I'm posting it, because I can.

Yah, well. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right? That's what he gets for acting like a dork. ☺

From left:

My nephew J, his wife J, their daughter R, my brother C, his wife C (yes, we really try diligently to marry those with the same first intial :) & my nephew T. J & T have another brother, K, who couldn't make it today. And then my sil C has a son C (same initial again :) who was at his dad's house. He is 9. There are no words to describe the love I have for my nephews.

My nephew J & his wife J have lost three babies before baby R came to be. R has a big sister B, & big twin brothers C & C (same initial thing again :) - who were all called to Heaven entirely too soon. All three babies were born extremely premature & were just too little to survive. Truly heartbreaking. To bury three babies within 1 1/2 years time is just unfair.

It was so much fun w/ my family today. We made a "vow", so to speak, to get together more often. Good times. Tons of laughing. We are all so similar & just as goofy as the other. As you can see. ☺

White Christmas!

Christmas Eve, as we were just heading out to a family celebration, it began snowing! And it didn't stop for hours! It was amazing. This just does not happen in Texas. As a matter of fact, it's been so many years since Texas has seen a white Christmas, I can't even remember how long it's been. Over 20 years, I believe? It was absolutely beautiful & just perfect for Christmas. ☺



The roads became quite treacherous - our 40 minute drive home turned into 2 hours. The husband of a friend of mine was in Oklahoma, about 3-4 hours away at the most, & it took him 22 hours. He finally made it home safely Christmas morning.

A beautiful, white Christmas, & a beautiful day. :)

Ho ho ho!

Christmas is almost here, are you ready? :)

I'm telling you, after losing almost two complete weeks due to illness, I thought I was really going to be in trouble this year. But low & behold, we kicked it into high gear, & we got it all done! Actually, we are ahead of the game - figure that one out!? I don't know, but I'm not complaining! ☺

Last Sunday was our first family Christmas w/ hubby's family, but the girls & I had to stay home because we weren't feeling well, & we certainly didn't want to expose anyone to our stomach flu. The boys went & had a grand ol' time. I made chocolate truffles for them to take, & they were a hit! Too sweet for me, so next time I do believe I will use Milk Chocolate versus Semi-Sweet. Tomorrow is our 2nd family Christmas w/ hubby's family (every year we celebrate twice because his parents are divorced) - we even have our food prepared & ready to go! Typically we are making our dishes the morning of. Not this year! Yippee! I still have wrapping to do, but I can handle that. It's a nice & calm chore to have. And I can watch some HGTV. ;o)

This year we chose to take sausage balls! Boy howdy, we can make some rockin' sausage balls. They are so addicting! I think I've already had like 8 too many. ;o) Good thing we made 70! Don't they look delish?

I also decided to make my grandmother's "Special K Bars". I don't have a great memory, but I sure do remember those puppies. I decided to google them, just to see if someone, somewhere knew about them, & good gracious I found tons of recipes. LOL I guess I just thought they were her best kept secret. ;o) Anyway, I actually found a recipe almost identical, but it yielded more, so I just used the internet's recipe instead. Again, I used Milk Chocolate versus Semi-Sweet - maybe I shouldn't have done that. They are still fab - but don't taste just like my grandma's. And I'd love to savor those sweet memories. My grandma was one classy, beautiful lady & I loved her to pieces.

While @ Target yesterday, I happened upon these cute little mugs. Thought my little people would be thrilled to drink hot chocolate from them, so I bought four. Very festive. ☺

You know what aggravates me about shopping? Finding an item I purchased a few weeks ago, for full price, on sale! LOL Grrrrr! I bought the most precious, bright green, sparkly Christmas tree (I should photo that - I ♥ it!) decoration & I'll be dadgum, that sucker was 30% off yesterday. For a brief moment, I thought about buying another one @ the sale price & returning the one I paid full price for. LOL But I didn't. The thought was good. ;o)

(Not to show my anal side, but you do know to look thru all items before deciding on the one you want, right? For example, my bright green, sparkly Christmas tree I should photo. ☺ Don't ever choose the first one - go thru those suckers until you find the one with the least damage. Almost always you run across an item with a blemish, a tiny scratch or something, & if you look thru all of them, more than likely you can always find one in better condition! Yes, I am the fat, honky woman sprawled out on the dirty Wal-Mart or Target floor searching diligently thru every item to find the one in the best condition. You betcha! I have some mighty fine, damage-free items to prove it, too. ;o)

