for a contest

Major Slacking!!!

wow I just realized it has been 5 months to the day sice I have posted on this blog. So Sorry!!!!! ok so a quick update for those that don't see me on a regular basis... I started working at Bella Baby Photography in june and I absolutely LOVE it!!!! It is seriously my dream job!!!! Since my last post I have turned 33 and have lost 66 lbs since the beginning of the year. I went from a sz 24 to a sz 18 which feels amazing, let me tell ya!!! here is an updated pic I took of myself last month....


I promise to try and update a little more often in the future!!

Happy Mommies Day everyone!!!

just wanted to wish all of my mommie friends a Happy Mother's Day

You Are My Sunshine!

This song pops into my head everytime I look into these gorgeous eyes! I mean seriously, how can you say no to that smile? I have a hard time too ;)

anyway Just wanted to show a quick pic of Lanie with her new smile. Now that her tooth is all fixed and after the root canal she is no longer in pain YAY!!!

What does the Tooth Fairy Give for a Root Canal???

not sure if anyone remembers when Lanie chipped her front tooth in December...




Well she ended up getting a cap in january and it has bugged her ever since... the past week and a half she has been complaining every day about the tooth and saying different things hurt it and I think she was pressing on it because it made her gum line red all around it.

Well anyway she has been afraid to go to the dentist ever since the first time we went to fix it in December so it was giving ME anxiety to even take her in to see him =( anyway I took her in yesterday and he basically told me she needed a root canal and I wanted to cry. So we went ahead and tried doing it without the laughing gas but she is just too nervous anymore... She was kicking and screaming and flopping around, so the gas she got! =( (I asked the dentist to give ME some of the gas! I was about to cry seeing her so afraid and in pain) once she took a few deep breathes of the gas things went very quickly and they finished it all up. She was freaked out about not being able to feel her lips and gums for the longest time but on the way home she wanted to stop and eat already so we went to Noodles. (her fave) By around 9pm she was running around laughing and I asked her if the tooth hurt anymore and she said with a smile, NOPE!!

I am so happy it does not bother her anymore but I think she is going to hate going to the dentist for the rest of her life and that makes me sad....

on a funny note: the other 3 kids had been sitting in the waiting room and they could hear her screaming so they were sad and frightened for her. Martie said she never wanted to go back to that dentist again and I so i told her the screaming wasn't Lanie, it was me looking at the bill.... it made everyone laugh including Lanie LOL

UPDATE: She is all smiles today and says she is so happy her tooth doesn't hurt anymore!

Finished Breaking Dawn and.....

LOVED IT!!!! I truly did love this series of books. Can't wait to figure out what I am going to read next!!

Pity Me!!

So I am still unable to use my right index finger since I slammed it in my car door on New Years Eve. Stupid pinched nerve! It is still numb on the right half of my finger but it is beginning to wear off because I am starting to feel pain on that side. whenever anything touches that side I get a sharp "pins and needles" type of feeling and it is driving me bonkers!!! I wish the numbness would go away! I'd rather just feel the actual pain from getting smashed rather than not being able to use it due to it still being numb... an entire month later even UGH!

Just Finished Chapter 11 of Breaking Dawn...

and I have to admit this book is starting to freak me out LOL

*Eclipse* Chapter 22. FIRE AND ICE

this has to be, by far, my favorite chapter of the Twilight series. I was giggling the entire time!!!

Speech Therapy for Zander

Today was Zander's first day having speech therapy. =) It went rather well for his first session. The theapist seems nice too. My only complaint is that it is "in home" therapy and I'd prefer it to be out of the home so I do not have to worry about having a spotless house all the time. Louis should like the fact that it is so much cleaner now though LOL So I guess I don't mind too much...

"Bride Wars" today...

and IMO it was just okay...

The beginning was cute as well as the end but IMO all the funny parts were shown in the trailers so there was nothing new to really laugh at.


Though I must say the theater was beautiful!!! And the ultra screen was sooo cool! would have been perfect to watch Batman, Dark Knight on!!!

"Marcus Theatres opened its new 70-foot-wide UltraScreen at the Orland Park Cinema last month in time for the holiday season. The Orland Park UltraScreen is a completely new 400-seat auditorium designed and built from the ground up as a state-of-the-art showcase for moviegoers in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park and the surrounding areas."

Twilight² & Margarita²

just saw this movie for the second time tonight with Lisa and I liked it SO much better this time!!! =) I wish I could find more time to read!!! I am only on Chapter 13 of Eclipse...


oh and I had 2 presidente margaritas at Chili's beforehand. YUM! ;)

It's not Broken!!! YAY!

