From us to you....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Elf pics will continue until I've done every day (per Hayden's instructions) so Christmas music will continue until then as well!! Tomorrow I start my resolutions. Tomorrow I start my 365 days of pictures. Tomorrow I start a new year. May it be a wonderful, joyous year for all of us!!

Time for Resolutions!!

Alas and alack; Christmas is over. We had a great holiday! Everybody got everything they wanted and then some. The elves have returned to the North Pole, the gift wrap has been cleaned up, half of the dog presents have already been destroyed. Now its on to resolutions. I've been thinking hard and have a few that I really hope to be able to stick to. Do you think if I post them here it will make it harder to break them? ;-) Here they are in no particular order.

1) Back on the diet people!! This is the one I most want to keep! No cheating, no sweets, no "I'll just have a bite" or "just this one time". This also means back to being consistent with exercising. No more excuses, no more "I'm tired!" because frankly I'm "tired" of looking like I'm sliding down the hill into 40 face first!!"

2) Back into the scrap room. I have this great scrap room that my husband put together for me. I have great supplies that are just waiting there for me. And I have tons and tons and TONS of pictures that are waiting to be scrapped and placed into scrapbooks. I keep finding reasons not to get in there and get going, but I'm resolving to get back into it!

3) 365 days of pictures. Okay I know I mentioned that I have tons waiting to be scrapped, but I want to challenge myself to take a picture a day. It doesn't have to be of the girls (how tired of that would they be?) but of anything. I think this will be most difficult on days that I work. Who knows maybe you'll see a lot of me napping, or getting ready to nap or getting up from a nap. We'll have to see because of course I'll post them. So I guess that would be another resolution: keep up the blog!

4) Back to the barn! I've missed Thunder, Gypsy, Ari and Ginger sooooo much!!! There is always something that keeps me from getting out there. I tried marking Tuesdays as my riding days in my calendar, but then the weather conspired against me! I will get back to riding once a week this year. I have to do it, I need to do it, I will do it.

Okay, so that's all I have so far. Only 4. That should be easy. Right? Yeah, right.

Merry Christmas to All!

As I sit here surrounded by my family and thankful for all the love that I have in my life, I'd like to take a moment to say that I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas! And now, I'm going to spend more time with the 3 loves of my life. Well, 5 if you include the dogs. Although I must admit, Santa did bring a little something for the cat too.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

It's Official!!

Christmas may now come because I'm ready!! WHOO HOO!!! We've seen Santa, I've bought all the gifts, the house is decorated and I'm off until Christmas night! YEAH!! Of course I still have to wrap the gifts and get a stocking for Gracie (yes, it looks like Gracie will be staying with us through the Christmas holidays and, well, I guess indefinitely) and have cookie making day tomorrow. But other than those things I'm done! I can now relax and enjoy the Christmas season and my kids' Christmas break. Now if they'd only stop fighting long enough to let me enjoy it!

Where has the time gone?!?

Here it is one week before Christmas and believe it or not, I'm almost done shopping!! Time is flying by! I can't believe it has been a week and a half since I last blogged!! I apologize for my slackness, but it has been super crazy around here with getting ready for Christmas and me deciding I needed to try to drive myself into exhaustion by working 8 of the last 11 days! The sad part is: I don't even have time to blog now! I'm off to run some errands, finish up the Christmas shopping, get the things for the girls' Christmas parties tomorrow, get fundraiser stuff handed out, shirts ready for give aways at school, somewhere in there find time to pick up the girls and take a nap and then go into work tonight. Frankly that makes me tired just looking at it. Maybe I should take my nap first........

How did you spend your Saturday?

I spent mine freezing my behind off at my daughter's Christmas parade!!

My Mozzie is such a trooper! She came and stayed for the entire thing! Of course hot fried pies did make nice hand warmers!

Waiting for the parade to come down Main Street! The temps hadn't started dropping too much at this point, but it was still cold!

Hayden is in the chorus at her school which is the largest elementary school chorus in the state of Georgia! They had their Christmas performance Thursday night at the school. I know I'm a wee bit biased but...the second and third grade chorus totally rocked and sounded AWESOME!!!

"Geseende Kersfees"

That was Hayden's solo line. It's Merry Christmas in Africa. At least that's what they tell us.

On Saturday Buford had its annual Christmas parade and one of the highlights is the Academy's chorus walking in the parade and performing afterwards. We were supposed to have temps in the low 50's with plenty of sunshine....or it could be overcast and in the 40's with temps rapidly dropping!!! I know that's nothing to you guys in the north, but to us here that's not only cold; it's FREAKING COLD!!!! Of course Hayden didn't want to wear a coat because "its too puffy and I'll look stupid". Of course blue lips and goosebumps is a good look and she decided to go with that. She changed her tune after the parade when they had to stand around and wait to perform. Then puffy and warm became the best thing ever!

"Another one bites the dust....and another one down and another one down...

Belle can now officially sing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"!!

She has been working on this tooth ever since the other front one fell out the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. That's right, a week and a half ago. She's been wiggling and pushing and prodding and poking. Not too mention all the "Mom, I felt a root break. Try to pull it".

