Resolutions

So I know its cheesy but I always make a few resolutions for the upcoming year

1. Eat Better and Cook More - i made this promise last year and I actually did it
2. Shop less, play more - pretty sure I will play more, not so sure about the shopping less part because why stop doing something I am SOOOOO good at?
3. Spend more quality time with hubby - I just have to figure out how to stay up past 8pm and add 4 more hours in every day.
4. Better myself - i have a 3 step plan for this one: a) train for a half ironman b) work on my core to obtain the flat tummy and c) get a boob job.

Lessons Learned from 2008
1. I don't work for money (although that's a nice perk). I work because I am a better mom and wife for it.

2. My husband and kids are not perfect, and that's why I love them, and that's what makes them special and unique (and somewhat unpredictable)

3. I have the best girlfriends in the world who literally would do anything for me (although honestly I haven't really challenged that to the limit yet....)

4. At the end of the day the most important thing in life is family and a great pair of boots.

Trip to Philadelphia

We made our trip to philadelphia to see family and friends. We dragged the kids from place to place and allowed no naps all four days. Surprisingly we only had a few meltdowns. Unfortunately one of those meltdowns culminated with Samantha kicking my Uncle Mark in the nuts and serving a left hook to my Uncle Bill. Otherwise our trip was successful and we had a great time.

Traveling - Jason and Sammy loved the airplane and rental car buses...

And our pilot spent 15 minutes with Jason prior to the flight making him a Navy Jet Fighter out of a $2 bill!

The kids LOVE hotels! There was a lot of jumping on the beds... and therefore a few boo boos!

We had our traditional Christmas Sushi Dinner with Brian, Sarah, Mom, Dad and Bob and Lisa. The kids even had a good time and we caught them in a rare "hug" moment.

Then Jason and Travis spent the next few hours "digesting their sushi" in the hotel hot tub, resulting in a VERY hard sleep - too sweet to resist taking a picture.

Brian, Sarah and Travis took Jason to his first trip to Pat's Steaks in south Philly - at 11:00pm! While Travis and Brian ate themselves stupid with cheesesteaks, Jason ate the cheese fries and a deep-fried hot dog.

My Uncle Karl was nice enough to organize a fantastic Glick Christmas get-together, and there was a great turnout. I will post those pictures later because there are LOTS!

Wills Christmas Day

Christmas Morning

Our day started EARLY as the kids woke up in anticipation of seeing the results from Santa's visit. We crept downstairs until suddenly Travis yelled, WAIT! I have to get the HD videos loaded and recording! So we waited at the top of the stairs for Travis to get all of the videography equipment set up, calibrated and balanced. Then was the big moment - we all came down the stars and saw that Santa had indeed visited two little children!

Christmas Eve was spent at the Bhuta's for ham and time with extended family

On Xmas morning Sammy got exhauted pretty early on.

Santa's presents resulted in many projects for Jason and Dad - this is iCoaster, an electronic, magnetic, musical marble run. TV the cat especially liked this one



And of course LEGOS, the ultimate toy for boys, the greatest challenge to vacuum cleaners and the ultimate in self control when you step on and try not to cuss out loud!

Sammy won the "cutest child" contest by dressing in her Tinkerbelle costume, and have a tea party with Tinkerbelle

In all Christmas day was spent with family and playing lots with the kids - perfect in my books!

Merry Christmas (and Happy Hannukah)!

Its the most wonderful time of the year.

The kids are so into Santa and Christmas this year. Jason even gets the idea that it is better to give than receive.. at some level as he is furioulsy been making cards and other arts and crafts for others this year to give as presents. Its very cute.

Making Cookies for Santa's arrival

Ingredients were: lots of sugar, lots of love and a HUGE mess for Mommy to clean up afterwards. Therefore I am SURE Santa will just LOVE these cookies tonight.

Happy Hannukah?

In attempt to be diversity changea agents at the house this year, Jason decided to make a very elaborate Menorah out of construction paper. He was so proud, and I didn't have the haert to tell him we are not Jewish. So, here's a shout out to all the Jews in our lives!

Playtime

I wish I were a kid - when every day is play time!

Monkey Joes - an indoor bouncy place that is insane with bratty kids (not mine of course) and chaos. The kids love it and the parents are happy to have a place to bring their kids on yucky cold rainy days. We were there for Alastair's birthday party!

Sammy loved this place

Making silly faces - well at least Sammy is.

Playdate with SJ and Sophia

Jason's longtime (aka 3 years) girlfriend and her sister came over for pizza and playing. They had a blast as usual. Its so nice to have such great friends.

