It's snowing!!!!!!

"It's snowing, it's snowing, it's snowing" to qoute a few of my children! Yes it is white around here, a few weeks before Christmas, Christmas Eve, and after Christmas it has been white. Annelyse loves to tell us it's cold everytime we go out, she is infatuated with the snow, mostly wants to eat it, unfortunately the variety on the ground where everyone has walked seems fine to her, ICK! So as much as possible I am staying in except when I absolutely have to go out & avoiding the icy roads.

Well I was home alone with 3 little girls to get ready & go to the light parade since hubby was involved with the Chamber of Commerce float & making sure the Comfort Inn float had a driver, etc. We ran over to our concession stand to pick up a dispensing thermos for hot chocolate, boiled some water, mixed in several packets of hot chocolate & put it in the dispensor. Packed a bag with cups, lids, marshmallows, & some cookies so we'd have a treat & something to keep us warm. Then bundled everyone up in their thermals, warm clothes, coats, mittens/gloves, scarves, & a few blankets , de-iced the van & ran out the door to get a good place at the parade. Of course about 2 minutes out the door Annelyse fell asleep so we put her in her stroller when we got there & covered her as well as we could, it snowed the entire time we were watching the parade, it was cold but a lot of fun! It is afterall an annual tradition & we had hot chocolate to warm us up as we watched. Ashlyn insisted that when we got home she was going to have a bath to warm up, & she did! Annelyse I think decided we were nuts as she woke up outside in the freezing snow part way through the parade! LOL She's probably right! ;-) Oh well, it was fun & that's what matters. It looks like a White Christmas alright!

Searching for our Christmas Trees

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Well we took off to look for a Christmas tree on a friend's property up on the mountain with 6 of the 7 kids. Stopped for hot chocolate & breakfast items, donnettes, etc. and we were off to the mountains! It was gorgeous, difficult to get some shots with so much sunshine & white powder everywhere. Some of the snow was up to my knees so poor smaller people in the family had snow waist high that they were trudging through. Annelyse has decided that she loves the snow! She is very big on making & especially throwing snowballs! I think she got my camera at one point, ACK! Overall it was a really nice day to go up, with the sun out it wasn't tooo freezing cold & it was a fairly safe day to go up with a bunch of kids. They had a ball choosing our trees & helping to cut them down. A few are camera shy, so I told them if they hid their faces I was still going to post their photos! LOL Enjoy our Christmas music along with our photos!

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving at our house!

Are they here yet?

We told Annelyse Aunts, Uncles, & Cousins were coming for Thanksgiving so she & her brothers & sisters were anxiously awaiting their arrival.

First night, learning to share the couch, toys, & TV programming

After awhile these 2 warmed up to each other, they did really well the next day when they discovered the snack table together while waiting for Turkey dinner!

Favorite toys of the weekend, Shrek & Blue's Clues "Computer"

"Is it naptime yet?"

Sharing DS Games, the highlight for most of the kids it seemed.

We did install our carpet the day after the little one's birthday. I picked up the girls from school, Katelyn & Ashlyn & told them the installers brought the wrong carpet & they'd have to wait another 2 weeks to get the right carpet in so we may just leave their rooms with mattresses in them & leave everything else where it was! That would be 5 bedrooms worth of furniture; 7 kids beds, 7 kids dressers, & assorted items all stuffed into the family room downstairs & the living room upstairs! HA HA! They were pleasantly surprised when we walked into their rooms that had new carpet installed! LOL I had to have some fun with them!

Annelyse the Birthday Girl! Age 2!

Annelyse enjoying her cake & ice cream!

That is our little birthday girl, having a great time on her birthday! She turned 2 on Nov 12th, the same night we had to get the house ready for new carpet in 5 bedrooms that was arriving the next morning. Inbetween removing furniture from all 5 rooms to the living room upstairs & into the family room downstairs, removing the carpet, padding & then cleaning up the remaining ICK that was hovering below! Let's just say photos would be a great advertisement for either getting people to put in hard floors or to take off their shoes in their homes & consider having no indoor pets! YIKES!!!

Thankfully stopping to eat dinner with her family, havinge cake & ice cream, and opening a present was an awesome birthday for this little 2 year old! That and running around the house all day with her gift bag of clothes from her Nana & Papa, it went everywhere we went, all day long! LOL

The Cake, yes I made it, cherry chip with cherry icing, YUM!

Licking the cake was a favorite activity!

More punch please!

Playing with my brother, or tryng to escape?

Laughing with my biggest brother!

Opening my present, "Puppy" Pluto, he barks, walks, & wags his tail!

Playing with my new puppy, I love him!

