My Decade in Review

2000- taught 2nd grade, bought our first house, visited Italy
2001- decided to start a family, watched Jason get a better job
2002- stopped teaching & became a mom (on the same day), figured out the baby stuff
2003- learned how to be a kick ass SAHM
2004- moved to hills of lake mary, survived having baby #2 between 3 hurricanes
2005- managed life with 2, contemplated law school for him
2006- said good bye to Rugby, left friends, family & lake mary, moved to gville
2007- welcomed Daisy dog, taught 3rd grade and cried lots as i had to leave my 3yo
2008- had baby #3, started blogging!, celebrated 10 years of marriage, said goodbye to gville
2009- lived in London, moved back to lake mary, begrudgingly welcomed Princess

Lots and Lots of Christmas

This holiday season has been wonderful! We packed it full with trips, events and parties galore. Other than a tantrum at Walmart and a tree that couldn't drop it's needles fast enough, the season was perfect. Here's what we've been up to the past 4 weeks...

Niki took some family photos of us at a stream in our neighborhood. She then played with them using a photo editing software enough to warrant them looking pretty darn good. I went to pick up some enlargements of these when the lovely, friendly and ever so helpful employees at Walmart told me I need a signed copyright release before they would let me have the 8x10. I calmly explained they were not professional but working for a corporate conglomerate has apparently sucked the manager's ability to:
A. give the customer the benefit of the doubt (I am not and HATE being considered and treated as a liar.)
B. use common sense & entertain any other explanation as to the possibility of anyone but a paid photographer taking decent photographs
and
C. do what needed to be done(call Niki to get permission, have me mail in her signed release or letting me know next time I want to develop good photos to bring a release) to keep a happy customer and resolve the senseless situation and avoid the loud angry customer scene.

Alas, the manager chose to do none of these things and at one point suggested I might not be given such a difficult time at CVS. REALLY?!

I sent the same photos to Walgreens to be reprinted and what did they say when I picked them up?? "Wow, what great photos!"
Good Riddance Walmart

We visited the FREEZING ICE! exhibit. It's 9 degrees in there! Kids loved it :)

The ice slides were a big hit, partly because using your body to climb the stairs to the top generated some much needed body heat!

L went down this slide like 5 times and would have stayed all day!


She couldn't get up on her own with so many layers.

Next we tried Ice Balancing as I'm now calling it! Lots of fun and after an hour or so, we were doing much better...meaning we could let go of the railing when we needed to pass some other poor soul clinging for dear life. By the time we left the girls' pants were wet from the knees down from falling. They are already planning a return visit...lovely.

Natalie had a class holiday party I was able to attend :)

L loved these light up rings.

I had my 7th Cookie Exchange! One of my favorite festivities...I still have yummy left overs in the fridge :)

Mary, Amy, Niki, me, Brandee, Maggie, Molly, Hagan, Lindsay & Kara

Time for Val's class party...it was pj day too.

Jason celebrated his 34th birthday :)

He had some help blowing out the candles on the homemade tiered cake.

The girl loves her babies...we have a few around the house :)

One of my favorite childhood Christmas occasions is the Snell Family Christmas celebration. It used to be on Christmas Eve and I was always so impressed with the excess under the tree. It was great to see everyone, have wonderful food and edible themed gift exchange was a hit this year. Here's the whole crew minus my 2 cousins.

Waiting to see Santa at the mall.

L was not impressed the big guy, this was as close as she was going to get.

Making sugar cookies Christmas Eve.

Here's a fun Christmas Eve moment.... when I put L down for a nap, she was dressed with a diaper. Time to get up...totally naked.

The BIG night.
Setting out the cookies. L felt the need to leave Santa some of my makeup.

VERY excited girls

Leaving reindeer food, L didn't understand why were putting carrots outside and kept eating them.

"You think I'M going to sleep? Yeah, right!"

Ready for the girls

Makeup set from Santa

Who falls asleep with presents to open?!

V's new bike :)

N's new bike :)

The aftermath

LG & Aunt Amy
(aren't they so color coordinated!)

Jason & Jeni
(Our 16th Christmas)

N's fav outfit

V & N asked to sleep on our floor. We set up a bed and they got their blankets and stuffed animals. L saw what was up, ran into her room to return with her blanket and baby. She lasted a total of 7 minutes in there...sister sleepovers soon.

L got a tea set from Santa and the chair and table set are for baby dolls, but don't tell them that.

We all had an amazing holiday.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful Christmas cards, gifts, time, parties and memories.

Natalieisms-

• "Natalie what do you think I would have said if I'd seen you were taking all 50 quarters out of Valla's collection?" Natalie responds, "The same thing you're saying right now."

• L is giving me more opportunities to learn about parenting :) Totally stole this from the crazy lady who has 18 kids and lets people film her.