Test video

Feel free to ignore ... just trying it to see if it works. It's just Keira jumping in the trampoline!

I'm Back!

So Best Buy worked it's magic and voila, it only took them a week and a half. Yippee! So I am back in the technology age now. Give me a few days to catch up as I am way behind e-mail wise.

We had a great christmas. This was the first Christmas that Keira really understood the whole presents thing, but once she opened her first one, she got the idea pretty quick. And since she opened presents at 3 different places, she got lots of practice. Can't say what toy is her favorite as she has spent a lot of time playing with a lot of different ones. She loves the trampoline (it's one of the little ones (though bigger than I expected) and really loves all her Diego toys. The Diego train has been a big hit.

Most memorable thing Keira said during all the Christmas festivities? Get ready for a heart-warming moment here ... The first present she happened to open at our house, she rips the paper off the box, opens the box, and see that there are clothes inside, and says "Clothes, I don't like clothes" and throws the box behind her. Of course Wade and I just burst out laughing and she moves on and tries to find another box with her name on it!

Keira ate her Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls on her new Dora plate that grandma and papa got her.

My favorite present ... Wade would probably like me to say the earrings that he bought me, but really, it's the Ped Egg. I have talked about wanting one of these things since they came out, but just never bought one, but found it in my stocking on christmas morning - and it works great! Wade's favorite present is probably the Boys will be Boys book about the Dallas cowboys - he has already finished it. It has some fairly humorous parts in it.

Peanut got a new bed for christmas, but alas, she is still sleeping in ours! She also got several toys, all of which she has already destroyed s she is one of those dogs that doesn't stop chewing until she can get the squeaker out!

I hope that you all had wonderful Christmases an wish you a great 2009!

I'll hopefully have some videos to post later!

No Computer for 3 weeks!

Yes, you read it right. I am going to be computer-less for three weeks. I had brought the computer upstairs the other night because I needed a recipe and the printer was out of ink ... set the computer on the counter and went about my business. Was putting dishes away from the dishwasher and dropped a bowl on top of it, breaking off the N key. Ugh. Took it to best buy where it is under warranty and they have to send it out to fix it. And it will take about 3 weeks. Double Ugh. So I am turning it over tomorrow and I will be absent for awhile. I will be able to check e-mail at night when Wade gets home, but that will be it. (And for those of you wondering how I am typing the letter N right now -- you can still sorta push it down, the thing underneath the letter still works).

So, all that being said - A Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Ha ha. Seriously though, I wish all of you a very happy holiday. If you are traveling, please be safe. Since our trip out here, I still am sorta freaked about highway driving. So, please be mindful of other drivers and don't drive if the weather isn't appropriate! Enjoy all the time you can with your families and cut the kids some slack and let them have lots of cookies and desserts! :)

See you in the new year!

Love and Hugs!
Hallie

Christmas Cookies

By far, my favorite christmas tradition is making cookies. Last year I went crazy and made double batches of 8 different kinds (I was making tins for people at Wade's work) and I swore that I would never do it again, so I scaled back this year and decided to do it in two parts. Today's segment was just for Keira. We made sugar cookie cutouts. And Keira had a blast and was actually a really good helper this year. We started out doing it together, me guiding her hands. And I was saying, press the cutter down, shake shake shake (to get it loose from the dough), pick it up, and then tap, tap, tap (to get it out of the cutter). Then I turned my back to get another cookie tray out and she was doing it all by herself and saying the words over and over just as I had. She is such a quick little learner. So she made the rest of the cookies all by herself.

She really loved rolling the dough.

And of course, she loved eating the cookies!

Really?!?

Have any of you seen those McDonald's commercials for their nuggets? The ones that some random guy is singing some R&B type song about the McNuggets? Does this really make me want to eat the nugget? Hmm, I think not.

Singing Snowmen

For the past several years, I have been collecting the Snowmen that Hallmark sells around Christmas time. They are very cute and make great decoration. Keira LOVES them. When I got them out, she started singing and dancing and jumping all around the house. She has learned the words to all the different songs - there are 5 in total - quite the feat for a not quite 3 year old!

Santa

This weekend we took Keira for her very first visit to Santa. She was super excited on the way there and we were practicing what she was going to say to him as she gets a bit shy in front of adults she doesn't know. She thought it was really neat to see him but when it came her turn to sit on his lap, she clammed up really quick. She did sit on his lap and whispered something, but as you can see from the picture, she was ready for the experience to be over!

And for all you frugals out there - we went to Bass Pro Shop to get the picture taken because it was FREE!

Yahoo! $10 ECBs

Awhile back, I posted about signing up to be on a CVS advisory panel. CVS would occasionally send you surveys and in return for completion, you would earn ECBs. Well, I finally got a survey - it took me about 10 minutes, maybe 15. And I get $10 in ECBs for it. Yahoo. And my Thanksgiving Day trip, I have tons of ECBs to spend. Yippee! Here's to another year of not paying for shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and any other toiletries that CVS sells!

Rudolf

We let Keira stay up "late" last night to watch Rudolf for the first time. She of course, LOVED it. Didn't care for the commercials much, but loved the cartoon itself. At the end, she wanted to know where her present was!

A Funny Picture

Wade's Birthday

Keira loves birthdays. Be they her's or someone else's, she loves to celebrate. Keira and I made a cake - she loves to help bake and she got to pick out candles. She sang happy birthday too, and then had lots of fun enjoying Daddy's cake.

Fun Craft

Keira and I have been doing lots of crafts lately. This was an especially fun one. Take some colored sand (can be purchased anywhere - I found it at Wal-Mart for about $5 for 6 different colors) and put it in salt and pepper shakers. Cover a little over half the holes in the shakers with tape, otherwise the sand will come out too quickly. Spread out contact paper on flat surface and let the kids design a sand "painting". I cut the middle out of pieces of construction paper to frame the contact paper. Once the kids are done, shake off the extra sand in the trash and place another sheet of contact paper over it to seal. Keira made 5 or 6 pictures this day and we still have loads of sand left over!

Free Shake at Arbys

Go to Arbys.com and register with them and they will send you a coupon for a free Mint Chocolate Swirl Shake. I haven't had one, but it sounds yummy - probably not on my diet though! Enjoy!

This week

I really am trying to get back to regular posting. I promise to make a better effort this week. I've got some pics of Keira decorating the christmas tree to post as well as a few others. I'll get there this week.