Whew

Whew - it's been a whirlwind, fun loving, visited, visitee, cooking, cooked for, cleaning, gift giving, and receiving......GREAT CHRISTMAS.

Bring on the New Year. We have a lot to look forward to and a lot to be thankful for.

Happy New Year! Be safe, think smart.

Cleaning House for Santa

This is how we clean the house, in our PJ's, sunglasses, and boots. Meanwhile, I wear a tiara while cleaning, but Isabella doesn't like the way it stays on her head, so this is her version. How do you clean the house?

Happy Christmas Eve. Be safe if you are traveling, keep warm if you are home.

We are tracking Santa, are you - click here? At this moment he is in Chongqing, China. That is where Isabella is from. Chongqing is the largest and most populous of the People's Republic of China's four provincial-level municipalities, and the only one in the less densely populated western region of China. Formerly (until 14 March 1997) a sub-provincial city within Sichuan Province, the municipality of Chongqing has a registered population of 31,442,300. The boundaries of Chongqing municipality reach much further into the city's hinterland than the boundaries of the other three provincial level municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin), and much of the municipality, which spans over 80,000 km, is rural. The population of the urban area of Chongqing proper is about 5.09 million. WOW - Santa is busy in China.

Bakapalooza 2008!

What you say - Baka who, palooza what?

Bakapalooza:
A hand full of friends
A dash of chaos
Cups and Cups of Sugar and Flour
Spoonfuls of stories and giggles
Little hands to help (optional)

It started in 1998. A few girlfriends wanted to do some holiday baking for neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Well, I had the bright idea, if we all got together with our recipes, and our ingredients we could just bake the day away and swap our goods. Mean while we also attempt to wrap presents, write cards, and decorate cookies. The bakers have changed over the years and new recipes have come and gone, we laugh, we cry, we learn a lot about one another, we might add a little to much of this or that, or even have a complete flop, and sometimes something gets broke....but the end result is always the same, a huge success and more fun than you could ever imagine. I wouldn't trade the way the day goes for anything.

Thanks friends, I can't wait until next year.

Santa's Elves hard at work:


Looks Like we have been baking:


End Results:


Now they just need to be delivered. Where is Santa? Enjoy!

Chirstmas Card...

This is sort-of what our Christmas Card looked like this year, it also doubled as a change of address card. Made a few minor changes to post on our blog. We did manage to get a few sent out amongst all the boxes. If we missed you we are sorry and consider this is our effort in "Going Green". Our wishes to all of you are still the same.

Happy Holidays!

Dancing Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

and the beat goes on...

Wooooooooooowwwwwwwwww Nellie - life is happening all around us and no unpacking is getting done. In fact, I am thinking maybe we turn the boxes into furniture and go with it. I think a nice bedside table out of that box sitting over there will look good. A wise man once told me, "make a plan and go with it, plans change and that's okay - because you just gotta have a plan to put your feet on the ground when you get out of bed each morning".

We had Uncle Luke over last weekend for some cookie making fun. Not sure why we didn't photograph Uncle Luke, but we didn't at all. Not one photo. Maybe it's the fact that is so darn handsome, I didn't want him to out shine my kids.





This past weekend, Isabella and I went to a 'tea' with the Sugar Plum Fairy on Sunday. We attended Brunch with some friends and met others at the event. It was a great time. For those of you who don't know....the Sugar Plum Fairy is from the Nut Cracker. She hosts a 'tea' each year at the studio where Isabella dances. It was a great time and all the little girls looked so pretty. A little background story, before the long of the short comes.....Isabella asked Santa for a 'princess dolly'. I have combed the isles at our local stores with her asking her to show me what it was that she told Santa she wanted. To no avail...we have not had any success on tracking down what she told Santa. Well.....back to the 'tea'...the curtain opens and 'Dew Drop' ballerina comes on stage and dances....she turns to me and says, 'that's it Mommy, that is what I want for Christmas'. After the show, we took photos and tried to get the little dancer to come home with us and sit nicely under our tree, but I just got one of those teenage eye rolls. So, still looking for Dew Drop Ballerina Dolly.



Below is the view from our front porch as of yesterday afternoon and...



then this afternoon, here is what the view from our front porch looked like.



Then we spent about 20 minutes getting all dressed for this white stuff....and probably only spent 10 minutes outside. All of which Isabella spent in the garage crying, I was shoveling snow, and Jacob was doing snow angels all over the yard.



One last thing....I had this conversation with Jacob this morning:

Jacob: Hey mom.....

Me: What?

Jacob: Remember, not last Christmas but the one in our old house?

Me: Yea buddy, why?

Jacob: In the apartment at Christmas there weren't a lot of presents. But at our old house there were a lot of presents under our tree.

Me: Yea - that was a good year.

Jacob: Well, I was thinking......that our tree this year is looking like the apartment.

Me: But Santa hasn't been here yet and we are pretty lucky this year to be in our new home, fed, and warm.

Jacob: Well, tell Santa.....I want it to look like our old house on Christmas morning, not the apartment. We have more room now.

Me: I will get right on that buddy.

Jacob: Hey Mom, if you text him or email him he will get the message in time.

We have come a long way baby! Enjoy!

Happening at our house...

A friend of mine reminded me, 'it's not moved in, it's moving in'. So, I going to think of it this way. We are slowing 'moving' into our new home. And I do mean SLOWLY in every sense of the word.

We do love it. It's nice to have the extra room, our own rooms, and a wonderful kitchen to cook in. However, there are still a ton of boxes. This weekend our favorite accomplishments were, getting both cars into the garage (all Robb, I had nothing to do with this one) and actually hanging a couple things on the wall. So, I would say....some success has happened with our 'moving in' status.



We have been busy doing 'kid' activities. Jacob and Isabella spent yesterday morning visiting with Santa and friends. Jacob told Santa that he wanted, 'some cars - you know like Hot Wheels' and then Isabella asked him for, 'a princess dolly'. Robb and I wiped our brows as we have been hearing things like a puppy, gas power four wheeler, new kitchen set, and we think we even heard a new swimming pool. Hey, kids can dream, right?



Then last night, Isabella had her first ever dance recital. OMG - it was so cute. I missed it as I was filming it and she was only up there for about 3 minutes. But once we got home we saw the video (which I would post but don't want to as their are other children on this video that aren't mine), we laughed so hard I bet milk would have come out our noses. You see we walked into the studio and she went into a big room with her other dancer friends and teacher. While we went to sit in the audience. Well, let me just say, when she went into the room, her skirt was not falling down, the waste band was not flipped up, and her sweater fit her just fine. After further review of the video the entire performance her skirt was falling down, the waste band was flipped up and her sweater crept up so high, all we saw was belly button from Bella. She thinks it is so funny and just keeps asking to see the video again and again. It was a great night and I can't not wait until the next performance, which I think maybe we will get her suspenders to wear.



We did decide to decorate a bit for Christmas, but went mild this year. The stockings are hung, the tree is up, and very, very little shopping has been done. But everyone here in our house is in the spirit. We hope you are to!