I guess I have to share

My favorite Christmas treats are peanut clusters made by my father. I love the little things and the only time I have them is when he makes them at Christmas. When he and Mom were here last week he made them for me while I was at work. Unfortunately my son has apparently inherited my love for peanut clusters and now I have to share. Bummer.

Cheater!

Me: That's it! I'm taking that DS and hiding it somewhere. You're playing it too much and you're becoming anti-social.

Jake: Can I follow you?

Me: No, you cheater.

Jake: But I won't tell anyone where you hide it.

Out latest piece of artwork

This weekend I got to pick up the custom framing I had done at A.C. Moore with the kids' pictures that we took a few weeks ago. I think it looks gorgeous and it looks great in our living room.

Believe it or not we're still here

I would like to say that it has been quiet on the blog because I'm planning some sort of big surprise that I can't talk about but that's not true. It has been quiet because I've been so dang busy lately. Whenever I'm home and sit down at my desk I have so many other things to do that I can't justify sitting down to write on the blog. Add that to the fact that I haven't had much to say other than how busy I've been and you've got yourself a pretty boring and not very updated blog.

But all that is about to change. I have a bunch of things to catch up everyone up on and luckily I found my card reader for my camera so I can put up a bunch of pictures.

Jake's birthday party with his friends was last Sunday. He wanted to do it at the local soccer "bubble" and there were 8 kids there including Hannah and Jake. The kids got to play soccer for 45 minutes and then play in the "Fun Zone" for 45 minutes before having cake and ice cream and opening presents. On Tuesday night, his actual birthday, we had Lincoln's family over for dinner and of course my parents were also still in town. Jake scored some great loot. His godparents, Rachel and Kevin, got him a dinosaur DVD. This is no kids DVD either. It's a very realistic depiction of dinosaurs with some blood and guts and gore. Rachel was a little afraid it would be too much for Jake since he's afraid of everything but he LOVES it. He and Hannah have watched it over and over again which usually involves him squealing in delight and Hannah covering her eyes. My sister Debbie got him a great toy ship that she sent him from Seattle. He loves it and we enjoy stepping on all the little pieces that come with it. Oh wait... The first part of that sentence is true but definitely not the second part. Of course the important part is that he loves it....and understands that any pieces left on the floor in the "grown-up room" go into the trash at sunset. He's pretty good about getting them back into the kids' playroom.

While Mom and Dad were visiting we also had our first big snow of the year. We probably got around 4-6 inches. Hannah wanted to go out and play in the snow right away so of course we sent her out with the snow scraper and put her to work. I looked out the window to check on her and discovered her on top of her daddy's pick-up truck. Probably not her smartest idea but she got back down safely and we sent Grandpa out to help her.

Hannah's Report Card

Hannah received her first report card of the third grade yesterday. As usual she did very well and received very high marks in almost all areas. The only thing she got marked down on were the incredibly hard scholastic areas of organization, following directions, and paying attention. I guess she can't have it all, right?

She received exceptionally high marks in science which really impressed me since I'm not a science person myself.

Partied out

In the last three days I have had three parties. Sunday was Jake's "kid" party with his friends. Monday night was the company holiday party that I was in charge of. Last night was Jake's "family" party with my parents who were in town, Link's parents, and Link's brother and his family. Three days. Three parties. I'm done.

The company holiday party was a huge success. It involved lots of crazy hours at the office leading up to it but it was definitely worth it. It's nice to be able to do something for our employees during this time of year and even though I don't get much of a budget I'm always able to pull something off to just say "thank you for all your hard work."

Now it's a race to see if I can get everything else done before I start on my winter break. I'm only in the office four days this week (I took off yesterday for Jake's birthday) and then I'm in three days next week before I'm done until January 4th.

Thank God. I need a break.

Jake's birthday party

Jake 5th birthday party was today. We had it at the local "sports bubble" and he and his friends got to run around and play soccer and then play in the "zig zag" zone which is a huge play center with slides, climbing walls, nets, etc. The kids had a blast. I took a bunch of pictures and planned on posting them tonight but I can't seem to find my card reader for my camera. I'll have to post them later this week.

Tomorrow is the holiday party that I've been planning for the past few weeks so tomorrow will be a crazy day and you probably won't be hearing from me.

Wish me luck....