Half Grown Up

I know he is far from it, but sometimes it seems that the time is going so fast that I can hardly catch my breath. My little Bug is three months old today. Even the labor and delivery seemed to go fast. Maybe it had to do with being induced, but from the time they started me on the Pitocin, till the time that Bug made his entrance was less than nine hours. Giving time for the drug to take effect, my labor was probably only about seven hours. A big difference from the 15 hour labor I had with Joey.

Today at church, in the pew in front of us, was a family that had a baby girl not much bigger than my Bug. She was about the same size, but I have a feeling she may be a couple months older. I was looking at her and I thought to myself, "Someone like this little girl could be my son's wife one day!" It was such an odd, unexpected feeling. I kept looking at the parents and grandparents as potential in-laws, and I couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive of how they would treat my precious son. Not that they seemed like mean people, I just wasn't prepared to be thinking about this today. How will I feel when this actually becomes an issue in my life (as it is a few years down the road?) Maybe I will grow up by then!

Here are the comparison pictures of our sons at their three month-versaries. Baby Nick is on the top and Bubba is on the bottom. You will notice how much you can see Bubba's ears, yet you can't see Nick's hardly at all. Bubba always did have full size ears, and he is still trying to grow into them. Not that he ever looked out of proportion, but Baby Nick's ears are so small in comparison, it's kind of funny!

Endearing

Joey is now at the age where he says "I love you, too" when we tell him that we love him. It is so sweet to hear. Even more endearing, is when he comes up to me on his own and says, "I love you Mommy!" What a sweetheart.

Lately, Joey has been enjoying pretending to be a monster. He holds his hands up, with his fingers bent, and growls, "Roarrrr!" As a dutiful mommy, I act appropriately scared. Every time, Joey says, "Oh, I sorry." and gives me a hug! What a great monster. :)

(If you enlarge this picture, you can see how blue his eyes are!)

Baby Nick has been laughing more, but it still sounds more like a squeal. It's as if he would smile bigger if he could, but he is already smiling so big that it makes noise! I took him to choir last night, hence being dressed up in his new hat (so cute), and he behaved very well. I had him in the front carrier so that my hands would be free and he chewed on the side of it the whole time, drooling excessively! When we took a break, Tina (the lady I went to college with), said that she couldn't hold him if he was in the carrier (subtle, wasn't she!) So I let her hold him and he would not stop smiling, the little flirt! After the break, he fell asleep in the carrier and slept the rest of the time. But lucky me, he screamed all the way home!

It snowed again last night, the first time since our first snowfall. Not much, not even an inch, but at least it covered the ground and made it pretty again. We will have to get much more before there is enough to play in. It gets so cold out, though, it is hard to think straight. On Monday, Nick went out to run an errand, and I had asked him that on his way back in, he bring up the garbage cans and check the mail. When he got back inside, he was rubbing his frozen hands together. I asked him if he brought the cans up and he said they were out back. I asked him if he filled them with the garbage and took them back out to the curb (which is what I asked him to do when he brought them up.) He forgot. (No surprise) I reminded him that I wanted him to check the mail as well. He took the garbage out to the curb and came back in just as frozen. I asked, "No mail?" He got a goofy look on his face and said, "NO!" But he just forgot, again, even though I had just told him two minutes before! That is how cold it is, you seriously can't think straight!

Sweet Angels

I felt you should all have the privilege of seeing my precious angels! I noticed that it had been awhile since I posted pictures of my boys. So here are the latest....
Baby Nick is only three days away from being three months old! I can hardly believe it. When I take pictures for his actual three month-versary, I will try to remember to post a comparison picture of Joey as well.
The amazing thing about this picture is who took it. This is the first picture that Bubba has taken. He had a lot of help, but he is the photographer credited with this picture. (Very important to know!)
Here is the soon to be famous photographer. What an angelic look on his face! Don't let him fool you though, he's only angelic when he feels like it. It seems that he doesn't feel like being an angel very often when we're at home.

kjkim jkkj mskjm jm kjkjlmkj kkjl j lnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn (KBKLuibbaj is helpjing me type, so u may have tro

uble deciphering it

If you nyeed help, just ask y and I will try to translate. You kind of have to look around the letters he's interjected to see what I was writing. Now he is pushing me away from the desk so it is hard to reach the keyboard.) Finally, I have complete control of the computer back! Hope you enjoyed Joey's contribution.

