More snow pics...

Just some more amazing snow pictures. I still can't believe how high it is piled up. I'm sure it will be here till March atleast.

Christmas continued

I'm in bed.... it's 10:00....and I think I just cleaned for 10 hours.

The house looks wonderful, no more Christmas stuff though. (sorry mom) :)

The kid's new things are put away and the baby has some new clothes in her drawers which means I got rid of some.

The girls are SO opposite when it comes to playing in the snow. Lauren will stand outside for awhile and sit in it too. BUT, when she's a little cold, she's done.

Emma on the other hand will roll in it, eat it, and pretty much be out for hours if we let her.

Dave spent quite awhile outside this morning trying to clear some snow. Two of our neighbors were also out with their larger snow blowers. They actually had a great time I think. Emma played with the neighbor boys and talked Dave and the other neighbor into digging out a tunnel in the drift in our backyard.

Just a few more Christmas pics to post.

Here are the two, actually showing that they do care about eachother.... :) showing off their new pajamas.

And here's Lauren's new castle bed that I bought from a guy at work. She loves it!!

Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and almost gone again. BUT, we have had a wonderful Christmas despite the snow storm...

Dave took half the night off and surprised us by coming home around 9 :) The roads are SSSOOO bad here and everywhere I'm sure. He got home by driving through the empty lots.

We have truly had a wonderful couple days here and will have a great weekend too I'm sure. The kids are so excited about all of their new things. I just have to pack some of their old stuff away for awhile to made room for the new stuff. We just finished playing "Barbies" here about an hour ago. Emma is sleeping in her sleeping bag in the livingroom. Lauren started out there but moved to her new "princess bed."

Before I forget, here is the picture from out visit with Santa on the 22nd. We stood in line for well over an hour before visiting with "the big guy."

I have taken so many pictures and will try to post a lot of them now. Yesterday we made it to 4:00 Mass, which was more than packed.

Then went to mom and dad's to eat and open gifts. The kids were wound up as you can imagine

We left a little earlier than we wanted to but needed to try to beat the majority of the snow. We followed Ted and Stacy home then we went home. There were a couple "interesting" places along the way home. I was a little nervous, Emma was praying out loud, and Dave was loving it and laughing at times. We made it home ok though. Then we left cookies for Santa and the girls said good bye to our little elf "Porter." Thankfully no tears this year. And, we told them that it was ok to touch him on his last day with us. He will no doubt be back with us next year.

Of course Santa came during the night and we were all up at about 7. I guess it could have been way earlier. Santa brought Emma a pogo stick, Lauren some dress up princess things, and Marina a bee scooter. They all love their gifts....good job Santa. :)

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OK.....too many more pics to post tonight. I'm giving up. Merry Christmas to all. Hopefully I can finish up tomorrow.

Another Post?

Yep, 2 posts in one week....CRAZY!!!

The kids are watching Santa Claus II so I might as well download and post some pics from today.

I wish they would start the kid's movies at 7 instead of 8 but I'm not in charge and I guess it is Friday night.

Dave is working tonight then off the next two nights..which is really good since I am not quite ready for Christmas yet.

We are still struggling with colds and coughs here. Seems like they are really holding on this time. We realize there that we overall are healthy and these are very minor struggles compared to what some of our friends are going through. So, I won't and cannot complain but just posting a little update and a few cute pics.

Dave took Marina and Lauren to the Dr. on Wednesday and our normal Dr. wasn't in so we had a "fill in." Lauren has an ear infection and gross cough so we are hoping the antibiotic will help with both. The Dr. told Dave to "watch" Marina and bring her back in on Monday if she isn't any better. She has had a runny nose for a month and a cough for 2 weeks.

Sure enough last night about 11 she started coughing really bad and sounding like a "seal." Dave left work and came home to take her in at about 1. Sure enough, croup and bronchiolitis. So, we are doing the breathing treatment thing here for the next several days or week. She is such a trooper and loves to show the other girls how brave she is. They clap and then she claps! pretty cute. She is also not too sick to enjoy an oreo cookie.

"Porter" our elf is also "doing his thing" these days. He has really been watching the girls this year and Emma has been writing letters to him to see how she is doing. :)

And, I was doing a little more baking tonight and forgot the burner was still hot.... oh well.

It's been a LOOOONG time....

since my last post. Sorry for any one who still checks this blog. Maybe nobody even checks anymore. :)

We have been pretty busy the last month preparing for Christmas and all the festivities!! All three girls have had terrible colds and have been coughing for what seems like weeks. I have finally caught their germs but am thankful that hopefully we should all be germ free by Christmas.

I have been off work for the last three weeks except for a few court hearings and my pager going off yesterday. :( It has been a fairly productive and very enjoyable time off but, since I have to go back, I am ready. It will be nice to see everyone again and have some good adult time. ;)

I did a ton of baking Thursday and Friday and tried some new recipes. Of course Lauren and Emma were there to sample most of the things. Apparently Marina is already concerned about a little holiday weight gain.

School was cancelled Tuesday through Thursday of this week so there was a lot of "togetherness" which is usually good. I felt like more of a referee though by Thursday as the girls were starting to get on eachother's nerves.

We have had our tree up for a couple of weeks now and it is so beautiful. Marina does really well but has "gotten to" a couple of the ornaments and one present.

Today we went down to the Omaha Police Dept. "horse barn" at 7th and Leavenworth. It was a day of face painting, balloon animals, crafts, hot chocolate and of course horses. We had a great time. Went for dinner tonight then to look at Christmas lights. While we were looking at the gorgeous lights on the gorgeous homes.. Lauren said, "Daddy, we're poor" LOL we quickly told her that we are not "poor" and even if we were we would still be very happy!! :) It was still very funny!! I thought maybe we could get one yard "thing" each year so I just finished researching the prices of these things......uh.....we won't be buying anything that we saw tonight. We're too poor for that. :)

Here are some pics from all of our holiday activities and the sledding the kids tried to do during the snowstorm. It was a struggle since the snow was so thick and powdery...

Here are some of the pics from our "togetherness"