Guess who this is!

Yep, this is Allyssa at her 1-year-old birthday party 5 years ago. Isn't she the cutiest thing? Look at the tossled hair! They all grow so fast...Natasha, 24, Nick 20, all my gosh, time is flying by. Nick will be 21 in April. 21 years old. I will be 47 in February. Not feeling well tonight so I am going to make this short. Gonna go and take a shower and get ready for bed. Don't feel like doing anything. Maybe I will feel better tomorrow....

Happy Birthday Allyssa

Today was Allyssa's 6th birthday. It has been 6 years since she was born? It don't seem possible sometimes. She received a Baby Alive baby doll from Mema and Papa Bob which she is opening in this picture. Dakota is looking on just waiting on her chance to get to the baby doll. Allyssa was happy with the baby doll, especially since it is suppose to wet her diaper among other things is it is suppose to do. This party was for the family. She is suppose to have a sleep over with a few of her friends in a couple of weeks. We ate dinner at Mom's house for New Year's Day. We had a good time and the food was delicious as always. Well, it is time to get back to the grindstone and a regular schedule now. Holidays are over for another year....2007 here we come!!!!!

Out with the old...

Three hours and 45 minutes and 2006 will be gone, no more. How depressing is that? But we do have a very new year, no blemish, no nothing to start off with. A clean slate. Seems the older I get, the faster everything moves. I will probably be asleep when the new year comes in, not that I don't care, I just really have never gotten into the "celebrating" the new year. Never got involved with new year's eve parties, fireworks and so forth. Why is that, I wonder? Allyssa turns 6 tomorrow. 6 years old...she was just a premmie yesterday...seems like yesterday sometimes anyway. Still haven't done anything with my "resolutions" idea, finished one layout today, "14 months" for Dakota. Been looking at a picture of Allyssa taken back in September, 2005, when we went to the lake and I captured the most beautiful picture of her as she was getting back on the boat from a dip in the water. I just cannot seem to put down into words what I see in the picture...the water droplet falling from her chin, perfect pink lips, tantalizing blue eyes, perfect nose...some of the traits I intend to put on the layout...not finished though. Not feeling very good today anyway.

Dakota loves this Water Globe

This year Dakota was old enough to pick out some things that were associated with Christmas. Not that she knew that these particular items had anything to do with Christmas, but she knew that some things that were "out for Christmas" were not normally sitting out. This water globe was one of them. I had it sitting on the television and one day when we were walking around at a time when I actually had her in my arms (probably because she had been crying or something) she noticed this water globe. I am thinking I received this from Deborah one year but I am not sure. It is a Coca-Cola Santa Claus water globe with a train that moves around it when it is wound up and it plays the Coca-Cola song, It's the Real Thing. (I think, come to think of it, I am not sure that is the name of it!) Anyway, every time she was over here at the house, at least 3-4 times I had to pick her up and show her the globe with the snow. I would have to turn it up-side down to get the "snow" going of course. There was also a smaller water globe I got one year for Christmas from a girl at work, but the snow did not do as well as this snow did. She looked at it for the last time today when I was trying to soothe her before Natasha came to get her, before I finally gave up and took her to my bed and laid there with her on my chest where she was asleep in 3 minutes. After she and Allyssa left, I packed up all the christmas stuff and put it away until next year. Wonder if she is going to remember it then? Of course, I will always remember her little smile and face light up when I would pick her up to see it "snow".

Allyssa was caught up in her new portable DVD player all day. She took it to Stamps and More when me, mom, Dakota and Allyssa went today and she sit and entertained a little lady that was sitting in the "little room" that Eleanor has which has a table and a small couch in it. She was watching Barbie Rapunzel all day. Does not seem like she should be old enough to be so entertained by a tech gadget like the portable DVD but she is. I can hardly believe she will be six years old Monday. Where has the time gone? She usually comes to my scrapbook room when she comes over and today was not different. She asked me for some paper so she could "write" something. After about 5-10 minutes she came to the living room and told Papa she put a note on his door to come and see it. So we went to his computer room and she had wrote, "Papa, I love you". She had done this all by herself, she did not even ask me how to spell any of it. I asked her today what she would miss about being five years old, (I was trying to get her answers so I could do a scrapbook page on it), but she said she did not know. I am not sure whether she understood what I was asking or she just was not in the mood to think about it! I think I will try again later. They grow up way too fast....

Hershey Kiss Baby!

