interesting and cute....

How do you cool off a hot bath?

Mr. Smith adds a full bin of ice cubes. And, if that doesn't do the trick, he goes outside for a bucket of snow.

Works like a charm.

He's weird I tell ya, but pretty funny.

CHRISTMAS DAY...2008

Christmas day was a snowy, snowy one. It was snowing so lovely when we woke up and while we were opening presents and having the delicious breakfast casserole but after that it started to get old and just made us grumpy about shoveling.

I would like to say we had a quite, peaceful day talking about Jesus and all that we have and all that we are grateful for, but we didn't. I am a slacker person and the day went by to fast for me to remember about such things like to whole reason for the Christmas holiday! Plus, there was a whole camera incident that I would rather forget.

So instead, I've got some nice pictures to share. Here is our living room once the last present was opened.

Here is a view with the family waaaayyyy back on the couch, see them?

This one is of Elasta Girl with her new fishing waders. Darn Santa, we were going to buy these for her birthday. See that monster doll house behind Elasta Girl? Yep. That's for Rubes. What was Santa thinking? HUGE, but oh so great.

And, Mr. Smith's best present ever. It took some persuading but now he sees the beauty.

Here's a picture of me.

Here's a better picture of me. why am I always the one behind the camera?

One of gloomy Elasta Girl in her Christmas sweater. I believe she was frustrated with something crafty that was resolved in about .37th of a second.

And one of the Rubinator. She was feeling left out of the picture gang.

After the presents were all opened the girls played and Mr. Smith and I watched Mamma Mia! I know, it was totally his idea. Not true , but he didn't say he hated it, maybe because I didn't sing along like some people do.

After that, we got all pretty like and headed for my parents house to have Christmas dinner with all the family. It was so great to have everyone all in there at the same time. And I know my mom was in heaven to have every one there. Alz's fella even came down. He works at a sky resort and didn't get off work until 6pm. It was a pretty great day and even though it was not great for traveling home from my parents, the snow was nice to look at.

We hope you all had a nice day too. And a happy New Year to boot.

Oh I know one thing I am grateful for.....spell check. Now all they need to invent is "grammar check" and "punctuation check". Or is that the same thing. Who knows.

Christmas 2008

What a lovely holiday it was. This year (like every year) we celebrated Christmas Eve with Mr. Smith's family. They have always celebrated with a big dinner, extended family and presents so beautifully wrapped you don't want to mess them up by opening them. When you do open them they are filled with wonderful prizes and your package ruining sadness is gone.

The dinner, as usual, was delicious. With turkey, ham, spinach salad and lots of munchies and yummies. One of the great things about Christmas eve at their house is that we are all too excited to get up stairs and open presents that every one forgets about dessert and so the Mom sends us home with a whole pecan pie to ourselves. OH MY, her pecan pie!

Our fairly new tradition (it started with Omi maybe 5 years ago) is a "BLESSINGS" reading done by someone. This year it was from Aunt B. She only made me cry a little. Darn her. She had a thankful for every one of us in her letter. I love that lady. I have a tear just remembering it.

Here is the puppet princess Aunt B gave the Rubes. It sings "twinkle twinkle, little star" when you move the mouth. It is very cute, and not very annoying.

After the blessings reading, Aunt Debbie presented grandfahr with the uniform he wore for the Veterans day fireside (November blog) when he was presented with some medals and awards. Debbie worked and researched and had put on all Grandfahrs bars and patches and medals he had earned in his service.

Here is Debbie reading about all of it. She made me cry just a little bit too. Darn her also.

Then it was present time. Gwen and Grandfahr had a treasure hunt for Elasta Girl to find her present. How fun is that? They gave Rubes a magnet dress up doll set that she loves and HAD to play with right that second.

This is from Aunt Kennon and Aunt Chris to Elasta Girl. We would have rather seen them but the present is still super cool. It is already hanging in her room.

And since the presents were all opened Elasta Girl decided to dress up in the left over wrapping paper. She was strutting her stuff like a regular super model.

Christmas eve was wonderful and great. We got to see SOME of our lovely loved ones. Grandma Ewart was there all the way from Arizona, I didn't get a picture of her. In fact I didn't get A LOT of pictures of a lot of people I needed to. Darn me. The kids (like always) fell asleep on the way home so I put out the Santa treats and reindeer snacks. Then got right into bed so Santa could come (wink Wink).

We hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas Eve. The Christmas day will be posted later. Since it is almost time for church. tootles

Happy Holidays at our house...

Here are the REAL holiday decorations at our house. I finally got outside when it wasn't dark or blizzarding and took some pictures of our front door/porch. I bought these bells last year after Christmas and so this was the first year I got to put them out. The garland was purchased with my lovely Mom a few weeks ago.

Here is our game cupboard and all it's glory. That red sign says "Believe" and it was from my best friend Em. In fact, so was the candle holder. What cute presents she gives. The button tree is from my Mom and is my favorite Christmas decoration off all the gang.

And the tree. What a fine one it is. Notice the stockings hung by the "chimney" with care.

They shelf above the couch. Which I need to paint black or just any color besides white. Those are candy canes hung along the bottom rung. But don't eat them cuz they are, at least, a few years old.

Here is the wonderful wall hanging thingy that my Soap Queen sis-in-law made for me. She has more talent in her pinkie finger than I have in my whole body. More talent, and more energy.

The kitchen, This is the table where I put all my stuff when I cut hair. Usually my bright yellow hair dryer is laying on the right side of the table. You'll see, I found a place for the "Season's Greeting's" sign. It was cuter on Rubes, but it kept getting in her way.

My shelves by my sink. Aren't they cute. Why thank you.

Moving on to Rubes room. Here is her Nativity. It was a casual day at the stable. People hanging out, just chillin'. Is that irreverent? I'm not sure.

