Reflections on 2007

This year has been a super busy year and lots of fun and excitement. I'll try to quickly recap (and hopefully not duplicate my christmas letter)

Lauryn: completely potty trained (yea for all of us), learned the alphabet and talks all the time and most of the time you can understand her.

Jeff: Changed careers from marketing to high school teacher. This man has been super busy and wearing many hats. Luckily for Christmas break, he got to put most of them aside.

Kat: Scrapbooked a tons and read 17 books this year (pretty impressive since L has cut into my reading time). Started this blog and learned some new computer techniques.

Haley: blew out her knee...had major reconstructive surgery. Has congestive heart failure which medicine has fixed.

Ditto: still has massive allergies and has chewed his fur off twice.

Reggie: peed in so many unapproved places, so her reward was a new kitty litter box and a cat climbing toy. She also blew out her knee...no surgery, but she can't jump on high places.

***as you can see, our pets were expensive this year. In fact, so much that we received a hand signed card from the vet. Geez!


I think this has been a good year for us. We've tried to take one day at a time and the blog definitely helps me highlight life. Hope your year was as good as ours!

Dinner at Kobe's

We celebrated Christmas with the Loving's by eating at Kobe's (everyone's favorite place). Dinner was delicious as usual. L did a good job of feeding herself rice.

Brett and Dan enjoy their meal.

Our cook at Kobe's was good and entertaining.

L got a My Mommy doll. It's very cute. She loves it, of course. Jeff got a cool KState tshirt and I got a new red patent leather purse (thanks to Bonnie), lotion and a cool photo album.

Christmas highlights

Christmas was successful. L got a little worn out, mostly because she wanted to play with the toys and she had many things to unwrap. She got what she asked Santa for...a vacuum and a Dora kitchen. Here is the famous kitchen and she's cooking up a storm (oh, and talking on the cell phone) Jeff got the biggest present this year. His "lump of coal" was a sound rocker video game chair. I think L was trying to get dibs on it, but I doubt that will happen.

Dinner was great. We have the traditional (for us)...ham, potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry salad and peppermint cake. L loved the frosting.
And L's "lump of coal" was an easel from g&g. She will love this...paints, chalk, etc.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Santa's Workshop

Last night we decided to put Santa's gifts together. L's getting a kitchen and a vacuum. As you can see the kitchen had a few pieces to put together.

Jeff's contemplating the next step. He only had to back up once and said that was more work than trying to put it together.

The finished product!!! After months of hearing, "I want a kitchen" for the past 3 weeks it's been, "I want a Dora kitchen" (after we'd bought this). So crafty us thought, we'll put Dora stickers on the kitchen and it looks great. L will be so excited!

Weekend Fun

This weekend has been fun. We started it off by watching National Treasure 2 on Friday. Excellent movie, btw. T got L a BBQ set which she loves.















Then on Sat. after my parents got in town we went and watched the Shockers play. They won by 9. L had so much fun playing with everyone. She has discovered pop, which she loves. Luckily, she thinks she only gets to drink it at the games, so we're okay with that.













In the last picture, Reggie is hanging out on the presents. We named this "lump on a box of coal"

White out conditions

Today was a blizzard. Unfortunately, my parents were driving thru it from KC to our house. Although it took them 5 hours (should have taken 3), they arrived safely 30 minutes ago. Whew!!! And just when I needed this news...the WSU game is delayed by one hour. So they have a minute to breath before we have to head off to the game.

Sleeting Saturday

Today should be an adventure. My parents are driving today from St. Louis and hopefully will miss some of the weather (but I doubt it). L will be so happy to see her grandparents. I need to pick up the ham and rolls and pick up the house as well as do a little cleaning. I'm sure I can get that done by noon (Ha!) We'll be heading over to Koch Arena tonight to watch the Shockers get the can of whoop ass out again for UAB.

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Good news from our fellow blogger....Amy is having a boy! See her blog at Pins and Needles.

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I will try to keep the blog updated with daily pics and posts. L got this really cute BBQ set from T last night. She loves it (and it is really cool!)

Hey!

L loves to go to the Shocker basketball games. This year, she has learned to love Wu and give him five. She has also learned how to do the "Hey" song. You know how it goes, 'Hey.....we're going to beat the *^## out of you!' She's very good at pointing to the players! And for those of you who are worried, she has no idea what they're chanting.

The End of Harry Potter

So the other night, I stayed up until midnight finishing the last Harry Potter book. In the beginning I wasn't sure I could finish a 759 page book easily, but I forgot how well J.K. Rowling writes. The book was excellent and everything that I had hoped for.

