New Babies and Purple Tutus

Christmas has always equaled family and fun with me and this year was not a dissapoinment. Even though Mark had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (both graveyard shifts) we did manage to share some special memoires anyway. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Watching the cousins playing together. This is only Aunt McMolly's children and mine so not too many cousins, but the 5 of them make enough noise that you would think there were 20 more.

2. Meeting the newest member of Aunt McMolly's farm. Puppies are my kryptonite. Have you seen that commercial yet where the men are renting puppies by the hour so that they can use them to pick up girls? It is too funny only because it is too true.

3. Caleb's face when he saw this picture from Grandma Golter. He had asked her weeks earlier what she was getting him for Christmas. She replied by saying a ballerina doll in a purple tutu. He of course, made a sound of disgust and then proceeded to tell everyone that his Grandma was getting him a doll. Well, Grandma couldn't actually find one so she made him a special picture of one. He was not impressed and quickly passed it on to me because "it's a girl thing."

4. Mark and I buying each other the same gift for Christmas. Seriously. They are both stereos that you can use with your ipod or mp3 player. I ended up buying the one we both liked more so we took back the one he bought and he is going with his next two ideas for me instead - Obsession perfume and The Pioneer Women's Cookbook.

All in all, definitely a Christmas worth remembering! 

Merry Christmas

Created by Caleb on Christmas Eve:

Merry Christmas!!!

"The best Christmas of all is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up with one another"

I hope all of you are all "wrapped up with one another"!

Cause and Effect

Cause: The reason I have not blogged in so long is not my fault. It is because this month:

slipped into this month without my permission:

Effect: Because of this I have had no time to call my own. Well, actually, that's not true. I have had a lot of time to call my own but only about 5 minutes of that time has been devoted to sitting down in front of the computer.

Cause: In the month of December, Mark and I do this advent calendar with the boys. Each night they take turns choosing the paper from that day and we do whatever the paper says. It could be making Christmas cookies, doing a puzzle together, decorating the Christmas tree, looking at Christmas lights, etc., etc., etc.

Effect: We have been having so much fun around here! The boys are so excited each and every day and everything has been about having fun together as a family. Last night we made these: I call them "Twinkie Twains".

Cause: I have been a baking, treat-making machine!

Effect: My belly button and I are no longer on speaking terms.

Cause: Mark and the boys went up into the hills to get us a Christmas tree. They got stuck helping someone else get unstuck and when Mark's dad went up to rescue them, he got stuck too. A tow truck had to be called and by the time Mark and the boys made it home at almost 11:00 at night Mark finally said "You know, I could see where a cell phone might come in handy."

Effect: Woohoo! We finally have joined the modern world and we now have cell phones! The funny part is that Mark has totally embraced texting and we already have almost 200 messages just between he and I. Here is an example of our very important messages to each other.

Exhibit A: From Me to Him while He is at Work around 10:00pm. (I am hinting at something here and I am hoping he will get the point. Double click on the picture to make it larger.)

Exhibit B: From Him to Me.  

He thinks he is soooooo funny!

Cause: Mark has enjoyed texting so much that he sent me one at school the other day saying he had a surprise for me and it didn't have anything to do with Christmas. He just loved me. Hmmm. When I got home he gave me a piece of paper with this on it:

Effect: Needless to say I was suprised and over the moon! I love Carrie Underwood and I am so thrilled to be seeing her in concert. Spokane Family, we will be seeing you Memorial Day weekend and can you watch the boys? Thanks!

Isn't my husband the best!?