A year late and a dollar short...

I finally finished up our 2102 in Review video:

2012 in Review from Kim Weinreb on Vimeo.

Playing catch up...

 So, I've either been lazy, have nothing good to blog about or just plain tired....or a little of all.

Here's what we've been up to:

For Valentines this year I made some cute little mailboxes for the kids.  Each day, beginning February 1st, I put a treat or gift with a little note telling them what I love about them.  It was fun to see their excitement each day.

We had a special Valentine's Dinner...I busted out a table cloth and plastic wine glasses.  That's right, pretty classy stuff goes on here.

 

 

 

 Abby's been playing Upward Basketball this winter and last week's game was the first that they've ever won!  Yay! 

Sam's school goes to a local assisted living center to play bingo with the residents.  Sam loves to go and hang out with his new friends.  This is Cleo and apparently, she just loves Sam and can't wait to see him each time the school goes.  He is a ladies man!

 

This past week has been Winter Break for Sam.  Wasn't school just out for 2 weeks for Christmas?  I'm tired of all the breaks!  Sam has actually been very good this week.  We've kept busy with appointments to the psychiatrist, eye doctor & PT.  We also decided to go bowling.  We got there and it was pretty packed.  Lots of leagues playing.  The lady working the counter said, "Well, I have only one lane open but it's with all the special needs adults."  I say, "No problem, we fit right in."  We had fun bowling and of course, Sam made friends with everyone there.

We are now in "prep mode" for our Disney World trip next weekend.  We leave Saturday, March 3rd and get back Sunday, March 11th.  This is only the 2nd time we've been to DW and the first time that we are staying in the park.  We are looking forward to a fun week filled with all things Disney, good weather and no cooking for Mom!

Christmas & New Year's 2011 re-cap

Man, Christmas was busy and fun this year....I am still trying to recover.

Once Thanksgiving was over, we got the house decorated for Christmas. It usually takes me the majority of the day but once it's up, I really enjoy having it. It was also fun to start listening to Christmas music. I typically need to wait until December 1st to play Christmas music because I feel we need to give November a break.

Here are a few photos of the decor:









We had planned on doing a smaller Christmas and spend most of our money on a trip. I secretly had been planning/reserving a trip to Disney World. I got a good deal..free dining plan! This will be the first time we've stayed on the property. I was mentally preparing and thinking of ways to tell the kids...a scavenger hunt sounded like the most fun.

I was able to get most of my shopping done early and online which was so convenient and easy. I really didn't want to be shopping after Thanksgiving. Now it was just a matter of time. We made it through the school parties and finally made it to Christmas break! We had a pretty quiet break but enjoyed the lack of driving and homework.

We did have one friend birthday party and they had a lot of fun activities...









We had a few "elf events," the biggest one being they moved our piano out of the piano room and into the office! What in the world were they up to? This is what we came home to one afternoon:



On Christmas Eve we had a family dinner & white elephant gift exchange at Greg & Kattia's house. We had turkey, stuffing, salad, sweet potato casserole and desserts. It was fun except for the fact that I wasn't feeling too good. The kids had fun playing together and were excited for the next day!





I still wasn't feeling great but we had a really fun Christmas morning. We had the kids do a scavenger hunt to figure out where we were going on our special trip. It took them a little while to figure it out but finally Abby got it. It was fun.



Santa left a very special gift for the family!!







After all the excitement here, we drove up to Todd's parent's house and had a wonderful day there. All the kids had fun opening gifts, eating and playing together. It truly was a great day.

This is the one photo I managed to take that day...what is wrong with me?!



The next morning I packed up the van and headed to the beach. Last year, I put my name down on the list of those who get to go to the beach with Gma & Gpa. As it turned out, Annie was due any minute and Gma & Gpa needed to stay in Atlanta and no one else wanted to go down. I had already planned for it and was going down either way. Like I say, a bad day at the beach is better than a good day in Douglasville. I really shouldn't have been driving since I was dizzy & had a headache but we made it and the kids were really good.




















We spent a fun, albeit sick, week at the beach. The kids pretty much did what they wanted to do. We watched a lot of TLC and Food Network! The pool was not heating so we did go to the indoor pool a couple of times, enjoyed eating at the Club, walked the beach, found a Great White shark tooth, rented a golf cart, got a massage, walked downtown & just enjoyed being away. I think we spent over a month's worth of my in-laws Club dues in that week..oops!


We decided to come home on New Year's Eve day so we could spend New Year's at home. After 6 hours of driving, I unloaded the car and spent the next few hours "de-Christmasing" our house. I was tired of looking at it! We did stay up til midnight, toasted with some sparking apple cider then went straight to bed. Luckily church didn't start until 12:30pm the next day so we were able to sleep in.

We all met up at Todd's parent's place again for a New Year's Day celebration. It is a southern custom to eat black-eyed peas and greens for good luck & prosperity so that's just what we did. The kids had fun playing and the adults had fun eating and chatting.








It was a wonderful Christmas and New Year and here's to a great 2012!

Week in Review

We've had a busy week. Often I think things will eventually will slow down but that doesn't seen to be the case.

For FHE on Monday, the kids & I took invites to the Atlanta Temple Open House around the neighborhood. We dropped off four of them to our neighbors and invited them to go. For more info, click here.




On Tuesday, I hosted a Visiting Teaching brunch for the sisters that Diana & I visit teach. We had Kristy, Marilyn & Brooke join us and we had fun. I had made some German pancakes and Alpine Muesli. Delish!

Newman also saw the vet on Tuesday, much to her dismay.

On Wednesday, we met with the Bishop to get recommends for the Atlanta Temple Dedication which will be on May 1st. This will be a first for me and I'm really excited to attend. Got to go get some white hankies!

On Thursday, the kids were bored & Sam had no privileges so they decided to put together a play. They make their costumes, props and even had sound effects, albeit a bit delayed.

On Friday, Abby's soccer practice was canceled due to severe weather so we went to dinner at Gumbeaux's then took Abby to a movie: Soul Surfer. She's been wanting to see it and it was fun to have a date night with just Abby. Sam went with Kristina and did the jumper at the mall then home to take shelter from the rain storm.

Saturday was busy too with Abby's soccer game, that had been delayed 2 hours due to the rain the night before but she did great and scored a goal. Todd then took the kids to a fundraiser of a place that houses men who are reforming drug addicts. They are a customer of his so they went out to Bremen for a BBQ lunch, games, jumpers and swings. They had a lot of fun. They also bought some plants at the fundraiser and planted them. I had a Stake Leadership training from 4:30-6:30pm then enjoyed Stake Conference. All the talks were centered on the family and it was good.

Sunday was Abby's piano recital and she's been practicing hard! Many thanks to G'ma Judy for the super sparkly dress. She looked amazing!

Pre-show

Enjoying the treats at the reception

Sam & Abby

It was a super busy week but lots of fun things to remember!