{insta-friday....12/30}

here's another installment of instafriday.  all these pics were taken with an iPhone and either left alone, edited in instagram or taken with the hipstamatic app.  i did not take a ton of pics this week.  mostly because i must be sick and secondly because i got a cool new app that won't let you see the pics until you finish the "roll".  :)

ian had a follow up appt for his ears. his tubes look great and his hearing is back to NORMAL! yay!!!!

balsam's last place was on top of the tree. we haven't had an actual tree topper in years so he likes to hang out up there.

on christmas eve the kids were with their dad so lisa and i had a wrapping party earlier than midnight. :)

i tried on bailey's hat....

santa came....

christmas morning was nice and quiet until the kids came home. :)

the kids loved that balsam left them a friend to love all year long.

these were fun photos i took of chinese food type boxes i used to wrap gifts with my dslr and then pulled onto my phone and ran through instagram....

nailpolish bokeh.

this is a cool new app. it's called disposable. it's by the hipstamatic peeps. you have to take all 24 pictures on the roll before you can see them. then i believe you can download them or have the prints sent right to your house. {for extra $$$$}

this is me {about 1 million pounds ago a few years ago}

and me now. wearing my new pink chapstick that makes me feel like i'm 15 again. :)

{how people have found me}

i love checking the stats on my blog and with the year coming to a close it thought it would be fun to do a post with some statistics if you will about my little corner of the internet.  :)

i love checking out what country people are visiting from. apparently this week someone in Slovakia found me. Hi Slovakia!!!! i've also had visitors from United States, Russia, France, Brazil, Latvia, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, Slovakia & Thailand this week.

my all time most popular post is {the engagement story...aka the 100th post!}  with 68 views. 

the next most popular post is my {10 on 10 : december} with 51 views.

i've gotten the most traffic from my wonderfully talented friend {misti}'s blog.  we did a photo challenge together.  :)

probably my most favorite stat to look at is the "search keywords".  this i'm assuming is what people have typed into a search engine that has brought them to my blog. 

please mommy no more daddies - 8 {makes sense...it's the title}

pleasemommynomoredaddies.blogspot.com - 7 {again, makes sense}

pleasemommynomoredaddies - 5  {last time, makes sense}

and the water was soooooooo - 2 {i'm guessing this came up to my post about hurricane irene...but who searches that??} 

fun before the - 2  {storm!  hurricane irene again}

says that this was taken on - 2 {i have no idea}

target vig night - 2 {swansea's vig night!}

"cupcake charlie's" and "funfetti" - 1 {and cause i'm a fat kid}

so yeah.  i've been blogging since 6/1/2011.  i love it.  i think i'm bad at it, but i love it.  my very first post was in 9/2010 but that doesn't count.  especially since i didn't blog again until 6/1/2011.  i've also posted 229 published blog posts.  that's awesome!!!!

but anywho, if you're a reader, comment already!  i love to know who reads and what you all think.  :)

i hope everyone has a fantastic New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

{a picture from the month i started blogging}

{christmas ornament of 2011}

lisa and i have a tradition of buying the kids {at least} one new ornament a year.  i also have had a tradition of making ornaments with the kids to give away as gifts.  you know the little ones you glue together or the wooden ones that you paint.  well this year i got a fantastic idea from my wonderfully talented friend {Jude}.  i want to make one of these each year to document how big they get.

so off to the craft store i went.  i got a pack of six plastic glass bulbs on clearance at michael's.  i was going to fill them with tissue paper but while walking around at work i saw this very pretty sparkly fake snow.  lisa and i filled them one night while the kids weren't home.  it was fun interesting.  ;)

then a few days later i busted out the brownish sharpie and went to it.  i learned a few things.  sharpies will stick to shiny slippery glass.  thankfully.  but it will also smudge and sometimes it will cluster together oddly on the glass.  whatevs.  i got each kids fingerprint reindeer on each bulb.  success.  then one night after work i put the antlers, noses, eyes and names on.  i liked the closed eye look for the girls.  i thought it was cute and girly.  on the ornaments i gifted, i made one kid "rudolph" with a red nose.  on our ornament for home, they were all rudolph.  i finished them with the year and a pretty black lace ribbon. 

here are the pics...some of them really aren't in focus but you get the idea. lol. also, you'll see on chloe's how the sharpie kind of pooled together. next year i'm going to do a matte kind of surface.

lisa and i love them and they were a big hit with the people that received them. :)

linking up with get your craft on tuesday!

