Having Ourselves a Very Merry Christmas

This evening we find ourselves at the end of Christmas 2007. We're done baking cookies, we're done with eating 10,000 calories a day, done with wrapping, the frantic shopping, done with crafting gifts for family and friends and done with recieving 5 catalogs per day from LL Bean. Now I can sit back, reflect on the season and sigh a great big "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."

We did have another great Christmas. The girls were spoiled with Nintendo DS games, DVDs, clothing for their American girl dolls, clothing for them, MP3 players and a variety of books. I was bestowed with a Cricut much to my surprise but the biggest of all was my very own American Girl doll, Molly. Growing up I loved dolls and Barbie and when the girls started getting into the American Girl Dolls I was the one having way too much fun dressing them and doing their hair. I've told Nate recently that if I ever ever get the urge to have another baby to just buy me the doll instead. Well, I haven't even mentioned babies and he got me one anyway. What a guy! Nate was given the well intentioned gift of a personal groomer given to him by us as his nose hairs are only slightly scarier than mine.

My mom traveled from Libby to Moscow last Thursday and we had a great time shopping for those last minute gifts, hot tubbing, eating our weight in chocolate and cookies and drinking lots of adult beverages. My brother and his wife, Lisa arrived on Sunday from Boise. We had a ton of fun together and with the glut of presents that were displayed out on two (not one, but two) tables we decided to stretch out the Christmas cheer by opening a present each every couple of hours until this morning. This was great in that we all enjoyed each present for a few hours rather than ripping and tearing all at once.

Sadly, all of our guests retreated back to their homesteads this morning and left just Nate, Annabelle and I (Josie went to stay with Grandma for a few days by herself. We'll pick her up this Friday) to veg out in front of the tube and take some well deserved naps. Ahhhhhhhhhhh....indeed.

Happy 8th BIrthday, Annabelle!!!!

My baby turned 8 today. She was so wiggly for her day to arrive. She woke up at 5:30 am asking if she could open her presents. We finally were up at 6 am.


We celebrated her birthday at school on Wednesday as her class winter party is this afternoon.


Last night she flushed #7 down the toilet.


She woke up to a big dragonfly balloon and lots of presents.


Among the gifts: Julie- the 70's American Girl doll and clothes, Pokemon, a new bathrobe and slippers, books, a fish bank, sling chute, photo album and lots of sweet moolah.

We'll top off the evening with dinner and dessert at Applebee's.

Disaronno vs. Molly

Winner: Disaronno

Molly is going back to bed while she vows never to drink an alchoholic beverage again......at least until Christmas.

The Glasses Have Arrived

Annabelle is now the proud owner of specs. They arrived on Tuesday and they made their debut at the girls' winter concert. Annabelle is very excited to have them and enjoys wearing them. We're happy that we can still see her big shiny eyes.





While trying to get a good picture of Annabelle in her new glasses I shot this photo. I just think it's cool to see her face through her hands. She was moving fast.

Don't Have the Perfect Gift for the Kids Yet.....

........I have the solution and it's FREE!* Josie and Annabelle aquired a big box yesterday. Let me tell you, they are having the most fun with that thing. They've made it into a cave, a bed and a special reading place. The options for this box are limitless.

I have a feeling that they will play more with this box than they will any of the expensive toys we'll be getting them for Christmas. So, if you don't have that perfect gift for little Jimmy or Susie yet just wrap up a big empty box. They'll love it! Be sure to have the video camera out because if they end up hating it at least you'll have great reaction film to send in to America's Funniest Home Videos and you may win $10,000. So it's a win-win situation really.

*meaning you get one from the back of an appliance store or ask Nate to save out a Jacuzzi Tub box for you. This is, by no means, an excuse to go out and purchase a 72" flat screen TV, brand new fridge and/ or washer and dryer just for the box.....but if that works, then, go for it!



Josie and Butterscotch playing in the box just a few minutes ago.

Didn't They Do This to Me Last Year?

There's only seven more school days until Christmas break. That's seven days of shopping for the girls, sewing some projects, wrapping their gifts. Seven days without them around to bake cookies and to actually have some cookie dough left to bake. Seven days of mommy time..........

You guessed it. Josie and Annabelle are home sick. Damn!

1st Anniversary = New Look

Happy Anniversary, Blog! I've managed to keep it up for an entire year. That's more than I can say for a lot of other things I was hoping to stick with (what diet and exercise regime???).

It was also time for a new look so I changed it. I picked green not because it's the "in thing" to be but because of the Christmas season. Maybe after the first of the year I will change the look again.... or not.....

Season Size Me

'Tis that time of year
Where upon we load ourselves up with good cheer
Consisting of food, sweets, alcohol and beer
That goes straight to our rear

'No Regrets' we say
Tomorrow's another day
Bring more goodies this way
But soon our bodies say "Hey!"

Enough is enough
Get some excercize and stuff
Eat something that's rough
Green and leafy, is that tough?

Green and leafy? What a thought
Until another plate of cookies is brought

Have You Had Your Eyes Checked Lately?

We recieved a call from the school nurse early last week saying that Annabelle's vision in her left eye was very bad. We knew that she had vision problems last year when we noticed her reading while covering up her left eye. We had ataken her to our optometrist and he patched her eye for a month and got her left eye vision to 20/30. Since then Annabelle has never complained about her eyesight regressing up until about a month ago and then the news from the school nurse. On Friday we took her to Spokane to see a pediatric opthamologist and was told that she has Amblyopia - poor vision in an eye that did not develop normal sight during early childhood development. She needs glasses and will have to go through patching treatment to attempt to get her eyesight back to 20/30 the best it will ever get in her left eye. Unfortunately laser sugery will never be an option for her as this is more of a brain development issue.

Since this is something we could've caught at an early age but didn't I am really advocating that those of you with young children to have them get their eyes checked. We didn't do that and now we regret it.

Puppy Love

We have been enjoying being dog owners. Butterscotch has been a welcome addition to our family and is getting along marvolously with us all......even our cat, Ella. The girls love to snuggle up with Butter especially when they aren't feeling well or want some unconditional love and understanding when I yell at them for not picking up their clothes off the floor.



Butterscotch has found a great retreat underneath our tree. Notice we have no presents under it, there won't be any this year as we aren't taken any chances for her to chew up gifts. You also notice the ornaments are hanging a third of the way up the tree. She has been great with leaving the tree alone though but loves to hide her rawhide bones among the branches.



Butterscoth and Ella asleep on the couch. They love to play with each other and chase each other around the living room. A hilarious sight indeed. It makes all the trips outside in these freezing temps to take her out for walks and potty worth it.