What WAS I thinking??

Annabelle's expression says, "Seriously? Do I HAVE to be here!"

Abbie's says, "Ahh...this is nice and comfy."

Sam's favorite Christmas present this year is a 6 week old kitten! She only weighs about 1 1/2 pounds and her name is Abbie. Annabelle didn't like her much in the beginning, but she's getting used to her. After a couple of days I was beginning to wonder if I'd lost my mind - by getting her a new kitten - but it's actually kind of fun to watch them run around and play with each other.

Christmas Party, Cookies & Caroling

This last Saturday was our Ward Christmas Party. The Young Women and Young Men were asked to wear a green, red or white shirt and they were provided with cute little elf hats to wear. They were going to be Santa's helpers, but he ended up not needing help, afterall.
Last night Sam's friend, Kasey, came over to hang out with Sam. They went to grade school together, but they go to different junior highs and they haven't seen each other in several months. They had a really good time making Russian Tea cookies (better known as "snowballs" around our house). As you can see, they had a GREAT time with the powdered sugar. I think they got more on themselves than the cookies!

Tonight we met up with some friends of ours and went caroling around their neighborhood. The girls have never been caroling and it's been years and years since I've gone. It was so much fun to walk around singing Christmas carols and visiting with each other. Afterward, we all went back to our friends house for cookies and hot choco. What an amazing way to get more into the Christmas Spirit!

Did someone say Christmas music???

This past weekend Amanda was asked to put her amazing musical talents to good use.

On Friday night she was asked to play her saxophone at the Christmas party for our old Ward. We went online to get some sheet music and she chose "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". When we got to the church building, she about had a heart attack when she saw how many cars were there! Then we walked into the cultural hall and it was PACKED! There were about 300 people there! When her time came, though, she got up on the stage and absolutely FLOORED everyone there. She did an AMAZING job! I wish I would've had my camera there...or better yet - Amanda's camera...so that I could have recorded it to put on here. But, I forgot it! (Go figure!)

Then on Sunday, (in Sacrament Meeting) the Young Men and Young Women in our Ward sang "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains", and Amanda played part of the song on her flute. Once again, everyone LOVED listening to her play. She does such a great job playing her instruments. I am so proud of her! She has such an amazing talent!

You're never too old....

......to put together and decorate a gingerbread train! Instead of decorating a gingerbread house - the girls decided to make a train this year instead. My friends daughter came over to hang out yesterday afternoon, so she joined in the fun, too. They put a Christmas movie on the TV and went to work!

Rudolph the Red Nose.....CAT????

Sam decided the cat needed to be part of the Christmas decorating! Annabelle didn't have the same opinion. Poor Annabelle....

The look on her face says it all...."I really don't like you right now!"

Time to decorate!

> The finished product!!! Isn't it beautiful??!!

Technically, according to Amanda, it was actually time to decorate about 3 weeks ago! But I held her off (sort of) until the week before Thanksgiving. Then over Thanksgiving Weekend, we went out and got our Christmas Tree. What an adventure that turned out to be! We had alot of fun going to a tree farm, walking around and picking out the "perfect" tree. We tied it on top of the car with twine - which turned out to be alot easier than I thought it would be. On the way home, Sam would stick her head out the window every once in awhile to make sure it wasn't flopping around....and it wasn't! We made it all the way home with it moving at all!! I was going to take a picture before we took the tree off the car and then I forgot! Anyway - that night we decorated it....which is my favorite part. I love looking at all the ornaments from previous years. The ones the girls have made are always my favorite.

Quote of the Day!

Once again, I'm "stealing" my friend, April's, idea. I love her "quote of the day" posts and today I decided to do the same thing.

We were walking through a Christmas Tree Farm today, looking at the trees. We'd see a tree that had possibilities, walk around it....stand and look at it....think for a minute and then proceed on. I walked up to a tree that looked perfect, except for one problem. At that point, the following comments were made:

Me: Girls...this tree would be perfect if it were a little taller.
Amanda: Yeah....this tree makes SAM look tall!!

Can you feel the sisterly "love"??? Tee Hee!!

You brought WHAT home????

In Amanda's Child Development Class at school, they're required to bring home "a baby" for 3 days. They have a choice of either picking it up Monday and taking it back Thursday....or from Friday to Monday. Amanda decided to bring it home for the weekend shift, because she didn't want to take care of it during school (some teachers aren't real tolerant of it). The weekend she brought it home was the football play-off game up in Snohomish. Since she's in the band, she went to the game and had to take it with her. On Sunday, it went to church with her and she also had her college interview with the Stake President.

