A little Karaoke....

Fun!

The song with the Elmo Shoes...these boots are made for walkin'. :-)
We really are having too much fun with this thing...good thing the video only records if there is a VCR hooked up.

Merry Christmas

The kids had a blast this morning with their presents. Here are a few pictures.
They must have been really good!


Their favorite gifts were Princess: moon shoes, & Punkin': the bouncy ball.

Too WARM FOR CHRISTMAS

At least in my opinion. Seriously? 77 outside today. So warm, with the cookie baking & sausage ball making, we had to turn the AC on! AC! Christmas Eve and have the AC on. I hope Santa packed some shorts & a raincoat.

Pictures of great cookie backing 2008

Now, time to go check NORAD and see where Santa is!

Gingerbread House

The girls and I put together a gingerbread house today, one of our traditions.

Tomorrow, cookies!

Canton Light Festival

Not sure what the thing is really called, but here are a few pics. The kids had a ball. We did too! This was our first visit. But I'm sure we'll go back! Merry Christmas!

Ever had a moment when you felt like a complete idiot.?

I just had one of those moments.

We went with some friends to the Canton Christmas Light thing...it was neat. Anyway, the kids wanted hot chocolate when we got home. No biggie right? Well, I opened the packet, and there were no marshmallows in it..and its supposed to be marshmallow lovers...hmmm. Well, the packet next to it was only marshmallows.

why do I feel like an idiot?

Teacher gifts this year was a coffee mug, hot cocoa, tea and cider tucked in. one pack of cocoa...see where this goes? One of princesses teachers got cocoa, one got marshmallows...repeat for punkin's two teachers.

*bangs head on table*

Toy Packaging

I heard this on KLOVE the other day and had to try to find it. Enjoy!

http://musicremedy.com/s/Sara_Groves/videos/Toy_Packaging-30476.html

Couple of pictures

Of my purty girls. yes, I know I'm biased, but come on, they are pretty.
We had vistors this weekend, the famous Papaw-and-Emily...thats what punkin calls them, all in one word. These are pictures of them showing off their new duds.

Great Cat Escape

It was nice and warm the other day, so we had heat off and windows open. Crazy for December, I know, but just have to roll with MS winters!

Anyway, the windows had been open all day, with no escape attempts. After the kids went to bed, I noticed I hadn't seen Rascal (7 year old bobtail) in awhile. Our cats don't go outside, never have. I'm a firm believer in trying to protect the songbirds, plus, there are enough wild cats out there, our spoiled cats would get beat up!

Looked around outside and didnt see him. Noticed the bathroom screen was pushed out, so confirmed the escape. Finally spotted him between our house and the neighbors, but when I called for spouse to let him know I found him, he ran. And jumped in the MIDDLE of our big nasty holly bush (I know all of Gods creation is beautiful, but sometimes I wonder about holly bushes. Seriously...ours could maim someone!) Spouse tries to spot him, in the bush, in the dark, but everytime one of us moves, he lets out this horrible spitting and caterwauling...

I told spouse, probably should leave him be, or risk losing life, limb or eye. So we give up after a few minutes and go in. I knew a cold front was coming, and figured he'd be one upset cat come morning.

Well, about 5 am, the cold winds were here, and the temp had fallen...when we heard a certain cat meowing outside. Then he started scratching on the window!! Seriously! Spouse got up to open the window and he ran. So, spouse went to the back door, turned on the patio light, and opened the door, when one really mad, cold but glad to see the open door cat launched through and right into him.

Yeah, he's been contrite the last couple of days...

Maybe he learned a lesson!

Frankenstein and Myrrh

Punkin's preschool program was tonight. It was too cute. I took the video camera, but punkin' wouldn't stand up, so it was hard to see her. And when she did stand up she turned around backwards. I'll put some video clips up when I get them off the camera. One of the best parts was the three wise men. They came up to the microphone to say their parts, and one of them said the wise men brought frankenstein and myrrh. It was great. I had to quit recording because it was so funny, I was shaking the camera.

Life with the zoo...

So Goldie has issues, being that she is 5 and never had anyone mess with her much, including teaching her she's not the alpha dog. She's decided that Jimmy is alpha male, but she fights me for alpha female. I so need Cesar! Anyway, I don't let her dominate me, and we've had improvement in that area some what. She was in the kennel for 3 months during her heartworm treatment, and now she's out, so we are trying to learn indoor manners...which is tough. Last night I caught her with paws up on the counter, trying to steal a snack..a HUGE no no in this house. So I fussed at her, and spanked her, told her to kennel...and she went and got in the corner, ignoring the kennel command. So I told her again, and she bared her teeth at me, and I really think she would have bit me had I been stupid enough to get my hand too close. Anyway, I distracted her, and grabbed her so she couldn't bite me, and she tried!! So I put her in the kennel. The whole time giving the kennel command. During the ruckus, I noticed that Toby was trying his best to find a kennel to get into! He was standing in the middle of looking all around the room like where is it?? And I didn't do it momma, I didn't. I got her in the kennel, came back in the living room and he tried to climb in my lap (hard, for an 80 lb dog). I gave him some love and told him I knew he was the good dog. It was too funny. I wish I had video of him looking around the room for a kennel!!

