OK Thats better

Since I have changed my blog to not be apart of the blogger home page and to not be found by search engines it appears most of my hits are local. I will be keeping a close eye on who is viewing my blog and if I am still concerned about its safety I will then go private. I didn't want to because of the ease of it being public. I post stories about myself and my family so I don't just want the random Joe checking in on my life but I guess that's what can happen when you have a blog.

Well I am just sitting and relaxing with the girls while they watch Super Readers on PBS Kids. I am thinking of everyone on this New Years Eve and hoping everyone has a fun and safe night.

Blog Update

Well a friend of mine suggested to block my blog from search engines and also from the blogger home page. So we will see if this fixes the problem. Nothing really bad has happened it was just a little freaky that there were so many places opening my blog than I don't know anyone at. No stalkers or anything, Thankfully.
If I go private I will make sure I add all of you that have requested too have permission.

Private Blog

Hello my wonderful Blog Readers,

I wanted to inform you that sometime this week I am going to set my blog to private. So please email me or send me a message via face book so I can give you permission to my blog. I have had a lot of unusual views lately. This blog is intended for my friends and family only so the only way to keep it safe is to make it private.
Its so weird I have had people from Malaysia, Brazil, Iran, Chile, Spain, and some US states that I do not know anyone from checking in on my blog. At first I thought some of it could have been from search engines pulling up my blog from a keyword search but there is just more and more strange places checking in so Private we will go.

You will most likely have to sign up at blogger.com for a Free account to view my blog. Sorry for any inconvenience this lay have caused.

Congrats to my BIL and SIL

They are expecting baby #3 in 2009. I am wishing my SIL a healthy pregnancy all the way through!

Merry Christmas 2008

This Christmas was so very wonderful. I feel so lucky and blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to have spent this time with. Morgan was so excited to get her very own pink cash register from Grandma & Grandpa.
Sydney just loved the shopping cart and grocery food that Grandma & Grandpa got her.

What a wonderful family picture.

Happy Birthday Corbin!

Saturday we had the pleasure of being invited to Corbin's 6th Birthday Party. It was a fun afternoon of bowling, pizza, cake, & presents(of coarse).

Morgan picked out the very best ball...a PINK one!Here she goes!
Finally Pizza time with her best bud on his birthday!

Christmas is not complete without a visit from Christine

On Christmas Eve though the snowy weather Christine managed to fly from California to Chicago and then on a bus to Rockford. Finally a short drive from her Mom's house to ours on a snowy day. Poor girl got lost on her way here but finally made it. We spend the morning sipping Green Tea and making Thumbprint and Peanut Butter Kisses Cookies. What a great start to Christmas Eve! She has to leave us too soon to join her family and then we had my family over at our house.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Mice

Last week at work a co-workers daughter made these super cute treats. I grabbed 2 to take home to my daughters and they LOVED them. Not only were they cute but tasty too. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 jar maraschino cherries with stems, drained and dried
6 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/2 tsp butter
1 ounce paraffin, chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 tube red (clear) gel icing


Preparation:Line a cookie sheet with waxed or parchment paper. Rinse the maraschino cherries, drain thoroughly, and let dry on paper towels, turning often. The cherries must be completely dry or the chocolate will seize and get crumbly. Gently melt chocolate, butter, and paraffin in a double boiler until smooth, stirring often to prevent burning. Once melted, turn off heat, but leave in the double-boiler on the burner. Dip dry cherries in melted chocolate to completely cover up to the stem. Place on lined cookie sheet. Immediately press on chocolate chip, flat side to the front of the dipped cherry, to form a head. While chocolate is still warm, wedge two sliced almonds between chocolate chip and cherry to form ears. Let cool. Use a toothpick to dab beady red eyes on either side of the chocolate chip with the red gel icing. Refrigerate to firmly set chocolate.

The Trip to Oak Park

This weekend Morgan and I bundled up, gassed up the van, and hit the road to go visit Lisa in Oak Park. We had a great day petting Lisa's super soft Labradoodle, Trooper. Have a great lunch and Erik's Deli, shopping at Trader Joe's, and teaching Lisa to knit!

So the trip was so fun and very interesting. After making it to Oak Park I was a bit nervous about the homeless man on the off ramp begging for money. We stayed back a little so we didn't have to confront him. Then made it safely to Lisa's beautiful new home. We headed out for lunch and then Lisa took us to our first trip to Trader Joe's. I have never been there before and it was such a cool place. We picked up just a few treats from there. Some super good Cinnamon Almonds. Yum. And 2 kinds of cookies. We got Candy Cane Joe-Joes and these super yummy Double Chocolate Chip cookies that are a dangerous 190 calories for ONE cookie. Yikes. So these will be a rare treat.

The Candy Cane Joe Joes are so good. They are just like a mint oreo but with little bits of crushed candy cane in them. A big Thanks to Lisa for introducing them to us!

So after a great day with Lisa, Morgan and I headed home so we could get home in time to have dinner with Daddy and Sydney. Well that didn't work out so well. After about an hour of driving I realized I was lost. I had apparently made a wrong turn somewhere. I am usually very good with driving directions so I am so surprised that I got lost. So I got out the road map and attempted to find my way back home but I think I just got myself even more lost. Finally I had to call Matt and have him Mapquest me some driving directions back home. Finally after 4 hours of driving when it should have only taken me 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home. That's OK we made it home and had a great day so it was all worth it!

