Wheels and Getting Air

Monday Jeanne wanted to check out our roller skating rink. They boys love to rollerblade and we used to go on Fridays when they have a special that is never crowded. I was a little nervous with it being school vacation but it wasn't that bad.

Before we left, we had lunch. I wanted to share this picture because people think I am creative and I wanted to show that it runs in the family. Auntie Chris was taking some credit too but I wasn't there for the conception. The pile by the way (left over from the footprints is dino poo).

Jenna wasn't quite sure about it at first.But she warmed up to the idea. The boys were rockin it out!

Joshua stopped to take a little break.

Jamie was getting into the groove but wasn't letting go of me. As long as she stayed off my toes we were good. :)

Tuesday we went to the Bounce U before they left. I figured it would surely tucker them out for the plane ride home. I later found out they didn't nap. Shocker.

I love the faces this girl makes.

Pooped out cousins hanging out watching some cartoons. It was probably the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. They rewound it about 8 times to watch the fart scene, their favorite.

Bye Bye

We're in a mini depression. We brought Auntie Jeanne and the girls to the airport today. My poor Jacob is heart broken. Usually I am the one in tears after they leave but this time I have company. He is so sad that his little playmates are gone. We will miss them terribly. It was a treat to have them here near Christmas. That has never happened. Of course when they left, I came right home and started to take down the tree ornaments. Thank you Jeanne for coming!!! I will post some pictures of the last two day's fun when the lump in my throat clears.

Visiting fun

A table for 11 dinner at home (thank goodness 2 were out), another night of sledding, McDonald's playplace, a trip to the local Walmart (they need to check them all out) and a night of craft painting sums up our last two days. Here are some of the highlights in pictures. The shutterfly site wasn't working yesterday so I could post more.

Snowball fight!!!!!

A booger flicker??? We are so bringing this to Auntie Jeanne's to try out.

This is another reason why the kids love when Auntie Jeanne comes, a trip to Walmart always yeilds some craft time fun.

Jamie's creation.And she facepaints.

We've Got Company

And they love the snow. Jenna and Jamie are here from Tennessee and we wasted no time getting them out into what little snow is left before the rain. They were lovin' it!

Jaimie says, "Who needs a sled?"

Christmas was quiet and enjoyable. We all cozied up inside, ate some yummy food and played a little Family Fued that Auntie got as a Christmas gift. Here are just a few pictures.

Exercising my creative bone

The days are dwindling and all of this snow is really putting a monkey wrench to the shopping scene. The boys love the snow, Jim has been busy plowing the snow and I have been braving the snow to shop. I really took advantage of some online shopping this year which was a help.

I made the boys' teachers a cute little frame I saw on another blog. Kinda like my sisters mother in law's soup that never tastes as good when I make it, they don't look as good as the ones I saw but I think they are as cute as heck.

Auntie and I also made some yummy goodies for her work friends. They started out as chocolate covered pretzels but there weren't enough whole ones in the bag. Instead we made some pretzel bark. Who doesn't love salty/sweet. First it loooked like this and then we broke it up into bark pieces.

A few weeks ago Auntie came over with a recipe she wanted to try. Another salty/sweet. The chips aren't just in the background. They went into the cookies. They were a bit dry as the only liquid was an egg yoke and a teaspoon of vanilla, but anything tastes better with chocolate on it, which we drizzled all over.

Snow

Here are some pictures from yesterdays/last nights/still going won't give up even though another one is coming tomorrow storm.

What a Week...

Happy Birthday Kristi!

The week started off with schools being cancelled due to no power. The boys were home through Wednesday and Jim was out of work (tough time for construction). Today I took a personal day since Joshua had a doctor appt. but now due to the impending storm, schools were called off early so we're all home (Jim's working-thank god).

We can thank my niece Jenna for the snow. Auntie Jeanne and the girls will be visiting the day after Christmas from Tennessee. Jenna had big plans of 'sliding down Auntie Michelle's big hill because it was covered with snow'. Of course, at that time we had not a lick of snow around. This week we will have had three storms after Sunday. Now there will be plenty of snow for Jenna. Of course if she was old enough to understand, she would know that Auntie Michelle needs every last minute for Christmas shopping and this snow is a bit of a damper on the shopping scene. On the other hand the snow is good for Uncle Jim's plowing.

Auntie Michelle was asking about traditions on her blog. We really don't have any besides the comerical advent calendar which is why I adopted the 24 books to Christmas idea from Letti's blog. This week (the one good weather day) I brought my students on a Christmas shopping fieldtrip to the Christmas Tree Shop. I found this cool advent idea that I am excited to try out next year. I will have all year to find trinkets to fill it up with...no peanut gallery comments :)

I bought myself a Christmas present since I had to pick it out and needed it for Christmas. I got a new camera. I am a creature of habit as many of you know and have only had Kodak Easyshare cameras. I really wanted something with more zoom and better lighting. I got the Nikon P80 figuring you can't go wrong with a Nikon. So far, I'm not so sure. It seems when you try to get fancy, the picture taking is not as easy. It is still a point and shoot, but the more you zoom the more super sensitive it is to movement (even pushing the button) and the result is blurred pictures. I hope I can figure it out because I know I will never hear the end of it if Jim hates it. He also needs easy, straight forward.