Officially a Daisy!

Last Friday afternoon Allison officially became a Daisy. Her troop had their Investiture. It was adorable, but unfortunately I had forgotten my pocketbook at home and didn't have my camera. Karen took some photos with her camera, and she says she will send them to me. If I ever get them I will post :) They practiced walking in and saying the girl scout law... and singing a few new songs. The ceremony ended with all the girls getting their pin and a certificate. She was really happy. Also that night Allison attended "Daisy Dazzlers" it was a Daisy only event at one of the other elementary school in the district. A junior troop sponsored it, and only Daisies were allowed to attend. Most of her troop showed up, so she was pretty happy.
On Saturday morning the girls were excited because they got to spend some time with their Aunt Michy. Michelle bought them tickets to see Barnaby saves Christmas at Theater Three in Port Jefferson. After that she treated them to lunch at Friendlys. Rich and I took that opportunity to go and get our shopping done for Christmas dinner. Sunday brought us an unexpected surprise!!!! Grandma and Grandpa from PA attended a wedding in Manhattan on Saturday night and spent the night in a hotel in NJ. Well, I guess the storm that came through over the weekend really was bad in Montrose, PA. They decided that instead of traveling home through the storm... they came out to us for the day and stayed over until this morning. The girls were so excited to see them. Last night they went with Grandma and Grandpa to Aunt Michy and Uncle Steve's to celebrate Hanukkah. I took that time to start my gift wrapping. Rich has been working a ton of overtime... he is doing work for the Bright Nites at the Holtsville Ecology Center. The girls are really missing him, so they were pretty happy tonight to see Mommy go to work and Daddy stay home....lol.

5 more years!

Congratulations to Richard for winning his re-election for Setauket Fire Commissioner. He now has another 5 years of being my boss!!! LOL

The case of the missing cookie...

Our Friends David and Marlo own the Rolling Pin Bakery in Setauket. Every year during the holidays they have a Cookie Tray making party... they put together 450 2lb cookie trays!! This year the girls and I stopped by after the holiday parade... The girlies had so much fun. Katie was helping carry trays to Marlo so she can weigh them.

Kate (pictured above) is a long time employee of David's and was so patient with the girls. She put them to work... and then loved working with her.
Above is just a small bit of what was actually wrapped. Below is Marlo at her weighing station :)

Sarah besides babysitting for us sometimes also works at the bakery.... we love you Sarah!


My little worker bees.

Parties and Parades

UGH... out of order again!!! so this weekend has been soooo busy with parties and parades. Every year in town they have Electric Holiday Parade, this year Allison's daisy troop marched. It was her first parade and she had a blast!
On Saturday we went the Port Jefferson Fire Dept childrens christmas party.... Rich's dad is chief in PJFD and he invites his grandchildren. They always have wonderful entertainment for the kids followed by a visit from Santa who brings gifts for all the kiddies. Sunday morning SFD Engine 9 (Rich's company) has a childrens christmas party also... also ending with visit from Santa who brings gifts. Below is a picture of my neices on Santas lap at Engine 9's party.

Mommy, Allie and Katie with Santa :) I am holding flowers- they were given to me as a thank you from the company because for the last 5 years or so, I have done the shopping to help Santa out.
More pics from the Parade... the girls on the sidelines.

These are good friends of ours - Jon and Tracey Sullivan with their 4 month old cutie pie Hailey.

I know the is pic is blurry.... BUT it was soooo soooo funny. During the PJFD party Rich was called upon to participate. Now if you know him you will find this hysterical... Because of all people Rich is the least likely person to want to do this. He is so quiet, and reserved. The girls were laughing so hard when their daddy was up there with the funny hat on.

Here is Allison receiving her gift from Santa at the Port Jeff party.
And Katie getting her gift.
Here is my neice Samantha receiving her gift from Santa at the Engin 9 party. This is her 1st christmas and its going to be so much fun.
Here is Hailey Sullivan on Santa's lap.... so so cute!

2nd Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Party

This past Friday night I hosted the 2nd Annual Gingerbread House Decorating party!! We had so much fun... last years was sort of improptu- but this year we were prepared. Tons of candy and lots of friends made for a great time. I realized that I didn't take many photos- I was too worried about the total mess that was happening in my dining room. Below is a picture of Katie, Allie and Sarah. Here is Matt and Jennifer (with a pre-constructed house- thank goodness after last years fiasco), Marlo with Sidney and Benjamin.

I never took pictures of the final product... and Katies house has now crumbled because she put too much candy on the roof!!! I am so looking forward to next year!

A week behind and pictures out of order...

ok... so for some reason I cannot get the pictures to be in the right order... but oh well. Last weekend (Dec 1st and 2nd) we had some fun decorating trees. Both of the girls are part of Girl Scouts, and each troop had a tree to decorate in Stony Brook Village. Every year they have a nice tradition of putting up lots of little Holiday trees all over the village and organizations sign up to decorate one. On Saturday we decorated with Katie's Brownie Troop (the pictures with the sun shining!!) and then followed up with a trip to the movies to see Enchanted with Jill, Christopher and Natalie. I LOVED this movie... and totally recommend it. On Sunday we were back again with Allison's Daisy troop (the pictures with the snow!!) It was so pretty down in the village with the little bit of snow we had.
The picture above is of Katie and her friend Hannah... they have known each other since Hannah's mom Karen and I had them in Mommy and me together when they were 2!
Daisy Troop #405!!!
Katie, Hannah, Allison and Hannah's sister Ava (who is Allison's best buddy)
Below is pictures of us at the movies...

