Good times..

The other morning there were three things that alerted me to the fact that we were back home:
1- Birds chirping! (oh, yeah, they fly south for the winter! DUH!)
2- Sirens (Joys of living in a big city)
3- I had slept clear through the night - no interruptions!

I am SOOOOOOO glad to be home. As fun as it was to be with family and see friends, I am so much less stressed out and more rested at home. I miss my family already, but am a little relieved we don't live closer than we do. It's nice to escape- Love you guys, but you know what I mean! The first two days we unpacked and YES it took us that long. We also had to clean out the van whick now has 4,000 miles on it, three cracks in the windshield and a scratch on the driver's side door... not so clean and shiny anymore :( Oh well.
Here are some more photos from our adventures up north.



My little Charlie.. a few minutes after this picture was taken, he started screaming! After a while I figured out why. He was cold! Yeah, obvious, right? Well not to him.. he couldn't remember ever being cold like that, so when that "sting" started in he freaked out!



My niece Abigail. I'm seriously intimidated by her and her cuteness!


This is the cover page of an album I made for Paper Posies.. a Year in Brief.. I'll put it and all the other stuff up in my scrapbook gallery asap. Look at how little and sweet Charlie was! :(

My little sister was in her high school musical "Pirates of Penzance." In all honesty it was the most amazingly good production I've ever seen, and these kids were in HIGH SCHOOL! I'd have been impressed if it had been a University production. I'm talking SERIOUS talent - people with bright CAREERS in drama and music! This is the guy she had to kiss - He was the "Pirate King."

Dillon is amazing on ice skates. He won't let anyone hold his hand or help him at all! He won't go inside for hot chocolate or to warm up! He's very dedicated. hehe

Here's little Joseph (who everyone thought looked a little like GI Joseph) and Mary who when it came time to give birth to her cabbage patch doll, very non-chalantly yanked it out of her shirt and tossed it into the blanket covered cardboard box. (if only!!!)

Charlie has a new trick. You ask him, "Hey Charlie, who's cute?" or "Who's smart?" or "Who's stinky?" and he'll quickly raise his had and say, "I AM!" Here he is doing this atop my "little" (6'4") brother's shoulders. And you can see that the boys are in their new Christmas Eve jammies.

Here's my other two brothers displaying their new warm hats and making me laugh (as usual)!

Christmas day we went sledding near where my dad lives. It was a gorgeous day - pretty warm too. For about two hours we went up and down this hill and surprisingly we all walked away INJURY FREE!! Seriously, though, it was super fun!



The day after Christmas James took Dillon skiing - FIRST TIME! He rocked the slopes and loved EVERY MINUTE of it - especially this giant hamburger!


Happy New Year everyone!! Love and HUGS and stay safe! And to all you who keep telling me how much you love my blog and look at it all the time - LEAVE ME A STINKIN' COMMENT! Really, though, just "hello its _____ " will make me smile for hours :)