Game on, though. Chloe saw Cecelia's purple blanket and just had to have it.
Cecelia didn't seem to mind too much. 
"Got it!"
Before heading off to school this morning, Ryan introduced Chloe to Sponge Bob. He informed me that she likes it very much.
The final product. The kids have each already wolfed down 2 each, already.
And....did anyone see the change in our forecast? 6-12 inches of snow predicted by tomorrow night. Woo-hoo! We could live without the freezing rain tonight, though. Which would be why our family fire drill is being postponed - even if Ashley still wanted to do it in the freezing rain. Sorry, honey. You're on your own with that one.
As I'm putting Ryan to bed tonight, in my last ditch effort at trying to talk him into staying in bed, I tell him that he can't get out of bed if he wants to help frost and decorate the sugar cookies Ashley and I made earlier tonight when he gets home from school tomorrow.
He then asks, "What if I have to go to the bathroom?"
I say, "Okay, you can only get out of bed if you have to use the bathroom, you're sick or if there is an emergency."
I should have known. What have I unleashed now?
He asks, "What's an emergency?"
Uh, oh. I tell him that an emergency would be if the house was on fire or something really important like that. (I wasn't going to give him more examples because the minute I said "fire" I knew I wasn't getting out of there anytime soon.)
The questions started. We've talked about all this before - many times but Ryan can talk about these things until he finally passes out from exhaustion. I didn't want to make too big of a deal out of it because I didn't want him scared before bedtime.
One of his questions was about getting the window open. I figured it was probably as good of a time as any so I showed him how to open the window and take the screen off.
At Ryan's request, we will now be having a family fire drill when Bret gets home from work tomorrow. We'll be making sure that the kids can get their windows open and screens off and climb through without breaking any bones. (Thank, God we live in a ranch!) Ryan actually has it pretty easy because his window is right along our front porch. Ashley, on the other hand, will be landing in the bushes. (Sorry, I know I shouldn't be laughing right now.) Can you guess which window Bret gets? (he he he - not the one with the porch - that's for sure.) (Or maybe we'll have him squeeze through the little kitchen window.)
So if you see us climbing out of our windows tomorrow evening and then running across the street to our safe meeting place, don't be alarmed. We haven't lost all of our marbles yet.
Update: Our family fire drill has officially been postponed until freezing rain and 6-12 inches of forcasted snow passes. Why? Because you can bet yours truely would end up getting stuck in pile of snow and someone would most likely be there with the camera. Uh, no - not happening.
The kids always have so much fun on the train. Other passengers probably got tired of them switching seats every couple of minutes, though. (Ugh, freaking tourists!)
Then you have this guy we decided to call "Most Wanted Santa". He jumped in next to Ryan while we were trying to get a picture. He kept walking around, handing out postcards and then asking everyone if they could spare some money for the homeless. A couple of hours later we saw him in McDonald's, counting a huge wad of cash. Hmm...all I can say is, "Get the (bleep) away from my little boy!!!"
Ryan wasn't too impressed with the Sears Tower Sky Deck. He just wanted to move on to something else, like a cab or bus ride or maybe the Macy's Christmas tree.
Ashley had a good time up there, though. She definitely got the award for best behaved kid today.
Ryan finally gets to see the big Christmas tree. It was pretty impressive.
A few attempts at getting our family Christmas card picture.
Still another attempt at that family picture, but in all reality we were lost. Looking for the train station, we had walked for another 25 minutes after this picture when we ended up right back in this same spot. Guess where the train station is? Right behind us and across the street.
Ryan got pretty wet playing near this fountain. Good thing it wasn't freezing out today.
We waited while Bret took Ryan into Chase Manhattan Bank to use the bathroom. When they got back, this is how they found us - just about passed out. At one point, some foreign lady came in and asked us if we were protesters. What?
We did make it back in time to to catch the next train out of there.
This was the second time we've done this after Thanksgiving and I think the kids really enjoyed seeing such a great city.
There will be more pictures at Flickr when I get to it.
At 7:30am this morning my mom comes in while we're still in bed and tells us that we're meeting my Grandma for breakfast. Or we can stay here and make our own. That is just so wrong. So much for sleeping in.
Heading out to my hometown for Thanksgiving. A few things on the agenda:
Stay tuned...
Remember those old calgon commercials they use to show on TV where the mom is having a bad day and she says, "Calgon, take me away"? I use to be scared of those commercials when I was a kid, thinking that "Calgon" was going to take the mom away and the kids would never see her again. I was always everwatchful for the feared calgon bottle in our bathroom - ready to dispose of it should it appear.
My kids have only been home from school for less than two hours and I have two kids fighting - one laying on the basement stairs crying and now a flute and a trumpet being practiced in the basement. All this after having a somewhat rough afternoon with a baby who didn't really want to sleep or eat.
