Paige's BFF, Brittany came over today around noon. She is spending the night one last time for 2008. I took the girls to swim at the club for about two and a half hours. I have a feeling they will sleep well tonight.

These pictures are not that great but I think you can see they were enjoying themselves. It was next to impossible to get them to stand still that is why I told them to float on their backs. At least that way they were all in the picture without one of them going under as I snapped the photo...that happened a few times.

Here are some random shots from the past week.....enjoy!

Here are Paige and Megan getting one last picture with Oliver and Jasper before they went to bed on Christmas Eve. The elves went back to the North Pole with Santa, but they will return for more fun next year.
Below the girls were hanging up Rowdy and Rebel's stockings.

Santa brought the girls "Littlest Pet Shop" games for their Ninetendo DS games. They seem to be a big hit!

Paige and Megan with the "2009 Joe Boxer" calendar from Uncle Bud and Aunt Deb.

Megan posing with her ornament from Santa.

Rebel and Rowdy in rawhide bliss!

"Megan Faces"
The face above says "WOW my own gumball machine!"
The face below says "WOW peppermint POP ROCKS!"

Paige made me this pretty blue and green sparkle ornament. It looks like a globe.

Deb and Megan having a little chocolate fondue!
Just one of the cool ideas that makes Aunt Deb the coolest Aunt ever!

Testing out the new bikes! Later they went for bike rides and they LOVE their bikes.
Lucky little punks have the best bikes in the house...and probably the best on the block too!

Aunt Deb knits....mittens!

Pictures with the boy dogs!

Is Bud creative or what? Check out the vest he fixed up for Joe. It has led lights on it and Joe was "all lit up" and he hadn't even had a drink!

Joe as Hannah Montana!

Paige getting a little clarinet practice in. She plays "jingle bells" for us.

My girl always knows how to make me smile!

Paige got this cute little seahorse webkinz for Megan, she named it Jenny.

Paige wearing the scarf that Aunt Deb knitted her for Christmas 2006!

Merry Christmas to all...and a festive New Year too!

Decorating the Christmas Tree
12-07-08

Megan helped cut the netting and then she got to pull it off. She was pretty excited to be chosen for this special job.

Then she tried on the star just for fun!


Mike puts the star on the tree...it's a delicate procedure. He has to stuff the lights into the star then he has to make the star stay on the tree. He's good at it so he gets to be the star guy each and every year.


Please don't call the animal cruelty hot line on us, we just made Rebel wear the candy cane antlers for one very quick shot. He was a good sport about the whole thing too.

I really have no idea why Megan looks so crazy...she was just having one of those days!
I would have thought that playing out in the snow for over an hour when it was 22 degrees would have gotten her energy out but I don't think it had any effect on her.

Rebel and Paige having a snuggle, they do this a lot!

Megan was singing Christmas carols to us from one of the little song books that we have.

We actually have more ornaments than tree branches this year. The kids get an ornament from Santa each year plus they get some in the stockings and as gifts from others too. Pretty soon there won't be any room for our (mine and Mikes) ornaments it will just be the kids tree.
Someday I would like to get a small (5 ft) fake tree to put in the front bay window in the den and I could put all my fancy glass ornaments on it.

Happy Holidays from our home to yours!

P.S. The girls don't usually wear matching clothes, but they just got their t-shirts for the "Nutty Nutcracker" yesterday so they both HAD to wear them today!

Picking out the Christmas tree with the elves of course!

We went to get our Christmas tree Friday night. We wanted to get it before it started snowing on Saturday. Good thing we did because it started snowing on Saturday morning and we got about an inch or two. Our tree was bundled up in the garage until we brought it in Sunday afternoon to get the lights and decorations on it.

Tim (the manager of the nursury) was not working Friday night so he missed the annual pose with the Izzie tree, so we recruited Aaron and he was a good sport.

My new point and click camera with hot pink highlights!

I got myself a new camera, nothing fancy like my sisters (that would be our dream camera) but just a point and click camera. The price was right (under forty bucks) and it has a bigger screen than Paige's Kodak (the little camera that I have been using for the past few years). We have a Nikon but it's kind of big and bulky for quick shots and for taking along on outings. I wasn't planning on getting myself a camera but it seemed like a good deal so I got it. We had been selling them at work on Black Friday we sold out of them within the first 25 minutes. Then on Saturday a lady returned two of them unopened so they were sitting at customer service. I asked if anyone had dibs on them and they said no so I snapped one up. Then when I got home I looked out on line and they go for anywhere from $48.00 to $78.00 plus shipping. So I did okay because I only paid $38.00 and I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and stand in line in the cold.
Here are some of the first shots with my new camera...they were taken on Sunday, 11-30-08 please ignore the incorrect date stamp for some reason Mike thought it was the 28th.

By the way the girls are wearing make up because they were about to go to the dress rehearsal for the holiday show at their dance studio. I hate putting make up on them and they hate getting it put on and then they hate scrubbing it off. But this is good...they think make up is too much work so hopefully they will remember this when they are teens and not pile it on.

We took these after the girls dress rehearsal for the "Nutty Nutcracker". We took them to Don Pablos for dinner.

Paige would not agree to go out to dinner unless she could wipe some of her make up off. She tried to get the lipstick off and we took the eyeliner off as well. She does not like looking "different" but Megan didn't care she just wiped-smeared some of the lipstick off.

Don't you just love Megan's smile? She looks so mischievous!

Oliver and Jasper came along too, and they love chips but no salsa please.