And here is Elasta Girls dresser with a little of this and a little of that. I told you she was a teenager trapped in an eight year old body. That plastic bag in the back ground is the remnants of her HALLOWEEN CANDY. Yes, she is still working on it. NO, I don't know where she came from. My candy was gone days after Halloween, not months after.

Happy Christmas time everyone. Hope you enjoyed the visit to our house. Tootles.

yule tide greetings...

Here are my Christmas decorations like I promised.

aren't they just lovely?

Actually, this is on the way to Rube's preschool and I thought it was so funny I had to stop and take pictures. I drove by on Thursday and they now have lights all around the roof line and the wreath and there is a Santa figure HANGING from the wreath. Poor Santa.

See that pointy thing on the top far left. It is a flag with what looks like a picture of a big mug of beer on it. Framers are funnier and more festive than drywallers. Happy Holidays. My real Christmas decoration pictures to come soon.

The rest of Color me mine...

Here are the rest of the picture of our day with Little Jessica and her crew at Color Me Mine.

I know you already saw Elasta Girls stuff but here they are again.

Here is Rubes angel I did for her.

They are so tiny and cute. Rubes has been carrying hers around all month. She even took her to show and tell at school.

And, here is the other thing I did.

Haahh, I can't show you because it is a Christmas gift for Alzabeth and she might peek.

Sorry for the re-blog. I have too much to do this week. I'll be a better blogger soon.

Car accident....

Rubes and I were in a minor car accident yesterday. Nobody was injured but our car is looking a little more shabby than its normal dirty winter self.

This is where the SUV's hitch got me. My poor licence plate didn't stand a chance.

We were on the freeway coming home after a successful grocery shopping trip, I had wanted to get there and back before the storm hit so I wouldn't have to climb up my snowy mountainous driveway. They were doing some construction and I guess a large construction tarp had blown into the road. Well, the SUV in front of me stopped for it, and I stopped, and the car behind me stopped, but the truck behind her and the mini van behind him did not. Well, they did, they just used my car and the lady's behind me to help them.

Here is my poor damaged car.

This is the cute ladies car that was behind me. Her name was Rebecca and she had a 3 year old boy, they were on their way to START Christmas shopping. They didn't quite make it but they did get a ride in a really cool tow truck.

Here is Rubes playing "pony" with the ice scrapper. She was a trooper. The whole ordeal took about 2 hours since there were so many cars involved. She didn't complain once. She has asked about 178 times today if the lady's car is fixed yet? And once she asked if we were going to get in another accident today! Oh please no.

This is what we were going to use to pee in if the Highway Patrol took any longer. It was close but we made it home. Too much information?

Today, I did have to go buy the Ru another car seat. Did you know if a car seat has been in an accident (no matter how small) you have to get a new one? I didn't. They only had "boy" kinds at the store so we bought a boy one and are going to trade the girl seat covers for her. Oh the things we do.

Anyway, that's all folks. Yesterday was crazy, before and after the accident. I'm glad it is today.

Christmas may begin...

Just a little note about my new header picture.

A few weekends ago, we got all the Christmas decorations out and hadn't found spots for all of them yet. This sign was one of the misfit decorations. I didn't have a place for it (and still don't) so while I was just minding my own business the Season's Greetings fairy came to pay a visit. I guess I have a place for my sign after all. It's as good as a place as any don't you think?

I was doing something in the kitchen (of course, when is a mother NOT in the kitchen) and looked up to see this smiling at me. What could I do, but take pictures. All the while thinking "I'm gonna blog about this someday".

The little green wreath was hanging on the door knob (with no home either, apparently) so what the heck, Rubes puts it on her head. Does that girl know how to accessorize, or what? I especially like the dirty face. That girl couldn't wash her face clean if her life depended on it.

Just a side note: This dress is darling and I got it at SAVERS (yeah, it's a thrift store) for about 3 bucks. Yes, I am that great at finding bargains on really great loot. So with the dress, the wreath and the sign I think she is set for her holiday. What are YOU wearing?

Flashback...James Taylor Concert

When we were living with Mr Smith's parents (spring/summer of 2006) while we were finishing our house, Mr Smith took Elasta girl (yup, that is Mad's new name) and his little sister on an overnight camping trip. Yippee for me, Rubes was too little so we stayed home.

Well, that evening Mr Smith put on a James Taylor CD (in his truck) and they listened to it while sitting around the camp fire. I think that was the first time the sister had heard James Taylor, (I'm pretty sure) she liked it quite a bit.

And so, Mr Smith came home from work one day in May (or June) saying the James Taylor man was coming in concert, my brainy self said "We should take M*****" (the little sister). Brainy, huh? Plus also her birthday is in August. We do not do presents every year for siblings but if one come along that is great - then presto, you get a present.

FAST FORWARD: So, On August 4th of this year we took Elasta girl and Mr. Smith's little sister (no cute nickname yet) to the James Taylor concert. It was a great night, a little stressful (courtesy of Mr Smith). But still really great.

One of my favorite parts was when James Taylor was waving his arms up high and we saw he had flappy (Relief Society) arm skins. It's comforting to know we all have flappy skins somewhere. Even famous skinny people.

I was also surprised to learn that he was really funny. And not surprised to see he was so nice to ALL his fan who wanted autographs.

Oh Dad, you're so funny. What ever you said.

These are the memories of fun and warmer days. I'm just already tired of winter. Oh dear me.

PS: I don't know why some of my pictures aren't centered. I DO know why my grammar is strange and my punctuation is odd. That's my own personal touch. Deal with it and enjoy. And quite commenting corrections. (maummm and kraut!) You may only comment if you think I'm great and lovely. HAVE A NICE DAY!