We're back!!

I felt deprived, like the luxuries of life were gone and would never return!

About 4:30 Sunday morning...the winds were whipping through like crazy, shingles flying, Christmas decorations coming down, the power going out...

Fast forward to 7 Sunday evening...I'm on the phone with DTE, here's how it plays out:
DTE: Thank you for calling DTE, may I have your address
Me: Sure, yadda yadda, can you tell me when my power will be restored
DTE: Sure thing, it looks like we have a crew out working in your area and there are about 31
people left without power, should be up within two hours
Me: 31???!!!! You must mean more like 231, since no one in my neighborhood has power
DTE: Well, we must have gotten a report from the field, looks like there are only 31 left
Me: Okay, well, it doesn't sound right, but I'll keep waiting

Fast forward to 9:30 pm: Still no power, a bunch of the neighbors are running generators, the hum is driving me nuts, it's still about 60 in our house, so we decide to go to bed

Fast Forward, now it's 6:30 Monday morning: It's FREEZING in our house, Daniel has to go to work, I check the thermostat and it says 47 degrees, Katie's still sleeping and I'm still tired so I crawl in bed with her

Again with the fast forward, 8 am now: Katie and I get up and get dressed, go get my sister in law and head out to McDonalds for some warmth & breakfast & some play time for Katie then after that we head over to her house since she has a fire place that we could use to heat atleast part of her house (she lives down the street in the same neighborhood, so she didn't have power either), we call DTE two more times throughout the day, they promise restoration by midnight but we don't get our hopes up

Fast Forward to 7:30 Monday evening: Daniel has just gotten home from work, we're all sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace eating dinner (thank god for gas stoves, atleast we could cook!!), we hear a slight humming, then we notice lights on electonic gizmos, HURRAY!!! THE POWER IS BACK ON!!! 39 VERY cold hours later we have power again and all is well!

During those 39 hours we played every board and card game one could imagine to help pass the time, which is much easier said than done when it gets dark at 6 pm every night, candles can only put off soo much light.

All that having been said, our next major purchase will be a generator. Not a Huge one, but one big enough to atleast run the furnace and keep the fridge and freezer cold, we can live without tv and computers, but a few lights and alarm clocks would have been nice. I'd better start the saving now!

Christmas Fun

Well, Christmas is over. We had a great day and we hope you all did too! Katie was finally old enough this year to really appreciate everything that was going on around her. We spent the last week discussing what good behavior meant to Santa about every 30 minutes; and we must have called him just to make sure he got her list about a million times. She was very specific in her wish list this year, she wanted princess little people with a pony and stairs for her people to climb. She got the Dance and Twirl Palace, and Pony and Carriage and another little princess with some accessories; she was simply elated. In addition we got her about a bazillion other things. Ever since I started school she has been asking for a pair of scrubs, or 'doctor clothes' as she calls them. I found her a little pair that has all of her favorite Disney Princesses on them, so now she wants to go to school with me. She also got a Princess TV for her room, a VTech, some ponies, some games, another baby doll, more little people, and the cutest little dress up clothes you could imagine. In addition she was also given a 7 week gymnastics class and a seven week swimming class by my parents. Undoubtedly there were a bunch of other things I can't even remember right now!

I'll post some pics of the day here later, but if you want to see more pics than what I post here you can always visit her website. http://www.babysites.com/sites/joannewhitney/default.asp?page=home&seq=1

Grandma & Papa are in town

My mom and dad arrived safely in town last night. Katie knew it too, as soon as we got home she started asking where they were and when she could see them. I called them this morning to see when we could come visit as they are staying with my brother for a few days before coming here. They came and picked her up about 30 minutes ago and are going to spend the afternoon with her. As you probably remember my mom was just here last week, but we haven't seen my dad since we went to Florida to visit for Katies birthday in October. They're here until the day after Christmas and will be staying with us for the last half of there visit.

