cindy's for a "friends" Thanksgiving dinner. It was a lot of fun! Robin is in from California and a few glasses of wine and/or white russians later, Cindy was on the back porch serenading her poor tv set which got stolen a few months back. So here she is with her a.m. serenade. Thanks for the laugh Cindy! And thanks for such a fabulous time. Dinner was great and so was the company!

Photos will follow in a bit......but until then. Enjoy.

Oh the excitement.......

Robin is coming into town on Saturday so I thought I'd prepare the girls a bit by getting them all riled up. Delaney was only 9 months old the last time Robin was here and Natalie has never met her. So I looked at Della today and told her that Auntie Robin was coming. She got all excited and asked if Uncle Scott was coming too. Hmmmmm. How did she make that connection? Is it possible that she remembers them? Then she ran to my hutch in my living room, pointed and said "Auntie Robin and Uncle Scott"......I had their wedding photo in my living room. So here are a few photos of Delaney introducing Natalie to Uncle Scott and Auntie Robin.

Can't wait to see you little sis.

Together Again

Here is a photo that was retrieved from the old computer as well. It is a photo of all three of us on one of Robin's visits from out of town. Fortunately for me, there will be a few "new" photos taken this weekend when my sister, Robin, comes into town for the Holiday. It will be great to just hang out and play catch up with my two sisters who I very rarely get to see, but seem to always pick up right where we leave off. I cannot wait to sit and have dinner with the two of them and hopefully we will get many more photo ops! I don't know who is more excited......me getting to see my sister I haven't seen for two years, me getting to see my sister Christy because life just always seems so busy, or my kids because they are so excited that they are going to see both their aunties at the same time! So here's to a Happy Thanksgiving and a great family time together with fabulous moments to share! As I'm typing this I'm smiling..............I love the holidays!

Old photos always make me smile

A few weeks ago I was cleaning out my closet downstairs and found my old computer tower. At the time the computer crashed from a virus and we had so much information on it! So seeing the tower reminded me to see if I could at least get some of those photos back. I brought it to a computer techie and low and behold he was able to retrieve about 1,000 photos! I was so excited. There were many I laughed at, many that made me sad because time has just gone by so fast. Most of the photos were from when digitals first came out back when Samantha was a baby. So here is one of the two kids that just made me see how quickly they grow. Yeah, I only had two back then! The laugh on Samantha made me remember her contagious laugh and I just thought I'd share how cute my two oldest babies are!

Enjoying her book

For those of you who have not heard of the infamous "First Birthday book" my cousin's wife, Ann, made for Natalie for her 1st birthday, here's a quick glimpse of it! Here was a perfect photo op moment where Natalie sat on the floor reading her book, flipping the flaps to find her Grandma & Papa.....she was laughing at the photos of Brendan, Della and Samma. As she lifted the flaps laughing, Samma would yell peeka and Della would yell boo to which Natalie would crack up laughing.

So thank you Ann for giving us a special moment with her, for watching her laugh and enjoying her book that you so kindly made for her. We will cherish it always.....

The first fire of the season

Thanks to Auntie Ellie and Dick, we now have a full cord of wood and we decided to have a family night last night! Using our upstairs fireplace for the first time since we've been in the house, we toasted marshmallows and had so much fun with the kids. As you can see, they had a blast, and they were nice, warm & cuddly.....together!


Brendan & Della cozying up by the fire.......

First Fire of the Season

Last night we had Family night and decided to finally, after 4 years of living in Braintree, use the upstairs fireplace. We sat around, toasted marshmallows and just spent some time together. As you can see, the kids had a blast............


Della & Brendan cuddling by a roaring fire.....

Brendan cuddling his baby sister........

Weekend photos

Here are just a few of last weekend's photos. Rita, Jim & Lauren came in for the weekend and we had a great time. Hopefully it won't be another two years for our next visit........*sniff sniff* because by then we will really have to watch out for Brendan and Lauren now won't we???? Yikes. I cannot believe that in a little over 3 years my son will be a teenager! I am so not looking forward to the having girlfriends scene.........
Anyway, here is a great shot of Brendan and Lauren:


Uncle Jimbo playing with Della and Natalie
Rita and I on Saturday morning drinking our coffee and watching the kids play soccer in the rain!

Fall Fun!

We had so much stuff to do over the weekend and I'm just now getting to change the blog! Last Friday my best friend came in from New York with her family and they stayed until Sunday morning. Then on Sunday we went to Castle Island's haunted house and then to a Halloween party at my mom's condo complex where the girls won "best costume" awards. How exciting! Then Tuesday was spent with my cousin, Catherine and her son, Tyler and as you can see from the photos below, the kids had a blast! We took them to the middle school right up the street and they could not have been happier.

I'll post more photos later on a lot of stuff, but right now, here's just a few..........


Della, Samma & Ty Guy hanging around in the leaves!
Tyler running from Samma and Natalie who is running from Tyler..........
Anyone seen a rabbit? Doesn't Ty guy look like Elmer Fudd in his hat? And boy oh boy does he love his hat!