Christmas Morning

Well, it's 1:45am on Christmas Morning. This is what happens when you are not very prepared for the holidays... you have to stay up late to make up for your procrastination. We're finally done with the preparations but several things just didn't happen this year. This makes me kind of sad. I know the kids will be happy... they always are. But something's missing for me.

PS Amber, so much for never posting serious topics...

Tonight, My Kids Went to Bed Hungry

Before you go worrying about our financial stability, let me explain.

About once a year my children CHOOSE to go to bed hungry. Tonight was the night. It was the one time a year that I make Split Pea Soup.

(this is only a photo that I ganked off the internet)

Yep, you guessed it... they won't touch the stuff. I LOVE it. And Geoff LOVES it. And not one of my kids will touch it. But when it gets really cold outside I crave it. So, I make it. The kids get one roll and some juice and if they eat their soup they're allowed more roll and juice. They have NEVER eaten more than one roll. Does this make me a mean mommy? Or does telling them that we're having Split Pea Soup for dinner tomorrow night as well make me a mean mommy?

Flashback Friday

I basically just perused the photos that I have already on my computer and picked out these:

These were taken on Aspen's very first day of Dance Lessons... in 2003. She's super cute! She seemed to enjoy it for a couple of years and then fought me to go so I pulled her out. I think she has good memories. I know I do.

The Gift of Sacrifice

Amazon.com is offering one free Christmas song a day until Christmas (Click here if you're interested). I share this with you because I REALLY like most of the songs so far but this one song really touched me:

The Gift Of Sacrifice - Maren Ord

I kept playing it over and over. I love the message. It wasn't until I was trying to find it online to post here for your listening pleasure that I found out that she's LDS! Crazy.

Enjoy

Flashback Friday

In honor of Ainsley's birthday last Friday (we have yet to have the party but I will post...I promise), here is a picture of her when she was about a month old. Cute, huh? The rest of us are pretty cute too. And younger. And skinnier. And Geoff and I both have more hair! As a side note... you may have noticed a slight change to my blog layout. Special thanks to Amber for the encouragement. The snow looks so much better when you can actually see it!! Hers is pretty cool, too.

And The Winner Is....

...Richard!!! You were the first (and probably the only) to notice that my blog is snowing! You really have to look for it because I have mostly a white background... but it's there! Because you won, you get to cancel Christmas! Oh wait... you already did! (Click here to read about Richard canceling Christmas)

(Look at this square and you will see it... it's magic! - Blogging Magic!)

It's Been a Year Now

Strange, this thing called time. It goes so quickly... sometimes. I can hardly believe that it's been a whole year since Dawne died. We miss her. I miss her. When I think about her my heart hurts. Even with the knowledge that we will be reunited one day... my heart hurts. I feel blessed to have known her for the first 10 years that Geoff and I were married. What a true blessing.

Last year I posted about Dawne. You can read these posts by clicking here and here. Interestingly enough I took pictures at the graveside service but never posted them. I think I was hesitant because of the raw emotions at the time. So, I thought that I might share some of those now.

L to R: Allen, Abigail, Hannah (top), and Sam (bottom).

Each of the grandchildren that were present were allowed to place one yellow rose on to Dawne's casket. It was very touching. And for the older of the children I'm sure it was difficult. They loved Grandma dearly.

Here little Sammy is giving Grandpa a well needed hug. We all miss this lady. But we shall never forget her.

I Got Flogged

Just kidding....

I got tagged by two different friends. Normally, I delete these and don't even bat an eye. But I'm feeling especially vulnerable to peer pressure and maybe somewhat guilty so I will do them.

The first tag was to post 6 quirky things about myself. Here goes:

1) I buy only white or green plastic hangers. White ones for me and Geoff, green ones for the kids. Why do I do this? I don't know. But today, just to prove I could, I hung some of the kids' clothes on white hangers!

2) I have stinky feet. There. I said it. Now you all know.

3) I used to have a really pronounced Oklahoma accent. I first noticed it when I lived with a girl from New Hampshire right after high school. I thought to myself "I like her accent better". And the rest is history. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't had an Oklahoma accent since then.

4) I like potted meat sandwiches. What is potted meat you might ask... exactly. Click on this link for a colorful explanation of what it is. But just to give you some history - when I was little, my dad would make these by spreading the potted meat on one piece of bread and Miracle Whip on the other and then put a piece of American cheese in between. Oh.. and it HAS to be white sandwich bread... preferably Wonder Bread. Now, I have to admit that nutritionally this is horrible for you and I will say that I RARELY eat them. Usually I only make them when I'm trying to get the missionaries to taste something they have never had before. AND I try REALLY hard not to think about what it's made out of.

