Big Bad Storm!

The Big Bad Weatherman is predicting a horrible storm through the mid-west! This puts a big, fat ? in our Christmas plans!! :(

I guess we'll just go with the flow and take things slow. I am not going to let the weather ruin our Christmas spirit! We will have fun no matter where we end up! :)

I found this cute little poem online! I wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Please travel safe and enjoy the time with your family & friends!

The best gift at Christmas is easy to see

Its not wrapped in paper or under the tree

'Cause the best gift at Christmas and all the year through

Is having friends & family as special as you!

Christmas Program

Yesterday was Bryce's Christmas program at school! This was actually our first Christmas program b/c last year it got snowed out! They all looked so cute and had so much fun singing for us! What a great day!!

I'll only post a couple of the songs! I don't want to bore you! Bryce is the 2nd from the left in the front row! This one is "Must be Santa". I think the choreography is soooo cute!!! :)

This one is "Down in the Manger". I LOVE Bryce's expression when he sings the part "Ho HO HO, who wouldn't go". Too funny!

Lastly, I just wanted to show you the kids favorite prayer they say before snack time! It's a Superman prayer!! :)

Early Christmas Gifts

When I walked into daycare last night to pick up the kids, I heard Bryce's VERY EXCITED voice telling me that he has a surprise for me in his backpack! It's a present and HE gets to decide when I get to open it. Maybe he'll let me open it tonight or maybe he'll have me wait until Christmas! But, HE is in charge and HE makes the rules about opening it! He was so excited and proud! It was adorable!

He could hardly wait for us to get home! He wanted me to open it as soon as we parked the van in the garage!

Ahhhhhhh!! What a precious little angel! They took these pictures at preschool in front of the manger background! How sweet and special! I was so happy!

He also made me this really nice coaster (sorry about the glare)! Those are his finger prints that make the tree! I LOVE it! I am sure these will be the best and most special gifts I get this year! I LOVE the sweet little presents from my kids and how PROUD they are to be giving them to us!!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Bryce was SOOOO excited to go see Santa this year! He couldn't wait to talk with Santa about his elf and tell him he wants a DS. Jenna, on the other hand, wasn't thrilled about sitting on Santa's lap! In fact, she was down right TICKED OFF!!

I felt mean making her sit there, but I really wanted a picture of her screaming on Santa's lap!! haha! It will be fun to show her someday!

Oooooookkkkkkk! She's had enough! Poor girl! I tried to give her a pep talk while we were waiting in line. "Jenna, do you see that little girl sitting on Santa's lap? Do you want to sit on Santa's lap?" "Nooooo" "But Santa will give you presents if you sit on his lap! See how nice Santa is to the little girl sitting on his lap? Do you want to sit in Santa's lap?" "NOOOOOOOO" haha! I tried! It obviously didn't work! Maybe next year!

Bryce was so cute and sweet talking to Santa. Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas and Bryce said "a DS"! Santa said, "Anything else?". Bryce said, "My sister wants a Dora house!!" Ohhhh - he's so sweet!! Jenna will be soo thankful to him when she opens her presents!! Bryce then told Santa "I have an elf!! He was sitting on our candle today!" I don't think Santa understood half of what he said, but it was really cute!

HO HO HO! Christmas is only 10 days away!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Santa Got Scammed!!!!

That's right... Santa got scammed on eBay this year!!! I bought a Mario Kart DS game for Bryce (shhhhh.... don't tell!). The posting said "New Authentic Mario Kart DS Game". I won the auction for $33. It had free shipping. The game is $35 in stores, but add tax on there, and I figured I was saving $5. Not a lot, but hey, I like shopping on eBay and other online stores! So I went for it.

The game arrived on Wednesday! I was excited for the kids to go to bed so I could open it. I took a quick look at it before taking it to the secret present hiding place! It looked good. It did not have shrink wrap on it though and I thought that was weird since the auction said it was "new". Then I noticed the manual inside had HORRIBLE print quality. I was shocked to see such poor quality stuff from Nintendo. It triggered something in my head that said "I don't think this is right".... but I hid it downstairs and went on with my evening.

Thursday, 2 other DS games arrived from Walmart. They had a 2 for $30 special going on. After looking at those games.... which were shrink-wrapped and in a completely different style of case, I really started to wonder! I googled "Fake Mario Kart DS". The first link that comes up is something someone posted on ebay about how to spot pirated copies of Mario Kart DS in eBay auctions. Hmmmmm... this info sure would have been nice to have before hand! I had no idea pirating DS games was such a huge market!

After checking out how to spot a pirated version... I was saddened to find out my copy is, in fact, a pirated copy! ROAR! Santa is ticked off and sad!!! Especially since I paid practically full price for it!

See how the top cartridge has the black & white checkers and no picture of Mario in his car? The bottom, FAKE, one has an exact replica of the cover - with Mario in his car. Yep - mine is the bottom one.

The top case includes a few booklets, including one with instructions on how to play the game with WiFi. The bottom one.... which I have is a low quality, crappy replica of the manual!

There are quite a few other things to look at and compare. If you are ordering DS games on eBay, I suggest doing a google search, or contact me and I can send you think link!

I contacted the seller this morning and told him I was extremely upset that I was sent a pirated version of the game and wanted a full refund. His auction stated that refunds are not given, only exchanges. When I bought it, I didn't think that was a big deal b/c I saw no reason I would need to return. Until now!! I told the guy I was going to report him to ebay for selling pirated games. He responded and offered a full refund, but says the game was "new". Funny how he mentioned NOTHING of the pirating issue.

