HOA Christmas Party

Friday, December 19th--Every year we attend our HOA Christmas party. I used to volunteer to host these things but they became to much of a nightmare. I leave that to others now. The McDonalds and Perkowskis joined us for the party. There was a hayride through the neighborhood to view decorations along with cookies and hot chocolate in the clubhouse. The kids enjoyed the hayride but I think they enjoyed playing hide-n-seek with Uncle Derek on the playground even more.

Decorating the Tree

Thursday, December 18th--Family is in town and it is time to decorate the tree. The kids have been asking for a few weeks but I said that we should wait until everybody got here so we could all do it together. As is tradition in our house, everybody donned a Santa hat to decorate the tree. While decorating, we all had hot chocolate and cookies.

Banff is Home

Wednesday, December 17th--Banff is home. I told the vet that if he was not going to live more than a few more days, I wanted him home where I could be with him. I knew he was scared at the vet's office and he was refusing to eat for them. I said I wanted to bring him home and try to get him to eat for me. He is very thirsty and I can give him 1/2 cup of water every two hours but he is not eating. I can maybe get him to eat a bite of hot dog or chicken but he won't take more than a bite or two from my hand.

Christina and her family arrive tonight for three weeks.

Banff

Wednesday, December 17th--When I took the kitty into the clinic to be cremated on Sunday, I also took Banff with me as he was not eating and he was throwing up. Banff has never in his life turned down food so I knew something was wrong. I left him at the clinic during the day so they could monitor him, xray him and determine what was wrong. I got the call that evening while at Kevin's work Christmas party. They said that there was indeed a blockage and would have to operate. It ends up, he had eaten a towel and it was lodged in his intestines. The emergency clinic had to do an emergency surgery to remove the obstruction. After the operation, the vet called and said they removed it but there was a great deal of damage and not sure if he would pull through. I have spent the last few days taking Banff back and forth between the emergency clinic at night and the vet during the day. They are watching his white blood cell count and temperature to see if he perferates. If he does, we will have to put him down.

The Kitty

Sunday, December 14th--The kitty died over night last night. I found her in her crate this morning. I knew that the time was quickly approaching as she was getting weaker and not eating much. She was getting very thin and did not have much energy. We will miss her.

Akasha was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago and had been on insulin shots twice a day. We never could get her insulin regulated and she went down hill over the last few years of her life. She stopped using the litter box last February and so became an outside kitty. I know Akasha was not thrilled with the new arrangements but the kids loved having her outside. They would carry her around and include her in all their outside games. Poor kitty. :) Actually, she seemed to enjoy it and would walk over to see the kids and get attention when they were outside. A big change from hiding under the bed from them when they were toddlers!

I never really did get a chance to greive for her as the same day, Banff ended up in surgery and a fight for his life. More to come on that.....

Bye, bye, Miss Kitty.

Humperdinks Reunion

Saturday, December 13th--Kevin had his Humperdinks reunion here at the house. People he worked with at Humperdinks over a 7 year period showed up tonight. It was nice to see everybody again.

Piano Recital

Saturday, December 13th--M. had his holiday piano recital today and played beautifully. The recital was held at the Reformed Church in the sanctuary. He has been working on Good King Wenceslas for a few weeks. He played the song through once by himself and then Ms. Rhonda joined in for a duet the second time through. After the recital, we went to the fellowship hall for cookies and punch. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for his recital. We are so proud of you, M.!

Happy Birthday, M.!! You're 7.

Sunday, December 7th--Today is M.'s party. I have been planning for months. What a ridiculous amount of time I spent on this silly party. Actually, it was a cool party but very elaborate. It was a spy party complete with file folder dossier invitations, secret codes, mug shots, passports, and a big secret scavenger hunt. The kids received a file folder in the mail with a dossier in it, a secret code and key, and a password to enter the party. When they arrived, they received a passport and had to get fingerprinted, a disguise and mug shot, figure out the definition of their password, and then complete a scavenger hunt. The hunt consisted of clues with tape recordings, magnifying glasses, secret codes, locks and keys, and mystery clues. It was very fun. The cake was TNT with sparkler candles. Happy Birthday!!

S. is growing up....

Sunday, December 7th--S. took 15 steps on Tuesday. He is getting better and more stable with each passing day. On Thursday, his upper right tooth broke through. As of today, S. is an official walker. He walks probably 75 percent of the time. If he gets in a hurry and falls down, he may crawl to the object of his desire just so he can get there faster.

Christmas Party at Raytheon

Friday, December 5th--First of all, Happy Birthday, M.!! Your party isn't until Sunday, however. :) Every year, we go to Raytheon for their Christmas party. We have pizza, the kids decorate cookies, make crafts, look at the model train set, and listen to a ridiculous children's show by the Morris Brothers. We look forward to it every year. Outside, they usually have bounce houses and a train ride. Each year we get the same photo taken with the same background. Here is this year's picture......