The fearless four (We put Tracy to work, she doesn't get to play)

Buddies for life

How many kids can you fit on a bean bag chair?

Exploring the Castle Bed

Potty Training?

Do we dare jinx it? Sammy seems to have suddenly taken interest in the potty and has even made it a few days without accidents at school. Of course being the proud mom, I had to document the process.

Preparing...

Working hard - look at the concentration!

Ta Da! Sammy is so proud of the pee pee!

Halburnts Holiday Party

Sonal and Matt hosted a fantastic holiday party that Jason and I went to. (Travis was recovering from his marathon that morning with some Yuengling at home) Jason was especially proud that he got to go to a grown-up party. Of course we left before the real partying began, but here are pictures of everyone before the drinking started.

The guys pretending to be pensive

Jason and Click were instant buddies. Probably because Click was sharing his "lemonade" with Jason, and could talk about Legos and Transformers for hours.

The girls looking FABULOUS!

Its not a party without Crazy Uncle Matt!

The hosts - and super adorable couple!

White Elephant Present Time - we are so grateful Jason got an appropriate gift!

Jim Beam - EVRYONE's friend during the holiday season!

HUMONGOUS SMORES!
Big Blue Ball - this was a funny one and got passed around a lot


We are so lucky to have great friends and so much laughter in our lives. Thanks Sonal and Matt for hosting a great party! If this is an indication of how much fun we will have at your wedding, its gonna be OFF THE HOOK!

New Love

Have you tried this? If not, you should!

Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka. So I live in the south but have never been a huge fan of sweet tea. But you put some of this vodka in it, or mix this with some lemonade and its liquid heaven! Now I can say I like sweet tea like a real southerner!

So, maybe I should submit and get some marketing reimbursement from Firefly?

Travis' FOURTH marathon

We travelled to Charlotte this weekend for the Thunder Road Marathon, one of the hilliest courses in the US! Travis is in the best physical shape of his life and he was very prepared for this one. Anji spent the day being a water bottle, banana and gel sherpa. And yet I managed to wreck Travis' car only once by backing into a pole!

I am so proud of Travis for finishing this race - I think its one of the most grueling things you can do to your bady and Travis has done it 4 times now - and plans more for 2009! I am positive I could never run a marathon, so that makes me even more proud of Travis seeing how hard it really is!

I only got pictures of Travis warming up b/c it was so hard to get pictures along the course, and then I messed up at the end (probably because I was nervous about telling Travis I backed his car into a pole)! But even warming up he is serious (and cute!)

Happy Birthday Travis!

Last night we went out with Sonal and Matt, aka The Halburnts, and had a great time celebrating the holidays and Travis' Birthday. I am especially excited because for the next six months I can accurately claim that Travis is OLDER than me!!!

I know I look like I have been drinking in this picture, but I was actually the DD!

Brothers gotta hug, man! This picture was taken after a VERY INTENSE "discussion" about who is the leader of the aerialbots. Thank goodness they agreed to disagree otherwise they were going to go into fisticuffs!

All 4 Bhutas = 2 tall white guys and 2 small Indian girls

Basketball Practice, Playing with Sister, and Stupid Cat

Basketball!

Jason had his first basketball practice on Saturday! He is so cute with the other boys out there and was actually quite good. His team is the Bears. Other teams in the league are animal names too like cheetahs, lions etc... then I guess they started to run out of animal names because they actually named a team the Horned Frogs - thank goodness Jason's not on that team.

Jason and the Bears stretching (don't they look so intimidating?)...

Some one-on-one time with the coach

Trains = sweet moments

Then, that afternoon, Travis and Jason set up the train set in Jason's room and we witnessed a rare few moments of the kids playing together. Normally Sammy is too little for Jason's things but this time he took her under his wing and invited her up into his bed to "drive the train."

The setup (Travis has already planned the upgrades to the set - additional track etc.)

Cute moments of a loving brother and sister playing peacefully - don't we wish this happened all the time!?

Stupid Cat TV Wills

On another note, I think we have the dumbest cat on the face of this earth. We got him 3 years ago when Jason insisted on naming him TV Wills (appropriate, huh?). The cat hates me and LOVES all kids, which is unusual.

In this picture he let them paint him. The crazy part is the cat let's the kids paint him all the timeAnd in this picture, the cat wouln't move while I was making the bed, so I put the sheets on anyway.

Despite his apparent lack of fight or flight instinct, we keep him around because he is great with the kids and ADORES Jason!