Evie's first dentist visit!!

Well.. my little girlie went to the dentist today for a cleaning and her first checkup! She was so good! She loved the hygenist and the dentist and was cooperative to every thing they asked of her.. no problems with the cleaing, suction, water pik, flouride tray, x-rays, you name it, she did it, and with a pearly white smile! I can't tell you how proud I was! I happened to snap a few pics with the camera phone, LOL I'm sure the hygenist thought I was loopy.. she was very cool about it. Anyway.. her brushing habits are perfect and she goes back in 6 months.. a successful visit!

She also had her first "Book Cooks" class today and today's story was "Miss Spider's Tea Party".. naturally they made snacks that pertained to the story... BUGS!
snacks were; a butterfly, a caterpillar, a beetle, a log with ants, and of course, a spider! She had such a great time and did a wonderful job spreading the peanut butter.. what healthy snacks and she was eager to eat them up! What she didn't eat, we took to Dee's house to share with her friend's Brynn and Aidian.








By the way.. these were all taken with the camera phone, hence the small size and not the best quality.. I can't ALWAYS have the real camera with me! :o)

We're gettng crazy rain and ice tonight.. I hope the mall closes tomorrow so that I don't have to work! HA HA! That was a laugh.. they wouldn't close if the roads were closed! Drive safe everyone!

Home after Thanksgiving Weekend

Hello all!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Cincinnati last week. We stayed at Evie's Uncle David's house and she had a great time playing with her cousins, Joel and Zadee. She absolutly loves her Uncle David!
He's in the picture with Evie and Joel here in this post.
We spent some time on Thanksgiving Day at her Aunt Theresa's house as well (she's in the other picture). It was so nice to have the whole family together.. I mean the ENTIRE family was there! Then we came home and took Evie to see her best friend, Mariah, at Chuck-e-Cheese. (she moved away 6 months ago and Evie has missed her every day since)

They had a great time together.. it was awesome to see them hug when they first saw each other (I got it on video), even funnier how they almost didn't recognize each other.. kinda looked at each other with wonder before they hugged and said each other's names.. it was sweet.. then they were off and playing like their old selves. Later Mariah came over to our house to play.. that was cool because we got to spend some time with Brittany and Jim (her parents), they were our neighbors and we miss them alot. The girls played until a little before midnight and then they said Goodbye again. :o( And the greatest news! Brittany is pregnant as well! Evie and Mariah are a week apart in age.. and our pregnancies this time are three weeks apart.. how much of a coincidence is that? I'm hopeful that in the next couple of years, they will move back to the area and that our kids can grow up together. Anyway.. this week promises to be a busy one.. not sure how much time I will have to blog. I have a charitable event coming up at work next week that I am planning and I feel like I have a million things to do, plus getting Evie to the dentist for her first visit on Thursday. Hope everyone has a great week!

Good News before Thanksgiving!

Well.. I don't have too long this morning to blog.. but I thought I would share the news with you guys right away.. Seems I just missed a period on Sunday.. thought nothing about it, as usual.. but something told me on Monday afternoon to just go take a pregnancy test.. (Well.. Dee, at Monday mania told me to) and sure enough.. I'm pregnant! You know.. I wasn't really trying but I was secretly hoping that it would be this month.. I wanna get our family rolling again.. it seems like the right time with Evie approaching 4 in the spring. I'm already worried about the time I am going to miss with Evie exclusively.. but then I see amazing Mom's like Dee, Amy, Dori, Trish, Marlene, Joanna and Kelly that seem to do a great job and I get a little less scared.

Evie and I are going to breakfast with Hope and John Michael this morning, then this afternoon it's off to Cincinnati, OH to visit with Joe's family for Thanksgiving. I'm excited! I love road trips! And when we get home on Saturday, I have a suprise for Evie.. her best friend, Mariah, who used to be our next door neighbor who moved away last summer, will be coming here from Maryland to see her! I kinda told her about it a couple of weeks ago but haven't mentioned it since.. I know she will be so excited to see her. Still to this day, at least once a day, she says something about Mariah.. or an "I love Mariah".. it's amazing the friendship that those two had in such a short span.. I miss her parents, too.. they were perfect neighbors and wonderful friends. Brittany, if you are reading this.. WE MISS AND LOVE YOU GUYS! Anyway... Just wanted to spread the news and then wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Fire My Words

Evie and Brayden with Santa

Thanks Kylla for sending these pics so quickly! I just posted my last blog minutes ago talking about these pictures!!

