ode to dad

okay. so i had to do another post, dedicated to dad. as i was looking through my pictures, i realized i had a lot of really great shots of dad!

fun in california

It was great to visit the family and California, even if it was way too short! I'm going through a little post-vacation depression right now. Anyway, here are some pictures from home of the tree, the kids, and the iguana hunt...

Check out my new wheels! It's a 2004 Toyota Sienna! I LOVE it!!!!!

More Christmas pics...

Here's a few more Christmas pictures. It was cold and wet and rainy today so I'll take a picture of my new wheels tomorrow when the rain lets up!!

The girls loved these umbrellas, mom! We went to the park today (in the rain) and they wanted to bring them. I had a hard time explaining why that wouldn't work...

Rod's mom made this purse for Caitlin. Lately she's been really big into bringing her own church bag to church, and she's excited this one will be able to fit so much stuff!

The girls got out their nail polish from Aunt Emily unauthorized!! Fortunately, I could smell what they were up to before any disasters occurred and got them to the table to finish. Their nails (really, their whole last knuckle on) look interesting to say the least!

Lizzie opening presents...

Merry Christmas!

I'm sure you all had a great Christmas, as did we! We had a lot of fun with our quiet little Christmas, here's a rundown of the events:

Christmas eve, the highlights being the traditional clam chowder (Caitlin cleaned her bowl and asked for more!!) and a little presentation of the nativity. They took turns being Mary (so we had to do it twice, of course!) and Rod was the (half-asleep) donkey. They liked leading him to the stable...

Christmas morning the girls woke up around 8, and Rod started things off with a wonderful French Toast breakfast for us all!

Then came the present-opening! We all took turns opening presents, and it was fun to see the girls get excited about what everyone was getting, not just them. They liked watching daddy open the 8-pack of Dr. Pepper cans they decorated for him!

I decided our kids are going to make gifts for each other each Christmas. This year I helped them make tie-fleece pillows for each other. This project was totally at Caitlin's level, she loved tying them all, but I'll admit Lizzie basically just wrapped Caitlin's when I finished....

Winter Wonderland?

Here's a little video of our first big snow. I don't mean to show you up Carrie, although I can't believe they canceled school in Vegas! Crazy. Here has been my experience with the snow so far:

1) It is so cold that our water pipes have frozen several times. There's nothing more irritating than having no water. Of course it happens on the day the Alex throws up 3 times. How do you clean up barf with no water? I can't do laundry, flush toilets, shower....nothing! So I used those days an an excuse to do just that-nothing.

2) It takes twice as long to take kids to the bus stop. I have to unbury the car first. The other day I was taking them to school and Cameron was crying that his hands hurt they were so cold. It was -18 that day.

3) Bundling kids up and helping them put snow boots on. That is going to be the death of me.

4) Clumps of snow around the house that have been tracked in that become small invisible puddles of water, which I step in with my socks.

5) This morning I had to go to the post office to mail some packages. It took me 1/2 hr just to get out of my driveway. I got stuck and had to use the floor mats to inch my way closer to the road. I finally got unstuck but was covered with mud and wet from digging in the snow (by the way, a CD case make a pretty good shovel).

6) It is very pretty. I'll just stare at it out my window though.

Hell DOES freeze over!!

(just kidding- it's really not hell here!) Dad, all those years of asking "how's the weather" would have paid off awesomely Wednesday. You would have gotten the most exciting, non-boring answer! It snowed here! It snowed around town earlier in the week, with some places getting 5-ish inches and it sticking. We're one of the lowest parts of town, so we didn't see snow then- but yesterday we did! It snowed for awhile and flurries stuck for a little bit, until it rained that night. I bundled up the girls and sent them out as fast as I could! They loved it for about about 15 minutes, then they were freezing. Little desert weenies.

Anyway, the funny part is that today was a snow day for the schools! And it was blue skies and sunny- no snow on our part of town whatsoever, though in other places there were a few inches of snow. But really, a snow day for a few inches??

Demonstrating the true craziness of the weather, Monday the girls picked the corn they planted a few months ago (and they got to eat it for dinner!). It was just little 4" or so corn, but it was fun watching them husk it and be so excited about cooking and eating it. So Monday was harvest, Wednesday was snow. Seriously, how often can you take a picture of freshly harvested corn in front of a Christmas tree?