Just To Say Hi

I have no new news or interesting tidbits to share tonight, but I just wanted to say a quick "hi" to all my family. I'm really missing each of you.

Joey is not any closer to being potty trained. He still hasn't gone once on the toilet. As much as I am ready for him to be ready, maybe he's just not ready. I want him to get used to at least trying, so I will continue to have him sit on the potty throughout the day, but I may not try so intently.

Joey does know about a new musical instrument....the tubob, aka, the tuba! He knows of the tuba from Larry, who plays the tuba in the theme song to VeggieTales. He is also getting close to knowing the song as well. He can recite (he doesn't quite sing it) "broccoli, celery, gotta be, VeggieTales." He also knows "...and sour, half an hour, VeggieTales." I can't even begin to try to spell how he really says these phrases, but it is too cute!

Yesterday, I was folding clothes on the bed and had stacks of clothes already folded, when Joey wanted to get up on the bed with me. I'm sure you can imagine how disastrous that would be to my neatly piled clothes, so I suggested he sit in the rocking chair instead. He said, "Oh! Good ideda!" It was the first time I had ever heard him use that phrase.

To demonstrate his very tender heart....whenever we are watching TV and there is a character who is crying, Joey says, "Come here" and walks up to the TV and "hugs" the character, or caresses their face! He's like that with Nick and I as well, and most of the time with Baby Nick too.

He went to choir with me last night, and as we were leaving, he bent down to Baby Nick who was sleeping in his bouncy chair, gently patted his head and said "Gud-bye." He's so cute...he bends down so he's real close to Baby Nicks face to talk to him. During the day, he will periodically come up to him and say in his high-pitched voice, "Hi Squirt, hi Bug." It warms my heart to see. I hope they can grow up to be best friends.

Holiday update.....looks like we will be spending a nice quiet Thanksgiving with just ourselves. That takes the pressure off of me to act happy (if I'm having a hard day), so that's good. We'll get a small turkey and hopefully have enough left over for Turkey Noodle Soup.

I should be sleeping, as once again, I am the only one awake. I'll at least make an attempt at it.

Illogical

I know that the feelings I expressed in my previous post are illogical. I think they are fueled by sleep deprivation. I am so tired, and not because my kids keep me up all night. Every once in awhile they will have a bad night, but on the whole, they sleep better than I.

What I am tired of is my body not allowing me to sleep when I have the opportunity. Like now, the family is asleep, I'm exhausted, yet I can't fall asleep. Now, tomorrow, when I am supposed to be taking care of my kids, cooking a meal, or cleaning the house; that is when my body will say, "I'm ready to sleep now." But I will be unable to sleep because the timing will be wrong.

Baby Nick will fight so hard before falling asleep. Not just screaming, but all out fighting. I get scratched, pinched, and punched by him when he is trying to go to sleep. His body goes almost completely rigid. And I don't think he is fighting because he doesn't want to sleep. I think he is frustrated that he is so tired but not already asleep. I know exactly how that feels. My head is pounding, my eyes are burning, and all other systems in my body have shut down for the day...yet I still lie in bed awake. Frustrating to say the least.

So please forgive the illogical ramblings of a sleep-deprived woman.

Potty Training

Well, sort of. It's not going very well so far, but it has only been two days. I never thought it would be so frustrating. Joey will start crying every time we tell him its time to go potty. He has not gone once on the toilet, and we try taking him every half hour. Since we have been trying to potty train him, he has been more upset, prone to more fits about the smallest things.