Someone asked me once to tell them the ending because they weren't going to read it. So if you're reading this, please let me know.

A Pretty Patient Cat (Sometimes)

Reggie can be a patient cat when she wants to be. Here she was content laying on the dog's bed and L and I laid the blankie on top of her. She doesn't care. Like Ditto, she loves the attention so that helps. But I will give Reggie credit. At night when I have trouble getting L to bed, I can put Reggie on L's bed and she'll sit there and L is so happy.



....btw, don't except to see this kind of post about Haley. While she is the sweetest girl dog, she doesn't tolerate getting her picture taken with L.

Christmas goodies

So, I've been so busy trying to get my Christmas stuff done, that I just finally realized how bad my blogs have been. Pictures definitely make the blog better. So I'm going to start blogging my creations. Today, L and I made chocolate covered rice krispie treats and pretzel rods. So, so easy and delicious. L helped me put sprinkles on...

..and then enjoyed her own snack. I think she got some of it in her mouth, but I'm not putting any bets on that. Thank you mom for the great ideas (who btw, will be at my house in 6 days (yes, I'm counting)).

Happy eating everyone!

The Most Patient Dog

No, this picture is not Photoshop'd. Ditto has got to be the most patient dog when it comes to L. All the pets love her and each has a different relationship with L, but Ditto, he loves the attention no matter what it is. So when she wants to put the toy bears on his head, he's willing to oblige. What a sweetheart.

The Stockings

A couple of days ago, Jeff was wrapping my presents and he picked up my stocking to fill. I told him that he needed to wait until Christmas Eve because Santa would fill them. At the same time, L says "daddy, leave the stocking alone. Santa will be mad if you mess with it". You tell him, L.

A happy house

Well, Wichita called off school tomorrow so Jeff and L get to stay home tomorrow. Lucky dogs (and cat and kid :))

Baby it's rainy outside

As I type this, it's raining pretty heavily now. Which isn't a bad thing, except it's 32 degrees outside. SOOO...we'll see how the morning is. I'm afraid it's going to be icky outside. At least if it's too bad, Jeff will get to stay home and so will L. I love snow, but I really, really hate the ice. Well gotta sign off before the computer dies.

Sunday post

The weather held off as I had asked and the concert last night was awesome!!! Zombie brought several toys, including a robot and a monster that were like 8 feet tall. Ozzy was good. It seems like since he quit the drugs and alcohol though, he's got a pot belly. Guess you can't have everything!!! He did a great job. Our seats would have been perfect if there weren't speakers in the way. But we could still see pretty well.

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As many of you know, L dislikes milk at my house. She drinks it at the sitter's and everywhere we go when I tell her there's no apple juice. But if I try that at home, she throws a fit. It's been a really long story....so I'm open to suggestions. Linda told me last week to try soy milk. I thought, "eww, I hate soy milk, how would L like it?" But she persisted, L will like it. So I bought a half gallon of very vanilla soy milk and you know what?...we both like it!! It is actually yummy. And today L drank a glass without fuss!!! One for mommy!

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Today was icky outside. Sometime after we went to bed, it snowed some. Not much on the ground and more like ice. And it was really, really cold. So we stayed inside all day and I worked on scrapbook projects. I completed three gifts today. I love them all and I had tons of fun making them, but at the end, my brain was ready for a rest. Luckily, I had put together taco soup in the crockpot so supper was easy with apple slices. I love my crockpot!

Rockin' Concerts

Last night we went to the Coliseum to see TSO, aka Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It is the fifth time I've seen them and the sixth for Jeff. And as usually each year gets better and better. They had quite a few pyros and of course all sorts of lights. The music is outstanding. The concert was 2 1/2 hours and it went by way too fast. We were in row 10 and our seats were perfect. What a wonderful evening.

Tonight, I'm heading out with T and Jeff to see my next favorite band, Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie. I LOVE OZZY!! I know, you're all surprised. But Ozzy is an excellent performer and that's what I love about him. I'm really hoping Zombie brings all his toys to his show. I'll give you a report tomorrow. Pray that the weather stays quiet. It's not too slick right now and I want it to stay that way.

Two Future Wildcat Girls

Reggie's new Favorite Spot

Reggie always has a favorite spot. There are too many to say (plus most of you could care less). But since we cleaned L's room up, she has been camping out in L's room. It is so cool. Reggie will sleep there all day.
But the best part is, Reggie will sleep with L until she falls asleep at night. L is so happy and proud that the kitty loves her.