PJ Pix

I found these PJs and got them for Mia for Christmas --- are they cute, or what??


Hiding under the computer desk...



Peeking...
I have to go back to work tomorrow, and I'm pretty down about it. Boy, those 6 days flew by!

FFF - Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a really nice Christmas. We did, and it's not over yet. Today we clean some, and my sister and her family will be coming in this weekend. On Christmas Eve we went over to Nana's for supper with Aunt Jan and Uncle Dennis. The girls had spent the night before with Nana, which gave us some nice time alone, and Nana had lots of help getting supper prepared. After supper we made ornaments and then opened gifts. We did "Dirty Santa", or "White Elephant", and Mia was happy to open this huge candy cane --- and glad that nobody snitched it from her.


Then we played a few games of Jenga. The girls are really quite good at it.

Here's Claire scoping out a move...


Christmas morning at our house...


Here's Claire ready to get online and adopt her new Webkinz.


My folks came over for lunch, and Jan and Dino, too. It was Larry's birthday, so I baked him a cake, and Claire decorated it ... can you see the number written in candles??



In the afternoon I let the girls practice a little with the camera. Mia LOVED it, but I couldn't quite get her to understand how the auto-focus button worked, so most that she took were blurry, except a couple of my shoes. Here's one that Claire took that wasn't blurry.


And here are a couple of my favorites of Mia's first Christmas with us...



For more FFF posts, see Sarah's blog.

First Christmas Pix

Here's a picture taken just before Claire's first Christmas with us...

... so I thought I'd take the same kind of picture of Mia's first Christmas with us. (I think Mia thinks I'm nuts. She acted like "you want me to get in THERE? Why??")

FFF - My pretty girls

Two of my favorite recent pictures of the girls. It's a busy busy day today, so I don't have much to say...




For more FFF posts, visit Sarah's blog.

FFF - In the Chrismas Spirit!

I'm posting a couple of my favorite photos from this week. We're getting in the Christmas spirit around here. I wrapped gifts last Sunday, and the girls were very excited. Here's a picture of them in a getting-along moment by the tree. They had counted the gifts, and each had the same number, so all was well!


Last night the church school had their Christmas program. Everyone did really well. Claire and Mia were in the choir. Here were my angels before they went on.

A few random photos

Here are a few photos of Mia from the last couple of weeks.


Last Saturday afternoon she and Daddy played Memory with some Christmas cards - over and over and over and over again.

Please pray...

Please remember my friend through adoption Carla and her family in your prayers at this very sad time in their lives.

FFF - My Santa Babies

Since we're into the holidays, I thought for Favorite Foto Friday I'd post some pix of my little soapy Santas.






For more FFF posts, check out Sarah's blog. Have a good weekend!

FFF - Thankful

Ahhhh - Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday! Time off work, and no gifts to buy! Just a few of the things I'm thankful for:

God - without Him, what would the point of it all be?
My husband, who supports me and tries his best to carry out all of the projects I dream up.
My kids - sometimes they drive me crazy, but overall I'd much rather be their mom than not.
My family
My friends
My church family
My cats
A home that's warm and safe
Jobs that pay the bills


I've been off since Wednesday, not really doing much, just a little shopping and taking it easy. My job tends to get hectic around Christmas, and pretty much can ruin that holiday for me, so I've been kind of pushing it up in my mind, and been in the Christmas spirit over Thanksgiving. I've done a lot of my Christmas shopping this week, and last night we even put up the Christmas tree! We've NEVER done it that early before.

Here are a few pictures from the last few days. I've been trying for awhile to get some Christmas card photos taken. It always makes me think of the many packs of pictures my mom would take each year of the 3 of us, trying so hard to get one nice photo to put on a card. Back then it would mean rolls and rolls of film, and she'd start in the summer. Must have been so frustrating! How disappointing to wait for pictures to come back, only to have not one good one! (Some day I'll have to scan and post some of the rejects. We still have a bunch of them, and they are so funny.) Digital is such a blessing! Here are a few that didn't make the cut.

Cute, but Claire's hair was kind of a mess...

Cute of Claire...funny smile from Mia...

Cute of both, and real smiles, but too tall for format of card...

Cute, but that hair...