He does let me sing while he sits on the potty sometimes. He likes to hear "Miszer Boon" (Mister Moon), "Tinkle Tinkle Stars" and "Eat a Pider" (Itsy Bitsy Spider.)

I know its horrible, but I get so frustrated at him for making such a big deal about it. Sometimes I think he holds it when he is on the toilet on purpose, just so he can go in the pull-up as soon as we put it on.

I have found that since Baby Nick, I have been so much less patient with the kids, especially with unnecessary screaming. I don't know how to be a good mom any more. Maybe I never did.

"Elm No Pea"

Can you figure out what Joey is saying by this? Think 'alphabet.' Got it? "L M N O P" We are working on learning the alphabet. He is doing well, but hasn't been able to put it all together yet. He will be talking to himself, playing, and I will hear him say, "ABC" or "QRS" or even "Double Doo Eck." My favorite is 'elm no pea' although it sometimes sounds more like 'emo pea.'

I should also inform you of his full name. That is something else we tried teaching him just this morning. According to Joey, his full, big name is: Jofis Trishan Looty! He's so precious!

Balmy Weather

We are currently experiencing balmy weather. It is all of 13 degrees so far today! The high is expected to get up to 21 degrees. Whatever will I do in such extreme heat. I hope my kids don't suffer heat stroke today. I will try to keep them in out of the heat as much as possible. (Is my sarcasm coming through?)

What's worse is that it will keep getting colder throughout winter. Technically, it is supposed to be fall....how can I endure winter?

Baby Nick is starting to drool quite a bit. He is very eagerly trying to stuff his entire fist in his mouth. He chews on it every day. I think he might want his thumb, but he still is not opening his hands. He keeps them balled into fists most of the time. It makes it kind of hard to suck a thumb when it is tucked in under his other fingers!

Bubba got a box from Grandma Mary yesterday. As soon as I brought it in from the front porch, Joey said, "Mine?" Yes Bubba, it's yours. It was full of winter goodies.....snow pants that fit perfectly, two pairs of snow boots of different sizes that he can wear for a couple years, mittens, a hat, and Joey's favorite....stickers, a book, and a Frisbee that glows in the dark. I showed him how it glowed in the dark, so now he calls the Frisbee the "dark." He says, "Git the dark. Throw the dark." Oh well, one day he will understand.

We took Nick to work today, so for lunch, I will make a few sandwiches and spend time with Nick at the office. Then I will leave early to pick him up and spend some time helping him get some more filing done. He is supposed to have Monday off, and maybe even Tuesday....just because. It will be nice to have him around for a little longer this weekend. Maybe we'll brave the cold and take Joey out to play. I still have to teach him to make a snow angel so I can post a picture for Aunt Angie in Texas. Of course, it will be fun taking pictures of Bubba all bundled up, hardly able to move!

Have a joyful day.

Favorite Movie

Joey's favorite "movie" is the screen saver on our computer. It is set to run as a slide show through the pictures I have in my "My Pictures" folder, which is nearing (if not over) 2000 pictures. No matter where he is in the room, no matter what he is doing, once he sees the pictures come on, he drops everything saying, "Lookit pictures." He will climb up on the computer chair and comment on every picture.

"Lookit the Uncle Josh." "Lookit Papa Buddy." "Baby Rina and Baby Bubba." And so on and so on. Nick and I both watch him, close to tears, for not being able to give him what he wants most in the world: to see his family. "Grandma Mary hold Bubba." "Aunt Angie!"

Last night I was thinking of my last day at home, the day the boys and I flew to Alaska. I was crying again, still feeling the pain of separation as fresh as I did on that day. Sometimes I forget that the last time I saw my Mom and my sister Aubrey is such a sad memory. Sometimes I still feel like I just saw them the other day, and will see them again soon. I wonder if I will ever feel at 'home' here. As much as I am trying, for my husband's sake, I still dislike being here very much and can't wait to go home. One good thing is how fast the time seems to pass. Not when looking forward, but when looking back. It seems hard to believe that we have been here two months already. It's hard to believe it's November. It's hard to believe that it is Thursday!

