Yes, I finally have a moment to get caught up!!

Wow, Am I glad things are getting back to normal around our house! Not sure what normal is but everyone is at school today and that is a great start!! We had an exceptionally long Christmas break this year with the kids getting out almost a week early with snow days and an extra few days off for the holidays. I will admit that when it started snowing again on Sunday night I almost started to cry with thoughts that they would cancel school on Monday. Christmas break was great and I am glad to have it, but with 4 kids, two extra neighbor kids everyday, tons of snow that brought with it multiple trips in and out of the house, cloths in and out of the dryer, at least 20 extra dirty cups of Hot Chocolate a day, "I lost my gloves", "I can't find my boots", "that's my snow outfit", "I want a turn on the sled", and it goes on and on and on!!
Then add to it freezing temperatures that we had not seen in years with the realization that there is no way enough insulation nor drywall installed yet to keep out that kind of cold and with all the cracks that comes with an unfinished house, we could stand on our staircase in the middle of our house and our hair blew in the breeze!! Yikes, we were cold!! We brought in our kerosene heater and all huddled around it like homeless people around a burning trash can. We finally got the temperature up to 56 degrees. So needless to say, just prior to Christmas everything came to a stop and we spent a few days insulating, drywalling and caulking cracks. We learned that cold motivates you and apparently we needed to be motivated to get that job done. We are still working on it and I will post some pictures of the finished product soon hopefully!!


I did get my Christmas Snow. It has been years since we had snow on Christmas day. With all the kids busy with their new gifts, I finally got to enjoy watching it fall in peace and quite. It was so beautiful. Big, fat, fluffy flakes. Where we live, it gets so silent when it snows. I love the peace it brings.

Here are the kids anxiously waiting to come down the stairs Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. They got spoiled again this year. Kjersti finally got a new computer (only after agreeing she had to pay Santa back for half of it!) and the game "Spore". I figure I won't see her again till at least Feb, maybe March if the game is as good as she says it is. The rest of the kids got Wii games and controllers. They can all play Mario cart at the same time now! No more fighting over who's turn it is. Sometimes you just got to love Santa for making my life easier!!Smart, Smart Santa!! Dave was happy with his stash but I got the best gift of all, a self closing toilet seat lid!! You just barley touch it when your finished and it closes nice and quietly!! Ahhh!! I also got a really cool shower head for my new shower we have been working on upstairs. And I have to mention this really cool book that my sister made for me that is a story of my childhood till I got married. It is amazing and has brought back some great memories. Defiantly a gift to cherish. I was able to give a great gift this year. I had a friend come and take pictures of our family, our whole family. There was over 21 people and she did a fantastic job. Because of that I was able to give my mom a huge portrait of our family to hang over her mantel. She cried when she saw it. That is what Christmas is all about, making your mom cry!! So a big thanks to everyone who sacrificed a Saturday to be a part of that for mom. And thanks again Kim for the great pictures. Now that Christmas is over, I will post them soon and share them with everyone.

So that was our Christmas this year. Our new years was fun. Full of food, good card playing and no kids. Just the way I like it. I would have loved to beat my sister more, but some years you have to let other people win! he-he!! I am looking forward to a new year and all the wonderful things it will bring into my life!!