Oh boy. Christmas sure is hectic. I did get a few pictures the other day when it really was Christmas morning but I have yet to shrink them and the ones I took of Timothy turned out back lit and he was washed out in a shadow. :(
We had a get together last night and we have one yet today and then that should be all for Christmas. Then next wednesday we are going to my sister's house, I think, for New Years Eve.

I will post details and longer thoughts soon, along with pictures, as soon as we are home at a decent hour and I'm not falling over with exhaustion

snowed in

We are snowed in today. it has been just fine by me. it allowed me to sleep in late and I was able to have a quiet chat with my husband for a little bit. We made hot chocolate and popcorn. the day is still not over, even though it is the shortest day of the year, so we are going to watch a movie and then have supper.

We had some snow yesterday but it is blowing around a lot along with a windchill of way below zero. BRRRR!

this snow is from a couple of days ago. we had snow last Sunday night and a lot of wind then, too, but it wasn't as windy and bitter as it was yesterday and today. the snow on our little cottage had a little curly end and right before I took the picture the curl fell off. it made me sad.

the snow that we got was sticky and the wind blew it right into the house. I had put the old christmas tree in there a couple of weeks ago - when Tim was dealing with the water heater - but I got sick after that and didn't get any lights hung. The snow made it very pretty. the other day I had the kids hang the popcorn and cranberry garland that they made at grandma's house the other week.

Merry Christmas

chocolate covered sweety

I have no idea where he got the chocolate from.

gingerbread everywhere

I don't remember quite how long now, but at least 5 years now, my older sister makes gingerbread houses for all of her nieces and nephews. She makes royal icing and provides nearly a metric ton of candy to stick onto the houses. then she lets them loose. Since we've started the gingerbread party we have added five kids and houses to the party. The following pictures are only a tiny idea of the chaos that goes on there.






Tim managed to nap through all the noise.

Saturday at Grandma's house

We went over to grandma's house to frost christmas sugar cookies. the kids had fun, especially the girls. in fact, when it was time for supper, Emma was wanting to make more icing for the last few cookies that didn't get frosted.


Erica took a lot of time on each cookie. several years ago when we started frosting cookies at grandma's house, I sat down with the kids and helped them with a few cookies. I made pictures on the cookies with the icing and the sugar sprinkles and ever since Erica has done the same kind of thing. This year she made some really great cookies. it's almost a shame to eat them, they are so cute. I haven't gotten pictures of all of them yet and as she went they certainly got fancier and better. I will make a point to photograph them before they are eaten.

the (young) man of the hour ... (updated)

Timothy! 11 years ago today I was in the hospital, again.

Again I don't have any brand new baby Timothy pictures to post. :(

You get to see his first birthday picture of the day (in the rest the flash reflected badly in his glasses).

Good Morning Birthday Boy!

for some unknown reason my mind keeps trying to tell me that he is turning 12 this year. I'm a year fast. He still has little kid hands and I look at his hands and face and think it won't be long before he grows up in has the chiseled face of a man and big strong hands. He is growing up so quickly. I never feel prepared - how silly of me.


please forgive me for taking so long to post more pictures of Timothy's birthday. It has been such a hectic weekend. Oy!

This is the second time around for Timothy blowing out his candles. I had grabbed the camera and shot away and right after he blew out his candles I had discovered that I had forgotten to put the CS card in the camera. So we re-lit the candles and had him blow them out again. we didn't sing a second time, there's no reason to torture the poor boy.

Then we opened presents and he really likes the magic set he got from grandma and grandpa.


my nephew came over to play around with Tim on his birthday and he ended up staying the night. Tim and I could hear them in Tim's room laughing and whispering until after midnight.
They had a fun time.

Yummy

yesterday I called my little sister to come over and make treats with me.

We made Chocolate covered pretzels with the yummiest chocolate

isn't it pretty?

Birthday Girl

14 years ago today was a Sunday. and 14 years ago today I was in the hospital after 3 days of back labor.


I don't have any brand new baby Erica pictures (long story) to show how tiny she was and now how grown up she is. This morning I didn't even get a picture of her before she went to school. But I will be getting pictures of her when she gets home. I will be updating this post when that happens.

but until I can get those pictures and have more to write about her day ~

Happy Birthday Erica! I love you.

So now I'm back with pictures to share and captions to write.

Here she is! Now old enough to go to dances and only two years away from dating and driving a car. (maybe longer) ~ Erica comments " 'No way' says I".


Daddy had to work to night. He wasn't able to take the night off so we called him when Erica was ready to open her present. So in a small way Dad got to be a part of her day.

It looks like she likes her present.

Tonight Timothy had his music program at school and because of that and the fact that Dad was not home, Erica chose to wait on her cake until all can share. Instead, just to celebrate in some kind of traditional fashion she put a candle on a Little Debbie Star Crunch and we sang Happy Birthday to her. :)

my upcoming weeks

I've been feeling bad the last couple of days because it has been so long since I've posted anything on here and even longer since I uploaded any pictures.
I haven't taken any pictures for a while. I've been busy and lazy so it just hasn't happened.
plus there hasn't been much going on here to mention about.

December is always the busiest month for our family. we have two birthdays two days in a row (which are coming up next week) we have Christmas at home and with at least three other family groups, a gingerbread house party thrown by my sister, we have three different music programs to attend in the next two weeks ~ two of them being only three days apart next week; one of which is on Erica's birthday ~ and my sisters and I have a night out at the camper cabin. This is all happening from the 5th to the 25th. to most people that wouldn't seem like much, but I'm not a soccer mom ~I'm what you would call a homebody~ running here and there and coordinating everyone's schedule gets a bit overwhelming.

So Friday night is my sisters' annual camper cabin night. All of my sisters and our good friend who we all love as our sister started this up maybe five years ago, I think. Alice rents the cabin (which reminds me I need to find out how much my chip in is to pay her back)
we all show up out there in the evening as soon as we can. We all bring something yummy to eat, we stay up late laughing, then we go out to our moms' cemetery and sing Christmas carols and silly songs to our moms.
then we go to sleep for a few hours, have breakfast and then back to our normal lives.
Pictures of Friday night will probably not be posted because of the dorkish embarrassment to my sisters.

The kids are going to have a sleep over at gramma and grammpa's Friday night so today is being spent figuring out what all I want to take for a yummy snack or two and getting all the kids clothes laid out and cleaned so it can all be packed. I hope that Ronan does okay. it will be the first time he will have had to go through a whole night without a mommy.
aaaa, he'll be fine.