It's hard to believe that the snow will still be here in five or six months!!

I'm Here

For the last week or so, Joey has been telling us where he is. He will walk across the room and look back over at me and say, "Hi, Mommy. I'm here." Yesterday he climbed up in my lap and put his hand on my arm and pointed to his chest and said, "I'm here." He is so cute. I wonder if he thinks I won't know where he is unless he announces it?

He started something else new yesterday....he started crooking his finger saying, "Come here, I show you." I couldn't stop laughing the first time I saw him do it. I was at the sink making a bottle and Bubba was standing by the refrigerator (where the bag of candy is 'hiding' on top) and said "Come here" until I was just in the right spot. Than he started smiling and saying please. How can one resist his extreme cuteness?

Baby Nick has been on a four day rotten streak. If he is awake, he is screaming. Nothing will calm him down. And he is not sleeping as well either. Every time I lay him down in bed, he wakes up. Last night it took four attempts to get him to stay asleep. Then he only slept for a couple hours before whining to be picked up again. So I let him lay down on my chest and sleep. He sleeps, but he is so wiggly, there is no way that I can sleep. After a couple hours of that, I finally fed him and tried laying him down in bed again. That only lasted an hour. Oh well. Maybe today will be my lucky day and he will stop his screaming.

The weather has cleared, but it is still in the mid twenties, dropping down into the teens overnight. The main roads are kept clear, but some of the side streets are quite slick. Our snow tires work very well. When I went to choir on Tuesday, the whole parking lot seemed like a sheet of ice! I was glad no one was around when I got out of the car, in case I fell. But I didn't fall...that time. Hopefully it is not so slick when I go to choir tonight.

One thing I didn't consider about the weather....the mailbox gets frozen shut! Nick has had to punch it to get it open. If it is frozen shut, I have to wait until Nick gets home to check the mail! And if it is frozen shut all day, we may not even get any mail if the mail carrier can't get it open. Not that we get a lot of mail, but it is always nice to hope for something from home and be pleasantly surprised when we get something!

Aunt Frieda has given Joey a subscription for "Turtles" magazine. Joey will be so excited to get something so grown up. He loves "reading" the mail. I have to remember to put the bills up high, because he loves to open them and he is not too gentle. They usually end up crumpled and sometimes chewed on if he gets his hands on them. So it will be so nice for him to have something of his very own to read! He loves getting cards from the family as well. After I read it to him, he 'reads' it for himself and carries it around all week.

Baby Nick is behaving very well for now, so I will take advantage of it and unload the dishwasher!

Enjoying Candy

DO NOT ADJUST THE COLOR ON YOUR SCREEN! This is just Joey eating a Blue Raspberry Air Head candy. As you can see, he is thoroughly enjoying it.

Growing and Changing

I always find myself amazed at how quickly my kids grow and change. For example, Joey will learn a new word or phrase every day. Not only that, but one day he may say his own rendition of the word, and the next he will have learned to say it correctly. He used to call Aunt Megan 'Aunt May May' but a couple days later he was saying it correctly.

Baby Nick will be three months old soon! It doesn't seem like that much time has passed since I gave birth to him. Yesterday he got pretty close to laughing out loud. It was more of an extra exuberant squeal, but it sure was cute. He is such a 'busy' little boy when he is laying on the floor. He will not stop moving those arms and legs around. He is so strong too. Once he is able to get up on his hands and knees, there will be no stopping him! (Isn't he so precious all dressed up for church?!)

Joey of course can't allow Baby Nick to get his picture taken without getting one of himself as well! He loves 'taking' pictures as well. He picks the camera up, tells me to "say cheese" and then turns around the camera to 'show' me the picture and says, "Cyooote." (He draws out 'cute' whenever he thinks something is extra cute.) I have noticed that when Bubba smiles real big, like in this picture, his right eye is more squinty than his left. It's like that in all his pictures. What a goofy boy.

