My New Year's resolutions

For 2008, I decided to take a photo every day. I'm happy to report that I have (almost 100% - tomorrow) completed that!! It's been a lot of fun and a lot easier and simple than I would have thought. It's neat looking back and seeing some things that I would have probably forgotten about if I hadn't done this. So therefore, I'm going to continue to do this one again next year. I haven't blogged all the photos (especially lately) but I'm going to keep it up! I'm trying to talk JM into an IPhone photo of the day too.

So for 2009, I've decided to read one book a month. I have always loved reading but this is something I've definitely pushed to the backburner lately and I really want to start reading again, so I'm just going to force myself to do so. I'm actually really excited about this too.

From here on out, all of my new year's resolutions are going to be fun and simple things like this.

Do you have any new year's resolutions for 09?

Hobby Lobby fun

Who knew Hobby Lobby could have so many photo ops in one store? And I'm really getting tired of my crappy pics, but geesh, Jenna moves too fast for my little camera.

She found a little teddy bear that she went crazy for. Whenever she sees things like this in the store, you better pull over and let her look at it, because she just goes NUTS if she doesn't get to. And then I have to devise a way to distract her, so I can put it back on the shelf. And if she catches me putting it back, well, she is just not happy.

And see the cute little shoes? I found those today at Target for 50% off and I HAD to have them. They are Converse and Jenna's 1st pair and I know they really don't match the Hanna outfit but gosh, I could not wait to put them on her!

Merry Christmas!

This is a bad pic, but I'm sad it's the only I got this morning. This is before heading off to Christmas mass and we were going to try and get a group picture but never did. Jenna looked so cute in her little Christmas dress and she even kept the bow in for a little while! (Thanks Madeline again for the bow!)
One of Jenna's big presents that she loved - this Fisher Price learning home. She loves crawling through the door and opening and shutting it. I knew she would love it before I even bought it!

And my mom got her this PBK chair. LOVE IT! She actually even crawled up in it herself the first time she saw it too! And I love the fact that it's the big one, because it'll grow with her and she'll have it for a super long time! Her name is on it in green too, I don't know if you can see it.

And she also got a lot of other things too that aren't pictured - and JM even went out and surprised me by buying 2 toys for her without telling me what they were! I thought that was so sweet of him!

And we wish yall a Merry Christmas! I do have to say it's a lot more fun now having Jenna around. It really puts things in perspective, ya know? :)

Our Christmas Eve tradition

For the past 3 or so Christmas Eve's, JM and I have watched Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation together. This has become our little Christmas Eve tradition. So tonight, after Jenna goes to bed, I look forward to another year of watching this and sharing some laughs with my wonderful husband. I can't wait until we can start little traditions with Jenna too.

Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?

Jenna's Christmas photo shoot

I got the idea off of ClickinMoms to use wrapping paper for a background. I'm sure plenty of people have probably done this before - but I probably wouldn't have ever thought about it. So JM and I had a little mini photo session with Jenna. These are some of the pics I took and hopefully JM will blog some of the ones he took. It's the first time in a long time that we have taken pictures together!

These last 2 are some of her all-time favorite game - peek a boo!

Happy Birthday Nanny

Jenna absolutely loves the Pluto dog. I remember being little and being fascinated by this as well. I give it to her when I change her diaper to keep her occupied! I'm so glad that I have all of these momentos that bring back such good memories!

Nanny's Last Christmas - John Michael was with me and he took all of these next photos. This is when you realize how important photos are and I love how he also captures the "everyday" things as well so that those things do not become forgotten either.

Happy Birthday Nanny. I miss you now more than ever before. I know that you would have just adored Jenna. I love you.

Why do I even bother?

I thought it would be fun for Jenna to try and finger paint in the tub. I thought it would be something new to do and of course, easy clean up! But nope, she was not amused at all by it. So in less than about 3 minutes she was out of the tub and ready to move on. Do you think she's just too young for finger painting or is there a better way to do it?

So, I scratched my plans for doing something new and different today and we just went back to playing with her regular toys. And then I wondered, along with trying new things like finger painting, why should I even bother with all the cute winter clothes? For the past 2 weeks, almost every day (m-f) we've spent all day at home and she's been in pajamas and then one of my all time faves - t-shirts and babylegs! So, I guess I shouldn't even worry about buying her winter clothes! Ha!

