To EO for Christmas

We were able to take a few days to see family in EO, celebrate Christmas, and get some time to play in the snow.


Aleaha readies her saucer to take on the hill, while Uncle Mike watches below.


Down she goes! (Uncle Mike now appears at the bottom of the hill, supervising the landings. We had a couple of cases of nearly-lost sleds and sledders, as the darn things tended to take off in the wrong direction. On her first time down, Aleaha swerved off the hill, went over a lip of snow, caught a lot of air, and did a bit of a loop-de-loop. Mom was afraid she was hurt, because she was almost in tears. But all was proven fine when Aleaha said, "Um, Mom, was that cool?")


Miri loved her new baby sled from Gramma Bon. She preferred to sit in it and watch the happenings, close to wherever Mommy was.


We tried to see if Miri would like to go down the hill with Uncle Mike, but NOTHIN' DOIN' was her response.


"Hey Mom, my finger is cold. Can I put it in your nose?"


Miri didn't have snow boots or pants, but she did like to stand for a few minutes....


...until Mommy left her next to the snowman. Not nice, Mama!!


Quick photo op with G'ma Bon.


Happy Snow Bunnies.



These were a couple of very tired kiddos on the way back home!

Christmas Carols, Aleaha Style

She's fascinated by all the songs of the season. Children's songs, "songs about the baby Jesus," and silly songs, like the dogs who bark out Jingle Bells. Par for her age, she likes to hear the same song over and over again, and she must practice singing it Just So. If interrupted, she starts all over again, at the beginning. (A bit of a bore, honestly, when it's the twelfth round of The Twelve Days of Christmas. ) But I indulge her, figuring that she wants to get it right.

Then tonight, I hear this:

"Deeeeeeeck the halls with Christmas Stuuuuuuuuuuffff, fa la la la la, la la la la."

Christmas Prep

Mommy has a few outfits for the girls to wear. It's nearly impossible to get good photos of them, but we try anyway. (And the red-eye fix in Picasa would not work on these, for some reason. So our kids look possessed.)


These are their green vests, which match the ones for their cousins for Christmas. Can't wait to see all the kids together!

Daddy put up house lights this year, for the first time since the 2006 tree-falling-on-our-house incident. Let's hope that doesn't happen again this year! (Notice how particular he is about the exact placement of each bulb....the house looks AMAZING because of this attention to detail.)

Aleaha got in a funk, and Mommy just had to take a picture. Didn't help her mood, you can be sure! But she knows that Santa is watching, so no pouting!

Aleaha has made a few gingerbread houses. These two (which are acutally made of brown sugar) are gifts for Arby and Jake. It's a good thing we snapped the photo when we did, because the next day, the little houses had completely fallen apart. The gel-goo holding them together didn't meet code, apparently. But we're sure the horses will love them just the same.

Horse Gate, Thanksgiving, Etc.

Daddy worked really hard building the coolest thing -- an automatic gate for Jake! The picture is awful, unfortunately. But the gate is so neat, we just have to brag about it some more....Jake goes right inside, we pull a handle to close the gate, then flip a switch. We feed him his Very Special Jake-Only Food, and about 20 minutes later, the timer automatically opens the door and he goes out. IT ROCKS. But not as much as Daddy. :)


Two purple girls on a purple horsie blankie.


A barn goddess in the making. (Glitter skirt optional.)


Miri and Mommy on a Bob-stroll.


On a rare snowy day, we traipsed outside for a little adventure. (Hey, the schools were closed and we were cooped up at home, so we NEEDED a little outside time.)


We fed the birdies a lot of food that day. Miri is not unfamiliar with the scooper, of course.


Downing a little pie after Thanksgiving dinner. She knows where her pie-hole is, eh? And you should see her sign for whipped cream! She moves her hand in a circle, as if she's applying it to a pie, saying "SCHTTTTTTT". She gets the point across.


Aleaha enjoyed the pie so much, she asked for it sans whipped cream. And she even knows it's made from a vegetable!


After a long weekend of Mommy cooking and Daddy doing dishes, we enjoyed a night out at Ixtapa. Gee, is that more whipped cream Miri spied?


Aleaha is quite the ham.

Our girls

Taken in October at school. We have individual shots too, and hope to post those soon. Miri was not having a good time with the photographer (and vice versa, I'm sure!). She didn't really smile much. We decided to do retakes when they were offered a few weeks later (read: Mommy stresses AGAIN to get the dresses clean, find the shoes and tights, fix hair, etc. ). But apparently those turned out worse than the originals, because he printed the ones from the first round. Still, we think she's a cutie-pie. She just knows clearly what she likes and what she doesn't.

A few more pictures

Mommy finally learned how to save photos received in text messages from her Droid to her PC. Then she had to learn where they were being stored on said PC. Sheesh....

Courtesy of Daddy and Holly, the girls are ready for trick-or-treating!

Here they are, eating dinner out (and being silly) with Daddy. Aleaha is looking forward to Mom going on a business trip again, because she loooooooves going out to restaurants! (she still doesn't eat much though - Miri puts away more groceries than Aleaha)

In one of our final projects of the season, Daddy is installing a custom-made automatic gate at the barn. Jake will go into his new Private Dining Area and eat his special feed without Arby nosing him out (here is Daddy, installing the corner feeder). Then, after Jake is done, the gate will magically open to let him out. It means Jake will get lots of special feed, Arby won't (he doesn't need it!), and Mommy and Daddy don't have to make 4 trips to the barn everyday. We call it "equine-eering". (And lest you worry that Jake will get stuck in there all day, have no fear....we can look on our barn-cam to see that the doors opened on time and Jake got out) Yes, Daddy totally rocks. And we love having a geeky farm.

Miri likes projects at the barn, especially if they involve riding on the tractor or 4-wheeler, scooping up lots of pellets, and feeding the horses apples.

Halloween 2010

Mommy had to be on a business trip over Halloween (yeah, does that suck or what?!). But Daddy was the perfect prime parent, and took the girls out trick-or-treating that night. (Will try to get a few of those pics posted.)

The girls got to wear their costumes to their school for a day-long party.


Miss Ladybug Miri



Aleaha with her friend Lucero. Aleaha was a "Battarina". A ballerina meets a bat. Like that's some natural critter from the animal kingdom.


Love this shot.

(Special kudos to Daddy for taking such good care of the girls. He rocks!!)