Christmas Recap and Happy New Year!

We had a good Christmas. We didn't get to see family, but we had a nice quiet time at home playing games and just hanging out together.




And Santa came to our house early!!! Here he is with all the kids...



Jake wasn't too sure about this guy but he warmed up to him soon enough. I couldn't believe how much Stan looked like Santa with all that white. And in case you're wondering, that's his real beard that I promptly made him trim when Christmas was over.


And of course the presents...

Here's Mr. and Mrs. Claus...She seems to be aging better than he is. LOL

It's that time of year when everyone bundles up and walks around with clinched cheeks (and I don't mean the ones on each side of your smile!) because of the ice.

We've gotten quite a bit of snow the past few weeks. It hasn't been very cold so it melts and freezes again and again. We're actually on a flood watch today since it's in the 40's and all that snow is melting. Crazy.

This was taken (by me sticking my head out our back door since I didn't have shoes on) the first day of the new year...

Hope your new year is going great so far!

Christmas Tour of Homes 2008

It's time again for BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes! At first I wasn't going to participate because I thought it'd look just like last year. But, I couldn't resist...and there have been some minor changes/additions. I'll try not to talk too much since I know you're here for the pictures!

Now, since I haven't posted about actually getting the tree, we'll start there. Grab your cup of coffee/cocoa while we go outside.

Stan and the kids always go get our tree and bring it back as a surprise to me. Jake didn't make the trip this year because his nap was much more important. Trust me.

Here we have it all inside and set up, complete with towels under it to catch any melting ice. It's so hard to wait for it to dry out before stringing the lights!

Now we will stay inside for the rest of the tour because, baby it's cold outside! It was -3 degrees when I took the kids to the bus (wind chill -20). When I went out to crank the Excursion it said to me, "Are you stinking kidding?!" So lets cozy up to the fire for a bit.

Ok, so here it is all decorated. I give each of the kids a bowl full of the non-fragile ornaments to hang wherever they can reach then I hang the rest up high. In case you're wondering, the tree is roughly 13 feet tall. And yes I need a 10-foot ladder to decorate it. And yes I'm afraid of heights.

But isn't it worth it?! ;o)





Now we'll go around the room and check out the rest of the Christmas sights.

I was a little bummed that I didn't put up my little cowboy tree with the chili pepper lights this year, but having a 2 year old in the house calls for some modifications. He likes whacking the bell tree (pictured above) and making it ring. And I resist the urge to stop him, since what's the use of having a bell tree if it doesn't ever ring?

These little trees are new this year. Not the greatest picture, but at least I don't think you can see any cobwebs.

This year Stan came up with the idea of the 12 scents of Christmas and I gladly took that challenge. I found this cute little...um...what's it called? Anyway, you put the scented wafer in the bowl and light a tea light under it. Lots of fun! (Now if only the tea lights lasted longer...)


Confession: this is last year's picture, but it looks the same. I promise. Mom made this fun quilt wall hanging a couple years ago.

And she made this fun wintery/tree quilt wall hanging this year!! Isn't it beautiful?!

This is also last year's picture, but again...it still looks the same. This was new last year and I absolutely love it! I'd love, love, love the Willow Tree nativity set figurines. Maybe someday...but for now I'm happy with this!

(We do have our fun Little People nativity set...somewhere...I still need to go digging for sheep and baby Jesus. They couldn't have gone too far. Surely.)



So there you have it! Thanks for stopping by, we really enjoyed the visit! If you come back next week we'll have some homemade nativity cut-out sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles. That is, if you trust them. The girls always help make them...and sample them during the process.

Be sure to check out the other homes in the tour!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For your Thanksgiving viewing pleasure...



Who needs parades and football games when you have this?!

Oh the joys of having sisters! Are there no blue, black or red goggles in this house?! Poor little guy. Tell me he won't grow up all warped!

(I haven't taken a picture of him wearing the big floppy yellow straw hat with a big yellow flower on it yet, but knowing how ornery this boy is already I'm thinking I may need some bribery pictures for later on in life.)



So anyway, moving right along....

Somehow I don't think washing Jake's mouth out with soap is going to do any good (that is, whenever he starts talking where we can understand him).

Why?

Because I caught him with this...