My finger was still swollen today so I went to my doctor and had some x-rays taken and it is not broken thank goodness! I do, however, have a pinched nerve. So looking down at the top of my finger. it is numb from my knuckle to my finger tip only on the right side of my finger, the other side is just very sore and I can feel all the pain on that side. I have to say how annoying it is not to be able to feel anything on half my finger! Let alone the fact that i cannot yet use my right index finger!!! being as though I am right handed and all LOL

On to Eclipse =)

So i have to say these books have been somewhat easy for me to read! They keep my attention the entire time and while some parts drag a bit, it is more of a build up to the next exciting part rather than a bore so I am very excited i have made it this far!! I read it when ever I have time so I am hoping to finish at least this book up in the next 3 weeks since I am renting it and Breaking Dawn from the library. I only get to renew once so I need to hurry =)

Possible Broken Finger, Chinatown, Fireworks... New Years Eve, Oh What A Night!

Here I am, getting ready to head out to Chicago with the kids and Louis to see the New years Eve fireworks. It's 7pm, and I had not made dinner yet because we had a late lunch. Louis mentions he wants to head to Chinatown for dinner so I start to race to get the kids ready so we can head out the door by 8 o'clock. Of course the computer slows me down a bit and it's now 9pm when everyone is walking out the door. Excitement is building as I run out with Zander to get him buckled in his seat, thoughts racing through my head... did we bring everything? camera, check, tripod, check, 4 kids, check, sparkling grape juice, check, slam the sliding door on the mini van while reaching out to open the front passenger side door, CRUNCH! Silence! YEEEOWWWWWW! re-open the back sliding door to remove my now mangled finger, bend down holding mangled finger in other fist to hopefully stop pain, que the screaming and crying.... followed by bellows above me from the girls also crying hoping I am ok.

I seriously thought I had broken my finger and was half expecting it to just be hanging there by a thread of skin. It wasn't thank GOD! Louis got out of the van and took me inside to get me some advil and to rinse my finger with water and peroxide and bandage me up. We don't really keep splints on hand so we grabbed the closest possible thing. a baby spoon heehee I must say while it looked ridiculous he really did a great job of taking care of me in my time of need!


As soon as I was all fixed up we headed out to Chinatown where the food was VERY yummy!

Afterward we drove around to see where some good parking spots were and found our favorite spot by the Planetarium closed off =(

We drove around a while longer and found a really good parking spot around 11:30pm which surprised us.


here is Lanie and Martie sitting out of our moon roof, Zander on Louis' lap looking for the fireworks and Wes was getting ready to come with me to set up the tripod for fireworks shots =)

 


at midnight we drank some sparkling grape juice out of tiny Ed Debevic's Sundae glasses
  


mine was waiting on the dashboard...
 


a long exposure pic to show where i set up the tripod (probably a little too close to the traffic, especially being New year's eve and all...


and the FIREWORKS!!!!



  
  
 


Some more long exposure shots of the Wrigley Building aound 1:45am to show how busy it is on New Years Eve.
Check out the helicopter path in the second one...
 

Light Show @ The Prominade

We have gone to see this light show at the mall the past few years since the mall opened and the kids just love it. Lanie took her camera to video record it. It is a little on the darker side since I didn't mess with the camera setting to lighten it up a bit but you get the idea... LOL


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Fixed and Broke Again...

We took Lanie today to get her tooth fixed (they just glued her tooth back on) and while I am sure we will be broke from the bill we get LOL that is not what I meant! She came home and bit into a corndog and it broke off again. Nice, eh? She goes back on Thursday the 8th to get it fixed yet again.

here is the pic i took before it broke back off... compare the my last post (which ironically is how she looks again now LOL)

Missing ½ a Tooth...

you read it right! Lanie is only missing half a tooth.
And of course it had to be her top front Adult tooth =(
She was over Aunt Paula's house getting ready to make cookies. While Shelby was making the cookie dough Lanie was messing with her necklace (an elastic necklace with a large bead hanging on it) Well she pulled the necklace out and let it go to see it spring back and it chipped her tooth. They called right away to let me know what had happened and I sent louis to go pick her up.

I thought it looked bad but she wasn't complaining much. When I took her to the dentist today he noticed a pin sized nerve that was exposed. So he got that fixed up. He had to drill and then seal the hole but he did not fix the tooth yet. He wants to make sure it looks ok (and hope she doesn't need a root canal) in a week and then he will try to re-attach the broken part of the tooth.

So here is a pic of my cutie missing half a tooth =(

Chicago @ Christmastime....

I LOVE Chicago
during Christmastime!!
I usually get
more pictures
but it was a
last minute trip
to Chinatown with
Louis and he doen't
like waiting while
I take pictures so
this is it folks...
And I guess Louis
was sweet enough
to take me to
Chinatown in the
first place to get
some fried rice and
pot stickers YUM!



not to mention it was
1:00am (see the clock?)
LOL and below zero brrrr

O' Christmas Tree

We have gone every year to cut down our Christmas tree since Wes was 2 years old (he is now 12).

Zander wanted this one...

Lanie wanted this one LOL

Martie wanted this one

Wes wanted this one

But we all decided on this one (I think it is called a concolor fir?)

and they all took turns sawing it down =)

even Zander LOL