The sweet little birthday girl, having fun while big siste Katie gets in on the action!

Our little sweetheart, getting tired?

Helpng clean up the floor in her room, I'm ready for new carpet!

Do we get to go to bed now? Great I'll sleep in sister Ashlyn's bed tonight!

We're in the army, oops the National Guard now!

Well everybody knows the saying we're in the army now, our oldest boy has opted to join the armed forces with the local National Guard here in Richfield. We went over Tuesday evening with most of the kids in tow to see Drakkar sworn in to the National Guard. He's talked about this for years. In fact it is the most consistent thing he has wanted as long as my dh can remember so we signed a few months ago to give him parental permission, right after he turned 17. This week he had his physical & took a major step toward adulthood, making a long-term commitment, I hope it gives him the boost in life that he needs to usher in adulthood, we all seem to have something that helps us do that; leaving home, going to college, getting married, his path choice is to be one of the brave souls that is willing to fight for the freedom we all enjoy here in the USA!

Video of Swearing in to the unit

This is the video of the ceremony, I did it on my digital camera as the camcorder is still packed, I think, anyway I don't know where it is, you may need to turn your speaker volume up to hear everything.

Signing the paperwork, and the smile after it was all said & done.

Shaking the officer's hand welcome to the guard!

After all the nervousness before hand I great big smile of accomplishment!

More Construction

Come On In!

Our little greeter every time the doorbell rings; "I get it, I get it!"

That is Annelyse, 2 years old today; although her Daddy is trying to convince her to stay 1 and he'll still buy her presents! LOL She says: "Otay", anything is fine with her if it's for her dad. been busy again at our house, as usual. After Halloween was all said & done on Saturday morning, November 1st Jordan started framing our pantry (and the wall that my desk would eventually be built along, YEAH!!!!). He had a little helper who liked using the hammer, not sure how much good she actually did but she did have her Daddy smiling! He'd hammer something & then she would mimic him.

Jordan framing in the pantry, remember the pictures of a little girl sitting in front of a large pile of boxes? Our makeshift pantry of numbered & inventoried boxes is there behind him where shelves will go!

Here is the little helper at work during the framing & after the wallboard had gone up.

First the wall going up, then the start of pantry shelves, YIPPPEEEEEE!!!!!

The finished project!

Actually we have more shelves planned, this is how far we have it so that the desk project could begin. We started unloading the boxes onto these 2' deep shelves & found that there was good news & bad news. We will have to put up the back shelves & 1' deep shelves on the other side of the room sooner than we expected, on the other hand the good news is we have more food than we thought with a family of 9 that is GREAT news! The other great news is that about 53 boxes have been unpacked thanks to this project, YEAH!!!!!!!!

Next it was time to start on my desk, I am so thrilled because an organized desk means my brain functions better. I'm one of those people who really needs to have access to my computer, filing cabinets, sorters, etc. I also need to do something like scrapbook periodically to create something & de-stress. Of course at this time of year I want to get to my holiday planner and set up my menus and things so a desk is crucial to my functioning well. This time my office has been planned from the start & I am going to have a great layout where all my things are in one place instead of across the room here & there, Jordan has been planning this for a while & I am excited! I didn't get many construction pictures this time, I was busy painting desktop & shelving, but here are some photos.

The right side of my L-shaped desk, there will be shelves on this wall hopefully by the end of the week so I can finish unpacking in he family room & it can stop being box central, YEAH!!!!

The left side of my desk, we decided we will add one more 1/2 shelf here & move all the disks & things I use more often within reach when I am sitting at my desk. As usual our little one is right there part of the action, & wanting to climb the desk.

A shot with the center of the desk, my computer tower is up where small fingers hopefully will not be turning my power off while I am in the middle of a task! (Yes she has done that!)

I have now unpacked all of my files, all my holiday planners yes I have one for all the fall holidays with 19 weeks in it & then the details for Halloween, Thanksgiving, & Christmas each have their own separate binders. There is one for all of my holiday recipes, then one for each; Valentines, St. Patrick's (Yes Debbie, really! LOL), Easter, & the 4th & 24th of July (those 2 are together!). Those are most of the binders on the top shelf, along with my home control journal, my blank organizational forms, & a few organizational reference books. I also have my mailing center on the top shelf, which makes finding an envelope, stamp, birthday card, etc. much easier to do on a moments notice. The family home evening supplies have moved to my shelving also hopefully that will making planning our Monday nights a little easier, at least I will see the box each day & be reminded! As I get my other shelves up some of this may move around a little, we'll see how it goes. Right now I'm just glad to have 12 more boxes unpacked & things that I need accessible! THANK YOU to my wonderful & talented husband, Jordan!