Days with the Dorans

I was so excited that our friends, the Stewarts, were able to come to town to ring in the new year with us!  For some reason (I think illness and then work) we have missed out on this tradition the last two years.  We hadn't even met Ivy (the newest Stewart) who is ABSOLUTELY adorable!  I seriously wanted to eat her up she was so cute and I'm bummed I didn't have more picture of her (they were all a blur as she was often on the move with those bouncy curls of hers, laughing at the dogs).  Zoe too had fun and had grown so much since I saw her last! Jeff made his yummy chicken nachos and we had (too many) munchies and some beverages.  Of course we also played some games.  We like the game Left, Right, Center.  We actually had two rounds of games where no one won so it was a pretty big pot (meaning a few bucks).  Then Courtney won one game and I won another.  Ali was pretty funny and came pretty close both times to winning.  Goosie ...

 I can't believe that Ali is nine (but then... she's been counting down her birthday for over a month now...).  When she woke up, Jeffy made her pancakes and then we opened presents.  She was excited about her gifts.  The shirt I got her (that Sarah Miller told me about a while back) was perfect and she spent all morning tapping on her tap board.  I hit the treadmill (can you believe I am jogging now??) and then we were off to lunch with the family. My dad wanted to start a new tradition of going to Hamtramck for Al's birthday (like we used to for mine), but the place was PACKED (it was on a Saturday) so we went somewhere around Dan and Steph's.  I think the kids would have preferred the pizza they had to Polish food.  Dan and Steph picked up a cake and we had a little celebration at their place.  When we got home, we played (made bracelets, danced and had a movie night). The next day was Al's birthday party with friends.  She opte...

We had a nice warm (34 degree) day earlier in the week.  Jeff took the kids over to my folks to go sledding while I stayed home to paint.  Ali wanted to do a 'Painting with a Twist" type birthday and I thought instead of going there, we could do it right at our house and I could teach the girls something to paint.  She wanted to do a flower so I painted the pink daisy (so that I could teach them how to do one).  It took so little time that I decided to play around and paint a tree.  It was fun and as I went I just played.  I decided it needed some kind of color so added a little cardinal.  I'm really excited about my new paints and can't wait to spend more time "playing."  As for the kids, they had fun playing too.  Because the weather was warmer, they didn't go on the ice (they didn't want to mess it up) so they went sledding.  My mom was able to get out and snap a few pictures.  My dad said the funniest part was when ...

I actually knew Santa came before the kids did... At about 3 in the morning Jeff and I heard Pele' barking downstairs.  It was a bit annoying and we figured that he wanted to go out.  Jeff went down and noticed that Pele' was barking at the mantel where Santa had left treats for him and Cobi.  Pele' also opened one of Al's presents!  Needless to say, he carried him back upstairs and we all went back to bed.  Not for long though... soon we heard, WAKE UP! WAKE UP!  HE'S BEEN HERE!  I asked Jeff what time it was (I can't see without glasses) and he replied, "5:51."  I suggested we have them wait until 6:30 but he said, "Come on Laura... it's Christmas!"  And he was right, so Sean and I (both half awake) followed the others downstairs.  They opened stockings first with the best treat being notes from Artie (our elf).  They were so sad to see him go, but the farewell notes he always leaves helps.  There were lots of pres...

 The only problem with my birthday (now that I'm not a kid) is that there is so much going on.  I was up on the 23rd until (gulp) 4:30am working on something for one of the kids so I left a note to Jeff to please let me sleep in (no breakfast in bed~ which because I married an amazing guy is something that I get quite regularly).  When I did wake up and make my way downstairs I was greeted by everyone and there were lots of presents just for me!  Joe jumped right on the piano and started playing, "Happy Birthday to you!" which was just about the sweetest thing ever and one of my favorite presents!  Jeff did a great job too.  I got some lamps for our living room (very much needed), some clothes and a toilet seat (I know that sounds funny but with Seany potty trained we don't need the seat that had the built in kid seat anymore).  The only problem is he got a round seat instead of an oval (you'd think he'd spent enough time in there to know the s...