I am in SOOO much TROUBLE!!

These 4 kids of mine, (yes I include my husband in this group) have NO FEAR!

None, at all!! I think Lily might be the worst of them all, at least my two older girls have good judgment, but Lily and Frank....... nope, nada, zero, nilch!!

We went sliding the other day, and had a great time. No one complained about cold feet or hands! (well, I did, but I really hate the snow and cold)!!

The hill was peppered with children and parents, and when you took your turn, you had to yell, "LOOK OUT" and try to avoid those with slow reflexes! LOL
Every time Abigail and Isabelle went down the hill, they managed to avoid crashing into people,
every time Lily and Frank went down the hill (at full speed - I might add) they would come soo close to knocking down kids! Frank's arms waving wildly in the arm - shouting MOVE - MOVE- while Lily's arms waving wildly in the air - shouting FASTER - FASTER!! (no kidding)

At one point, at the top of the hill, Lily jumped onto one of those round sleds and took off down the hill on her own, followed by:
Abigail who saw it first, then me, screaming, then the kid who owned the sled (oh, didn't I mention that? She just took a random sled, for all we know she could of pushed the kid right off of it!) then followed by about 10 other kids all hoping to be "the hero" and save the baby!!
The "baby" was screaming at the would be rescuers to "LETMEGOOOO" fending them off with waving arms and legs! Abigail (who was the only rescuer not frightened of her) was finally able to stop her, only after being dragged on her belly the last 1/4 of the hill!
After we returned the sled, to the now crying kid, LMAO, we arranged it so the older girls would hold onto Lily (in her properly borrowed sled), and they would slide down beside her on their Krazy Karpets.

Yup, I'm in sooo much TROUBLE! Way over my head!!

Here's the 4 of them on one of their excursions.
Yes, they are standing, yes they are going very fast, and no, I didn't see them until half way down the hill!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

I finally have some time to sit down and get updating!

We spent Christmas at my dad's place, it was hard, 1st big holiday without mom, and the Christmas Eve marked the 2nd month of her death. sigh..
However, we had a good time, lots of food, lots of wine and still lots of smiles!

I HERE!! I'M HERE!! HONEST! Just soo busy!
Right now I'm cooking up a STORM. We are having another couple over tomorrow night for NEW YEARS, and I want to be ready!

This is my "menu"...lots of finger foods...
Tell me what you think!
Lumpia, which are Filipino egg rolls,

Puff pastry stuffed with :
smoked oysters and goat cheddar
Prosciutto and Parmesan Cheese
Almond stuffed Olives

Filo wrapped fig and goat feta
Portabello mushrooms marinaded in balsamic vinegar and oregano grilled with goat feta

Lamb Curry served with bread and then

a Chocolate Roll filled with strawberry gelato, covered in chocolate then just before serving, covered with in meringue, baked then light on fire. (Like a Baked Alaska - different shape, more layers),
and of course booze: We have lots bottles of red wine, some harder stuff, (I doubt that we'll get into that) and Champagne for the midnight toast.

I bought some non-alcoholic stuff for the girls! You know what is funny, my girls will eat everything I put out, so I have to make enough not just for the adults but for the kiddies too. God forbid that they go for the cheap chips and dip!! ohhh nooooo!!! The portabello mushrooms are a favorite of the kids, and I spent a FORTUNE and bought every last one at the market on Saturday! LOL

I think it will be a lot of fun! I am looking forward to just relaxing, drinking, eating and laughing!

I have lots of pictures of Christmas that I'll post later in the week!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

ok, You NEED to go and take a look at these beautiful necklaces!!!! Her daughter is adopted from the same area as Lily! Chongqing, China!
50% of the proceeds go to help children around the world!

I've been busy, busy, busy!!!
I'm working on a huge calendar project for a gift for my Dad, using my "skills" at Fotofusion! (cough, cough)
He is a sample of what I've done so far. Every month will have a collage of pictures, and on each person's birthday, a picture of them!

Oh yeah...
If anyone knows how to put music to my blog.. ahem..Heather, could you show me? I found some cool Chinese Christmas music and I thought it might be fun (and annoying) to have it playing during the holidays! We've been playing the CD everyday and it just cracks us up!!

Oh Christmas Tree is right!! What a time we had chopping down our tree this year!
The kids had a blast, although it was cold, they didn't seem to mind.
We picked 2 trees, one for upstairs (the living room, the fancy tree) and one for downstairs (the playroom, the "kid friendly" tree)! The smaller tree fit into the truck no problem! The larger tree had to be tied to the top of the Envoy.
While Frank tied and secured the tree, the rest of the family went into the cottage at the U-Pick and had hot chocolate and cookies! YUM!
The drive home took about 20mins, driving slowwwww... Well about 18 mins into the drive, Lily starts to scream from the back seat, "TREEE TREEEE TREEEEE IN WINDOW!!!" I take a look the tree has come untied and off the roof and is now hanging down on the side of the truck. We are about 3 mins from home, on a busy busy bridge with loads of traffic, and we can't stop!!
Frank opens the sunroof, grabs the rope, and holds the tree onto the trunk of the tree with one hand and drives with the other, while all the girls scream, (cause that is what we do best in emergency situations!) LOL
We made it home, tree intact, and Lily only slightly scarred! Both are now up and decorated and it smells like Christmas in my house! Gotta love it!

I'm either being slack or a coward, but I haven't even attempted to take this years Christmas card pictures!!
Last years photo shoot took forever, with about 100 pics, and we still ended up with crappy picture!
Here are some out takes!!
Go on over to Loving Lydia to check out other Christmas photo out takes!

This weeks photo challenge, over at Loving Lydia, was hair! Now you would think that with 3 girls I would be a PRO at doing hair, well, truth be told I'm not. I can braid, do pony tails, curl and french braids (sorta), but that about does it for my hairdressing skills! Thank god the 2 older girls can now do their own hair, but Miss Lily, HATES having her hair done! I have to chase her around with the brush and corner her to get a half a** pony tail in her hair, that only lasts 15 mins! Whew!
So I've decided to not only put up pictures, but also a video that I took this afternoon.


** Because I knew that I would be posting this, and I really didn't need her hair up, I was much *nicer* than usually! I normally wouldn't "ask" if she was going to let me put her hair up.

Her hair is such a challenge! It starts from about the middle of her head, and hangs straight down, all forward. She has no real part, and lots of short hair that is still growing under the longer hair, so you can never get it all in a barrette or a pony tail!
Sigh......

*Hairs* to you!

This is Abigail's birthday invitation!! You'll have to click on it to get a better picture. I love the "Call if there are any allergies to food or insects!"
Those are meal worms in the background! We're going to have such gross games, I've been psyching the girls out all weekend. Telling them not to clean the cat litter, as I need the poop for the scoop the poop game!

We've had a very busy weekend, I took a judging course on Friday night, the older girls had a gymnastics competition which started on Saturday morning 7:30am, we were there all day and into the evening, and on Sunday morning I helped judge for a few hours.
We got home, changed and hopped into the truck to cut down our Christmas tree!
What an adventure that was, one that needs its very own post!
As soon as I get the pictures off the camera, I'll post them, but I'll leave you with one tidbit...
We ended up having to hold the tree onto the truck through the sunroof........