Merry Christmas!

my gifts are bought/knitted and wrapped. the stockings are hung. the tree has been up and decorated for weeks. bring on the Christmas! all i have left to do are get prettied up, bake a quadruple batch of jamborees, bake 2 pies, and make two dozen deviled eggs. a breeze! tonight dan and i will go to church, then we will come home, have some leftover meatloaf, and open our gifts. i hope dan is pleasantly surprised by his gift. i don't really think my gifts will be a surprise.:) dan did not wrap them cleverly... but i think he is the sweetest ever.

may God give you a truly blessed Christmas and a fantastic new year! love, molly

avalanche in mn

there are not many mountains in mn. in fact, they are puny mountains. yet, i managed to find an avalanche. i was at the drive-thru window paying for my hot fudge malt at dairy queen when the snow off the roof avalanched on me. my window was open so not only was my arm covered in snow, there was about a foot in my car. i screamed like a girl.:) hopefully this is the only avalanche i will ever be in. the malt was terrific, by the way.

homemade pizza

my tum is all warm and cuddly full of homemade pizza. i made it. i have been making them for about 2 months now. wish i had started sooner! very easy. crust mixes are around 50 cents and sauce is about $1.50. and it is sooo much nicer than frozen pizza. i haven't bought a frozen pizza since i started making them. jack loves it. he was so tired tonight at dinner that he started falling asleep in his high chair. that's because he only had a 30 min. nap in the car today. poor thing. he had to suffer so i could finish my Christmas shopping. ahhhhh... shopping FINISHED! and this year i really, really think i got people things they will like. but, that's what i thought last Christmas!:) and mom, dad, mom-in-law, and sis-in-law all took their big gift items back. crud!:) you can't win them all. hopefully this will be my year.

baby patrick

jack has a rag doll "baby". i named the doll "patrick" after a guy at pcc who had the same burnt-orange colored pants.:) jack loves his baby.

it is so fun to watch jackie play and learn. he hardly ever eats small objects, so i pretty much let him play with everything. lately he has found some pennies dan had in the basement. he just wanders around the basement lining them up on things.:)

papa dan

papa dan just dropped in for a visit. jack loves him. jack played with papa's hat and papa read some seseme street books to jack. it's really cool watching my dad be a grandpa to my own child.

couch time

it has been great having extra time to spend with dan now that i am home evenings. what with the cold and the darkness, i am getting a lot of couch time with my boys. i took a bunch of photos of us the other night. we were feeling snuggly.

Christmas is coming...

"it's the most wonderful time of the year..." i have decided to make sure i capture all the little snippets of my beautiful Christmas this year.

papa babysits

my dad babysat jack all alone on saturday for a few hours. i have to say, i think that was a first for him. dad has 5 grandkids. jack and dad are buddies. when mom and i arrived back at my parent's house we were met at the end of the driveway by dad and jack. jack was all bundled and dad was pulling him in a sled. jack had a huge smile on his face and he was saying, "whee!".

the mad hatter

jack loves hats right now. i think it is because he can put them on himself. he is very proud. this hat is daddy's. somehow when he wears this one i think of macaroni and cheese...

macaroni 2

hanging off the toliet paper holder. we don't keep the roll on the holder these days since it is waaaay too tempting for jack.

happy 14th birthday, andy!

andy turned 14 on friday. saturday night i threw him a little family birthday party... complete with doughnut cake!:) it was my brilliant idea. andy loved it. in fact, everyone loved it. what could be wrong with a huge assortment of doughnuts and some ice cream?:)

it's only 8:30pm?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is nuts. i never get to chill out in the evening with dan and the boys... and i am so BORED! i can't believe it is only 8:30pm. i have watched all the stinkin' sitcoms i can handle. after i check in with the highly addicting facebook, i am going to go knit a scarf. ahhhhhh, something to do!

unemployed for Christmas... well, i'll get more baking done!

i suppose i should mention that my job position was eliminated yesterday. the paper was very nice about it, but i will miss my job. my CAREER. it is nice to be able to spend evenings with dan, though. last night we decorated the Christmas tree. and "all things work together for good", etc. i wonder what the next chapter in my life will be... stay at home mom, coffee shop girl, a job at the local hospital (phooey! i don't want to work there!)... i am not worried by money. that's a blessing.

in other news -- jack and i have a touch of the flu, i think. hope we are better by saturday for andy's birthday party. he turns 14 on friday. i think we will be. we aren't very sick. jack has a bit o' the diarrhea. "do you not know that i have had the diarrhea since Easter's?!" --:"nacho libre" HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! i love nacho libre. "did you not tell them that they were the Lord's chips?" ah, well, i better go change jack's pants again. he just did a big old squirt. poor baby.

Thanksgiving extravaganza!

Thanksgiving was fab. mostly because my sister and her girls stayed for a whole week! we had such a good time painting Christmas ornaments, baking pies, decorating cookies, birthday shopping with my niece emelea, holding my almost 3 month old niece elles, a play day at my house... i think this was the best visit yet. jack would agree with me. he loves playing with his cousins. he even loves elles. he kissed her about 6 times a day. here is a photo of jack admiring elles.