Hailey got tagged!!

Hailey and I were tagged by Calie and Faith.  Pretty funny!  Hailey has only lived with us for about 2 months, so we'll see how much we all know about each other.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

 

Hailey says:

1.  I have a sad story to tell.  My first family left me and my siblings with my mommy at their house when they moved to Texas.  Some nice people from the animal rescue found us and now I live with the Homeward Bound family.  (My human mommy says there is a movie about dogs with the same name.)

                                           

2.  I like my new family but I also like to bite the little boy's feet.  No one understands why, but they are just so cute and little!  They are not happy with me when I do that though.

                 

               Here I am with my cousin playing with Hayes

                 

 

3.  I like to sit in my mommy's seat.  Whenever she gets off her spot on the couch, I like to run and sit in it.  She always makes me get up though.  Something about a pack leader.  Whatever.

                   

                   

4.  I got a new toy for Christmas.  It makes a funny sound when I bite it.  When I first heard that sound, I barked and growled at it from across the room so much that my mommy took it away and called me crazy. 

                  

5.  I know when my mommy and daddy are leaving the house and I always go to the back door to be let outside.  Shhh.....I don't really have to go!  They may be onto me though.                

                   

6.  My family doesn't really know what kind of doggie I am.  My mom was a wire-haired terrier, but no one knows what kind of dog my dad is.  My human mommy kind of freaks out whenever anyone says I'm going to be big.  I've heard beagle, border collie, and jack russell.  We'll see.....heehee.

                  

                  

We tag:

1.  Jack the Beagle at Life at 7000 feet

2.  Cuddles and Snuggles at

Ministry So Fabulous!

and that's all because Faith tagged all my other friends with dogs!  But if you read this and have a dog and want to do this, consider yourself tagged!!

"8" Things Tag

Faith tagged me for this fun meme.  Here goes....

 

8 Shows I watch:
1. The Office

2.  Heroes

3.  Lost

4.  Prison Break

5.  Biggest Loser

6.  American Idol

7.   ER (last season, boo!)

8.  So You Think You Can Dance

 

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1.  Chick-fil-A

2.  Mama Ricotta's

3.  South 21

4.  The Penguin

5.  R & R Barbeque

6.  Outback Steakhouse

7.  PF Chang's

8.  Sonic

 

8 Thing that Happened to Me Today

1.  Woke up at 7am

2.  Took pictures of the kids finding gifts from Santa

3.  Got a Dr. Pepper in my stocking!

4.  Sat in the massage chair my dad got for Christmas

5.  Drove to in-laws

6.  Had brunch at brother-in-laws---biscuits and sausage gravy--yum!

7.  Cleaned up dog pee pee on mother-in-law's carpet

8.  Listened to my 8 yr old read the Christmas story from Luke 2---made me tear up!

 

8 Things I look forward to

1.  The rest of the family getting to my in-laws

2.  Eating dinner with the family

3.  Visiting with my buddies Ashleigh and Mandy on Saturday

4.  Seeing my new nephew Ty on Sunday

5.  Getting a burger from South 21 soon

6.  Going back to Brazil

7.  Going to another country on a mission trip

8.   My friends being blessed with a baby

 

8 Things I Wish For

1.  My friends to be blessed with a baby

2.  Seeing my son come to know Christ as his Savior, hopefully early in his life

3.  To go back to Brazil

4.  For my puppy to stop biting

5.  For my puppy to stop barking in her kennel

6.  More patience and self-control

7.  SNOW!!

8.  SNOW!!

 

I'm supposed to tag 8 people but I tag anyone who is at a loss for blog material.

Merry Christmas!!

The Bridges Take Manhattan

I don't really have a lot of cool stories from our trip to NYC to blog about.  We walked a lot, rode the subway everywhere, wore lots of layers, and had a ton of fun.  I'm just going to share a bunch of pictures and leave it at that!   You're welcome!

                                   

                       Rockefeller Center Tree and ice skating rink

 

                                   

                         Daniel in front of Radio City Music Hall

 

                       

                            In front of some big ornaments--ha!

 

                      

                                  The coolest looking Loft ever!

 

                      

My kickin' new hat (and the guy I bought it from in the brown coat!)

 

Central Park from the top of Rockefeller Center (60something floors up)

 

THAT'S how high we were

 

me and the Empire State Building

 

We got 50% off tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular!  Isn't that a great name?  A few hours before the show we snatched those puppies up and our seats were awesome!  Orchestra level, 19 rows back, on the aisle! 

The Rockettes as reindeer

 

That chick in the middle had some GUNS!

 

dancing Santas

 

awesome way to end the show

 

 

 

on the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. (Statue of Liberty in the far right background)

 

Empire State Building and Manhattan Bridge (taken from Brooklyn Bridge)

Can you tell my engineer husband loves him some bridges?

 

The famous Wollman Rink in Central Park

(Although did you know it's now called Trump Wollman Rink Skating Center? or something like that.  He owns everything!)

 

I think this is my longest post ever.  Congratulations if you made it to the end.  You deserve a prize.  Unfortunately Mr. Trump and his city have taken all my money.  So you'll just have to settle for a "thanks for playin'!"    

Christmas Card Carousel

I'm joining my friend Faith's partay today. I, too, love getting Christmas cards this time of year. Some people are so creative! I like to see how my friends' families have grown or read about what they've been up to.

When we went to the mountains this fall, someone took a picture of all of us. After I saw it I told Daniel we needed to use it for our Christmas card. So we added a few more and this is what I came up with:

Go on over to Faith's to find the links to other fun Christmas cards.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Tour of Homes

Welcome to my home!