While you were sleeping

I love Casting Crowns, they have such a straight way of saying things.

A few Christmas pics...

Little slide show snapping pics for the Christmas card. Note, that Toby, he's the good dog. His education helped him prep for his close up. HA!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

They predicted snow today, but didn't cancel school, which I thought odd. Normally, a flake keeps the kids home. Anyway, it was raining cats and DOGS this morning, but school was open. Princess got on the bus, dropped punkin' off at preschool, and the rain changed over to snow. Took Goldie to the vet (last heartworm test: heartworm free!), and it was starting to stick to the grass. Went into work, and stayed about 2 hrs, and they started closing schools. Came home, drank hot chocolate. It snowed for awhile, then back to rain. When the rain quit, we played in what was left of the snow. If the rain hadn't started, we probably would have had 3-4 inches! But instead, we just had one at our house.

I can't find a baby Jesus anywhere.

Seriously, a nice, not cheesy, or blow up manger scene for the yard. No one has one. Whats Christmas without Baby Jesus? If you know of one that doesn't cost a gazillion dollars, shoot me a comment.

We took the girls to the Nativity Lutheran Church tonight, they had a live Nativity scene and story telling. Pretty neat. The kids enjoyed the live animals and the reading of the story. And they gave them free cookies...and a nativity door hanger scene with stickers for them to create there own nativity. Looks like the beginining of a new Alley tradition.

10.2 miles...

In a day. The meeting I went to was over at noonish, & our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 9p. So we had a long time we could check out DC. I was searched and scanned so many times during the day, one would think I could have earned clearance to the White House!

First stop, Arlington. Arlington was almost too much for me. Beautiful, yet haunting at the same time. *Warning* potientally offensive comment* I think any American who has EVER had anything bad to say about our country, our leaders, our wars, or our military, ought to be required to visit Arlington National Cemetary, to just see how MANY brave men and women have willing given up their lives so we can stay free. And they should realize, the number of graves there, pales in comparison to the total number of lives lost. You can disagree with me on many things, but the enormity of the sacrifice of our armed forces can NOT be denied. Ok, I feel better. I was proud of my fellow Americans who were there...all were respectful and silent. Not one cell phone...not one loud annoying converstation...I didn't think Americans had it in them any more, but the ones there did.

After we left Arlington, we rode the Metro into the city, where embarked on a worldwind tour of the Washington Mall. First stop, the Smithsonian Museum of American History. We saw the Gettyburg Address, in Lincoln's hand, the flag that flew over Ft McHenry that inspired the Star Spangled Banner (I had no idea it was so large!), a great exhibit on America's Armed Forces, and their history from Pre-revolution through today. I didn't realize how powerful that would be...maybe it was coming from Arlington. I also didn't realize I was going to come up on relics from 9/11 in that exhibt . Very moving. Then at the end there was a video of still photography off cemetaries around the world for American Service men and women. Also moving.

After there, we went to the Museum of Natural History. Also cool, lots of good stuff in that one too. Of course, me being a biologist, I could have stayed in there for days. But we did see the gems too, including the Hope Diamond, and the crystal room..I could have stayed there for days too.

After that, we walked up to the Capitol, and went to check out the Christmas tree, the preperations for the inaguration, and talked to a really nice Capitol Police cop. We talked to him for about 10-15 mins. We were asking directions to the new visitor center...you know the one people were talking about last week because the congressmen wouldn't have to "smell" the tourists anymore? Anyway, he told us how to get there, and we were talking to him about how beautiful everything was, and about the inaguration, etc. He told us they were expecting people to fill the Washington Mall, from the a capital to the lincoln memorial!! Estimate 4 million people if the weather is nice. WOW! Got some photos of the prep work around the capital, and the Christmas tree. Walked around to the back, and found out while we were talking to the cop the last tour had left for the inside, so we didn't get to go in. :( I was bummed. But the new visitors center is nice, and has some neat stuff in it anyway. You can see the stage they are building for the inaguration in the picture below:

From there, we saw the Supreme Court

& Library of Congress Buildings.

Wandered into the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, and then into the Air & Space museum. We had planned to walk back to the White House and Washington Monument to see the National Tree, since it was about dusk, but we were tooooo tired. Got back on the Metro and went back to Crystal City, where we rounded up our luggage and went to the airport.

After sitting there forever, we discovered our plane was delayed. :-( It finally arrived, and we boarded, and were delayed again because the fuel truck had broken down next to the plane. Finally got undeway and hour late, and as we took off I could see the Lincoln memorial, Washington Monument, and the White House, along with the lit up National Christmas tree. It was beautiful!

Slept on the plane...

And I'm so tired and sore today! I can tell I walked 10 miles. (pedometer on cell phone).

And of course...the kids wanted to put the Christmas Tree and lights up today, so we did!

More DC experience

I forgot to mention last night that while we were in front of the White House taking pictures, we flagged down a "cop" to ask for recommendation for food...a 'la Rachel Ray. Turned out it was Secret Service! Anyway, he was super nice, and recommended a nearby by place that was great.

The White House was having a "fancy" dinner with all these folks in "fancy" clothes going through security. Too cool!

washington dc

Flew into DC today. After the first meeting, we had a little bit of time to walk around before dark, so I was able to snap a few pics. Hopefully I'll get to more later!