Steve finally got a Golden Retriever

Too bad it was just an ornament from my mom though! I forgot to add it to the Christmas post. My neighbor made me a scarf and she rang the door bell while I was writing the other post and I got sidetracked. It is such a cute scarf!!! Sally is a sweetheart!

Christmas 2008

Ok, first off - someone *please*please*please who is familiar with blogger and reads my blog explain to me (a very ignorant computer person) how to load pictures how I want them to appear or so the post is not the day in reverse. I cannot figure out how to type, add a picture I want, type some more, add the next picture I want - so on and on. So, you get Christmas day in reverse order....I'm an idiot.

Here is Isabella's favorite gift I think - a Colts outfit. Here in Indy they have "Blue Friday" and you are suppose to wear your colts gear but my kids have zero Colts stuff (that's a whole other post as to the reason why - short version: Steve expects Isabella (who is 6 by the way) to be loyal to and only to the Dallas Cowboys because she was born in Dallas. Cheering for or wearing any other team colors or clothes - regardless of where we live - is just about as close to taking the Lords name in vain) and this year Crapaw and Grandma Karen got them some stuff. Isabella *loves* this outfit along with her snowman Webkinz.
My brother busted out laughing as soon as he saw what I dressed the girls in. As soon as they walked in he said "I knew they would be matching". Ok, ok laugh all you want - I bought these sweaters last year on clearance at Gymboree for less than $9 each. LOL I like my kids to match or be color cordinated on Holidays. heehee

My niece got this go-kart for Christmas this year and the girls had a ball riding in it. He makes fun of my kids clothes but I say nothing about a few thousand dollar gift - I think we are even! Ok, well, maybe if my kids would have been kicking and screaming from fear I would tell him it was a waste of money and the worst gift ever. heehee My niece is a really good kid.

Family picture at Grammy's - have I mentioned how much my kids and Steve LOVE family photos?

Again - Christmas in reverse. This is a self portrait using the timer on our camera to snap a family picture before heading out to Grammy's. I'm too lazy to edit red eyes and crop out junk in the pictures for blog purposes. :)

Steve in hell. His gift from the girls - compliments of JD and Ellen. JD took the girls shopping to buy gifts for us from the girls and this is what they (um, I mean - JD picked out for Steve). I'm sure the only reason he put it on for pictures was because he was sporting a Cowboys sweatshirt - ironically bought by JD for Steve earlier this year. JD and Ellen did give Steve just about the best gift he could ever want - it is a framed print of every Cowboy jersey since the history of the Cowboys with the years the jersey was worn. Plus, a cowboys coffee mug and license plate thing.

Ava opening her My Little Pony from Uncle Lucas and Aunt Vicky.

Isabella with her iDog.

The only thing she wanted - her Nintendo DS

realizing what she was opening was her ds.

Oh, I love her so....

I tell you what - Isabella can melt my heart!!! Tonight she was saying the prayer at dinner and she said "Jesus, only one more day until we celebrate your birthday. Thank you for dying on the cross for us. I love you the same and would die on the cross for you".

You know, most days I feel like I am the crappiest, worst mother on the earth and wonder what my kids did to get the short end of the deal to have me as their Mommy - but when small glimpses of greatness comes out of their mouth like this I don't second guess myself as a loser parent near as much!

Great Neighbors & SIL update

First news - My sister-in-law (SIL)was released from the hospital today. Thank you God!! I appreciate everyones prayers more than you know. I love my SIL very much and I was very anxious and worried about her the entire past week. It is a wonderful blessing to have her resting in her own home tonight! She will probably be off work for at least a month so her recovery is going to take a while so please keep her in your prayers if you can.

Second - have I mentioned about what great neighbors I have. LOL JD called around 2:30 actually asking to see if Steve wanted to come over and watch some football tonight. Since Steve had to work I guess the girls and I were 2nd best and he invited us to come over as well. While we were over there I was complaining about our pipes being frozen in the laundry room and not being able to do any laundry (and I had a mound of it!). They offered for me to use their washer and dryer and I took them up on it. JD came over and got the laundry baskets as well as all the wet clothes from the washer and took it over to their house. Obviously when our builder "fixed" the problem we had with the pipes freezing in the laundry room wasn't a good fix! And, an even better reason they are great friends - he gave me a pain pill for my back. I won't go into the entire story as to how I once again hurt my back - first part was rear ending the truck last Wednesday on the way to the hospital and the second part was slipping on some ice and busting my behind Friday evening. LOL But, needless to say, when I bend over at the waist - I cannot stand back up without assistance.

