It"s been awhile!

I have been a bit overwhelmed since winter break got over! I'm still feeling that way! I will post soon about Christmas and the rest of our winter break. Also, Hannah had her first meet of the season so I will update with all of that as well. Here is hoping that everyone has had a great start to 2009 and may the rest of the year be fabulous!

The weather outside is frightful!!!

WOWZA!!! After days of listening to the weatherman tell us how much it was going to snow, after days of the school closures, and after days of teasing the weatherman finally came through with a bang!!!! Last week on Monday schools were closed. Tuesday kids went to school. Wed-Fri. school closed. The kids essentially get an extra week off this winter. I'm sure they won't be happy when they are sitting in school during July:)

Yesterday Hannah was supposed to have her annual cookie/gift exchange. It's something she wanted to do a few years ago, and it is now an annual tradition. Around 9:00 am as I was cleaning and baking and getting everything ready for 13 girls, I got the first phone call. I decided it was probably a good idea to postpone. It turned out to be a good idea. With snow falling all day and rain freezing all night. I could see it now....13 girls stranded at our house and nowhere for the boys to go. Hannah was bummed but we will do it in a couple of weeks after new years.

We woke up this morning....okay, let's be honest....who actually slept with the wind going all night? I thought the roof was going to blow off. The dog barked periodically through out the night because of it. At 4:30 am I got up to let him outside to potty and he slid off the deck onto the grass and then broke through ice. I admit
it I almost peed my pants laughing. Poor thing!!




Zakk and Hannah have had a blast building a snowman and snowdog only to have it covered last night. We can't keep Zakk in the house. I don't think Hannah is as into it as Zakk. We let the dog out front today and he decided to explore a little to far. I had to go out and get him and about froze. Needless to say...I am not going back out. Not that I could go anywhere anyway. Our car doors are literally frozen shut and the huge hill we live on is pure ice. We still haven't done much Christmas shopping, so that might be a problem come Christmas morning;)

It's been great having the kids home and hanging out as a family. They are awesome and I realize how truly blessed I am to have them happy and healthy!!

Christmas decorations..or the lack there of!

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I'm not sure where the time has gone this year, but it certainly snuck up on me. Rick always likes to get the tree around the middle of December, but I usually have all the decorations up by the 1st. Well, we got our tree last week, and just this week pulled out the decorations. I ended up not putting as many up this year and am still trying to decide where the stockings are going this year.

I am pretty anal about our tree...always have been. Once the kids started "helping" I had to let go a little. We'd let them decorate and then after they went to sleep I would do some rearranging. Not this year! Zakk was really into picking out the tree this year. It was so stinking cold out this year that we just said okay, pick one. Hannah agreed and we got the tree home. We stopped at Target on our way home for some things and made our way to the Christmas decorations to let the kids pick out a new ornament. They decided they wanted blue lights on the tree, and that plain white was boring. Ummm okay..... The next thing I know, we have some blue ornaments and some white ones thrown in as well...and a bunch of lights/ornaments for the yard. I am not sure when I lost control of this shopping trip(I only needed laundry soap and an ornament for each kid),but Hannah declared as we were walking out"Dad, I'm going shopping with you more often!" Ummm okay!(we'll see if she still feel that way when she needs clothes) Got home and was stressing out a little inside about how the tree was going to look. Decided oh well....sat down with a glass of wine and watched them go. I am happy to say I haven't done any rearranging!! They had so much fun and were so proud of "their" tree. I've decided that even though all of our decorations aren't out this year and even though the stockings haven't found a home yet, the house is Christmasy enough, and I am loving our blue and white tree!

Thanksgiving blessings!

We have so many things to be thankful for this year. Times are tough for so many people right now. Rick's company has been going through some changes and we weren't sure if he would even have a job come Christmas time. We feel so blessed that for the 2nd time this year he did not get included in all of the lay offs that have been going on within his industry. On the flip side of the coin, so many people that he has worked with for years were not as fortunate. That is always hard. We are thankful, but at the same time so sad for them. We can only hope that things work out for them and that this is a blessing in disguise.

We spent Thanksgiving with very good friends this year. The turkey dinner was fabulous and the company was excellent. I look forward to hosting them at our home on Christmas Eve.

COMPETITION SEASON IS ALMOST HERE!

Hannah's 3rd year of competitive gymnastics starts soon. One of the most fun parts???? Getting new leotards. I was lucky enough to be in on the picking out, designing, measuring and best of all... giving the girls their new leotards!! They were so excited. Some more than other. Apparently silver is not EVRYONES fave color. They look awesome to me and I dare another team to be as sparkly as ours!! My favorite part of all was letting the 1st year level 4's try theirs on....they were giddy!!! Good luck girls!!!

Halloween 2008

This will be known as the "Year of Scare" as far as the kids costumes go! Gone are the little ladybugs, astronauts, princess's and cowboys. This year was creepy..especially Zakk's mask! Ick! At least there was no prep or anything. Regular clothes? check Scary mask? check Fake blood? Check!!! Hannah's took a bit more time, but I thought she was fabulous. I loved that she picked a vampire as I have just finished reading the Twilight saga. Rick and I have also started watching a vampire show on HBO. As far as trick or treating went, we hit more of the neighborhood than usual as well. Usually our street and the next one over. This year, they wouldn't stop. We ended up having a great time, got some excercise and the reward was 10 yes 10 lbs of candy!!!!

The Pumpkin Patch

Today was GORGEOUS!!!! Okay, a bit windy, but
for October in Washington it was amazing! Fall is
my fave season, and Pumpkin Patch pictures are
some of my favorite pictures to take. The kids
were in great moods and happy to be picking out
our pumpkins. Sadly, as soon as we arrived, we
knew we had waited too long. There were no
GREAT pumpkins left. The kids still had a blast
doing the maze, getting their faces painted, and
riding the hayride. Zakk was on wheelbarrow
duty as Rick has had a very odd work schedule
this week and could not go. Zakk had fun pushing
Hannah around, though if I'm honest, Hannah was
a little leary. She kept saying DON'T TIP ME ZAKK
in her best 16 yr old with attitude voice. Gotta love
it. We collected a few pumpkins and then hit the
grocery store for some BIG ones!!! Rick will be on
pumpkin carving duty!!