Yep, that would be the soap bar from our shower. I know... EEEEEWWWWWWW!!!

At least this time he didn't also rub body wash all over his face and hair. Like last time.

Hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving!! And that your turkey dinner tastes better than soap!

We will be (future tense...I'm writing this on Wednesday but setting it to post on Thursday) celebrating Jessica's 6th birthday, cooking turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, broccoli, rolls, and pumpkin pie, eating birthday cake, and possibly taking that whole turkey dinner over to someone else's house where our church will be having Thanksgiving all together. (Most people up here have family far away so our church has Thanksgiving together.)

And if you're going to brave Black Friday, good luck to ya. I'll be home snug as a bug!

Halloween Night!

Why is it you can never get one decent picture of a group of kids?

Because they're kids. And kids wiggle, and giggle, and jiggle...and cry.

This year for Halloween the girls all wanted to dress up as princesses. (Rebecca is a "fairy princess," thankyouverymuch! Do NOT call her just a princess. She will correct you. Oh and don't tell her that's actually a "bride" costume I'd found at a consignment store.) Of course Jake is Spiderman.

He's protesting here because the girls got him in the car too soon and I had to get him out for pictures. He was ready to GO already!

I took several pictures trying to get him to laugh...or something. And when he does...

...Jessica looks away.

*sigh*

So anyway, the kids got home from school and all their school parties and hallway parades. Then after dinner we gathered up and paraded to the neighbors (well, not loud-car neighbor). We have an elderly couple across from us and each year they have a bowl of candy to give out. So when we showed up they were thrilled. We were their first trick-or-treaters in 15 years! (The kids were sick the past two Halloweens so we didn't go out then.) We live out of town, can you tell?

After that we went to town and trick-or-treated up and down a block where a couple of teachers live, then we went to a community party full of games and goodies.

They had this little set-up for picture taking:

It was so DARK in there I wasn't sure what kind of picture I'd have when we got home. Hmmm, not bad!

Stan missed out on all the hoopla because he's out hunting this week for opening elk season. I'm sure he's completely broken hearted! *grin* Actually, I know he misses seeing the kids all dressed up and excited, but I doubt he misses the craziness part.

Maybe I'll be able to post a picture of a dead elk when he gets back!

Oh, I also have to tell you that we went to trick-or-treat some friends of ours who the husband works with Stan. And while Stan is gone this week our friend is using his work truck. So when we pulled up to their house and the girls saw daddy's truck in the driveway they all said, "Hey!! Daddy's here!!!"

It was so cute!

4th of July (delayed reaction)

What was I thinking?! I didn't post about the 4th of July!

We didn't really do a whole lot. The kids waited not so patiently for it to get dark. You know, it doesn't get dark here very soon. The towns just do their fireworks shows at 10:00PM anyway, even though it's not dark yet.

I'm having trouble with the pictures and the spacing, so just ignore all that.

So anyway, of course we had sparklers:




















Rebecca wielding her sparkler (no, she's not trying to poke daddy in the rump...just a fluke of picture taking!)




















Jessica and Jake with their sparklers:

So, giving an almost-two-year-old a sparkler might not be such a great parenting idea. But he loved it:

Mackenzie working her sparkler:



















Not very scenic, but they're staying on the rocks to avoid starting any unwanted fires.



















Now daddy is setting off our little firework show. Such a captive audience!



















From our yard we can see quite a bit of the valley. Lots of people are setting off fireworks so we sit and watch the many shows. We can see a couple of town shows too from here. We're not up close and personal with the fireworks but it's really neat to see the whole valley celebrating at the same time.

Happy New Year!!!

Well happy New Year everyone! I have to brag that the first morning of my new year started off with the girls getting up, beating me to the kitchen and making me breakfast in bed! Awwwwww!!! Had I known, I would have jumped back in bed before they got to my room...but as it was I opened the door right when they got there. So I took it to the kitchen to eat with them. It was very sweet and they were so excited and said such sweet things to me. I know this is no where near in comparison to Mary...but I "treasured it in my heart" just the same.

Oh, and it was a bowl of cereal and a cup of water, in case you were wondering. In matching plastic bowl and cup. Purple.

