But they were playing so nicely together!

I was upstairs putting laundry away, and when I came down I heard the girls meowing at each other. They were crawling up from the basement pretending they were cats. I said, as I came down the stairs, "Do I have some kitties in the house?!" Then I saw them. They were kitties alright.

Their mug shots...even the unsuspecting bears got in on the action.

Why even try?!

Once we moved into the new house, I gave up the idea of getting the whole house clean in one day. I used to do that with the townhome, but that was with half the number of bathrooms and half the square footage. I took some tips from my friend BG who had a cleaning schedule. Can I tell you how much that has saved my sanity? Rather than feeling bad for not getting everything done in one day, I do something daily. I feel a true sense of satisfaction when I can cross that chore off my list and I can get around to other things like reading blogs, facebook, and, oh, spending time with my kids.

Last week, the chore was to wash the windows. I have a wall of windows in my living room that I was anxious to clean. They go to just about a foot off the ground, so when the shades are up the girls like to press their hands on them when they look outside. At certain times of the day when the sun is shining through it's a collage of little handprints...which can be endearing but also annoying at the same time. Anyone else feel this way?

It was a cold day but I really didn't think much of it. I cleaned the windows on the backside of the house (inside only) and got all ready to do the storm door on the front of the house. So, maybe it was colder than I thought. I put the window washing fluid on and immediately before I even had a second to squegee it off, it was frozen!! I kind of stood there in stunned silence. I am getting better at this blogging stuff because before I chiseled the layer of ice off my door, I took a picture!

Here is my frozen door:

Guess this means no more washing windows until Spring. Bummer.

Trip down memory lane

On my kids' birthdays I like to post their height, weight, percents and milestones. It was Dan's birthday yesterday, but I don't think I will post his stats. At some point in our lives I suppose we don't want that information spread around the internet. Instead, here are some pictures of my main man over the past 31 years...

9 months old.


Wowee was he a chunk! Mom, what were you feeding him?


What cute little boys...if we could only see in their minds what they were really thinking! (Dan at 3 1/2 years and Mike at 2yrs).

The sweet innocence of grade school

Looking fancy

What a hottie

According to the date on the picture, we had been dating for 23 days. Don't we look young?

A good looking groom.

But I do think you only get better with age...little did I know when I married you what an incredible husband you would be and an amazing daddy to our kids. I love how passionate you are about putting our family first. My favorite time of the day is when you walk through the door and how our girls get so excited to see you. Happy birthday babe!

Christmas present put to good use

My sister Rachel gave our family a great Christmas present that we were able to use this weekend. We got a good layer of snow on Friday so on Saturday we bundled up and took advantage of the little slope in our backyard. Thanks Auntie Ray!!

6 months old!

On Christmas, our little guy turned 6 months old! He is such a sweet little boy who is quick to smile and loves a good snuggle. He's got two bottom teeth and is sitting up like a champ. I think he has figured out how to scoot on his bottom a little bit because I will put him down in one spot and a few minutes later he's about a foot from where I put him down. We had his 6 month appointment last week and he's a bruiser! He weighed 20 lbs and is 28 1/2 inches long. For those who care about percents, like my hubby does, he's in the 96% for height and 90% weight!

Here's a little video of our big boy...he sure does love his Johnny Jump up!

Where to begin?!

I won't even get started on any New Year's resolutions, because I am still working on 2008!! This blog will mostly be pictures of our Christmas happenings.

"Candy Cane Lane"

Every year our street decorates the trees along the road alternating in red and white lights...thankfully our neighbor told us about this in advance. That would be a great way to make friends with the neighbors if we were the only ones without red and white trees!

Auntie Rachel came out to spend Christmas with us. When Auntie Rachel is around there is always something baking in the kitchen!! Rachel and Annika also did a gingerbread house together.

Christmas Eve we went to church and the kids opened their stockings and some new p.j.s. We lit a fire in the fireplace and enjoyed a peaceful evening.

Christmas Day we opened presents from the VP side of the family! Thank you for all the fun gifts. (Thank you notes will be coming shortly, I hope!)

On the Saturday after Christmas we sent Rachel off back to Seattle and kept on heading north (in an ice storm!) to NW Iowa to spend some time with Dan's family.

Getting ready for some tubing...

Who are those hot ladies?

New p.j.'s from Grandma!

Stella and Annika asleep (finally!!)

Decorating Cookies...gotta impress the judge...


Grandma giving Taryn a trim


We came back on the 30th and on the 31st some of our best friends from VA made a side trip on their Texas/Oklahoma road trip to come and visit us! We couldn't have thought of a better way to ring in the New Year. Thank you D's for making the trip!! Hope you had as much fun as we did!

Nothing says Happy New Year like a rousing competition of Chubby Bunny!!

Now everyone hold still and smile!! (Yeah right!)


Best buds

Whew...that about sums it up!! We really hope you had a great 2008 and are looking forward to 2009!!! (New Year's Resolution #1...blog more often so these posts don't have to be so long!!)

Old news but still news!

I feel like I'm behind, especially when I see that I haven't posted for a few weeks! Apologies to my 10s of readers. We have been busy with life and the holidays (as I am sure many of you have been as well)...so one post at a time I will hopefully get you all updated on our Plain Life.

Most of you probably already know, but a very momentous thing happened on the 17th of December. My sister, Anna, got engaged to Mr. Jim!! We are very excited that Anna FINALLY found someone, I mean, that God brought Jim and Anna together in His perfect timing. Congratulations Anna and Jim!! We are very excited for the wedding and welcoming Jim to our crazy family. An end of April wedding is being planned! WOW!! That's not far away at all!!

Here's a pic from their engagement night...