Merry Christmas!!

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was very nice. I had to work a couple of days while my parents were down here, but other than that we were at Leann and Ryan's house most of the time. Saturday there was a huge snow storm (while I was working) and it was blizzard conditions. It was so crazy. However, after all that, we all were together. This is a picture of all the grand kids. Can you believe it? It is a full house with all of us together. I guess that Mom and Dad should be thankful they only had two children!

Here are Richard and I with our coffee. How did we all get along without Starbucks? Gotta love it!! Obviously here are Ryan and Leann. Notice how Richard and I and Ryan and Leann do not have any children in our picture. That was a lot of work to keep them out of the picture.

Here are mom and dad at my house. Of course Wilson needed to be in the picture too as he is part of the family. He was very good staying here with Jasmine while we were off at Leann and Ryan's house. Good Dogs!!

And of course there is the traditional making of the gingerbread house. The kids and I worked on this Christmas day. We literally had it up for an hour and then ate it! It was really good. Apparently if you don't let ginger bread houses sit out for days at a time then they don't break your teeth when you bite into them. Who knew? Happy Holiday's everyone!

A Boy and His Dog

Yesterday Jacob was sitting by Jasmine (our dog who used to be Leann and Ryan's dog) and was starting to discuss with me how things work in the dog world. Jacob said that first the boy dog and the girl dog have to get married. Then the mom dog "has to stay home with her babies and the babies drink milk from the mom." He continued on, "the dad dog.....well....he goes out and goes hunting!" Ha! Have a great day everyone!

New Family Members (Again)

These pictures were from a couple days ago when we acquired new members to the family. The first picture is to show our Christmas tree. It is pitiful, but it was $10 so I am happy about it. I think that it is funny that the kids are almost as tall as it. Anyway, this next picture is Aaron and Jacob with their new fish, frog and shrimp. They love them, though the shrimp are really hard to find.

The girls had been begging for a hamster (Alyssa) and rat (Rebekah) so last week one of Richard's students was moving so they were giving away 2 cages and one hamster. They came with everything so all we had to get is the rat. The girls were so very happy. Rebekah named hers Mickey and Alyssa's is named Peaches.

I babysit Isabelle and Gideon every Tuesday and Wednesday while Leann and Ryan have meetings. So I took these pictures today as I think that these demonstrate the difference between boys and girls. You will notice that Isabelle is smiling nicely. The boys however, Gideon was squinting at me the whole time (because he thought it was funny) and Jacob was roaring at me. Boys! They are hilarious. Have a wonderful day everyone!