Ice Skating

Emma invited her best friend, Elizabeth to go ice skating. They had a blast and it gave mom a little break.

Another snow day

Well, make that Ice day.

It was so slick, that Rebekah could easily pull Emma down the driveway in the sled.


Rebekah's new favorite place is sitting inside my snow pants. She thinks they were made just for her.

More nap time

I guess it is because it is so rare now that Rebekah actually takes a nap, that I find it hilarious to see the way she sleeps...

Notice the addition of a shiny belt around her waist... I couldn't actually get in the room for this shot. But there was just enough room to slide the camera in.

Not sure how she does this, but she is sleeping...

She was not wearing the pink sweater when I put her down.

Wow, a normal nap!!!

This one, not so normal...notice anything missing??

This one too...

Hey, another normal nap!

What the!!! I don't know how she did this, but I did walk around her and make sure she wasn't getting pinched anywhere or hurt. The chair is actually resting on itself and not touching her.

Because some days you just can't face the world...

Our little family...

of Deer. Here is mama and her two babies. They don't look very scared of me do they?? They have been eating my leyland cypress and holly bushes. Crazy deer!

The other birthday...

I got so many comments about Clay's birthday, that I had to share what happened on MY birthday. Just so you get a good picture of a not so perfect life...


The day before my birthday, Rebekah started throwing up. It was a quick stomach flu that she got from nursery. Her little friend, Evan, had it too. So my only wish was that I didn't have to clean up any puke on my birthday.

On Thursday, Jan 8, my birthday, Clay took me out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, Lightfoot, and arranged for a babysitter. It was very good, as usual. Except I felt way over stuffed and started feeling a little ill. Didn't think much of it.

The next night we invited 2 couples over to play Settlers of Catan with us. They both had the pinewood derby to go to first, so they didn't get here until almost 9. I was busy cleaning and getting ready. Then I sat down and turned to Clay and said I was all of the sudden not feeling well. Right then the doorbell rang. We let them in, chatted for a minute, then I had to excuse myself while I ran up stairs to puke! I felt better after so we started playing the game. Well, 3 more times I had to excuse myself to go puke. I started to get really tired and got the chills too. I don't know why I didn't just tell them to go home. I guess I felt bad b/c we had invited them over and it was for my birthday. They had no idea I was sick. Well, I finally won the game and they all left around 1 am. I didn't even get to really say goodbye to them b/c I had to go puke again. Oh, I had made my favorite lemon cake, but didn't eat any that night b/c I was so sick. :(

So, Saturday I pretty much layed on the couch. I wasn't puking anymore, but my stomach hurt from all the retching. And Clay went into work for about 4 hours, but took Emma with him so I didn't have to worry about 2 kids while I was feeling ill. Then Clay said our friends were coming over for a little while. I couldn't understand why when we were going over there after church on Sunday, and I was in my sweats not feeling well. Well, Melinda made a cake for me (for Sunday), but it fell on the floor!! She salvaged as much as she could and brought it over so that I could enjoy it before it completely fell apart. So I ate some even though I hadn't had anything to eat yet besides ginger ale. It was a VERY good cake. She is an excellent cook and took the cake decorating classes with me.


This is the top layer that was saved.



Sunday on the way home from church, actually right as we turned into the driveway, Emma started puking (in the car, and we yelled at her to get out so she could puke in the driveway. Our car still smells like vomit though I have used the carpet cleaner on it four times). At this point I suggested that we tell Melinda that we can't come over, but Clay insisted that I should still go and he would stay home with Emma. So I go, and they had a little surprise party for me with 2 other families. Melinda wanted me to see the cake on Saturday so I wouldn't be disappointed on Sunday. We basically ate cake and talked for about an hour and then all went back home. When I got back home, Clay was also puking. What joy. Oh, and the puking went around Melinda's whole family too. She was puking on Thursday while trying to work on my cake.

Clay was very thoughtful and tried to do a lot of fun things for me, but it was surrounded by way too much puking! So, I guess you could say, it was the thought that counts... What a disaster. It cracks me up to write about it.

Emma's New Room

On the day we moved into our new home, Emma asked if we could paint her room purple. Ten months later, we finally took the time to do it.

See how happy she is!

Inauguration

It is amazing to be living through such a historic event. My sister-in-law stated it best when she said that her boys would only know a "time when the highest office in the land was available to either gender and any race".

This summer we stopped at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. I was deeply moved at the courage of the Little_Rock_Nine as they faced an angry mob trying to prevent them from entering a white high school. This was in 1957, just 52 years ago.

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. 46 years later and a mere 1.9 miles from that very spot, we swore in our first African-American president.

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Four years ago we went to the Inauguration of GWB because didn't think we would be in DC long enough to see another inauguration, so we got tickets and went downtown. It was fun, it was packed, it was cold.




Due to the historic nature of this inauguration, all the area schools have the day off. We watched it all from the warmth of our family room. It was pretty crowded 4 years ago, I can't imagine what it was like this time.

Happy Birthday Clay!

Lest you think I am a bad wife, serving only ice cream for his birthday, this is what really happened ...

Clay took off Thursday, Friday, today and tomorrow from work. Thursday he spent the entire time at the Udvar Hazy Air & Space Museum. All day reading all the signs and seeing the IMAX show without anyone telling him to hurry, or kids saying they are bored. Pure bliss for this Aerospace junkie.

Friday Clay invited his buddies over for a game night. I made spicy corn dip, apple dip, and tangy bacon roll-ups for their eating pleasure. I also provided m&ms, peanut butter m&ms and root beer.

Today, we played games, he got some quiet time reading a book, and I made 7-layer dip for lunch and meatloaf for dinner. He decided he had had enough sweets this weekend and didn't need any cake, so I bought some ice cream so we could at least put a candle in for him to blow out.

Happy Birthday!

More snow

Just as Emma was wishing for, we got some more snow today. The girls had fun playing outside, especially with the ultra cool snowball maker they got from Auntie Alison and Jen for Christmas.

Doesn't Rebekah look cute in this??

Snow...finally

Yesterday, we woke up to a light dusting of snow. The first snow of the season. And even that was not much. But, it was enough to delay school by 1 hour and make Emma happy that she could make a snowball.

This morning when I took Emma to school, the outside temperature read 7 degrees. That is just way too cold for me. We have had PLENTY of cold days, just without any snowfall, until now.

Hair cuts

Yesterday, Emma got her hair caught in the paper shredder. Luckily, I was quick on my reflexes and turned it off before it pulled her all the way in. Unfortunately, there was still a good chunk cut off her long hair. It scared her a little bit, but she was okay. I told her I would take her to get her hair cut like Hannah Montana. That made everything all better. :)

Earlier this week I also trimmed Rebekah's hair.