This will probably be my last post until after Christmas. I'm done with school for two weeks after tomorrow and there is still much left to do. Daniel has Friday off, so we will be wrapping up the last of our Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, and doing a mini Christmas with Daniels family so that we can minimize the number of gifts Katie has to open on Chistmas day, especially the ones that won't be kept here.

Happy Holidays too you all!!! Have a safe and happy time!!

Christmas is almost here!!

Well, as the holidays get closer things start to get more and more stressful. I can honestly say though that this year seems to be going better than the years past. Christmas pics are done, and most of the cards have been sent (the only ones left are those to my online friends and they're coming soon!!). The house is almost completely ready, many many thanks to my mom for that. Most of the laundry is done, I hope to wrap the rest of it up tomorrow. All of the baking is done except for one cheesecake, which at this point I'll hold off until a day or two before Christmas to make. Most of the decorations are up, we'll be finishing tomorrow as the weather is supposed to be much nicer than it has been. The only major task left at hand is wrapping ALL the presents. Katie is going to her aunts house for a few hours ext Friday so that we can wrap her gifts as she has already been trying to open the one's we have wrapped for her cousins.

Speaking of Katie! She is just loving the holiday season. She helped make and decorate cookies here at home last weekend, then this weekend she helped again at her aunts. She is IN LOVE with Christmas music. We can't go anywhere in the car without her asking us to turn the radio on. She's learning the words too. My favorite is when she sings Up On the House Top, she knows most of the words, so she does it pretty well. She also loves all the holiday movies. We're managed to record a few of the Mickey Mouse ones, so, of course, we have to watch them all every day.

Happy Holidays to you all!!!

Grandma came to visit

My mom is in town visiting this weekend. She retired at the end of May and her and my dad moved to Florida. They were here for a ffew days in the middle of June and we went to visit in October, but it still seems like we haven't seen them in ages. Only my mom is here this week. She flew in yesterday morning and is leaving Tuesday evening. We have a busy weekend planned, baking cookies, taking pictures and lots and lots of visiting. Her and my dad will be coming in for Christmas, so she'll only be gone for a week after she leaves.

The Holidays are upon us

It seems like it's been so much more than a week since I posted last but that's probably just because it seems like we're so busy there's never any time for anything.

Thanksgiving was great. We had lots of family over and everyone visited and ate. It was great fun and great eating. Katies cousin Aurora spent the night and Friday we spent the day playing until daddy got home, then we packed everyone in to the car, including Auntie Heather and Grammy, and went to the holiday parade. We took both girls last year and they loved it, so it's a condition we want to continue. Next year we'll try to go earlier so that we can take part in some of the activities they have before had and get a spot right on main street. Saturday the girls and I hung around the house and played for most of the day and then we took Aurora home.

Katie has been a busy girl. She is in to everything. She's finally starting to get better at playing by herself. She's really in to playing dressup right now, which is great considering the amount of dressup clothes she has and the fact that we got her another outfit for Christmas. She's getting her holiday pics taken on Friday, we got her a cute little dress a few weeks ago, and a toddler size santa hat. She's gonna be so cute, I love getting her pics taken at the holidays because she's such a ham and they always come out so cute.

Grandma (my mom) comes in to town tomorrow for a long weekend. While she's here Dar (my aunt) will come over and we'll do our annual holiday baking. By then end of the day we'll have made enough cookies to feed an army. Hopefully my mom and I will have the chance to visit a few craft shows while she's here too. She will be doing quite a bit of visiting with some of her friends from work.

Daniel is still working as much as ever. He has 3 vacation days left to use by the end of the year, so he is using one this Saturday and one each of the next two fridays after that.

Me, well, this is week 4 of 5 of my first mod at school. It's going really well. If this mod was any indication the next 5 mods are going to fly by and I'll be doing my externship before you know it. I've been fighting a bit of a cold for the last few days, but it seems to be a little better today.