(And before you get to thinking that it's always like this at my house. Let me assure you, it's not. In fact the past couple of days I've been on their case and on the verge of pulling out my hair. Just when I'm about ready to run through a wall, they go and do something sweet. But I'm also the first to say...they ARE sweet kids and we're VERY blessed!)

Anyway, as sweet as that was...and oh it was!...our new year is bittersweet. That was the sweet. On the otherhand, we got news on Saturday that Stan's Grandmommie passed away. He flew out to Kentucky for the funeral.

I'd like to say that the kids and I have a fun-filled day planned for today, but it's the last day of their holiday break and of course the teachers sent homework. Ugh. We dont need busywork...and I dont think they will forget all that much over the course of a week. But anyway...of course we put it off til now. Well...most of it. So that's what we're doing today. That and laundry. Fun, fun! Dont you wish you were here?! Aw, I'm sure we'll take a break to play here and there. We dont want to be dull...all work and no play.

Ok...gotta go rescue Elmo out of the Christmas tree. Dont ask how he got there. I'm not sure I want to know either. Is it wishful thinking that if I put an opened can of tuna on the floor that he'd come down on his own?

Christmas Tour of Homes

BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes is here! Be sure to go check out the rest of the fabulous tour on her site!

I'll skip a boring intro and get right to the pics...that's what we really like anyway!

When you walk into our living room here is what you'll see:

This is our very tall (real) Christmas tree that Stan and the kids go and get each year. My best measurement of the height of our ceiling is about 13 feet...but I'm not too concerned about accuracy as I'm standing near the top of a 10 foot ladder, being scared of heights and all (which also makes decorating the tree at the top of a 10 foot ladder quite an experience as well)!

Here's a closer look (Ignore the crookedness):

You also have to appreciate that I took the time to unbox all the presents to put around the bottom of the tree for the picture. Because this is how the bottom of our tree really looks:

Yep. And all the gifts are inside the ugly brown boxes because 1) last year the cute 4 year old pulled down the 12 foot tree on top of herself 3-4 times (she was ok), breaking a few ornaments and presents, and 2) there's a 16 month old in the house who I feel would just be too tempted to unwrap everything prematurely, and 3) our dog (yes we still have the dog) comes in the house and drinks the tree water (choose your battles, choose your battles) and would love to help Jake unwrap the presents. It's self-preservation, really. I know my limits and I know with the above combination that by Christmas Eve my hair would be standing on end and fire would be coming out of my mouth.

Moving right along...

As you enter the living room and look around, here is what else you will see:

(Notice the dog and cat bobble heads inside the cabinet. Mackenzie picked those out especially for her mom and dad a couple years ago.)

You cant really tell, but the red lights on the mantle are chili pepper lights...love them! I keep some (plain) greenery and white lights on the mantle year round and get made fun of that it's Christmas leftovers, but it's not...I just like it. Also, I'm proud to say I made the wreath. Oh yes, I did. Aren't I special? No, I'm just too cheap to buy a premade one for three times the cost. It's one of my favorite additions for this year.

This is above the armoire (yeah, I had to do a spell check on that one) that the TV is in. Here's the bigger picture:

You cant really see the bell tree I got from Target that's on the hearth. It's another favorite addition for this year! Here it is closer up (it's a lot cuter in person):

Ok, moving along to the kitchen. When Jessica was a baby (she was born around Thanksgiving) I made the executive decision to NOT put up the big tree (Rebecca was a year and a half old and Mackenzie was 4) so I got a little 3 foot artificial one to put up instead. Now I use that one to put in the kitchen with some chili pepper lights and cowboy decorations (that MIL gave me one year) and some tatting ornaments that mom made. I love this little tree!!!

Above the dining table I have this quilt that mom made. During the year I have a different quilt hanging here that mom also made! Love it!





Finally...yes, I'm almost done! This is my very favorite addition for this year...a Willow Tree nativity tapestry bellpull that I have hanging in the entry way. (I got it from CBD by the way.) It's just beautiful! Oh and I would have shown a picture of our nativity set, but it's the Fisher Price one and I have a feeling that most of the pieces are in the bottom of a toy box. I'll have to get the girls to dig them out so we can display them.

So there you have it. That's the end of the tour. Feel free to hang around, have some coffee or hot chocolate and visit a while. I dont get a lot of adult conversation, so I'd love for you to stay!