Monthly Archives: December 2008

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Christmas Fun

December 30, 2008 – 11:25 pm

I’m finally making myself sit down and write in my blog!  I’ve been going non-stop for as long as I can remember.  Christmas was a lot of fun this year.  Brady & Tyler definitely understood that Santa brings presents for them.  We spent 2 days at my mom’s.  We had our first family gathering with our immediate family at my mom’s house on Christmas Eve.  Then we went to my Uncle John’s on Christmas Day for lunch with that side of my family.  And then we spent Christmas night visiting with Aunt Judi & Uncle Ray.

Can you believe that I only took 13 pictures this year during all those Christmas family gatherings!  And all 13 were of my boys.  That’s all I took!  That is the first time EVER in my whole life that I didn’t take a zillion pictures.  Honestly, I think I just needed a break from taking pictures.  You see, I can’t just take pictures anymore, the business side of me kicks in and I have to spend hours post processing them and editing them in photoshop.  I spent countless hours in December on my photography business and I think I just needed a break.

Anyway, the day after Christmas we went to Philadelphia for Aaron & Jenn’s wedding celebrations.  I will write about that in another post in a day or so because I did take a zillion pictures during that event and I need to work on all of them.  And I want to dedicate a whole post to writing about it.  (Hint, it was a great time!!!)

Traveling was a huge pain this time around.  We had 3 flight delays on the way there and they gave our rental car away and no car company had any rentals available.  Then on the way back we had 5 delays and they lost my luggage (I finally got it 2 days later).  

Did anyone else’s house look like a hurricane whipped through it after the holidays?  I just spent 2 days and tons of hours unpacking, organizing, cleaning, picking up, putting away, etc.  And of course trying to find space for all the new toys!  I spent about $100 in organizing stuff to help make some sense out of the chaos around here.

Tonight Janessa, Nich & Zach are arriving for their 5 day visit.  Orbitz keeps calling us every 1/2 hour or so with another delay (flashbacks of our travels on Sunday).  So hopefully they make it in sometime after midnight.  We are super excited to have them visit.  We saved most of Brady & Tyler’s presents for them to open with Janessa, Nich & Zach too.  So, another fun Christmas celebration tomorrow.

Here’s a few of the pictures I took of the boys at my mom’s.

By Kristi | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

New Car, Locked in the Car, & Merry Christmas

December 23, 2008 – 11:25 pm

First, Dave surprised me tonight with a brand new 2009 Saturn Outlook as one of my Christmas presents! I’ve been eyeing this car for quite some time now, and saving my photography money to put towards one.  You see, I really wanted a mini-van, yet I wasn’t ready to be an actual mini-van mom.  The Outlook is a crossover vehicle on the outside, but very similar to a mini-van on the inside with bucket seats for the middle row and a very roomy 3rd row and a DVD player for the boys (hint, hint, we own NO movies for the boys right now!!).  Anyway, Dave used his credit union discount program and got a great deal.  We were going out to dinner and he said “Let’s go past the clubhouse and see the lights on the tree”.  Then he pulled up behind the vehicle and handed me the keys and said “surprise”.  Dang, what a great hubby!!!

Here’s the best picture I can find online.

 

Now, you are probably dying to know about the “locked in the car” part of my post title.  Well, we were getting out of the car and apparently there’s a feature where the car locks after all the doors are shut.  Long story, short, I was getting Brady in the house and all of a sudden I heard the car make a beeping sound.  Poor Tyler was locked in the cold car all by himself for 35 minutes until the tow truck guy was able to come out.  So I wanted to panic, but remembered that Lisa once said that kids will react based on the look on our face or our actions.  So I acted as calm as can be and talked to him through the window the whole time. He shed a few tears and said “all done” in sign language a few times, but for the most part he was ok.  Imagine if he started screaming or crying?  I would have felt so helpless!

We are heading to Grand Rapids tomorrow for 2 days where we’ll have 3 different family celebrations.  Then on Friday we’re heading to Pennsylvania for the weekend for Aaron & Jenn’s wedding reception and to celebrate Christmas with them.  (So, that means I most likely won’t be posting for the next 5 days.)  Then next week Janessa, Nich & Zach are coming for the week and will be here over New Years.  I also can’t wait for that too!

Therefore, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!  I hope you enjoy your time with your family and friends. I am looking forward to seeing everyone, but will also be missing several people that we won’t get to see this week and they will be in my thoughts!

Love to all!

