Thursday –

I drove Bre to the optometrist today and then we went out to lunch. It was fun to have some one on time with her.

While I did that, Mike took the trailer without the heater back to the base. That leaves only ONE trailer in our driveway. ::snort::

Deja called to let me know that our local health food store had everything at 45% off. They’ll be closing on Saturday. Krista, Arielle, Stacia and I headed over. We bought a lot of organic convenience food that I wouldn’t usually buy. We stopped by Sam’s Club on the way home. It wasn’t “one on one” but it was nearly one on one time with Krista. Stephanie, right after we saw you, the sample lady asked if my GRANDAUGHTER would like a sample. That happed all day – folks thought Stacia was Krista’s.

Josiah and Jamin are back at work. Jared is feeling sick. I'm not feeling great - but I'm not giving in just yet.

After dinner we headed out to see the city’s Christmas light display one last time for the year. It is nearly impossible to get a photo of the entire nativity, but we tried.

Thought this new fountain was pretty...

Family Photo Shoot

We took over 150 photos.....I have more to share...but we are busily photo shopping them and planned to only share the finished photo....but how could you miss this one....

or this one...

At this point this is the family one we settled on....not sure which effect we'll stick with. ::snort::

Seriously, I think we like the grey background

Or the sponge background....

Christmas Clean-up

I couldn’t take it a minute longer. I suggested several times throughout Christmas afternoon that we take the tree down. They thought I was joking. The walls were closing in.

We always leave the decorations up until New Year's Day or later. We have a LOT of people here. I was claustrophobic. I had an idea for arranging the furniture.....In the evening, while some played yet another round of Monopoly, Mike, Krista, Stacia and I took the tree apart.


When we moved in I wanted "intimate seating arrangements" in the living room and made an L of the couches. NOW, I realize that in a house this size, with a large family there are "intimate seating areas" all over the home. I want SPACE in the living room - the barn effect. I now have the couches on OPPOSITE sides of the room - lots of floor space.

We dusted and vacuumed every corner of the room - move all furniture and year round trees etc.


Mike hung my new sign and re-hung the quilt above the opposite couch as he noted I'd used "12 inch spikes" to hang it. ::snort::

It was good we did this on Tuesday night....because Wednesday we needed ALL the space in the living room for the annual ginormous family photo shoot. Entry to follow.