Cait has her own Papparazzi!

Well, I got this fabulous new camera for Christmas and it has transformed me into this new person. I take 50 pictures just to get the right angle, smile, or glance and I delete the other 49. I was in true form last weekend as Cait's friend Anna turned 5 and we celebrated at Jungle Java. As my frustration started to grow over trying to catch the kids when they came off the slide or as they ran by...I decided I need to go inside the structure and be one with them :-) It was such a blast to play and pose with them. I loved watching Cait as Anna was opening her presents, I could see that she wanted to be the one opening presents. It is amazing to see an emotion like envy or jealousy at such a young age. If you know me you know how much I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY, we celebrate it for a whole month. I believe that your birthday is the one special day that is all about you. As I get older I am not scared of them, I still feel excited like I did when I was 5 years old. Only now instead of a Barbie...I would really like some BCBG or Jessica Simpson shoes. As we left Jungle Java...Cait turned to me and said "Mommy, when is my birthday? I looked at her and said baby your birthday is only two months away...let's start planning now!" The smile she gave me will be one burned into my soul as at that moment we were one...two girls who love their birthday and can't wait for it to come :-)

Winter Wonderland on Oakwood

Well Tony and I decided to plunge into the pits of debt and buy our own piece of property on Lake LeAnn. We have been sharing a house with his mom and dad since 1999 and we found this little piece of heaven on the 4th of July. The house was a disaster and needed some major renovations... but the view completes me. Everytime I look out onto the lake, I feel this sense of calm as if I found the missing piece to an unfinished puzzle. The house should be finished in May and I plan on spending every waking minute at our new house this summer. Summer of 2010 will bring many pictures and lots of blogging. Most of those pictures will be with me holding a margarita and my toes in the water!

Grandpa Colpaert turns 65!

On January 6th, my dad turned the BIG 65 and he has stated that it will be the last time he celebrates his birthday. So next year on January 6th we will be eating cake and giving him money towards his golf membership just because he is a great Dad and not because it's his birthday. I envisioned this great cake with a whipped cream center and a hot fudge topping that ran off the sides...I ended up with the cake that I made pictured here, Brian of course mocked my cake (he has been knocking me off my pedestal...ever since I put myself up there)but it was made with my own two hands out of love I said. Who cares if the cake resembled the leaning Tower of Pisa...it was in perfect position to blow out the candles. That is the greatest thing about my Dad he loves me no matter what and I totally could have brought just a slice of cake that I bought at the local Gas Station and he would have loved it. As you can tell here my Dad is going for the Santa Claus look in 2010...I think it keeps his face warm in the winter. Happy Birthday Daddy, I have a glass of Applewood White in honor of you as it is your favorite wine from our favorite place!

New Years Resolutions

It is amazing how this time of year makes you think how the upcoming year is going to be better and some of us try and make a resolution that will somehow have us change something about our life for the better. My New Year's Resolution this year is to slow down and to start to enjoy my life. If you know me, you know that I run on mock speed sometimes and I value the day by how much I got done or how much I shoved into the day...not by what happened that day. I am always in a rush and it starts out the moment I wake up trying to get three people out the door who have no sense of time or better yet are not in a rush. I start the day telling the kids to hurry up, running them into school, kissing them and the running back out on the slight chance that I might be on time for work today. I hardly ever take a lunch at work as there is not enough time in the day to complete what I have to. Then I leave work rush to get the kids, get everyone in the house, cook dinner, serve dinner, clean up, help with homework, do bedtime activities, get the kids in bed and then I usually start working again, cleaning, doing laundry...then finally to bed only to start the madness again the next day. I decided to do this blog so that I can document all of the moments I capture in my children's lives but most of all it requires me to sit down, drink a glass of wine, and type about all of the little things that happened that week that I found special. In the end I would like to be valued by who I touched and not how much I did.

New Years Eve at the Double JJ

Well we started off early Thursday morning to head up to the Double JJ Ranch in Rothbury, MI for some snow tubing and swimming in their indoor water park. The day was gorgeous about 30 degrees perfect tubing weather. We got to the resort about 3pm, checked into our room and headed right for the waterpark. The water was a little colder then Tony and I would like but the kids didn't seem to care. After a fun pizza party and a short winter's nap...we hit the tubing hill. The night was beautiful and calm and the snow was falling...this was the best time I have ever had in the snow. Cam made a friend and Tony, Cait and I tubed the hills as many times as we could before midnight. The New Year came and we toasted with water and Gatorade. We all slept in our fireplace lit room until 10am the next day, had a wonderful breakfast and decided this is now a Bacarella New Year's Eve tradition.