Moments

I don't have many new pictures... but hope to post a couple tomorrow.
As for now, there are a few moments I want to record so I don't forget them.

1. Abby running around in the backyard with an orange from our fruit tree in her mouth. Not because she is trying to get a snack, but because she is so tennis ball obsessed.

2. The sound of "clink, clink, crack, crack, clink" outside yesterday. I walked out to see what was going on and there were the kids with a pile of small rocks.
Each of them had a large stone and they were making arrowheads and cutting tools out of stone by smacking the edges of the little rocks with the large ones. Interesting....

3. The warm, quiet house this morning with coffee brewing and the kids working quietly at the kitchen table. Although homeschooling is supposed to be temporary, only until seats are available for them at the half day charter school, we could grow too attached to this to switch. It is amazing how quick and how pleasant teaching is when you only have one or two kids to teach. Collin enjoys the structure and loves working alongside "sister".

4. The interesting conversation Kayla and I had after discovering that Lucy had gone in to heat yesterday. An employee at PetSmart told us that it would be dangerous for Lucy to go out of the house now that she has her period, but not to worry because it only happens twice a year.
Kayla had a comment and a question about that. "Is it safe for human girls to go out of the house when they have their period?" And, "it's not fair that that happens to humans every month and only twice a year to dogs. Did God mess up?"

Christmas cookies

Every year since I can remember we have made dozens of cookies the days before Christmas. Russian teacakes, spritz cookies, gingerbread men, etc...
It is truly one of my favorite days of the year.
A newer part of this tradition is the creating of silly gingerbread men or creatures.
This year we made a gingerbread duck, a gingerbread Drew (the dog) and a gingerbread terrorist (designed by Chris)
There is a nice picture of the little terrorist with his belt of explosives and the trigger in his hand. Leave it to Chris....
We found that Collin likes sprinkles on his cookies... a LOT of sprinkles...
So here we are in Nana's kitchen making our cookies and enjoying eachother's fun and bizarre company. :)

News

First off, I am so ecstatic because Kayla got to see her favorite singer, Sarah Brightman perform on Sunday night. We could only afford two tickets, and Kayla wanted Tim to escort her, as it is their "thing" to sing opera to eachother.
When we told Kayla that she needed to pick out a pretty dress because she was on her way to see Sarah she cried.
Sarah puts on quite a performance with several dramatic outfits, dancers, musicians and lighting. Tim and Kayla were SO VERY fortunate that she decided to include Phantom of the Opera as one of her songs that night.
They had an amazing time. You can check out "Sarah Brightman Symphony Tour" clips on
youtube.com to get an idea of what the concert was like.
We are forever grateful to Tim's parents, as this was part of their Christmas gifts to us. Talk about making a little girl's dream come true.
Kayla's piano teacher is including voice and ear training in her lessons and Kayla is flourishing in to quite a singer. I don't know how to say this delicately, but you wouldn't have thunk it a few months ago. :)
Our second bit of news is one that I am cautiously optimistic about:
We have made an offer on a house. We won't hear anything for several weeks, as this is a short sale and it takes at least 30 days for bank approval.
We really low-balled with our offer as the house needs some work and because of the current market conditions. There is a fair chance that the bank will reject our offer.
We are lucky to have a lot of help from my parents navigating through this crazy market. They have been on the lookout for deals and have been looking at houses with us. It's been so fun and helpful to have them involved.
If it works out (and again I'm trying to reign in my excitement) we will be the proud owners of a great home on very large lot within walking distance to EduPrize.
This would mean that Kayla will once again be switching schools, but she will be part of a 1/2 day program which I believe will be a much better fit for our family.
Collin is already enrolled for kindergarten there so the lucky guy would get to go to the same school all the way through 8th grade.
We shall see how it works out. We know the market is loaded with short sales and foreclosures so we try to remind ourselves that this is not the only home out there.
But we sure do like it! :)

cuddle

Today was great. We stayed home all day and baked cookies, cleaned house and watched movies. We were all in cozy clothes and did lots of cuddling with eachother, the dogs and the couch. This evening we watched How the Grinch stole Christmas, and it was so fun.
We bought Lucy to be my little cuddly lap dog, but I must say she spent the first several months interested mostly in Abby and the kids.
But over the past couple of months, we've really noticed a change and she is truly turning in to the ultimate cuddly lap dog. She likes to be held, cuddled, carried around and cries to be picked up. Too cute. :)

more pix from the O Grace shoot

The Nutcracker with Collin

I got to enjoy my second performance of the Nutcracker this morning.
This time my date was a blonde little man with big brown eyes.
He was the perfect gentleman, and it was the perfect performance.
This was a field trip with Collin's preschool and it was a version of the Nutcracker geared towards little kids. Perfect!
The actors were hilarious and the stage set and costumes were beautiful.
Plus, this was a dinner theater so Collin and I got to enjoy lunch and a dessert buffet. Collin's best friend, Ashlynn was there so I was able to get a picture of the two of them together.
What a great start to our holiday break!

December pictures

Instead of creating several new posts, I thought I'd just include an update of what we've been up to these past couple of weeks.
We got our Christmas tree last Saturday! Yay!!! This is a day that the kids look forward to every year. Kayla picked the tree last year and she announced that Collin should be able to choose the tree this year. Boy was he excited!!




We took advantage of the beautiful December weather and Susan and I took our kids to the park and fed the ducks. It was a lovely sight with the kids sitting on the dock looking out at the water.




Julie (aka Fancy Face) and I met at the cabin in Flagstaff. We had to leave much earlier than expected due to an incoming blizzard, but we had a blast in the 24 hours we did have together.