New Year's Poll

I won't "tag" anyone on this, but feel free to add it to your blog! I stole it from Jenny (Thank you!)

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Left Vinny with Grandma, while we went to Vegas.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I am not sure what last year's was, and I probably won't make any for this year.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes, Dawn did. (Hi, Kai!!!)
4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my uncle, (RIP Uncle Jerry) Also, Tony's grandma.
5. What countries did you visit? I didn't even make it to Canada.
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? More quality time with Tony and Vinny
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? January 14th- Vinny's first Birthday
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Being a working mother. It takes a lot to be out of the home and away from your family.
9. What was your biggest failure? Not keeping up with people like I want to, and shutting people out when I needed them.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Just this rash thing, that we can't figure out.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Probably Vinny's swing set
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Vinny's, some days... others, not so much :)
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? When our house got broken into... who ever the guy was.
14. Where did most of your money go? The mortgage
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Vinny walking
16. What song will always remind you of 2008? Hockey Pockey
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Neither...
b) thinner or fatter? Much fatter
c) richer or poorer? About the same
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Spent time with family, and went to our cabin more
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worried and stressed over things that I can't control
20. How did you spend Christmas? With family
21. Did you fall in love in 2008? I am already in love
22. What was your favorite TV program? ER and Grey's Anatomy
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Nope
24. What was the best book you read? Probably Brown Bear, Brown Bear, by Eric Carle... I don't get much time to read my books
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? I can actually play some songs on "hard" on Rock Band and Guitar Hero
26. What did you want and get? My kitchen worked on... it's still not done, but it is close enough
27. What did you want and not get? a million dollars
28. What was your favorite film of this year? Probably Sex in the City... I think that is the only one I watched.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 29. We spent it camping with friends.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Money
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? I have none
32. What kept you sane? Tony and Zoloft :)
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Tony Romo and Vin Deisel.
34. What political issue stirred you the most? None really
35. Who did you miss? My family on the east coast.
36. Who was the best new person you met? New person? Probably Tanya from daycare. I haven't met many other new people
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Take pictures, but make sure to watch it all in real life too.

Words for Wednesday

As 2008 comes to an end, I have to admit, I am kind of glad it is over. Its been one heck of a year, and I look forward to 2009!

I hope that all of you have a wonderful year. Each ones seems to keep going by faster and faster, so enjoy all the happy times, don't dwell on the bad, and take lots of pictures!!!

Have a fun night tonight, and be safe!

Christmas with Grandma Donna

I have been trying to edit the other post to add video, but I can't get it to work, so I thought I would try and put it in a new post. Here is the video from Christmas with my mom.

I never could get the video from Karen's house to upload, so I put it on youtube. Here is the link, if you want to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnrdo3rlt-g

I remember Monday...

Vinny - I remember when you were only a few days old and you were already holding your head up. Everyone told me how it would be months, and there you are laying on Daddy's tummy just lifting your head looking all around. I remember thinking that every else was nuts, but now I look back, and realize that with your personality, that you were just taking things in, so that you could use the info later. :) At a few weeks you would have tummy time, and wiggle your little legs, and Dad would say that you were trying to crawl already, because you had moved an inch or two. You were so busy when I was pregnant with you, that I should have known that you would come out with strong muscles.
Back then, I could never imagine that someday you would be running around, and so full of life and wonderment, as you are now. It amazes me how much you have changed in these 2 very short years.

What a week!!! **Edited to add video**

With all the snow and the holidays it has been a crazy week. But today, Tony is at work, I am at work, and Vinny is at daycare... all back to normal. :/
Let's see...

Sunday - We had our Composano Christmas (see the post below)

Monday - Tony was home with Vinny because daycare was closed due to snow. I was able to get off a little early and join them.

Tuesday - Tony took a vacation day, and was home with Vinny again. They went and took Karen out to run some last minute Christmas errands. With all the snow, she was having a tough time getting around.


Wednesday - Tony and Vinny stayed home. I worked a 1/2 day, and then went home to join them. Tony and I opened our gifts that night, and decided to go ice skating. (also, see post below) It was so much fun!