I need to get some decorating done for the holidays, so I'm off. Happy Holidays to you all!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I know I'm a day early, but Thanksgiving is a very busy day in the Whitney household. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. There is so much to be thankful for this year, even for those of us that have been negatively impacted by the current state of the economy. We will be having about 6 or 7 guests for dinner tomorrow afternoon. I'll be sure to say a happy thought for all of you as we sit down to eat tomorrow, I am forever thankful to you all for your friendship.

Snow Play

I'm sure there are many more days of snow play in my future, but hey, if she likes it then more power to her!

Yesterday I took Katie shopping for a new pair of winter boots. I swear her feet grow an inch a month, so she'll need another pair shortly after Christmas I'm sure. What led to this shpping trip taking place yesterday was that since it started snowing a few days ago Katie has been asking non stop to go outside and build a snowman, of course I wouldn't let her play in the snow in her little canvas shoes, so shopping we went. She picked out a pair that actually matches her snow suit pretty well and then we came home for a nap. As I was getting ready for school she started up on playing outside again so I bundled her up and sent her outside. For those of you who don't know, Daniel and I are NOT big snow people. It's not so much that we mind the snow, but we wish it would stay off the roads and sidewalks, and not make the air so darn cold. Katie, on the other hand, thinks the snow is absolutely fabulous. She spent most of last winter so sick that she didn't go out much, so I think it almost felt like the first time for her. She made snow angels, rolled down hills, ate it, licked it, threw it, and made her very own version of a snow man (which was really just her throwing snow to the same place time after time). She went out twice, and from what I hear she didn't want to come in, but eventually gave in. I didn't get any picks since I was gone most of the time she was outside, but I'll get some next time.

3 year old power trip

Daniel and I have been struggling with this for a few days. Katie's attitude lately is out of control. I know it's just a phase that she's going through, but I seriously just don't know what to do. I am NOT a very patient person, I've gotten a lot better about it over the years, but I'm still pretty easily riled. It's as if she knowsjust what buttons to push to really tick me off. On several occasions I have had to walk away and lock myself in my room for a few minutes so that I could just cry it out for a few minutes until I calmed down.

We have been very good about creating consequences for her actions, but it just doesn't seem to be getting anywhere. At this point she has had almost all of her toys taken away from her, and told that she won't get them back until she behaves, but she still acts up. They talk about owners needing to take there dogs to training classes, well, our dogs need to take Katie to training classes!! As people ask what she wants for Christmas I literally tell them NO TOYS!! At this point I would rather her get clothes that aren't going to fit her for two years....

UUUURRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

I don't mean to make this blog all about complaining but I'm glad to have a place to vent, so please just deal with me as we go through this wonderful phase of toddler-hood.

Exhaustion has set in....

So, last year Katie was "sick" like every three weeks. It was like clock work, I could count on her waking up with a fever, then coughing and sneezing her head off for a few days. We saw the doc about it quite a few times, but they just kept saying that it was just a cold and that she would et over it. They also told us that a lot of kids have one winter like that and then they seem to only get sick a 'normal' amount of times after that. Well, I'm here to tell you that they were wrong! As soon as the weather started changing Katie started with the same symptoms from last year. Her nose runs like a leaking faucet, and she coughs and sneezes all day. I feel so terrible for her, but atleast we haven't had any fevers yet this year!!

I've been feeling a little under the weather too. I've had a head ache off and on, I'm tired and my stomach has been bothering me. I'll get over it though!!

That's all for now, Katie is at her aunt and grammy's house for the night, so I should probably get some stuff done.

Orienation

I have orientation for school this afternoon. I'm pretty excited! I'm really looking forward to this program. There is an extreme amount of satisfaction in knowing that I will be graduating nine months from now and that I can continue to further my education after that if I want. One of these days I plan to finish my associates degree in business mgmt too, but it's not really at the top of my list right now. The economy just isn't such that I'm to have muc luck finding a good paying business job any time soon.

Katie's good too! She managed to earn two of her toy boxes back the other day. She really wants the rest of them too, but they will come with time, and of course good behavior!!

