Saturday Musings

It's been a fairly crazy week for me so I don't have a ton to share. I spent a day in Charlotte, NC for a work meeting which was interesting. It's been awhile since I've been to Charlotte and I had yet to see the Wells Fargo facility downtown. So, it was nice to check it out again. Charlotte is definitely where I think our family might want to land eventually. I can stay with the company, get us back to the East Coast, and be closer to SAMI, my mom and my dad. Good all around!

After I returned, we got quite a bit of snow here in St. Louis which was nice for about two seconds. Now its just messy!!!!  Worst of all, it's been soooo cold here - as low as ZERO degrees today. I'm already sick of winter and its not even mid-January. The cold winters are one thing I cannot stand about St. Louis and I love winter!!! I just can't take the cold - maybe I'm getting old!

Work itself has been crazy - I have three high profile projects that are all gearing up at the same time, making me a busy Project Manager!  By yesterday, I was so exhausted and in need of some relaxation. So, I've been trying to do just that - RELAX! Reading, hanging with the kids, getting some design work done. Anything but working. Well, that's not true since I'm still fielding emails about a presentation we have to have ready for one of my projects by 8 a.m. on Monday. But, overall, I'm trying to limit the working.

That's really all that I have to report. It's been busy and chaotic. I haven't taken any photos this week - just haven't had time or the inclination to do it. I'll try and do better with that next week!

I'll leave you with a few new layouts from recent weeks ...

 

Christmas Musings

And it began ... the kids eagerly woke us up at just before 8 a.m. (we actually got to sleep in a tiny bit) eager to get downstairs and open those presents around the tree!

 

Alex has been asking for this Toy Story playset for AGES! And he LOVES it, carries it around with him everywhere he goes, playing with it almost all the time! 

 

Meighan received a lot of artsy stuff including coloring books, activity books and learning books to practice writing in. She's a crafty girl!

 

And, Santa must have gotten wind of Alex's obsession with Transformers - he got the Bumble Bee Voice Mixer Mask and  Blaster. Grandma and Grandpa also got him a HUGE Optimus Prime which he's been wanting for weeks! He was a happy, happy boy!

 

 Lots of dress up clothes for Meighan! She loves to dress up. Last night, while watching Hannah Montana (yess, I know she's only 4 but she's in love with Hannah and I figure it could be worse ...), she turned to us (all decked out in her dress up clothes) and asked us if she was as beautiful as Hannah Montana!

 

 And Meighan unwrapped a HUGE doll (almost as big as her) with her very own dress up clothes!

 

Pop Pop and Nina sent gifts for the kiddos - here is Alex with his BumbleBee Transformer - he carries this around with him as well, transforming it from Bumble Bee to the car over and over and over. Thank you, Pop Pop, Nina and Elizabeth! We love you and miss you very much!

 

And here is Meighan's gift from Pop Pop and Nina - a cute little dollhouse for a special kind of mini Barbie doll. This was a HUGE hit! In fact, today, we were at the dentist to get Meighan's filling fixed (she did GREAT by the way! Not one tear despite having to have a shot in her gum for the drilling) and he asked her what her favorite present was at Christmas. She immediately told him all about this dollhouse!

 

Here's Alex with the Optimus Prime I mentioned earlier - he will not sleep if its not on the shelf above his bed!

 

Grandma and Grandpa also gave Meighan these two Barbie doll heads - you can do their hair and makeup. Well, Meighan has been obessed with them from the moment she laid eyes on them!

 

This was our only not so great moment - Meighan opened a game that Mommy suggested that Grandma and Grandpa buy her - and she got upset, saying it wasn't on her list. LOL I had to explain to her that sometimes people buy us other things not on our list because they think we'll like them. She soon got over it and now this is one of her and Alex's favorite games to play together.

 

Santa must have seen Pop Pop and Nina's gift because he brought Meighan some of the little Barbie dolls to play with in her new dollhouse!

 

Mom and Dave (and the kids) bought Paul this beautiful dragon this summer and gave it to him for Christmas. He immediately placed it with his other dragons in the office!

 

My mom, the queen of knitting, made Meighan this cute little poncho. First of all, is that not the best color EVER?!?! Also, its just adorable on her!

 

And Mom made this cute little sweater for Alex - it's so adorable! I'll get some photos of him in it soon!

 

Ahhh, the gift that keeps on giving. Meighan LOVES the movie Enchanted. We've rented it from the library several times but Grandma and Grandpa got her a copy of her very own!

 

Grandpa's checking out Meighan's new dress up clothes ...

 

Stocking time!

 

Alex immediately got to work getting his Toy Story play set all set up!

 

Mom checking out the photo book the kids made for her ...

 

Paul got a dragon and I got a .... PIG! It's so beautiful. This photo doesn't begin to do it justice!

 

Part of Meighan's haul!

