And then I snapped...

All I wanted for Christmas was a new, fancy, faster camera. And that, my friends, is what Santa (read: all my family) brought me. The talented Molly Connor assisted me with choosing the right camera and accessories and then calmed me down at the checkout lane (large purchase = sweaty armpits). We got home and this is what happened when we opened the box:

 Both of us reading the manual...setting the date and time was a bit challenging

 So we needed the help of some Miller Lite

 Molly's lens that she let me borrow (and it's phenom - and might just be "stuck" to my camera indefinitely)

Molly was testing out the camera...and ever since she has left I have been doing the same. I've taken 107 photos since Monday night. My girls must think they are rockstars with all the flashes going off in the house. Stay tuned for some fun pics of the girls!

I'm in love. Like, <3 love. Thanks for all your help, Mols!

Keel Clan at Xmas

Anna just sent me this picture from our time in Michigan. Love that both girls are staring directly at Jazzy (the dog) and Jazz is staring back!

This little Buggy...

...has an ear infection. More than likely she's had it for a few weeks. She's such a cuddly little love Bug I can hardly stand it. Get better soon Laney Bug!!!

Looong weekend

This was my first flex weekend of 2011 and I took advantage of every moment of it. I had gotten into the habit this Fall of bringing the girls to school on Fridays I had off to run errands, go to doctor appointments, lunch with friends or even take a nap. However, I had not one single thing to do this Friday. Believe it. I had no closets to organize, no returns to make, no parties to plan for. Nothing. All I wanted to do was to spend the day with my girls. And that we did. Brenna called Friday morning to see if we wanted to play and I suggested Rec. Unlmtd (thanks for the suggestion Jaim!). We spent a few hours there getting our sillies out on a snowy day:

Think she'll be a basketball star? Me neither. She's as short as most kids 6 months younger than her!
Brenna & Jack were loving the court
Izzy spent approximately 3 minutes on the swing. Her big thing is to CLIMB (there are several climbing walls here) and jump/bounce.

Sliding

Laney steering

Bounce heaven. It was hard to keep her off the trampolines (Brenna can attest to this; she witnessed a 3 year-old meltdown at its finest).

And Laney also loved to bounce

Jack enjoyed the tire swing

Izzy's favorite thing to do these days is take my picture (and then of course check out her artwork on the screen). Here is one of her shots. Kind of artsy if you ask me. Ha!

Friday night I had a girls' night out with Molly; we went to the Butler game and then to dinner at Us.ual Suspects (YUM!). We had so much fun at the bar...so much that we dined and dashed! (And since I keep up with celebrity smut, I had just learned that in some states dining and dashing is a felony!) I realized this on my way home, after dropping Molly off at her place. I felt horrible. Thankfully Molly called the bar to let them know we indeed intended to pay for our meals & paid over the phone! With this, hopefully Molly won't be blackballed from her favorite hangout spot. Yikes. Kind of embarrassing.

Saturday morning we went to Izzy's gymnastics class. We switched from a weekday evening, as it was far too hectic to get her fed and to class in time to cram it in. I just love the Saturday mornings now...the light is peering through the windows during her warm up and I can relax and enjoy watching her.

Izzy is very strong on the balance beam and the bars and is showing a lot of independence & confidence already on the equipment.

So cute, this is how they walk from event to event. And below is the end of class where they get stamps if they were good listeners that day.

This morning we accompanied Mike to the gym (he's training for the 25k relay in June) to swim. The girls and I had fun swimming in the (bath-like-temperature) pool while daddy swam laps. Izzy is also quite independent in the pool, now that she wears the life vest and can float and swim on her own. She wants no help because, of course, she can do it herself.

Daddy came to join us after his workout

Izzy had kisses for him

Laney was excited to have us both in the water to run back and forth to

And Izzy had a new audience (her fave). She's started this game where she says "Now do this" and holds a pose. This repeats for as long as you play along. She played this game over the holidays with Grandma Laura for about 30 minutes. The game only stopped because Laura pulled something. It's hysterical, as Izzy will contort herself into all kinds of crazy positions and say "Now do this!" Cousin Taylor played along with her for a while over the holidays as well. Izzy tried to get us to play in the pool. Um, most of her poses I will not do in a swimsuit. Sorry, Simon said it was ok.

