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Happy National Ballerina Day!

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Nancy

What? It’s Ground Hog Day?? Not in my family 🙂

For as long as I can remember, it’s been National Ballerina Day… 2/2 (tutu). You can imagine the celebrations on 2/2/02!

An example of an email from my Dad in 2001:

This is an automated response from your father.

Although most of the masses think today is “Ground Hog” day, we in the O’Daniel clan have been aware for years that this is really

“National Ballerina Day”

Those of us “in the know” can hardly contain our enthusiasm each year with the approach of 02/02.  Break out the noise makers and the rum punch.  Let your hair down and Twist Again with Chubby Checker!  Today is TuTu!

Those of you truly dedicated to the perpetuation of this sacred holiday should ALREADY be planning for next years MILLENNIUM Celebration.  Yes.. it only happens once every 1000 years.  You guessed it… TuTuTu!  Get ready NOW!  Don’t miss the opportunity of a lifetime… we will only see it once  02/02/02.  Or in the newest jargon  02.02.02!

Tu dot Tu dot Tu !!!!!!!

It’s coming……………….

Be Ready!

I can’t wait for 2/2/22

Filed under: holiday | Tagged: | 3 Comments »

Friday’s Foto Finish Fiesta

Posted on January 2, 2009 by Nancy

Candid Carrie sponsors this one – head over to her blog and find LOTS of links for bloggers who’ve joined in! (You can join in too!)

This edition of Fx4 is brought to you by Maggie’s new digital camera.

Pictures taken by Maggie:

Cousin Grey

Cousin Grey

Nana

Nana

Burke

Burke

Nana Lou

Nana Lou

(You can put scenes on the pictures!)

Don’t get me wrong…there are a whole bunch that are black, or really fuzzy cuz she moved the camera while taking the picture…there are a lot of butt and chest shots as well. (What do you expect when that’s pretty much what she actually sees…)

Burke uses the camera as well, and I’m SUPER impressed with his artistic eye. I may have to dedicate a post to Burke’s creativity, but for now, here are a few he took:

Mommy and Maggie

Mommy and Maggie

Daddy

Daddy

Self Portrait

Self Portrait

Logan

Logan

And…Christmas night, the adults got into the Porron (an Italian wine decanter that has a spout on it…so you can pour it directly into your mouth) – fast becoming a Christmas tradition at our house. Remember that whole “you can add scenes to pictures” thing? Needless to say, there were a few pictures taken:

Aunt Cathy

Aunt Cathy

Aunt Meghan

Aunt Meghan

Mommy

Mommy

Aunt Sharon

Aunt Sharon

Aunt Meghan and Grandpa had an entire session at the end of the table that no one was aware of until massive giggles were heard…

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.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Hope Dad wasn’t thinking of having a political career…

Filed under: fam, FFFF, holiday, pictures | Tagged: | 7 Comments »

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2009 by Nancy

I can’t believe that it’s 2009. That’s just crazy.

A kindergarten teacher once told me that if you said “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” on the first day of the month, before talking with anyone, you’d have good luck all month. This always posed a problem for me on New Year’s Eve because at midnight, you’re supposed to yell “Happy New Year!” … which means that you’re talking to people before the whole rabbit thing. When I was much younger, I used to say the rabbit thing under my breath REALLY fast and then yell…so I was always a second or so behind everyone else – but I don’t think anyone really noticed. I haven’t done the rabbit thing in years, but I always think of it.

I suppose this is the time to talk about New Year’s resolutions. Mike and I made a family resolution last year to start going to church. And, for the most part, we stuck to it. There were, of course, some Sundays that we didn’t go…but we did it, and we’ll keep going this year as well.

This year, we’re going to make a conscious effort to keep in touch/get back in touch with friends. We’re going to try to get together more often and stop being the hermits that parenthood sometimes forces you into (this might be just perception on our part 😉 )

Filed under: deep thoughts, holiday | Tagged: , | 6 Comments »

Christmas Afternoon Craziness

Posted on December 27, 2008 by Nancy

After our morning of craziness, Christmas carried on. Everyone returned from their travels to in-laws or church (or a nap in my case 😉 ) and we set in on the mountain of gifts.

There were too many gifts to go through, but I have to say, I think Aunt Sharon and Uncle Jason take the prize for the most-thought-out, most-played-with-so-far gifts. They gave Logan a “cell phone” that you can record a voice on to play back with the push of a button. (Logan loves pushing buttons … and can often be seen playing with MY cell phone.)

They gave Burke a super cute computer.

Future Blogger

Future Blogger

He was very upset this  morning when Mike was Skyping with Pop Pop. He wanted Pop Pop to show up on his computer. LOL

And they gave Maggie a digital camera. I believe there have been over 300 pictures taken so far. Most of them by Maggie…but a few that the grown-ups have taken as well. The camera has this neat feature where you can position different hats/ears/noses/scenes around the item you’re shooting. Ya. The adults go a hold of it while desserting/drinking Christmas Eve. You’ll see those photos in a separate post soon 😉

Maggie had a blast handing out gifts, and was even starting to read the tags correctly toward the end of the mountain.

Santas Little Elf

Santa's Little Elf

Nana made new aprons for her little kitchen helpers. Maggie wore her’s for the rest of the day. Burke put his on to help bake cookies (with their new kid sized baking set) later in the afternoon.

