Emily's Crowning Jewels

Emily was so easy to shop for this year. I had to keep slapping my hand everytime I picked something else up after I declared her Christmas to be all finished. Emily loves toe socks! Loves them. And penguins. So, I found these cute little socks to go with the cute little penguin jammies I found. See below. Emily had a beloved ring that she got from Nana that got damaged and has been longing for another one ever since. So, Santa heard her cries for a new ring and thought he would get her something really special. She got a ring and necklace set of her birthstone with DIAMONDS (very small diamonds, but diamonds nonetheless, right?). Ooooo! Ahhhhh! It was so much fun to buy. So much fun to go back to the jewelry store and have the ring sized to fit her tiny, tiny size 4 finger. Cute little thing. She was soooo happy! And the icing on the cake?? She got another American Girl doll from MawMaw. WITH pierced ears! The surprises just don't stop! And extra earrings!

Ethan's Christmas

Ethan got a weight bench and weights, which have already caused a trip to the emergency room. (No details now. You will have to wait for the pictures.) And among the little presents was this Dallas Cowboys book, which I just stumbled upon while shopping on the internet. Ethan is a die-hard Cowboys fan. This is a big, big book of Cowboys history with lots of good stuff inside. It has replicas of tickets and important letters. He has spent a lot of time pouring over it. It was a good find. A.N.D. it was on sale!! And here is the big present just waiting to be put together. Why did I not get a picture of it put together?? I'm crazy. And now Ethan is working being the strongest, toughest football player on the team. Never going to have the cleanest room, though. Don't even daydream about it. He is a happy boy! Declared that he had a great Christmas and guess what....we did not buy ANY electronics. None. No game systems, no games. Notta.

I took Ethan's pictures off for now. His room was really hideous. Embarrassing. Not completely his fault. We had to do some rearranging to put his weight bench in and there is always the stuff behind the furniture you have to clean up. Anyway, I will post another picture soon.

Christmas 2010

We have been in OnE house for 4 Christmases! UnBeLiEvAbLe!! The longest we have been anywhere. Time to move! We say that to the kids, joking, of course. They absolutely do not think it's a joke. They get quite offended by it. I love it. The up side of moving so often is that you don't accumulate so much junk. You get to go through everything every time you move. So stuff

is starting to pile up around here. Good th

ing Spring cleaning is around the corner.

Christmas was fabulous! So relaxing and laid back. I started shopping early this year which gave me time to think about great and unique gifts and allowed for some unexpected surprises. Didn't have to rely on commercials to help me shop. Even John got some great surprises. John got a new aquarium, Ethan got a weight bench, and Emily got jewelry. John (spouse) got a Gonzales flag replica. John is getting old enough now that I feel like I have to distinguish between John (spouse) and John (son). That may get quite annoying. Back to Christmas.

John (son) bought a small aquarium shortly after we moved into the house and put two goldfish in it. I have to admit, I was quite the naysayer at the time. In my head I was saying that it would never get cleaned, the fish would starve and die, tears would be shed. Shame on me! The tank has hardly ever been dirty and John is fanatic

al about feeding the fish precisely. When he has to go somewhere overnight I get a very strict feeding instructions--"twelve flakes in the morning, mom, twelve". Or is it fifteen. Well, you get the point. He has the same two goldfish all this time. They started out as little fish, about two inches. Now they are about six or seven inches. Pretty soon they will have to be donated to an outdoor fish pond. So, John got a 36 gallon

tank from Santa. It has been a fun experience for the whole family. Everyone bought fish. Fun to stand around the tank while the new fish get released. We have 14 fish now and still need more.

And now I will publish this for an experiment to see if my pictures are loading right. And they are not. Dang it! So, I will make separate posts for each child.

Christmas Eve and the Family Present

I wonder why this dumb site posts all my pictures backwards????? And I can't ever remember to attach them the way that it would show them in the right order. And, sorry, I'm too lazy to delete them and put them in the right way. We usually do a family present for Christmas Eve. This year we got a family game that is very interesting. You don't play against each other. All the players work together against the game. It's very fun. Very confusing at first, but very fun.