I love this picture of the girls... and of course I had just ordered my christmas cards the night before!

Ava and Allie decorating their Daisy tree


These are the phots from Saturday...

It was so cold... we had hot chocolate for the girls. It may have been sunny, but it was windy so it was soooo cold.
Brownie Troop 2197!!!
(OUT OF ORDER) this is a pic from the movies with Chris and Natalie

Christopher Joseph Lotten

Doug and Erica welcomed a beautiful, healthy baby boy yesterday at 11:12am! He weighed 6lb 12 oz and was 19 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing great! I am soooo excited for my brother and his wife, I cannot even express :)

If I click my heels three times maybe I will be home faster...

Tonight is my last night in Kansas City, MO. I have been attending a class for Communications Center Managers sponsered by the NAED and Fitch & Associates. I have met a absolutely terrific group of people and have learned so much from my classmates and the faculty. I will have to return to Kansas City at the end of January for another week. We have been assigned to groups of 8 and are required to do a research project to be presented to the rest of the class in the second week. I was voted to be the project manager for my group.

Tonight as I sit here in my hotel room... I am desperate to get home. I received the horrible news that one of our dear friends passed away this morning. Jimmy Hubbard was and will remain one of the best people I know. Please keep Cindy, his wife and their three children Jennifer, Sarah and David in your thoughts and prayers.

It has been a long time since I last posted... even though my plate is very full, I am going to make an effort to post more often.

Flu Shots

This morning I had an appointment to get the girls flu shots. It was a great morning. The girls cooperated, and I was convinced that I would end up getting them to school on time. My appointment was at 8:50am and I made it a point to be there a little early. The ped office usually runs on time- thankfully. Both Katie and Allison were ok with the idea they were going to shots. I talked to them about it and everything seemed fine. When the Dr. came in Katie became really nervous and stated clearly that she didn't want the shot. So Allison went first. She was so brave... said ouch and pretty much that was it. She stayed still and was great. Katie on the other hand was really getting anxious. I had to tackle her and very difficultly put her and hold her onto the table while she screamed!!! After the shots were finished she got off the table and threw an absolute temper tantrum. She was so angry. She stomped into the corner of the room, and keep on screeching (anyone who has heard her screech knows exactly what I am talking about) She carried on so that the other Dr. on this morning knocked on the door to see if we were ok or if we needed help. I was horrified. They had both taken in their webkinz to hold on to. After many warnings I took her webkinz away (because of the horrible tantrum) and of course that made things even worse. I had to practically push her down the hall of the office because she was trying to physically get her webkinz back. She finally started to calm down in the car... thankfully because I was on my way to Minnesauke to drop them off. By the time we got to the school she was better and had even apologized for her behavior. I can only imagine what next month will be like when I have to take her back for the flu booster shot!!!!

Last weekend... Columbus Day weekend... we went upstate to Catskill, NY with Rich's family. Rich and his family have been going to "the cabins" every year since as long as they can remember. Rich's parents actually spent their honeymoon there (gives you an idea of how long). I have been going with them since Rich and I started dating. It was a really nice and warm weekend. Last year it had rained a lot, so it was nice to have the warm weather this year. I have included tons of pics in this post... I couldn't help myself. The picture above is one of my recent favorites of the girls.
This picture below is of Katie and Aunt Nancy (Rich's sister) I just think it is a really nice picture of the two of them, we were having breakfast right before leaving... because as usual the pics are not in the right order.Jennifer and Allison waiting for the frog show. On Sunday we went to the Apple Festival in Cairo. The festival is small, and really nice.

This year we brought all the bicycles. The girls didn't ride them as much as I thought... only a little bit. I wasn't really thinking, because there are lots of hills and I think there were too much for them.
Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rich during dinner on Sunday night.

Happy Birthday to Jennifers boyfriend Rob!!! we wish you many many more!! We have know Rob for many years as Richie and Robbie's best friend... but a few months ago sparks flew between him and Jennifer. They are so happy together... as we are so happy for them.
from left to right: Anthony (Jackie's boyfriend), Jackie, Aunt Pam, Uncle Freddy, Samantha (in his arms), Jennifer, Rob. This was taken on Saturday at the Oktoberfest on Hunter Mountain.

Samantha seemed to really enjoy the girlies... and in return they adored her. She is 6 months old now and really showing her personality. It was really nice to spend so much time with her!

When we were at the Apple Festival in Cairo, they has a few carnival rides... including this slide. I think Katie and Allison went down about 4 times!! They love it.
How does that apple taste Allie???

Heading to Hunter! You can see here how wonderful my neices and nephew and their significant others... look how attentive they are to the girlies!!! They are just the best and so good with their young cousins. :)

At Hunter they has the ski lift going. The girls and I took a ride up the to the top and then back down. It was soooo beautiful. The leaves were changing and the weather was right.

Going up Allison!!
Here is Katie as were heading up!
on the way back down! Amazing... the pictures do not do it justice.



My nephew's girlfriend Jessica treated the girls to a ride on a motorcyle.

from left to right: Rich and the girls, Rich and Nancy, Robbie and Erica, Freddy and Pam, Rob and Jennifer, and Jackie and Anthony, Samantha is sleeping in the stroller in front!
Jessica and Kathryn
My neice Jackie and her boyfriend Anthony.

We had a blast.. and are already looking forward to next year!!!!