Following Kathy's Example

OK I know it's not Tuesday, but my kitchen/dining room area has been out of control for much longer than I care to admit, and it's time to tackle it. It's making me CRAZY. I don't know why I keep letting this happen. It's just the dumping ground for all things great and small. And the dishes never get quite finished. There is always something left in the sink. So here's what it looks like this morning. If all goes well you'll see my beautiful kitchen show up by the end of the day.

I was just wondering . . .

How many square feet of snow a three car driveway can hold?

How many times I'm going to have to have the "please don't put anything up your nose or in your ears" talk with Cailah?

How many times you can catch a cold on top of a cold on top of a cold . . ?

How many dumpsters I would need to get this place to a state where I could actually maintain it?

There's No Place Like Home For the Holidays

We spent a quiet Christmas at home this year. After spending all day Christmas Eve cleaning the house Mike didn't want to make anything to mess up his sparkling kitchen. So we went out for Chinese. Yummmmmmy! No one was offended by that suggestion and it was fun to have an evening out. We were also able to celebrate because Mike recieved his offer letter Christmas Eve from Mazuma Capital and will begin work Monday January 5, 2009! Horray!

The kids are getting old enough that they actually woke up a little early this year. Just before 6:00 am. Not too bad, but I really enjoyed last years 8:00 wake up ;0P. We spent the day in jammies playing together. Zander and Ember gave the kids Mario Kart for Christmas and we had fun getting trounced by the Missouri group.

Now we are spending New Year's at Grandma and Grandpa Bell's house and are getting ready to head to Chucky Cheese's. Just waiting for Delayna to get up from her nap so we can all go to the place where "a kid can be a kid."

Braydon's Surgery Update

Braydon was diagnosed with Severve Obstructive Sleep Apnea in November. No big shock to anyone who has ever listened to him sleep. He was able to have his adenoids and tonsils removed shortly after Thanksgiving. We are happy to report big differenced in the way he sleeps. He actually sleeps all night long with his head at the head of the bed. No more tossing and turning and hanging off the bed. He doesn't sleep with his head thrown back anymore and we can't even hear him breathe when we go in to check on him at night. When we look in his throat we are shocked to see the amount of room down there. Very cool stuff. Were happy that it is helping. Now we just need to get him in bed early enough to actually get caught up on his sleep. One of these days I'll get the pictures of him at his sleep study scanned and uploaded. Not sure what day. Today isn't going to work and next week isn't looking good either :o)

Our Perfect Angel Part Deux

Here is Abby's up close and personal transformation to a blond. And we have it on good authority that yes, "the wig is hot and itchy."

Our Perfect Angel

Well maybe not perfect, but pretty darn close. The much anticipated Eugene Ballet Company Nutcracker performances were this weekend. You can see her "name in lights" at http://www.collegeofidaho.edu/campus/community/cfa/season0809/nutcracker2008.htm

Abby was excited and seemed to be completely at ease with the prospect of performing before 550 plus people. Of course I'm not sure she understood that is what she was doing. She did a great job and had fun seeing "real" ballerinas and dancing with them. After the first performance she was so excited because the Sugar Plum Fairy was so nice to them and talked to them while they waited for the curtain to open. She asked them if they were ready and how many of them were on stage for the first time. How cool is that! :0) It was fun to watch the performance yesterday, but almost as much fun hanging out in the dressing room today. So much excitement and anticipation. And it's even more fun with people popping in yelling 15 . . . 10 . . . 5 minutes to places. It is quite a cool world behind stage, in a oddly normal sort of way. You can click on the video and see Abby's 60 seconds of fame. She's the blond in front with her back to you and then standing in front of the bed.

Not So Much the Mother of the Year

O.K. so I usually drop out of the Mother of the Year contest somewhere around January 2nd. Not really on my radar most of the time, but I do try to stay off the top ten Worst Mother's of the Year list. I think Wednesday's episode may have clinched my standings on the latter. :0(

Here's the story. I was getting ready for bed. Walked into the bathroom and got a drink of water, turned around to leave go remove the sleeping children from my bed before I finished getting ready for bed when I stepped on something somewhat strange. I looked down and saw a sparkly cubish shape and then another and then I started really looking and "OH MY WORD, THE SHOWER DOOR IS SHATTERED AND THERE IS GLASS ALL OVER THE BATHROOM. UH WHAT TO DO NEXT. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN. OH MY WORD, THE SHOWER DOOR IS SHATTERED!" Mike is on the couch comforting a sick baby and trying to get her back to sleep when I come out and let him know we have a problem.

No, we still don't know exactly what happened or even when--other than sometime between 9 am and 11 pm on Wednesday. From what we have pieced together after playing rookie CSI's and collecting all the clues, Delayna must have pushed in the shower door and it broke and shattered around her. Cailah found her and carried her out, but Mom and Dad were talking (we do that a lot these days) and she just told us Delayna was crying instead of what happened. (Yes, that's her version.) Here's the visual evidence. And no she didn't learn her lesson I caught her leaning on the remaining door with it bowing out dangerously this morning. Apparently Heavenly Father does watch over us and love us because he's still keeping our kids out of serious harm despite our ineptitude.