Christmas pics taken today!

These pics were taken at The Picture People.. you can tell which ones that I didn't buy because they have their copyright stuck in the middle of them... sneaky, aren't they? The last picture I bought and scanned. We had a great experience there! Let me start off by telling you about our morning BEFORE going to the Picture People. We went to Olan Mills (in Meijer), because they offered a great package with Christmas cards, 8X10 , 2 5X7s, wallets galore and a big 10X13.. sounded good.. I thought.. they can't mess this one up.. was I ever wrong.. well I only paid $6 so I'm not distraught but the place was filthy.. the backdrop was covered with mud spots, the monitor used to view the digital photos had so much dust you couldn't see the screen, plus it was mounted high up on the wall.. the photographer (which we learned is the ONLY one there) was sloppy and didn't smile or make any suggestions to poses. Was not creative and never made an attempt to make Evie smile.. I immediatly noticed these things and told her that I wanted to cancel (after about 6 failed photo attempts).. she said I couldn't have my money back but still wanted me to cancel.. (She was offended that she heard Joe making an appointment at The Picture People in the hallway).. I picked the picture that I liked best out of all that she took.. which is a close up and is pretty, it IS my daughter after all.. but it isn't Christmasy, which was the purpose of the session.. so I ordered the package (I'll get them in two weeks), and was out of there to go straight to the mall! Our photographer at The Picture People was Kara.. and she did a fantastic job with poses and making Evie laugh.. amazing the difference in quality of the session when the photographer is ... well.. a photographer! LOL I knew better.. and Kylla warned me about how the last time Brayden went to Olan Mills it was a disaster.. I figured, for $6, who cares. Anyway.. I'm happy with the ones I posted here! Then we had lunch at Evie's favorite place, O'Charley's.. than back to the mall to get our pictures, Evie and Brayden sat on Santa's lap together.. (we saw them at the mall getting pictures, too!) so Kylla should have those pics up soon. All in all.. we had a nice day.. Daddy was home with us so it was fantastic doing family stuff together. We are excited for Thanksgiving to get here.. going to go to Cincinnatti to see Joe's family.. (I love road trips) and then that means Christmas will be coming up! Hope everyone had a nice weekend! That's all for now.. gonna go get me a warm hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream.. YUM!! Perfect ending to a cold, snowy day! (How about that snow this morning!) Goodnight!

The Festival of Trees

Today we went to "The Festival of Trees" at the Hilton Garden Inn here in Champaign. Evie and I went with Hope and John Michael. Although we loved all of the tree designs, it wasn't a great place for the kids.. well.. not OUR kids, at least LOL They wanted to touch everything and of course everything is NOT meant to be touched... I can't tell you how many times I had to scold Evie.. I always feel bad for scolding her for doing things that is natural for a kid to want to do.. but with all of the delicate things there that could break.. I just knew that if I didn't have a firm grip on her, something was coming down. Our favorite tree was the Minnie Mouse design as seen pictured above.. I love the reds! Evie and I both loved the "tea cup tree". I don't think that was what they called it but it's what Evie called it. She wanted to have a tea party so bad! Of course, the big suprise was that downstairs was Santa and Mrs. Claus! There was no waiting to see them and Evie couldn't wait anyway! She had to tell Santa that she wanted "12 Dancing Princesses!" (She has the movie so everything she wants this year revolves around that) There was a "Kids Zone" next to Santa's chair for the kids to make hats and letters to Santa but there were field trips galore there.. the schools took up all of the table space.. there's no way we could have participated.. which was fine with us.. the kids just wanted to run and play at that time so we took them to the mall play area to run it off.
We saw our friend, Audrey and her husband there with their new 2 day old baby boy and their little girl Zoey. Then we ate lunch and did a little shopping.. and then I took Evie to Kohl's so she could pick out her Christmas dress and accessories for pictures we are doing this Sunday. She loved doing that too and wore her dress all around the house tonight. It was a busy day.. that's for sure! She's been in "trouble" so many times tonight for getting out of bed.. over and over.. I think, (now that it's past 11:00) that she has finally fallen asleep. I don't know where kids get their energy.. Oh yeah! They get to take naps! How wonderful! Oh to be young!
Well.. She's in my bed right now and the hubby is out with a friend, so I think I'll sign off for the night and go snugle with my little princess. Night Night!

