Happy Belated New Year and a Review....

I can't believe that over two months have passed since I last updated this blog - YIKES! :-o I did go back and finish up a couple drafts of entries I had saved and just never got back to :-P (see previous entries if you're interested! :-P) Soooo let's see if I can get back on track here with blogging.... :)

First off, Happy Belated New Year to everyone! :) I'm hoping that 2009 is off to a wonderful start for all of you, and wishing everyone much love, happiness, and good health this year! I'm not EVEN going to try to upload pics from the past two months (sorry grandparents! :-P) but I will try to put a few in here and there as I review the fun and craziness of November and December 2008. :)

November marked the Daisy Girl Scouts Troop Investiture Ceremony, where Sophie in her first year received her Center and beginning petal and Abigail reaffirmed her participation as a Second Year Daisy GS. The troop has a new co-leader and I can't begin to tell you how wonderful she is! The girls absolutely LOVE Daisy Girl Scouts! :)

In November, I also took in the movie premiere of Twilight with some of the local crop girls - AWESOME!!! There were a couple cheesy scenes related to the special effects, but overall it was a pretty good interpretation of the book. And I'll definitely be getting my copy of the movie when it comes out on DVD in March...and am also already counting down until the next in the series New Moon comes out in November - WOOT WOOT! ;) But.....can you believe a group of scrapbookers and no one thought to bring a camera?? What is up with that??!! LOL :-P

The beginning week of December started up fast and furious with Abby finally losing that hanging-by-a-thread top tooth LOL (and her 6th tooth lost overall! :)), followed by her 7th birthday.

The girls got their first report cards for the school year and both did AWESOME!!!! :) We are SO SO proud of how well they are doing in school, and are especially impressed with Abby's level of reading/spelling/writing. She is performing above several grade levels, and is every bit the bookworm like her momma. :)

All of the first-graders put on a Gingerbread Revue presentation the last week of school, and Abby was a VERY adorable Gingerbread Girl. :) (note: if you want to listen to some of the video from the presentation, you will have to mute my music playlist at the bottom of this blog page! :-P)

Snow, snow, and MORE snow in December followed by snow days (which secretly this momma enjoys as much as the kids - especially when I find out the night before and can sleep in the next day. ;))

My Christmas card which came together only because my talented photographer friend Julie Laakso allowed me to use some of the images she took of my kids last fall! (template courtesy of Tina's Templates) Thank you again Julie - you rawk! :)

At Christmas the kids were spoiled :) - highlights included Nintendo DS gaming systems for both girls from Santa :) and new American Girl dolls from their Papa. :) Lucas who is uber-crazy (obsessed is more like it! :-P) about the Disney-Pixar movie Cars probably got every piece of Cars-related merchandise known to man (:-P!), and loved each and every gift! :) This was his first Christmas really understanding and enjoying the gift-opening process, it was a blast watching him this year! :)

Christmas break went by far too quickly - lots of trips to Borders to spend gift cards ;) and more fun at Bounce U (open bounce days rawked! :)), and much-needed downtime and rest! (and side note here - can you believe we got through the Christmas break with NO illnesses?! The past two years have sucked rocks in that department! We got our flu shots early this year and have been drinking LOTS of OJ as well as taking our daily Vitamin C - I think that has helped immensely! ;))

During break, Abby also became an AVID reader of the Magic Treehouse Series and literally has read almost all 40 books in less than a month's time!

My beloved Detroit Lions who went 4-0 during exhibition season sadly finished the season on December 28th at a record-setting 0-16!!!!!! GROAN!!!!! :( :( And even more fodder for John to continue teasing me about supporting the Lions! :-P Okay okay.....well we now have a new coach, and a new season to look forward to - I'm going to be rooting them on once again - I may be the very last of the die-hard fans :-P but I still am one and so far Abby is sticking with me! :) Maybe we can get some season tickets cheaply this year. :-P :-P

Got a new dining room set which has more leaves and more chairs - LOVE it!!! Also undertook a major purge of the basement play area and reorganizing of the spaces down there, added a couple shelving units that house bins for all the kids' toys - we actually have now a very liveable, comfortable, and functional area for both the grown-ups to sit and/or exercise and the kidlets to play (....ahhhh but don't ask about my disaster of a scrapping area, I haven't gotten over to there yet! :-P)

The return to school in January, followed by EVEN MORE snow (this is the hardest winter I remember in a LONG time, even here in MI!), and again followed by more snow days (hee hee!)

One of my resolutions is to be more organized and efficient this year, and the addition of the new bookcase to the family room is helping out by leaps and bounds in that area - makes that family room a breeze to keep picked up these days! :)

And finally the end of Girl Scouts Cookies selling period (guess who volunteered to be the troop's Cookie Mom this year?!?! :-P) - although I think the real madness will ensue in March when I have all those cases of cookies sitting in my living room waiting to be delivered to the other parents AND will be working on paperwork as monies are collected - wish me LUCK! :-P

PHEW - I think I have captured the bulk of the past two months....I know I probably forgot a few things here and there, but this is a pretty good summary! :-P

OK it's official.....I am now back to blogging again - WOO HOO! :) Hopefully I didn't bore all of you too much LOL! !! :-P