Spirit Week...

My understanding of spirit week was usually the week of homecoming. Lately it seems like whenever they want to have a spirit week they have it. Schane' comes home with a slip of paper on Friday stating that this week we would have spirit week & to listen to the announcements on Monday to know what to wear for the week. She already knew that Monday was crazy sock day which she said she didn't want to do. Tuesday was pajama day, Wednesday is Christmas crazy hat day (something like that) & I'm not sure what tomorrow is. So I took a picture of Schane' in her pajama top & sweats for yesterday & an elf hat that she bought at the dollar store for today.

Dinner at the neighbor's...

Tim, Schane, & I went over to the neighbor's last night for a farewell dinner before we leave next week. Nicol will be taking care of the house & collecting our mail while we are gone. We're missing two kids in this picture because they have 6 kids but everyone here was playing around on the couch & I told them to stay put for a sec so I could take a pic. In the back we have Timmy & Aaron, & in the front we have Cerys & Peter.

After dinner we had coffee & goodies. I even brought over my shortbread cookies. On Monday Nicol & her mom made some greek cookies that were out of this world. They are from Greece by the way. We also played Christmas charades. It was just something we made up. You had to think of something to do with Christmas & act it out. They usually play Christmas Carol Charades but Schane' couldn't think of many Christmas songs to act out so we just used the Christmas theme.

Here's another picture of Cerys. I couldn't believe how cuddly she was last night. Usually she walks away from me & hides beside Nicol but as I was sitting at the kitchen table talking to Nicol she came beside me & said "up". I picked her up & told Nicol to quickly take a picture with my camera. Isn't she just cute? She has got the biggest brown eyes ever.

Rain, Rain, Rain...

Wow, have we had a lot of rain. I'm not complaining either. I have had to drive Schane' to school the past couple of days. She would have rather walked in the rain but it was me who said that I would rather drive. This picture was taken yesterday morning as I was getting ready to leave. I am standing in the driveway looking west down the road. The rain finally stopped before noon today. When I came into the office I was hearing that Lilttle Rock CA had snow & Deb's sister in Vegas has snow. Flagstaff has a lot snow too.

This next picture is the front of the house that I live in. I took this yesterday too. You can't tell by this picture but Tim put some lights on the house but it only goes from the front door to the middle of the garage. He thought he had more lights. I told him that I can't switch the lights on when they're only half done. I didn't want to be the laughing stock of the neighborhood. My feeling is either you do it right or not at all not half way. Lately though Schane' has been wanting the lights on so I figure why not. At least it's something & it did look kind of nice the past couple of nights while it was raining.

Cookie Exchange...

On Friday I talked to mom about what cookies would be pretty easy to make & the ingredients cheap. We were supposed to have a cookie exchange on Monday & I didn't sign up but then thought that maybe I would bring something because who wants to be excluded on a whole bunch of goodies? Not me that's for sure. Mom suggested her shortbread cookies. I didn't have to think twice about that because I love those. I saved this container from last year when I bought some cookies. I was surprised that it didn't get smashed or broken in the Christmas tub because it's just plastic. As you can see we had a variety of items. There was peppermint bark, pineapple upside cake, muffins, chocolate chip cookies, eclairs, & on & on. It was a great turnout & I'm glad that I participated.

A Bunch Of Pics...

Yes, I know it's been awhile. It seems like when I think I have time to upload pics something comes up. Then I've got Schane' who's 9 & realizes that I'm always on the computer & doesn't like it. What am I to do? Tell her no that I won't read a story or play a game? My point exactly. Right now I have a few minutes so I thought what a better time than to quickly update you on what's been going on.

These pics where taken Thanksgiving weekend. You can tell that it was pretty warm outside considering what Schane' is wearing. She had so much fun bringing out everything. I let Schane' decorate the tree by herself after I got the lights on. She was making a mess actually because she was on a mission to find her stocking to hang it up & she couldn't find it. It took awhile but after taking everything out of the buckets I finally found it. I didn't tell her I found it either. I laid it on the couch to see how long it would take for her to find it. I have to tell you that it's a High School Musical Stocking. Oma made her a stocking when she was a baby but I hadn't been able to find it. On Sat when I talked to Oma she said that it's at her house. I was really excited because I couldn't believe I had lost it. Well, I am a bit unorganized, I know, go figure, but the stuff that REALLY means something to me I try to keep close by. By the way, my Christmas stuff is really organized. I bought a bunch of tubs last year & organized everything.

I took the Christmas tree pic just the other night. I was trying out the self timer on my camera. I thought that I would take a pic of Schane' then I would take another one with the two of us. As you can see I didn't get to take a pic with the two of us. Maybe I'll get a chance to try it again this week.

