Newest member of the family

Posted by Crystal





This is Molly
She was a surprise gift for me this weekend
She's about a year and a half
She's a Dorkie
(Daschund and Yorkie, I love that)
She's spunky, ferocious, smart and hilarious
Her resume includes:
sitting up, laying down, rolling over, fetching things as big as her, chasing cats twice her size, becoming an inch tall when sharing the back yard with the giants, removing limbs and ears from stuffed animals after she violently shakes them to their death
and my favorite,
finding that other "Dorkie" in the mirror and letting her have it!






11 comments »

Girly Girl Fun

Posted by Crystal

Ahh, Decisions decisions...






There's just something about being pampered, huh girls!


And just for randomness:
This is our dog Sheriff. When the temperatures were so cold outside, the dogs got to come in during the day and night. Now, they hardly ever step paw in the house so they got pretty spoiled! They were doing a great job at staying on their rugs (most of the time) but just to remind them, Mr. Squeaky Penguin had to reer his pointy head again. (Sheriff is absolutely terrified of this thing and the noises it makes!) The good boy stayed on his rug though!

"He's STARING at me, I can't take it!"








8 comments »

Significance

Posted by Crystal

Christmas morning tradition

Sweet gratitude (unforced even)



This Christmas was very special



My heart is aching, yet full of joy as I reflect. I want to remember this Christmas just as it was. Our time to focus on Jesus, loved ones and relationships. I hope all of you (every single one of you reading this) had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a Blessed 2009!



6 comments »

Sledding Fun!

Posted by Crystal

What did we do in all this snow? Well it involved some great friends, a 'want-to-be' sled and a hill!


Thanks to Darrin and BJ's planning, we (really) did enjoy a sledding trip on this good sized mound. It was short-lived because the two biggest kids took the inflatable trampoline/sled down the enormous hill TOGETHER and it exploded at the bottom. Poor Madi was heart broken (It was her birthday present a few years ago) I assured her that she would be getting a brand new one. BJ asked her "Will you forgive me Madi?" and she replied (after a good cry), "Of course I will Daddy." And I'm guessing it didn't hurt when BJ built this in our back yard today-





Not the same as the "D" farm sledding hill, but hey, it was worth the 2 hours of squealing fun today!

4 comments »

Posted by Crystal

This year all of our Christmas cards are hand made by these little artists. We spent a lot of time at the table singing Christmas songs and brainstorming each card. What fun! They turned out so cute! About 20 cards in, Madi realized she was spelling "Chirstmas" wrong. She was so upset and disappointed in herself. I told her that these cards are going out to our loved ones and good friends, and they'll think they're special no matter how she spelled her words. I think she perked up after that.







Morgan and Madi started to help out this year with lighting the tree. They found it was a job that was frustrating and took team work... HA!







Ahh... Snow!


Hearts of service here. They wanted to shovel our neighbor's drive and walk. They got some help from Daddy too, so sweet!



Soon the act of service turned into a temptation to play since Daddy was doing such a good job...



Here's what happens when your star falls off and you don't want to go get the ladder-


I think I found a solution to dusting my plant shelves!

10 comments »

Any one else?

Posted by Crystal

Does any one else feel like checking off their "to do" list is getting unbearable? Auggghhhh!

Well.... new blog post?

Check!

Now to try and tackle the remaining 15 items on the list...ok, maybe tomorrow (and I'm thinking 15 might be an understatement)

Happy Weekend to you! Stay warm and cozy!

1 comments »

A Wii Bit of Motivation...

Posted by Crystal


The kids have been working on a Wii for almost 2 months now. This is their chore chart BJ created-


The deal was that they earn half and we will pay the other half. Well they saw the chore chart and thought they would earn it that first night! Literally! So I had to come up with some visual for them to see just how much it was going to take. Here's one of 4 pages that they had to complete!
They were almost on their last page and they got a little bit disappointed and slacked off. (Just like us if we had to save and work that long!) So what do we do? We went and purchased the system and put it on display at eye level. It stays in the box until that last box is checked off.


My floors are swept and vacuumed, furniture dusted, clothes put away, play room disaster cleaned, and they're still ready for more tonight. They are motivated again to say the least! I think after the system is earned, they can start earning games maybe. It's great motivation. Also, we paid them actual money at times for extra work and they could decide if they wanted to put it toward the Wii money or keep it. I was surprised at how often they put it towards the Wii when they could have gone to the dollar store and blown it. They do not get that from their parents' modeling, that's for sure!!
I'm pretty sure we'll be having a Family Fun Night and Wiing it up very soon now! I think Daddy is just as excited to get it out of the box as 3 little ones are! OK, I am too.


12 comments »