Merry Christmas!

There Really is Free Lunch!

We got a surprise invitation from Brooke's pre-school. It turns out the parents of one of the older kids there is a managing partner at Carrabbas, an excellent Itialian restaurant. All the 4 and 5 year olds and their parents were invited for lunch! Complete with a visit from Santa! The food was fantastic and we all had a wonderful time. And I found out that Brooke is a social butterfly. Her friends all came to see her at our table and she had great fun playing with them.





Here is The Gang visiting their teacher (and her 2 yr old daughter) at her table.

Last year, Brooke had only been home 4 months when she started seeing this fat guy in a red suit everywhere she looked. Who in the world was he? Now she knows who he is and what he does and she is a BIG fan. Ha! She wasn't shy at all about hopping up on his lap. (What a great Santa he was!) But, she completely forget to tell him what she wanted for Christmas in all the excitement. She remembered that little detail on the car ride home and started to get all upset. I explained that she can send him a letter. Thank heavens she calmed down! Ha!

One last buddy picture before we headed for home. Can you believe they are in the same class?

After finding out she could write Santa a letter about Christmas, she zonked. What a nice afternoon!

Tomorrow we head to the brewery for their family holiday party!! The kids will get to see the Clydesdales up close and then tour the brewery. The girls are very excited, especially Olivia, who has vowed to "work with her father". (Brooke says she's gonna be a dentist, so I figure she'll just take over Uncle Dave's practice when he retires. How convenient!)

New Haircut!!

Olivia has been saying for weeks that she wants short hair. She had decided she wanted her hair cut like Brooke's. (And Brooke had decided she wanted to grow her hair out like Olivia's...) I figured I would wait and see if she was serious or not. Well, she was! So, today we went to the beauty shop. Olivia was SO excited!! Here is the traditional "Before" picture...


Snip! Snip! Snip! (by Cathy, Super Beautician!) At one point, Cathy thought she was done but Olivia said no - shorter!!

Olivia got all kinds of compliments from the grownup ladies at the beauty shop. She was GLOWING! Here she is immediately after "surprising" daddy with her new look! Do you think she's happy??

Here's the left side view. I was amazed at how well her baby-fine, thin hair stacked with the extra length cut off!

Here's the back - very short!

And the right side view.

Olivia's new big-girl look!! Brooke will get her's shaped up after we decide what she's really going to do... long or short?

Oh! Here's what Brooke finally decided on!! How do you like her new look?? Ha! This is a Halloween wig she dug out. What a hoot!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to your's!!!

Olivia was SO excited about Thanksgiving!! She even volunteered to clean the potties! And she was happy about it! (I will keep this picture to remind me of the one day she did this!)


Brooke helped daddy put together the extra table we needed! She's great with power tools!

We were all ready to cook!

The girls' annual Turkey Portrait!

The family (minus Mark, who is snapping the picture).

And Mark with his "new do". Ha! I just don't see him as a spiky blonde...

I would write more, but I have an extremely cranky pre-schooler on my hands. No nap and lots of turkey and excitement have made Brooke and unhappy girl!

It's Thanksgiving Time!!

And that means it's time for Olivia's very first official school play!!

Olivia was a "Pilgrim Woman". She declared she wanted to be turkey because she could do the turkey "strutt", but she had to settle for being human. The day before the play, one of the turkeys was absent and Olivia was appointed to be the official "turkey understudy", but alas - all the turkeys turned out for the perfromance.


It really was a cute play! The kids sang and told the story about the first Thanksgiving. They put a lot of effort into it and it showed. A fun time was had by all.

Here are the Pilgrim Men and Pilgrim Women...

The Pilgrim Women and the Corn (who said "Pop! Pop! Pop!")

And the Indian Women and Indian Men. The Indian Women would shout, "Go Braves!" I didn't get a shot of the turkeys because they kept to the sides of the stage (and a large woman with big hair was sitting in front of me). But the turkeys were great looking. They had dark, 33 gallon garbage bags for bodies, which were stuffed with newspaper, and they had huge, long, multi-colored tails which dragged on the floor.

A smiley and proud Olivia and daddy after the performance.

A good family picture. Brooke stood still long enough for one good shot. She was bored and wanted to leave NOW.

One of the two giant cornicopias that Mommy painted on the kitchen table!!

Are we ready for Thanksgiving? No, not yet, but we have a family rule for keeping it simple so it won't be a hassle. We have new carpet (I still gotta post those pictures), a new sofa that doesn't smell like dogs and a freshly painted sunroom, so most of my work is done. Yeah!

Pre-Halloween Pics!

For Grandma Helen, who has checked this blog every day for the last 2 months, hoping for new pics... here are the girls!! (Now I have to quickly grab a needle and adjust both their pants, since they're falling off! Eeek!) I especially love the kissy-giggly pics at the end.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who Cares about Halloween? McRIB IS BACK!!!!!!!!

Yes! McRib is back and that makes me soooooooooo happy!!!! I didn't expect to get one until Tuesday, the official release date - but our local McDonalds had their signs up today!!!!!! We were going to be good and go home for soup after church, but when we saw that sign - plans changed on the spot!!

My tummy is VERY HAPPY!! In honor of my late mother, who LOVED McRibs also, we said a "toast" to her memory before we took our first bite. (argh! it keeps loading my picture sideways!!!!)

I'm hoping to get back to blogging now that I'm done with the new carpet (it's so fun to move everything off the floor!), frig, painting the sunroom and making the girls' Halloween costumes (remind me NOT to volunteer to sew again next Halloween). Here's a sneak peek of Brooke in her costume. She got to wear her's to preschool for her Halloween party on Wednesday. Olivia's is identical, but in purple.