Thanks Uncle Jer & Aunt Tiffany

Unfortunately, my brother's naval ship is deployed right now so he and his wife Tiffany couldn't make it home for Christmas.

They didn't forget about the kids though.

A few days before Christmas, they received Wal-Mart gift cards in the mail. They were SO excited. Heidi said it was her most favorite credit card EVER!

Heidi dressed herself this day....pink leggings, purple skort, blue tank, and black shrug.....I thought it was picture worthy. showing off their "credit cards"

Heidi cleaned up....she managed to find a clearanced princess lamp, that to our surprise, the lampshade spins when the light is turned on. She was thrilled about that unexpected surprise. She also got a Belle cellphone, and 2 littlest pet shop pets.

RJ scored big too.....a $70 lego set for $30! It took him 2 entire days to put it together, but it sure is cool!

Thanks again Uncle Jer and Aunt Tiffany. Can't wait til you get to come home again!

:)
-a

ZAGG Rocks!

Over the holiday, after noticing that I've already managed to scratch the hell out of my new phone, I got to searching online for a screen protector for it. I stumbled upon (thank you google) a website that sells the "InvisableShield", which is basically a whole body skin for the phone.

http://www.zagg.com/ is the website

Clickity, clickity, click and the invisible shield is on it's way.

Getting ready to close the browser and notice, the little spot for monthly gadget giveways.....sure I'll sign up, I'm pretty damn lucky most of the time....(won $100 on scratch off lottery tickets on Christmas Eve....THANKS MOM and DAD!)

Well, I'll be damned if I didn't just talk to Cameron from ZAGG and I am the proud new owner of a Creative Zen 4GB with an invisible shield installed. I WON THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY!

Woo Hoo! And, the real congratulations is going out to Rick, cause I'm giving it to him!

:)
-a

Vacation Countdown

And the vacation countdown has begun! 30 days and we'll be at Walt Disney World.

Right before bed last night, we made our disney countdown calander that the kids mark off every morning. Heidi loved the girl colors and RJ loved the boy colors. imagine that.

We started glueing the mickey heads on, but then decided that maybe tape worked better.

And then the GREAT news!

Disney Cruise Line was running a special "kids sail free" on most of their cruises between now and the end of May.

This year will be Rick's and my 10 year wedding anniversary. We had planned on doing something anyway, and with the "kids sail free" promotion it ended up being cheaper anyway!

Hooray......so while we were at it, we went ahead and made a cruise countdown calander as well!

on May 28th, we set sail from Port Canaveral! 107 days and counting! (So much to look forward to!)

:)

-a

AWANA Grand Prix

Every year AWANA has their annual grand prix.

We have always been a firm believer in if our kids are told to build something, the kids will, not Rick.

They design and pick their car shapes. They name their cars, and pick the theme/paint themselves. Rick makes sure it weighs correctly, and off we go.

Year after year, we watch the 3 year old kids come in with the most elaborately built cars.

Next year, game on! Rick has started planning the cars already.

Here RJ is with 2 cars. He practiced raced them and decided to race football instead of pirate.

Heidi chose to race pink glitter princess car instead of green glitter princess car.RJ helped lead the pledgeRJ's car coming in second in one of his races.

:)

-a

Heidi's Christmas Program

Even Rick mentioned how long it had been since I posted.....but,

I am happy to report that the craziness is over for one more year and I life is back to normal! Hooray!

Before school let out for the Christmas break, Heidi had her Christmas program at her pre-school. She was so cute walking in.She picked me out of the crowd right away and smiled everytime I took her picture. It was cute.They sang lots of songs, and all 20 of the kids did really well. Most of them sang really loud.

Heidi wore her "skinny" jeans just like Miss Kaitlin's.

For some reason for the group photo, they put short little Heidi in the back. Leave it to her though, she managed to find the camera one way or the other.

:)

-a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Blackberry Storm

Verizon Wireless Santa brought my new phone earlier than I anticipated.....it is fantastic!

Slim, fits in my hand perfectly. The SureType keyboard is so easy to use! No complaints, except that the local Verizon place couldn't/wouldn't transfer my contacts over so I had to do it all by hand. Not the phone's fault though.

It's even replaced my mp3 player thanks to VCast.

I didn't even realize that the Blackberry I was using was such a dinosaur. A much needed upgrade.

ahhhh, wonderful!

:)
-a

RJ's Christmas Program

Tonight was RJ's Christmas program. He looked so super cute in his Christmas outfit! Principal Parker said he looked like Johnny Cash! (in brown) :)

RJ and Heidi before the programMiss Kaitlin came to watch RJ singRJ had a big crowd, Mom, Dad, Heidi, MeeMee, PawPaw, and Grandma all came to watch.