The weather here in Indy is FREEZING. This morning when I woke up - it was one degree! Wind chill was 17 below zero. And, if that wasn't bad enough - due to strong winds yesterday afternoon - the electricity went out for over 8 hours!!! We were headed to another neighbors house for a Christmas party and the electricity went out at 4:00 and finally stayed on around midnight. We enjoyed the Christmas party via candle light and then came home to the house temperature registering 55 degrees. It was cold, cold,cold!!!! And, to make matters worse with the freezing pipes, the washing machine was mid-cycle when the electricty went out and still has water sitting in the basin. Hopefully tomorrow it will warm up enough to allow the water to drain - that or the plumber or whomever is suppose to come and fix it will be able to insulate the pipes properly (which is what they should have done in the first place) - but I digress.....

JD was kind enough to take the clean and folded laundry upstairs and the other basket in the laundry room. I'm going to go and put it all away and get the kids ready for bed. To say they are excited for Christmas would be a major understatement! Steve has to work at noon tomorrow so I'm going to get up and head to Target and finish up shopping for their Christmas stocking, mail out Steve's parents gift that just was delivered Saturday and then we are good to go! Steve is off on Christmas eve - and I am just as giddy as the kids with excitement.

Continued prayers please

Pathology results finally came in today for my sister in law and the infection is infact MRSA. The antibiotic she had been on for the last few days is not the proper meds and MRSA is resistant to it. The infection has spread further down her leg. She is now an new medicine that is making her very sick. She will be in the hospital until at least Monday if the new meds are actually working. Please continue to pray for her she is not out of the woods yet.

Todays update

Pathology still not in to determine MRSA or Cellulitis. Wound was re-packed today. Oh.My.Gosh. not for the weak stomach. Fever is gone, she looks much better but will be in the hospital for atleast 3 more days.

The latest on my sister in law

She is out of surgery and high on morphine. heehee The initial fear was MRSA on the fascia (this will mean something to the medical folk - but only made a little sense once my sister in laws mother explained it to me better). She is on some heavy antibiotics and at this time believe it is cellulitis that was under her muscle. Her leg looked unbelievable and the infection was literally spreading by the hour.

They will know more tomorrow and know if they are using the proper antibiotic to treat it.

And a side note - I was so scattered in thoughts and rushing to make it to the hospital that I hit a patch of black ice and rear ended a truck. Thank God, no damage to his truck but his trailer hitch left a nice hole in Steve's bumper. I was also super thankful to be driving Steves car instead of my BMW. Trivial I know. The most important thing right now is we believe my sister in law will be fine.

Thanks for the prayers.

Prayer request!!!!!!!!!!! ***UPDATED****

***Please pray. Heading out the door right now to drive down to my moms. My sister in law is having surgery tonight at 8:00 pm.. I'm scared.****

My sister in law is in the hospital (my brothers wife). At this point in time they do not know what is wrong with her. She has a huge, inflamed red area on her leg (my mom said it is the size of a dinner plate), running a high fever and couldn't walk because of the pain in her leg. We are waiting on test results. Please pray.

Christmas Vacation

I'm sure most have saw the movie Christmas Vacation - well Clark Griswald lives next door to us - his name is JD! JD goes all out for Christmas - he has so many things plugged in we are always scared he's going to blow the power for the entire neighborhood. The girls LOVE his house decorated and beg and plead with us to do more than garland around the front door and lights on the shrubs. This year he had to use part of Pams yard to put out all of his display. He has the lights set to a music so they are continually flashing at all different speeds - hence the reason our drapes are always pulled closed during the month of December - it reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with Kramer and the Kenny Rogers Chicken sign. LOL - I watch too much TV.

The next pictures are of Ava this morning before school. She was so excited to take her presents for her teachers so she sat for about 30 minutes watching cartoons with her backpack on and the presents in front of her. She's such a sweetheart (sometimes - LOL).

Christmas PJ's

I started doing this for Ava's first Christmas. My kids LOVE it (insert deep sarcasm here). Well, they love torturing me. Everytime I want to get a *decent* photo of a planned event (Thanksgiving, easter, Christmas, etc) I have to remind the kids (and Steve) - every.single.time. - that they enjoy looking at these pictures once I have them in the albums so STOP FUSSING and cooperate with me. LOL Can you tell, we've had these discussions often?

So, here is a trip down memory lane. I have the photo I chose to frame first, then the best outtake second - oh and I could post all night long on their outtakes.

2008
Trying to be all "gangster" with the peace signs. Don't sign up for a gang anytime soon girls - don't think you have the hand signals down just yet.

2007

Common theme from 2007, 2006 and 2005 = Ava's unwillingness to cooperate.

2006 - you cannot even begin to imagine how many trys of bribing the kids it took to get a smile.

Repeat theme - Ava crying. Her nickname her first 18 months of life was affectionly a/k/a - The Screamer.

