GardenFest of Lights

We went to Lewis Ginter's GardenFest of Lights with friends.  I didn't realize it had been 3 years since we last went with them!  You can see the difference in the girls and JD here!  Boy, time goes by way too quickly!

Enjoy the few pictures from this years' trip.

My two gorgeous girls.

Hello. My name is Peggy :o)

the girls with JD

Rebecca said, " A house munchkin size for me!"  Hanging around with JD can make any of us feel short!

Emily

Happy Belated Birthday to my Little Doggie

Rosie is 3 years old~ that's 25 in human years according to this website.

Rosie still has plenty of spunk in her, but is a much calmer doggie.  She loves her rawhide bones, going for walks and to doggie daycare.  Her favorite person to play with is Jay and her favorite person to follow around is me.

She still likes to jump on certain people when they come over.  We are working on that :/

Rosie's favorite spot to snooze is curled up on the couch next to me or in the sun.  During meal time, Rosie can be found sitting patiently under the table for something to drop.  Although she is trustworthy and hasn't destroyed anything in years, we still keep her downstairs and leave her gated in the kitchen.

Rosie is a great addition to our family and we LOVE her.  I can't imagine our family without her. 

When people say that having a dog completes a family, they are correct.  She has taught our girls a type of responsibility that they wouldn't have learned otherwise. 



Rosie is a little too pooped out from all the Christmas festivities to celebrate her third birthday.





Christmas with Family

The Walters Family gathering

my cute little neice and me

taking a sip of air...

and then sharing with her new doll

Rosie says, "Let me in."  Madison says, "If I could figure out how, I would."

The nativity scene featuring th three smart phones.

Christmas morning.
I liked having the tree in the playroom this year, but I'm not loving the background for all my pictures.

We had a great Christmas 2011.  It was nice and relaxing.  We didn't have to travel to see family this year making it stress free.  I also did lots of cooking!  Amazing, huh?  We didn't have our traditional Chinese for Christmas dinner :(  That was disappointing for the girls, but I preferred the ham, potatoes, and all the fixings instead :)

A Closet in Need

Every once in awhile I open a door or a cabinet and am amazed at the unorganized chaos that I see.  Most of the time, I just ignore it, but sometimes, it just gets so bad that I can't ignore it any longer.

Last night was one of those times.  We had purchased some bins from Costco and Target earlier in the day so a closet cleaning was expected.  This just happened to be the first one that I opened and had just had it. 

As usual, I pulled everything out and made a ginormous mess on the floor.  You can see my last closet cleanout here.  From there, I started to organize and put things back.  Unfortunately, wen we came home from shopping, I had a monstronious headache and took a couple Tylenol pm.  I could no longer take the fuzzy headed feeling and went to bed only to tackle the rest of it today.  It took longer than expected and I was unable to purge as much of Jay's stuff as I would have liked,  but it is an improvement.  Let's just hope it stays this way for longer than a week.



We wish you a Merry Christmas

Christmas Singing

Check back later.  There are more pictures to come and possibly video.  Rebecca is singing Sunday morning and both girls are singing a song in the adult choir in the Canata Sunday evening.

Lilies of the Valley



Jr. choir singing in the Children's Christmas Play

Mexican Fiesta

We ( I ) decided to forgo the big birthday party this year and just had family over for Mexican to celebrate Jay and Rebecca's birthday.  I am assuming everyone had an ok time.  It went great from my stand point- no clean up of toys or food smashed in the carpet.  When it was over, everyone left.  I think we have a new birthday tradition!
Rebecca wants to have a 1/2 birthday party in June, which I think just might happen :o)

Such a great helper

She built up an appetite preparing all that food that she is ready to dig in.

Our little bit of Mexican flair with all the Christmas decorations.

digging in

One of those pics that I really shouldn't have taken.

ran out of table space so they sit where they can

Maraca hog.

Present time- jay opening an antique gift from his grandma.

Rebecca picked out the cake.  I didn't care what it looked like, I just wanted a mongo piece.

Look who has Madison!  Breaking new ground.

My hubby turned 36 and my sweet preteen turned 12.  Sigh.  Time sure does fly by.

Change of plans when a child is sick...

I had the day completely mapped out starting with getting up early and finishing up the Christmas shopping while it was still warm out, grabbing a quick lunch, open gym, keepers, take the girls to the in laws, and enjoy an evening alone with the hubby. 

God obviously had other plans for me. 

First of all, I stayed up way too late watching tv and looking through pinterest.com.  That was a big mistake and I knew I would pay for that.

I fell asleep just minutes before 2 am only to wake up at 2:20 with a sick child.

Emily evidently had a stomach bug that caused her to vomit every hour until 8:30 this morning.  Other than being exhausted and has a lack of appetite, she is feeling fine now. 

All of my plans were cancelled so after I stopped sulking, I tried to make the best of it.

I had the girls do three of the simple activities that I saw last night on Pinterest~ nothing new, big or amazing, just reminders of things we haven't done in years!



rolling a marble in paint

Emily's snowflake

my snowflake/star/thingy



the final projects

attempting to play marbles with what does not resemble a circle :)

So, for tonight, I will send the girls to bed early, Emily definitely needs the sleep and I will...probably go to bed early, too.  No more Pinterest for me!







Sunset at Sea

Castaway Cay Pt. 1 of Double Dip

The girls enjoyed playing at Spring-a-Leak.

Chillaxin'

Lunch at Cookies b-b-q 2

The views from the covered picnic area are beautiful.

Life is good when you are sitting on an island in the Bahamas
under a palm tree that is blocking the sun.

Completely unedited~ the water is unbelievable.

No gas... I guess we will just have to be stranded on the island :)