Ross Farley (aka 1/3 of the Farley Boys) looked adorable as usualRJ was so looking forward to his moment in the spotlight. Alot of the kids didn't do the hand movements. Not RJ, he was right on top of it.They sang, "Jingle Bells", "Red and Green", "Snowman on the Lawn", "Decorate the Tree" , "S-A-N-T-A", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ", and "We Wish you a Merry Christmas".

RJ looked adorable and sang as loud as he could. I almost teared up. I was so proud!

:)

-a

58 more days!

:)
-a

SOLD

Both cameras have sold!

Thanks to everyone who expressed interest via email, comments, and telephone!

I will have another one for sale in the next 6-9 months.

:)

-a

Camera(s) for sale

I am selling 1 (maybe 2) camera(s).

Canon 20D

Used in the studio as our main camera until we upgraded models and then became a backup.

After UPS brought me another new camera today, (for a total of 6), I can't justify keeping all of them.

drop me an email or leave me a comment if you'd like more information.

:)

-a

Thank You Verizon Wireless Santa!

I can not wait 'til Christmas morning.......

:)

-a

Baby Harrison

I visited Sarah and Harrison in the hospital today. He's beautiful!

I took tons of pictures, but since Sarah should be the first one to "introduce" him via the blogging world, I will only post my favorite of his feet.

You'll have to wait to see his sweet little face!

thank you Sarah for letting me have the honor of bringing my camera and spending some time with your family today!

:)

-a

Baby Chuck Chuck is Here!

The highly anticipated birth of baby Chuck Chuck is finally over.

He is here and he has a name!

Harrison Ray Kinkade

weighed 7 lb 1 oz and was 20 inches long.

Mom and baby are both doing good........lots of pictures to follow tomorrow! Im heading to the hospital first thing in the morning!

Congratulations Cliff, Sarah, and Jack!

:)
-a

Bears vs Vikings

I can't believe how busy we've been and how I am JUST NOW getting around to blogging about our Chicago Bears "Gameday Experience".

On October 19, Rick and I headed up to Soldier Field for our "gameday" experience.

Nothing beats a game at Soldier Field on a crisp fall afternoon.I forgot my hat, and it was the day that all of the fans were supposed to wear orange, so I got a new stocking cap on the walk up to the field.

Then we headed to will call to pick up our tickets and took a couple pictures of us and our tickets. My hair looks CRAZY in that stocking cap.4 times a year, Soldier Field throws a tailgate party for the fans.....This just happened to be one of the weekends. Hooray. So we headed into the tailgating area.Beer, Food, and GamesAnd I won a T-shirt!We were allowed into the stadium 90 minutes before the game. We headed down to the field and picked up our 'Pregame Guest" passes.And then they ushered us down to the field. I CAN NOT describe how cool it was to go through the tunnel that the players run through each week.Rick and me on the field......Pre-game warmups hadn't even started yet, and there was Charles Tillmann (33). Are you freakin' kidding me? He was kind enough to take a picture with me.He even signed my Bear PawAnd then out of no where there was Matt Forte (22), (who in my opinion should be Rookie of the Year)! Here's a picture of him autographing my Bear Paw.Then Warm-Ups startedWe were so close to the players. We had to stay behind "the line", but here is a picture of the line, an then where the bears feet were.... crazy closeLovie took a few laps around the field to watch the players warm up.Alex Brown came up and gave me a high five. Seriously....touched my hand.Robbie Gould headed over and as he was walking by, I yelled...."You kick ass Robbie!" He TURNS AROUND, WALKS OVER, and points at me and says "Thank You!" Seriously, I had a conversation with our kicker.After warms ups, we headed to our seats to watch the Bears defeat the Vikings 48-41. It was such an exciting game!With 2 minutes left, we headed to the media room and picked up our press passes. They were personalized with our names.After we watched the final minutes of the game, we headed to the press room and watched Lovie Smith and Kyle Orton give their post game conferences. It was amazing. The room was so small and there were only 25 people in the entire room. 25 people, and 10 TV cameras. I can't imagine how intimidating it must be to be up there speaking.

They wouldn't let us take pictures during the interviews, but they did let us take a quick one before Lovie came in.It was such a great day. The weather was fantastic, as was the game. I can't wait til next year, and hopefully we can do it again.

Here is my bear paw with the autographs on it.And the complimentary picture they took of us when we headed down on the field.

The day was so amazing. I feel so lucky to have been able to experience it!

:)

-a