Our Christmas

Things have been so busy around here that I am just now getting to the post about Christmas. We had a wonderful day. My parents were in town from South Carolina and my sister from Austin, TX. We all spoiled each other and had such a great time. My favorite gift was my Garmin Nuvi. It is respectably known as Jill and it/she has already gotten us to several places with no trouble at all. Everyone has returned home and we are now enjoying a couple of relaxing days before Dallas returns to work and "life" as we know it continues.

We hope you had a great Christmas!

Cathi

Cookies for Santa

Griffin, his Grammie and Aunt Barbara made cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. They had a ball and Santa loved them. Need I say more?

There's nothing like a haircut

I don't get my haircut very often. It's actually ridiculous how long I wait in between cuts. I mean, I love the way it looks when I have it done. One reason I usually wait is it takes me forever to find someone I like. Well, back in August I did find a girl here who did an awesome job on my hair. So about 2 weeks ago I called to make an appointment for Friday morning since my parents will be here and they could watch Griffin for me. When I called, they said Stephanie doesn't work on Fridays. "Oh Great!" I thought to myself. But before I could even think, the woman on the phone said but she does work on Wednesday nights and has an opening. PERFECT! So Griffin and I went to the gym this afternoon then Dallas picked him up there and I was able to get my hair cut and highlighted. I had four inches cut off and I love it. Please remind me not to wait so long in between cuts next time! Here's a picture. Remember, it's almost 10pm and I had Dallas snap this with no prep. I don't look so good but my hair does!

Cathi

Too much sugar

Today started out as any other ordinary day. We got up, got dressed and headed down for some breakfast. Then it's always off to the gym. We both love going there so it works out well. After my workout, we went to Kohl's to look for this pesky rug I'd like to get. It was the 4th one I've been to in a week and still no luck. Then I decided to stop at the one McDonald's around town that actually has a playplace. You see, in Texas, they ALL have playplaces - Chick Fil-A, McDonald's, Burger King - take your pick. Here in Illinois, there are hardly any. So I have the usual - grilled Southwest Salad (it's very good, by the way) and Griffin has his usual - Nuggets and a soda. Well, it's not just an ordinary soda. It's a splash of Root Beer, then some Sprite, then a little Coke then topped off with a little orange. It looks gross and I'm sure tastes gross, but he loves it. After a couple of those, he's bouncing off the walls. And I guess it doesn't help things that two of his good friends, Emily and Madalyn, are over for a couple of hours. They just had some popcorn for a snack and I insisted they have water and/or milk with it. Maybe that will help the sugar wear off!! Can you *hear* how loud it is in my house?

Cathi

Don't let the sunshine fool you!

We had a snow storm last night that dumped a lot of snow throughout the Midwest. We were lucky enough to only get about 3 inches. This is a perfect amount for sledding. And look how sunny it is. What a great day! Oh, wait a minute! Is that a breeze I feel? Oh wait. I think that's a WIND, not just a breeze. Oh, and the thermometer shows a temperature of 16 degrees. And the weather man said the wind was gusting up to 20 MPH. I wonder what that makes the wind chill factor? All I know is, I showed up at the sled hill for about 3 minutes to snap a few pictures of Griffin and Dallas and I was outta there. It was FREEZING!! They last about 45 minutes! I just fixed them a big cup of hot chocolate with lots of mini marshmallows and they are cuddling under a blanket on the couch watching football! What a great Sunday afternoon in Illinois.

Optimistic

Griffin has a different letter of the alphabet every week at school. They learn several words that start with the letter. This is the conversation we had today on the way home from school.

Griffin: "Mommy, our letter person is Ms. O. She is optimistic."
Me: "Oh you're right. Do you know what optimistic means?"
Griffin: "Yes Mommy. Mrs. Nicholson said optimistic means when you're walking down the street and you fall down and scrape your knee you JUMP up and say, "I'm ok and keep on going. That's optimistic."

I guess he's right!
Cathi

SNOW!!!

BURRR! We had about 6 inches of snow on Tuesday. Dallas was out of town (in Puerto Rico, no less) so Griffin and I headed out to shovel the driveway. It's actually something I don't mind doing however, my lower back has been hurting and after shoveling, I think it's completely thrown out of whack. Most of you know that I like to work out a lot. I took yesterday off and rested. But today I headed to the gym and did the recumbent bike for 30 minutes and treadmill for 15. It didn't hurt my back too much. The reward was a nice long soak in the hot tub. It's feeling a bit better now.

Cathi

Stepometer

Yup, you read that correctly - STEPOMETER.

Griffin has this fascination with my pedometer. It was on my dresser a week or so ago and he decided it was the coolest thing ever. He's been wearing it everywhere and showing it to anyone who will look. He did the 3210 steps while at the gym this morning. He knows the more he runs around and the less he sits at the computer, the higher the number on his stepometer. He got it up to 17510 the other day - by not resetting it for two days. Smart kid.

The Christmas Show

This afternoon was the Little Shepard Preschool's Christmas show. Griffin's class has been practicing for nearly two months. They did a wonderful job. Griffin was standing in the middle of the top row - so in other words, front and center. He told me he was very nervous and handled it by pulling down his eyelid and sticking out his tongue. I tried to get a picture but the lighting was so terrible in the sanctuary that I never got one. He did manage to sing a little and had a great time with his friends. We had a big cookie party afterwards and that was his favorite part!

I have a short video to add but I'm still working out the technical difficulities. I'm going to have to enlist the help of my sister-in-law, Jennifer for this!

Please pray for a classmate's dad, Richard, who is very sick in the hospital. Richard and his wife Alex, have 4 boys under 6 years old. Thank you!

Cathi

Oh the weather outside is frightful . . . .

but we ventured out anyway. It started to snow about Noon today. An inch or so fell before is changed over to sleet. And now it's just been raining for the past couple of hours. We were anxious to see how the roads would be since Dallas and I actually had a date night planned. One of our first in many months. Our friends the Veenstra's were lined up to watch Griffin for us. Well, we headed out at 3:30 and it was slow going. We made it to their house fine. They only live a block away from the mall so it was great. The mall was not crowded at all. We were able to get some shopping done and not have to fight the crowds. We were going to eat dinner at the mall but the only sit down place they have is Ruby Tuesdays so we went just down the road a bit to Keywester Restaurant for some great seafood.

And now we are home in our flannels with the heat going all just hanging out. Life is good.

Cathi