Silly Sisters

Emma came downstairs (this was like 4 or 5 days ago) with 9 tattoos all over various parts of her body. Including 3 on her face. And one in her belly button. Yes, in. Needless to say we put the kibosh on temporary tattoos for now.

Winter Storm

Yesterday was the start of two bad winter storms that are expected to hit our area. I don't think we got all that much snow but the wind was pretty fierce. There was a 100 car pile up on the interstate just west of town. Glare ice and zero visibility make for some pretty nasty driving conditions. DOT have since closed the interstates from Grand Forks ND all the way to Brookings SD and Jamestown ND to Alexandria MN. That's a very large section, covering three states. Air travel is stalled and there are closures everywhere. It's quite something!

And we are in for round two today. Heavy snowfall is expected to start around 4pm with high winds and dangerous wind chills (-35 below zero). I guess it's pretty safe to say our New Year's Eve plans are to hunker down in the house and celebrate with the kiddos. Right now we are between storms. We can at least see across the street. But that's going to change come late afternoon as the second fierce storm system moves in. Or as the paper calls it a second "weather assault".

This was the drift outside our front door last night.



And this morning it was considerably higher.




Welcome to the midwest!

Dinner Italiano!

I love to have themed dinners now and then. I say I do it for the girls but I think I enjoy it more than they do! Usually we do Mexican night because I have all sorts of Mexican decorations and dishes and etc. We've also done Chinese night because I have the fun dishes and we make paper lanterns and the like. Of course we've got some "mood" music of the appropriate genre on the iHome to complete the ambiance.

Tonight we tried Italian night. I have a recipe for some authentic Italian meatballs that I have been just itching to make. So I got them made this morning and had them simmering in spaghetti sauce all afternoon. The girls and I turned our table into an Italian cafe and we dined on spaghetti and meatballs while listening to some fine Italian dinner music! I wish I would have made a Tiramisu today, that would have been the perfect ending.

Oh, and by the way, the meatballs were TO DIE FOR!!!! Amazing!



Ok, so the bottle is French. But who can tell, right?



Hanna, drinking my homemade Raspberry Sparkler (aka raspberry juice and sparkling water).



Can you see Eden's centerpiece? An old olive oil bottle used as a flower vase.



I can't look at Emma without laughing since they put that tattoo right on her forehead.



I had spaghetti squash instead of pasta because today is a low carb day for me. And just fyi for anyone wanting to try it, it's a fabulous alternative!

Spoiled Rotten Dog

This is Lizzy watching Andreas eat. See the drool that's dangling there? She always salivates profusely when someone is eating.



Then there are those big sad puppy dog eyes. She really uses those to her advantage. We are puddy in her paws.



What's this? Eating from a fork? Wow. It looks like she has us trained.





Mmmmmm, another victory.

Jen...

Here is our extra washer & dryer (w x h = 27 x 47 for each machine)

Thanks Farmor!

Farmor picks out the CUTEST dresses for Emma!

Oh the holidays...

A time of joy and togetherness. A time of laughter and giving. A time when you realize that the relatives are way more fun when you've been drinking. Did I say that out loud?

Today my sister offered me a hot buttered rum. It sounded rarsome. And it was. I was halfway through the mug of deliciousness when I realized that I need to consume alcohol more often.

I didn't have any wine today, which was weird. We usually always have wine at holiday gatherings. But today was a little different than usual. Instead of a big dinner, Sue had a table (and kitchen counter) FULL of yummilicious goodies, meats & cheeses, dips, crackers, chips, breads, meatballs, lil smokies, shrimp, shredded pork sandwiches, etc. My favorite was this baked brie thinger she had made. It was...heavenly. I told her it should be illegal. I love brie. Well, I love cheese in general. I don't really discriminate. My dream job would be a cheese tester. I could walk around with my little cheese sampling gadget and assess cheeses all day long. My hips probably wouldn't love it so much though.

We played our traditional dice game for gifts. This year the hubs and I ended up with a tool set and a reed diffuser. We played Balderdash, which is always good for some laughs. That has to be my all-time favorite board game. Andreas won, of course.

I got Gram all tucked into bed. Andreas is downstairs enjoying his new xbox game (Assassins Creed II). And I'm laying in my bed, next to my super duper tired snoring child. It's been a great day.

What's up for tomorrow? Not sure. Movie marathon sounds good to me!

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmastime is here...




Today I got to visit an old friend. Well, she's not old, cuz if she were, that would mean I'm old, and I'm not old. Got it??!! But what I meant was, we've known each other since kindergarten. It's been 5 years since I've seen her and we live less than an hour away from each other. Crazy, isn't it? Wrong is what it is. But, I am vowing from this day forward to visit more than once every 5 years!