Mom's Night Out

Well.. Thanks to my friend, Amy.. who's right on the ball with updating her blog, I have these two pics to share from Mom's Night Out from this past Wednesday.
Our group of friends went to Kamakura, (a teppan style Japanese restaurant) for dinner and drinks. Food was delicious and the company was great!
Pictured at top from left to right:
Erin, Mary, Amy, Dori, and Trish
bottom from left to right: Kylla, Hope and Tina
And a picture of our chef as well!

I had the steak and chicken.. MMMM... YUMMM!

I LOVE POGO!

So that you'll know.. I am a POGO addict.. yes.. I can admit that now.. My husband always tells me that I am.. but I just say "so what? I like to play a few games now and then".. no.. that's not really the case.. I am straight up ADDICTED. LOL
I have always been a member of pogo.com.. as it is a free service.. but recently my cousin, Brianne (well she's not MY cousin, but she's my sister-in-law's cousin.. which makes it seem as if she's mine as well), well.. Bree got me hooked on CLUB Pogo.. you pay $5 a month or $39 a year to be a paid member and get more options.. like having a Pogo Mini to create that looks like you.. you earn tokens when you play games (just like in the free membership) but with your tokens in Club Pogo, you can buy outfits for your mini from the mini mall.. can I just tell you that I spend so much time in that damn mall! LOL (That's me in the picture by the way).. I have many outfits and backgrounds for my mini.. like I said "ADDICTIVE"!
Well.. aside from the minis, you get added features like no intermission and ads between games.. and double cash jackpots (should you win one, which I have never but some of them are sizable)... Anyway.. I like games like Texas Hold 'Em poker, Tri Peaks Solitaire, Squelchies, Dice City Roller (which reminds me of Yahtzee), Lottso (which reminds me of Lotto scratch cards and bingo) and Poppit (a mindless game where you pop balloons) LOL In my free time.. I DAILY play these games... to earn tokens to spend on my mini of course LOL
If you are ever on.. look me up and add me as a friend under your free membership and I can give you a 5 day free pass to see what the Club membership is like.. maybe I can get you addicted as well LOL Yeah.. thanks for that, Bree LOL
My screenname is Tinajo27_
I'm off to play a little "Texas Hold 'Em" !

My slideshows

Well here we are.. just me and The Eve-ster hanging out and doing some painting. I'm not really sure how much I'll really blog but I figure with winter coming up and nothing to do outside, I might have some free time to share stuff online with friends. To be honest, I just think that this site will be used to share thoughts with the friends that I have made through Mothers and More.. and possibly my parents and sister. Foerever it seems I have been spending time posting things on MYSPACE but I never kept up on my blogs.. I just found adding backgrounds, pictures and comments to other friends pages seemed to be what I had time for. I'll still be doing that since I have bunches of online buddies that I need to keep in touch with.. but I thought this would be a way to share what's going on in our life from a day to day basis.. that was less "public" if you will. I don't see my parents nearly often enough and my sister and her family even less.. so this could be a great way (other than emailing) to keep in touch.
I feel like I need to get involved with other things this winter as well.. so that I don't get cabin fever and I wouldn't mind getting out once in a while without my little jeweled princess.. (I love her to death but have ZERO time to be myself). I was just telling my husband the other day that I have lost my identity.. I am an optician, a wife and a mother.. but not a "person".. I know that doesn't make sense.. especially the way I worded it.. but I have lost who I am somewhere in the past few years and I know my "new self" is important for many reasons.. but I miss having my own identity.
Sooooooo.... we'll see how active this blog will become and I hope to see some of you soon!