As Schane' puts it "her dream came true". Meaning she was finally old enough to be in the Christmas church play. She has been wanting to be in the play for 2yrs now and you have to be in 3rd grade in order to be in it. As you all know I had stopped all other activities due to the struggles we were having in school. I almost said no to this but I told her that if she worked hard on her school work then I would let her be in the play. Saturday there was a 4 hr rehearsal & then Sunday was the program. The program was for all 3 services. By the time the 11:00 service came around she wasn't smiling as much. Of course that was the service that her dad, nana, & Deb & the kids were at. She was half shepherd & half angel. I didn't get a picture of her being an angel though. I didn't even realize it until I was uploading pics today. I was having a hard time with the lighting in the church so this last picture didn't turn out so good. Looks like its a bit dark.

After the last service was done we decided to go out to lunch. Nana (Sharon) suggested The Cheesecake Factory. It can be a bit pricey but we didn't turn her down because we just love the place. Most of us anyway. Tim had never been there before & Schane' doesn't get anything fancy. You can't leave that place without getting a slice of cheesecake either. Oh is it good! Nana wasn't going to get a slice because she was going shopping afterwards but our waitress told us of a holiday one that wasn't on the list. It was peppermint & white chocolate. She said if you love peppermint you'll love this. We both decided to order one, which turned out to be a mistake because I ate off hers because she couldn't eat it all & I took my whole piece home.



As we were walking back to Nana's truck Tim noticed this Rolls that he just loved. I thought I'd take a picture of it just to show something different besides Schane'.

Black Friday II

A highlight for the girls was trying on clothes in the stores. On the left Schane' has a robe on pretending that she just got out of the shower. On the right Schane' tried this coat on from The Children's Store. Both girls just loved this coat, we of course did not get it though.

I can't remember what time we finally stopped & took a break. It was probably when the kids kept complaining that they were hungry & couldn't go any further. You know the drill with kids. We decided to stop at Cinnabon. Who doesn't want a giant cinnamon roll for breakfast? We needed that sugar to keep us going for a couple more hrs. It tasted great & it rejuvenated all of us.

We kept on shopping after this & then when we were in Mervyn's I realized the time & said let's go stand in line to see Santa. I figure it will be the last year that they believe in Santa so I wanted to get one last great picture. Schane' is already coming home saying that her classmates said there's no Santa. She said that only she & her friend Emma believe in Santa. Not sure if I believe that but I wasn't going to say anything. We had to stand in line for about a 1/2 hr. but we were also pretty close to the front of the line, Santa hadn't arrived yet.

I thought this was a great shot. We were actually done shopping & started heading out of the mall when Deb said Oh, I didn't make it to Victoria Secret. Great. I was fine with it but the kids were starting to moan. These chairs were outside of the store & we were able to snag two. The girls were fine for a few mins then they really started getting tired. That's when I took this picture.

We made it back to Deb's by noon. We had some lunch, sent Abbey off with Grandpa to a hockey game, let Schane' watch cartoons, & take a nap. She really felt like crap that day. She kept saying that her head hurt, her stomach hurt, & everything else hurt. Welcome to the club child. Both Deb & I were complaining that our feet hurt & then I became loopy because I was so tired. We were laughing hysterically for awhile & that was mostly at nothing. You know remember doing that back in college don't you?

If you can't tell we had lots of fun & made some great memories. We're already talking about going back next year, maybe earlier this time!

Black Friday

I was going to make a slide show but I just figured out tonight that I have to take my computer in to get some work done on it. So, I am not sure how many pics I will upload but I do want to say that we had a great day & the girls for the most part were great.

We spent the night at Deb's on Thursday & decided that we would go to the mall at 5am. I know that it's pretty late for Black Friday shopping but Deb did not want to get up at 3 so we compromised by getting up at 4 instead. I took a pic of the clock when we were about to leave the house.

The girls were great. They got up easily & were pretty cheery. Deb on the other hand needed caffeine so we stopped somewhere to get her a soda & some gatorgades for the girls & we were on our way. One main reason we wanted to go was because one of our local news crews is always at the mall closest to us on Black Friday & we wanted to see if we could get the girls on tv.

Schane' & I watch this station every day so she knows their names. The man that we both really like was already gone by the time that we got there. It took awhile but we did manage to get a picture with the main lady, Tara. She was really cool too. I practically stopped her after she was done with a segment & when she was done talking to some other people I asked her real quick if we could get a picture of her with the girls. She said sure & I hurried & took the picture because I did not know how much time she had before she was on again. Later we happened to go by the area when it was 9am when they are off the air & we could get pictures then. I wish I would have known so I wouldn't have hurried before. We did get another picture of somebody that we like. His name is Dan. He was a so nice. He pulled up a chair & sat down & put his arms around the girls. The girls were so excited after having their picture taken with "somebody famous" as Schane' puts it that they were doing little squeals of giddyness.

We all did manage to be on tv. It was pretty funny how it happened too. The kids were behind Tara while she was doing a segment. If you're not looking for the girls then you would miss them. You would also miss me if you weren't looking but I was noticeable. Deb on the other hand was very noticeable. Her step mom even texted her to say that she saw her. When we got home later we went on their website & found the part where we were all on at different times. I took a picture of Deb off the computer. Yes, that's her with the Jack sweatshirt on.

Sorry, but I will have to finish tomorrow. You can look for Part II of Black Friday.