- Bullet updates

So it's been a crazy busy holiday season this year! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and I wish you all the best for 2009! I'm hoping it's going to be a better year than last.

I decided to do a bullets update post since I really haven't had much time to blog lately and at this point I can't even get to my computer with all the happenings at home, and so much has happened in the past few weeks!

• I did get the tree up in time for Santa, very late, but in time for Santa to deliver all of his goodies that were furiously being wrapped until 2:30 AM on xmas eve! We had a really nice xmas with the girls and Andy's brother and his wife who came to Montreal from Toronto to spend it with us and the kids. They brought their furry baby Tika (a female boxer) with them and I must say how incredibly awesome she was considering all the abuse my girls put her through! I fear she will not want to return! I also managed to pull off my first stuffed turkey (believe it or not!) made from memory from all the years of helping Andy's mom make her beloved stuffing! The good news also being that this was the last turkey I will have to cook in my old oven that hardly fits the roasting pan and is on the floor under the counter with the door that likes to swing closed on you!!
• Amongst all the visits from family and friends, we had a family Perogie/Karaoke party which was a real hoot! I had bought a karaoke machine a little while back since I love it and it came with a bunch of cd's including a kid's one too so I thought that would be fun for the girls as well (it's pink and has two mikes). We broke it out of the box on xmas day and after a few glasses of vino, opened up the vocal chords and had some fun. The perogie night consisted of cousins Donna and Richard joining us all at our place for some lessons in preparing the famous family meat perogies which I was given the lessons for on our honeymoon when Gramma Millie came over to show me on request by Andy! It was a fun time and of course another opportunity to take out the Karaoke machine and work off some of our perogie calories by exercising our vocal chords once again!
• Madison's big girl room is now complete with a big girl bed! She was potty trained in two days flat, including nights, if you could believe that! Way to go Maddie! I'm so proud of her and can't believe no more diapers! She was moved to the older class in daycare a few weeks back and after her first day, they asked us to start encouraging potty training since she was still in diapers due to her refusal and our laziness, so the next day I sent her to daycare in panties with two sets of spare clothes and pretty much thought to myself, sink or swim kid! But of course I also had bribery on my side, nearing xmas and all and Maddie really wanted a Tinkerbell doll from Santa and a candy cane from Mommy! So after reminding her of this and reassuring her that Santa really wanted to get that for her so no no accidents, and that if she didn't have any that I'd bring her a candy cane (yes I know that's terrible but you do what you have to do!). When I picked her up that day she was still in the same clothes as the morning and Mommy gave her big hugs and kisses as I handed her over a mini candy cane! The next morning she was even dry when she woke up and went straight to the bathroom on her own. She did have two accidents the next day but she still got half a candy cane! The rest is history and she's a big kid now!
• Speaking of which, I would have loved to post her bday pics and stuff but seeing as I can't get to the computer at home at the moment that will have to wait. But my littlest girl turned a big 3 years old on Monday! We had her party on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. She was really excited about it being her bday and I made pink cupcakes for her daycare on Monday and she blew out her candle! That night Caitlin had swimming so I had Andy meet me at the pool and we all went for a dip afterwards since they really love to go swimming, followed by a quick trip to Blockbuster to let them pick a movie and picked up some chicken on the way home. I fear this is going to become a habit at least for the next two weeks with no kitchen!
• Caitlin and Madison start ballet classes tomorrow night, I have them both signed up for back to back classes right after work. They're both really excited, especially Caitlin after going to see the Nutcracker with me over the holidays. We also took them to see Winnie the Pooh live on Sunday, I had gotten tickets for Maddie's bday.
• We are also signed up for piano lessons finally! Andy had been asking me what I wanted for xmas and I had seen a nice keyboard piano at Costco so I told him how much I wanted to take piano lessons and enroll Caitlin as well. So I start on Friday nights and her on Sundays, I'm totally psyched!
• Following the bathroom renovations downstairs, I now have no bathroom upstairs and as of tonight, no more kitchen either! We've been moving full steam ahead. Andy is never around in the summer but on his off season he's home, so what better time to do the stuff we've never been able to and now all of a sudden so desperately needed! He says it will be done in two weeks so I'm crossing my fingers that will be the reality and then we just need to get the floors sanded and then we'll have a new home, I can't wait! I just hope we make it to that point, Maddie had to go to the bathroom at 2:30 this morning and the trip down to the basement was definitely not fun! But I know it will all be worth it once it's all done!

That's it for now, once I gain access to my office again at home, I will post pics of all the above, as well as some of the house changes!