A Work of Art....

Tank loves to draw, and many of his drawings amaze me. I think that is because whenever he hands me a drawing, I can instantly tell what it is. Take this picture for instance...

I can tell you that's a picture of Tank and his friends playing football...not bad for a kid in Kindergarten, huh? Do you notice the purple jerseys? Since his Vikings flag football team was UNDEFEATED last Fall, he is now a fan of the professional Vikings.

So, this morning Tank hands me his latest drawing...

...I had absolutely no clue what it was...I was totally stumped!!!

When he told me it was a drawing of our fireplace, I busted out laughing...


I think it's hysterical that he drew the Angel of Hope, the rubber duckie and the mouse. This drawing inspired to dress up the mantel...LOL! I mean, what is a mouse doing on the mantel???

Much better, right???

So tired...

Although I love seeing my children out gallivanting in the snow, I'm really getting tired of it. Even so, I was still mesmerized when I woke up this morning and looked outside. How beautiful!!!

Read-a-thon!

I started off 2009 wanting to spend more time reading and less time in front of the tube. On my blog I listed 17 books I read during the course of the year. I probably read a few more than that but never got around to listing them...So, I'm guessing I read at least 20 books or so.

In 2010, I want to do better than that!

And, so far, I'm on track to doing that. Yesterday, I started my 7th book of the year.

If you see any books listed here that you might be interested in, shoot me a note. I'll be happy to give you a review or maybe even send you my copy.

My Shooting Star...

My little monkey is a crack-up...she makes everyone LAUGH...I mean LOL every day.

She's 4.5 years old.

She woke up this morning, and told me she had "THE BEST DREAM EVER!!!

Me: OK, tell me all about it!!!

Monkey: (gasping with excitement) Me, Mia and Sarah (her best friends) went to a FASHION HOUSE, and you made yummy chocolate milk for all of us!

She had me rolling with her joy...and I laughed and cuddled with her.

After we got on with our day, I had to pause and think...I get that she was hanging with her girlfriends, and they all love chocolate milk!!!

BUT what does a 4yo know about a fashion house??? And, then I laughed some more!!!

My dad has always said, "She's been 'here' before!"

How we rang the New Year in....

The day of New Year's Eve was spent cleaning up the house and prepping for our annual New Year's Day Open House. We had to get a lot done so we could sit down and relax as we watched the VA Tech Hokies play the Tenn. Volunteers in the Chik-fil-A Bowl. Our plan was to watch the first half with the kids, then get them to bed during halftime (9pm). The girls went down fine, but the Tank was really upset. I let him stay up to watch the rest of the game if he was quiet and didn't let his sisters know. Check out the happy camper...

He was quite the trooper, and cheered whole-heartedly the whole game (ended at 11p). Mr. O, on the other hand, faltered...

We were THRILLED that the Hokies won the championship...37-14!!!

The game was over around 11p. Tank was ready to hit the hay...BUT...I strongly encouraged him to stay up an hour to ring/bang in the New Year. He totally didn't understand why I was doing this...and thought I was bonkers when I told him we would go outside and bang pots and pans at midnight.

He still thought I was bonkers when we first went out there...until we heard other neighbors parading around our 1/3 mile Circle.

He's still talking about those crazy neighbors. And, I love to watch his face light up when I tell him we are crazy neighbors too!!!

Happy 2010!!!

This was the picture we sent out to our IRL family and friends in their Christmas cards.

We now pass it on to our world-wide friends and wish them ALL THE BEST in the year 2010!

Snow Day Fun!

The DC area was hit by the shopper stopper blizzard 12 days ago. We were able to enjoy the snow for a week before the Christmas Day rain washed it all away. We did a lot of sledding and the kids got their first experience snowboarding.

Snow Angel Tank!


Fallen Monkey!


Queen of the Hill!


Here's Tank in his first attempt snowboarding!