Where's my tooth?

Another tooth lost. Finally....that silly tooth has been hanging around for a while now. She has a couple of others loose also but there's nothing like having your two front teeth out at the same time!!!! She was wanting to wait to have Mrs. Plyler take it out. What a stab that is to me!!!!...being that I'm in the dental field and all...She says Mrs. Plyler is a professional tooth taker outer. What am I? Chopped liver? Oh well. Hope the Tooth Fairy is good to her!!!!;)

Brrrrr! But I like it!!!!

The temperature got down to 9 degrees in Morgantown this weekend. When it gets that cold it doesn't matter. It all feels the same. Seeing some snow would have been nice but I only got to see a few flurries. We went to a family party at Paul's cousin's house. We had a good time. Kylie got to play with a few of her cousins and Spencer got to make lots of smiles and coos. I on the other hand ended up in Urgent Care due to a terrible sinus infection and I am still feeling the pain. I spent about 6 1/2 hours in bed on Sunday due to exhaustion, a clogged nose and very painful face. I didn't even know I had visitors. My poor mom and sister and her family have the vomiting sickness that's been going around. I got out of there just in time...although we already had it. Anyway... I was able to get a couple of good pictures with everything that went on.

growing up

My babies are growing up. I can't stand it!!!!!

Sibling Love

Ol Blue Eyes

Sitting Pretty

Ready to decorate?

Beauty

OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY

Well, first of all, I do apologize for such a long blog. I can't seem to get my slideshow to work properly. So please try to enjoy all the scrolling. Each year our wonderful boss has a fantastic Christmas party for us at his house. We all bring a dish. He supplies the ham and turkey and drinks and a whole lot more. We are so fortunate to have jobs the way the economy is right now so it makes it that much more appreciated. But I don't think anyone could have as good of a boss as we do.

The beginning of the dinner party.

Kim and Christy.

Me and Christina

Donna and Kim

We have a White Elephant gift exchange. Everyone usually keeps what gift they choose. But this year Donna opened a very soft blanket that everyone oohed and ahhed over and pictured themselves wrapped snuggly in it.


Take anyother look, 'cause Christina stole the blanket from Donna. Prior to the theft, Donna was giving her sad story about how much she needed a blanket because she was having heater problems at home. But that didn't seem to stop Christina! She had to have that blanket!:)

This isn't just some lame Christmas party... We make sure we make the most of it!

This is where the "Boss Man" comes into play. He always thinks of clever ideas to make the party interesting. This is a money jar to guess how much money is in it. All $1.00 bills. Any guesses? Oh, and by the way, I won!!!! I guessed $35.00. The exact amount was $43.00.

And what is this you ask? Dr. Wells gave us 3 tries to roll the dice to see whose added to the highest. And who rolled this you ask? Why, I do believe it was me!!!

Rock, Paper, Scissors

You see, all these games (money guess, dice rolling, Rock, Paper, Scissors, and trivia questions) are played and everytime you win or get a correct answer you get to put your initials on the board. Then Dr. Wells draws cards from a deck and if he lands on your square, you win. Christy and Donna were the big winners of that. (Lucky them- I'll keep that amount to myself.)

The last fun thing of the night was covering Charlie Brown up with a bag. (Only a prank...I love Charlie Brown!) Dr. Wells and I have an ongoing argument about what color Charlie Brown's shirt is. I say yellow and black...he says orange and black. Little does he realize that in this scene he is wearing an orange winter coat--over top his yellow shirt. Of course he's going to buy this yard decoration because he has on orange but the majority of the time he is wearing yellow. Who is with me on this?

The final thing we do at the party is another type of gift exchange. Over the course of the year we get free things when we order supplies. We save them all year long and then have a drawing at the Christmas party to see who gets them. This is what Paul and I won. A black luggage bag, grill set with steak knives, steaks, $25.00 Macy's card, MP3 player, $25.00 Home Depot card, wet/dry vac, full service car wash. The slippers, cocoa, bracelet, reed diffusers, steaks, and wine are from the exchange. Needless to say, we made out pretty well. We had a great time and LOTS of laughs.

Rare Showing

LIVING ROOM CARPET--about $600 (just guessing)

ELMO DOLL--about $30.00

PAUL ON THE CARPET PLAYING WITH AN ELMO DOLL--PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!

You see, Paul absolutely can not stand Elmo for some reason. He's such a cute little red guy and he means no harm to anyone. But Paul just steams when he sees Elmo, which by the way is definately the reason why my dear friend Ashley has given us the doll along with a couple other things. Hee Hee. I guess this proves that when it comes to spending playtime with your kids you'll be willing to put up with anything. What a good daddy!!!