2005 - Ava's 1st Christmas

Isabella - oh sweet baby girl, what a foreshadowing this image is. Ava was born to torture you.

She cracks me up!

Isabella is more and more like me each day. The other day I was at the gym and Steve calls me and starts laughing and saying she is such a young version of me it's not funny (poor kid!). You see, I have a minor little flaw - I make up words - often. Sometimes, on purpose - and sometimes I have to admit - because I'm a little dingy. Well, Isabella was talking to Steve the other day and saying how she wished Daisy was less shy and she wished Molly was less atackitive - I guess she was combining being too active and being too aggressive (attacking).

The weather here has been wacky. Freezing cold one minute, cold and snowy another, rainy and in the 40's the next day and now we are back to cold. I don't know when the last time I saw the sun.

Sunday some of my friends in the neighborhood are meeting up and having a "wrapping" party. It worked out to be perfect timing because I still have the girls gifts from santa that need wrapped but I haven't been looking forward to locking myself in the closet to wrap them. Now, I'll drag them over to Pams and wrap and then I'm storing them at JD and Ellens until Christmas Eve. So, win, win, win!

Men - Do me a favor, please!

Please, do NOT tuck your shirts into your gym shorts at the gym. Especially if you are wearing short shorts or biker shorts. You look ridiculous and it's a health hazard for me because I giggle on the stairmaster as I watch you and I'm afraid I'm going to fall off.

First off - NO ONE, especially men should be wearing biker shorts. If you are Lance Armstrong or riding the Tour de France, ok - I'll give you a pass. But, other than that- it's just plain gross and nobody wants to see it. Second - short shorts??? Leave that to the college girls please. And thirdly - tucking??? It doesn't look good.

Ok, fashion advice is finished.

Just finished watching The Amazing Race - the team I liked from the start won - the brother/sister team. I have loved this show from the first season and have wanted to do it more than anything. The problem is - what type of job is going to allow you 45 days off to run the race? When I first looked into signing up it was going to be filmed during Isabellas 1st birthday. 2nd time I was pregnant. Now, the people I want to do it with - my brother or Steve would never be able to get a month -45 days off. Oh, well!

Off to put Isabella to bed. Ava is already crashed.

Like Mommy Like Daughter

Isabella has inherited a love of reading from me. She bought a book at the book fair on Wednesday night - it was a pretty decent size book - I think around 200 pages. She has finished it already. She would go to sleep reading, wake up in the morning and turn her light on and read - any free minute she had, she would read this book. Last night she finished and said "good, I'm finished. Now, I can re-read it like you re-read Twilight". heehee

It has been cold, cold cold here. Too cold! The last couple of days it's been in the teens for most of the day. There are snow flurries right now and it's suppose to snow tomorrow some as well - so I can take the cold as long as their is snow.

Tonight the Grinch is on TV so after dinner and baths the girls and I will settle in and watch it. Steve is working tonight so it's just us girls.

Getting ready!

Day by day we are getting ready for Christmas. We are pretty close to being finished shopping, Christmas cards are 90% addressed and ready to go, a lot of presents have already been wrapped - so it seems we are on top of things this year. I'll probably mail out the presents for the out of town family early next week to allow plenty of time for delivery. Hopefully, there isn't a big kink thrown into the remaining planning.

The girls and I headed down south to visit family last weekend. We spent most of our time over at my brothers and sis-in-laws house. We had a great time and the girls were happy to play with their cousin.

Steve and I have been hitting the gym pretty hard. I have achieved one small goal of mine - to do the dreaded torture machine - the moving stairmaster for 45 minutes. I did 40 minutes Monday and 45 Tuesday and I survived. The total exhaustion from doing it has subsided so I guess my body is over the shock of hard core cardio. LOL

Today has been spent washing bedspreads, sheets and clothes. Also, filling bags for goodwill while Isabella was at school and Ava was napping. They have way too much stuff - well, JUNK! Tonight is Family night for the school bookfair so the girls will go and pick out some new books.

I'm in the process of re-reading the Twilight series. The first go around I was in such a rush to find out what was happening I wanted to re-read at a slower pace - I actually picked up on several things missed the first time. And, it is even better the 2nd time around! Saw the movie and UGH, horrible and yuck was all I can say. I knew who was cast for the characters before I read the books so I already had the "Hollywood" image of the characters in my head. I know books made into movies are never the same but this was such a huge disappointment. So low budget and cheesey and horrible character development. I watched it with low, low expectations but it was just horrid to me. Such a let down. I still love me some Edward Cullen though! It helps that I do feel like Steve loves me like this character loves Bella in the book and I, in return, love the same way. Corny - I know!

My kids

I love my kids to pieces, but they are going to send me to an early grave.