I give you Rascal.....

Dax and I have totally lost our minds!!



Kirsten decided that she did indeed want a dog. Since the other three all have their own dogs it was either get her a dog or pay for years of therapy because we wouldn't let her have one.



Up until she decided this, she had been our favorite child. We told them all that now that title is back up for grabs.



I'm just kidding about the favorite thing.



Kinda'



No, really I'm just kidding.



Anyway, we went to the shelter on the 26th and left with Rascal.









As you can see, he photographs as delightfully as Kuddles did.


But, we may still have to pay for therapy.




For Dax & I!!!


What is wrong with us?



Seriously! We must have lost our minds.

I wonder who

Someone has been playing with my camera when I wasn't paying attention.












I won't give any names here but I'm pretty sure her initials are Addison Noel Verleye!

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!


We had a delightful day at our house.


The kids woke up quite early but had mercy on their father and I and waited patiently until around 7-7:30 before they woke us up.

The tree and presents after Santa's visit.

Opening of the presents.

When Abigail first got home from the hospital I made the other children wear masks until Abigail was feeling better. Addison wears hers all the time now.

I hope your Christmas celebration was a joy as well.

An angel's voice

Earlier in the evening on the night that Abigail wound up in the hospital, Kirsten had her choir concert at Emily Ann Theatre. The kids all did a really good job -- but it was COLD out there.

Kirsten is the second from the left in the front row.



I think she's really enjoyed being in the choir and not having her brother or sisters participate. It's been HER thing. And that's good.

Too tired to care

I spent the day on Sunday running around like a crazy person trying to get the last of the Christmas shopping done.


As I walked out of the last store I caught my reflection in the car window.



*Gasp!*



No wonder the cashier kept looking at me all weird like.





In some stores the lights cause a terrible glare on my glasses. I had pushed them up onto my head and then just used them when I needed to see the price. Obviously my hair got stuck in them at some point and I didn't even notice.


By this time I was so tired that I didn't even care that I had been walking around the store for who knows how long with my hair looking ever so awesome.

This was never in my plans for the weekend.






Abigail started feeling bad and running a fever on Wednesday night so we kept her home from school on Thursday. By Thursday evening she was much worse so we took her to the clinic in town.


They took her vitals and then wouldn't even see her. They sent us straight to the emergency room so that she could have a chest x-ray done right away.


The doctor at that hospital didn't think much of it and was going to send us home until her oxygen level kept dropping. He decided that without a staff pediatrician that they weren't prepared to treat her. He put her in an ambulance and sent us to the children's hospital in Austin.


That makes for a very scary night. Especially since about 5 years ago we went through a very similar scenario with Abigail and she wound up having to have emergency surgery and being in the hospital for 2 weeks.


Fortunately we caught it earlier this time (I think we would have been in the same boat as before if we had waited until Friday morning to go to the doctor) and she was able to come home on Saturday afternoon.


She scared us for sure, but we're thankful that she's home and doing better every day.


Even her brother and sisters were worried (not that all of them would admit to it!)

Silly girl

So Addison walks into the kitchen the other night and says, "What's up? My mother from another mother."




Huh?

Better than a dog sled

Since we live in a relatively warm climate and don't have much chance of snow we don't ever get the joy of having a ride on a dog sled. I think Abigail's found the answer to this problem.




(Did you notice Abigail's socks? She matched them all by herself.....we're so proud of her. LOL)


In all reality, I don't think he even notices her there. When she's trying to get him to stay beside her and holding onto his collar he just drags her off to do whatever it is he wants to do. Often times she's lying down while he does it.

He's just so goofy!


He had been dragging her around for quite some time but when I got the camera out Abigail was trying not to let him do it anymore. She stops whatever she's doing every time she sees me get the camera out. She's afraid it will end up on my blog.







Where would she ever get that idea?

Vegas, Baby!!

Dax and I have been gone the past week to Las Vegas.


It's strictly for educational purposes.


No, really. It is!


We attend an accounting conference there every year. I guess it doubles as our vacation too.

Here's the view from our room.

My cousin happened to be in town on a weekend trip so we met him and his wife and had dinner with them too. It was really nice to see him. It had been a long time.

We had a really good time and went to see a few shows. I think one of the funniest things that we saw, though was the 'talent' in the kareoke bar in the casino next door. Some of these people were just too much.

I think this guy thinks he's Edward Cullen.

You would never guess but this guy could wrap like nobody's business.

Elvis was in the building. (I couldn't believe that people actually dressed the part and showed up with props, too.)

He was even working the crowd on his way out!!

This lady was about 80 and had the Good Witch cut out. After she took of the Bad Witch costume, under it she's dressed as Dorothy and had a whole little dance routine to go with her song. It was sooooo funny!

I wanted to actually record the whole Dorothy routine but while I was trying to get my camera to the right setting a man (a very drunk man) in a Captain America suit came over to see if I wanted my picture taken with him. By the time he finally went away, Dorothy was already done with her performance.

What I found really interesting was that in this casino they wouldn't let any bad words be said if they were in the song. Hmm....let's see. You have to be 21+ to be in there, people are gambling, as long as they're gambling free booze abounds, and 10 feet out the door there are people handing out 'hooker trading cards'. But bad words is where they draw the line?! Really? That's what's too much. Gambling, booze, naked women....just the norm. Cursing......No freaking way!! Too funny.

Here are some of the people that we just saw out on the street.


I thought it was funny that they actually had to put up a sign to tell people not to try to sit on the fake hedge bike. You know they did it because they had so many people trying.
This iguana was huge. The poor thing was probably freezing to death though because it was only in the 40's out there.


There were people dressed up as all kinds of characters and they were everywhere. I think they do it for tips to take your picture with them.


It was interesting to say the least.