Christmas and Carrots

All the pics below are mixed up. If I wasn't so tired I would tell what they are about. I will probably do that a little at a time over the next few weeks. For now just enjoy.

Curious George could do summer salts. Shad was showing her how.I got kate these cute little rabbits, they came with a bathroom. If you look close you can see a little toilet she put one on.Shad and Tanner watching Tanner's little gun that shot off twirly things One hit me and it shocked him.Kate got lots of play jewelry, she put it all on of course.Gum!

I love watching Shad and Tanner discussing things.

Tanner got these little Styrofoam airplanes Lizzie said they cost about a dollar or so and it was Tanners favorite thing. He shared one with his family, he one to each of them. It was really sweet to watch.

Christmas Eve Dinner

We watched lots of movies

Danielle made these aprons for the Lamms

I love this pictureTanner in one of my new play outfits

Aren't they beautiful!

Amy and Danielle still taking silly pics. Amazingly they are quite beautiful!

Check out these eyes!

I love these next three pics they show why the little kids love Clay!

Steve took advantage of the only time the rain wasn't pouring down. They didn't last long, but at least got to go out for a little while.

Kate helping with breakfast

I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged. Life has been pretty busy with getting ready for Christmas, company, and life.

Part of my problem is the daunting task of going though the pics. I took 221! I have a hard time throwing away my grandchildren. I think every pic is special for a different reason. I have all the originals so don't panic Lizzie. I just resized all of them and deleted the resized ones I knew I wouldn't post. So I am going to just post them. I hope you'll go down and read the blog too. But if you don't at least I have written it for posterity!

Christmas was absolutely wonderful. We had a house full. It started with Lizzie's family and Danielle and Clay. Amy came up the next day. I had so much fun showing Tanner and Kate all my Santa's. Over the years I have been collecting Santa s, mostly from Costco, a few others from family. I have looked forward to the day my grand kids would be at my house at Christmas time when they would be old enough to get a big charge out of them. I wasn't disappointed. Tanner and Kate were really excited, especially Tanner. We talked all about what they did at night (the Santa's) whether they walked around and talked to each other like on Toy Story or if they just stood there. I love the world of pretend that little kids live in. His eyes were excited and pondering it.Later in the week my Mom and Dad and Jake's Family came on Christmas Eve. My Mom and Dad stayed for 2 nights and Amy and Mike came back on Friday after they left. Lizzie's Family and Jake's left on Sunday after Christmas. Mike and Amy left on Sunday night after Christmas. That left Danielle and Clay for one more night and they left on Monday. It was a great couple of weeks. I ate way too much, I gained 10 lbs. More than I have gained in years!!!! I am now trying to get back into gear. I have lost about 3 and a half pounds, I am never going to do that again. 10lbs. is just too much to get rid of!!!

I got lovely and thoughtful gifts from everyone, thank you everyone!!

It was so fun to watch the Ruby and Tanner play together. They did really well. We had very few squabbles. Kate was busy going from person to person saying "hold you?" Miles was a kick to watch. He still is a little wobbly, so not running yet. He would just walk around and watch people. He was so quiet that we would wonder where he was sometimes. He loved the stairs and did pretty well with them. I loved watching him. He was pretty friendly after he got warmed up.