Dakota loves Hershey's chocolate, it don't have to be a kiss, it can be a bar itself. She knows what a miniature hershey bar looks like and she knows what a hershey kiss looks like. I had to snap a picture of these last three kisses before she ate them. The second picture she is walking over to Papa for him to take the paper off and she had to test it before she got there! Aren't those kisses looking good. Something about a hershey's kiss and this is dark chocolate too, yum. The regular kisses were good, but now that they have dark chocolate they are even better. Allyssa was with her former babysister who wanted to baby-sit her for the day before Allyssa went back to school so I did not pick her up at daycare when I picked up Dakota. Sure do miss her. I haven't seen her since Wednesday, seems like a long time!

Gotta get ready to get all the christmas stuff back up in the attic. I hate doing that. Wish I could snap my fingers and it be done at once! Well, I am still trying to get my scrapbooking mind going, still have so much in my brain, but cannot get started....

Remember This?

Take a look at that Santa Claus! Looks like one of those Santa's out of a christmas book!!!! This picture was taken when Zachwas a year old, what 16 years ago? My, my how things have changed, how we have changed, more than that how Nick and Natasha have changed....would love to be able to go back and look "in" on our lives then. Sort of like Ebenezer Scrooge when he is taken back in time....ok, enough of the sentimental-ness. I can't stand it, I will be crying in a minute! All of the kids have grown up so much and have their own lives, all except Zach, he may never leave home!!!!!! I still keep thinking about him up at 7:30 a.m (2006) Christmas morning because he was "getting stuff"!!!!! Such a half grown man and such a little boy still...we all need to be that way. I think deep down inside, away from all the hustle and bustle of what gift to give, whether we will have enough money, whether the gift receiver will like the gift, I really like Christmas, the lights, the baking of goodies, (of course, when an oven does not burn the bottom of everything you make), the trees all decorated, the gifts, the "kindness" of everyone during the season, the magic in the air....the real reason for Christmas. It is really nice. Would it not be nice if we could all enjoy the holidays and not have to worry about anything, and I mean ANYTHING! It will never happen though. So for now I will just reminsce of Christmas' gone by and our little children wrapped up in the magic of it all.

End Of 2006

The way this Ty Beanie Baby Christmas Bear looks is about the way we all are feeling right now (I think I speak for the majority of us!). Stuffed and pooped out! We are tired, pooped out, exhausted, run down, ready-for-it-to-be-over. Maybe not quit ready-for-it-to-be-over, but almost. Seems like after the gifts are open, the visits to friends and families' houses are done, the eating (and the crying because we ate too much) is done that the magic of it all ends. I asked Allyssa today if she had a good Christmas and she said "yes ma'am". I asked her if she got everything she thought she asked for and she said yes. I can safely say I did. A couple of things I got, I had just mentioned (Santa is a good listener!) Dakota got plenty of toys and clothes as well as Allyssa. She, Randy and Natasha baked cookies in her Easy-Bake Oven Christmas Day night. They were suppose to fix slushies tonight, but she had a date with Mom to spend the night since Mom would have them tomorrow anyway. Dakota had a big day at day care today apparently. When we got home, I gave her a snack, changed her diaper and she was ready for her nap. I usually lay down with her on my bed and get her to sleep. It normally takes me about 20-25 minutes to get her settled down enough to nap a little bit before her mom gets here to pick them up, but today she was out in less than 5 minutes and snoring to beat the band! You could hear her all the way down the hall. Allyssa was watching the DVD movie Waterboy with Papa until her mom came to get them. I woke Dakota up about 5 minutes before she got here. Sometimes when Dakota wakes up she starts shaking until the figures out where she is at. So I wake her up gently so she can ease into her surroundings once again. Went back to work today for 3 days and then another long week-end, WOO-HOO! Still thinking about the resolutions thing, gonna do a scrapbook page, but haven't quit got it down in my mind how I want it, or maybe I will just do a mini-book about it. Got a little scrapbooker's block going on right now. So much I want to do, so little time to do it in. Sometimes things run through my mind so fast I cannot even keep up with them, much less right them down. Ate lunch with Mom today at Subway. I only get 30 minutes so it is a eat-and-run lunch. She was so funny today, we were sitting there eating and then all of a sudden I say, I have to go. Instead of me wrapping my sandwich up to go (actually I was already done with it since I am used to eating in a hurry) she starts wrapping hers up really fast and she said "I love eating lunch with you"!!!! Of course, I knew she was being facicious since I had to run and she did not! There was a time when I did not have to rush off from lunch but those days are long gone. I don't think I will ever get to that point in my career again, especially where I am working at the present time. I sure do miss not having to rush around all the time. Well, gotta go and start my mind thinking about the mini-book of resolutions I am going to make, I think!