Cute, but too far away, and the bucket of creek water is not too festive...

I got out the manger scene, and Mia liked it. I thought she might like to play with it, but she wanted to arrange it JUST like the picture on the box.

Notice the backward-facing tree ornaments, and broken candy cane. I had LOTS of help decorating the tree. Oh well - what's a few years of bunched-up, backwards ornaments? Too soon they'll be grown up, and I'll be back to doing it all by myself.

Have a nice weekend! For more FFF Thanksgiving posts, see Sarah's blog.

Snow!

Friday morning we woke up to the first snow of the season. Can you believe that schools were closed for THIS?!

But it was stuck on the roads, and there were quite a few wrecks. Also, around here there may be a few inches in one area, and a few miles away only a skim. So they close schools a lot. I enjoyed the morning at home with the girls, then dropped them off at Grandma's house and went in to work. They were so excited. Mia had seen some flurries a few weeks ago, but this was the first sticking snow she had seen. They couldn't wait to get outside in it, even though the temperature was only in the 20's.

Here's Mia in her first snow. Looks like I need to get her some snow clothes. Sneakers and short sweatpants just won't do! Claire's snow pants lasted her a couple of seasons, but they are a little short and snug, too. She could hardly move.


I got so tickled at them trying to sled on the snow with grass sticking through. The sled would stop, and Claire would slide right off the front.



I'm not too big on snow when I have to go to work, but I love to sit inside and look out at it when I don't have to worry about driving in it.
Hopefully we'll get at least one really big snow this winter, so Mia can see what it's like --- hopefully on a weekend!

FFF - FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

The Favorite Foto Friday theme for today is For Crying out Loud. Well, I've been searching my hard drive for a picture of Claire crying, and have had a tough time. It's not that she never cried or never does any more - I guess we just never took pictures of it! I was able to find this one of her at age 2, super-mad at me for not letting her help cook. I think I was trying to throw something together quickly for a picnic or something, and didn't have time for a big mess...


And here's one from July of Mia having a little time out. We put her in a little chair in the hall, facing the mirror, so she could see her lovely face as she fussed about something like maybe we brushed her teeth with the Dora tooth brush when she wanted the Barbie one...


For more FFF posts, see Sarah's blog.

Have a good weekend!

FFF - Favorite Foto Friday

Yikes, I've hardly had my camera out for the past couple of weeks - I don't know what's gotten into me! I found these that I took a few days ago at Nana's house, and I thought they were cute. Claire loves to do gymnastics, and has gotten quite good at her bridges, or back bends, as we used to call them.


Mia tried one, and I thought it was so cute...it looks more like a table than a bridge!




For more FFF posts, visit Sarah's blog.

Have a good weekend!

Gatlinburg Retreat

This weekend I went with some ladies from our church on a Women's Ministries retreat to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. A lot of the leaves were still on the trees, and it was just beautiful.

Here's a picture of the cabin we stayed in.


There were eight of us. It was a lot of good conversation, good food, and some good shopping. A great time was had by all ...... until this morning, when a great time stopped being had by me.

This is the sign beside the front door, but we didn't really mean it literally.


Three cubs came for a visit.





They were especially interested in some acorns beneath the windshield wipers of Ruth's (Mia's teacher) van. Wouldn't you think there would be enough acorns in the woods - why would they need to get THESE acorns?!


The people in the red SUV stopped to look and take pictures. We were yelling through the window for them to honk their horn and try to scare them away, and they honked, but I guess the bears around there are so used to people, it didn't faze them.



One came to the front door and tried to get in. He scratched off some of the weather stripping before giving up. I guess he was smelling our good food!


Soon the momma bear showed up, but never came down the hill, and after awhile they all left. I did not get any pictures of her, because I was hiding, terrified, downstairs in the laundry room, praying for them to go away. They said she was huge, and I was afraid that the she might come and try her hand at the front door (or window) and be more successful than her baby had been.

I took about a 1-minute shower, packed up my stuff and was ready to get out of there, but my less-fearful companions decided to go ahead and fix breakfast. I'm sure it was delicious, but I couldn't eat more than a few bites. I was so relieved to get in that car and drive away --- to the much safer Pigeon Forge outlets!