Holiday Party 2011. WooHoo!!

This past Saturday evening was our (work) annual Holiday party. Sadie and Adam were my dates. We had a good time and ate some yummy food. There was a kid's room with chicken nuggets, coloring and crafts, so Sadie was happy. It was nice to see everyone and mingle. Unfortunately I didn't win any of the raffle prizes (Lots of gift cards, a gift basket, a kindle fire and an ipad 2), but it was still fun. There was a person there taking photos and these were the ones of us. I am looking forward to this weekend and celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah with our families. Adam and I only have one more gift to get for Sadie (fish) and we are going to let her pick them out herself. We are going to wrap up the tank and let her pick out the inside decorations, gravel and fish. She will have a nice little tank in her room. Hanukkah begins tomorrow night, so there will be more pictures to follow.

Winter wonderland.

Here are the decorations we made and have displayed. I have to finish the tree topper (blue snowflake). I still have to attach the piece that clips it on to the tree top! Enjoy.

Weekend arts and crafts

What a great weekend we had! Friday night, after work, Sadie, Adam and I met Kristin, Benny and Ciara at North Florida for the pond lighting. We walked all around the pond and the girls enjoyed dancing and jumping around and being silly. Saturday Gigi came over and we made holiday decorations. First we made the salt dough ornaments; Sadie really enjoyed helping me to kneed and roll the dough. I even stamped a few with ink and stamps and they came out great! After we popped those in the oven to bake, we started on painting and coloring the snowflakes, making paper ornaments and tying ribbon on the pine cones (from the yard). It was such a blast and Sadie had a great time painting and making her own ornaments. Everything turned out really neat. I even painted and glittered a big snowflake for the top of the tree! Adam and Henry even got in the spirit and helped me cut out paper snowflakes. Even after all those arts and crafts, Sadie still had a great time playing outside and riding her bike. Later in the evening, once all the decorations were dry and ready, Adam and I put the tree up and put lights on and we all decorated the tree, hung the paper chain over the tree. We also put out our menorah and hung all the paper snowflakes. What an awesome day. Sunday was a little less busy, but still fun. We took Sadie over to NE park and ran around there for a while. I LOVE taking her there. I have such good memories of that park and that neighborhood and it makes me smile to see her run around at my old stomping grounds. After the park, we got groceries, cleaned and just hung out together, enjoying the day. I am getting really excited about the holidays coming up. It was so fun doing the ornaments, etc. I am going to try and do something like that every weekend. Cookies, gingerbread house, anything else fun I can think of! Adam and I have been discussing what Sadie's "big" present will be. So far all we have is hungry hippos and some play dishes for her kitchen. We have a couple of ideas, but we'll see what happens. Pictures of the tree, ornaments and general holiday festive-ness at our house to follow.

School Days

Yes, I know, adorable. These light little smiles are so very Sadie. She is all smiles and sweetness until you try to get her to be all smiles and sweetness, then she makes these little smiles. I love it. My favoritw is the one with the book. She totally has my "are you going to get this over with or what?" face that I make. But, the one on the block is the cutest. I love this little girl, she just melts my heart. So I figured if I post these school photos, I have to post a "real" photo...

As I said, I love this little girl. That smile just melts me. I am getting very excited about Thanksgiving coming up, eating lots of yummy foods and spending time with family!! I have been cruising the "black Friday" sales ads for a new camera but so far, I haven't found anything worth buying. My problem is I want a DSLR and I am probably a little (ok, a lot) out of my price range. Who knows, I am the queen of good deals (can you say 2 dresses and 2 shirts for $8.50) so maybe I can surprise even myself this holiday season!! We were at Publix this evening and I saw kits for making ginger bread houses and ginger bread men!! I will definately be picking those up in the next week or two. That will be a fun thing to do with Sadie. We will also be making cake cookies and rice crispy treats! Yummy! I LOVE the holidays!

Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!

Of course Poppa and Grandma Carrie's house was a sure hit!

They looked so adorable!

Ciara showed Sadie how it was done!

I think she got the hang of it pretty quick!

"I got more candy mommy!!"

But let's not forget the fun party at school on Halloween! Sadie loved her Halloween dress and kitty ears are always fun- even after Halloween!

Time to run all that sugar off at the park!

Sadie had an awesome time at school and trick-or-treating. They had a big party at school and Sadie got to eat lots of fun stuff that she normally doesn't get! They painted their pumpkins, colored and had a great time. Later we met Aunt Kiki, Uncle Benny and Ciara in in my Dad's neighborhood for some trick-or-treating. This was Sadie's first year and I wasn't sure how she would like it. I was thankful that Ciara was there too, I really feel like she was a great encouragement to Sadie and they seemed to have a lot of fun together. They both looked adorable. Ciara was a sweet angel and Sadie was a tap dancer/ballerina. She wore my first recital costume (thanks mom, for saving it). It was neat to see her in it. Sadie walked the whole time, well until right at the end. I was so happy that she had such a great time! I am excited that the fall season is under way. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah. I just love the smells and the coziness of the holidays. Adam and I always make hot cocoa and sit outside. I love to drive around and look at Christmas lights (yes, I am a dork). This year I think will be even more fun because we can do gingerbread houses and holiday cookies. I am excited to see her little face light up at all of the excitement of the season! We have been talking about what to get Sadie for both holidays. I asked her what she wanted and she keeps saying "a kitty and a doggy"...I don't think that Santa will be dropping either of those off at our house!! So, I guess we'll have to see what else she might want...time to get creative!

Merry-go round and round and round.

Okay, so I guess these pictures are just going to have to be backwards! The top set are from today and the bottom ones are from yesterday! So, I apologize for uploading them backwards! Oh well.

Saturday Sadie, Gigi and I went to the Micanopy fall festival. It was a lot of fun and there was tons of stuff that I wanted to buy (can we say old iron works, wooden spools and old yard sticks?) but alas, I came home empty handed. I'm sure that Adam didn't mind. Papa had a few tables set up and Sadie got to snuggle with him and spend a little time with him. I think we will have to make a trip to Ocala soon!

Today we went to the park and Sadie pushed Adam on the merry-go-round. She had so much fun pushing her Daddy around. Luckily Adam does not get motion sick. I, on the other hand, get sick only looking at the merry-go-round! Later, we went to a pumpkin patch (or so we thought) at a big church near by. But when we got there there were almost no pumpkins and no people! There was an area off of one of the children's rooms that had playhouses and other "outside" toys. So, Sadie had a great time anyways!

Sadie is all tucked in bed, Adam is going through his baseball cards and watching family guy and I am going to go feed my disgusting reality tv craving! Everyone have a great week!

Friday Phone Dump

Here are some of the photos that I have taken over the last week or so. Sadie really enjoys swinging on the big girl swing and Mr. Mark, one of the directors at her school says that she "pumps" better than some 5 year olds!! Sadie is such a sweet, smart little girl and I have so much fun with her. We are so loving the weather lately and doing a lot more stuff outside. We have some fun stuff planned for the weekend and I am looking forward to doing "fall" stuff. Sadie has her Halloween party at school on Monday and then later in the evening we are going to trick-or-treating with Kiki, Benny and Ciara. On Wednesday she has her school pictures (which I am so stoked for). I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend. Happy Friday!!

Phone Dump Photos

My little lady loves to paint. Luckily we have an big screened in patio for her to explore all her painting skills. I am so glad that she loves to do arts and crafts and paint and color. I am trying to do different crafts projects with her, like making noodle necklaces and fun stuff like that. We haven't done too many yet though, because she really just loves to paint!