Laundry is on the schedule for today, so I better get to it.

More Trick-Or-Treating

Joey made me so proud. After every piece of candy he got, he said, "Taintoo" (which is Bubba talk for "thank you") with hardly any prompting!
Here is Bubba showing Mommy all the candy! Of course you can't actually see into his bag, but his face sure is cute. You can just see the anticipation of eating all the candy.
Here are the Owl and Bob the Builder. Owl is trying to pry candy out of his teeth and Bob is wondering when the picture taking is going to finally end!
LOOK AT ALL THAT CANDY!!! It will take us a long time to get rid of it all. I am planning on using it as a reward system, both for good behavior and also, hopefully, for potty training. We'll see how that goes. This is one tuckered tot! He usually wakes up when I stand up to move him to his bed, but he didn't even stir. He still didn't stir when I picked him back up!

One of the decorations at the warehouse was HUGE pinata style spider with dangling legs hanging from the ceiling. We pointed it out to Bubba and he scrunches up his nose and says, "Little gross." I have to agree, except making one correction to his statement. "A lot gross" is how I would classify a huge spider. It was more cute than scary though, and had a different colored sneaker on each foot.

After church today, I tried cutting Baby Nick's fingernails, and he threw the biggest fit. Well, I was getting frustrated and said in a not so quiet voice, "Oh hush will you?" Bubba was sitting in his highchair finishing his lunch and said, "Be nice. Okay, Mommy?" He sure told me! It's quite humbling to be corrected by your toddler.

Joey has a new excuse to get out of doing something he doesn't want to do. He says, "Too littohl." No Bubba, you are not to little to go to bed!

Nick tried teaching Joey to say "okie dokie" yesterday. It came out, "Dook a dookie." He also is very excited about VeggieTales right now. He always wants to hear LarryBoy sing. He also likes "Jooner" (Junior), Bobmato (Bob the Tomato), and he can recognize "Ranull" which is Mr. Nezzer, the pickle in his role as Randalf in The Lord of the Beans! And to make his father exceedingly proud, he will fake burp after every sip of water. I still make him say "scoozeem" after every "burp."

Some other cute words Joey says is "nurseesee" which is "nursery" at church. He also says, "freeserser" which is "refrigerator." I especially like "ehbident" and "deedohdent", which are 'elephant' and 'deoderant.'

He's so precious.

We start practicing twice a week for choir this week, so now I only have to wait until Tuesday! It should be a good week. Hopefully the snow won't keep me in!

Trick-Or-Treat

First, I want to give you an updated picture of the snow covered mountains. They are certainly getting more beautiful. This picture was taken yesterday on our way to trick-or-treating. This morning as we were getting ready for church, it was snowing. It continued to snow all through church, and by the time we came out of church, there was about six inches of snow covering the ground. Poor Joey was having a hard time walking through the snow that came up close to his knees!

The place we went trick-or-treating is a huge warehouse. The event is a fundraiser and every booth that was set up were sponsors. They had it set up so that you wound your way through the warehouse and each station has two or three sponsors handing out candy. Joey got more candy from one hour in a safe, warm, environment than he would if we were to take him out around the neighborhood. I prefer this much better as I do not plan on taking him out around the neighborhood. I'd prefer to take him to a harvest carnival at a church, but I haven't heard anything about our church putting on a harvest carnival.
Joey was dressed up as Bob the Builder, and he was so cute, if I do say so myself, completely without bias!

Baby Nick dressed up as a Motocross rider, and again, he was very cute! (Again, with no bias)
This is Cheryl, Nick's boss, and her significant other, Randy. They have been great to us. We went out for pizza afterwards.

This is Jack, Cheryl's grandson. He was dressed up as an owl. Yes, he's cute, but can't hold a candle to my boys, in my humble opinion! (Shhh, don't tell Cheryl I said so!)