That's all for now! I'll make every effort to post pics from the past few weeks soon in the next few days.

Checking in

It's been a while!

We've been pretty busy around these parts.

I am officially enrolled in school, I have orientation this Wednesday and classes start next Monday. I go Monday thru Thursday, 5:30 -10 pm. The program is 36 weeks of classroom study, then 6 weeks of an externship. I'll be done with both July 31.

Daniel has been working a ton. They are still on 6 days. Katie and I miss him, but we can definitely use the money, so we try not to complain too much. He has 18 months in on November 18, which means another pay raise. Contract negotiations begin in April, which is when we'll find out for sure if he has a job for the long run or if he'll be laid off again. We have our fingers crossed that they'll decide to keep there group and he'll have a long term career.

Katie has been very busy with everything. She had a GREAT time Trick-Or-Treating. It was the first time she got to go, and I'm glad we waited to take her as I'm sure it's an experience she'll never forget. Her friend Hunter came over and went with her, which just made it all that much more fun for her.

What else? Oh! The baby topic. Well, after a lot more discussion we decided that we would still give this month a shot. So I should be able to test in about 8 days. If I didn't get pregnant this month then we are going to take a break for a few months. I really hope I am pregnant, but I'm not going to let it get me down if I'm not. If I am pregnant now the baby would be due just as I graduate from my program, which I think would be perfect since I could finish school, have the baby and then get a job instead of getting a job and then needing time off a few months later to have a baby. Since FMLA only works if you've been there a year and the employee has more than 50 employees I'd really rather it happen the first way.

The animals are doing great. Cocoa is growing like a weed. She is house broken and is learning to sit and lay. Yoshi is still as crazy as ever. He loves having someone to play with. George is not really so sure about having two dogs in the house. She is getting more adventurous and starting to check Cocoa out a little more each day.

Well, I'd better get going, I am determined to get my house cleaned up before Thanksgiving. I should really be doing laundry now!!

Decisions Decisions

Well, Daniel and I talked about it last night and I think I'm going to go to school. The fact that this opportunity is presenting itself so shortly after I got laid off makes it feel like someone is trying to tell me something. We still really want to have another baby, but we've decided to play it safe for a while and try a little further down the road.

I know in my heart that this is the right decision. It is the first time in a long time that I am truly excited about school and I know that in the end it will really be beneficial to our family.

School, Career, Baby??

Oh my! I'm all over the place lately. I want another baby so bad, but I have the opportunity to go back to school and get an education that could start me on my way to a life long career that I can really enjoy and learn and grow from.

Daniel and I have a lot of talking to do this weekend, and a lot of decisions to make.

Katie's behavior has been a little better the last two days. She got a buch of toys taken away last weekend and she knows that she has to behave to get them back.

Thats all for now, the dogs have to go to the bathroom again!!

It's been a while

Things here have been kind of crazy this week.

Whoever decided that children went through terrible two's was seriously mistaken. The two's were great compared to the last two weeks. I know it's just a phase, but Katie has been persisitantly troublesome lately. Every day is a struggle, but we'll get through.

Otherwise nothing too exciting has been happening. I submitted my resume to a few places yesterday. I'll probably apply to a few more places today. Katie has preschool this morning and we're going on a playdate wit Stefanie and Hunter this afternoon. Then I need to finish my holdiay baking this weekend so that it's done and cared for.

I'll post the rest of the last months pics later too!!

More Pics - Katie's 3rd Birthday

These pics are from the family party in Florida.

Pictures

I have a LOT of pics to post, so be patient becuase it's going to take quite a few posts.

We'll start with pics from our trip!!!

On the plane

Helping papa drive the boat

Holding on tight while papa drives fast per her request

Driving all by herself!!!

Meeting Pluto

Cinderellas Castle

Cinderella

Belle

Aurora

The Ugly Step Sisters

Loved the Carousel

Her first set of Mouse Ears!!

Donald Duck

The best part of the whole day!! Mickey and Minnie Mouse!!!

