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"