I was getting ready to leave for work on Saturday and as I was about to walk out the door she asked if I would try one last time. I did (because that's just the kind of Mom I am) and *pop*, out it came. She looks so stinkin' cute!!! Of course the thing that she is most excited about? That she can stick her tongue out through the hole without opening her mouth. Apparently there is nothing better when you're 5!

Now if she can just keep the other 3 loose ones in her mouth until these grow in so she'll be able to eat solid food!!

This cracked me up!

I've already blogged about the chaos with 3 dogs. I haven't shared with you how I have to put Jack's food down and block both of the other dogs while he eats so they don't get his food. Well last night I was at work and the phone rings and its Andy telling me a story. I have to share because frankly it cracked me up.

Apparently he was feeding the dogs and remembered that he had to play defense to let Jack eat. Apparently it was quite a sight. I only have the mental visual since I wasn't there but here goes. We have an island in the middle of our kitchen. Andy put Jack's food bowl down by the island and then stood with his back to the sink facing the island. Enter Gracie from his right. He has to pin Grace to the counter that the sink is on with his leg so she won't get Jack's food. Enter Stitch, also from the right. He has to tell Stitch to sit and stay and keep an eye on him so that he won't get Jack's food. Enter Jake, the cat, from the left. He has to use the leg that is not holding Gracie to block Jake from getting Jack's food. May I also mention at this point that Jack is not a fast eater; especially when he has to take a bite of food, look at everyone staring at him while he's eating and then give them a warning growl. Poor Andy!! I couldn't even offer Andy my sympathies because I was too busy picturing this in my head and laughing out loud; and I couldn't stop. Yes, I know what you're thinking: I AM such a good wife!!

There's a reason that I don't have 3 dogs

THE CHAOS!!

One dog is great.

Two dogs is rowdy because they love to wrestle.

Three dogs is insane, crazy, wild, nerve wracking....need I go on?

Gracie likes to wrestle with Stitch, but she knows her place. He is the top dog and she doesn't dispute that. Of course, like a puppy, she wants to play and growl and nip and jump. Enter my sister's little dog (part rat, part mutt- meant with nothing but love of course but I want to give you an idea of his size). My mother brought him home from my sister's after Thanksgiving and he will be staying with them through my sister's winter break. My parents went to New York this weekend so Jack is staying in the Wiggs' Kennel while they're gone.

Gracie has decided she must a) try to get Jack to play with her, b) try to let Jack know that she is second in the pecking order, c) move him where she wants him to go, d) keep him from being too near any of us humans or Stitch or e) all of the above. In addition there is still the Stitch/Gracie wrestling matches and the Stitch/Jack playing. I need to get my black and white striped shirt and carry a whistle!!! Or leave it to Belle who every few minutes is telling one or the other of the dogs "No, stop it, no, don't do that, no, no, no, no...." Or Hayden who every few minutes is going "Mom, Gracie is....., Mom, Stitch is....., Mom, Jack is...., Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom".

How much longer until Sunday? ;-)

Another tooth bites the dust

No pun intended....okay yeah, all puns intended! Belle lost another tooth. This one was a front upper tooth. It came out at the hockey game the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. She now has a big ole gappy grin that is too cute!

But wait there's more!! The other front upper tooth is SUPER wiggly. I wouldn't doubt with the way that Belly works it, it will be out before they girls get out of school for Christmas Break. As of now she is singing "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth". If the super wiggly comes out she'll have to add to that. Unless of course the wiggly one next to the super wiggly one comes out too.....

Alternate Christmas song titles for Belly:

1: All I Want for Christmas is my 3 front teeth

2: All I Want for Christmas is my 4 front teeth

3: All I Want for Christmas is a set of dentures so I can eat Christmas dinner

4: Follow the Toothfairy Santa Cause she knows the way to my house

5: Over the river and through the woods, to Belle's house the Toothfairy goes

6: I love those W-I-G-G-L-Y teeth...Wiggly teeth, wiggle teeth, wiggle all the way (sung to the tune of Jingle Bells...come on work with me people!!)

The Elves Are Here!

The girls have been anxiously awaiting Dorie and Colleen's return from the North Pole and they finally arrived the Saturday after Thanksgiving!

Isabelle with Dorie

Hayden with Colleen

For those of you who don't know about the elves. The girls write a letter to Santa and ask him if they can "borrow" an elf to keep until Christmas Eve when Santa picks them up. The elves are only able to come if they're finished with all their work at the North Pole so there won't be any disappointed kids.

Every night before they go to bed the girls set out crackers and water for the elves to eat and drink and sprinkle them with snow. During the night the elves get into crazy antics. For example last year they decorated the girls' Christmas trees with underwear. This apparently was the girls' favorite as it comes up quite regularly! The elves then hide and the girls have to find them each morning.

The underwear ornaments last year

So far they haven't done anything too wild. They have been found waiting in the car; in the refrigerator drinking chocolate milk; in the cereal container; in the Christmas card rack and in the Christmas tree itself. Not sure what they'll be up to tonight but I'm sure it will be something very exciting!! With that in mind I'll be posting an elf pic a day which will let you know what Dorie and Colleen have been up to. You can also check out Hayden's blog listed on the side. She has said she will be keeping a running commentary on what the elves have been up to. That way you'll be some of the first to know if any underwear trees are found!