Merry Christmas!!

There's a new grandbaby in the family...his name is Bugsy--or that's what it was this day. I'm not sure if Jason has made up his mind yet. Bugs is a shar-pei something or other mix and he's just adorable!!






We decided to give him to Jason a day early because it would have been impossible to keep him a secret. Besides, we were tired of getting up every 20 mintues to let him outside!!

We all went sledding the day before Christmas and had lots of fun. This was the first time Heather and Logan had been sledding. I was really suprised--they both LOVED it! Heather would squeal all the way down the hill...and then want to be carried back up. They were both pushing to get in line to go back down. It was very cold that day, but they lasted over an hour.

Here's the whole crew, minus Annelise who was napping in the warm car. Even she made it down the hill a time or two. What a fun day.

Dan and Logan going down the hill.

Annelise's first time sledding. She wasn't so sure about all the layers required.

Christmas morning was fast and furious. All 3 kids had fun...for the first 3 presents and then lost interest. They just wanted to play with the ones they had already opened.

Great Grandma Urbigkeit gave them little rockers for Christmas. They were a huge hit, especially with Heather who lovest to find little places to sit.

The 4 grandbabies in front of the tree and presents. It was impossible to get all of them in the same place, looking the same direction, at the same time.

So many pictures, so little time...

It's only December 18th, but I've already taken almost 500 pictures this month!! I've only covered tree decorating, sugar cookie making, and a few early presents :)

I decided to let H and L help me decorate cookies this year. What a mess!! They got frosting, sprinkles and spider egges (our kiddie term for those round candy sprinkles) everywhere but the cookies!! Logan just double fisted the frosting knives, getting as much into his mouth as possible before I took them away...then proceeded to frost himself.





I snappe this photo before he got too sticky. I gave him a haircut the night before...poor guy. He'll have to wear a hat for awhile hehehe.

December is going to be a month of compramises. No you can't have the glass ornament, but maybe this one from the dollar store, No you can't have just frosting for dinner--but maybe a whole cooked for dessert....No you can't climb out of your crib 15 times...but maybe if you can stay in the bed, you can have a big boy bed for Christmas...:):)

Logan is having some issues with being asked to sleep in a crib. Booger. Just climbs over the siderail, lands on the ground with a big "whomp" and then plays, talks--even has the guts to come back out into the living room, where he knows he'll get scolded. sheesh. 2 hours of this and I finally gave in and let him sleep in the single bed in his room. He didn't let out a peep--or even try to get out of bed. I gues the big boy bed is in order...either that or he's going to break his noggin!!

This is CLASSIC Heather. Classic. She was eating frosting and got ONE little spider egg on her tongue. I finally got the big, exaggerated gag on film....

Heather, as you can see, is a master cookie froster. She managed to get frosting ON a cookie. Big accomplishment for a 2 year old, I am learning hehehe. She stayed sticky free...another classic Heather-ism.

I could take hundreds of pictures a month of this sweet little girl, and maybe, just maybe I can get one of her looking at least in the general direction of the camera. You can see just a tiny bit of the frosting eating evidence on her cheek :) Probably the dirtiest she's been in a month hahaha. She is really enjoying having "It's Anna Baby" in the house to play with. Anna gets to eat all kinds of imaginary cuisine, led around the house by her hand, and many hugs and kisses.

Notice anything different??? Yep. Heather got her first haircut. She was getting very frustrated with her bangs in her eyes, so I gave in and chopped them. I got a little teary eyed! She just looks so much older and, if I may say so myself, adorable in her homemade doo.

Grandpa stopped by on saturday and brought over lots of gifts. We decided to let the doobers open their gifts from him so that he could watch. As always, he found the perfect gift. (I made him promise NOTHING with motors :) ) they love these little tricycles and have been riding them every waking moment. Heather gets quite frustrated because her feet don't touch the ground at the same time she's holding the handle bars, but she'll get it figured out I'm sure. Logan is already faking crashes, falls off, does wheelies (I REALLY made grandpa promise no motors) It's a good thing this is a dumpy rental!!

I think we are ready for christmas. I just have some last minute baking and packing to do on Thurs and friday, and we'll trek to Evanston on Friday night after Dan gets home from work.

Man, being a working stiff has really cut into my scrapping time!! I don't have anything new to share!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with too much food and lots of love.

Okay, Dad. I've updated just for you!!