Tomorrow is going to be crazy busy, but I'm going to TRY and roll with it. Because it's Christmas and it's only once a year. We are having Christmas with the girls tomorrow night since H & E are going with their dad early Friday morning. Even though I have to pick mom up from the hospital, go shopping, help my husband cook a giant Christmas feast, take my mom to a doctor appointment, stop at her place to pick up what she needs for her stay at Chateau Arff, pick her up from the doctor, get her situated and try to relax and enjoy what's left of the day......I'm going to be a knotted up stressed out mess on the inside but gosh darn it, I'm determined NOT to be whiny or crabby or uptight. Good luck with that, right?

And, since we'll be enjoying this wonderful time of year with family the next few days (and so will you) I want to take the opportunity now to wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas! Hope to be back to blogging about a wonderful Christmas weekend by Sunday ;)

Sweetened Condensed Blog

I have so many pictures I want to post, and so many different topics I want to blog about and I just KNOW I'm going to forget half of it. Rather than type a "to do" list in Notepad, I'm going to whine about it. Cuz that's what I do.

Nah, I'll just do a quick version. A condensed version. Here goes...

Sometimes I have no idea where the titles for my posts come from. They are random and stupid at times. Just like me.

Lizzy graduated puppy school last Sunday. Graduation hat, diploma, the whole nine yards. 8 weeks of puppy school under her belt. We learned a lot. Mostly that it's a lot of dang work training a moose. We liked the class but were sort of glad it was over. So then what did we do? Signed her up for the intermediate class, why not! Another 8 weeks of training.

On Saturday night (I'm going backwards here) we went to the Holiday Pops concert at the Fargo Theater. FM Symphony Orchestra...wow. It was awesome. We went mainly because Hanna had to see a concert of some type as part of her grade for music class and since she was so interested in joining orchestra once upon a time, I figured she would dig it.

Emma had her preschool Christmas program tonight. It was adorable. We had to skip Eden's dance practice and Andreas' Christmas party to go to it though. Don't you just love this time of year? Schedule conflicts galore! But, tomorrow is the last day of school for the year and then we can all just breathe and relax. Andreas will have some time off, the girls won't have activities and we can all just lay around and stuff ourselves with Christmas goodies.

Oh, I forgot that my mother is getting out of rehab on Thursday. I'll have to go get her and then take her to her doctor appointment later that day. Then bring her back to our place for a few days. Even when I think the running is done, it's not.

As for the pictures, there are too many and I'm too tired so I'll share just a few of the cutest ones from today.

I came to dance-dance-dance-dance....

I hit the floor cause that's my plans plans plans plans....

Since I've been so dern busy lately, I haven't really kept up with my blog. Stories have accumulated (in my head) and so I need to start expelling them before I forget. I think I'll choose a funny story tonight. It's not so much a story as it is me making fun of my husband through pictures.

So my hubs, my man, my better half, P-Bear as we have been calling him lately has these slippers that he wears. Except, they aren't really slippers. They are the inner lining of his winter boots. He has discovered that they are warm and cozy and well, just downright comfortable and so now he wears them around the house all the time.

It's not really that funny. But, have you ever seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite? That scene near the end where he is on the stage, dancing in his "Vote For Pedro" shirt and moon boots? That's what my husband reminded me of the other night.

See?



Aside from the fact that he doesn't have curly red hair and glasses, he really had the look going.



sexy

"gingerbread" houses

This has nothing to do with our gingerbread houses but it was on the table where we made the houses, and it's cute...so I took a picture of it. It looks even better through my new lens :) It's one of my favorite Christmas decorations. See the moss bed with tiny mushrooms at the bottom of the candles? Totally cute.



Ok, so here we are just getting started with building our houses.




This is Emma's house. Pappa built it and then she decorated it.



Mamma's house



Hanna's lil shack (before the disaster)



Ok, the house on the right is Eden's. She had a collapse but Pappa bear came to her rescue.



And the house on the right is Hanna's...after the disaster. Not one, not two, but THREE collapses. It's pretty much just a blob of candy and graham but oh well. It sure was fun!

Bokehlicious

These are photos from the new lens. You can't see it but I've got an ear to ear grin. Don't think I've stopped smiling since I happened to see the box sitting outside our front door yesterday. I'm just plain giddy for a change. You can't hear it but my family just sighed and said, "finally!".




Isn't it creamy and dreamy...

and bokehlicious??!!