And you know what made her the happiest? Playing with the simple Christmas bows. She loved those.

And then just because every puppy needs a bow attached.

Our Christmas decor 08

I thought I'd do the boomama Christmas tour this year since I've never done it before - and also, my home isn't nearly as decorated as a lot of the other ones, but I still like what we have, so I'm happy with it and that's all that matters. :)


First off, this is our little Christmas tree. Yes, it's little, but we've had it since we first got married and it will always be with us. And I happen to love it even though it is smaller. One day, I'm sure we'll have a bigger tree and this will be a second tree somewhere else in our home.




Yep, this is the same shelf in our entryway hallway that I posted the halloween candy corn vases. The picture is from Jenna's visit with Santa this year, which also was our Christmas card photo.

Hallway half bathroom.

Same bathroom. :)



And one of Nanny's angels. I will always display her Christmas ornaments she gave me.

So there you go. Not much, but like I said, it makes me happy and that's all that matters. :)

just another fun day together

Ok I'm in a picture sharing mood, so hang on to your hats.

The first ones are of us going into PetSmart today. This was probably the highlight of Jenna's whole day. She absolutely loves dogs. She is obsessed with them. Every time she even sees a stuffed dog or a picture of a dog in a store, she starts blabbering and going crazy.

This was the absolute sweetest dog. And if we didn't already have 2 dogs, I would have loved to have taken him home with us, as he just absolutely loved Jenna and Jenna felt the same way about him. So, so, sweet. And I don't think you could see it, but he has a big white patch on his belly area and it was really cute.

The funny thing is, I don't think Jenna really realizes she has 2 of her dogs at home. I think maybe she really prefers the bigger dogs over our little Chi's. She does love Max and Sophie, don't get wrong - but I've just noticed lately, it's the bigger dogs she is going crazy for.

Oh, and this white dog - she liked, but I could tell she really, really, loved the other dog above. There was just a really sweet connection with them. It makes me sad that dog can't come live with us!

And later at home - "Let me just set my aperture to 5.6 so I can get all my toys in." (This pic was not set up, she went over there all by herself and starting playing with the camera for a good 5 minutes so I had to get a picture.)

And again, later at Target - She was not impressed by the Fancy Nancy boa.

One of Jenna's new favorite new games is to feed mommy!

And see the cute new outfit?? Thanks to Cindy for the gymboree gift card!

Anyways, we had a good weekend together. This weekend was much needed as all of 3 of us have been sick and we spent most of the week just staying inside. Hope everyone else had a good weekend!

Plaza lights!

We met JM's meetup photography group at the Plaza tonight so they could take photos of the pretty lights.

This first pictures is crappy (aren't they all lately?) but I was trying to do this quick so I wouldn't look like a psycho - but JM's group is on the right and on the left we got to watch a wedding! It was a really small wedding and they were an older couple so I think it was a quick casual, but nice little ceremony at the plaza! I thought that was neat!

Again, not a great pic - JM took some really pretty ones, so you'll have to check his blog for those. But the Plaza lights are so pretty! And David Cook is the one that came and flipped the switch this year (we didn't go, but still neat....) I remember on the news they said that they started putting up the lights in August and worked until they were done for Thanksgiving!

Jenna and I spent a lot of time in Barnes and Noble so she could play. She had a blast "reading" books and playing with the train table.

Fun Plaza Lights Facts
The Plaza Lights started with a string of 16 lights over a doorway in 1925. The first Plaza Lighting took place in 1930.Tower lights are always one color. For example, The Time Tower, at Broadway and Ward Parkway, is always red.

The lights don’t stay up all year long. The hard-working crew from Capital Electric begin hanging the lights in August and take them back down starting in mid-January through the beginning of March.

The big switch on the stage at the Plaza Lighting Ceremony really does turn on all the lights. The child chosen from the audience is always chosen at random.

A lights test occurs on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (the day before Thanksgiving) from 2 to 6 am.

The only time that the Plaza lights were not in operation occurred in 1973 when President Nixon called upon all Americans to curtail the use of Christmas lights to reduce dependence on foreign oil imports.

Guests that have been invited to turn on the Plaza Lights include: George Brett, Trent Green, Kate Spade, "Fastest Man in the World" Maurice Green, Paul Rudd, Walter Cronkite, Derek Thomas, Marcus Allen, Buck O’Neil and Oleta Adams