Santa Brunch

Canton does a Santa Brunch at their community center early in the month of December. Our friends Phil and Danielle take their kids and asked us if we wanted to come along. We thought it would be fun and had my parents join us as well. Mia had fun watching all of the kids but didn't really enjoying seeing Santa ;) Oh well, there is always next year!

Mia and Kaylan . . .
So sad on Santa's lap :(

We are torturing her . . .

Family pic . . .

Pic with Grandma and Grandpa . . .

Our Christmas Tree

Our Christmas Tree is one of my absolute favorite things we own. I am not materialistic but if I had to say I had a prized possesion this would be it. Our tree itself is really nothing fancy. We got it half off the day after Christmas (the year before we got married). It is the ornaments and such that we put on our tree that I love the most. I have a impeccable memory for remembering where all of them came from. Many have come as gifts, some Roy and I got on vacations, and some were just day after Christmas purchases. I love our tree and truly enjoy admiring it for the short period of time it is is up.
Took this pic with no flash, thought it turned out kind of cool . . .

Thanksgiving

Some pics from our Thanksgiving celebration . . .

She wasn't too sure about Thanksgiving dinner . . .

Let's Go Red Wings

Roy's Auntie Donna got Mia this cute set of Red Wing mittens and a hat. We had a pretty mild fall so Mia hadn't worn mittens yet. In this first picture you can tell she wasn't too sure about them.

In this pic she hasn't figured out how to get her hat off with mittens on (she has since mastered this!) . . .

Looking cute :)

Loving the ads

I am not sure if everyone that reads this blog knows where I work or what to do. I work at a company called Valassis. They are a marketing services company but one of the things they do is print many of the ads that come in both the newspaper and the mail. I work in their print pricing department. The significance is that Mia loves playing with the ads and coupons that come in the newspaper and mail :)

Coloring

I know Mia isn't ready to color but I wanted to pull out some crayons and a coloring book and let her check it out. She held the crayons and rubbed them on the page a couple of times. She loves to empty out the crayon box and try to stuff the crayons back in. Even better is when there is only a few crayons in there and she can shake them in the box. You have to start somewhere :)

On a side note maybe you would like to learn a little bit about our house in these lovely pictures. Mia and I are sitting on our "vintage" kitchen floor. Circa 1980ish?? It is a beaut . . . think off white with mint green and peach (ah yes, the lovely mint green and peach combination). To say I (or really we) hate it is an understatement. We took the time when we bought this house (almost 8 years ago, we are getting old!!) to completely redo all the flooring and paint, we had to get rid of the 80's country decor. For some reason we have always wanted a new floor but just haven't done it. Maybe this will be the goal of '10 or maybe as past years we will find other things to do with our time and money :)

Funny Faces

Mia seems to have a million different expressions these days. Her vocabulary may be limited but she can tell us how she feels by what she does. This is by far one of my favorites. It is mostly used when she is surprised or startled. I have no idea where she learned it but I love it. I am sure as with all things she will grow out of it but it will always bring a smile to my face . . .

Questions to ask at the end of the day

Someone forwarded this to me and I thought it was a great reminder . . .

Questions to ask at the end of the day

• Did I spend enough time with my kids today?
• Did I have any eye-to-eye contact conversations with them?
• Did I slow down enough to enjoy them, or was my day too rushed?
• How have they changed from yesterday?
• Did I kiss my husband today?
• Did I treat him as my husband or as the hired help?
• What memories did I make for our family today?
• How can I do better tomorrow?

Each night, as I lay in bed, these questions run through my mind. Some days I am so pleased with the way my day turned out, that I smile myself to sleep. Other days, I pray that God will give me one more day to do better.

Even with the best intention, some days just get away from me and I forget what matters most. I forget that rewards in this life aren't based on how clean my kitchen is or how my hair looks. Most days, it takes a conscious effort to make me take my eyes off the to-do list and just enjoy my family.

My children won't be little forever.

I want a husband, not a roommate.

We are a family.

That is what's important at the end of the day.

Mia and I

I really like this random picture of Mia and I . . .

Party Time

We had Mia's first birthday party on Saturday, November 14. We held it at the Summit (Canton's community center).

I am posting some of my favorite pics over the next few posts. If you want to see all of the pictures we took go here . . . http://picasaweb.google.com/CrowdisFamily/MiaSBirthday?feat=directlink

Yummy pumpkin cupcakes . . .

Mia's smash cake . . .

Opening Gifts

I was surprised by how well Mia did at opening her gifts. She got right in there tearing wrapping paper and pulling out tissue paper. She even gave a lot of genuine expressions when she opened her gifts. She is such a ham, hard to believe a one year old can have such a personality!

Birthday Cake

Mia loved playing with her birthday cake but did not like the way it tasted. She did a pretty good job "smashing" it up.
Getting in the groove . . .

Job well done . . .

Had fun :)

Present Time

We decided to have Mia open her gifts from Roy and I the night of her actual birthday. Since she loves to pull things out of boxes, bins, bags,etc we put all of her gifts in one box and stuffed it with tissue paper. She had lots of fun (probably more fun than the gifts themselves) pulling the paper and gifts out.

Playing with her new mega blocks . . .

Their first of many cool creations . . .

Birthday Dinner

We decided to take Mia to Red Robin the evening of her birthday. We had burgers and Mia had ice cream :) We thought it would be fun to have them sing happy birthday and let her try her first taste of ice cream. She was pretty amazed when they sang to her and of course she loved ice cream.
The waitors singing to her . . .

Roy being artsy with the camera . . .

Happy Halloween

Mia did pretty good with her first Halloween. We put her in a ladybug costume and she didn't have any issues wearing it. My parents came over to help us pass out candy and we took Mia to a few of the houses right around us. She enjoyed socializing with the neighbors and really enjoyed coming back to the house to pass out candy.

Our friends the Pusilos live a couple of streets over so they came to trick-or-treat on our street. Dylan was a snowman (so cute!) and Kaylan a dog.

I carved Mia's first pumpkin. We hunted for patterns and found one on the Rock-a-bye-baby site (very cool lullaby CD's). A teddy bear with crossbones, very hip!

Boo Day

Every year Valassis does an event called boo day. Employees can bring their children in to trick or treat throughout the office.

They had an area set up where someone was taking photos . . .
Mia is hamming it up with my friend Maureen . . .

Waving to Maureen . . .

Hanging out at Mommy's cube . . .