I’m off until the 5th of January so Emma and I have been hanging out and having fun.  We went over to Grandma Joan’s yesterday and shoveled her driveway so that she can get in and out.  We spent most of the day with her and had a great time.  We all went to Costco, which turned out to be a zoo.  I think everyone has been cooped up around here so they took the opportunity to all go to Costco at the same time.

It continues to snow today, Christmas eve.  While we love the idea of a white Christmas, it is proving to be more challenging logistically speaking.  Mom and Aunt Jean are at mom’s house and aren’t sure whether they are going to try to drive over or not.  Tomorrow we are going to Sarah’s house and then over to mom’s.  The plan was to then go to the cabin after that, although that is in question now due to the snow.  We’ll decide how adventurous we are going to be on Christmas morning.

Anyway, here are some pictures of Emma out in the snow, as well as a couple pictures so that you can see how much snow we have here.

Earlier in the day the kids had made a jump at the bottom of the hill and because I haven’t quite come to terms with my age, I decided to try it out.  I got a good running start, picked up speed down the hill, and went flying off the jump.  The time in the air was really fun.  The landing: not so much.  Needless to say my back and other major parts of my body are in recovery.

Anyway, it was a really fun day today and I think tomorrow will probably be a repeat because the snow doesn’t appear to be going anywhere and I think they have already canceled school.

Holiday spice punch:

cinammon

vanilla

nutmeg

cloves

apple juice

Sprite

We put it all in a pouring thing and then we dumped in the spices.  We stirred around a lot and then we added the Sprite at the end.  That’s how the recipe goes.

Okay now I’ll tell you about other stuff.  Movie nights are really fun.  Movie night means that we are going to the school and watching a movie and get some candy and stuff.  Oh, we also got to have popcorn and water.  We drove in the car all the way to my school.  We went in to my school gym and brought money.  I sat on the floor on a blanket and a pillow.  The movie was Wall-E on one night and Kung Fu Panda on the other night.  It was fun.

Nothing else to say now.  I’m going to go eat my bread that I made.  I like it.

Last weekend Emma went to the zoo with Alex and Sydney.  Polly bought everyone an annual pass to the zoo and NW trek!  If you are dying to go to the zoo or NW Trek, let us know.  We can take up to three guests in with us each time for free.  Thanks Polly!

Emma had her friend Jena over last Friday night after the PTA sponsored “Family Fun Night”.  Jena spent the night and they both slept in Emma’s room.  They both really wanted to sleep on the floor next to each other but the “party pooper” parents made each of them sleep in their own spots.  (Emma had to sleep in her bed).  I think they both had a great time and enjoyed the pancakes the next morning for breakfast.

Last week, Emma had an action packed schedule at school.  On Tuesday both kindergarten classes hopped on a bus and headed to Remlinger farms for their first field trip.  I think the kids were much more excited to ride the bus than they were to go to the farm.  Needless to say, they had a great time doing both.

Unfortunately, as the week went on, Emma got sick.  She had a fever of over 103 degrees so we took her to the doctor.  She is now having to take a couple medicines for the next ten days to get over it.  She was very disappointed to miss school for two days, including the “Harvest Party” on Friday.  We had volunteered to help at the party so Katie went in and helped while Jeff stayed home with Emma.  (Katie brought some things home for Emma which helped.)  Last night, we let Emma do a little trick or treating around the neighborhood but kept it fairly short since she wasn’t feeling well.  She had a great time.  The picture below looks more like a “Heroes” episode than anything else.  Darth Vader and the Cheerleader are such an interesting pair.

Here are a few shots from the pumpkin patch.  As you can see, Emma has started taking pictures too!

So, fast-forwarding, I have made several cozies, based on the same pattern.  I have given some away - to my sister, and her mother-in-law, my mother, and made several for myself and Jeff. 

I have now made several dish cloths, and a doll that I saw on the Internet, and attempted to make. 

Here are my some of my cozies:

Here is my doll attempt. 

Here is one of my favorite crochet site on the Internet. 
This lady makes the CUTEST little dolls (and I mean THE CUTEST!!!)         Curls of Sunshine

Anyway, I plan to find other projects to do, since there are only so many tea cozies you can make!!!!!  If you have any ideas for me to try, let me know :)

-Katie

Emma’s Book Choice:    One other exciting this is:  I like my book called If You Take A Mouse to School, but if you did that for reallife, you would get in trouble! 

Upcoming Activities: My mom and dad are taking me into the Pumpkin Patch.

My most recent activity:  Drawing and coloring in the lines.  Also, painting.

My typing:  dfwfcv

Mommy sneaked into my room and took this picture of me just going to sleep!

So, winterizing is in full swing.  We are putting away lawn furniture, insulating hose bibs etc.  Today we will be spending part of the day at mom’s doing some winterizing there too and then will stay for dinner.

Emma has decided that she wants to be Darth Vader for Halloween.  We went online and found a good deal on a Darth Vader costume for kids at Amazon.com and it arrived yesterday.  Emma didn’t have school yesterday (teacher workshop day) so she stayed home with Aunt Jean and anxiously awaited the costume delivery.  It finally came around 4:00 and Emma instantly put it on.  We spent a lot of time last night playing Star Wars at our house, that’s for sure.  Emma’s friend Jena is going to be a cheerleader for Halloween so when Emma went down to show Jena her costume, they both ran around in their costumes.  At one point Emma traded her light saber for the pom pom’s and became the evil Darth Vader Cheerleader  (and the pom poms lit up too).  We all had a good laugh.

Work is going well for Katie and I.  Of course we are keeping our eye on the economic issues going on which has caused us to increase our saving even more than we were before.  You just never know what is coming.  The last couple weeks in the stock market have  been amazing and we’ve certainly seen our investments shrink.  The good news is that we have a long way to go until we hit retirement and have lots of time to make it up.  We are actually kind of excited at how cheap some of the stocks out there have gotten.  You can bet we’ll be buying a bit as the bottom seems to form.