100_3553

New Apron

As per typical of a 15 month old, the shiny paper was a favorite for Logan.

Shiny Paper

Oooh Shiny Paper

All of the gifts were opened by 2pm.

Here are some random pictures from throughout the madness.

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100_3551.

100_3542.

100_3534.

100_3532.

100_3518.

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100_3516.

Grey seems to be obsessed with Maggie

Grey seems to be obsessed with Maggie

Filed under: holiday, kids | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

Christmas Morning Craziness

Posted on December 26, 2008 by Nancy

With 13 people gathered – 4 under the age of 4, Christmas morning can get a little overwhelming.

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning

Burke and Maggie found their stockings almost immediately.

This Ones Mine

"This One's Mine!"

And where was Logan this fine morning at 8am?

Sleeping

Sleeping

Logan slept until 9:30 until my Dad went in and poked him. Poor guy had two nights in a row where he was up until after 9pm … of COURSE he was sleeping in!

Tradition at our house is to open the stockings and presents from Santa (in PJs, of course) and then about half of us go to church. Sharon, Jason, and Grey have breakfast with with her in-laws. Everyone who doesn’t go to church, gets dressed and plays with toys that have been opened.

Rudolph Nose

Burke's Rudolph Nose

Rudolph Nose

Maggie's Rudolph Nose

Rudolph Nose

Mommy's Rudolph Nose

Rudolph Nose

Uncle Jason's Rudolph Nose

Grandpa and Aunt Cathy

Grandpa and Aunt Cathy

Cousin Greys Whistle

Cousin Grey's Whistle

Dr Maggie

Dr. Maggie

Burke the Builder

Burke the Builder

Santas Gift to Nana and the Grandkids

Santa's Gift to Nana and the Grandkids

Grandpa Woke Me Up

Grandpa Woke Me Up

Guitar Man Logan

Guitar Man Logan

Waiting for everyone to come back is also a great time to Skype with Pop Pop and Mop Mop.

Skyping

Skyping

More about Christmas after Church later…

Filed under: fam, holiday | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2008 by Nancy

christmascard2008

Filed under: holiday | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

Spider Santa

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Nancy

We received this Santa as a gift from Mike’s Aunt Barbara. When we opened it, I immediately loved it because it’s just different enough to be absolutely wonderful.

I loved it even more when Burke pointed and said “Spider Santa!” 🙂

Spider Santa

Spider Santa

Filed under: holiday | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

Moon Poop

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Nancy

Maggie was pretending to give out presents to everyone tonight. We had to make a big show of “opening” these presents while she watched. We then had to ask “What is it?” To which she’d reply, “Moon Poop! hahaha!” Where the heck did she get that? LOL

If she happened to open a “present” that we gave to her…and it happened to be Moon Poop – she’d say “No more Moon Poop!” and throw it into the other room.

At one point she chastised me for giving her a snowball. heh Then she started requesting them.

So…we broke into a “snowball” fight. The kids would designate where the snowball hit: in your eye, on your nose, in your mouth, on your head. Sometimes we’d catch them, sometimes we’d catch them in our mouths (watch out for yellow snow! They’d tell us the color as well)…but mostly they just hit their mark and we’d react accordingly.

LOL Now that’s MY kind of snowball fight 😉

Filed under: holiday, kids | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

Home Made

Posted on December 16, 2008 by Nancy

I’m looking forward to the time when the kids are all willing and able to create various home made gifts for the holidays. As it is – Burke and Maggie are more than willing…we’re working on the “able” part. 🙂 (Logan seems to be willing as well – or at least very interested!)

Over the weekend, we painted some of those cheap-o paint-on-plastic ornaments for the tree. They had a BLAST with it, but didn’t understand that the more paint used (or the more brush-strokes used) the less paint would stick to the plastic…and then also wondered why there wasn’t enough paint for all of the little plastic pieces. They had fun though, so I guess that’s what really matters 🙂

We also made paper chains to hang throughout the house. Maggie went at it like an old pro (turns out they’d done it at school recently as well). Who knew that paper chains took so much tape LOL! Another good time had by all.

We attempted a few more things (that I won’t go into detail about because who knows who reads this…) More fun to be had. Their imaginations are so much fun to watch and listen to. I’m looking forward to when they have a little more control over their very imaginative play. 🙂

Filed under: holiday, kids | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Deck the Halls

Posted on December 6, 2008 by Nancy

We decorated the tree today! Mike got it out of the attic (yes, it’s fake) and strung it with lights on Monday – with the kids’ help, of course.

I'm helping

I'm helping!

This is so cool

You're going to let me touch?!

Today, we got out the rest. Burke was especially good at finding spots to hang the decorations. Maggie would either stuff one in (without actually hanging it), or bring it to me to hang. Logan was just fascinated. Enough so that he stood – by himself – for over 5 minutes just looking at the tree. (well, touching too…but not using it to hold himself up.)

100_3225

I wanna help too!

I think...right...here

I think...right...here

This game is cool

"This game is cool" *

* Actual comment heard
what IS this thing?

What IS this thing?

Burke’s comment when we were done: “Let’s do it again!”

Filed under: holiday, kids | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

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