Merry Christmas eve

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Today we headed to my dad's house to celebrate Chrismas and then over to my aunt Nancy's. I forgot my camera, no pictures:(

Our 1st Christmas Celebration with Family

Saturday we celebrated Christmas with the Ugolini Family (Carmen's brother and family). Greg and Tracy hosted the get together this year. It is really fun seeing all of the children play together and how much they have grown. We look forward to the good food traditions as well. Uncle Pete brings his Antipasto, Angie makes her cream puffs, Aunt Linda makes her green Jello dessert, and Carmen brings shrimp and artichoke dip. YUMMY!

Kids by the tree before we left.

Cabo wanted his picture taken too.

Natalie looking so grown up!


Mia was my little buddy.


Santa baby.

Santa 2009

For the last 3 years we have made it a tradition to visit the Chesterfield Library for their Christmas celebration. The kids get to visit with Santa and we can take as many pictures as we want. The Santa looks the exact same too, he hasn't aged a bit ;), trust me Karli would notice. The kids also get to make a craft, this year they made ornaments. And they also provide hot cocoa and cookies. It's not crowded and it beats the mall any day! Here is a link to the previous pics of visiting santa. Click Here

Karli's bowling party

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Today we continued the festivities as we celebrated Karli's birthday at Imperial Lanes for a cosmic bowling party. Karli had a blast and I hope all of the other kids did too :)

Happy Birthday Karli!

We enjoyed Karli's birthday last night with her favorite food, macoroni and cheese. We sang Happy Birthday with her birthday cookie, since she really is not a cake fan :)

Birthday week

I find it hard to believe Karli will be 5 on Thursday Dec. 3. Where did the last 5 years go? She truly is a beautiful miracle and we are so lucky to have her as our daughter. I am so proud of her and who she has already become as a 5 year old. She is so smart, funny, compassionate, and loving. I hope she continues to grow up in this way. She is a great big sister too! Chris told her we would make her favorite dinner on her birthday and her request was Macaroni and cheese. That was also one of the things in school that she listed she was thankful for.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARLI!

Other birthdays this week are...my sister in law Tracy and my niece Natalie. Happy Birthday to you!

Trick or treating

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We did the annual trick or treating event at Chris' parents house. The kids had fun, despite the chilly temps. Carmen's subdivision is becoming very popular it seemed like there were a lot of trick or treaters and many houses involved in passing out candy. Karli was so brave until at one house a very still scarecrow moved and frightened her. It was downhill from there. Even Cameron lasted a long time this year. He still wanted to pull the wagon. He had fun marching up to the houses saying "here we go.....here I come, trick or treat, and thank you." He also pointed out after he said thank you, that the person passing out the candy did not say you're welcome!

Karli's school Halloween party

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I was unable to make it to Karli's school party this year due to work. Chris was able to go and have fun with all the kids though! This was the only school party siblings weren't aloud to attend, so Cameron and Grandma enjoyed the day at the park!

Cameron singing ABC's

This video cracks me up! I'm not sure if it is the noodles in the pouch of his bib, or the fact that he keeps stopping and starting again, or that he wants you to play, not sing with him ;)

About me

Today I am writing a post about me. For most of you that know me really well, you know that I am: FRUGAL as I like to call it OR......Spartan, abstemious, canny, careful, chary, conserving, discreet, meager, meticulous, mingy, niggardly, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penny-wise, preserving, provident, prudent, saving, scrimping, sparing, stingy, thrifty, tight, tightwad, unwasteful, wary. Sometimes this is one of my flaws, but in many ways I look at it as GOOD!

The opposite of Frugal is generous (which I don't think is true :), lavish, spendthrifty, uneconomical, and wasteful.

Lately I have become addicted to about 18 websites OR blogs that find great deals, freebies, and coupons. It is a thrill for me to get such great deals and save at least $20 at the grocery store with coupons etc. If anyone is interested in my list of websites let me know and I'll send them to you.

For those of you on Facebook you already know that I am trying to cook more and eat out less. I am NOT a fan of cooking but it's been really rewarding. I'm sure it's healthier and more budget friendly! I've been getting great recipie ideas. Keep them coming they are much appreciated!

Recent pictures

The kids being nice to each other!






Sitting in our driveway having a bonfire!

It has been a while!

Since I posted last, Karli has started 4 year old preschool. She loves school just like she did last year. She has the same teacher and many of the same friends are in her class. She now has weekly homework assignments, which she LOVES doing. She definitely is my kid!

