Halfway there!

Yep! I'm 45 years old today and since I've always thought 90 would be a good "final" age, today is my halfway point. Good God, how did I ever get this old? I still feel like that 21 year old scared small-town girl who packed up all her belongings in her 1984 black Dodge Shadow and drove halfway cross country to try to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I made it in the "big city" -- spent years creating a life. Over the last 20+ years I've worked hard, made friends, gone to school, done some traveling, learned what love is, experienced loss, come to really realize the importance of family, gotten married, had a baby and created a family. Whew, I've been busy! I feel so fortunate to have had these first 45 years and I'm looking forward to the next 45! Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Holidays!

A very proud builder of his first gingerbread house! Notice the halloween pumpkin in the background -- a little holiday confusion at the Bailey house? Have a great weekend.

Holiday Preparations

Well, Thanksgiving was a blur but we had a very nice one. Christian was really into the whole "first Thanksgiving story" this year from reading books at school about it. And, he loves the fact that he is an Indian and not a pilgrim. Truely, he is a card carrying member of the Chippewa tribe as am I, but that's a whole other story. I knew when I bought this Indian costume at the Goodwill store a while back it would come in handy! I'll let the video speak for itself. It's a bit long by blog standards but very cute!

And although I'm sure Christian had a great time visiting with all his family at our Thanksgiving celebration I am pretty certain he was most excited about seeing his cousins Connor and Josh. He loves hanging out with them and they are so good about being tolerant of his youth, exuberance and excitablity. They are the closest things he's got to brothers and he loves them.

Now its all about getting ready for Christmas! Almost all the shopping is done which I'm very happy about. The cards have been mailed, the tree has been decorated and the stockings have been hung.

Our little tree

Stockings to be filled

The reason for the season

Even Gordon's getting excited

We're taking our annual drive through the Lights on the Bay display this weekend. And next weekend I'll try to get some wrapping done and start my annual baking. So far the holiday season is off to a great start. I know the economy is not so great and we certainly couldn't spend as much money as we've done in the past but we have so many other things to be thankful for. I'm going to try to get another blog in before the 25th but if for some reason I don't, Happy Holidays everyone!

Fall leaves and then some...

To all those people who say they love living in the Northern Virginia area because you get to experience all four seasons, I say, "wanna come to my house and help rake leaves"????? OMG, they are out of control. It seems like we've been raking non-stop for the last two weeks and we've just finally made a serious dent. I didn't think they were ever going to end and we actually quit counting at 100 bags full. And, I'm sad to say that there are still some left on the trees. We have them piled up along our fenceline and behind the screen porch not to mention the 20+ bags out in front of the house along the curb waiting for this Wednesday's pick up.

But for Christian and his buddy J.R. who lives across the street, they were a blast to play in! A few more years though and Christian won't think they're nearly as much fun when he becomes part of the clean up crew!

All I've got to say now is "think snow". I'll take a few hours of shoveling over days and days of raking any time.

Future Olympian!

Future Michael Phelps???? Never say never and a mommy can dream can't she? This kid sure does like the water and even practices his strokes and holding his breath under water when he's taking his bath. Shane snapped this picture of him last night.

He loves his swimming class and got to be the coach's helper this past Saturday demonstrating for the new kids the strokes they were going to practice. He thought that was pretty cool.

Everybody into the pool!

Happy Halloween!

Last night was pumpkin carving night at our house. Christian did most of the "goo scooping" and then I carved the face to his specifications. He was adamant that we have a vampire pumpkin this year with fangs.

He was very happy with the finished product and he's uber excited to go to the neighbor's Halloween party tonight and then on to trick-or-treating. Looks like we're going to have decent weather too -- I'm very happy about that.

I also had to include this picture I took of Christian with his friend Will at a neighborhood Halloween festival we went to on Sunday. Christian knew exactly who this guy was when he saw him since they've been learning all about the election at school. And even thought Christian says he is voting for Barack Obama he still wanted to get his picture taken with John McCain. So, no matter who you decide to vote for, you still have to admit this picture is pretty funny!

Have a great Halloween and a great weekend!

School Picture Day!

Remember when you were a kid how excited you were for school picture day? Well, today is the day for Christian and he was ready and raring to go this morning. He didn't want to eat breakfast or even watch any cartoons. He just wanted to get dressed and get to school.

Last night we got all his clothes ready. I let him choose his own shirt, tie and belt. He was so proud of his handsome self! This kid loves to wear a shirt and tie! Shane kids him and calls him Alex P. Keaton!

I'm sure it won't last forever. Soon he'll be wearing ripped up baggy old jeans and a t-shirt and wanting to let his hair grow -- I'm just going to enjoy this phase while it lasts.

Happy Friday -- have a great weekend! :0)