Carrying on. My master closet threw up. ☺

Usually we go to great strides to hide all gifts so our tiny people can't and/or don't locate them. My first shopping trip, I just chunked everything in our closet. Temporarily. Numerous shopping trips later, heck, I just added to the pile! Our children are not allowed in our closet & as far as I (we) know, no one has discovered anything! And you can see, I didn't even cover up the bags! What a sly dog I am. ☺

Merry Christmas! I wish you many wonderful moments with loved ones, & lots of fun to boot. Savor your time & enjoy. And don't forget to wish Christ Happy Birthday!

Much love,

Nativity Scene.

I ♥ my Nativity Scene. I purchased this years ago, thru Lillian Vernon, for $75. The dress attire is made from delicate crate paper, I believe. It's very fragile, so I store it in this same manner in my cabinets. You can't see in the photos, but Mary is holding & looking down on baby Jesus. I don't typically arrange the Wise Men in this order, but this time I needed to because of my wreath hanging above. ☺

Here is my entire mantel. Usually I have white lights strung across, but haven't gotten to it this year. Next year I plan on participating in The Nester's Christmas Tour, so I'll have it all decked out then. Hopefully by then I'll have new stockings too, 'cause I very much dislike these, but I can't find any I like! I love Kelly's - hopefully I can find some similar! ☺

These photos are snapshots - excuse the flash! Obviously it was 2:00 p.m., too. Heehee. :)

For Daddy.

Because Bentley is sick, Audi & Jaguar have been kicked out of the upstairs. Thus, they are having a campoutin. However, they are so tickled pink, if the giggling & tooting doesn't stop, they will need to be separated. They are two peas in a pod. ☺

He can't win for losing.

This incident happened last night. He was in his sister's room, tripped on a toy, & busted his eye on the corner of her bed. His eyelid actually sliced open. Fortunately, because the cut is in the crease, it closed back up perfectly! Because of the depth of the cut, I thought we were headed to the ER for Dermabond. He got lucky. ☺

This is his black eye, which occurred last Friday @ school. They were in the gym playing football; Audi was already face down on the floor grabbing the ball, when some darling of a child decided to jump on the back of him, abruptly slamming his eye onto the tile floor. Sweet.

Still cute as a bug, though! :)

Be still my heart.

So precious! Thank you Lord he spoke up, & we were able to get him what he most desperately needed. Now, he can see life! Love him. ♥

Stats.

10.16.09:

Bentley: 57.4 lbs., 52"

Audi: 37.4 lbs., 40 1/2"

Jaguar: 41.2 lbs., 42 1/4"

Mercedes: 30.2 lbs., 35 1/4"

*Poor Audi. His sister, who is 12 months & 1 day younger than he, is now almost 4 lbs. heavier & almost 2 inches taller. Giggle. The kid doesn't stand a chance. ☺

Look who is now back on the charts! Yeehaw! Yippee! Happy dance! Maybe I just won't have a 50 lb. 2 year old, after all! ☺



Her Endocrinologist appointment on Tuesday, 12.1.09, went great! Other than she screamed the entire time, physically pushed the nurses away, refused the bubbles & Teddy Grahams they tried to entice & bribe her with & she refused to let them take her blood pressure & listen to her heart. Other than that she was a complete dream. LOL ;o) She weighed in @ 30.0 lbs. (75%!!) & was 35 1/2" tall (95%!!). Yay! :)

Her thyroid level continues to remain absolutely perfect! Because the dr. has never had to adjust her dosage of medication (which is VERY rare!), he is almost certain she does not & will not need to take medication for the remainder of her life. However, she is still in brain development, so she will continue on the medication until she is 3. At that time, she will be removed from the medication to see if she can manage alone. If she can, hooray! If not, no big deal, she'll immediately be put back on the medication & from what I understand - that is the end of that. She's not 2 for another month, so we still have a year+ to go. No prob. ☺

(Photo - snapshot.)

Love my little mini me's! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