Friends

Today we have Kea and Tiernan here so that Sonnet and George can have their date "night" which is happening in the day today because of the exhibit they want to see and the hours they are open. Anyway, the kid are doing pretty good. Gregg is a little overwhelmed as he is not use to this and suffering froma bit of cabin fever, but he is hangin' in there.

Kea & Gibson

Grady & Tiernan. Tiernan was less than amused with having Grady sit next to him so he kept trying to push him off the couch. Of course we told him that wasn't nice but secretly we were laughing because it was funny. Poor Grady didn't know what to think of it all.

Oh Mylanta. This was lunch time. These kids have some SERIOUS energy to burn. Normally this kind of tomfoolary (I'm not sure it's even a word, but I am deaming it so for this post) is NOT allowed at the table, but today we made an exception because it was funny. Tiernan just sat there and watched, I'm not sure if he was amused or annoyed.

Christmas Day Celebration

Today turned out to be a lot quieter than we had planned. Due to the weather, Gregg's family wasn't able to make it up to celebrate Christmas Day with us. Aunt Wanda & Uncle Steve made it over (they are only 3 miles away, everyone else was 25+) and so they had dinner with us. Good thing too, I had a TON of food since I had planned to feed 15 people.

Here is the group of us tonight when we were eating dessert. I had to "wing it" and throw something together since Gregg's family members were providing the dessert. I made a apple and peach crisp (gluten free, of course, so AW could have it) and it was really good!

My dessert - not bad for last minute

Our dinner. I made Santa Maria Style tri-tip, pinquinto beans, salad, corn & bread. AW brought over hash brown casserole, some turkey breast and Gregg's favorite Orange Creamsicle salad.

I think the grown-ups had more fun playing with Christmas gifts than the boys did. Here is Gregg & US playing with the Widgets that Auntie Kelli sent for the boys.

We will catch up with Gregg's family later this week at some point when the snow clears and celebrate Christmas then. We missed having everyone here today. Gibson was VERY sad that he didn't get to see Finley. When you are 3, you don't understand about snow and driving. When we said that Aunt Nan/Uncle Todd couldn't drive here Gibson said "Can't they just walk then?" I didn't figure explaining how that wouldn't work would work so I just said "no, honey, not today".

Merry Christmas!

Well, Gibson was up bright and early, but Grady decided to sleep a little bit later and so we had to wake him up because Gibson was driving us crazy about opening present (rightfully so!) Gibson was excited when he got up to see that Santa had been here and that Santa had eaten (ate? partook of?) the cookies and milk that we left out for him.

So, once Grady was up and we had him situated with his breakfast, we let the kids tear into the good. Gibson was really into it. Grady, not so much.

Gibson's present from Santa - a marble run! The only thing he asked Santa for and wanted.

Grady with his gift from us. It's a train, that makes lots of noise (not sure what I was thinking!)

Gibson was tearing into the gifts so fast I had to keep slowing him down, so I didn't get alot of pics of him opening stuff. Here are the gifts we got from our friend in Cali, Carlie - Pj's for the boys, and a shirt.

Grady with his present from Auntie Kristi & family. Gibson was opening his and I took a few pictures but I realized that our name and address is showing in the pics, so if I can blur that out, I will post them, otherwise, you'll have to trust me when I say he tore into the package.

Gibson with his marble run - he had to set that up immediately.

I didn't get a pic with Auntie Kelli & Uncle Dennis' present, but they got them these really cool Wedgits. The boys LOVE them, and Gibson was very excited when he saw what it was.

I hope everyone had fun opening their presents and enjoys what they got.

Gregg and I are going to be getting a Dyson for our Christmas present. We are waiting until after the first of the year though to save some more money for it and see if they go on sale (one can dream, right?)

It's a white Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my loyal readers. I hope you all have a blessed and special day!



It's snowing here and we are potentially suppose to get another 5-6 inches before 1pm!

(I'll have Christmas morning photos to post later)

Milk & Cookies for Santa

Snow...again.

