~Christmas is Coming~

Our first Christmas party of the year is usually with my mom's side of the family.  We got together yesterday and I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone today.  Scrapbooking and blogging together!
This way I only have to load the photos once ☺

Lots of aunts, uncles and cousins to catch up with this year.  I didn't get to speak with everyone individually but I did get around to many!  The older I get the more I appreciate a good conversation.  It is easier now then when the kids were little... now they sit in a row like wall flowers. Ha!

We always finish the night off with a cookie swap.  I am tempted to throw half of the cookies in the freezer... although I'm sure the family will tear through them in no time.

We have had a lot of snow this Autumn, but now that winter is here it is warm and raining. Maybe Spring will come early!

~Puppies~

Just playing with my camera again... the kids are tired of my always shooting them...so I decided to pick on the dogs for awhile.

~Snow~

Two days of snow last week!  

Plans for Tuesday were cancelled... Wednesday changed... Thursday different... Friday back to normal... only to have snow again Saturday!   Here we go again... Sunday changed... 

 I must say I didn't mind being "snowed in"

Especially when you find these huge icicle treasures!

~Me and My Girl~

Last Saturday Kiersten and I went out together (all the guys went to Cabela's).  I did my morning cleaning and thought we needed to spend some time having fun.  We hit a consignment shop and some antique stores.  I love watching her pick out all the pretty things.  She was fairly well behaved but I will still so nervous to have her in the store!  

One of the antique stores was serving those little pretzels topped with a Hershey Kiss and M&M's. Kiersten really enjoyed them.  So... we stopped at the grocery store and picked up the ingredients.  She was so impressed that I knew how to make them ☺

She was so cute lining the pretzels up in the pan... but unwrapping all the kisses was a little daunting. She had them all laid out by the time I had mixed up the chili for supper.  The guys called to say they would be late so we watched a Christmas movie and ate our chili together.  What a little sweetie and what a good time we had.

~Dinner Date~

A few weeks ago, I finally took Nathan out for his birthday date.  He thought he wanted to go to Dutch Wonderland, but then my parents said they would take the kids... so I just now got around to taking him out.  He wanted Chinese! YUM!

This was yesterday... see his icicle!

I had a great time with Nathan!  Such a funny guy.  About half way through dinner he sat back and said, "Mom, aren't you glad you don't have to go all the way to Africa to eat Chinese food?"

I about lost it☺  He is normally a smart guy so I was confused as to why he got this confused. After asking him a few questions I realized what he was saying.  Africa is really far away in his mind.  He was just naming the furthest place away that he could think of.  It was still too funny to not share!

~Math and Cookies~

Doing math... 

"Nathan, if you have zero cookies and I give you four cookies, how many cookies do you have now?" 

"I have two cookies. You never let us have four cookies, so I put two of them back." 

Haha! That's my boy

This happened awhile ago... I just now got around to posting it... I always like to add a photo to a post and I didn't take one of my sweet boy for awhile.

~Snow Day~

I have several posts in my drafts... but have been too busy for the menial task of blogging :-(

But now... I knew I had to get to get online and post these from today!  I just purchased a new camera and had to go outside to play with it a little.

I watched 8+ birds fight at the feeder this morning.  I was able to watch this one feed quietly after the others left.  Telescopic lens = happiness!

Our neighbors dog "Blue"... She is adorable and boy did she want to play!

Our dog Bullet... she loves to be outside with us.  River was sleeping on the couch.

I took about 30 photos trying to figure out how to blur the background and I was also playing with the aperture.  I don't totally understand it, but am learning!

Eric was "sledding"

Sledding is serious business...

and crashes are just too fun!

my girl ♥

A pretty afternoon moon

my Nathan

My neighbor's house with a regular lens...

...and now with the telescopic lens

I was skip happy when the sheep came out!!!

I certainly don't need another hobby... but this is going to be fun!