We got back tonight and it was a GREAT vacation! We're bushed - will post more soon. For now here is a handful of pics I grabbed quickly to post....

Tomorrow morning Mark and I leave for the Dominican for a week. I am very, very sad and full of guilt (something us moms are blessed with I'm learning) about leaving the girls behind - but so excited at the same time. My parents and sister are splitting the week and coming here to watch them so Madi can still go to school. They're so good to us.

Anyhow, see you in a week!

Just checked the weather for the Dominican for next week - theyr'e calling for rain every day. Should be a nice beach vacation for Mark and I. Sigh.....

You pay hundreds or thousands of dollars on a wedding dress - and do what with it? This website is suggetsing you "trash the dress" in order t oget some really cool photos (in some cases - some of the photos just look like they're trying to hard).
LINK

So, Mark's crazy cousin Kim Handy went on Price is Right and won the showcase showdown! I think they said it airs tomorrow (Jan. 9) - she's a riot, should be fun to watch!

Just clearing out pics off my computer and realized I never shared any pics I did of Cohen (My new little nephew) and his fam becasiue tehy were using tehm for Chritsmas gifts and didn't want people to see them yet. ANyhow, here's a few...

My dearest Monica is up for an award at the Shai awards - please take a minute and vote for her!! Here's part of a note from her...

 

We have been blessed with family and friends who love to spoil us. So much so that we continually have to clear out space for the new toys (especially after CHristmas!) and clothes. I usually do this behind the girls backs - Madi gets so attached to everything. A toy she hasn't touched in years is suddenly her favorite when faced with me giving it away.

If there is one big lesson I have learned in the last couple months - it's be up front with the kids. I learned this first with drinking water. I use to think "my kids won't drink water". Then whenever they came home from Carolynn's she'd tell me they drank water no problem for her. Huh? So I stopped trying to sneak it in their cups and just told them - you need to drink some water, you can have juice later. And they accepted that answer and rank their water. Wow.

Back to the toys.

So, I said to Madi that I Wanted her to go through her toys and make two piles. One to keep and one to give away to other kids who don't have a lot of toys and would like some. I told her I was going downstairs and would come back up in a minute to check on her.

I could hear her hollering "mom! mom! come and look!"

Oh no. What did she do?

I was shocked that what it was she wanted to show me was that the bigger pile was for toys to give away. She was so proud of herself. There were some toys in there I had a hard time to give away (they're so cute, or fairly new, or in good shape, or expensive, or.....) - but she was generously giving away her best.

I have so much to learn from her. Today I was working on de-cluttering the kitchen (we're making an office upstairs so doing a lot of rearranging). We have three sets of dishes. So, decided I should give at least one set away. But it makes me sad - we picked these out on our wedding registry and can never replace them (because there's no more Eaton's) and even though colours have changed I still feel emotionally attached and even though they're chipped and some are broken and... and.... and....

I need to learn about giving things away joyfully from my girl.