Waiting for the parade to start, it was cold and wet, so she put on daddys shirt

Katie's Update

Katie had her 3 year well child check up this morning. She weighs 34.8 pounds and is 37 inches tall. She also got her flu shot and an over all physical. She was ahead on many of the objectives they expected her to. They were happy that she not only knew knew her shapes and colors, but that she is already starting to write letters and numbers. While I'm not working she will only be going to preschool two days a week, but it's all we can really justify for now.

So lucky

It really hit me today how lucky we are to live in Michigan. I don't like snow, but we are blessed with the most beauiful transition seasons. The leaves are really changing right now, every time I look I out the window I am awwed by all the beautifl colors. The weather this time of year is usually a mild, balmy 40-60 degrees. Just right for a favorite pair of jeans and a sweater or sweathsirt, and of course a warm cup of home made hot cocoa!!

I cant wait to get pregnant!! I'm really hoping that things happen quickly, but I'll take it whenever it comes. Daniel is really excited too, just the idea of it makes him smile. I honestly have to say, that if he hadn't said this is what we wanted we wouldn't be doing it. I had pretty much onvinced myself that we weren't going to have any more kids, and I was as okay with that as I coul be, but I'm much happier now that we've made this decision. Fingers crossed that I have good news a month or two from now!!

Loads of updates!!

I know it has taken me a while to get around to this post, but I always say: Better Late than Never!!

Florida: We had a great time. Our flight down was great, the ride was smooth and Katie was well behaved. We arrived at the Orlando International Airport at about 11:15, got our luggage and my mom and dad picked us up. From there we went to lunch a Sweet Tomatoes and then back to the house. We mostly relaxed that night and looked around the house at all the things that have changed since my mom retired and they moved down there permanently. The house was beautiful, and they appeared to be settling in nicely. Tuesday we took a boat ride and relaxed some more. Wednesday we went to Disney, which I'll cover below. Thursday was Katie's birthday. My grandma came over and we all spent the day visiting. For Breakfast Katie requested pancakes, which I made Mickey Mouse shaped for her. For lunch she wanted a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, grape jelly, cut in to quarters. For dinner she asked for cheeseburgers and french fries, so that's what she got. I also made her a home made chocolate cake with home made butter cream frosting. It was all VERY good!! Katie received lots of wonderful gifts from her Grandma and Papa and Nana, lots of clothing and toys. Friday morning we left for the airport at 5:30 for our 8 am flight. The flight home wasn't too bad either, bu Katie was a little more fussy this time around because she was simply exhausted.

Disney- We spent the day at Disney World on Wednesday. Not only was it Katie's first trip, but it was Daniels also. They gave Katie a special pin to wear for the day so that everyone would know it was her birthday. Everyone was very nice and we all had a tremendous amount of fun. We made sure to visit lots of the characters. As soon as we entered the park we saw Daisy, Pluto and Chip n' Dale. Then we went on a few rides and made a trip to see Mickey Mouse. the directions we were given lead us to the wrong tent, so we ended up meeting the Princess' first, which meant that our visit to Mickey would have to wait so that we could get accross the park in time for the afternoon parade. After the parade we had some lunch and hit up a few more rides. Katie loved Dumbo the flying elephant and the Tea cups. Then we were on our way back to Mickey. We had heard rumors that Minnie spent a lot of time visiting with mickey during the day, so we were hopeful that we'd get to meet them both. Sure enough they were both there, and Katie couldn't have been more excited. She gave them both HUGE hugs and they gave her lots of hugs and kisses. We also saw Donald Duck and the Ugly Step Sisters. All in all it was a great day. We couldn't have asked for anything more, and we are sure that Katie will remember the day for a long time to come.

Saturday was Katie's bithday party. I made her a Mickey Mouse cake which was absolutely adorable and lots of our friends and family came to spend some time with her. Including Katie we had 5 kids here that were within a years age of here, and two her cousins who are 4 and 6 years older than her. It was a lovely day, and she received many more fabulous gifts.

