Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone.  It seems to go by in the blink of an eye. Sometimes I think we just live for weekends in order to make it through our hectic weeks.  Between work, school, activities, dance, homework and chores it's hard to stop and breathe.  But then I think, wow, that's a lot of lost time.  So this year, I hope to step back from that mentality & try to enjoy the "in between".

New year's resolutions are always easy to make & hard to keep.  I've decided to make mine in ascending order from easiest to hardest so that I can at least check some off the list this year.

1. Feed Winston less treats
2. Walk Winston at least twice a week
3. Drink more water and less pop
4. Do at least 8 things on our "things to do/places to go" list for 2012
5. Spend more time tending to my flowers (and hopefully the weather will cooperate this year!)
6. Go on at least one date night a month
7. Incorporate more vegetables into my cooking
8. Work out at least twice a week
9.  Organize my paper files and finally stop throwing things into our overflowing "junk drawer"
10.  Be nicer to my husband

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2012! 

Christmas 2011

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!  Ours was very nice & relaxing.  It was just the four of us as Scott's mom was here the weekend before for Nutcracker performances.  We tried to scale down a bit this year.  The girls mostly got clothes along with a few movies, books, jewelry...oh, and the promise of a trip to Hawaii this year ;)

This was taken the week before Christmas when Corey's friend, Emily, was visiting from Texas.  Kathryn got a fat cow from Corey. 

Emily trying to break through the ribbons.

Corey finding it amusing that Emily couldn't break the ribbon.

At last! 

Gabby got me this cute Coca-cola teacup.

A Nutcracker snow globe from Corey to Gabby.

Even Winston got a present-large bones.

This was how he spent his time while the girls opened their gifts.  It was kind of nice to have him out of the way.

Cute little snowman from Gamma.

An oldie, but a goodie.  Corey & I love to quote lines from this movie.

Scooby-Doo glasses.





Sherlock Holmes Nutcracker to add to her collection.   We went to see the movie on Tuesday.

After all the presents were opened it was time for Scott to take a nap.

Lunch with my BFFs

Clarissa and Jennifer

Jennifer & me



CTE 2007

I don't know about you, but as soon as Christmas is over, I'm ready to head straight for the new year.  Scott always says I have a short attention span.   I am ready to take down all my decorations and get into cleaning mode.  When I woke up at 7am this morning (hard for me to sleep in as I always get up so early during the week for work), the first thing I thought about was that it was time to get rid of all the junk we've accumulated this past year.  So I started with the bane of my existence-our den.  Not sure why, but our kids cannot seem to manage to put things away where they belong in this room.  During my manic sorting I came across some old photos of the kids at Creative Theatre Experience in 2007 when they performed Seussical the Musical.  I had to pause and scan them in to share.  Can't believe how young they look, although I guess it was 4 1/2 years ago.  Gabby would have been 8 and Corey 11.

Gabby is in the far right, 2nd row, with the infamous Gabby grimace.

Corey right in front on the right.  She saw this picture and said to me that she looks exactly the same now as she did back then.  I have to agree.

I forgot how much Gabby loved those shoes.  She wore them all the time.  They obviously went with any outfit.

Corey is in the first row, right in the middle.  Cute how even when she's singing she still has a smile on her face :)

Videos from our Snowshoe Adventure

Corey doing a slide face-first.  That red blob in the corner is my glove.  I forgot the lens on my new camera is in the upper hand corner instead of the middle.

Video of Sara followed by Leo heading down the same hill.  Lucky she is quick because he almost wiped her out at the bottom.

Brenda coming down the first big hill in the snowshoe.  I was so sad I didn't get a video of Corey.  She just slid down before I had a chance to know what she intended to do!

Snowshoeing on Mt. Rainier

Today 7 of us (Corey, Gabby, me, Brenda, Sara, Leo & Mira) travelled to Mt. Rainier for an awesome snowshoe adventure.  This was the first time the girls & I have snowshoed and it was so much fun!  The parks department has a 2 hour free guided walk at Paradise.  The weather forecast was for rain/snow but we ended up with sunny skies.  It was the perfect day to be on the mountain. 

We snowshoed about 1.5 miles, and it was a lot hillier than I had expected.  I was glad to have the borrowed poles from Pam with me.  I think I would have fallen down a lot without them.  The rest of the group did great without poles.  They are much more surefooted I think.  Our guide, Ranger Casey, quizzed us on wildlife and what it takes for the them to survive a winter on the mountain.  I didn't realize we would have our knowledge tested, but I did manage to get a few of his questions right.

On our way..... The roads were pretty slick in spots.  I'm glad Brenda was driving and not me.

It has been a dry fall in the lowlands, but they still got quite a bit of snowfall on the mountain.

The new visitors center.   This is where we signed up for the guided snowshoe.

First we had a yummy lunch.

Brenda

Upstairs was a giftshop and learning center.

Beautiful view of the mountain from the parking lot.

Leo & Sara

That is Ranger Casey giving us information about the wildlife & the snowshoes.

Corey & I

Me & Brenda

Brenda & I

The sky was so blue I had to get a picture.

Sara & Leo

Brenda's snowshoe

Waterfall we passed on the way home.