Random photos...........

The kids at Sunriver. It had just started to snow.
It was beautiful and quiet. Awesome!















The view of our snowstorm at home from our yard.























Some strange children on Easter.





















My first homemade lemon meringue pie.
It tasted wonderful.....
















The Zatterbergs at the beach.
















My boy smacking the ball.
















One of my favorite people and me. :)

Dropped the ball.

Well, so I made it halfway through the month...whatever.
Christmas was good, New Years fairly uneventful........but I am not complaining!
Here are some highlights!





















Yay, scooters!!!
















Oh yeah.......got some use out of that game at Christmas!






















So excited about her guitar!
















My very own scrapbook set!! GET OUT!!





















The gift at the top of Ben's list....still not sure how the heck it works...


So there you are.......hope your Christmas was just as exciting!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL!!!!

Thirteenth and Fourteenth

Ok, so I am stretching out the tree decorating to cover a few days. So what? We did get the tree up and lit. When the kids get home from school today, they will put on the ornaments and finally that will be done! It is a great tree and reaches about 6inches from the ceiling. Just enough room for the angel! Still praying the kitties leave it alone. So far they just like to chase each other around under the tree. Maybe that will stop when I get presents wrapped and under there. Happy Tuesday!!!

12th

Got our tree today. It is drying out on the porch, so we will probably get it up while the kids are at school tomorrow, so we can decorate tomorrow night. It is pretty tall and I am hoping it will fit without us cutting it off a little. We are trying to figure out how to make sure it is stable. We have not had kittens in a long time and I am almost positive they will try to climb it. Ugh......

.

Tenth and Eleventh

Ok, Kimmy...I seem to be following your lead these days...............tonight will be Christmas movie night. I would like to watch Christmas Vacation, but I am betting the kids will vote for Elf. Will probably save CV for when I can watch with Richard. It is definitely our favorite.

Tomorrow Brooke and I are going with my mom and grandma to a holiday bazaar at the Salem Fairgrounds. We are meeting my aunt and cousin for an all girls day. Should be fun and I am hoping to get some great handmade gifts and make a dent in my shopping list. Wish me luck!!

9th

Not much holiday-ish going on today. I did promise the kids if they go to the gym with me for Zumba, I will make "Snowman in a hot tub" (hot cocoa w/ peppermint ice cream)drinks when we get home before bed. I guess that counts. Really, it's gonna have to.

8th (updated)

So after last nights difficult evening out......we are staying home and making THESE.
Let's hope tonight's activity ends happily and not with yelling. Happy Holidays!!

Here are how they turned out:

The kids had a lot of fun doing these. I used 7" x 7" paper and they came out pretty big.
We may make some more smaller ones.
Pretty cool!!

I give up...

I just give up.
I am tired of Jekyll/Hyde children.

Seventh

Tonight is the holiday gift workshop for the kids. LOVE IT!! All the crafts are under $5 and they are great gifts!
Tonight's is extra special because Richard is home and offered to take the kids for me so I don't miss Zumba class! YES!! He's a keeper!

6th

After making pipe cleaner shapes all weekend, today I will put them in the borax, boiling water solution. I am excited to see how this project works out. I may even post pictures later.

Fifth

Redid the candy canes. Turned out much better after getting a new candy thermometer. I think the day before's batch did not get hot enough. I think if I redid this project, I would do it by myself. It was a little tricky making sure the candy didn't get too hard or too soft. Oh well, the kids liked it and I guess that is the point.

4th

Well, the candy canes did not turn out yesterday. Yuck! Going to try that again tomorrow, maybe. Today, Richard got the Christmas lights up. When he got all our lights out, he found a bunch that didn't work, so he decided to get new ones. He went with the old school, bigger, multi color ones and I am so glad! They look great!
Brooke and I went with my mom and grandma to a holiday bazaar at a church in town. Bought a few little teacher gifts and some things for my book group ladies. On the way out, this lady told Brooke that Santa was there and she could get her picture with him. Nope, not gonna happen. Once Brooke saw him and saw that he was OBVIOUSLY not Santa, she wanted nothing to do with him. Once we were out the door, she said, "Mom, his eyebrows didn't even match his beard. Who is he trying to fool?" Apparently, she is on to those Santa imposters. I will say he was a tad creepy. I wouldn't have sat on his lap either.

