Happy New Year!

My friend Holly posted on her blog some things that I might not know about her so that in 2008, those things will be known. I decided to do the same thing :)

1. I am a Native Texan - born at Presbyterian Dallas.
2. I am petrified of snakes.
3. I read all the time. I keep a book with me during doctor's appointments, in my car for carpool pickup, and in my school bag. I read probably 5 books or more a month.
4. I hate talking on the phone and most importantly I HATE calling people back that I don't know. It makes me nervous and I start stuttering.
5. I have a true addiction to shoes and purses. The other day I was looking at this Louis Vuitton that I have been drooling over and it actually crossed my mind that $800 wasn't that much for a purse.
6. I am a very impatient driver. I tend to yell (to myself) at people that don't do what I think they should.
7. I have a serious weakness for chocolate and wine. I also could probably give you a critique of every restraunt's chicken salad within a 50 mile radius.
8. I don't like to be too cold or too hot.
9. I leave my shoes all over the house.
10. I HATE to do laundry. I don't mind the putting the clothes in the washer and dryer part, it's the folding and putting away that I really don't like to do.

Okay, that's enough for now. I hope that you guys are all enjoying 2008. It's been nice to relax and run around with the kids. We go back to school on the 7th. Actually, the kids and Chris all go back to school on the 7th. I am looking forward to everyone starting back and me having a few moments to myself!

What a Crazy Flurry of Activity!!

I feel like the last month has just been a fast forward button through time. Rushing from one activity to the next and making sure that I have everything that we all need to get from point A to B. Craziness . . . it was worth every 10pm trip to Wal-mart to hear the kids on Christmas morning.

Santa left a trail of tinsel from the chimney to both of the kids' bedrooms. Grace woke up first - at a respectable 7am - and came running into Caden's room. (I had been sleeping in there with him because he has had a horrendous cough that has kept him awake from about 1-3am for several nights) "Santa left Caden a green bike and I have a whole bunch of stuff too!! And he left sparkles all over our house!!"

It's the best to experience this all through their innocent little eyes. I had to go in and wake Caden up so that we could open presents at our house. They were opening so quickly that I had a hard time figuring out what was from whom. It was all about tearing into the package, glancing at it, and moving on to the next one. After we opened everything at our house, we went to my mom and dad's house next.

My brother Tom and his family came down from Duluth, MN. Dylan is 19, Matthew turns 17 on the 31st, and Cassie is 15. It was so great having everyone here for the holidays. Ann also came on the 23rd and stayed until the 28th so she was here for all the festivities as well. My kids scored big at my parent's house. The kids (including Chris) all got a Wii for Christmas. My dad lucked out and was able to get one for us and one for my brother Mike and his family. Chris stayed up until 2:30am the other night playing and I believe he has as many games of his own as the kids have :) They also each got their own Nintendo DS. I really was worried that Caden was too little for it, but he is loving it. We had avoided the whole video game scene until now with the kids, but this was an electronic Christmas :)

The day after Christmas my mom hired a photographer to come to my house and take family pictures. He's supposed to be getting us all a disk, so I will post them when I have them so that you can see how big all the kids are. These last few days have been a lot of fun hanging out with everyone at my parent's house and not having anything to do or anywhere to go that we didn't want to. My brother Tom and his family leave tomorrow morning. It's going to be sad to see them go! My brother Mike and his family met my sister in law's family up at their house in Gunnison, CO. the day after Christmas. We had an invitation to come and join them, but we decided to enjoy this week off and take some time to just stop and relax rather than heading out of town again. Can't wait to hear about all of your holidays!

Merry Christmas!

We took the kids to Stonebriar Mall yesterday to tell Santa what they wanted. It seems just like yesterday we were doing this for the first time:) Merry Christmas!

SAD NEWS . . .

The night before we left for Vegas in October Sadie developed a lump on her left leg right at the top where her shoulder socket is. We took her to the emergency clinic and they gave us some shots, xrays, slides, etc. The lump has progressively gotten bigger so I took her to our vet on Monday. It's a VERY aggresive form of cancer and our vet has given her 4-6 months from when it was diagnosed. That would be October :( There is nothing that we can do for her now except make her comfortable. If the tumor continues to grow as it has in the last month, it will be orange size by the end of January and grapefruit by February. We will then have to decide when to put her down.

The hardest part of all of this was telling the kids. Initially we thought that we would wait and tell the kids after Christmas, but Sadie came home with a bandage from the vet because we couldn't get the tumor to stop bleeding where he poked it to make a slide out of the cells. We decided to just tell them. I told the kids that we needed to talk about Sadie and the first thing out of Grace's mouth was, "Is she going to die?" That was very hard to say yes. We were trying to give them a time frame so we told them that by the time we went on our cruise for Spring Break, Sadie probably wouldn't be with us anymore. Caden then said, "We don't have to go on the cruise, we can just stay home with Sadie." I bawled. It was very sweet. He then told Grandma Mem on Tuesday that she would be watching Sadie while we went on the cruise. He doesn't really understand it all, but he knows that he's trying to make sure that she is taken care of.

As much as I moan and groan about our dogs, they are family. We've had Sadie for ten years and it is going to be very hard to let go :)

City of Plano Christmas Parade

Chris and Grace were in the Plano Christmas Parade the first weekend in December. They were with their Y Princesses group - the Grizzly Girls. This is a group shot of the girls. This next picture is great. Grace was loving the drill team that was performing in front of them!

December Festivities

I can't belive that we are at two weeks before Christmas!! I have way too much left to do. Every year I promise myself that I am going to start earlier in the year, and every year I don't - ha!

We had a great day on Saturday with the kids. We decided to take them to NorthPark Mall to see the train exhibit. We just happened upon Santa starting to tell a story so we were able to sit for a bit and listen to a Christmas story. The kids were so cute. Caden couldn't see very well (there were well over 100 people in there) and the next thing I know Grace had pulled him into her lap so that he could be elevated and he could see better. I got teary eyed watching them be so sweet to each other. It's very easy to get caught up in the day to day arguing, antagonizing, etc. that you forget to stop and enjoy :)



After we went to NorthPark we went to my niece Emily's birthday party at the ice skating rink at Grapevine Mills. We had so much fun!! Grace had never been ice skating before, but you would never have known it. She loves her roller blades so trying out the ice was only a whole lot colder! I got Caden duty and I was a bit nervous about being on ice skates with him. I hadn't been ice skating in a very long time (like 20 years), but Caden and I had fun. He really liked it when my brother Mike and Chris cruised around the ice with him holding each one of their hands. Caden's only job was to keep his skates pointing forward - no broken bones!!