HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thanks so much for 2007! 2008 is going to be a great year!





Happy 2008 Kids!!!!!

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.

~Hamilton Wright Mabie

Working Begins!

So, the tax office is busy and I am back to work!

The boys are having a little bit of a tough time with my first couple days but they will settle in. They have had a break this week from School work and things will be better when they get back to their routine.

Mr. X is helping (more like doing) our entertainment center and getting it organized so that everything is neat and tidy... It looks great and with the gift from my brother there are plenty of hook-ups for things to be plugged in properly!

Check out Photobucket Shots!

Photobucket Album

Your families are in our Thoughts tonight

Two families struggle with the loss of loved ones this holiday
season. Our friend Betty lost her mom Christmas
morning and we just got news of our friends, B, L. and L.
who laid their grandmother to rest Christmas eve.

Both families are in our thoughts tonight and we send
our sympathy their way.

We are sorry for your loss,
Scott, Tracy, Quentin and Zachary

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal,
love leaves a memory no one can steal.
~From a headstone in Ireland

Christams Excitement

The Excitement of Christmas opening is over but the gifts this year will linger all through 2008.

Pictures say it all so enjoy these. Some of the more exciting points (and photos) were the DS games that Scott and I gave the boys, the tools the boys gave to dad, the Guitar hero 3 that Cory and Jenjen gave to the boys for the WII, the "eyeclops" that Zachary got, and Mr. Wiggles that the boys gave to Mr. X!


Of course we all made out great and I got a couple of LLBean turtle necks from Mr. X and Pamela (my all time favorite place to get clothes that I have not indulged on since college!) Scott got a t-shirt from BoJos that happen to have all his Warcraft character names on it (minus the "U"), and Walter and Kati got a couple of t-shirts that had inside jokes on them!


Take note of dad reading a book. Yes, a site only seen by few but it was a year for Christmas Miracles.

I got mom a new pocket book that she really liked and Dad got her a digital camera and an mp3 player that will hold photos for when she is in FL or CT!


Braedan got upset about a month after Halloween because he NEEDED to be batman so we got him a batman costume and he walked around all night saying "thank you for my batman!" He was so cute!! Nothing cuter than Batman playing the drums!

Rock Band Fever!

All the COOL kids are doing it!

YAY! ROCK BAND... FTW!





Yes, We have Rock Band Fever! Jeffery got Rock Band!
If you have never tried it, You have to find one to hang out with friends and play!

We all took turns and got the kids into the action! Kati, Pamela and I are going to start a "girls band" to practice!


The kids have been doing well, Quentin is doing well in singing... Zachary will get the singing part down once he learns the words...

Spending Christmas Eve with Family!

We spent Christmas Eve at Judy and Gene's! It was great fun and the "boys" (yes, young and old alike) talked Judy into letting Jeff open his biggest gift, Rock Band for the 360!

The boys (all of them) had a great time playing and entertaining everyone.

Jeff loved his paintball gun that we got him and as you can see, Zachary LOVED his bow and arrow set that was given to him!


The boys racked up getting bow and arrows, mp3 players and scooters as well as many small items that they were very excited about.


Zachary's favorite gift (and one he will have for a very long time) was a Star Wars pop up book that has no less than 6 pop ups on each page! He spent a long time looking through it with Nana and then he and Quentin looked at it and read some of it when they got home.


Rock Band was cool and Scott and I have to figure out how to get one! (we first need a 360!)

Scott got a great hoodie and I got a very soft pull over shirt. We also got some cash to go towards the 360.....




Dad, as you can see, made himself very comfortable in front of the shrimp.

Judy and Gene have out of town guests and it was fun sharing Christmas eve with them!

Mr. X and Pamela rounded out the party very nicely! Tomorrow we look forward to Santa and more company!

Judy and Gene's-- Christmas Eve!

Click on photo to check out all of the Christmas Eve photos!

Photobucket Album

Merry Christmas!