Santa

Wednesday, December 3rd--S. and J. went to visit Santa today. Every year, Santa visits TBJ and collects food for our local food pantry. S. was fascinated with Santa and watched him the whole time. He wasn't afraid but was just enthralled.

Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 27th--We had Thanksgiving at Chris and Evelyn's this year. We have the California crew coming in for Christmas this year so Evelyn and I are switching holidays. Usually we have Thanksgiving here at the house and Christmas at her place. I decided that she probably didn't want to host all of my crew at her house so we switched. It was a great day and nice to see everybody. The kids are constantly asking when they can go see their cousins!

Evelyn got the BEST sweet potatoes ever from work. They were fabulous and I hope she can get them again next year....or maybe get the recipe from the chef. Yummy!

S. is starting to walk!

Wednesday, November 19th-- S. is starting to take some steps. Yesterday, he took 3 steps for Kevin but wouldn't do anything for me. Today, he took two steps for me. Yea!! He is getting so big. He turned 9 months old on Thursday of last week. Go, S. Go! You will be off and running in no time.

Gymnastics

Saturday, November 8th--J. is taking gymnastics at WOGA where Nastia Luiken, Olympic gold medalist, trains. Her first exhibition was a series of events on the floor, beam, high bar and vault. It was very cute. Afterward, Grandma, Grandpa, and the family went to Covino's for dinner.

A Puppy!!

Saturday, November 8th--We got a puppy! She doesn't really have a name yet. Her owners were calling her Sydney after the capital of Australia--she is an Australian Shepherd-- and I really like it but we are in the process of coming up with other names. The kids went to a birthday party a few hours after we got her and immediately forgot her name. When they did remember, they called her Cindy. We thought that we might need to come up with one they could remember.

I have been looking for quite awhile for a puppy to ease the pending loss of the kitty. The kitty is not doing well and will probably not be with us for more than about 6 months. I couldn't decide if we should get a new puppy before or after. Before might ease the transition but after might ease the suffering. Well, a few days ago, our neighbor at the end of the street was outside with a small Aussie puppy and I couldn't resist asking where he got it. It seems somebody in the neighborhood had an oops litter and he got one of the pups along with another neighbor around the corner. I called the owner and she had one female left. So.....here we are!

She is a blue merle Aussie with one brown eye and one blue eye. She is 9 weeks old, born on September 8th.

Just hours after I brought her home, there was a knock on my door and both my neighbors had brought over their puppies. It seems the owner had called my neighbor and told her that I had taken the last one. The three girls were together again and had a great time playing in the front yard. There were three boys and three girls in the litter and while the boys went as far as Tennessee, the three girls are within a few houses of each other.

On Sunday, the kids spent all morning outside in the cold playing with her. Max even curled up on the chair with her, covered her with his coat to keep her warm, and layed their shivering while she slept under his coat! It was so adorable.

S. vs. the Fireplace

Tuesday, October 28th-- S. had a run in with the fireplace....and the fireplace won.

Don't Mess with the Baby!

Don't Mess with S.!!! Last Halloween, the kids each got to choose three things from the Halloween store as decorations for the house. J. chose, of all things, a severed arm. S. has taken a liking to it and it is very funny to see him munching on a severed arm. Tee hee!!

Carving Pumpkins

Monday, October 27th--The kids got to carve their pumpkins this evening. This is one of their favorite holiday activities. They make great 'Bleck' faces for the camera when they are cleaning out their pumpkins each year! This year, J. had a very odd pumpkin. It was nearly impossible to cut! The shell was rock hard and K. had to get a hacksaw to cut it. M. was able to use the small carving saw to cut out is jack-o-lantern face but J. just had to draw her's on with marker and K. had to cut it out. Yikes! But, as usual, the kids had a great time and turned out some fabulous faces.

A Day at the Park

Saturday, October 25th--We were supposed to meet a friend of M.'s at the park today. One of the boys in M.'s kindergarten class from last year is homeschooling this year. His mother said that he is missing all of his friends and so arranged a playdate at the park. Unfortunately, I had the wrong park!! We missed playing with M.'s friend but had a good time anyway. S. enjoyed climbing the stairs on the equipment along with attempting to climb the slide. We had the opportunity to get some great pictures too. The weather was very nice and finally not too hot!

M. Plays the Piano

Sunday, October 19th--M. had his first piano recital. M. has only been in piano for a few weeks but every year, his teacher has a Halloween piano recital just for the kids. M. even got to play a duet with his teacher for the recital after only two weeks! He was very pleased.