Should I go on? I mean really, that last one was a doozie. Pretty gross. Surely you don't want to know anymore...

Alright, alright... settle down. I'll try to think of two more.

Cue the Jeopardy Theme Song.

5) I've never had a Klondike Bar.

6) My big toe and 2nd toe are webbed together. From too much skiing as a kid. Not really. I only said that because my brain hurts from trying to think of one last quirky thing about me. Feel free to share quirky things about me that you're aware of!

The second tag was to go to the 4th folder and post the 4th picture you have.

I didn't like that picture so I chose the 9th folder and the 21st picture instead:

Because I'm absolutely sure that if I don't tag anyone, this will end tagging on the World Wide Web, I choose no one!

Preschool Breakfast Theatre

A couple of Sundays ago I made Biscuits & Chocolate Gravy for breakfast and the kids loved it so much that they broke out into song!

This is a picture that Geoff successfully captured of the experience:

I captured some really good video of the whole event!

Blogging Addict

I guess I am officially an addict.... 90%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Flashback Friday

In the spring of 2002 I had just weened my 2nd child from nursing after being pregnant and/or nursing for 2 years straight. I decided that it was high time that I had a break. At that time my sister Terra was living in Sarasota, FL so I planned a little meet up with my Dad (living in OK) and my sister. A 6 day, well deserved vacation! I kissed Geoff and said "Good luck!" and I was leaving on a jet plane. These 6 days created some very special memories for me and I'm pretty sure for my dad and sister, too. The number one thing that my dad and I wanted to do was to go deep sea fishing. So... we went deep sea fishing. This is a photo of how much my dad enjoyed it: This here is how much my sister enjoyed it: See that boy? His name was Dax... Terra really enjoyed Dax. And that was a Marlin fish that he helped her catch!

Then there is Dad... really getting after it! And Terra... "Oh my, I'm soo weak... how can I ever catch this BIG fish? Is there anyone who can help me?" "Here he comes to save the day!!!" We really had a GREAT time!!! It was so exhilarating to catch these things! This is how many fish we caught: Actually, there were two other couples on the boat and they caught some of these, too.

What a great blessing to be able to spend some real quality time... dad and daughters. Ahh... good memories.

Dad was there for just the weekend but I stuck around for a couple of more days. While Terra was at work I went to an aquarium near by. This was pretty much the only picture that I took that was worth posting: Creepy, huh?

One other thing that I remember... I thought it would fun to bring back a souvenir from the beach. So, I found an old hermit crab shell and stuck it in my back pack. Uh. It wasn't empty. After we got back to her apartment ants and stench quickly ensued! Oh well. We all have to learn somehow!

I love you, Dad. I love you, Terra. Thanks for the memories!

Waterfront Property

For now, we live in a townhouse complex... until we can close on our house in Oklahoma and buy one here in Arkansas. This complex is right along a river. It's actually pretty nice. One day Geoff took the kiddos down to the water and loaded all four of them and himself into a blow up raft to cross the river.

In these photos you can see Geoff paddling the kids to the other side of the river. (Notice that his end is about to go under the water!)

This next picture demonstrates where we live (A). I'm showing you this because to get across the river takes all of 5 minutes in this little raft but to actually drive to the nice little park across the way... it takes more than 20 minutes! Crazy, huh?

Fun was had by most... Ainsley wasn't real happy that she had to actually help carry the raft back home:

This Is Weird...

This is weird. I love it!

This is weird, too. I found Asher like this during one of his naps.

This is also weird... I found Ainsley like this one morning after a GREAT night's sleep!

Shout It From the Rooftops!

This is what I listened to all day yesterday....

Can We Fix It?

Proof... that I know my way around a table saw!

Two days before we moved out of our house in Oklahoma the AC unit backed up into the house and ruined our laminate flooring! Argh. We put fans on it to dry it out and prayed that the buckling would disappear. Four weeks later, no such luck! It was still buckled up and even though we hired some to fix the problem with the AC it was scaring away buyers so Geoff went down to try to replace the flooring. He pulled up a couple of planks and realized that we hadn't dried it out as well as we should have and we had a bigger problem on our hands... mold! So, he bagged it and we filed a claim with our insurance and a couple of weeks later Geoff and I returned and replaced the flooring... paid for by our insurance. Nice, huh? Joys of home ownership!

Flashback Friday

In honor of the fact that we don't hardly get any snow and that I gave away all of our snow gear because of it, I thought that I would post these great pictures of Aspen when she was a baby! We lived in Michigan where they get snow 11 months out of the year and basically, I'm glad we don't anymore!!!

Cross between Oompa Loompa and a Christmas Story!