We finally got our poor, little fake Christmas tree up and decorated. The kids were so much fun this year!! They were in absolute awe of the lights and pretty ornaments. Getting the ornaments and lights on the tree was quite a challenge, though. Heather especially wanted to play with each and every ornament --which created a BIG tantrum when I told her they had to be left on the tree.

Logan was eager to help, but fizzled out quickly. He was more interested in climbing in and out of the big plastic tubs all the Christmas stuff is stored in.

This picture of us is cute...too bad the 70's shag carpet couldn't be edited out :) We can't wait for our house to be finished. It is set on the foundation and the contractor has started working on

the ouside. As soon as it can be heated, they will finish the interior.

On a clear day, the view is breathtaking! Our builder really did a great job positioning the house to face the peaks. He also put in bigger windows so that we can enjoy the view. The guest room has windows looking at these mountains and then the view to the south. It's very pretty!

Mister Logan has decided that he would really like to be the boss of many things, including whether or not he wears mittens. It only lasted about 5 minutes, though, as he came back really quickly begging for them to be put on. I did this page as an assignment for www.scrapbookdreamer.com, using Around the Block winter papers.

This page layout uploaded really small, but you can click on it to make it bigger. These are the pictures from above. Bo Bunny press sponsored our DT at www.scrapbookdreamer.com this month, so I used their print papers, some BG chipboard and Petaloo flowers.

Hi Grandma :)

You are on the internet, curlers and all!!

I think this is my favorite picture from the whole Thanksgiving weekend. It just sums up the importance of grandparents in my children's lives. Neither kiddo had ever seen a piano, let alone play one before this minute. Here's their great-grandma with her awesome patience, teaching them not to pound. These small gifts of time and teaching may not be remembered by them in the future, but will leave a little lasting fingerprint on their personalities. Thanks Grandma!!

And speaking of fingers, isn't this just the most awesome picture?? Seasoned, experienced hands guiding new, two year old hands??? You can barely see Heather's tiny pointer finger in between her great grandmother's. I just love this! I am sure it will end up on a scrap page real shortly.

Annelise

This little girl is so cute and spunky and determined!! Who could resist those big blue eyes and big giggly grin??? Not me, obviously. I had more pics of her just playing than I did of both of my two put together!!

I am a guest designer at Kittys-Kloset.com this month. The owner, Jen, is just starting her online business--her site is REALLY cute. Lots of kitty schtuff :) check out the link to the left of the blog. These papers are SEI's Fruitstand collection found in her store.

I thought the strawberries went well

with the 'sweetheart' theme.

This second page was just for fun. NannyP (as I like to call her) is so photogenic, and her HUGE eyes really capture the light.

We got snow dumped on us tonight--almost 4 inches in just an hour. It is really pretty and white--looks almost like Christmas !!

Sneak Peeks at our new home

Here it is...what will become the new Allison home. We are more than impressed with the way it turned out. Jim at Propery Partners has seen to every little detail, including all new appliances!! We could only access a few rooms of the house, as the hall way and other parts are still sealed. The 2 halves will be set December 5th--and I plan on being there for some great pictures.

We hadn't planned on buying a manufactured home, but here in Pinedale, things are so expensive that this was our only option for a large enough home with enough bedrooms for all.


The kitchen is large and airy. I love the hood and all the tile work.










Our fireplace will definitely be the heart of the Living room. It is floor to ceiling (9 feet) tall and has a beautiful oak mantel. Too bad it won't be finished by Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had so much fun during Thanksgiving. It was the first time that they 3 of us have all been together since before Jason's crash to celebrate a holiday. Missy AnnieP was adorable, almost walking, and very independent! She definitely will make her mark on the world :)

We ate some great food and really enjoyed the company of family. This is why we just dragged our 2 babies 1000 miles, to a cold and wintery place. I am positive now that it was worth it.

On another great note, our house arrived and is due to be set on the foundation Dec 5th or 7th. We ran up to the property and snuck a peek at the accessible rooms. The kitchen, dining room, master bed and bath are fabulous. It was a nice little boost, for sure.

How many Q-tips does it take to clean Heather's ears??

Answer: 3

She has been obsessed with clean ears for a few days. She know exactly where I

keep my scrapping q-tip stash, digs around til she finds them, and takes off at a high run. I guess clean ears are imporant to her....:)

Question #2--How do you get Logan to drink more water???

