Daddy's dancing darling

OK so New Year's Eve was London's first dance!  She finally turned 14.  She has been very excited/nervous about this.  For her birthday we got a Wii dance game and had a dance themed party.  We never did have a friends big birthday party.  Christmas time was too crazy this year.  There is always year 15!  So the big day finally arrived.  Two of her friends came over for the day and took over my bathroom about 3 hours before the dance. Notice the "Mom you are so weird" look on her face?

As my dad would say they were "trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear"  Which in this case isn't true! Oh to be young again and have such beautiful skin, hair....everything young and not starting to droop...OK I digress back to London.

I got Holly brushing those toothies so that they sparkle too!  She will just love this picture!

London wore curlers all night and day (the spongy pink ones) to achieve these curls.  She was even brave enough to go shopping in them and have everyone stare at her.  It was so funny!   Here is the after result of all the time spent....boy was it worth it!  How beautiful.  I helped them all do their hair and put on a little bit of make up.  London got a few things of make up for her birthday which she decided to wear to the dance.  It was so fun to hear all the giggles coming from the bathroom and all the plans of who they wanted to dance with.

We found this dress at Sears, regular $160, for around $20.  I forgot all the details now but it was a smoking deal!!  It suited her perfectly.  There was this darling grandma in the change room that wouldn't leave until she modelled all the dresses for her.  She insisted on this one (as did I).  It was so cute she was adorable!
Anyway, the sweetest thing happened when she came out to present herself to Sean, Grandpa and me for pictures.  I looked over and there is Sean in the kitchen with a paper towel dabbing tears.  It was a tender moment.  I am so glad that he loves her so much.  He kept saying she is so beautiful and that she looks 17!  It is hard on us parents to see our babies growing up!

Doing the Charlie's Angels pose!  I think it is so funny that so many  of London's friends are so much shorter than her.  She looks like a giant!  She is wearing flat boots as well.

It was so fun waiting for her to come home and listening to them talk all about who they danced with and everything that happened.  I love being a mom of a teenager! The adventures never end!  The next day she had her first boy girl toboggan party.  It was a fun New Years Day.

Before and After....shaggy to chic

I know you are all wondering if it was me getting the hair cut ....nope it is the other shaggy one!  Blossom is so funny.  She becomes a different dog as her hair gets longer.  She is slower, hotter and cuter.  When she gets a hair cut she becomes a puppy again.  Dancing around and really proud of her hair cut.  She is very self conscience at first so we have to be careful to not tease her.  We need to tell her how pretty she is.  I am NOT joking.  We made fun of her at first and she was sooooo upset.  The only problem with Short hair is she freezes outside and more than once we have to go out and rescue her as she is too cold to walk back in and just holds up her foot and looks at you.  Also it is more crowded in bed as she sleeps in between us under the sheets!  Yup two snorers snugging with me!

Sledding around!

During Christmas holidays we had the family up for some fun!  We got out our calf sled and pulled the kids...and Brigham.  He loved to ride with the kids.  He was so excited to have everyone playing outside in HIS yard.  He thinks he owns it.  Every time Blossom goes outside to pee he blocks her path back into the house and bullies her.  He is a nice dog but a big bully!  He ran after the sled for hours.  He started nipping at everyone so we had to lock him away for part of the day...bad doggie!

The little quad zips around just fine in the snow!  The kids are so good at driving the quads now.

Teija is holding a kitty.  EJ's kids love the animals and pack them around all day long.  So the kitten yet to be named got a ride too! So what should I name our pure black kitten?

EJ Drove the quad around forever.  Poor guy froze to death!  More fun...they are doing the roller coaster arms.

I love having family over.  It is so fun for the kids to have lots of things to do outside.  I am not a big fan of the cold so I mostly watched from inside.

Grandpa Jack brought over a truck hood so the boys were getting it ready to go for a spin.

There they are on the truck hood.  I never got a really good picture as they were in the back field most of the time.  It sounded fun!

Hannah and Tejia both had a Christmas wish for their two front teeth!  So we had them singing that all afternoon.

Hot Chocolate and treats were needed after all the cold fun!

This is my youngest newest nephew Zeke!  He had a little nap on our bed.  He is such a darling little boy.  He was to little this year for any sledding but next year.....watch out!

Another far away shot of the truck hood.

A Holly Jolly Christmas!

Here is all of London's loot from Santa...No... she didn't get dog biscuits, she shared her chair with Brigham. 

Here is Blossom not impressed with her first present... the Christmas collar...Santa is so mean to puppies!  She is so funny. This year when we got out her stocking she was so excited.  It squeaks so she is able to play with it.  Well, she remembered that she gets treats in it.  She wouldn't ever come upstairs.  She would sit downstairs with it everyday.  Up until this point she never spent time downstairs.  Every time she went outside to pee she would run down to check if this was the big day yet.  It was so cute.  When she saw Santa come and fill it she had to be carried upstairs to bed.  Then she sat on the bed looking out.  We had to lock her in so she wouldn't go downstairs early!

Here is Big Momma's stocking filled by her honey...it was full of beautiful perfumes, lots of yummy stuff and an awesome cookbook etc...

Here is Grandpa's Stocking and the cats stocking both filled with care.  All our animals have stockings and get special breakfasts Christmas morning.  I really miss now that we don't have horses. We used to go out and give them apples, carrots and oats...it was such a fun tradition.  The one year when we were having mouse problems I even went around and sprung all the traps because I didn't have the heart for them to die on Christmas day.  I set them again that night....Sean thinks I am crazy for that one!


Blossom and London playing with her stocking.  We love the animal stockings so much that every year London opens them before she does her own.