Whenever it cried she had 2 minutes to figure out what it "wanted". She had a bracelet with a sensor on her wrist and she had to pass it over the dolls tummy so that it knew she was the "mom". If she couldn't figure out what it wanted in that 2 minute time-frame, it would stop crying and her grade would go down. The first night it cried every 2-3 hours. The second night it cried every hour.

By the time Monday morning came she was exhausted and sleep-deprived.

Ahhh......welcome to "motherhood"!!

Halloween Fun

As the girls get older, our Halloween Evenings get easier and easer. I don't miss walking from house to house in the cold (and, sometimes, rain), trick or treating. But I do miss watching the excitement on their faces as they dressed up in their costumes and ran up and down the streets, from house to house.

This year our Halloween was relatively quiet. On Friday night, we carved pumpkins and had a great time doing it. The girls' pumpkins turned out really good. Mine, on the other hand....not so great! I wasn't really paying attention and cut a big huge hole in the middle of it!

On Saturday we made "mummy" and "monster finger" cookies.

That afternoon/evening, Amanda took a friend's daughter trick or treating at the mall and Sam went to a Halloween Party at a friends house. I played "taxi-cab" and dropped Sam off at her party, then went back out to pick her up! We didn't even have any trick or treaters at our home! (Which was really wierd! It didn't even seem like Halloween night!) Like I said.....it was a quiet weekend.

Giving the cat a bath!

Sam loves to give the cat a bath! Annabelle, on the other hand, has a different opinion of the whole thing. This last week Sam decided it was time for the cat to get another bath - so she got into her body glove shirt and swim shorts, put water in the tub, grabbed the cat and did her thing. It's funny to watch the cat try and escape, resign herself to her fate......try for esacape again, then resignation again.

Trying desperately to not go in!

Resignation

One more attempt to escape

Resignation..... (Notice the "hair-do" along her back....one of those things you just "have" to do!)

Sam's happy - Annabelle still isn't.

Got paint?

Awww.....can you feel the love??

This is on the moon roof!

Yesterday for Amanda's birthday, Sam and I decided to "decorate" Amanda's car during school. It's been raining quite a but this week, and I was afraid we'd have to cancel our birthday plans, but we actually had one sunny day this week......what perfect luck! (Although I'm sure Amanda doesn't think it's so lucky!) There were a few staff members from the school that drove by looking at us like we were something evil, but only one (someone we actually know real well) came to see what we were up to. When he saw what we were doing, he thought it was pretty funny. As you can see from the pictures, Sam was pretty excited about it and started having WAY too much fun.

Happy Birthday, Amanda!!

Today is Amanda's 18th birthday! I am such a lucky Mom to have Amanda for my daughter. She is such a special young woman. She has a kind and loving heart. She adore's children and has a special way with them. When Amanda was 4 years old, she started taking piano lessons and her love of music has grown over the years. When she was in 8th Grade she started playing the flute and in 10th Grade, she added the alto saxophone to her list of talents. She is a fantastic musician. She's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in and always strives to do what's right. I am so very proud of her! She is AMAZING!

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY AMANDA!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Snoqualmie Falls

To end an amazing, relaxing 4-day weekend, the girls and I decided to go to Snoqualmie Falls today. With winter right around the corner, this is probably our last chance to go there until next year. (Driving over the pass with snow and ice isn't my favorite thing to do!) It was really windy and colder than we thought it was going to be and Amanda forgot her coat, but she was a real trooper and hung in there. Of course, afterwards, "since we're so close to North Bend", we love to go to the outlet mall, too. :-)

Golf, anyone?

In the school district the girls attend, 9th Grade students attend the junior high - but technically they're in high school. SO - the 9th Graders are allowed to play sports on the high school teams. Sam was originally thinking of being on the swim team with Graham-Kapowsin High School (the school Amanda attends), but decided to be on the golf team, instead. We borrowed a set of golf clubs from a friend of ours and off she went. She's never played golf before (except for putt-putt golf) and she started going to practice a couple weeks late - but she is a fantastic golfer! She's done so good, the coach has had her play on the varsity team for some of the matches! Since the matches are all around 2:30-3:00, I haven't been able to be at any of her games, so I had to settle for taking pictures of her in our driveway. WAY TO GO, SAM!!!

What a couple of wierdo's!!

Two 17 year old girls that have been life-long friends = some very interesting pictures!

This last Sunday after church, Amanda's friend, Hannah, came over and we took a bunch of pictures. They have to turn in a Senior picture to the school for the yearbook in a few weeks - so this was our first attempt at getting some good pictures. They had lots of fun goofing around and just being wierd. We did get a few good pictures - but for the most part.....well.....let's just say we'll be making another attempt at it real soon!

Since my bus is now parked at our home 24/7 - they decided to have pictures taken with my bus, too.