No Cats at the Dinner Table!

We only have a couple dinner table rules:

1. Always say please and thank you.
2. No throwing food on the floor.
3. No cats at the dinner table.

Lizzie always tries to bring her stuffed cat, Meow, to the dinner table. Just recently, Julie has been trying to bring Mimi to the dinner table as well. Every time the response is the same. We say, "No cats at the dinner table!" "They will get dirty and ruined!"

However, it is Christmas season and that extra good cheer has gotten to me. So we have made an exception. Meowma has been allowed to join us at the dinner table. She even gets her own seat. She actually sits there throughout the whole meal, watching, purring, and sometimes sleeping.

Merry Christmas Meowma! Our little gift to you during the Christmas season! She has certainly moved up in the world from her starving, wandering the streets days!

Trimming the Tree

The Christmas festivities are in full swing! We threw our tree up and had a family decorating party the day after Thanksgiving. The Christmas spirit is strong around our house and these little girls are all pumped for the holiday!

It was so fun to watch Lizzie decorate the tree. She placed all the ornaments on the bottom row of braches. Took them off, rearranged them, placed them in a different order, took them off again, replace them, and so forth. It kept her busy all night!

Now, Julie's style was more of a hoarder. She gathered up as many ornaments as she could hold in her tiny hands then gaurded them from her big sister with all her might.

At the end of the night we had a beautiful Christmas tree with a ton of ornaments all lined up along the bottom branches.
I don't think Lizzie even noticed the next morning that they had all been rearranged magically in the night.

The irony being that our tree is still lopsided despite my rearranging! Now there are NO ornaments on the bottom 2 feet of the tree. Julie is too much of a busy body, and low hanging ornaments are just too much temptation!

Largest Cruise Ship in the World

I have been waiting to get my hands on these pictures and here they are! The whole S family (minus all the kids) hopped on the largest cruise ship in the world and we headed off to the Carribean. It was a week of luxury, relaxing, eating, and being waited on hand and foot.....aaaaaahh...that week became my new happy place :) .



Grandma and Grandpa W were so very kind and watched the kids for us while we were away. Big thank you to them for sure! The kids had many adventures of their own from what I hear!

This cruise ship was a monster- just gigantic. There were endless activities, restaraunts, pools, hot tubs, entertainment, live music, and did I mention free food everywhere??

We stopped at various Carribean ports and enjoyed the beaches, shopping, and scuba diving!

Linda made these fun matching headbands for all the girls!

This was our second family cruise but this time Stephanie and Blake were able to join us!

The beaches are always a favorite. Unless they are filled with jellyfish!! (One beach at one point had us all pretty worried )

The entire experience consisted of : shopping, eating, reading, sleeping, swimming, talking, laughing, rock climbing, zip lining, gaming, show watching, dancing, and beaching.

The best part was the fun moments we had together as a whole group. Every night we would all eat dinner together and you better believe there was a lot of laughing and craziness. It was a week that I will not forget....especially since I am always slipping away to my fantasy land where I get to cruise all the time :) A big thank you to the Chris and Linda who made this great time possible!

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And this concludes all the catching up from my little section of "Blast from the Past"!!

Mimi

Julie's lovey, Mimi:
I had to do a little surgery on this poor cat's face. Julie comforts herself at night by sucking on her nose!

Mascara Like Mommy

Its a Sunday morning. Need I say more? I am trying to get the girls and myself dressed up and ready for church. Dave had to leave early so its just the three of us. Julie is dressed and ready until her diaper leaks and I have to change her. Lizzie takes this opportunity to play with Mommy's makeup. And so I head into the bathroom and this is what I find:

First Day of Preschool

Lizzie and Josh on their first day of preschool together.


We started these kids in the two year old class together this Fall. (They both just missed the 3 year old class cut off.) It was a Mommy and Me class so Mary and I started out taking turns going to class while the other one watched Lucy and Julie. However, it soon became clear that Lucy is not quite ready to be away from her Mommy! Because of this, among other reasons, Lizzie and Josh just had their last day of preschool this week. They had fun but they actually still have three years to attend preschool so I think we will try it again next Fall, and this way she won't be so bored of it by the time she reaches Kindergarten!

Local Fun

This picture brings back great memories for me. Almost every Wednesday we would head to the local farmers market and stock up on the fresh produce and other healthy goodies! The afterwards they hold concerts in the park, overlooking the water. This picture of Lizzie was during one of those performances. Lizzie was attached to her sunglasses all summer long!