Dec. 30

We're snowed in today.

Not officially.

We woke up yesterdat to a light powder floating down from the sky. It didn't stop all day. We probably had about 2" blanketing the ground.

this morning we woke up to another 6" that fell during the night. The plows have not gone down our street yet- I'm not going anywhere today.

-In other news:

"Bella is a puppy.." is what I have been repeating to the kids CONSTANTLY. Usually followed by-
....so she chews on things
....so she nips when she plays
....so she might potty on the floor
etc.

I also have to shovel the back step and a section of grass so she will 'eliminate' outside.

She IS a puppy- but we're totally IN LOVE!

BELLA

Meet Bella- the newest member of our family. She came to us last night when a co-worker of Gilbert's called to say he couldn't keep her and asked if we were interested. We took a family vote and it was unanimous. She is part Shar Pei and part Black Lab. We think she's adorable.

Since she's a pup, trying to get a pic of her was tough. She moves around ALOT! She's got a few wrinkles and a square face. I was worried that last night would be horrible but she's doing really well with her crate training. She'll stay in all night and whine when she needs to go out to make potty. We had 2 little accidents last night as soon as we got her home (one of each kind) but luckily they were easy clean-ups. Today it's going pretty good.

The kids love her and smother her like crazy. Especially a cute little girl of mine. The kids like that now we're even- 4 boys in the house and 4 girls (counting the cat and dog, of course.) :o)

Mrs. Frederickson

Do you remember back in June when I posted this?

Well a little girl in our house has developed a crush on this guy:

Mr. Carl Frederickson

A little over a month ago Paris came to me with the cover to the UP! video game. She pointed to the picture of Mr. Frederickson and said:

"Mom, don't you think he's so cute when he smiles like this?"

I smiled and chuckled and of course, replied "Yes!"

Lots of talk about Mr. Frederickson followed over the next few days and as I started to pay attention I realized she had a bit of a 'THING' for Carl.

When I ask her who she wants to marry she doesn't hesitate one bit to say "Mr. Frederickson" (and she says it SO CUTE!)

I guess those writers did a good job at making a grumpy old man seem a bit endearing because it definately worked on my girl! It'll be funny to see how long this phase lasts.

Thanks to Aunt Mel, Uncle Josh, Ian, Lukey, and Beags for getting us UP! for Christmas- Paris has watched it 1/2 a dozen times in the 2 days we've had it unwrapped. :o)

Merry

This crazy kid would not give an acceptable 'smile' for the picture so you get what Preston is known for- GOOFY! Here's a pic of 'P' with all his loot. A couple highlights: Indiana Jones LEGO set; R2-D2 remote control; MP3 player; Piano music; Batman t-shirt.

Logan was the first to organize his stack for a picture and wanted me to hurry so he could tear into those presents and start playing. Some of his highlights: Space Police LEGO set; Mace Windu LightSaber; Art stuff; MP3 player.

Can you say GIRL!? This cute little one made Christmas so fun with her excitement. She could hardly contain herself all day Christmas eve and once she was up in the morning there was no turning back. She is the 'Barbie' Queen at our house! Here's some of her highlights: Barbie Laptop; Belle barbie; Play-Doh (and lots of it!); and a baby-doll that really 'wets'.

We can't forget Uncle Evan who looked a little like the hunchback in this picture! :o)

We all had a wonderful Christmas and a nice day of relaxing (sort-of). There were several failed attempts at cleaning yesterday so today we're hoping to achieve success!

So says SHE

Paris LOVES playing on the computer. It's something she just started doing. She likes to go to the Google homepage and type in the 'search' box. I let her do this because it's good practice with her letters.

She also knows how to open paint. She likes to draw.

She doesn't know how to backspace, delete, or erase. Often I find 20+ windows of paint and goodle open on my computer.

Yesterday we had a conversation that went a little like this (read with all the Paris sass you can muster):

Paris:"I can't wait until I have my own computer to play on."
Me:"Oh, are you going to get one soon?"
Paris: 'Yup"
Me:"Do you have a bunch of money? Because they cost a lot of money."
Paris: "No. I don't need money because Santa Clause is going to give it to me on Christmas."
Me: "Oh he is? How do you know that?"
Paris:"Because that's what I told him to bring me and he always brings me what I tell him to."