I have other exciting news, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to share it just yet, keep your eyes open for it in the near future though!!

What a day!!!

WOW!! What a day we had today! This morning after I got ready I went and picked Katie up from her aunts house about 9:30 and we started on our way. First we went to Brighton to run some errands and make some returns. then we went to Huncles (my brother Chris') house to pick up my parents mail and a few other things they asked us to bring down. From there we went and got some lunch from McDonald's and Huncle and Kayla (Chris' girlfriend) followed us to the hospital to visit with Aunt Dar (my aunt, she had knee replacement surgery yesterday). While we were there visiting Uncle Mel, Uncle Fred, Auntie Jenn, Ashley and Nick (my uncle and cousins) arrived to visit too. We had a good time visiting, but Dar was getting tired so we all left. Mel, Jenn Fred and the kids were on the way to the apple Orchard to meet Anne and Aidan (my cousin and her son) and get some Apples, Cider and Donuts; we didn't really have any plans so we decided to join them. They had a cute little petting zoo and lots of places to take pictures. I took lots of pics on my phone and mu uncle took lots on his camera, so when I get some I'll post them. Before we left we had some cider and donuts....YUMMY!!!!! I can't wait to take Katie back to the local one next weekend to pick Apples and Pumpkins. After the Orchard we were headed to Aidan's 5th Birthday party and Chuckie Cheese. We had never taken Katie before, so she was VERY excited about everything that she was seeing. We hung out there for about 2.5 hours. When we finally got home it was already 8:00 pm. Katie's head hit the pillow about 2 seconds after we walked through the door. She took all of about 20 minutes of a nap today, but she really could have used a 2 or 3 hour one, but she did pretty god without it.

Katie is so excited to be going to Florida. She can't wait to see her grandma and papa, and mickey, donald, daisy, minnie, goofy, pluto and the princesses, oh, and nana too. It's pretty much all she talks about during the day.

Tomorrow will be pretty busy too. We have quite a bit of stuff to do around the house to get ready for our trip and Katie's party next Saturday. Plus Pumpkinfest is going on this weekend up in town, so I'd like to go up there for a while and check it out.

That's all for now!!

Exhausted

I cut my day short today and only worked 6 hours. I HAD to get some time to myself. I have been so tired lately, I just needed some "me time", even if it is kind of selfish. I'm off to go pick Katie up from pre-school in just a little while. Then it's back home to tackle another one of the bazillion projects I need to get done before we leave.

The best part: Only 4 more days until we leave for our vacation!!!

So about that nap!!

I could REALLY use one today. I don't know, I just didn't sleep well last night, so I've been pretty tired all day.

Katie's being terribly cute today. She has a small pumpkin (almost cooking pumpkin size) that she picked from her grandpas garden all by herself. Everyday since she picked it she has been asking to carve it, but she is particularly gung hoe about it today. She is really starting to memorize the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse shows too. She particularly likes the episodes that include dancing, and since they all do she is always dancing and singing the hot dog song. She is just to cute for words.

On another note we FINALLY found the half of the power cord for the camcorder that we've been missing for quite some time now. I'm elated!! I am hoping to take both it and the camera on vacation with us next week.

Okay, it's time to make dinner!!

Do mommy's get naps too??

Oh what I wouldn't give for a daily nap, right around 1:00 or so in the afternoon. When I was home with Katie all the time I would periodically sneak in a short nap, but there just isn't time for that this week. Not only am I working full time this week, but I am also trying to get everything ready for our trip and get the house ready for Katie's party.

Katie has adjusted pretty well to going to school again. It's funny, there were really only about 2 weeks that she was home with me the whole week, but it only took those two weeks to get her completely attached to being home with mommy all the time

Daniel is still working a bunch. They're on 6 days again this week, so Sunday was his day of. Mondays are usually nice too, since there are typically less installs scheduled for Mondays. What that all means is that he actually got home at a decent time tonight, but that we won't really see him again until Sunday.