Like mother like daughter

Well, another trip to WV just to see the snow. Kylie loved it. She thought it was soooo deep! (only a couple inches) But to her it was fantastic. I have to admit, even one little snow flurry gets my heart racing. We had a good time playing in the snow. We also captured some other pictures. Please note the "Croston" tee shirts. My sister even asked me where Croston University was. Mind you she's a high school principal. She was having a blond moment even though there's not a blond hair on her body, except for maybe one of mine that may have landed on her! Anyway it's not like my sister to be an airhead. She's under a lot a stress right now. Santa brought all of us a "Croston" tee for Christmas last year. Aren't they cute?

Personalized Golf Balls

Is this cool or what? Paul's friend Johnny got these golf balls printed for him. It was really nice of him to do that. He got two dozen printed with Kylie's name and two dozen printed with Spencer's name. It was for a golf tournament they were in recently. Johnny had others printed for his friends with their children's names too.

My Ruined Mailbox

So I am minding my own business on Friday trying to do some housework when my doorbell rings. It was a neighbor telling me my mailbox has been run over. I look over and it is laying completely on its side and bent all up. Even the base which is in concrete is out of the ground. She pointed to the truck that ran over it. I took off walking towards the truck. What would I say? I didn't want to be rude but my mailbox was ruined. I could never be rude. I was afraid to approach him. What if he denied it? Then what would I say? I was talking on the phone to Rebecca at the time. She was coaching me on what to say until my range ended on my phone. When I got up to the guy he was on the phone telling his superiors what had happened. He finally said he would come down and take pictures and get my name, etc. When he was giving me his name and phone number he stated that he hoped he wouldn't get fired over this. What if he does? That would be horrible! Poor guy. Should I just forget about it and pay for it myself? I don't have a clue how much a new one would be. I do know it has to match the other mailboxes in the neiborhood. I guess I need to contact the homeowners association. Any advice?

BIG ON TRADITION

So I may be silly but I like tradition. This shirt is a family shirt. It started as my nephew, Jonathan's shirt. He is now 12. Then it was my niece, Alexa's shirt. And, of course, Kylie and now Spencer's shirt. My dad has always been into cars and he couldn't resist this shirt for his grandbabies. Of course, at the time it was bought, only Jonny was in the picture. This shirt has been through many jars of baby food, drooling mouths, and of course lots of spitting up (especially from the master of spitting up--Spencer). We also have a Harley Davidson jacket that Spencer will be modeling very soon. I can't help my illness of tradition. I don't know why but it is just my thing. I also have a must when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Right after halloween I decorate for Thanksgiving. I don't have much but I do put a couple things out. Then the day of Thanksgiving is when we decorate for Christmas. Although I would love to do it before Thanksgiving I feel we shouldn't take away from Thanksgiving. So after dinner we run to the attic and pull everything down and start decorating. From then until January 2 we stay decorated. Here are some other tradtions:

• Watch every Christmas show possible as many times as we can.
• Drive around on Christmas Eve to look at Christmas lights.
• Make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve day
• Write a note to Santa on Christmas Eve
• Read T'was the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve
• Get up around 5:00am on Christmas morning
• Pray for snow everyday (people growl at me for that)
• Play Christmas music at night while we sleep(mainly Bing Crosy, Frank Sinatra)

Most of these things have been a tradition since I was a little girl. The thing I like the most was having my dad read T'was the Night Before Christmas to me and my sister. I very much like to see Paul reading it to Kylie (and soon to Spencer) on Christmas Eve. It means alot to me to keep traditions going.

Now after all this talk about Christmas I am getting way too excited. My picture of poor Spencer really has no significance now. Oh well, he's still a cute little thing.

Things I've been doing

Take me home, country roads!!!

So....Haven't had time for anything. But I do have a collection of what has been going on lately...everything from going back home and seeing the pretty leaves changing (which we probably missed by about a week for seeing the most beautiful leaves), to halloween, to Kylie helping out with washing the car. Take a gander.

Spencer the Spider

Kylie as Scooby Doo

Kylie washing the car

Spending time with Jonny and Alexa

Spencer sitting on his own

Where does the time go?

