Christmas 2010

Santa did stop by, and we all had a wonderful morning.

Even the kittens enjoyed it!  Thanks, Grandma Bobby for the catnip mice!

Twas the night before Christmas...

and all through the house, not a creature was stirring.  Not even a...

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Over the river and through the woods

I had a couple of days off the beginning of the week and we drove down to Dyanne's place.  We had a wonderful time.  There was a Christmas party with a whole house full of family.  Lots of laughs and love.

There was also some morning cookie decorating.

Great Grandma Dyer with the kids at the party.

Grandpa Dave and Randa with Scruffy the cat.

Who are these happy people?

Hey Santa!

We had to make a trip to Spokane yesterday, so took some time to stop and see the jolly fella.

We got there a few minutes before he did so had only a short wait in line... it was, however, a bit too long for Ben and he ended up locking his legs and passing out.  Unfortunately, we all thought he was just goofing around and we failed to catch him.  He fell, ultimately hitting his head on the tile floor, though we were lucky and it wasn't too hard a hit.  Anyway, I can sympathize with his lack of smile.

Here is a more candid shot where Ben is describing they type of nerf gun he would like Santa to construct.

Santa asked if there was anything else they wanted to say/ ask.... Ben asked if he used some kind of magic powder to help the reindeer fly.  Santa replied, "Yes."  Then Ben asked if he could have some of that.... and Santa laughed and said, "No, but that was a good try."  Then they shook hands and bumped fists. 

It made my day.

Happy 14th to our baby girl

There was cake

Birthday Wishes

Presents

Exclamations of Joy

and best of all, a happy girl

We love you Pumpkin, Happy Birthday!

A good day for sledding

We have gotten a lot of snow lately.  With about a foot on the ground and the sun peeking out, we decided to have some fun.  Lucky for me the camera was not around until after I had finished my runs down the hill. 

 Ben gets some serious air with his "technique"... he jumps onto the sled while running toward the hill... He did this over and over again.  My knees had sympathy pains for the rest of the evening.

 His cheeks were beyond the "nice and rosy" stage and it was about time to come in and warm up.



On a side note, I don't understand why blogger had a perfectly wonderful updated way to upload photos... and now it's gone.  For a couple of weeks I was able to select multiple photos and drag and drop them wherever I wanted them in a post... and now it's back to a real user UNFRIENDLY version that I HATE.

Ok, I'm alright now... well until the next time I want to upload photos.

So Thankful

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday.  It was just the four of us here, but we enjoyed it.  We are thankful for so much, and that includes YOU! 

(and him, and her, and them.... but especially YOU!)

Hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.... now who out there is going to the Friday sales? =P

Fixed? We weren't even broken!

The girls went to the vet to get spayed on Monday.  The doc said it went well and they came home that evening.  They are doing a lot of laying around and getting yelled at for licking their poor tummies.  Hopefully they will be back to their chipper selves soon.

The World According to Ben

While we were in the truck driving yesterday, Ben was commenting on all the fog.

Randa:  "That's not fog, it's snowing."

Ben:  "No, it's fog.... see out there, you can't even see the mountain."

David:  "It's snow, not fog.  Snow lowers the visibility like fog does.  That's why you can't see the mountain."

Ben:  "What's pissability?"

David:  "..."

Snow!

We woke up to some real white stuff this morning.  The kids are having a ball.  =P

Little Hunter

It is looking like Tiana is going to be the best hunter of the kittens.  When she spots an intruding insect she will start a high pitched rapid meowing and do all she can to get to where the bug is.  Here are some pictures of when she noticed one of the Pine Beetles in the window.  (These beetles are a type of stink bug so do not taste good... she knows this but still could not just let it be).

As you can imagine she is also very interested in Stitch the gerbil.  She will stand on her hind legs and watch him in his cage for as long as she can.  So far he does not seem to care.

Veterans Day Festivities

 Kettle Falls had a Veterans Day celebration yesterday.  The Middle School hosted an assembly for all the schools, local veterans and anyone else who wanted to attend (mostly just some parents).  The cub scouts stood at attention while the older scouts brought out the flag and led the pledge.  We ended up sitting right behind Ben at the beginning.  Myranda is actually in that first picture as well, though we had not spotted her yet.

There she is!  (third face from the bottom left)

After the scouts moved back into the bleachers with their classmates there was was singing (Yankee Doodle).

Then it all moved outside for a parade down the main road through town.

It was cold, and not much turn out, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.  We hope everyone has a great Veterans Day this year and thank you to all those who have and are serving our country and protecting our freedom!

Kitties!

David put a small shelf over the doorway from the living room to the dining room.  Perfect for kittens to perch upon.

There is a carpeted board attached to the wall in the corner that lets them climb up to it.  They stick to it really well... even after having their nails clipped, which surprised me.

These last three are all of TigerLily since Tiana is usually too busy getting into trouble to be in a picture.

Reinforcement of spooky antics

When I got to work yesterday I found out that we won the decorations contest for Trunk or Treat.  We had already been thinking of next year... now we have to defend our title!  =P

That's my boy

We asked the kids today, "What do you want for Christmas?"

Before this question could prompt the lengthy list of everything from a Wii to Unicorns and anything else their little minds could imagine, David prefaced it with "Try and think of something that we would actually be able to get you."

Needing no longer than a couple of seconds to think, Ben blurted out; "My own food!"

A very happy halloween

Here are the little gremlins.

We got to Walmart early and picked a spot that ended up being the first in line.  David worked really hard in the bed of the truck setting everything up.  We had lights on the "trees" that did not show up well in the picture.  The pumpkins were all lit as well. 

Myranda passed out candy to all the kids.  Boy were there a lot of kids.  I sure am glad the store supplied the candy!  We got a lot of nice compliments on the decorations.

The best part was the skull on the stump by the "horseless, headless horseman".  It is paired with a microphone which David had in the cab of the truck where he could not be seen.  It was so fun to see the kid's expressions (and some of the adults) when they realized the skull was actually talking to them.  

We had a great time and hope you all had a Happy Halloween as well!

The Prep...

We love Halloween.  Pumpkins, costumes, candy... what could be better?  This year since I work at Walmart we are part of the Trunk or Treat in the parking lot.  Associates decorate their "trunks" and Walmart supplies the candy.  This morning was dedicated to carving the pumpkins.

Ben drew his own jack o lantern pattern and we put some glowing eyeballs in the eye sockets.

I carved the owl and David freehanded the eye.

Myranda did a great job on the spooky spider.

I had to include a shot of these skelly hands I made.  I was pretty proud of them as they were my first attempt.  I loved making them and see more skelly stuff in the future.  They were made with Crayola model magic and tips from David Lowe.