Now I need to research how this all works... do I send it back prior to my money being refunded? Do I report him to ebay? What if he refuses to pay me the money back after I report him? Do I just file the claim through paypal? I need to figure out how to move forward. Let me know if any of you have experience with eBay returns!

I guess the moral of the story is to be careful with your purchases! This is the first time I've been scammed as a buyer on ebay. :( So sad it was a Christmas present for my little guy!!! Oh well - I'll head to one of the big box stores to buy a REAL copy!

Have a good weekend!

Favorite Things...

One of my FAVORITE THINGS is pictures! I'm sure you already know that. But I Love, Love, Love going to get professional pictures taken of my kiddos! Love it! It's that tine of year... time to get the perfect Holiday picture for your Christmas cards!

This is my Christmas picture from last year.... awww! So cute! They did such a great job!

This year I had a 50% off coupon for JCPenney's, so off we went! Christmas time at the photography studio is always CHAOTIC! It's crowded, the wait is long, it's just plain crazy! Cory walked around with the kids to keep them happy while we waited for our turn.

We were called into the studio and Bryce walks over like a pro to sit on the nice chocolate background. Jenna.... she was clinging to me like you wouldn't believe! She wanted NOTHING to do with taking pictures! She cried and screamed everytime I put her down. (And if you know Jenna, you know her scream is NOT a quiet one!!!) She did her little "I-Am-Not-Happy-Dance". You know the one.... it looks as though she's doing a footspeed drill during High School basketball practice - Throw in some flailing arms and you get the picture!! :) We got out pretty chairs for her to sit in, sparkly ornaments to hold, nice teddy bears to cuddle... you name it, we tried to get her to sit there! Oh - and I should mention we were in an ALL GLASS room, so the whole studio AND all of the people shopping in the store could stare at us through the windows! Grrrrreat! There was also no door, so they could hear what was going on as well!

I felt anger & frustration rushing through my blood as I fought with Jenna to get her to sit down in front of the camera. I was ready to throw a tantrum myself!! Like I said.... this is my favorite thing! I wasn't going to let it go easily! I could see Cory giving me "the look", telling me not to act like a 2 year old. I took a couple deep breaths.

The photographer was horrible and everytime she looked at Jenna, Jenna would get more scared and hide her head against me. Granted... Jenna was NOT cooperating, but you would think the lady could have gotten out some squeaky toys or started doing funny things to make Jenna laugh. Nope. She sat there with the camera and just waited. Rooooaaaarrrrr!!

Eventually, we got this.....

You can just SEE the excitement on Jenna's face! It's an expression of annoyance, worry and horror all at the same time! Can you see the out-of-place, non-matching brown throw weirdly positioned in the background? Well, that's me. In order to get Jenna to sit ANYWHERE near the vicinity of where the camera would point, I had to hide under that blanket so she could sit on me. I'm sure you can sense how thrilled I was about that! The weird, non-matching, lumpy background just doesn't do it for me. BUT - at least we got a picture with both of them in there. ha!

Here's a close up of her face....

Next she had them lay down. Great concept and some amazing pictures are shot this way.... but Jenna took the opportunity to push her brother's face away! Now THAT would be a great Christmas card - right?

After about 20 minutes of this non-sense, I decided, with sweat dripping down my face, that it just wasn't going to happen this year!! The photographer seemed shocked that I wanted to stop b/c we hadn't really gotten very many shots. I had decided to give in. Cory's "look" got to me and I realized no matter how hard I tried, it just wasn't happening. I decided I would just have to take some pictures at home for my card this year. Or at least try!

I ordered a couple poses just to remember "the moment"! haha! Looking back, it's already humorous and these kind of pictures make for great memories!

By the way... I did get some really cute shots at home and my Christmas cards are ordered! Yay!

Just a little pinch!

"Just a little pinch..." - that is what my childhood dentist always used to say to me right before he gave me a shot of Novocaine!!! And for years, I really thought it was a little pinch! ha!

Bryce went to the dentist last week for the first time. He did SOOOOOOOOOOO good!

Cory said Bryce sat so still and was such a good boy! He does have one cavity. :( I feel so bad. Our dentist referred us to a Pediatric Dentist to have the cavity filled, that way they can give him laughing gas. I'll keep you updated on how THAT goes!! :)

Cupcakes.... Gobble Gobble!!

Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend! We enjoyed celebrating the holiday with all of our family!

My Grandma recently got a really neat cupcake book for her birthday. It has tons of pictures & ideas on how to decorate cupcakes. For those of you that don't know my Grandma, she has been a cake baker & decorator for YEARS! I will dedicate a future post to her cakes! Next time I'm at my Mom's I will try to dig out some pictures of the cakes she's made for my sister and I over the years! She's really quite amazing!

Anyways, my Grandma and my cousin Mary decorated these cupcakes for Bryce & Jenna! They are so cute!

Notice each of them even has the right eye color! How cute!! Bryce & Jenna really liked them a lot!

Ohhh - there's your typical picture of Jenna! She's not a poser in front of a crowd! She loved the cupcake, just not the attention!! :) haha! Someday she is going to wonder why she's crying in 1/2 of the pictures in her baby book! :)