Costume Party at the Park

Sunday, October 19th-- Today we went to a birthday party for one of M. friends from his soccer team. It was a costume party at the park. This was the first opportunity of the Halloween season the kids got to wear their costumes so they were very excited. S. enjoyed the swings while J. and M. played games, had pizza, and played on the playground.

The Pumpkin Patch

Friday, October 17th-- We went to the pumpkin patch today. J. had a play date with our favorite little guy, J.L., so he joined us in the fun. Every year, we hit at least one pumpkin patch for photos and so we can choose the best carving pumpkins. The kids love to run around and play amongst the pumpkins. This was the first year for S. and he had a field day playing with...and eating, the hay. This year we went to two different pumpkin patches. The first one we went to had a great set up for photos along with rows and rows of large pumpkins to chose our carving pumpkins. Our second pumpkin patch is really a farmers market that always has fabulous and interesting gourds, 3 for a $1.00. We all try to find the most interesting gourds and add them to our Thanksgiving cornucopia centerpiece.

Grandma's Birthday

Monday, October 13th--It is Grandma's birthday. We took her to one of her favorite restaurants, Olive Garden, for dinner. Grandpa was out of town so he did not get to join us. Happy Birthday, Grandma!! We love you!!

Camping Trip

Saturday and Sunday, October 11th and 12th---We took our second family camping trip this past weekend. Our first camping trip back in May was such a success that we decided this will become a biannual event. So, we, with our camping buddies, the Hamiltons, packed up the cars and drove all the way to......Lake Grapevine. Yes, I know, not far away, but we wanted to be close by just in case we had any little people issues or meltdowns. :) By the way, you can see our first camping trip on Dana's blog at http://thehamiltonsdfw.blogspot.com/ She gave me permission to link to her blog.

Our first camping trip was all the way to....Lake Lewisville. Again, right around the corner but we certainly were not going far for our very first trip. Anyway, Dana had found a beautiful site for our first trip but unfortunately, we had to hike about, I think I was told, 800 yards to get to our site. This is not a huge deal unless you have 4 small children, lots of blankets and changes of clothes and outside toys for the kids, tents, coolers, food, lanterns, chairs, etc.... We were at a primative site so we had no light, tables, chairs, benches or anything. It was just a spot in the woods. We had to bring everything with us. Whew. That was a loooonnnnggg hike. So, for this camping trip, Ryan insisted that HE would chose the camp site. He found a fabulous site at Lake Grapevine where we could car camp. You know, back up the car right into the site and live out of the back of the car. Very nice. Very convenient. Very easy. And, he found a site that was right next to a playground. We could sit around the campfire and still see the kids over on the playground. It was PERFECT. Go, Ryan!!

We started our trip right after M's soccer game so left the house about 1:30 after G'ma and G'pa picked up the Squishy baby. We needed to make a stop for Ketel One and lucky thing we did. As K. was in the store, M. kept asking what that hissing sound was. I got out of the car to find a big bolt sticking out of my tire and watched while my tire deflated. When K. came out of the store, I asked if he was ready to change a flat. Fun. So, after a quick tire change, we were back on the road. We made it to the lake right around 3:00. We pulled up to the camp site to find the Hamiltons all set up and ready to go.

We were all 8 of us 'cramming' into the Hamiltons cavernous tent that sleeps 20 so I got all the sleeping stuff ready while K. got a fire started and food cooking. After a lunch of burgers and hotdogs, the men took the kids for a hike around the lake while Dana and I hung out around the campfire.

For dinner, we had brats (no, we did not eat the children), burgers, roasted corn on the cob, hot dogs, chips and cheese and crackers. After dinner, we broke out the ever popular S'mores and we roasted marshmallows on our custom made roasters. The kids made roasters out of clay last year. They are very cute.

After the kids went to bed, the adults got to relax, have a drink, and chit-chat around the fire. The weather was beautiful and only got down into the 60's so perfect for sitting round the campfire.

The next morning, I got up with J. and we went for a short hike to the lake while K. slept in. Dana and her daughter joined us. We then came back for a breakfast of egg/bacon/cheese breakfast burritos, pop tarts, and OJ.

It was a nice morning. It was cool but certainly not cold. Dana and I both agreed that we wish it had been just a little bit more 'crisp' for camping so we could curl up with hot chocolate around the morning fire. It was certainly cold when we went in May. It had been in the 40's over night. Maybe our next trip this coming May will bring slightly cooler weather. However, that being said, it was certainly a MUCH nicer night this time than last. Last time it was down right COLD!!

After breakfast, Dana went to lay down and the rest of us went to the lake with Ryan to watch him fish. The kids had a great time running around the dock, peering over the edge and through the spaces in the boards. We played around the lake for awhile then headed back to camp for lunch. After lunch we started packing up and headed home in the early afternoon. All in all, a great trip!


Dana and I are already planning our May trip. Whoo hoo! We are going for two nights next time.