Good Times with Friends

Last night I had the pleasure of a night out with 2 of my girlfriends. Suzi does not live around here anymore and it had been 6 long years since I had seen her. Thanks for a fun night out girls!

Let it Snow

This week the girls enjoyed playing in the snow while Daddy cleaned off the driveway. I am glad that Sydney is finally big enough so that both girls can go outside and enjoy some of this winter weather. I don't enjoy it so much these days but Boy O Boy I loved playing in the snow when I was a kid. Watching the girls brings back such good memories for me of when I was a child.

Poor Sydney had some troubles with this hat. It just wouldn't stay out of her eyes. At least she was warm.

Morgan is quite the snow bunny. I had to practically drag her in the house. I think the more she lost her boot in the snow the funnier it became to her. Funny how these things just don't phase the kids.

The new Album

Last Saturday night when I was out shopping I bought the new Britney Spears Circus album and I just love it. There are so many "dance" hits on it. I hear it's the top selling album right now and I know why. It's very good. I really hope this is a turn around for Britney. So if you were thinking of getting this album I am here to tell you its worth it. Go get a copy!

Ahhhhhhhhhh OMG

CREED is making a come back. If anyone is excited about this it's ME!!!!

I am just about the biggest Creed fan on the face of this earth. The band broke up in 2004 and I have been hoping and praying that they would some how some way get back together. I heard today on the radio that they are "talking" about a reunion tour! I will be first in line for tickets. Anyone want to join me? I have to say this absolutely made my day or quit possibly my year. I just couldn't be more excited. This is my all time favorite band in the whole world and I was devastated when they broke up so to hear they are hopefully getting back together would be the best news EVER! I hope you enjoy the collaboration of creed songs I have put together. AHHHHHH I am SOOOOO Excited!!!!!

Our weekend is not complete with out a trip to the Home Depot

Well this weekend was a good one. Friday I kicked off the weekend with a Wine Tasting Party after work with my co-workers. I pretty much confirmed that I am not a red wine drinker. Then later that night after getting into some PJ's and snuggling into bed I watched a movie I have been wanting to see, Over Hear Dead Body. I loved it.

Saturday I had the great pleasure of getting all of my Christmas shopping complete (except 2 last little things) with my BFF Renee! Thanks Renee I had a great time and it was good to finally have a whole night together.

Then Sunday the whole fam packed up for a tasty breakfast at our favorite restaurant, Lydia's! Yumm the Mexican Tortillas were delicious! We then made a stop for some holiday decorations so Matt and I could FINALLY decorate the house outside. I am pretty proud of my hard work so I will post pictures as soon as I can (they are on my other camera).

Finally the weekend is not complete without a trip to the Home Depot. I had to snap this pic of the girls because they were too cute cruisin' around the the Race Car Cart!

A New Family Tradition

Well we started a new family tradition this year that I have always wanted to do with my own children for the longest time. This year I felt both girls were ready to start this. This is a tradition that the Egger's Family had growing up and I have always loved it. I even found it fun to help Christine find her stocking when we were younger. So this is what it is. Every day starting on December 1st the kids find a hidden stocking in the tree with some sort of treat inside of it. Yesterday was the first day and actually when I got home from work I kind of had forgotten about the little hidden treats. So I was doing my nightly routine of making dinner and washing some dishes when I checked in on Sydney. She was sitting so quietly on the couch. I wondered why because shes normally running around like a wild child but I thought "Who Cares" shes being good and quiet I will just take advantage of that. So then a few minutes later Sydney comes into the kitchen with just a little chocolate on her mouth. I instantly freaked because I realized she had found the stocking with the mini chocolate bar in it. I looked everywhere in the living room and only found a few chocolate finger prints on the couch. My concern was where was the wrapper??? So after looking high and low in the living room I checked the garbage and there it was. So my little sweetie had found the stocking, opened the candy, tossed the wrapper, and eaten the whole things before I could witness a thing.


This is what it "Should" have looked like when Sydney found her stocking.

Then Morgan finally after looking the tree up and down for about 15 minutes found her Treat!
And this was Sydney when she couldn't HAVE Morgan's treat.

Then this morning the dog found Sydney's stocking and licked the stocking to death and managed to get a few tooth marks in the candy wrapper. So far this new family tradition is not going as well as I planned.

The Tree has arrived

On Sunday morning we headed out to our local Tree Farm to cut down the 2008 Annual Christmas Tree. It was pretty chilly, snowing, and a little muddy. If we wanted a less messy visit we should have went and taken care of this on Saturday but I guess it was even more in the Winter/Christmas spirit this way. The girls helps us pick out the tree that would enter our home this year. So here is the tree before it left it's home in the wild. I wish I had taken a video of Matt cutting down the tree because I think we had the most dull saw in the state of IL and Matt was working his butt off to get the tree down. I really couldn't help much because I had to keep watch over the kids so they didn't get hurt or wander off. It was hilarious. Trust me. I had to apologize for laughing.The tree finally came down and made it's way safely back into our home. Morgan helped me decorate the tree and Sydney helped take ornaments OFF the tree.

Drum roll Please...... And the finished product. I think it's a little short and possibly a little crooked but that's what makes us LOVE this tree all the more.