By Kristi | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (6)

Part 1: Pee Pee in the Poo Poo…….Part 2: Doo-Dee

December 22, 2008 – 11:13 pm

Part 1:  Santa brought an early present to Brady & Tyler.  I figured it was about time to get the boys potty chairs so they can “get interested” in the whole experience.  (I have no desire to do actual potty training this early.)  Anyway, I didn’t think the potty was a great thing to have them open in front of other people, considering they would want to try it out right away (picture them naked around the Christmas tree at the family gathering with them trying out their potty…LOL).  So, Santa came early and put one present under the tree for them to open.  

They’ve had the potty chairs for 24 hours so far and have “used” it 3 times.  They want to strip down naked to do it for some reason!  They call it their Poo-Poo.  And they say that they go “pee pee” in their “poo poo”.  If you pee in the potty chair it senses it and plays music.  Well, the boys figured out how to reach underneath and make it play music without peeing.  They didn’t pee in the potty any of those times, but had no trouble peeing on the carpet in the living room right afterwards.  LOL

Part 2:  Doo-Dee.  Tyler & Brady have come up with a name finally for their twin friends Dylan & Noah.  They call them Doo-Dee.  The funniest part is how it came about.  First, instead of both names they are just saying Dylan.  And there’s 2 of them.  So it’s two Dylan’s.  Since they can’t say Dylan they said Dee.  And two comes out like Doo.  So it’s Doo-Dee which stands for “the two Dylans”. So lately everything is about Doo-Dee.  In fact today they said “Doo-Dee Poo-Poo?”, which was asking me if the Doo-Dee’s had a potty chair from santa too.  

Here’s my friend Sara, the Doo-Dee’s, me and Tyler & Brady.  Sara & I are cracking up and it made me laugh when I saw this picture.   Maybe we enjoy play dates more than the boys sometimes!  LOL

By Kristi | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)

My Husband Is Helping to Save the Auto Industry

December 19, 2008 – 6:14 pm

With all the talk about the auto industry and the government stepping in to help I thought a post about how awesome my husband is might be in order.  Have you heard him on the radio lately?  Seen him on the TV news?  Sherry told me she heard him on the radio the other morning and was pleasantly surprised when she realized that the “Dave Adams” that was talking was actually “our” Dave.

So, what’s my hubby been up to?  Well, one day his brain was thinking hard (as it always is!) and he came up with an idea to help the auto industry, as well as credit unions.  He came up with a campaign called “Invest in America” and approached GM, Chrysler and Ford about it.  He has a contract with GM & Chrysler so far and is in meetings with Ford right now.  The jist of it is that credit union members can get discounts, such as employee or supplier pricing plus additional money off when they buy a car and the car loan is through the credit union.  It works for the auto dealers because right now they don’t have money to make loans on their own so they don’t mind having credit unions right the loans….plus it boosts sales for them.

The program has launched in various states already and will soon be nationwide.  Dave’s been on the TV news, he’s done numerous radio interviews, he’s talked with Governor Granholm about it, he meets with the big wigs at the auto dealers, and he’s been in several news publications such as New York Times, Washington Post, Yahoo News, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Week, Forbes….I can’t remember the rest right now.  Google “Credit Union Invest in America” and all kinds of things will come up.

Yes, my own husband had this idea and it’s turned huge!  His idea is helping tons of credit union members save a lot of money on vehicles, allowing them low interest credit union auto loans and helping to save the auto industry in his own way.

I had to brag.  I couldn’t be more proud of him!

By Kristi | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (5)

A few ramblings, no pictures

December 17, 2008 – 6:03 pm

BANGS.  First of all, I have bangs!  Short ones.  I didn’t give Laura any time to try to talk me out of it either, and I know she would have!  I’ve been growing my hair and my bangs were past my nose!  I started getting headaches and even a kink (sp?) in my neck from doing that flip head motion thing to get them out of my eyes.  Drove me insane.  I give up.  No pictures, but I’m sure you’ll see it in some Christmas pics in a week.

HOLIDAY FRENZY.  So, I finished my Christmas present shopping about a week ago.  And now I’m going back to the stores to buy “one more thing” for everyone.  I always do that!  Plus, I felt like I won the lottery when I had a scratch off card thing for Kohls giving me 30% off my entire bill.  Crap, everything there was like 50% off, plus my additional 30% off.  And I get to use the coupon as many times as I want until Christmas.  I went there yesterday and today again and filled the stroller with as much as I could.  Funny, huh?  You know me….I love bargains!  

MORE CHOO-CHOO.  Please someone save me.  Please, someone get the boys a video for Christmas!  I taped Polar Express last week and we watch it over and over and over.  In the morning when they wake up I hear through the monitor “More choo-choo”.  Same with when they wake up from nap.  It’s the first thing they say.  Any minute that we are home they have to have that movie playing.  They’ve watched it so many times that they now are reciting (in their own way of course) many parts of the movie as they happen.  

1 week until Christmas!!!!

By Kristi | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (4)