That girl thinks she knows everything. Of course in this case she's right- but still!

I did get a good laugh out of it though.

"Bait and Switch"

PART ONE:

Everytime I go to Walmart Paris has to go look at the toys. It makes me smile because I remember begging my Mom to do the same thing. For months she has gone to the Barbie isle and played with the Barbie B-Smart laptop. Well, with a certain holiday approaching I decided that this would be the perfect gift for 'Santa' to bring.

I did my research. Most stores online carried the item for around $50. A little steep for this Santa. Fortunately I found 2 stores that carried it for 1/2 of that price. I think it was last years model- but I can't be sure. It looked exactly the same. One of the stores was out of stock, so I ordered it from the other.

More than a month later it still had not shipped. I decided to do some research online. Sure enough it was now listed 'Out of Stock' at the store I ordered it from. The crazy thing is that every store locally had it in stock- just not the warehouse.Even though I hadn't been charged yet, I really wanted that item. I called customer service. All they could say was "Sorry. We'll ship it when it comes in." I knew that there was no way it was going to be here by Christmas. She also suggested that I go to my local store where I could get it off the shelf. Again, for $50.

To make matters worse- I did another internet search only to find that the same toy was now up to $100+ at some stores and no where was it any cheaper than $50.

I DON'T WANT TO PAY $50! That's why I ordered it for $25!

I honestly feel like they lured me in on purpose and now expect me to pay the 50 bucks just to have it under the tree on Christmas morning. ARGH!!! It's so frustrating.

I decided to bite the bullet and paid the $50 anyway. Someday when my daughter is older and has kids of her own I'll have to tell her this story. Just the thought of seeing her on Christmas morning when she sees what 'Santa' brought will make it all worth it.

PART TWO:

I was going to name the store but changed my mind after they totally redeemed themselves tonight.

Aunt Mel braved the crowds on Black Friday to get me a couple items that were quite a steal for the other 2 kids in this fam. She then packaged them up and sent them to me. Lego's are quite a prized commodity in this home as well as many others and if you can get them at that price you just can't pass it up!

Once the package arrived I opened it up to examine the contents. After pondering for a while I decided that the gift for boy#1 was perfect, but the one for boy#2 wasn't exactly his style.
I traveled to my local store to survey their stock of Lego's and found a suitable replacement. I talked to customer service to make sure an exchange could happen.

Well, tonight I took the item in- the item that was purchased on BLACK FRIDAY for nearly 1/2 the regualr price!- to exchange it and the store gave me the REGULAR price for the exchange and I was able to get an ever better set than I had originally planned.

I guess two can play at their game!

Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea for 'Santa' to shop at this store afterall! ;o)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

oh SNOW!

Hey, did anybody hear it's snowing!?
This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning. It was only the first of the storm. We got lots more that night and almost all day on Monday. Since then it's been bitter cold.

This is Estelle. For those of you not familiar- it's the name Evan has given to his car. Needless to say he learned quickly that it's very useful to keep a snow brush in your car.

Here is a view from our back door. It's so hard to get an idea of depth when you look at a picture that is covered in white. However, you can get a good idea of our fluffy cold blanket by opur patio furniture.

I tried to take a picture of a bucket so you could see how deep it was. Still hard to tell. We were guessing around 6" at that point.

Although the snow can be a hassle, there's some benefits too. For instance: If you're in a hurry to get everyone ready for church and you happen to be having 'Thanksgiving Dinner' that day and want deviled eggs, you can always set the pan on the back step and scoop some snow on top and those eggs will be nice and cool in no time!

Right now the boys are in the back in sub-freezing temps building snow forts. Paris is screaming because I won't let her out but she doesn't realize that if I did she would be back in in a matter of moments screaming because she is cold. Hopefully I'll get some good pix of the snow-forts to post in another week or so. ;o)

Happy Winter!