While you're here, you can enjoy some Russian tea. That's my favorite drink of the season. My mom starts making it at Thanksgiving and we have it all through the holidays. It's super easy to make. And since you asked, here's the recipe!

Russian Tea

3 quarts of water

1 can pineapple juice

juice of 3 oranges

juice of 3 lemons

1 cup sugar

2 family size tea bags

2-3 cinnamon sticks

1 Tbs whole cloves

Combine all ingredients in large pot and simmer. Enjoy!!

(And don't even talk to me about the powdered kind. Sacrilege!)

When you came in you saw our fancy outdoor decorations.

We usually have garland and lights on the porch rails but I haven't gotten around to that yet, so it probably won't happen. But ENJOY THE WREATHS!!

My fancy artificial tree with no topper. In the office with a door so we can keep the puppy out. Just when I was past having to keep the kids away from it.....

And no tree skirt! Man, I am slack this year! ha! And yes, it has that kids-decorated-and-my-controlling-nature-didn't-take-over look. I'm so proud!

The kids' tree upstairs. Notice that THEY have a tree skirt.

Here's one of my favorite ornaments. My brother's girlfriend made clay ornaments for all the family last year and they are so cute. Don't you love the bald guy?

I try to buy a frame ornament every year. Here's last year's.

The TV limits my mantel decorating. I'm jealous of all the fancy mantels out there!

Notice the newly added extra stocking for the new puppy.

The stockings were handmade by my grandmother Mimi and my mom. Mimi made my stocking when I was little. She made Daniel's when we first got married. She started Rebecca's when I was pregnant with her but then developed brain cancer. My mom had to finish it for her. So when Hayes came along my mom made his stocking. Anyway those stockings are very special to me.

So thanks for stopping by! Visit BooMama's Tour of Homes post for more Christmas fun!!

The Big Apple

I probably should have posted something every day we were in NY because I'll never have time now that I'm home!  Anyway, for various reasons, that wasn't possible so this will have to do. 

So I hear a few of my buddies saw us on Regis & Kelly.  Since Daniel's been eyeball deep in football since we got home, I haven't watched it yet. 

Let me start by saying that Kelly is very cute and how in the world does somebody stand in these shoes? 

                        

                        

At commercial breaks, Regis kept teasing Kelly about Anderson.  Apparently they are texting buddies.  During this break, Regis said to the audience, "I'll just leave the two love birds alone," and came over to talk to us.  It was pretty funny.

                       

After the show, they had the audience stay so they could tape for the show that will air on Christmas Eve.  So we might be on TV again!  Don't they look thrilled? 

                       

This is in the corner where the car was.  It took like 7 men to move that car out of the studio.  They rolled it right across the stage in front of us and out a big door onto the street.

            

          Random studio pics to show you how teeny tiny it is

                      

                      

 

Look at all that stuff up there.  Right in the middle at the bottom is the trivia prize wheel that comes down.

                      

 

Here's Gellman giving us instructions, like how to clap.  I kid you not.  Ask me sometime and I'll demonstrate. 

                     

So that's it for our brush with fame and celebrities.  Not too terribly exciting but it was fun.  Stay tuned for a gazillion pictures from the top of Rockefeller Center. 

I'm leavin' on a jet plane......

So in case the title doesn't clue you in, I'm in the airport. And our flight was supposed to leave thirty minutes ago. But no worries, people!

Cause I'm leavin' on a..... well you know.

My sweet hubby and I are on our way to the Big Apple! And the kids are at Nana's!

I've always wanted to go at Christmas and I'm just so excited about it!

And if you aren't doing anything important tomorrow morning, tune in to Regis and Kelly and you might see me! Well, you might catch a quick glimpse of us right before commercials anyway. Look for a bald guy!

And who knows I might win $250 gift certificate to Omaha Steak! Yay for red meat!

Best.Dad.Ever.

I knew I married a good man before tonight, but this night has sealed it.  Look what I saw when I got home from accountability group tonight.

                   

My husband let the kids open the new cupcake maker and MADE CUPCAKES!!!

AND THEY TOOK PICTURES!!!

Before I post the pictures, let me fill you in on what he said.  When I walked in I saw the open, empty box on the chair and two of the above cupcakes in the container on the table.  So I knew what was going on.  I said, "Oh my word!  You are the best dad!" 

Then I saw the look on his face.  The look that says "you've got to be kidding me" and "wait until you hear about it" and "aren't you lucky you weren't here". 

Let's just say it wasn't one of the sweet happy smiling faces that are on the box. 

He said it took forever to make 4 cupcakes.  Like seriously over an hour.  It uses the microwave, people!  What he actually said was, "It's not exactly an Easy Bake Oven."  And I had to remind him, since he's a boy and has probably never even seen an Easy Bake Oven, that those things cooked with a LIGHT BULB and a cupcake would have taken approximately 3 days to bake. 

Oh, the memories.

So anyway, here is the evidence. 

                      

     No pics of actually baking them, but here's the icing process.

                      

                 

                 The proud baker, complete with a fancy apron

                      

            

                 I don't know what this is but he sure is cheesing.

                      

 

                                 Candidate for best dad ever

                      

                      

 

                                                  More cheese

                      

 

                                        The finished products

                      

Again no pictures of them actually eating them, but I ate mine when I got home took a bite of mine. 

How can I put this?  Ever see the Friends episode about  the "mocolate", when Monica tries to make desserts from the fake chocolate for the guy from Laverne and Shirley?  That's what ran through my mind as I was running to the trash can.  (Have fun, Amy!)