New Years Day

My Mom and I.....

My Man and I......

After a very relaxing morning at the Pitman beach house, we packed up and headed to the main land. We had family gathering at my Aunt and Uncles home. Its always fun to see everyone and how much they have grown.

Around 6 we headed out to the Hospital to visit my Grandma who has been sick for a few weeks now. She had bleeding in her stomach and then blood clots in her legs. So she is back in the hospital being monitored very closely. She was very happy to see all of us pile into her room....and they just kept coming! The nurse came in and told us we had to take turns, to many people in the room!

After the hospital it was time to eat so off to Applebees we went.

Moose had moose for dessert.....

Happy New Year

After a long drive up I-5 and a short ferry ride we arrived at my parents house on Lummi Island.

We had the grand tour, they moved here in November and this has been our first trip to the new Pitman pad.

We enjoyed a nice dinner of pork and sauerkraut, then it was off to open gifts.

My parents have been invaded by the native island pest....Raccoons. They have been getting into their garage and eating cat food and scaring the poor cats. They are really starting to do some damage. So they got a live trap and my dad went out to set it up during our gift opening. Then when we were all done, about 20 min later, he went out to check it and guess what! There was a raccoon in it!!! What a surprise it was for all of us. The kids were so excited. After taking pictures the guys took it to the other side of the island and free'd the little guy. We reset the trap to try and catch the second one but so far have had no luck....my guess is that tonight we will have #2!

What wild things we are! I was going to say we made it to 12, but that is a flat out lie, so I will tell the truth and say we did not make it to see the ball drop, but we gave it a good effort.

Welcome 2009!

Man Night

The Ducks played in their bowl game last night, so Marshall had a few friends over to watch the game and have a little man night. They all had a blast. The noise level in our house was amazing. If we had neighbors close to us they would have called to complain!

Caymus and his buddy, "Uncle" Justin

Marshall and Big Willie

Being the amazing wife that I am, I made boneless hot wings, fresh salsa, pizza tartlets, and fondue. Yes I know, I am great! It was a huge hit and all the guys were very thankful.

Marshall was in heaven, good friends, good food, beer and the best part of all was that the Ducks Won!!!

Ben, Justin and Cathy singing Happy Birthday....to a dog?? They really did not know what to think....thanks for being such good friends that you would sing happy b-day to a dog!

It was also Moka's 8th birthday. We make him a little "cake" every year out of canned dog food with peanut butter frosting and cut up doggy treats for decoration. He sits very patiently while we all sing happy birthday and then its "free" and he eats it all up. Happy Birthday little guy, you are a blessing to our family and will always be our "first" kid.

Marshall and the aftermath!!! Impressive! And yes, I did organize all the empties....I have issues!

Rainy days

I never thought I would be happy to see rain....but this time I really am. It has warmed up and melted all the snow and ice. The snow was nice, but being stuck at home for a week? I was ready for it to leave.

On Friday we went to town! I was so happy to get out! Even if it did mean fighting the masses that are the day after Christmas! We had a return for Marshall, so he was able to get that taken care of and do some shopping. Then each of the kids had a gift certificate and some b-day money to spend at Wal Mart. So that was fun letting them shop. They are so good with a budget. Asking how much is this? If I get this how much more do I have left? They did very good!

My farmer boy....I got him the coveralls for Christmas, now the look is complete. He is totally embracing this new life style. No more city, traffic, noise, and people all around. He is even OK with getting a little dirty. I am so proud of him! He had to go out and take pictures off all the damage from the tree limbs that fell in the ice storm. Only the shed and chicken coop got hit. We are really lucky, there are trees down all over the place and large tree limbs on houses and so on. So we are feeling very blessed!

I was trying to get a picture of Lucy smiling with out making her "picture" face. I think I did good!

Caymus had a snifflie nose, this is his solution! Smart Kid!!!

Christmas Day Part 2

Aw the remainder of our day was very relaxing. We watched my favorite Christmas movie, "A Christmas Story", not sure why I like it so much, but it is just so funny!!!

The kids played with their new toys. I cooked.

I made leg of lamb for our Christmas dinner. We had an early dinner. Still trying to decided what to call it, dilinner, dunch, linner....just not sure......

After our feast, and it really was a feast, we played wii. We have a few new sports games and became quite a little competition.

What a great Christmas day. It was so peaceful and relaxing. We had good food, love and warmth. I don't really know what more I could ask for.

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas part one

Good Morning and Merry Christmas!!!

Our day began at 7am.....got the coffee going and went to town!

I love to see the excitement on the kids faces when they see the stockings are down and full, the plate is empty and the nog is gone! Caymus claims he could hear Santa last night.....hmmmm. Santa did have a little help last night with the cookies, Moka got to them and licked the plate clean....oops!

After stockings we had a coffee/cocoa break. Then it was back at it.

Merry Christmas Eve!

We had a very nice and relaxing day. Watched movies, ate, played in the snow, ate, drank cocoa, ate......

The kids and I made our gingerbread house, that was a fun thing to do and I think I will add that to my list of "must do's" for Christmas.

We had fondue, this is a tradition my parents started after a family vacation to Europe in 1995. We had fondue in Switzerland and we all loved it so much they decided that it was a great thing to make for Christmas Eve. I must agree, so I have continued on the tradition. It was a hit here in our house this year for sure!

The kids got there plate ready for Santa, with Egg Nog as well.