Castaway Bay

Our Second stop was to Castaway Bay Indoor water park. The kids had a blast! Chris, Grandma, and myself had fun as well! Karli really surprised us for someone that doesn't like water in her face. She went down every slide that she possible could for her height. The tallest tube slide was green and she went on it about 100 times. She started out sitting up, but the end of the day she was laying down with her arms behind her head like a pro. She was brave enough to go on the boat/roller coaster/water slide ride. She did great even though she had a few tears at the end. I was so proud of how brave she was! She even mastered going all the way underwater in the hot tub! She was a different child leaving this place than she was when she went in! Cameron usually has NO FEAR, which is scary sometimes. He was spooked right off the bat with the very LARGE bucket of water that dumped on our heads. He didn't want to go near that part after that. He pretty much stayed in the toddler pool, but had a great time there! Grandma even surprised us on the water slides, she got her face wet too :)

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African Safari Wildlife Park

Thursday we went to Ohio to surprise the kids with a "vacation." Our first stop was the African Safari Wildlife Park. It was Grandma Kathy's idea to go, so we invited her to come along. It's a good thing Grandma came because It was a little scary having all of these animals come up to your car and stick their large heads in! She was the brave one. Grandma brought enough carrots so that we could drive through 2 times. I thought the best part was feeding the Giraffes. Cameron liked the deer the best. They also have an area that you can walk through and look at some animals. We watched pig races and an animal show where we were able to touch a snake, skunk, and a hedgehog. The kids also went on a pony ride. They offer camel rides too, but they were unavailable when we were there. We spend about 3 1/2 hours there, it was a fun time! BTW, Karli likes the Unicorn song!

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playdate

Today Karli had a playdate with some of the girls from school. The siblings tagged along as well. What a nice day for the park! The choice of music is just a song that I like buy Sugarland.

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Wants to go to school

I bought Cameron a backpack today because the great deal I found it was $1.49 and I couldn't pass it up. When we got home he wore it for an hour and didn't want to take it off. He kept saying I'm going to school mom. I explained to him that he has to be completely potty trained to go to school. He has been doing pretty good with potty training but maybe this will help even more! He won't be ready for 3 yr preschool until next year anyway.

Block Party

We had a great time at the block party again this year! The sun was out for a bit and the sprinkles didn't come until we were ready to go inside for some Texas Hold'em. The adults played a lot of volleyball while the kids played on the swing sets, trampoline, and bouncy house. Good food, good people, good times! It was the first time having a non-family member watch the kids. I found a nice girl from our neighborhood that watched the kids and it went great!

Best big sister

Yesterday Karli earned $5 helping my mom with chores such as vacuuming etc. I asked Karli what she was going to spend her money on and she said,"I'm going to buy my brother M&M's." It melted my heart, so unselfish! Although it was followed with she will also buy a slurpee for herself. It's probably because my kids don't get much sweets, so they are going to spend all their cash on SUGAR!

Kenny Chesney Concert

Awesome! For those of you with Facebook check on there. What a great concert! A long one though. It started at 4:00 and I think ended around 11:00. We got home at 1:30 after stopping through late night drive-thru. Opening was Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, Sugarland (MY FAV), and ending with Kenny Chesney!

Tailgaiting :)

Air Show

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After the Kenny Chesney concert last night, we spent the night at my moms house so that we could wake up early to go to the air show. After many people thought it would not happen, It did and we were there by approx 8:45. Waiting out the rain for the U.S. Airforce Thunderbirds was worth it! It was our first time watching the airshow on the base and I was impressed!

The Felosak's gathering

We've had a busy weekend. Friday we went to see Madagascar 2 at Movie under the stars in Macomb. That is always a fun event and FREE! Yesterday we all got together at Cara's house. I think I counted 16 adults and 15 kids in attendance. It's a good thing the rain stopped! We had good food and conversation. It's always fun to get together with everyone and catch up on life. Thanks for hosting Cara! Our original plan was at Stoney Creek, but I think this worked out better! Today with the temps feeling like mid 90's, I think we'll go hang out by grandma's pool!

My dad's new kitten

We stopped by my dad's house yesterday and the kids were able to meet his new kitten SoCo. Once SoCo decided to stop hiding from Cameron, who was running around screaming, he finally came out. The kids had a lot of fun playing with him. Karli talked about it the whole day.

Graduation party

Yesterday we went to Tony Roncelli's graduation party. Kim and I used to babysit Gino, Tony, and Vinnie when they were infants until they were about Karli and Cameron's ages. I think it has been about 15 or 16 years since I have seen them. Their property has changes so much since we used to go spend the weekends there. What handsome boys they have grown up to be! Although it made me feel old, it was really nice reminiscing on old times with Kim yesterday. Here are a few pictures of the evening. I have to say I've never been to a graduation party quite like this before. They had Valet parking, a band, a Nino Salvaggio's fruit stand, corn on the cob stand, popcorn, a mechanical bull, National Coney Island hot dog stand, delicious food catered from Papa Jo's, and a train from Blake's Orchard that took rides around the property.

Little mommy

This morning Karli was up before Cameron, which is pretty rare. Cameron usually comes to find me when he wakes up.......but today I heard his little pitter-pattering feet come down the hall and Karli said to him "You want to come and snuggle?" I peeked my head around the corner and took this picture. She is such a little mommy to him sometimes, I love it.