Very, very late overdue Christmas Blog

Christmas morning-girls coming down the stairs. You may ask why are they holding barbie dolls when they're about to open a ton of new presents? Maybe because around 5 am they snuck down and already looked at all their presents and saw a barbie doll house set up. I thought they were too young to be pulling junk like this.

The blessed Barbie house

Very excitedly opening their stockings-isn't new underwear the best!

Trent with his new presents-his mom finally decided to encourage his xbox gaming-in the past she'd been discouraging it-claiming it's for children (which it is)

If you noticed-Sophie was absent from all the other pictures with the new toys, this is because she is obsessed with soft cuddly things. (As you can see in this picture) She has gathered all the soft things opened, and is cuddling with them. She did get the blanket from Santa-how did he know?

The girls with their barbie jeep from Santa. It was definitely a barbie Christmas.

As you can see, we did not have a white Christmas. The load came a month too late-

The significance of this picture?-none, just wanted to show that Olivia's hair does get done curly some times-after dangerous fights with her.

Olivia'a Gift

This is what happens when Olivia feels inspired-she cut off 10 inches of her hair and donated it to Locks of Love! She caught the giving bug from her friend Emma who did the same thing. Liv would not leave Trent and I alone all weekend-so first thing Monday morning it was cut and shipped to Florida to Locks of Love.

I think it actually does look quite cute on her. It's different, but she loves it and always wants me to straighten it. She does not miss her curls at all she claims-neither do I when it's time to brush it out!

And here's Madelyn "Diva" Mason. As soon as we got home from the salon Maddie disappeared and this is what she looked like when we saw her next. She insisted on getting her picture taken-including the back. She did not want to get her hair cut-because she likes to fix it herself too much. And as you can see she's quite good at it. If you can't tell it's plastered with hairspray-a and she tried to brush it all out which only makes curly hair a fro-which that it exactly what her hair is.

These next few shots are random-

The stockings that are now finally complete with Sophies finished and hanging up-It's consumed every free minute I've had for months.

Isn't she cute! She's growing up fast-almost a year old already!

Guilt

Okay-so here it goes "I've got human guilt"-it's similar to white guilt, only it's not based on race but on species. Since my last post on squirrels (who are now my good friends) I have learned some very sad news. NPR aired a story on how a very large percentage of brown squirrels in the north east will not survive this winter due to lack of food-starvation. The acorn which sustains them through the long cold months, was in very, very low production this year. When I heard this I felt terrible. How many times had I shooed away the starving squirrels from the feeders? I even went so far as to send my ferocious dog out after them. (Don't worry he never even got close -I'm not even sure he knew what he was suppose to chase after. ) So now I'm giving the squirrels their reparations. I went and bought specific squirrel feed-with peanuts included.

Here they are after a snow fall digging through the snow to get their feed.

Aren't they cute? Look at the little corn kernel she's holding! I seriously watch them all day now-trying to make up for all the wrong I've done.

Look at the snow on her little whiskers

I think this women created the "human guilt" in me. From the beginning we were taught to love animals, so it should be no surprise the outcome of my squirrel saga.

My mom and Aunt Kitty came to visit us this past week. It was so fun. She never stays long enough though. We had a good time together. Trent especially had a good time........

Trent has always questioned my moms love for him and when asked to prove her love that is what she did. And Kitty wanted in on the action too. My mom got pretty wild here. True Story

Girls saying their goodbyes. Olivia drew her some pictures for her to study on the drive back to Michigan. (she really did need to study them to figure out what they were)

Goodbyes

Sophie expressing how we all felt when Grandma had to leave-please come back soon.

Greatest Christmas CD

Not only does this CD contain some of MY favorite artist singing traditional Christmas carols-it is also for a great cause. Click on the link and listen to some of the songs, you'll be very pleasantly surprised with their renditions of Christmas tunes. I LOVE it-I already have it and I'm listening to it non-stop.
Note to sisters and sister-in-laws.....
if your good you might be getting a certain CD in the mail soon.
So everyone except those included go out and buy this years greatest Christmas CD and support Breast Cancer Research.

Natures Best Disguise

Look at this seemingly cute rodent-um squirrel, I mean. Now take everything you think you know about squirrels and throw it out the window-NOW. Because they aren't cute, they are not dumb or simple. They are rodents! Too smart for their own good! When an animal is smart it somehow takes away their cuteness-you find yourself wanting to see them fail when they try and climb up a quarter inch pole and you don't want to see them figure out how to get into your "squirrel proof" bird feeders. Nature has disguised the big yellow buck teeth and long skinny gross tail of the rat and stuck on a BIG furry tail and big cute eyes and teeth that can't be seen-unless they are chewing apart YOUR birdfeeder! Don't be fooled any of you, they are only rats in disguise!

What the camera can't capture here is the feeder is spinning very quickly, about to throw off the rat-um squirrel. But somehow the rat figures out how to slow it down by hanging upside down-it somehow works for a bit-then it starts spinning out of control again with the weight of the large rodent until it ultimately tosses the squirrel off-which I captured (a personal feat of mine) in the next picture.

Here is um Mr. Rat-a-tat-squirrel as I like to call him. We know he's a male because, well you can see IT in the candid nude shot (down 2-for you squirrel fiends)

This is natures best FEMALE disguise-she is the cleverest of the two-no surprise here-that's usually how it is. Look at the way she twines her body in the bird feeder-which has now morphed into the "Rat Feeder"

Here is the lovely couple out for their daily terrorizing of the feeders in the Henley neighborhood. They set a personnel record yesterday-eating out the newly filled feeders in under 10 minutes flat! Amazing, I'm calling National Geographic! This ones for you mom!

Pretty Girls

Trent and I were messing around with these cute pictures of the girls. Which one do you like the best? If your lucky you might be getting the favorite for a Christmas card!

HALLOWEEEEEEEEEN!

Halloween, the scariest, bestest, awesomest, funnerest time of year!!! Especially at our house with 2 witches and their cat!

The scariest witch of all-she doesn't even need to pretend (when she starts to get tired) She really did make a great witch with her CRAZY hair.

My man-He's like a fine wine-he gets better with age. I just love the new tat

the hood heading down the street.

Trent with the girls

We really do have a great neighborhood. It was a lot of fun to go trick-or-treating all together last night

The exhausted, tired one-after a lot of witching activities-