Thursday - Merry Christmas! We woke up early and let Vinny open his gifts from us. He didn't get his big gift yet, simply because it has been snowing so much. Tony built him a swing set/fort in the backyard. I can't wait until this spring and he can go out and play.




We went early to Tony's parents for breakfast. It snowed all morning. We opened gifts and ate lunch, and just hung out for a couple of hours, until Vinny's nap time. It was nice having the whole family together. We all made out pretty good in the gift department too, which is always fun. I think that Vinny's favorite thing though, was an orange that Linda put in the bottom of his stocking. He wanted it right away, and then wouldn't put it down the whole time he was opening gifts. We finally had to trick it out of his hands. It was so hard for Vinny not to go and play in the snow... every change he got, he at least had to get his shoes wet.







We then went home and just relaxed at home all night. It was so nice to not have a ton of running around to do.

I had a big scare this day too. I noticed at Dan and Linda's that I wasn't wearing my rings, which is really strange for me. I couldn't remember taking them off, but figured that they were at home. When we got there, we looked everywhere for them, and couldn't find them. I even went to my work. Finally, we looked in the couch cushions and there they were, all three of them. I am not sure if I took them off in my sleep, while sleeping on the couch with Vinny, or if he took them of my bed stand and hid them, but talk about a panic... Thank goodness we found them.

Friday - I woke up early and went shopping, and then had to deal with a big fiasco at K-Mart (Long story, but the moral of it is, don't buy gift cards at K-Mart) We went and had a nice lunch at Olive Garden. We then drove down to IKEA to look at a new entertainment center, but didn't buy anything.
We then spent the evening at Karen's with the family. We had a ham dinner, and opened gifts and just visited for awhile. It was a lot of fun. Vinny got this one truck that they all played with quite a bit. I am not sure if Vinny or Dan and Tony liked it better.
See above for video.


Saturday - We went back up to Dan's house to have our Christmas with my mom. Vinny, of course was crabby, because he was tired, but we had a good time. We then went home and cleaned some, and went to the Silvertips game.
See above for video.

Sunday- We woke up early and went back down to IKEA to get the entertainment center that we wanted. When we got home, we spend the day setting it up, and filling it will all of our games, DVDs and Vinny's books. It looks so nice. I am very excited.
I took down the tree and all of the decorations, and got most of it put away. It is just so much work to take all that stuff down once it is up... then the house looks so empty and sad... :(

I didn't take a bunch of pictures, but I did take quite a bit of video, which I will try and get up in the next day or so....
And here we are to today... It is a short week at work, but still have a lot going on... maybe someday soon we will get to rest... oh wait, I have a 2 year old. I don't think we will be resting anytime soon.

Vinny Goes Ice Skating

We took Vinny ice skating for the 1st time on Christmas Eve. He has so much fun! He didn't want to get off the ice! I never thought that I would have my less than two year old out there, but he did better than I expected. I think we are going to get him his own helmet for his birthday, so that he can go out and skate with Dad. (and Mom, if she ever gets out there.) Who knows, we may have a future Silvertip on our hands!!!
Hope you enjoy the video!

Christmas Eve Funny!

Words for Wednesday.

Can you believe it? Santa is coming tonight. I hope that everyone had their milk and cookies and reindeer food ready.
I know that everyone is super busy, so I am going to go keep my Words for Wednesday short, and just tell you all to have a wonderful and safe holiday.
Thank you to each and everyone one of you who take the time to read this, and share in the happenings of the day to day in my life.
Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!

Talent Tuesday...

"Mom, I think I am hungry...."

So last night I come home from work, and Vinny goes in the kitchen and pulls the chair over to the stove. I thought it was weird, since I had never seen him do it, so I thought I would just sit back and watch him. He then goes and pulls the rolls down and gets 3 rolls out.
Ok what ever... then he gets down, goes over to the silverware drawer and takes out a butter knife. By this time I was getting a little worried, but decided to just sit back and watch. (I really wanted to get my camera, but didn't want to miss what was going on.) He climbed back up on the chair and put the knife down and climbed back down and went to the fridge. He couldn't quite get it open, so I helped. He grabbed the jam and climbed back up on the chair and started whining and pointing to the jar. I opened it, and he sat there for almost 20 minutes taking the knife dipping it into the jam and whiping it on the bread. He barely got any jam each time, so it took him awhile, and eventually he started just scooping it out with his hands and putting it on the bread. Finally he just put the lid back on the jam and started eating his roll. I couldn't not believe it. I still can't believe it.
How did he know to do all that?
The kid can't figure out not to hit us with hockey sticks, or not to push his friends, but he can make himself a jam sandwich. Who knew?

