Photo 365 #146

December 31, 20142 Comments

Among the many things that Cricket and Thumper found under the Christmas tree at Grandma’s house were matching Scooby Doo jammies. If their Halloween costumes weren’t indication enough of how excited these two get over Scooby Doo, then heres another picture that’s worth a thousand words on the subject:

scoobytwins

Trying to get Thumper to sit still for longer than two seconds is like resisting the Borg. Still, this picture was the better of the two I snapped this afternoon as we were getting ready for naps. If naptime hadn’t been imminent, they’d have probably looked a little more excited, but as we all know, naps are evil and must be fought at all costs.

*cries*

At least it’s quiet upstairs now. That’s either very good or very bad, and I’m a little bit afraid to find out which it is.

New year, new features!

December 31, 2014December 20, 20144 Comments

So tomorrow we start another year. Can you believe how fast 2014 flew by? I know I can’t. I’m sure it just began yesterday, didn’t it?

But with the new year, I’ve decided to do something new here on my shiny, pretty blog. There’s this calendar that I saw a while back, called “When You Stumble, Make it Part of the Dance” by Suzy Toronto, and it had some of the neatest sayings on it, one for each month. Some of them inspired me, some of them made me laugh, but all of them made me want to share with all of you. I’ll share one calendar quote the first of every month, and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

If you’d like to get a copy for yourself, check out Ms. Toronto’s website. She’s got lots of great stuff for sale, and if I ever win the lotto, I’ll be tempted to buy one of everything she’s got up. 🙂

In the meantime, I hope you stay safe this New Year’s Eve, and may 2015 bring you and yours nothing but the best. Happy New Year!

Photo 365 #145

December 30, 2014December 31, 2014Leave a comment

This picture is a little old, but it does a fantastic job of illustrating little Thumper’s personality:

tuckeredout

He just played and played and played until he couldn’t play anymore. Didn’t even make it into bed before he collapsed. My Thumper is like the Energizer Bunny – he keeps going and going and going…

I hope whomever he marries someday is equally energetic. She’ll have to be in order to keep up with him.

Photo 365 #144

December 29, 2014December 31, 20146 Comments

toogrownup Yesterday we traveled south to celebrate Christmas with Seymour’s family. Normally they come up to our place for Christmas, but it just didn’t work out this year (darn work schedules, anyway). We had a lovely time, full of great food and lots of togetherness.

One of the things Miss Tadpole received from Grandpa and Grandma was the rockin’ purple hat she’s wearing in this picture. She then spent a good hour or so arranging her hair and playing around with her hat. I got a couple of pictures of her, and this is one of my favorites.

However, she looks so grown up! I’m not sure I’m ready for this yet.

I couldn’t help smiling a bit, though, at my reaction to this picture. All I could think of was the scene in the movie Blended where Adam Sandler’s newly-made-over daughter enters the dining room and the first thing that pops into his head is, “It’s the end of the world as we know it…”

And for the record, those are my shoes. How she managed not to break her neck in them since they’re three sizes too big, I’ll never know.

Photo 365 #143

December 28, 2014Leave a comment

A rare moment of peace in my house:

The boys love their rocking horse. They do not, however, love to share. Imagine my surprise, then, when they not only shared the rocking horse but did so for ten full minutes.

It’s a Christmas miracle! 😀

Photo 365 #142

December 27, 2014December 28, 20144 Comments

I had to run some errands in the next town over this morning and as I rounded the curve into town, I was greeted by a huge plume of smoke. At first, I thought maybe the fire department was doing a controlled burn, but they weren’t.

Like so many others, I circled the block to see if I could figure out what was burning. It looked like the local furniture store’s warehouse, but as I got closer, it turned out to be the building behind it. The fire destroyed a heavy machinery shop.

I managed to snap a few pictures before I ran my errands, and on my way back home, I thought I’d snap a few more. But by then, the police had blocked off the street I’d been on before.

I hope the business will rebuild in town so that no one will lose their job, and I hope that no one was hurt in the fire.

Photo 365 #141

December 26, 2014December 28, 2014Leave a comment

Santa left me a pretty awesome gift in my stocking this year:

Rumor has it they make comm badges that actually function thanks to the wonders of Bluetooth, if I remember correctly. I’m not sure I want to know how much those cost, though. 🙂

What was your favorite gift this year?

Photo 365 #140

December 25, 20142 Comments

We always open stockings on Christmas morning; it makes Christmas without the kids a little less dull. We get up early, open stockings, have a special breakfast (this year it was glazed cinnamon twists from a local bakery – yummy!), and then hustle off to get the kids where they need to be.

This year, the kids awoke to stockings full of candy and frosted pretzels, plus a gift or two (a movie, a blanket, a pineapple – the usual stocking stuffer-type things). 🙂 But, even better, we awoke to a beautiful Christmas sunrise (which I promptly called a sunset because apparently I can’t talk that early in the morning). 🙂

I hope your Christmas morning was as beautiful as mine, and that the rest of your day is full of good food and family fun. Merry Christmas, everybody! 🙂

Photo 365 #139

December 24, 2014December 25, 20142 Comments

Tonight we celebrated Christmas for the second time. Bubbles and Miss Tadpole will be spending Christmas Day with their other parents, so tonight we had Christmas with them. Our plans of having delicious turkey went awry, though, and our backup plan (ham) failed, too, but it all worked out for the best – we had chicken, noodles, and potatoes, which is Seymour’s favorite meal.

And boy, did that chicken hit the spot last night. 🙂

The kids had a blast opening their presents, and then Seymour kicked our butts at Huckly Buck before bed. It was a good night.

From my family to yours, have a very, very merry Christmas! 🙂 How does your family celebrate?

Photo 365 #138

December 23, 2014Leave a comment

Our Christmas celebrations began tonight with a visit to my aunt and uncle. They took us out for supper, and then we all went back to their house to open gifts. On our way there, we had to stop for some people who were crossing the street:

A group of carolers was going from house to house on my aunt and uncle’s street. We told them what we’d seen, and my aunt said she wished she’d seen them. Thus began a conversation about caroling when we were younger, and as we each shared our memories, the group reached us, so we all headed to the door to listen.

Well, all of us except the boys. They were too busy playing with the toy nativity set on the coffee table.

It was a perfect night for caroling – it wasn’t too cold, a light snow was falling, and everyone’s spirits were high. I haven’t been caroling since I was a kid, and I remember it being much colder then (though that could have been because we didn’t walk – we did more of a singing hayride sort of thing). I haven’t even seen carolers in a very long time, so this really made my night.

Do you go caroling, or have you in the past?