A Change Of Place

Please follow me over to my new bloggy home. I will not be posting anymore on this particular blog and have moved everything over to:

http://sullivanfamily4.wordpress.com/ Hope to see you there!

New Blog

Those of you who are interested in midwifery, natural childbirth, homebirth, doulas, etc. I have created a new blog about my journey to being a doula and midwife: http://midwifesomeday.wordpress.com/ At times these subjects can be controversial so only visit with an open mind.

Just For Fun

I saw this and I thought it looked fun.

Your rainbow is shaded green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are an intelligent person. You feel strong ties to nature and your mood changes with its cycles. Those around you admire your fresh outlook and vitality.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Wonder why my bloggy colors ended up being green?

Christmas Photos

We usually go to target to get Christmas pictures done but this year I decided to take the pictures myself. As most of you know I do have a little experience and have taken a couple college classes in photography. However a digital photo class is something I was never interested in, so basically I know the just of posing and color co-ordinating but once it is uploaded to my computer, cropped and resized my skills are at a stand still. Another problem is that I have a VERY basic digital camera and the photo program I have is hmmm.... more than lacking. Apart form all that the pictures didn't turn out too bad.


Caleb was my first victim... I mean subject. He was such a good sport about it and said "Merry Christmas" for all the shots.
Man that kid needs a hair cut! Oh well, maybe I'll just let it grow out and see what it looks like long haha.



Getting Leland to stay in one place was REALLY a challenge!



Hurry Caleb kiss your brother! Click click. Good job boys!


The resolution to getting Leland to stay in one place was a little... no A LOT scary! I had Caleb sit on a stool and hold Leland in his lap while Dave is below them hoping no one falls.

Cute though don't you think?



For my last task I had to figure out the self timer on my camera (something I had never used before). Try to get everyone in the picture in the 10 seconds allotted and smile.
Okay so everyone but Leland in smiling but that was a little unrealistic.. at least we are all in there.


Merry Christmas!

What Did We Do With Our Recently Finished Room?

For now it is a play room, Caleb LOVES it! I love it too, I can just trow all the toys in there at the end of the day and close the door, although I do clean and re-organize it about three times a week its a lot better than two or three times a day like I was doing before when the whole house was a "toy for all".




At some point I want to put a futon or sofa bed in there for guests but for now the only seating is our toy storage thing :)



Its nice to have space for Caleb's tunnels and tents to be up all the time. He and the cat play cat and mouse with it, although sometimes I'm not sure whos who...


In one corner I set up a little reading area.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little House

We finally got to decorating the outside of the house this weekend. I changed this a bit from what we normally do and still have some more things I'd like to add but I am liking it more this year than years past. Before we get to that though I want to explain the improvements to the "train yard". Basically I painted the sheet of ply-wood that the train is on and added some snowmen... just wait 'till next year though I am hoping to have a couple houses and maybe a pond with ice skaters.

For the most part Leland has been good about not touching the trains or tree, he does need reminding now and then... like in this picture.



Oh, Mommy pleeeeaaaase can I touch it?



Usually we would have those trendy, annoying ice-sickle lights around the top of the porch but I decided to go with the more classic multi-color big bulbs instead. The garland with lights around the railing are the same but I changed the bush lights from multi-color to white this year.


I want to get some candles for all the windows and a small tree for the "play room" window ( second story, window to the far right)

Decked

On my Dads side of the family they have a tradition of putting up elaborate trains sets under the Christmas tree every year. So a couple years ago my parents decided to send us a train track plus accessories to keep this tradition going. This year I finally got around to putting it together. Ours isn't extravagant or elaborate yet but as the years go on we will add a little house here and some deer there so eventually it will be a great train yard.







I am thinking that I don't like this cotton snow stuff too much so I might just paint the wood white and add some of the cotton snow stuff in some places.

Thanksgiving Cont.

This is what Moxie did all day.



After we ate and took a walk we piled up all our pillows and couch cushions on the floor. I made popcorn and while Leland took a nap Dave, Caleb, and I watch The Polar Express. After the movie Leland woke up and we ate dessert the rolled around on the floor for a while before bed.

Thanksgiving 2008

It was just us this year, we had had a mini Thanksgiving with Grandma Mary , Jennie, Sheldon, and our newest little cutie Abigail a couple weeks ago. All day Caleb was asking me about the turkey which he mistook for a chicken a couple times, then for about an hour was asking if lunch was ready.


The turkey; I kept it pretty basic and just seasoned it with salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and olive oil. We all liked it and the gravy I made with the drippings was SO good.




Sweet potato casserole, corn bread, and
stuffing getting warmed up for dinner.


A pose before dinner.

The boys.

Ready to eat, Leland was not happy about taking

a picture when there was food waiting to be eaten.

I made my own cranberry sauce this year with just a little orange juice and sugar simmered with the cranberries. Then gravy was REALLY good. Green beans were from the garden that we had frozen. Then stuffing was slightly different from what I would normally make since Dave refuses to eat pork I had to substitute the sausage with chicken sausage but it was still my favorite part of the meal.

Leland LOVED the cranberries and sweet

potatoes as well as the stuffing.

Getting stuffed!

"I Pledge Alliegiance"

Caleb saying the pledge of allegiance.

More Pictures of the Boys Swinging

It was a little cold outside, about 47 degrees I think.


Giggle baby



Caleb wasn't very interested is having his picture taken
but he complied anyway.




Leland on the other hand was thrilled about everything.

A Swingin' Good Time

On Saturday we finally replaced the swing that Benoni( dog we had for a while until he drove us crazy... I mean decided he was too much for our family) destroyed. No, No we didn't destroy the dog, the dog destroyed the swing you sillys.

Anyway, so Leland tried it out, he had never been in a swing before except the little baby swing when he was a couple months old. He loved it and started laughing hysterically.

Another Critter

Dave seems to always be the one who spots theses things... bugs, squirrels, deer. I guess because he is the one who goes out to take care of the trash and other "manly outdoorsy" things haha.

A praying mantis, they really blend in
with their surroundings.


Looks kind of scary.

An Oddity in the Back Yard.

A week or so before we flew back from California Dave informed me that there was an albino squirrel living in the woods behind our house. I wasn't sure whether he was trying to joke with me or if he was serious but here it is a happy little "winter squirrel" that is what he reminds me of anyway.



It was hard to get closer to him and my cameras
zoom doesn't work very well but there he/she is
gathering acorns in the back yard.


Look closely hes in the tree.... see the little white speck haha.




He almost looks like a ferret in this picture, we
see him everyday out there with all the other "normal"
squirrels gathering nuts for winter. I wonder if they notice that
he doesn't look like them.

The Finished Room

Here it is finally done! Yippy! I love it and can't wait
to furnish it.


Side facing the driveway.




This is the side facing the street.



Moxie had to get in the shot... what a ham!




Can you see the pretty leaves out the window?





hmmmmm now what to put in here... Any suggestions?

Lots of new pictures

All the pictures form our trip to California are here. You may have to click on older posts to see them all. The first set begins with Jason and Heather's wedding

Bed time

Every once in a while the boys would completely
wear my Mom out. She would be sitting there with Leland
and just crash.





A pretty sunset from my parents porch.

The park

We went to the park almost everyday.
At first Caleb was afraid of the slides but he got used
to it and it became the only thing he wanted to do.

Leland and I


Caleb in his pretend jail.



Leland at the bottom of the slide.




Leland going down the slide.




This was Caleb's pretend car.