My Steelers

I hope you all had a chance to watch last nights game. It makes me almost cry.....almost. I am seriously so excited for another super bowl trip(well not a trip for me, but a trip for the Steelers to the Super Bowl) Can I just say I love these 2 guys in the above and below pictures? I never would have thought I would be such a devoted fan to a pro football team, but here I am. I guess maybe it had something to do with haveing 5 brothers. I truly don't think you can live in this city without catching the Steelers fever-no joke. btw thats Troy Polamalu above and Ben (my secret boyfriend) Roethlisberger below

This is Ben's secret way of telling me what time we're suppose to meet tonight.

This is what the South Side right by Trent's work looked like after the win-there we are to the left

Yeah right y'ins know we weren't there-this is what OUR party looked like (after I cleaned up all the awesome party food we had of course.

This is the extreme weather we enjoy here in this great winning city. Look closely at Trent's beard, notice the icicles? I went to the library yesterday morning-early-and my car said it was -10. I've never seen such low numbers before, and I hope I never see them again-(that's not taking into account the windchill which I was told was between -25 and -30) My family would say I have seen these numbers before in my previous life in Minnesota-but I choose to forget that life most days-that life was much too cold and misquotoey.

Poor Tucker, the snow is so deep he can't walk through it without getting buried. We have over 31/2 feet in our yard.

Sesame Street Live---"Elmo Grows Up"

So Trent had a couple weeks off for Christmas and we threw around a bunch of ideas of things we wanted and hoped to do. These were some of our ideas--going to some Caribbean beach (leaving the girls home)--going to Ogley Bay, West Virginia(maybe taking the girls)--going anywhere warm......but instead we decided on this alternate alternative SESAME STREET LIVE!!!!! We are the awesomest parents I swear. No it really was a lot of fun to see how happy it made the girls. Even Sophie quite enjoyed herself. She danced on my lap most of the night. And who am I kidding we weren't leaving this godforsaken icecap that is comingly known as Pittsburgh during winter.

I think this is a cute picture of all three girls watching the show and seeming to enjoy it.

Cute little chubba chunk

Picture taken during intermission-(an alternate picture is one where Maddie is throwing an insane tantrum because she wants one of the $18.00 Elmo baloons they just happen to bring out at intermission right after the Elmo World song.)

This is Liv doing the Amigo dance with all of Sesame Street. She really did enjoy herself.

Here they are the Amigo dancers-remember this song Jud? (Trent wanted me to throw this in-Amigo, Amigo Amigo out and play)

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!