Answer: Disguise it as pepsi. As long as it's in a can, he'll drink it. If it's in anything else, it is likely to be dumped in the toy box, the dump truck, or simply on the floor accompanied by a tantrum, of course. How dare we ask him to drink water :)

As I was organizing my albums for 2006, I found that I had made pages with both kids, but for only one album. I've done these pictures before, but needed a set for Logan's Album. These were in September, just before we moved. American Crafts sponsored the DT at scrapbookdreamer.com this month, so I used some of their great papers and flowers!

I also realized, as I was organizing albums, that Heather's is STUFFED full of pages and Logan's is only about 3/4 of the way full. So, I definitely need to go back and do some more pages for him. Poor kid...

These two pages are of him from the same day. He was playing outside in the powdery dirt and in 5 minutes was CRUSTY!!

This is the other from the same afternoon--Logan in all his dirt encrusted glory!

Who says you can't eat fingerpaint??

We fingerpainted again, with much sucess :) Logan, of course, ate most of his paint and then proceeded to use his belly and the table as a canvas.

Heather painted her piece of paper with precision. She did get one little spot of paint on her--which she promptly asked me to remove lol. She's the only child I know that can stay clean while fingerpainting!!

I was hoping it would warm up-to at least 30 so that we could go outside and play in the snow, but I don't think that will happen this morning. It's about 24 and snowing pretty briskly. It really is pretty!

I haven't had snow like this since leaving Wyomin 8 years ago. It is such a strange site to me when there are 10 trucks with blades, skid-loaders with blades all over town frantically trying to keep up. My first thought was "why?" then I realized that when it snows here, it's here to stay. Not gone in 3 or 4 days like in Oregon. Guess I better get on my boots and go scoop some snow!! Both kids are stanging at the window--and have been for about 30 mintues, watching the big truck scrape snow out of the parking lot across the street. Logan even has a new word "cruck". Heather just says "hey mom, look at that truck moving snow" lol. well, not really, but her words are really starting to make sense! It will be fun to hear what she is thinking sometimes!

Snow, oh glorious snow!!

They said it would come, but I thought they were wrong after a week of 60 degree weather. We just got dumped on, big time!! There was over 6 inches of fresh, glittery powder on our front porch this morning. After living in Oregon where it hardly ever snowed, it seemed like a blizzard!! The locals just went about their business as if nothing was amiss.

And, speaking of locals, this town is the most untrusting, excludinig town I have EVER lived in!! wow. The newspaper interviewed a waitress last week--1/2 of a page worth--and she spent over half of her interview ragging on all the newcomers. She even had the audacity to say "I'm not sure how to exclude them from local events". Wow. I am hoping that it gets better soon! I know that this small town has been inundated with strangers and those hoping to make it rich quick off of the oil/gas boom. We will definitely have our work cut out for us!!


Dan is leaving for 4 days. It will be quiet without him around. The funny thing is, this is the most he's ever been home since we've been married! He comes home for lunch and for the most part is home by 5pm. It's been kinda nice! I know that it will end as his caseload increases.

No new scrapbook pages to share. The kids fingerpainted again today, so will have to get that uploaded tomorrow. I make sugar-free vanilla pudding (less sticky) and add justa smidge of food coloring. They can eat it, paint with it, coler themselves and each other...it doesn't matter!! I just toss 'em in the tub for a quick rinse and they're onto their next project.

It's monday....ugh.

13 layouts, 10 cards, and 1 altered project later, I'm all scrapped out. Mojo is sleeping in today--unfortunately because the doobers are napping early. They are both sick with fever, runny nose--the typical early winter viral schtuff.

Here are a couple pages of them in their tiny kilts that Great-grandma Urbigkeit made them. How's that for a little "travel back in time" moment?? They were so tiny, even here at 2 months old.

I found this picture in my stash, blew it up and put it with some chatterbox papers. It looks a little crooked, but i wanted Grandma's handwriting to remain with the picture :) I obviosly need a new corner rounder.

Missy Heather LOVES to sort little picky things, such as buttons! She'll do this for hours a day! I have lots of pics of this, so I put them all on one page.

And one last page--of all my favorite things of the moment:) If you are a scrapper, I'd really recommend you start a 'book of me' and fill it with just pages of your own life. So often the mommas become the family history recorders, and never end up with their own history recorded. Put in your top 10 favorites, your thoughts, feelings, and how much a gallon of milk costs. Your great grandchildren will have MUCH fun reading through all of this!! (everyone keeps asking me what the clock stands for--it's stopped at 7pm. Bedtime at our house tehehehe)