{our christmas day}

i can't believe that christmas is over.  the whole month leads up to just a few measly hours and then it's gone.  there is something special about christmas.  it's a feeling in the air.  a feeling in our hearts.  it's the time of year where {hopefully} we are thinking of others and not ourselves. 

our christmas day was one word.  perfect.  i slept until 9am.  something i don't think i've ever ever done on christmas before but since the kids were with their dad, lisa and i got to sleep in.  it was heavenly.  we woke up and had a nice breakfast in front of the tree.  we watched a hockey special.  which was perfect for lisa i'm sure.  :)  it was a documentary type show and was very interesting.

at 11am i went and got the kids.  they had already had a great day with john, jess, will and conner and they were all in good moods.   always a plus.  ;)  we came home and started opening santa presents.  we took our time.  we watched each person open their gift and we {lisa and i at least} enjoyed it.  the kids loved all of their gifts.  the big hits seemed to be the dress up clothes that santa brought the smaller kids and the squinky house that lisa and i got them.  bailey loved his tech deck stuff and his skateboard.

then lisa opened her gifts.  we had a budget of what we were supposed to spend on each other this year.  i did go over budget a little bit.  but not anything crazy.  she had said that she had gone over too.  no biggie.  so lisa had opened all of her things and then i gave her the best one.  i had got her the full 60 to history book about the bruins winning the stanley cup last year.  i was so proud of myself.  it was the perfect gift.  i even prefaced it by telling her days before that i didn't get her anything bruins.  well, then i opened my gifts from lisa.  the best one, an iMac.  yup.  she didn't go a little over budget, she went waaaaaaaaay over budget.  not that i'm complaining.  i love it!  i couldn't be happier.  :)  but what a brat right?!  at least in my favor she's kind of set the standard a bit high on her end and my birthday is coming up.  i kid.  i kid.  {maybe}.

after presents were all open we hung out for a bit and then we had lunch.  after lunch the kids took a nap.  yes we are meanies that made them nap on christmas day.  but, it also meant that we got to nap.  :)  i napped on the couch and fell asleep watching The Goonies.  lisa's all time favorite movie and one of mine as well.

after our naps, we headed over to lisa's mom's house for dinner and presents.  it was a lovely time.  chloe's pillow pet, ian's bus, izz's zoo and bay's nike clothes were the big hits.  lisa was most excited about some dish washing accessories and our new vacuum.  she's quite domesticated now.  :)

when we got home, i threw tucked everyone into bed and opened my iMac.  is it just me or do Apple products have a certain smell to them?  it's like your favorite smell from childhood.  it brings you right back.  the Apple smell brings me straight back to my first iPhone and how excited i was. 

all in all it was a fantastic christmas.  i can't wait until next year!  {except i can cause time goes by waaaaaaaay too fast}.

here are a few pics from my iPhone. i did take pics of the kids opening presents with my "real" camera but with the computer switch, they aren't available right now.

pre-chaos...

balsam, our scout elf left the kids a present. it's a stuffed elf that they can hug and squeeze and fight over until next year when balsam comes back.

isn't it pretty????!

the 75% off halloween costumes dress up clothes santa brought were a big hit!

yes i got feety pajamas from chloe. yes i rocked them all day.

bailey loved his skate park and even let the little ones try it too.

and one of me and my love. {apparently i was harnessing my inner fish?}

i hope you all had a terrifically wonderfully splendid day. :)

{merry christmas!}

merry christmas to you and yours from mine.  :)

{our christmas eve}

this year is the first year that i'm not tucking the kids into their beds on christmas eve.  they are with their dad this year.  i really miss them but i'm happy for them that they get to spend this year with john, jess, will and even conner!  :)

lisa and i got to spend a nice quiet night alone at home.  we wrapped everything before 2 am which is such a plus.  i thought i'd be really sad tonight but i wasn't.  it was different but not sad.  not at all.  :)

this morning we got up and played with some of the new toys that the kids already got from family.

we also had alot of fun with google and with norad tracking santa throughout the day.

someone needs a haircut. ;)

i missed the focus on this...but i heart it so.

who doesn't love a little lens distortion?!

this is the look i get when i tell her to look at the camers....

i love that when she focuses she sometimes sticks her tongue out.

the kids made two letters for santa. one telling him that he could get whatever he wanted out of the fridge to drink. they wanted to leave something out for him with the cookies but since they were leaving for the day so early, i suggested a letter. the other was asking santa if he would glue the last cotton ball on ian's advent santa for him. :)

we left out some spice cookies. :)

isobel put the cookies by the tree for santa.

just before the kids left they wanted to read the elf on the shelf one last time. bailey asked if he could read it this time. :)

isobel is out of focus and ian HAD to have the crayons in the pic, but it's perfect. :)