For Madison

Hi Madison-- the girls are loving your hand-me-downs! Thank you!! Miss you!!

Texan Adventure

Sorry for the delay in blog-posting-- we've had quite a busy weekend on our Texan adventure. It was a last minute trip- decided to go 2 days prior to departure. Any of you in the airline industry know that you can't always plan little getaways according to your schedule- ya gotta play by their rules and their schedules- and that doesn't always work out to be convenient. This time it did, for the most part. ;)

Look out plane, here we come! Little Jacob rounding up the pack.

It was smooth flying and we made all flights (to Texas) without any problem- yay! Upon arrival Elizabeth quickly found Madison's toys and became her new buddy for the weekend.

It was Steeler Playoff weekend (...and now we have to look ahead to next year...) so Jacob had to be surrounded with team spirit. It was quite fun watching the game in Cowboy territory- and hey- the Steelers didn't do that bad. Guess we'll have to root for the Cowboys now Austin-- maybe.... ;) Mark and the children were loving Austin and Madison's Christmas Wii present. No Elisha you can't have one... Phew! What a day- thanks Jim for a place to snuggle and rest. The women had to do some shopping you know - what trip is complete without some shopping? This was one of the purchases from a 'starving artist' sale. PapPap says he was sure glad Lauri bought something so the artist could eat dinner that night-- ha ha.

Jim says the painting gets lost in the bricks- any comments? Depending on the comments, Lauri may just have to return to the sale next week to find another painting ;) (And notice the Steeler cap on the mantel??- must be Austin's-- snicker snicker) Chow time- that awesome guy Jim in the previous picture is truly the best chef in the world! Mexican food, salmon, and morning cappuccino to die for! We've tried to hire him for our personal chef- hasn't worked yet :( Play time Caught ya! Must be exhausted from all of the shopping they did- and for the record, the men's purchases were much greater than the female's! Elizabeth was Madison's shadow all week-end she practically smothered her. And Jacob's buddy was Tess- that's quite a dog to let a 3-year old drag her around all week-end! Jacob even tried to pull him in a little tent he had set up in the living room. It didn't work. Back home- and the famous "MOM... will you STOP taking pictures!!!" look from Elizabeth.

Wish I could fold up like that. It would take me a LONG time to get tired of this view- unless it was from an airport window all day- which sort of happened, allowing us an extra night- darn! ;) And finally homeward bound (barely made the full flight the next day) connecting through Phoenix-- lovin that view too- even though it was a 5-hour view because of weather delays- no problem~ The kids set up shop on the floor and had lots of fun. I might be biased, but they were the best little travelers ever- even after coming off of VERY turbulent flight- we had to fly around those crazy midwest storms and tornadoes- never seen lighting like that from a plane and don't care to again. I had to crawl on my knees to take Elizabeth potty- then wait out the bumps with the flight attendants in the back of the plane. The attendants weren't too happy with us, but what do you do with a girl who has to go potty?

With a total of 15 hours in/on airports and planes that day, Jacob still wanted to go right back onto another plane. Soon enough little guy... (I hope) And now back to routines and daily life... why is it so hard to get back into the swing of things?

We're missing you Texas family!!! Thanks for the wonderful weekend- we love you!!

GIrly Stuff

One of the girls' most prized Christmas gifts was a dollhouse given to them by Gma. Daddy set to work on assembly on New Year's Day. The boys weren't thrilled- they had to keep out- thus the happy faces shown below ;)

Yay! Finally we can get our hands on this stuff... well, almost. Havin fun Dad?? Complete with lights- Final touches- the kit came with paint, but the girls decided that would take too long to dry, so they opted for the included stickers. Ta Da! It was a hit Grandma-- now to keep the boys from playing 'home renovation'... to be continued.... Hope you're all having a great start to the new year! We're glad to be getting back to our school routine- Ok, Mom's glad- not so sure Elisha would agree ;)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! It's been one of those organizing days- out with Christmas, in with fresh, new, clean rooms- with a few less toys ;) The kids did really well going through their old toys to make a bag for the Good Will and they are really proud of their clean desks.

Thought I'd leave you with a few more picts of our final Holiday festivities. It's always so much fun to prepare for December, but I sure am glad when it's done and we can resume normal routines.

Here, the girls are opening their Extreme Makeover Home Edition Playhouse to be built. They've been pestering Daddy all day to start on it.

And here is Elisha playing with Jacob's new dinosaurs. Somehow Elisha always manages to end up with Jacob's toys-- it's NEVER the other way around- unless there was some of his famous bartering going on. I thought the view of Jacob's little feet was too cute! Sleep at last! Jacob's recovered dinosaur.

The children are all finally napping- they were up until about 1am- I think I'll join them ;)

Wishing you lots of good things for 2008!