Christmas 2012

 Miss Ali before her Christmas morning meltdown

 Brody trying out his new clubs

 One of the many delicious dinners

 Ready for Santa

 Lovin' each other:)

 Soooooooo full!

 A quick game before bed.  Brody was so nice and helpful!

 Santa came!

 Mimi and Papa

 The four wheeler remote control...a HUGE hit!  Thanks Papa!

 The Princess and her princess castle

 Ali got a bunch of dress up stuff.  This was the only time she wore it!  The Bubble Guppies shirt on the other hand...that is the first shirt we pick out of the wash!

 Every 2 year old needs pink pumps

Better late than never I guess!  Our computer has not been cooperating lately and it has become quite an undertaking to upload pictures and update the blog.  Our Christmas was wonderful again this year!  We were lucky enough to have Nana, Mimi, and Papa join us for the weekend prior the big day.  Brody was VERY excited this year while Alison is still on the fence with the whole thing.  On Chirstmas morning, she only wanted to open one thing, then began to cry because she was overwhelmed.  Brody was more than happy to open them for her!  I also think we ended Christmas 5 pounds heavier after homemade meals of pierogies, glumke, desserts, tamales, jambalaya, and sweets!  Not that I am complaining though...

Naptime with Daddy

So sweet:)

It's Beginning to Look alot like Christmas

 The beginning of the decorating

 The Real Tree.  We only had one meltdown at the tree farm so I say...SUCCESS!!!

 Ready for Santa Claus!

 The wine bar at our party.  Like I said, I still stink at my new camera so the rest of the pictures (like the table full of food I made, the people there, etc.) somehow got erased. Oh well...

My super cute wine glass name cards:)  I am SO clever!

Slacker Mom

OK, I am a complete slacker and realize that I haven't updated in over a month.  I thought I would fill in on all of the going ons in the Lane House since then to keep everyone in the loop.

First of all, I got a new camera for an early Christmas present.  It took me three weeks to have enough time to load all of the software to upload the pictures.  I know there aren't many pictures to see, but I didn't know how to use the camera!  I am much more capable now:)

Alison and Brody have just gotten over a nasty Upper Respiratory Infection and Ali had a double ear infection to boot.  All of this of course happened while Jon was recovering from his knee surgery.  Thank Goodness Mimi was her to help out.  However, she got Bronchitis as a departing gift.  Jon and I are just waiting to see when we will get it.

We spent the weekend before Thanksgiving in Rhode Island and had a great time with family and friends.  I took pictures of the kiddos, but those pictures are on the other camera and it may be a while before I can get the pictures off of that relic!

Ali is still as sassy as ever.  She never wants to wear what I put out and her favorite phrase is "No!" and "I don't like/want it".  Great, exactly what we need, another opinion!  She continues to love learning and currently knows all of her letters (uppercase and lowercase), most of their sounds, numbers to 15, colors, shapes and pretty much everything else she can get her hands on.  It's pretty hilarious to practice letter flashcards with Brody and have Alison screaming the answer from the other side of the room before him.  He gets super mad!

Brody has a love/hate relationship with school.  He hates waking up in the morning and getting ready, but loves to go to school and play "activities" with his friends.  His teacher tells me that he is excelling in math, but needs to work on his letters.  His attention span is as big as an ant's unless he is super interested in it.  Can't wait for kindergarten.  He did pay attention yesterday for an hour to correctly put together a Lego tanker truck he bought with his allowance though...go figure!

All in all, I vow to update more often, take more pictures, and write more reports for everyone.  Everyone can have a new year's resolution right?  Hopefully this one will last longer than usual!

Halloween 2012

 Minnie!

 Notice the M&Ms as a distraction

 Spiderman...the mask didn't last very long

 CHEESE!!!

 Brody stood up when he realized the candy bowl was on the banister!

 Muscles!!

 Running away next door with Brody (which is where Brody spent most of his evening-handing out candy with the Wallaces and telling them that we put him in time out too much!)

 They DO love each other:)

 

More evidence of my bribery.

 

Since we had the power on, we were able to genuinely enjoy Halloween.  The kids were so excited to go Trick or Treating.  Brody had to be bribed with candy to put on his muscle Spiderman (HIS choice by the way) because he thought that the costume made him look "like a girl in the chest" (if you know what I mean!!).  Alison was a whole different story.  She liked the idea of Minnie mouse and she liked to hold the costume, but when it was time to get dressed...it was like trying to dress a wild chimpanzee!  The only part she didn't hate was putting her whiskers and nose on or "my mape-up" which I had to do in the mirror so she could admire herself.  I then had to bribe her with M&Ms to put on the rest.  No, I am not proud, but it got the job done.  Once she was completely dressed I took as many pictures as I could because who knew when she would decide to rip them off!  All in all, a fabulous night and we gave away all 550 pieces of candy!  Thank Goodness we don't have any leftovers!

Hurricane Sandy

 Getting cozy before the power went off...

 ...and enjoying the the power while we had it.  Go G.I. Joe!

 Apparently Jon thinks our house was going to turn into a boat.  Everything about this picture is horrible!

 POWER OUT!!  Brody and Dad starting a fire to keep us warm (day 1)

 Our shelter in place

Hooked up to the generator and destroying the family room

 

We were so fortunate to not have any damage to our house or property from Sandy.  We did however, lose power Monday into early Wednesday morning.  THANK GOODNESS we have a generator and a fireplace because it was VERY chilly out and the lack of heat, sleep, and entertainment for the kids was wearing very thing on my nerves!  As you can see we had to set up camp downstairs because 1. I thought that a tree was going to fall into the house, and 2. it was much warmer near the fire.  By Wednesday, the house looked and smelled like a shelter.  We are much happier now that we are clean and warm!  Now if only their school would get power so I can go back to work...

Nana's Visit

 Making brownie cupcakes (mostly eating the batter)

 Stir it up!

 Taking turns

 And now, shirts off...time to eat!

Yum!

Well, October has come and gone and I think it may be the first month in 4 years I haven't posted a picture!  We had soccer games, pumpkin patches, visitors, and survived Daddy being gone to Texas for a whole week!  I will attempt to "recapture" October in November!