I really wish I would have gotten it on video or on my camera, but I didn't want to miss a second of what was going on to go and get it.

Cousins

Tony and I have gone back in forth on what Vinny's relationship to our cousins are, and what our cousins kids are to Vinny... We could not figure it out.
Are they 2nd cousins? Are they 1st cousins? How many times are they removed?
Anyway, I finally took the time to go online and get it all straight.

Here is a link to the chart explaining it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_cousin

So basically, this is what we figured out:
Jason is Tony's 1st cousin... so Vinny is Jason's 1st cousin, once removed.
Alicia is My 1st cousin... so same thing, Vinny is Alicia's 1st cousin, once removed.
Now Alicia's boys, Davery, Keiler and Micah are Vinny's 2nd cousins.
Davery's kids will be Vinny's 2nd cousins, once removed.
Davery's kids and Vinny's kids will be 3rd cousins.

It is totally confusing, and not what any of us thought, but now we know!!! After 2 years we can finally correctly say what everyone is to each other.

I remember Monday...

Jenny does "I remember Monday" on her blog every week, and talked about how great it is to have all of the memories coming back, so I thought I would do one today.
With Christmas and Vinny's 2nd birthday coming up, It is a pretty special time of year for us.
I remember 2 years ago. I was 9 month pregnant. I wasn't sleeping anymore, my back hurt, oh, who am I kidding, my whole body hurt, and I was completely done with the whole pregnancy thing. I couldn't wait for our little Vincent to come out and visit the world. At the beginning of December I went and had a 3D ultrasound done. I don't recommend it that late in the pregnancy. Vinny's nose looked huge! I was so nervous that I was going to have this little tiny baby with a great big honker! I would have loved him either way, and probably wouldn't have thought anything of it anyway, but I was still worried.
I spent that last month begging Dr Beard to induce. He wouldn't... he kept telling me that I had to wait that extra 10 days. (I did finally get him to cave, but I had to get my blood pressure to go up really high.)
Last year, at this time, we were getting ready to celebrate Vinny's first Christmas. We took him to see Santa, which wasn't a joyous event, but ended up with cute scared pictures. I couldn't wait until he was able to open his gifts and have his first Christmas. He was crawling around everywhere and into everything. We didn't do any decorating because we knew that Vinny wouldn't know the difference. The only decoration was a little santa hat that Vinny wore on his head.
I was also being psycho Mom and planning Vinny's 1st birthday. To me, that was more exciting than Christmas, and I had to make sure it was perfect... I spent months planning that thing :)
I can't believe that it has been nearly 2 years already. It seems like only yesterday that I was waddling around waiting for my baby boy to be born.

A Composano Christmas

We had our annual Composano Christmas this year. It was at Daniel's house.
My dad, and Chrisana, Kara and Reidar, Dan, Brendy, Coby and Kayla, Tony, Me & Vinny, Alicia, Ryan, Davery, Keiler and Micah, Becka, and Teresa were all there. It was our first Christmas without my Uncle Jerry there (We miss you, Jerry.) Sandie and Cassee didn't make it either, which we missed them a lot at well.
We had a great time. There was great food, great company and it was so wonderful to see everyone.
Here is a video of some of the night. Vinny loved opening his gifts, but my favorite part of the video is him sitting with my dad. I also added a few pictures

For all of the Composano's that didn't make it, we wish you were there. One of these years we'll have us all together (**hint hint, Aunt Jo**)

I won!

I found this great new blog yesterday, and decided to start following it. Later in the afternoon I saw that she was doing a contest for a $10 gift card to Target. AND I WON!!! Yay!
Here is the link. I think it is going to be a great place for info and fun.

Thanks Valerie!

http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com

More snow pictures....