 

And, miracles of all Miracles - it SNOWED in St. Louis on Christmas day! Not much but enough to make it feel like a White Christmas!

 

Alex loves the Hungry Hungry Hippo game ...

 

If you look closely, you can actually see SNOW!

 

Our helper Meighan giving Grandma a hand in the kitchen, peeling hard boiled eggs!

 

We spent most of the day just relaxing, hanging out, watching Christmas movies and playing with our toys! A nice quiet day! Eventually the kids begged Paul to take them out in the snow (me and Grandma opted to stayed in because it was FREEZING out there) but I did get one decent photo of Alex, all bundled up!

 

We had a great holiday and I hope that you did as well!

Last Reminder - Design Blog Has Moved

Just one last reminder that my digital designs blog (Designs by Amy Melniczenko) has moved to a new home - HERE!  Be sure to check it out and follow me if you'd like. I plan to have coupons, specials, freebies, etc just for my blog readers! So, don't miss out! In case you don't know, I'm officially a full-time designer at Funky Playground Designs rather than just a guest, so I have a lot of great things in the works in the digital design arena! So, consider following me over there - just hit the subscribe button on the sidebar - so you'll get all the info quickly and easily! Thanks so much to all of you who have been so supportive of my little design venture!

December 2009

As I think I've mentioned a couple of times now, being so sick in early December really got me off track in terms of getting things ready for the holidays. We never even got around to decorating the darn gingerbread house! Ugggh. Okay, onto what we DID do.

We trimmed the tree, with our sweet little guys helping out in earnest. They were both totally excited to be helping! By the way, many of the photos of Alex make him look so silly! He's in a place right now that every photo ends up being a silly face because he starts making those silly faces the moment that the camera appears! It drives me crazy but it is what it is ...

 

 

 

 

 

As we trimmed the tree, we all had 'champagne' (AKA Sparkling Grape Juice) in fancy (AKA plastic) glasses! The kids, okay - Meighan, thought it was the coolest thing EVER! Alex just said I don't really like that kind of juice, Mommy! LOL  Meighan walked around like a grown up all evening, drinking her 'champagne.'

 

And these are the holiday advent calendars that we used all month long. The kids loved getting their candy out of each day's drawer and I like how it helped them see how far Christmas was so that they weren't asking me 400 times a day when Santa was coming to visit. So, it was a big hit! 

 

 

 When I asked the kids to show me their favorite ornaments for the tree, they showed me these - Spider-Man and the Princesses. Both happen to be gifts from Grandma and Grandpa from last Christmas! They immediately wanted to put them on the tree all by themselves!

 

 

 

 

They did a great job helping out. Although we did have to go back and do a slight bit of rearranging to make the tree balanced, they did a great job overall.

Again, here's Alex doing something silly!

 

The final result - not a great photo but it will do!

 

Grandma and Grandpa braved the snow in VA and W. VA to come visit us the week of Christmas. They arrived Wednesday afternoon. The kids were over the moon to see them (and Bandit).  First things first, the kids opened their Christmas 2009 ornaments which were both a big hit!

 

 

 

 

 We were a little late but we finally got around to doing the craft project that we'd planned to do as holiday gifts for family and friends. The kids had a blast creating some pretty sun catchers for everyone! (By the way, if you haven't received one yet, don't worry - I've yet to mail then - BAD MOMMY! They'll be coming soon.)

 

 

 

Here are a few the kids made for Stephanie, Elizabeth, Grandpa, Mom Mom, and Mimi -

 

And another for Mimi, one for Grandma, one for Sami, and one for Nina!

 

And there are more but I didn't get photos of all of them LOL But, they turned out um, interesting! Just what you'd expect from two 4 year olds. Mommy helped when they allowed it so some are a bit more traditional lol

Grandma also let them open one Christmas Eve gift - a beautiful new copy of The Night Before Christmas! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!

 

 And then it was time for CHRISTMAS PAJAMAS! Our annual tradition!Again, not sure what Alex is looking at but he certainly looks silly! Meighan LOVED her Princess flannel pajamas and immediately put them on. Alex liked the Sponge Bob fleece pajamas once we were able to convince him to put them on.

 

 

 

 

Meighan spends A LOT of time writing these days. In and on anything she can get her hands on. She wants to be able to write words SO bad! So, we write words out for her so she can practice her letters. Here she borrowed Grandma's notebook to make a few notes!

 

My mom made this adorable hat for Meighan with all these ribbons - isn't she darling?

 

 

And here we are - the Ladies! This is the ONLY photo of me from Christmas and its NOT a good one but I figured I should share so you know that I'm still here! Even if I look terrible, I love this photo of me and two of my favorite ladies. If only Sami had been there ... then it would have been PERFECT! (We miss you, Sam!!)

 

 

And that takes us through Christmas Eve ... more to come with lots of Christmas morning photos!