London and her father have a gift for guessing gifts...they are gift mediums.  I hate it.  They just touch it and know, so there is no shaking of presents or holding them at all allowed in the house. I remember for London's birthday when she was about 4, as soon as she saw the box she was so excited as it was a Poochi!  We got her this awesome belt buckle that was Yoda so Sean had fun wrapping it crazy so she wouldn't know what it was...hee hee.  It was hard to get into.

  I got Sean a jack from Costco that was so heavy we had to have help everywhere getting it in.  Luckily we had our carpenter at home and I begged him to bring it in the house.  Then I wrapped the lid and pushed with my legs to get it under the tree.

All the treasures unwrapped!  Yup, we are all spoiled rotten.

Both Grandpa and Blossom were worn out.  No wonder they are best buddies.  They are both checking their eyelids for holes!  We really love having Grandpa for Christmas.  London conned him to coming over early. He was there by 7:30...what a great sport.

We started a new tradition this year that was so fun.  I got a pickle decoration and you hide the pickle and the first one to find it on the tree gets the last present to open ( something special). Next year it will be a really good gift. This year I forgot until Christmas Eve so I stole some candy from Sean's stocking and wrapped it.  It turned out so fun!  I hid it really hard.  We all got little flashlights in our stocking so Grandpa used it right away and then everyone took it out.  Sean finally found the pickle after 5 minutes when I finally gave them hot and cold tips as Christmas breakfast was awaiting!  So now next year Sean hides it and buys the gift to give.  It will be a goodie when he does it.

still looking!


Modeling her snuggie knockoff from Costco.

There is room for two!  As long as it is only a DOG!!!!  NO BOYS LONDON!

*  OK Tammi this is a special note for you...you think you have snow, girlfriend....just you wait until one of my next posts.  Wimp!

Christmas Eve at the White House

OK so this first picture isn't Christmas Eve but they did deliver my first Christmas gift and first Christmas decoration! I love visitors. This day was such a crazy day. It was the same day that Dad's house came, so I wish we could have visited longer. I love this picture! I just love my island, it is so fun to have everyone sitting around while I am cooking things up!

I miss my primary kids so much (I miss Randa and Lisa too but their kids gave way more hugs!) This is an invite to all you fellow bloggers out there....come and visit! I know you come to Medicine Hat fairly often....drop the kids off and go shopping, or come for lunch so I can demo my awesome kitchen....whatever just please come!



Now this is Christmas Eve. I took a little trip to an awesome dollar store here in town and bought a whole bunch of silly goodies! We then did the steal or keep game and what ever you got you had to wear for the rest of the evening and during skit in the bag. It was so fun! This is two of Sean's brothers, Randy and Mac. There was lots of trading going on!

His is my Nephew Diedrich. The poor kid got three items stolen from him. I love the expression in this one. He loved these socks and luckily got to keep them. He even wore them Christmas day.

Another of his hot items

And yet another.... It is nice now that they are all a little older. A few years ago this game wouldn't be fun, it would be full of crying!

Here is Ben...the hat thief! He is my oldest nephew. We were able to go to the boys' Christmas concert this year and it was amazing! They did this bell ringing that was unforgettable. It really brought in the spirit of Christmas for me.

Mac sporting his bow tie very nicely!

Hannah the princess who needed her two front teeth for Christmas. She is such a darling girl and a real little chatter. Life is never boring when she is around.

Sean the stud muffin..... What a little cutie. He wouldn't give up his hat! He hates skit in a bag but he was a real good sport! I didn't take pictures which really makes me mad. My favorite two characters were Randy, who was the "muh nuh muh nuh" guy using sleeping smoke to put everyone to sleep (with my golden liahona and Sean's hair trimmer), very funny, you had to be there! and Deid who was Sad Sadie the BO lady! He was wearing quite the dress. Dad named him from an old TV add.

Here the lone wolf is sporting this hat quite well, but not for long

Here is our little Rudolf....hiding her cute nose. Did you ever notice she has a perfect heart on the end of her nose...so cute!

Dad's hat got stolen so now he is sporting red balls. Also my sister-in-law Susanne got my favorite, the Christmas lights. (which I stole from Randy)

London had to leave the party early to guide Santa's sleigh! hee hee

All in all, it was such a fun night full of food...(that lasted forever, I made way too much!) and family, which made our Christmas Eve fun and memorable. I love them and I am so glad some could come for Christmas Eve.

Move Day!

I am so far behind on my blog, I am going to be doing a lot of catching up this month. Dad has been here for a month now and we are loving it! It is so nice to be closer to him. He is keeping himself busy despite the yucky weather we have had lately!

This is the first look we had of his new home. He bought it sight unseen and it was made specifically for him.


I was worried that they were going to have to take out our wagon wheel fence as it is a tight turn but they made it! Grandpa Jack came to help oversee everything as Sean had to work.

When we got to the trees, they wanted to cut a bunch more down. We had already cut a bunch and I didn't want any more so I made everyone stand in the really deep snow and push them to the side. I don't think the delivery guys were impressed but I love my trees and my privacy!

There 's Dad in the red cap getting a good close look at the house!

Here it is getting placed on the pad. They did a good job getting it in.

Then they just tip it up and have it slide off. There were a few mishaps. The backhoe pulled off some of the siding in the back but it has already been fixed. It will settle some and they will come back and re-level it in the spring. The ground all around is all messed up as the septic field was all put in. This spring it will be a mucky mess. We will get grass down soon enough.

Now, I am just dreaming of spring when I get to get baby chicks and Dad will teach me how to be a real farm girl!