Future Blackmail Photos

'nuff said.

Christmas arrived!!!!

It was a good day. My pictures uploaded backwards, so I will tell about the day backwards. While I made a ham (my first time in the 6 years we've been married, 'cause I think they're gross. Miguel likes them though, so this was one of his Christmas presents.) After dinner we decorated another gingerbread house. We really like the gingerbread houses. I think they're going to become an annual thing.

Here is Miguel while we were decorating the gingerbread house. So cute. Typical Miguel picture.

Here's the loot. The kids really made out this year thanks to the budget. Yep, we've put money away every paycheck, just for Christmas. Nope, I didn't wrap a thing. Not one single present. Yep, it's cause I am lazy. Work has been super crazy and no fun at all. I've been stressed out, strike that, I've been stressed-the-heck-out and just couldn't deal with it. I know, selfish mom. I'll get better, I promise.

Here's our Christmas tree. I loved having a live tree this year. The scent wasn't impressive, though, which was a disappointment. I think we'll go live again next year. In the spirit of the unwrapped presents, we didn't put any ornaments on our tree either. We have tons, we just didn't get them out. We only used the ornaments the kids made at church. I like our tree very much.

And lastly - the annual picture of the animals. The pretty one is also quite dumb, but thankfully he is calming down quite a bit. He is lazy and just doesn't learn the same way as the others. It's a really good thing he's so pretty. Sadie (the small one) still follows me around like the wonderful puppy she is. Sarge (the one laying down) is totally Miguel's dog and follows Miguel around the way Sadie follows me around.

Christmas 2009 was a huge success.

Random randomness

Silly kids, dog update and we got a Christmas tree!!!!

It's a real tree! We had a fake one we inherited from some friends, but one of the dogs destroyed it (sigh). Anyway, I'm really excited to have a LIVE tree and I'm looking forward to the homey Christmas-tree scent in the house. We haven't decorated the tree yet, but it will happen prior to Christmas day. What you see now is what the kids have been coming home from church with. Thank you nursery for providing us with new, home-made (church-made?) ornaments.

Work is nuts for me, but Miguel is feeling pretty good Thank goodness.

Katie has decided to potty-train herself. It's been interesting, to say the least. When she turned 2, she decided she no longer wanted to wear diapers. I haven't bought a package since. We do LOTS of laundry, but stickers seem to be the magic ingredient to potty-training success in the Felix house, especially if they have kitties on them.

Sherman (the "puppy") is HUGE. He's still a spaz, even though he'll be turning 3 next June. He has calmed down a little in the past 6 months, but he still bucks like a crazed horse when he gets excited. When he sees someone outside of our fence he will start jumping and barking at the same time. It's almost as though the two actions are connected, somehow. He'll jump so high his body easily gets above the fence. Thank goodness he's lazy and has never tried to jump the fence.

And after Halloween...

Thanksgiving!!! I know, these pictures don't seem like Thanksgiving pictures, but they are :)

In the background you can see our never-ending home-improving (new flooring and refinishing the walls - begone wainscotting!).



The kids saw a gingerbread house kit at the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving and we thought it would be a great time. So while I was finishing up dinner (which was fantastic, by the way), Miguel helped the kids with their very first gingerbread house. It was pre-constructed, so they had a great time slathering on the icing and of course, putting on the finishing candy-touches.

Visit from Grandpa..and Halloween

Grandpa was able to take vacation and came to our house for 2 whole weeks! We celebrated 4 birthdays while he was here. He also spent a lot of time getting used to being around a preschooler and a toddler again, cause it's been awhile for him. He spent a lot of time going on walks and was even stopped by the cops twice! I kept telling him at least he's making memories of good times in Tennessee...haha.

He took walks everyday and on one of the walks was stopped by a policeman making sure he was okay. There aren't many sidewalks here and the officer wanted to make sure he wasn't stranded. The second incident was a bit more interesting. He'd hopped a fence to take some pictures of an historical property nearby, and was caught! Though, in my Dad's defense, he had looked for a formal entrance and ticket booth to legitimize his presence prior to hopping said fence. Nevertheless, he was placed in the back of a squad-car and taken to the ticket-booth (which was quite a distance away, across a main highway, on a separate historical property).

This is the thing great memories are made of.

Halloween was fun - I wanted to make costumes, but work has been insane and I'm grateful to have time with my family and I don't want to squander it with crafts taking me away from them...and I'm lazy- teehee. Katie was Batgirl and Josh was a Jedi.

Here are some shots of good times while Grandpa was here along with pics at the Branch Halloween party, the kids in their costumes, and Birthdays. Enjoy!

Also...Blogger is smarter than me and not allowing me to format today, so I'm very sorry for what seem to be the giant run-on paragraph that is this blog post. Have a great day!

Josh quote of the week

"Daddy, can we watch Cast Holes on Marbles Marbles?"
"Watch what?"
"Cast Holes on Marbles Marbles."
(TV in the background on the History Channel) "...we now return to Castles on Modern Marvels"

Peek-a-boo!

I guess they never get too old for this...