It seems everyone is busy lately. Sometimes I feel like screaming just like the lady in this picture. Where do the evenings go? It is so frustrating to me how fast the evenings go by. I am grateful, however that Kylie is so good about coming home and immediately starting her homework. She usually has spelling words to write out and has to read for 20 minutes. She also has about four baggie books that she reads. If she wants to read them all, of course I will not stop her. I say if she is into it why not let her read? After that I am usually washing baby bottles and before I get that finished Spencer is wanting to be fed. His evening meal usually consists of a bottle, a veggie such as squash, carrots or sweet potatoes, and baby cereal. Paul is usually cooking at this time. Then we eat and clean up. Then we are always changing loads of laundry. Next it is time to make up baby bottles to take to school. Next is bath time, brushing teeth, picking out clothes for the next day, which always takes longer than you anticipate. Before we know it the time has come to go to bed. Kylie DOES NOT like to go to sleep. She would stay up all night if I would let her. Usually Kylie wants to read some more books and Spencer is ready for his last bottle. I feel horrible because Kylie doesn't get much play time in for herself or with her baby brother. Why do the evenings have to be so short???? It's even worse if you need to run the the store because we all know that definitely takes longer than you'd think. Maybe Walmart should look into an online shopping deal like the grocery stores have!!!!! It would be nice sometimes to have an extra day in the week to stop and smell the flowers. I even missed my baby boy rolling over all by himself for the very first time ever because I was too involved in getting the kitchen straighten up. At least Kylie got to witness it. She was so excited to see it. And I wouldn't want it to be anyone else if I had to chose. I really am not asking for any sympathy because I know we all go through it. It just doesn't seem fair sometimes that we miss out on precious things. Ok, well I am finished griping now.

New Earrings

Dear Grace;

Thank you for my brand new earrings that you made. I really like them. You did such a good job making them. I am sure you had a lot of fun making them too!!! Wow they sure are cool. Thanks.

Love,

Kylie

School Pictures

I couldn't resist showing Spencer's first school picture. I know he's my kid and all but isn't he the
cutest thing you ever did see? I had a 24 hour flu bug of some sort so I didn't even get to cut them yet. Anyway, he is 4 months old and is such a ham!!!!

brand new office

Well Ash, here's my blog. I was going to blog anyway but I decided to read yours first and saw a challenge. Good thing I had something in mind. Not much of a blog but I wanted to show off our brand new office. We all worked so hard to get this office up and running. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. We have had trouble with our phones for over a week now and they still aren't fixed. Numerous things have gone wrong but soon (I hope) things will be better. I didn't go to the mountains this weekend like I was supposed to do but I'm sure I will come up with another blog by the end of the weekend. Check out our 90 gallon bow front fish tank....and the murphy bed!!!!

waiting room


fish tank

This is Jimmy's murphy bed. Yes, that's right. A murphy bed. I have a boss that LOVES to sleep!!!

more of the waiting room

WHY?????

OK...this is Paul's favorite t-shirt. Why Paul, why? He WILL NOT part with this thing. Why even bother putting it on? How does he know which hole to put his head or arms through? AND this isn't the only shirt like this. He has about 3 of them that he wears. At least his underwear aren't quite this bad. I'm afraid one of these days he'll get strangled in a string!

Coco Wheats

Why-o-why can I not buy Coco Wheats around here? I have been searching for this yummy cereal. They sell Cream of Wheats here but no Coco Wheats. It is the same only chocolate. Thanks, mom for sending me my very own box of Coco Wheats. You'd think it would be easier to buy them here in this big city than in Morgantown. Oh well, mom to the rescue once again. Everyone should try these. I grew up on this. Has anyone else heard of Coco Wheats?

HOORAY!!!IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Spencer had his 4 month check on Friday. He now weighs 16lbs 31/4 oz. He is 25 inches long. The doctor said he looks great but may have allergies. Nothing we can do until he is at least 6 months old. He will just rattle until then! We have tried rice cereal and prunes so far. His lips have been smacking at both. Kylie had the honors of feeding him. She did great. She's a natural. Kylie had clean desk award at school. Her teacher said she is a great student.

Comfort

It's nice to have a friend that seems like family away from home that you can just call up and talk to for no particular reason and have nothing to say. It doesn't matter if it's 12 times a day or 1 time, that person doesn't even mind...it just makes sense to have a friend like that. Even if it's to talk about absolutely nothing, it feels comfortable. I like that kind of friendship...and I thank you.

Mr. Right

"Watch out Baby Girls 'cause the Spencster is in on the prowl!" Thanks, Ashley, for this onesie. Now I can put my Rico Suave moves to the test.

Sincerely,

The Spencster

pics of my babes

These are pictures of my babies. Thank you, Paul for helping me have such beautiful babies! These are pictures of pictures so they are not as nice as a real ones.