As Requested

Jack-O-Lantern Cookies

2 - 8oz packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cup softened margarine (yes, use margarine in this case, not butter)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
3 cup powdered sugar
red & yellow food coloring

Mix 1 1/2 packages of cream cheese, margarine, vanilla, and sugar. (Make sure the cream cheese is also softened and mix until there are no lumps.) Add the flour - mix.
Chill several hours.
Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls - placed on greased cookie sheet - flatten each ball with bottom of glass dipped in sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 - 15 minutes.

Icing:
Combine 1/2 package cream cheese, milk, and orange rind till well blended (again, no lumps.)
Gradually add powdered sugar
Add food coloring to taste

These cookies are best chilled. After baking the cookies, let them cool completely before icing. Then after icing, keep them refrigerated. You can also adorn them with a piece of candy corn!

Enjoy!!!

Mommy's Big Helper

Yesterday Bubba and I made Jack-O-Lantern cookies. My mom would make these cookies for Halloween and I thought that Bubba would enjoy them too. So I got everything out and had Bubba stand on a chair next to me. He was a VERY big help. He helped me pour the ingredients into the mixer and turn the mixer on. He was an expert taste tester, which I believe is his favorite part! (Who doesn't enjoy that part?)

After chilling the dough, you roll the cookies into balls and pat them flat with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bubba helped me with that part too. He was very good at putting the glass in the sugar and flattening out the cookies. When the cookies were all baked and frosted, Bubba again was my expert taste tester. He had two cookies, before dinner, and thought that he should have more! I think the cookies were a hit.

Baby Nick helped too, by only screaming for half the time! One day, he will be big enough to help in the kitchen as well. And that day will come way too fast!

Bubba is so funny. The other day, Nick and I were watching something on TV where the characters got in a food fight. Bubba runs up to the TV and yells, "Guys, guys, 'top it guys. I'll lipe it." (which means, stop it and I'll wipe it) Then he proceeds to wipe his hands over the TV as if to wash off the characters!

Then last night, I must have been really tired, which means that I get giggly. Joey got up out of bed about 10pm and wouldn't go back until Nick and I went to bed about 11:30pm. When we got in bed, Joey would not stop playing. He would climb all over us, scoot down to the bottom of the bed, and all the while offering up a running commentary on his actions. I could not stop laughing! Which, of course, made Joey play more. I think Nick ended up getting more frustrated with me than with Joey. We eventually all fell asleep, well after midnight. But I'm not sure if Joey fell asleep first or if I did! At least he slept in until 8:30am this morning.

Today is the day we are going "trick-or-treating" with Randy and Cheryl. Joey is very excited to be Bob the Builder this year. Not that he understands what Halloween is, which is fine with me. He just likes to wear the hard hat that the costume came with. I showed him a picture of his cousin Jesse dressed up as Bob the Builder a couple years ago. He was pretty excited to be just like Jesse. Baby Nick is going to be dressed up as a Motocross rider, another Jesse costume. They don't make many costumes for the 0-12 month range. Most places only carry 12-18 month size as the smallest. If we had enough foresight, we could have found something online to order, but this will be just as good. I want to find the black stocking cap that Joey wore when he was younger to be a "helmet" but I will have to find the right clothes box, and that might be a challenge!

Baby Nick is telling me his is very upset right now, so I better go take care of him. I will post pictures later of the boys dressed up.

Changes In Choir

It was choir night tonight. I always look forward to Thursdays. Especially since I missed church on Sunday,as the boys were sick, it was nice to be there tonight. Lenore told me she missed me in church...it was nice to know they noticed we weren't there. It made me feel less like a visitor to the church.

So for the last couple weeks, Pastor has been saying that he wants to pull a couple songs from the program they did last year and add it to this years program. When we started tonight, he said he had decided to take a couple of this years program and add it to last years program instead! So all the practice we have put in for the last month has been almost in vain!