Playing

This afternoon we took the girls to their first Butler game. We stayed for about an hour and a half and both girls did amazingly well. Laney loved all the clapping and cheering, while Izzy loved watching the cheerleaders. The girls ate the entire time we were there. Popcorn. Crackers. Fruit snacks. Orange. Raisins. Oh my, I'm surprised Izzy wasn't sick (again) from all the eating. But we had a great time and I look forward to another daytime game to take them to!

Sharing popcorn

Watching the game & petting Butler Blue.

We had a great weekend. We watched Annie (my favorite childhood movie). We played. We snugged. We simply basked in the three days that were ours.

MOTY

A few of you readers of this blog may remember last year (around this same time) when my then two-year-old locked me out of the house on a cold winter evening while the baby was upstairs sleeping and Mike was out of town. That was a defining moment in my MOTY (Mother of the Year) happenings (oh, and there are MANY). My girlfriend, Jaime, and I joke about this all the time. It makes us feel better about our parenting, that we're not the only ones that screw up and do crazy things to our children. We joke that we could write a book (similar to "Awkward Family Photos") with our crazy stories. But then we fear CPS may come after us...so we keep these to ourselves (and on my blog). So for your reading enjoyment, here you go:

Friday afternoon I look over to Izzy and her tea party to realize Laney is no longer pretend-dining with her sister. I hear little rustlings coming from our pantry, thinking it's the dog or something. Nope, it's Buggy in the bags of Christmas-stocking-candy...eating chocolate. Through. The. Foil. MOTY 2011 nomination #1 goes to moi. Awesome. But it didn't stop there (yep, twice in one weekend, folks).
Saturday night Mike spent the evening watching football with a bunch of his guy friends and my neighbor (Jill) invited us over for dinner as her husband was out of town. The big kids usually run back and forth through the house playing, screaming, pretending and Laney simply waddles behind them trying to keep up. Sometimes we'll hear "Izzy isn't sharing," or "I have to go potty," or this time it was "Laney's eating crayons!" This may not come as a big surprise to you, as Izzy has been guilty of this (the purple crayon incident at the Feller house summer 2009) and Laney has an issue with the same crayon craze. Jill and I run back into Sammy's room to find this:

Laney had been sucking on a green marker! Apparently, she doesn't discriminate against drawing supplies. She couldn't find crayons so the marker worked just fine. We were just cracking up. Thankfully it was washable marker. I mean, Cra.yola has to make these things edible and pass safety tests, right? Back to the wine we went.

And I'm practicing my acceptance speech now. I feel I have a great head start to 2011, don't you think?

Holiday Crafting...

Just wanted to post what I've been crafting lately...
Frames for all the parents and grandparents

Ribbon holders for little girls' rooms

Cake balls for teacher gifts

Name boards for Luke & Sam

More cake balls for Brandi's shower

A butterfly initial for Brandi's nursery. More to come!

New Years Eve 2010

Mike & I were invited to Sa.gamore Country Club for their New Year's Eve Casino Night. We had no idea what to expect, as none of us had been to this event before..but let me tell you, it did not disappoint. There were probably around 100 people in attendance and we were all decked out. We were given about $2,500 in chips and had the opportunity to play poker, Blackjack or craps. The dealers were generous and even threw in some fun side bets (and lots of extra chips to boot!). At the end of about 3 hours of gambling we turned in our winnings for the chance to win prizes. None of us won but the grand prize was $1,000!

The food was delicious and the drinks were flowing. The live band was great...played some oldies and some more recent pop songs (Beyonce is one that sticks in my mind!). So much fun. We might just have a new tradition to ring in the New Year!

At the Blackjack table
Katie, Jaime & I

Mikey & Kelly

Jaime & Jeremy

Besties

Katie & Ricky

Taking a break from dancing

If you look really closely, you can see us dancing. The three of us LOVE to dance and only take breaks to catch our breaths (and find our shoes). Oh my, can we dance...

The night was a blast and I'm already looking forward to next year!