Who are the people in your neighborhood?

Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a generic holiday greeting draped between two crass mudflaps.

Off color, yes. But I can't help but chuckle every time I see it - which is almost every night.

More quaint Christmas updates on the way...

Just thinkin'

I was drying my hair just now (yes, it's 11:00 a.m... slow morning) and just got to thinking.

I was looking out the window, and let me tell you, it's beautiful outside. Sure, the temperature is hovering around zero, but everything is clean and white and sparkly. With all of the bare trees, the evergreens really pop. I wish we had more of them.

That made me think about pinecones. It would be fun to do that craft where you smear peanut butter all over them and cover them in birdseed for the birds. We have a ton of little finches and robins around here. They're all fat and fluffed up for winter - so cute! But back to the craft, with Addie being allergic to peanuts, it's out.

Which made me wonder... do animals have peanut allergies? What if birds or squirrels did? Yikes! What would happen? Would they break out in hives?

If bees are allergic to something, do THEY break out in hives? Do they? Oh, the irony!

Which made me think that it would be funny if weiner dogs were allergic to hot dogs. I have no idea why I thought that.

But I really have no idea what made me think of this next thing.

I imagined a weiner dog getting on a treadmill to work out. But, the treadmill is too short. So, it gets another treadmill and butts it right up to the other one so now it's longer. The only problem is, they don't move in the same direction, but the silly little weiner dog doesn't understand that... YET. So it gets on the newly invented mega treadmill and turns it on (don't ask me how... surely it's arms are not long enough). Oh no! The weiner dog buckles upward as the treadmills start moving.

Now that I think about it, that might make for a delightful children's book. I'll have to develop the story line a bit further.

And then my hair was dry.

The end.

Cheap entertainment

After yesterday's post, I feel that I need to clarify that I'm not anti-cat. Not at all! I'm just anti-cat-bottoms-on-dish-towels. No. In fact, I like cats. I had one when I was little. Her name was Sugar and she was so pretty. She let us dress her up in doll clothes.

My sister has a cat named CC. She's pretty much the devil and hisses at me every chance she gets, but she's soft and I love to pet her even though I'm scared to death of her when she lets me.

There's a website out there that makes me laugh... and ironically, it's about cats. Now, although I like cats, I wouldn't consider myself a cat person, but I really get a kick out of that website.

Which is why I thought it was hilarious when Emma came up with a new game to play with Brody.

We like to call it, "Stuff on My Baby Brother."

It started innocently enough... she let him play with her baby doll.


And then her blanket...


And then Ariel...


And then a roll of toilet paper...


And then a Strawberry Shortcake figurine...


And then a basket of Christmas books, the top of Strawberry Shortcake's house, and a few more figurines...


And then a Little People camper...


And then her backpack...


And then a Christmas stocking...


And then a Little People car...


And then a bracelet on his head... (but it kept slipping off)...


(A close-up of poor, sweet, tolerant Brody)


And then the Little People farm and Strawberry Shortcake figurine house...


And then the Little People minivan...


And a DVD.


I made her stop when she started dragging the coffee table over near Brody.

Ketchup Time, Volume 2

And we're back, with an exciting episode of Ketchup Time. (Volume 1 was waaay back in February in case you want to read it. Riveting stuff.)

Speaking of ketchup, does anyone really spell it "catsup?" I certainly don't. And if you do, do you pronounce it CAT-SUP? Because that's just kind of weird. I don't generally like to think of cats and ketchup together, and when I see it spelled that way, I do. And I also immediately switch the syllables and in my mind, I say, " 'sup, Cat?", as in, "What is happening, feline?" But the weird thing is, I don't have a cat, and wouldn't talk to it like that if I did.

And speaking of cats... a friend told me yesterday that she was staying at a friend's house a few weeks ago. Her friend owns a sick cat who gets to drink milk up on the counter. (Eww #1.) It sits on the dish towel for "padding" while it does this. (Eww #2.) And then she watched the friend dry the dishes later with the very same towel. (Eww #3.)

Okay, enough of that. My mind works in mysterious ways, and I don't really expect that anyone followed that or thought it was interesting. Just typing out loud.

I gasped out loud (GOL?) when I saw that my last post was November 20th. Yowza! Life has been fun and full, although a drag at times with sick kids and a sick hubby. I cringe when the first person gets sick, because you know those germs are just recycled until about April when it seems like everyone in the family is healthy again, all at the same time. 'Tis the season!