That's okay. The program they did last year is much better, sounds more like Christmas. It was exciting to sing this program. It put a smile on my face more than the other one ever did. Alice (the pastor's wife) and I were the only altos tonight, but we had one visitor who sang with the altos tonight, but I am not sure if she will be back. She asked Alice if she had formal training. Alice put her hand on my shoulder and said, "I haven't had any formal training, but I think this one has. She comes in and picks up the music so quickly!" That was very nice recognition. It was also nice that I was able to pick up the new program just as quickly, especially since I was one of the only ones who hadn't heard it before.

Nick asked me to come to work with him tomorrow afternoon to catch him up on his filing. That is 'busy' work that he doesn't have time for. He is only allowed to work eight hours a day, as overtime pay is not in the budget, however, he has about ten hours of work a day that needs to be done. The poor guy can never get caught up, and any little bit that I can do for him helps.

Even though Joey should have been in bed long ago, he is sitting in the recliner next to me "talking" to Aunt Angie on Daddy's cell phone. He has his legs crossed and is leaning his arm against the arm of the chair. The conversation is going like this, "Allo, hi Angie. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. (Then he holds the phone up for me to say 'hi') Bye. Gud-bye." He has had this same conversation about five times now. He is so cute! He even moves his eyes around as if he were really listening to someone on the other end of phone!

I have a very wiggly baby Nick in my lap which makes it very difficult to type. So I will say my "good-nights" and spend some time snuggling with my Bug.

More Snow Pictures

First Snowfall

I wanted to show you pictures of our first snowfall. There's not much on the ground yet, but according to the forecast, we are supposed to have scattered snow showers today and then clear up and be sunny tomorrow. Sunny and a high of 31 degrees. I know the pictures are a little dark. No, they weren't taken last night....they were taken at 8:30 AM!! We are still waiting for the sunrise.
This would have been a beautiful picture of the trees across the street, but it was too dark. You can see the snow is still coming down though!

This picture is of the corner of the property next door to us...it too is a little dark, but I love pictures of the snow on the trees. You can see on the ground that there is not that much snow, but it at least mostly covers the ground.

This is the view out our back door. There is a "wooded" area back there that looks real pretty with all the snow, but again, you can't see too far because it is not light enough.

I will post more pictures when the sun comes out and you can actually see. I just couldn't wait to share the first snow with you.

Making Holiday Plans

We have started making holiday plans. For Halloween, we will take the boys to a place that has indoor "trick-or-treating". I don't know too much about it, except that Randy and Cheryl take Cheryl's grandson there. They invited us to join them. That will be fun for Bubba.

We invited Randy and Cheryl and their families over for Thanksgiving. If they don't come to our house, we were also invited over there! So either way, we will probably be spending Thanksgiving with them. If they were to come to our house we would have twelve people here, including the four of us. I would love to have them over here so I can share with them my family's favorite Thanksgiving tradition: eating dessert first! That way, we are not too full to enjoy our pies, and after our tummies settle after dinner....we break out the pies again!!

I know that, whatever we do, we will have a great day. But, even now, I am having a hard time thinking about the holiday season coming up, and making plans that don't involve my family. I have always been able to celebrate with my family. It will be so different this year. I hope that I can be a hospitable hostess or a gracious guest despite how I might feel.

I haven't even begun to feel Christmasy yet...and for those who know me well, know how unusual that is for me. Although I hold off until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas, I usually start listening to Christmas music by the beginning of September at the latest (it's been as early as the middle of July before.) But this year, I just don't have it in my heart yet. I know I have been singing the choir Christmas program, but as I have said before, it is more a Christmas worship program than traditional Christmas songs.

One thing I will miss about being with home, is playing Christmas duets on the piano with my mom. There's only a couple that we do, and every year we have to "re-learn" the pieces, but we have so much fun. We usually end up laughing so hard we can hardly play, and I wouldn't call the "Hallelujah Chorus" a funny song (except when we play it!) I'll also miss sitting around the piano singing with my brother and sisters. We are such a musical family, we have all been singing since we were young children. Since my husband doesn't sing, I will have no one to sing with this year.

At least we'll have a white Christmas! And New Year, and Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day, and possibly Easter and Mother's Day as well.