Not much else happening around here, so that's all for now!!

One more week!

Well, we officially have to get through one more week before we go on vacation!! We leave first thing Monday morning and come home Friday morning. We'd love to stay for longer, but we found super cheap tickets for the days we got, so we couldn't refuse. We'll be taking a trip to Disney on Wednesday and spending Tuesday and Thursday relaxing around my parents house and I'm sure we'll be taking a few boat rides too.

In the mean time, Daniel is still on 6 days at work, 6 LOOOONG days, and I'm working 40 hours this coming week for the first time in about 2 months. Daniel and I did get to spend some time together last night though. Katie was at my in-laws, and Daniel actually got home before 10 (it was 8 instead) so we went out to a quick dinner and came home and watched some tv. It was much needed time!! Katie and I are both looking forward to spending the day with him tomorrow too!!

I guess I should get working on one of the 5 million projects I have going right now!!

DJ Phone Home

Seems the last few weeks have been rather trying for our family. Daniel has been working a TON of overtime, which is certainly welcome given my current situation, but still, we would love to see him on a somewhat regular basis. It is really hard explaining to Katie why daddy isn't home when she goes to bed at night, and why he's already gone or on his way out the door when she wakes up in the morning. When they were working 5 days she at least got one day a week with him, but they've been on 6 days lately, which means that his only day off is usually Sunday, so she doesn't get any time dedicated strictly to daddy/daughter time. Every time they tell them that they're going back to the 5 day schedule it either gets delayed or it only lasts a week or two and they're back on 6 days. As much as Katie misses her Daddy, I miss my husband!! Katie used to go to her grammy's house every Friday night so that Daniel and I could have some time together, but lately all it really gets me is time to myself, which, while also appreciated just isn't as good as time with him. Perhaps the worst part is that many many many nights he doesn't get home until 10 or so and he's not ready to go to bed the minute he walks in the door, so he's not getting as much sleep as he needs, and neither am I.

I keep reminding myself over and over that we are grateful for his job and the benefits it provides us, but sometimes I just can't bring myself to accept it.

Pretty Princess Tutu Time

So, a few days ago I came across a blog that had simple directions for creating home made Tutu's. One of Katie's favorite activities is dressing up like a princess and dancing around the house, so I thought that a Tutu would be a great addition to her dress up trunk. I did quite a bit of searching before I found this Tutu Tutorial, but once I saw how easy it looked and how cute the finished product was I knew this would be the one I would attempt. Since I found the tutorial I have created two Tutu's for Katie. The first will be a birthday present, the second I made last night so that she would have something to play with. She's is so excited for her "pretty dress", she asked to wear it to preschool this morning, but I had to draw the line somewhere!! We will definitely be getting pictures taken in these Tutu's in the coming months!!



For now here are some pictures of the finished product:



Birthday Present Tutu:

Pink Lemonade Tutu:

And just to show everyone how darn cute my kid is!! Her and her crazy faces!!

Has it been three years?

Well, Katelin will be turning 3 in a few weeks and it really has me thinking about where the last three years have gone. She is such a sweet beautiful little girl. She loves us and everyone she meets with all her heart. When Dan and I first found out we were pregnant we were shocked, we weren't exaclty planning to have a baby then, but she has been the best thing that ever happened to us. Over the last three years we have had so many memorable experiences, and I'm posotive that there are many more to come.

Every year we try to make Katie's birthday special, but I think this year will be the icing on the cake. A few months ago we started letting Katie watch a little tv especially for her. In an attempt to find something both educational and entertaining we turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for her; she fell in love with it almost instantly and started asking for it every morning when she got up. When it came time to start planning her party there was no question about what theme we would use. To make things even more fun we are taking a family vacation to Florida to visit my parents for a week the week of her birthday. While we are there we are going to go to Disney for a day and hopefully meet Mickey Mouse and all the other characters that she has come to know and love.

Thatsall for now!!