The highlight of my week was when we basically kicked out the parents of our grand kids. (it didn't take a minute for them to decide when I said I thought it was time for them all to go out on a date) So Jake and Lyndsey, Shad and Lizzie went out for a night on the big town. It was funny to hear them both talk about what to do after they went out to eat. Jake and Lyndsey found a place to play pool, and Lizzie and Shad went to Walmart I think. They both got home pretty early. It was kind of funny. While they were gone, I put Kate and Miles to bed and had Ruby and Tanner all to myself. It was soooo much fun. We got out the sugar cookie dough, Tanner set up the chairs next to counter "perfect" to use Tanner's words, I gave them each their own little pile of flour and dough. They took turns with the rolling pin and cookie cutters. They were so cute, they didn't fight at all they were happy to share. When I got the dough out of the fridge I noticed that there were two finger prints in the dough, they looked like a Jacob pick. I said to Ruby, " Somebody took a snitch of dough, I bet it was your daddy! What do you think?" She looked in the bowl giggled and said "I think it was him" We all laughed and they asked if they could have a snitch, I laughed and said "okay just one though" They continued through the process asking and then when my back would be turned they would take another snitch of dough laugh and say they snitched some more. They thought they were so funny sneaking bites while I wasn't looking. But of course telling me every time they took a bite and I would laugh and tell them how bad they were. Then we frosted them while Amy and Danielle set the table for the tea party. We didn't have time to dress up so we just got the food and tea ready and sat at the table. Ruby and Tanner sat beside each other and Amy and Danielle sat by each other and I sat at the head of the table, because it was my house. This was Tanner's first tea party, so when I asked them what their names were he watched as they said their made up names and got really excited when he realized we were going to pretend. Ruby was an experienced tea party goer, so she was already into it. When I asked them how they got there it was really fun to watch Tanner sizing up the situation and getting ready with his story. By the time we got really into conversation he was asking questions and had pushed the tea and cookies away, put his arms on the table with the sweetest happiest face you've ever seen. He took off on Danielle saying she had a few children and she left for the tea party because her house smelled like poopy diapers. He thought that was hilarious, so when it was his turn he said he had 10 babies or 10 girls and 10 boys I can't remember for sure, but they all had poopy diapers and his house stunk so bad he had to come to get away. He was laughing so hard that we all laughed really hard. It was so fun, I have never seen him so animated. It was truly the most fun and magical 2 hours all week. There is something special and unique about pretending with little kids. It reminded me of the time that Ruby and I rode pretend horses to Africa. We shook the house so much Jake and Lyndsey could feel it downstairs and were laughing their heads off after they figured out it was us. We on the other hand didn't know anything was going on because of our very vigorous horse rides, we were just having a great time in Africa.

When my Mom and Dad came, my mom brought sooooo much candy. Between the few things we made and bought and the things she brought it felt unending! I was so glad when it was all gone. It was delicious obviously.

It rained so much and was so cold that we never got to go outside. I was a little sad about that. But we had a great time anyway.

The drive to Portland and back to pick up Lizzie, Shad and the kids was awful. It was during the horrible snowy time. Once we got past Salem we had to drive so slow, and after we picked up Shad we had to drive about 25 mph or less. It was awful. I felt bad for Clay and Danielle because they came in even later than we did. Thankfully it was raining on the pass over the mountains on the way to the coast.

Christmas Eve was sweet, Danielle was in charge of the program, she asked my mom to tell the story of Christs birth. Anyone who has ever heard my mom tell a story knows how sweet that would be. Kate and Tanner were really into it. Jake's family was in the winter storm on their way, it was getting so late we had to do it without them.

After everyone was gone, it took me a while to recoup. I still have Christmas decor up. I am hoping to start taking it down tomorrow and Saturday.

I have made a goal for this year to work on my procrastination weakness. One of the main focuses is to get b-day presents a month before and Christmas Presents done or purchased by November 1st. Another thing I am going to do is work in my greenhouse for a half hour to an hour 4-5 days a week. I love being out there, but when it becomes a jungle or a mildewy mess, I don't like to be out there at all. I figure if I go out basically everyday, I will enjoy it because it will always be producing and looking great. I have gone out twice this week and once last week. Tomorrow I am planning on going to Newport, but I will go out to the greenhouse first or I won't make my goal for this week. I even went out on two of the rainy stormy windy days. It is perfectly still out there, but it is cool, so I wear sweatshirts. The next ten days it is supposed to be partly cloudy- sunny. I am excited, I am going to start planting. I got out my greenhouse book and was surprised at all I can plant and grow now. This is the year!!!! These are a few of the carrots that are left.
Well I have gone on long enough. I just wanted to document all these things and for those that are willing to plow through it all they will know what is going on in my life.