This is getting old. We have had snow now for 10 days. It's been at the at/over the foot mark for about 5-6 of those days. It's getting to be ENOUGH. I have had it. We haven't even had mail service in about 3 days. I hate being stuck in my house. Not that I really have anywhere to go, but that isn't the point, even if I want to I can't because I don't want to drive in this stuff, and if I have Gregg take me, we all have to go and I really don't want the kids in the car because I am paranoid about someone running into us because people driving like idiots when the weather is like this or they just don't flat out know how to drive in this stuff and are sliding all over the place or driving down the middle of the road. It's ridicilous. We saw some guy out yesterday in his Corvette. Who takes a Corvette out in weather like this? But, I digress.

ANYWAY - here are some pics from this morning. About another 5 inches on top of what we already have (we had a little bit of melting yesterday) and the snow is STILL coming down.

This is Gregg's truck - last night it was clear of snow, today, not so much. I'm really glad we got out yesterday to get our Christmas fixings.

Christmas with Aunt Wanda & Uncle Steve

We had our Christmas celebration with Aunt Wanda and Uncle Steve a few days early this year. We had a little break in the snow, so we were able to get out without too much trouble. It was good for the boys to get out of the house for a little bit.

We had Chinese food for dinner and hung out. I love Chinese food, and having that for Christmas was GRAND.

While the boys were waiting for dinner, they were getting hungry and a bit unruly so we turned on a show for them - AW/US have cable so they were able to watch some stuff we just don't have here. Grady climbed into the chair and watched it this was, it was so cute.

Then, PRESENTS!!! Gibson had a GREAT time. He totally gets it this year. He didn't last year and so it was really fun to see him having such a good time. Grady doesn't get it yet, even watching his brother and was more concerned with running around and "squawking" at his dad when we finally did convince him to open a present to get the toy out of the package.

We ended up taking Gibson's sling off for a bit because he was having trouble getting his presents open. His arm is doing better and he can use it a bit now without much pain. It's still really bruised, but I expect that to be for another week or so.

NOCULARS!!! aka Binoculars. Gibson LOVES noculars, this is probably his favorite present to date.

The Handy Manny tool box that is Grady's favorite. We have been listening to the tools sing since we got the gift. Gregg and I are even walking around the house singing the song. Good times.

Grady was so impatient waiting for Gregg to get this toy out of the box. It was totally funny.

Gregg with his new Hawaiian shirt.

AW with her necklace we got her.

I had to put this picture of Grady in. He makes the craziest faces. AND we can see his new teeth that have cropped up in this one!

More snow

This is what we woke up to today. Another 6 inches of snow ontop of the layer of ice and snow that was already on the ground. The sand truck came and sanded the street yesterday making it unavailable for sledding, but now the kids can have their sled hill back, I am sure they will all be very excited.

And this is one of the many iciciles that is hanging off our our house.

Backyard picture. Pretty much untouched by humans.

This area generally doesn't get much snow because it is covered by a tree, but as you can see, it got some last night.

More snow from today!

This morning we woke up to even more snow and it has snowed most of today!

Today, however, was not a normal snow day and ended on a not so good note.

Gibson started bugging us from the minute he woke up about going outside to sled down the hill. We finally decided to get him suited up and take him out around 10:30am or so. He was having a great time until it happened. He crashed. I didn't see it. He was with Gregg at the bottom of the hill. I was at the top. Anyway, they walked up the street and I started asking him questions and he said his arm hurt. I felt his arm and nothing felt broken but anytime I got close to his collarbone he would scream. So, in the house we came and got him out of his snow clothes and started questioning him through all the tears. After not too much discussion, we decided it was probably best to try to get Gibson to the doctor to get an xray, so off they went. After a couple of hours I got a call from Gregg saying Gibson broke his collarbone and his arm was in a sling for the next 2-3 weeks.


This picture is actually from last night when Gibson was bugging us to go outside but neither of us wanted to so we suited him up and let him go out back.

Grady & Gregg. Grady was NOT so thrilled with being outside. He is an inside kid.

See the tears?

Grady and his buddy Tiernan in the sled. Grady didn't last long.

Gibson in his sling

Gibson resting on the couch watching a movie - he says to me "Momma, I think I need a lollypop to feel better" - the kid is totally working the system.