Day 3:

Homemade candy canes as seen here at Homemade Mamas.

The kids are very excited. Ben didn't not want to go to school for the 3rd day this week. He has a cold, but I don't think it is worth staying home for. On Wed, I let him stay home and then after an hour, he felt fine. Thursday, he called me to pick him up at 11am. He seemed to be just fine. He did go to bed early and then this morning didn't want to go. I told him to suck it up and if he called me to pick him up and he didn't have a fever, he would not be making candy canes tonight. I am pretty sure he will make it all day.

December 2nd.

The kids are going to do their Santa lists......or rather complete their lists, since they have been working on them for awhile.

Countdown to Christmas....

Every year, I hear of friends doing something holidayish with their kids each day of December to countdown to Christmas. So this year I am going to try it......I am not planning a calendar, like my highly organized friend Sarah, but instead, I will wing it each day............I guess we will just see how far I can get!! :)

December 1st - Tonight the kids and I will watch "Polar Express". This movie is ALWAYS our kick off to the holidays and the kids are very excited.

We will also start reading our 25 Christmas/winter books. For some reason, this year when Brooke collected them all together, we only had 18. I will have to do some investigating.

Come back tomorrow and we'll see what I have next on the list!! :)

Thankful.

For:

1. My 2 great kids, who surprise me everyday.

2. My great husband, who works hard EVERY day and doesn't complain, makes a point to spend time with the kids despite his odd schedule, and makes me laugh everyday.

3. Great friends.......new and old.

4. a healthy family with minimal drama.

5. my bookgroup that still finds the time to meet once a month after all these years. No judgments and I know each of them would be there for me, for whatever reason, no matter what.

6. a warm house, plenty of food, cars that run.

7. God, who is with me everyday.


Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

Something to read and think about...

I found this post through one of my favorite blogs, Mom to the Screaming Masses and it really struck a cord....

Hope you all will read.

Thx.

Summer, summer, summer........

I think it was a great summer. No real vacation, but a lot of close-to-home fun. Hung out at some new fun places with some new fun people. The kids and I made some new friends. Richard was thankfully a little more busy with work than previous summers. We started going to the Tunes on Tuesday in August. It was a bummer we didn't start in July, since we had so much fun! Went to the outdoor Carlton Pool a few times and camped with new friends. I really made the point this summer to try and keep the kids busy and not get into the comfortable rut of hanging out at home.

Ben played All Stars this year for baseball and that kept us busy for a few extra weeks. Then he had baseball camp with a lot of new friends and really had fun! Brooke had outdoor camp with a good friend and had a terrific time.

New kitties, meeting cousins, zoo, Rose garden, beach, camping...........on and on.........

Now we are getting ready for school to start! One more day of fun, tomorrow at the last Portland Beavers game and then early to bed. :) Both kids are in school ALL day this year and I can't believe it! They are both excited! Even Ben! I have never before had him care what he was going to wear the first day of school, but he already has it planned out!

Here are some random pics from the summer!















Ben relaxing between tournament games




















St Paul Rodeo Parade with the Harveys and Abrahams
















St Paul Rodeo......lots of sun!















Ben turns 9!!





















New kitty, Smoky!
















New kitty, Carly!!
















Hanging with cousin, Mitchell from CA
















Rose Garden















Beach visiting Julie with the Harveys

My boy is 9.........

or...I am tired of seeing the same picture on my blog since March.




















After all these years, I still love him and keep him around...especially since he is the only one who will sit still long enough to watch baseball with me!

Love you, Benjamin Bunny!!

This is just a series of pics of Brooke enjoying the chunks of wood that Richard cut to hopefully get Ben to run around the backyard and not run through our bark and plants in the front. Apparently Brooke loves the new stumps more.