Life According to my iPhone: Nov & Dec

Our lives have been so jam-packed, that my classic camera has been underutilized (for shame), and my iPhone has been in full effect.  Such short snip-its of life are just about the best, and quickest way to capture what we've been up to these past couple of months.

T was playing soccer this fall (he's the blondie in the green participating in the kickoff).  He's a scoring machine, and we love watching & cheering him on!

Get ready for it...yes... ::Gasp:: I'm a democrat...and I live in Ohio.  ::insert shock and awe::
I got the opportunity, through a college friend, to attend President Obama's rally.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  No matter what side you're on, how many times to you get to be a couple of rows away from the President of the United States.  It was unreal!  I was ready to move FORWARD.  Bonus...I also got to see Stevie Wonder perform, which was fantastic!

B & I traveled to Chicago for my new sister-in-law's bridal shower (which I helped throw).  It was interesting traveling with B alone, but she was a pretty good girl.  In the second photo are the bridal shower favors I made, coffee & tea in burlap bags with their initials and the date of their wedding.  I was pretty proud of my handiwork.

There were a couple days when T was in school and I wasn't, so I got to pretend to be a stay-at-home mom and wait in the carpool line.  Given I took a picture of my experience, you can tell that was a small thrill for me.  Such simple pleasures.  While home a few days with the kids, hubs was working, we just hung out and had fun.   I very much enjoy my time home with the kids, and appreciate it so much more as a working mommy.  The kids are becoming the best of friends!!  As B gets older, she has gone from idolizing and following her big brother around (which is also done quite frequently) to actually being included in his master play plans.  It makes my heart burst every time I see them play together.  I adore it!!!

This year we headed to Chicago for Thanksgiving.  I have only a handful of pictures from our trip, and I feel sad about that.  :( It was a very busy time, however, because we ran a 5K, celebrated the holiday, shopped a bit OH AND my brother got married.  NBD.  lol.  They had to throw together a family-only event at the last minute, when the priest told them their marriage at the venue wouldn't be recognized by the church, oops.  It was just the parents, siblings and nieces/nephews who attended, but it was a very nice ceremony, and an equally amazing Italian lunch.  I have a few non-iPhone photos I'll post later.  I am lucky in that I adore my new sister-in-law AND her loving and sweet family.  We are very blessed.  My parents have already mentioned how lucky we are in in-laws.  We truly get along with all of them, and genuinely want to spend time as one big family.  It's a gift.  Here are the iPhone pics of our stay with my parents.

T helping with the rolls

B enjoying some quiet time with her Granddad

We also started prep for the wedding/reception for my brother and his new wife.  The kids had to try on their new digs.  

T was having a blast picking out a new suit.  He's such a ham.

B is starting to fight back when her big brother picks on her.  She was showing Grams & Granddad some of her new moves

We also got to spend some quality time with my high school bff and her family.  She just recently moved in down the road from my parents, which is an added bonus during our visits!  The kids had a blast!

Uncle Brent came over to help us prep our laundry room for my most recent hair-brained diy project...tiling!  I'm lucky hubby didn't kill me for this one...but it was a bumpy success!

We conquered a few more projects around the house in December.  We got rid of B's booster seat for good, and brought up this kids table we had in their playroom.  It's been a HUGE success (despite the constant "sit downs" we have to say during meals).  B loves to sit with her big bro.  

We also got a new TV & stand for our family room, so the older TV went down to our basement.  We are excited to finally have a space in our finished basement that feels adequate enough to entertain, and is not overwrought with toys.  We put in shelving, a new storage system for the toys, and got tons of organizational bins for our living space.  I am elated with how it turned out.  We have utilized it so much more than we ever have, and it's only been a couple of weeks.   It's really nice to have a big couch and TV that hubs and I can lounge on while the kids play.  Plus (bonus for the OCD'er) everything has a place.  Ahhhh organization...I just LOVE it!!  T got a wii for Christmas and B got a big kitchen, so the organization helped us find space for those items as well.  It's a beautiful thing.  I even convinced T to give away some of his toys to other girls and boys who needed them...and he did it willingly.    

Our carpets were cleaned, we put up pictures that have been waiting to be hung, hubs organized his garage, and we were generally very productive before the holidays.  Love it!!

T has been very involved in after-school activities, and I just accepted an opportunity to coach varsity track at my school.  We are in indoor season now.  T does wrestling 2 times a week with a local club (hubs was a wrestler) and swims once a week.  I have track practice 3 times a week.  I wanted to get B in mommy and me gymnastics, but the only time they have free for the working folk is Saturdays at 10am, and I selfishly REFUSE to give up my spin class AND my family-time on the weekends.  Such is life.  We'll get her involved when she turns 2, and when I'm home in the summer with the kids.  That's okay right?  Right?  Ugh, second-guessing your parenting decisions just never ends.  We are just busy busy busy.

Check out this hilarious wrestling photo.  OMG!  Freaking hysterical!  My sweet boy looks so serious, and mean:)

 While T was in his last couple days of school before holiday break, B and I checked out the running gear at Dicks.  She's a track star in the making!  :)

 


Overall, we've just been enjoying as much family time as we can.  B & T are having a blast playing together, and we're over-scheduled as per usual.  Teaching AP bio is still kicking my butt, over and over again.  I think I get ahead and then I work until 1am some nights...I can't get a good grasp on it.  Hopefully after a full year of teaching it, I'll have a handle on how I want to run it more efficiently next year.  ::Breath::

My babies are just growing so fast.  I just need to learn to slow down a bit and take notice.

Hope this post-and-run finds you all well.  I hope you come back to read about our family more often.  My New Years resolution is to not let blogging be ignored for such large chunks of time. I won't be able to be back in my summer blogging mode, but more frequent blurbs would be nice.  Blogging is an important outlet for me, and a great way to look back at how my family is changing.  I feel like I am doing B a disservice by not updating her progress as she grows.  ::shame on me::

Until next time...if you need anything...call my secretaries.  They're on it.  lol.