And the way it sounds we will probably have a few more days of snow, so probably a few more days of snow pictures.
Daycare closed early, so we had to have First Heritage Daycare for a few hours today. Here are some pictures of the kids playing in the parking lot in the snow... Vinny loved his new snow ball maker, even though he didn't get how to make the snow balls.

Jaydn enjoying all the white, in her new snow suit.


We decided to venture out and go to Grandma Karen's house. She had a ton more snow than we did. It was up to my knees (over 20 inches) Vinny had mixed feelings, but you can kind of see how much snow they had in this picture.

1st born survey

I stole this survery from Jenny. She said that it was a lot of fun to do and brought back a lot of memories, so I thought I would do it too.

Survey about your First Born-
1. Were you married at the time? Yes. We were married in 2004, and Vinny was born in 2007
2. What were your reactions? Very excited. We had just started trying and were pregnant the second month.
3. How old were you? 27
4. How did you find out you were pregnant? I took a test, of course... But really, I took a test at home and it came out positive and then I tried to get into my Dr, so I could find out for sure. He didn't have any openings so I ran to Planned Parenthood to confirm it.
5. Who did you tell first? Tony, and then the girls at work. I couldn't keep it a secret.
6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes, I couldn't wait!
7. Did you deliver early or late? Vinny was born on his due date.
8. Did you have morning sickness? Yes, for the first several months. I could barely brush my teeth without getting sick
9. What did you crave? Pepperoni sticks and on occasion, orange crush pop.
10. Who irritated you the most? Definetly the people at work.
11. What was your first child's sex? Boy
12. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? I lost 7, but after delivery I had lost 32.
13. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? I had gestational diabetes, but it wasn't bad. Towards the end, I had very high blood pressure and was on bed rest for a week. They eventually decided to induce me.
14. Where did you give birth? Providence Everett
15. How many hours were you in labor? Well, they started to induce me at 7:00 am. My water broke at 7:35, so they stopped the Petocin. I started pushing at 11:15 and Vinny was born at 11:32. The guys were all watching the football game, and it was 1/2 time when I started pushing. Tony told me I had to get him out before the game started back up, so I did as I was asked. :)
16. Who drove you to the hospital? Tony
17. Who watched? Tony, the doctor and nurses
18. Was it natural or c-section? Natural
19. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? I had an epidural
20. How much did your child weigh? 6 lbs 15.8 oz. The Dr said he would be about 7 lbs... you can't get much closer than that.
21. Did your child have any complications? Nope
22. What did you name him/her? Vincent Anthony
23. How old is your first born today? 23 months and 4 days.... My baby is going to be 2 in less than a month!!!

Family time in the snow.

So here is my first attempt at putting a video on my blog. I hope it works.

With all the snow, both daycare and my work closed early today, so we were able to go out and play in the snow. Vinny's nap was short today, so you can see what he is really like when tired and over stimulated. He made up for it with giggles though!

The video is kind of long, but fun to watch.

(Yay~ Dawn, I figured it out!!!)

More Snow...

It started snowing more last night, and we are covered this morning... here are some pictures. The ones of Vinny were taken last night, and most of it is snow from the other day....


He really wanted to mow the lawn.

Finally got the mower going.

Vinny's fort/swingset that Daddy is making for Christmas.

Icicles!This is my parking lot at work this morning....

Out side of work.
Our main street in Marysville, Washington. The snow plow had just gone through.
I know it doesn't seem like much snow to most of you, but here in Washington, if there is a 1/4 inch of snow everyone acts like the world is going to end!

Vinny's message from Santa....

http://family.go.com/santas-list/video/49952-mhemrich/

Picture Ornaments

I can't remember where I saw this idea, but it was a lot of fun, and I love how they turned out. This is the 1st one I made, so hopefully the more I do, the better they will look, but I thought I would show it now anyway.

Saturday night with just mom...

Tony went to the hockey game and Vinny and I stayed home. He was a busy boy, so I tried all kinds of things to keep him busy....

We painted wooden Christmas trees, so that we could decorate them.

Vinny wanted to clean off his brush and leaned over the table, and his painted trees. He was not a happy camper!!!
We cleaned him up and let the paint dry and I let him go nuts with the glitter. I he went through 5 entire tunes of it, but was very happy to be able to do it himself.
So serious....