So get out your fries (or in my girls' case - APPLES - eww!)... it's Ketchup Time!

Emma's birthday party was super fun. We had 8 little girls here for Emma's 5th birthday party tea. We made fancy hats and fans and sipped tea like proper ladies. All of the little girls looked soooo cute!

Emma's friend Olivia...

Of course every little girl needs a feather boa!

Look at all the little lovelies!

I love this picture of Emma's friend, K. (So cute, Deann!)

Trying hard to get that pinky up! I hit thrift shops before the party and bought tea cups for all the girls to keep as party favors, along with their hats, fans and boas. So fun!

Such pretty little girls!

We also played musical chairs and had a sugar cube relay (which didn't work out as well as I'd hoped...) and read a story about a girl who had a tea party. It was a sweet morning. I'd been a little apprehensive about one thing, which turned out wonderfully; on the invitation we requested no gifts. We figured, it's a busy time of year, a bad time for many people financially, and mostly, we wanted Emma to recognize that a birthday celebration doesn't necessarily mean we get more "stuff." We weren't sure how she'd respond, but being that this was her first birthday party with friends, she didn't have any expectations. Instead, her friends all brought her hand-made cards. She absolutely LOVED them. Before the end of the day, she had me read each of them to her again at least five times, and they were by her side the rest of the weekend. I'm sure new toys would've been forgotten in no time, but these cards are TREASURES to her. We may have stumbled across a new birthday tradition...

- - -

Thanksgiving was a fun night, even though it seems my girls were on fast-forward all evening. My goodness. They were SO wound up. I don't suppose the cinnamon rolls for breakfast, snacks for lunch, the pumpkin pie, and pilgrim hat craft project with Grandma had anything to do with it...

The adult table...


The "kid" table... which has outgrown the adult table and is WAY more fun, anyway.


Emma insisted on eating the turkey leg. Classy.


Aunt Amy and Kenzie with Brody and Addie (who would NOT smile).

My mom had a fun Thanksgiving craft for the girls to do. We made pilgrim hats with cookies, a dab of frosting, a Rolo or Reece's Peanut Butter Cup and an orange Tic-Tac. They were so fun and easy and so cute! The girls loved making them... even if we all paid for the sugar high all. night. long. Even Kenzie ate more than her share!







- - -

The girls LOVED playing in the first real snowfall of the season... November 29th! Can you believe it?! Colorado's weather has been unreal this fall.




- - -

Other highlights of the last couple of weeks:

• The house is decorated for Christmas... almost. I still have the outside to do. We WILL have lights on the outside of the house this year, whether Gary does them or not. Possibly more to come on this... stay tuned.
• I let the girls put all the ornaments on the tree this year. It's fun to see a tree with ornaments only on the bottom third.
• My MOPS group had our Christmas brunch this week, and we all wore "festive" sweaters. The gaudier, the better. Mine jingled. I bought it at Savers for $5 and was certain it was the ugliest thing ever. I cringed when my girls oohed and ahhed over it... but I confess: I've grown to like it. Somehow sequined reindeer with jangly bell collars don't seem so bad when you're a mom. There. I said it.
• I read the Twilight series and went to see the movie... more on that later.
• We started some "marble jars" for the girls to help reward good behavior (although it goes both ways). Jury's still out about whether it's working or not.
• Grammy (Gary's mom) was visiting for the last week and we had a fun time. We didn't do a lot, but it's always fun to have her around.
• 

And of course, Brody's been growing and growing. He's just so fun. He's smiley and happy and giggly and just cute as can be. And he's never short on a little lovin' from his older sisters.



"Look mom! I'm making Brody smile!"


Because Brody likes this position...

...and KNOWS when I sit down (seriously... how do they know?!), my computer time comes in short spurts. But I have lots of blog posts rolling around in my head, and exponentially more to catch up in my Reader. I've said it before, but have never had the guts: I might have to mark them all as read and start over. It's too overwhelming! There is one blog I subscribe to that posts at least 10 times a day! WHO DOES THAT?! I need to simplify. The bad part is, I save some of my favorites to read until last, so those numbers are mounting like crazy. Kelly, Joanne, Meredith... I'm far into the double digits of unread posts with you guys. Someday I'll resurface in your comments... someday.

Okay. I'm done. The Ketchup bottle is empty. Funny post coming tomorrow. I promise it will make you laugh.