So now I have to ask . . .
Calgon, can you take ME away?
Six months ago...
I really don't want to do it, but I'm heading off to the great outside to put up our Christmas lights. (As soon as I finish my spaghetii o's.) If this year follows last year, it'll be freezing cold and blizzard like here over Thanksgiving and the cold won't let up until right before Christmas. Who would want to be out putting lights up during that?!
Bret says he's not getting up on the roof to put lights on the gutters this year. That may be a good thing, seeing as he put them up the first year we lived in our old house and didn't take them down until we put the house up for sale 5 years later. Yes, (shamfully hiding face) that was us.
I wonder if we rolled up all of the strings of lights when we took them down last year. Guess I'll find out, won't I?
And then we have the after shot. I'll be redoing it on Monday! JUST KIDDING!!!
Now I'm on to the hundreds of boxes of Christmas decorations that I pulled down from the attic.
I promised Ryan last night that if he ate every bite of his dinner, I'd put up our Christmas tree today. Guess who didn't think he'd eat it? He ate it. All of it. Guess what I've been doing for the last couple of hours? (Sigh.)
Well, we're going to see how this works. Ashley has been begging me for her own blog for awhile now. I've set up one for her, but because of her age, I'm putting certain precautions in place. Only family and friends that her dad and I approve of will be allowed to view her blog. If you've received an email inviting you to view her blog, you'll have to sign up for a google account (easy to do) using your email address as your user name. Then you'll be given access to her blog. If you've received an email, congratulations - we trust you. If not, and you're wanting to be added to the list of emails that can have access, please let me know.
I've changed the address of my blog to one that doesn't include our last name in an effort to make us a little bit more anonymous. As of right now, the blog appears at both the old address and the new one. The old address has just a basic note that tells you where to find the new blog. I wasn't too thrilled that people could track us down by our last name. Got to keep the kiddos safe!
Teri & Scott. 
Tom & Cat (baby Chloe's mommy and daddy).
Me & my mom. She's never kept a secret before in her life! I had no idea she was coming. 
Jon & Em.
Kelly & Dan (baby Cecelia's mommy and daddy).
Bret & I. He kept it under raps the whole time. I even believed that he was dropping the kids off at his parent's house so that he and Scott could go catch a movie.
Isn't it great to have such wonderful friends? Thanks, guys!!!
More pictures over on Flickr.
My new door in all of it's glory!!!
Don't even think about nosing it up, Daisy!
Tonight was Ashley's Band and Chorus concert at school . I wasn't sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised at how well they did. I took plenty of pictures, but none of them really turned out due to the lighting in the gym. You'll find Ashley in the middle of the front row. Click on the arrow to start the video.
Need a good crying jag or a reason to appreciate what you have? Check out this blog that I found through Mom's Daily Dose. It's a daily journal written by a husband who's wife is in the hospital fighting for her life. Wow, does my heart go out to him. Makes me count my blessings for sure.
You know how misery loves company? I talked Teri into trying Body Step at the gym today. Afterwards, she leaves me this comment on last Sunday's post...
"Ok, I'm waiting for more on your blog!!! =-) Must be old age that is slowing you down... Just wanted to say thanks for trying to 'kill me today'..."
I just wanted to let her know that, yes, I was trying to kill her, but I only succeeded in killing myself. Man, is that class brutal! I even made her do the 15 minute ab class before step began. We laid on the floor trying not to laugh during the hovers.
There is also the issue that I haven't had a new post on here since Sunday. All I can say is that I'm on baby schedule. I feel like a new mom three days a week - going to the gym and then sleeping when the baby sleeps. My life is now dicated by her routine. I better get my act together soon though because come January there will be two babies here during the day. Chloe and I are still trying to figure it all out. Some day we will have a schedule and it will be heavenly.
And yes, I'm turning the big 30 in a couple of weeks, but I'm not talking about that. Last year was my 29 and holding birthday. This year will be the second anniversary of my 29th birthday. Yep, no denial here.I want all of you to know that I am seriously trying to hold myself back. The leaves are gone from the trees. I'm tired of looking at my fall decorations. My kids have been busy circling all of the toys they want from catalogs that come in the mail. And, oh, all the Christmas stuff in the stores! Is it time to switch over to Christmas yet?
I'm bored and my house needs cleaning. The only way I can get into it today is if I (gasp!) rearrange the furniture in my house. Ryan's room has already been done. Hope he doesn't have to get up in the middle of the night to pee. He might get lost.
Up next? Ashley's room because we will soon have baby number 2 (Cecelia) here during the day and their pack n plays are in the kids' rooms.
And then maybe the living room. I have to keep Bret on his toes so he doesn't succumb to early Alzheimers, so maybe I should rearrange the kitchen cabinets again.
Ashley, in a sea of pre-teeny boppers.
Aww, Bret's first prom!