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the packages of Play-Doe. Glitter play was over, and out came the Play-Doe.

Making snakes.

He was very proud of all of his creations....

Remember how Dawn posted about the fun they had with matching and learning their colors by using paint chips from Home Depot? http://chandlercronicles.blogspot.com/ In the pictures below you will see the difference between Eli and Vinny... The learning lasted about 2.5 seconds....Vinny thought it was fun to throw the colors.... What am I going to do with this boy???

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

Today we took Vinny up to the Mt. Loop to go and play in the snow. His first reaction was complete fear. Every time he got any snow on him he freaked out, and wouldn't even stand in it by himself. I am not sure what it was that changed his mind, but he eventually really enjoyed it and didn't want to leave.
Enjoy the pictures!

"I don't think I like this!"

Vinny's snow angel
Catching snow on his tongue

I love Target $1 section!

We got these blocks in the dollar section at Target. They were actually $2.50, but came with 8 blocks. Vinny and Daddy had a lot of fun building them up and knocking them down. You can't go wrong for $5!

Thoughts for Thursday....

With the holiday season all around us, I have been thinking a lot about friends and family, and it got me to thinking about who the truley important people are in my life. This might sound like an awful post and it isn't meant to be, but I just want to share my thoughts. I have lots of "friends." But only a couple of good friends. Most of the people in my life are more like acquaintances. People that I like talking with and enjoy my time with, but a lot of them, if we don't see each other for awhile, or don't talk, I don't think too much about it. Some of them, if I never saw again, I don't feel like it would change my life any. I just go on with my days and am happy to hear from them again, but don't go out of my way to remain close. It's not that I don't like these people, or that I don't care about them, they just aren't on the top of my priority list. I think that everyone had these kinds of people in their life, so you can understand what I am talking about. Some friends come and go. There doesn't have to be an arguement or anything, they just weren't the type of people that you felt that you needed to "hang on to."

But, what is it that makes someone your best friend(s)?

It's feeling like they are a part of your family. When you think of important events in your life, you can't imagine them not being there.
It's knowing that no matter what time it is, that if you needed them, you could call and they would be there for you.
It's going out shopping and seeing something and thinking of them or their kids and how much they would enjoy something.
It's spending time together and leaving feeling with your heart full, and having wonderful memories.
It's having someone that knows what you want and need, even if you don't know it yourself. ( :) Dawn )
It's knowing that your kids will grow up together, and be the best of friends, just because you know that they will be around each other all the time.
It's being able to hang out, just to hang out. When there doesn't have to be a reason to see eachother.
It's knowing that they don't judge you and you don't judge them either. You except eachother for who you are.
It's having something happen, and you can't wait to share the story with them.
It's knowing that you can be do stupid things and they will laugh with you, not at you... and even if they are laughing at you, you know that you probably deserve it!!!
It's feeling blessed that they are in your life every time you think about them.
Thank you to my "real" friends. I am so lucky to have you in my life.

There are so many other things that make people true friends. I would love to hear some of your thoughts on this, and what makes someone your best friends. What is it about these people that make it so important to you to have them remain in your life?

Thanks for reading and for your feedback.

Photoshoot of Jaydn

Photoshoot

I did a little photoshoot today of Jaydn (Jessica's daughter.) I think that some of them turn out pretty well. I have decided to start trying to do this on the side, to make a little extra so, if any of you would like me to take photos of your little ones or your event, let me know and we can negotiate prices :)

Oh Christmas Tree...

We decided to not do a big tree this year, so we have this little one. Vinny and I decorated it last night with the ornaments that we made yesterday. It's funny because he was so excited for the little tree, and hasn't cared about the big ones we have seen. I think it is because it is "Vinny sized."

Tony started putting out lights on our house, last night, and will finish tonight. I am so excited. I love Christmas lights, and can't wait until we join our neighborhood in lighting up.

Playdate with Cameron

We went to a playdate at Jennie's today and made Christmas ornaments. It was a lot of fun... Now I just have to work on getting Vinny to be nice to Cameron. He is such a brute! Constantly picking on him and pushing him down.