A Very Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Our's was great.


On Thursday we went to my brother's to celebrate with our parents and his family.

Wyatt with his new horse Fil.....

We also had a full house with friends and family there which makes for a happy day.

We were obviously feeling very French this year.

Wyatt got hockey skates so he's in Heaven.

Dax got a pole-dancing-stripper alarm clock from his mom.

I think Dax's favorite gift, though, was getting this flag from his Mom. It was the flag that was from his grandfather's service after his death. It really meant a lot to him.

But, it was a lot of work and required a lot of energy, so when the festivities were over, I fell asleep and slept for about 12 hours.

It was glorious!!

I hope that you all had good times with your family and friends!

That silly mouse.....

Ralf got out again.


Fortunately the girls were in the room at the time and saw him make his daring escape.


He really chose to go the unconventional route this time. He made his get away in Berty's mouth.


I just wonder what even gave him the idea.


It's a good thing that the girls were in there and chased the cat to get Ralf back.


Now I'm just wondering if that's the same way he 'escaped' the last time.


Hopefully Dax got the get-away hatch closed so that the cat can't get it open any more.


Hopefully.

Stranger in the night.

Last night the cat was driving me crazy. She had found something to play with and it kept squeaking and it was impossible to sleep.

After trying to get her to stop playing several times I finally just locked her in the laundry room.

Of course she started trying to get out of there and kept clawing under the door which finally woke Dax up at about 2:00 this morning.

He sat up in bed trying to figure out what the noise was and I told him it was just the cat wanting out of the laundry room.

Then.........

Me:  But if the cat's in the laundry room why do I hear something crawling around over here.

Dax: What are you talking about?

Me:  I hear something crawling around over here.

I got up and turned on the bathroom light, so as not to blind us, and went back to investigate.

Me:  Oh my God!!! There's a mouse in here!!!

I run in a panic to the other side of the room.

Dax: (Still laying in bed.) Well, get it.

Me:  I'm not touching it. Oh my God!!! It just crawled into my purse!!!!

Dax: Turn on the light so you can see it.

Me:  I don't want to see it! You get up and get it!

I turn on the light (I have to walk back over to where the beast is to do that.)

Dax:  Is it Ralf?

Me:  I don't know! You come pick it up and see if it bites you. If not then it's probably Ralf.

Dax:  It is Ralf. Go put him back in his cage.

So I search for something to pick him up with because I don't want to touch him (just in case it's not Ralf, you know.)

Anyway, I caught him, put him back in his cage, and gave him some food.

It's a wonder he survived. I feel terrible now that we kept hearing something squeak and had no idea it was him. He appears to be alright and was fast asleep when I checked on him again this morning.

I guess he's as tired as I am after last night's big adventure.

Crazy Busy

We've been so busy. I only wish I could say that when this week is over and the kids are out of school that it will get better, but it really won't.


Oh well, as the saying goes......keep calm and carry on.


On Sunday Addison's soccer team had their end-of-season party. (There's much drama on that front, but I'm trying to just stay out of it.) The girls had decided that they wanted to go ice skating. I'm glad they had the party when they did, because it happened to be at the same rink and right before Wyatt's skating class. Woohoo! I'm all for things coming together like that.


Addison had a great time even though she wound up with a big bruise on her knee from someone else knocking her down. Wyatt.....not so much.

It's hard to see in this picture (he wouldn't let me get a good one) but he fell and banged the side of his face up pretty good. There was some missing skin (I'm assuming it stuck to the ice) and some bruising. He was working on sliding to a side-ways stop and lost his balance. And this was before his class even started, he was skating earlier to practice.


On Monday night Addison, Abigail, and  Wyatt had their first band concert. The band did a really good job. I know they were nervous, but it all worked out. The band is pretty big and none of my kids were in a spot where we could see them so I didn't get any pictures. Oh, well.


Today they start taking their mid-term exams. This is a first for them so I guess we'll see how it goes. Just this morning they were complaining that there aren't Christmas parties anymore, just finals. Welcome to growing up!

The big stage show......

Dax was running a little late yesterday when it was time to pick the kids up from school. In his haste to get out of the office he left his house keys on his desk.

Of course he realised this as soon as he got home and started looking for his keys to unlock the front door.

He called me at the office and I left early to go unlock the house for them. It was no big deal because I was going to have to leave early anyway because Kirsten had a choir performance.

When I got home the kids were scattered, still looking for ways to get into the house. Except for Abigail. She said it was too cold in the car so she was trying to stay warm with the cat's bed.

That looks much warmer, right?


Then we got bundled up to go to Kirsten's choir performance at the Trail of Lights.


She had to be there early, so the rest of us had a chance to wander around and look at some of the displays.

 The three amigos.....

Santa's helpers.......

Then we made it back to the stage for the choir performance......

After her performance we looked around a little longer.

I thought this tree was really neat!

Here's an up-close picture so you can see what it was made of.

All in all it was a good night. It was cold but fortunately it wasn't windy. Being on the top of the hill in the cold and wind is just miserable, but last night was good.

Watch 'em fall

My parents came for Thanksgiving but didn't get to leave until December 2.


No, we didn't hold them hostage.


Dax and I were going to be out of town and they were kind enough to stay with our kids while we were gone. I really don't know what we would do without them.


Anyway, my Mom brought some dominoes with her to play games with the kids. They played their games just fine until my Dad showed them a video online of falling dominoes. That started a whole new obsession.


Here's Abigail's creation.

 And some video....

How can it be?

How does time pass so quickly without any updates to this blog? Sometimes we're just so busy that there isn't the time or energy that it takes to make a post. But then, it seems like we're so busy but there really isn't much to tell. How can that be?


Well, it's official now. We have less than one year left of having 'kids.' Next year we'll have teenagers.


I shudder at the thought!


My babies turned twelve last month.


How can it be?


We surprised them for their birthday with dinner out and then to a hockey game. We told them that we were going to dinner at a place that Dax had seen in Austin and wanted to try. After dinner Addison asked if we could go watch a movie. I told her that we would go watch 'something.'


Since we wanted this to be a big deal because of their birthday, Dax and I both contacted several people about having their names on the jumbotron (without knowing the other was doing it.) I think that between the two of us we must have contacted everyone in the organization!


It worked out to our advantage though.


I had bought tickets at center ice only about 5 rows up this time since it was a special occasion. Two different people from the Stars showed up at our seats with gifts for the kids.


They were thrilled to get autographed pucks.

They also got other pucks, some championship banners from last season, and a blanket. It was great!


Wyatt and Dax even got to see their favorite players out on the ice.

And they did get their name on the jumbotron and announced during the game.

All in all it was a good birthday surprise for them.


Not to mention all of the other great gifts they got.


But, I still can't believe they're already 12. How can it be?