Even Dad got into the Christmas spirit by decorating his Boat!

Christmas Eve is Here!

House rule.... if it arrives in the mail it is fair game! Today mail came with gifts a-plenty! Well, one gift and one card but it was enough to ease the "Christmas gift opening bug" that has been around the house for several days..... Aunt Tinka and Uncle Richards gifts came for the boys and Grammie and Popey's card came for the boys.

Quiet is now in our house for the first time in days. The boys are nicely sitting on the floor reading directions and putting together this cool thing that their Aunt and Uncle sent!
You can't help but to smile to see the extreme excitement that is pent up in Zachary's little body. He is beyond excited and you can't keep him calm at all!

Grammie and Popey's card contained money to buy a gift of their own which is very nice given their were things on their list that we did not purchase..... After convincing them that there would be no shopping until after Christmas they settled in to build their new toy.

Tonight we will head over to Judy and Gene's house and open gifts over there. I am very excited about that, the boys are getting some neat stuff.

Tomorrow will be Santa in the morning and then going up to moms at some point. Hopefully we will have company here and there and lots of fun with laughter!

The Boys help Nana!

Every year for my life my mom has made cookies. The days that the decorated cookies came out and my brother and I "helped" came and lasted many years..... She was very excited when JenJen came on scene as "fresh meat" to decorate with her. (poor JenJen is not going to get to decorate with her this year...)
Thank goodness my boys love to go decorate with her and it left me with the quiet time to finish my articles for the week!

Scott has Work Party

Judy took me up to Athens yesterday so that Scott and I would not end up with two cars up there. We met up with him at B&N which is always a fun place to shop! I had a list of things to do so Scott and I parted ways with Judy and began our venture...
Our list included TRU, BB, and a few other stops. We went by to give Pat her Christmas gift and so I could change because Scott's Christmas party was later last night.
The boys were left home with Jeffery. The first time that he stayed with them alone for that long and they did great. I called a few times just to check in but everything was fine.

Here are some of the people that were there. My battery died in my camera so I was not able to get a lot of everyone.

The guy that looks like Scott and Mr. X is really funny and just so happens to have missed Scott and Mr. X's birthday by about 4 days! How funny is that?

It was really fun and we got home about 10pm which was not bad. The girls were nice and it was fun having dinner with them. We did miss R. though, I am going to Kick her A@* when I see her again! She promised she would be going and then had to work late... :(:( Jefferey was happy to see us walk in. He called at 9:20 to "check up on us"......

Courtney and LisaD

Here is a great photo of Courtney and LisaD for those that don't know them... They had a really good one on the site of them covered in mud, I wish that I had grabbed that before they took it off but this one is much better.

No more news on Courtney other than she will be having another surgery sometime very soon. Not sure at this time what it will be for but she is in our thoughts as she still continues to fight.

Boys Awards

The boys had their first award ceremony with their new pack tonight. We really made a big deal out of the boys who have completed the Bobcat awards (Bailey, Quentin and Zachary got their award this past summer).
Some of the boys were so nervous about speaking and saying their pledges in front of the whole crowd. I felt badly for the Little Tigers because a couple of them are very shy.

Scott and Dad got some great shots and it was hard to pick out from them. If you look at Zachary's group you have to remember that these are all second graders who are 7 and 8 year olds. Amazing to see that Zachary fits in so well with them! I am glad that we did push him ahead like we did because he would not have done well with the younger tiger group.
Quentin's pack is little, just 3 boys right now. It has been fun with them so far.
The boys were able to invite everyone they wanted to the event. Nana, Grandpa, Pamela, and Mr. X came to see them get their Volley ball and BB gun awards and their BB gun pin.
The fish were to symbolizing the new boys entering and then because Zach was a Bobcat already he got a little bit bigger fish and then because Bailey and Quentin were the oldest and had worked longer they got the biggest fish. It was fun.
All the Boys beamed when they got their new badge and most all the boys had a uniform so that was nice.