December 10th, 2008
It is December and you would think it would start getting cold outside! Yesterday we broke a record high, it was 81 degrees. How crazy is that? Em and I enjoyed the day with a bike ride to the mail box. Later that night I had to go to work and I grabbed my sweater and gloves on the way out. They said a cold front was going to hit and if I got stuck at the window it could get chilly.
As we were working it started to rain, then thunder and had some lightening. O.k. this is wierd. Then it started to hail and sleet, and as the night went on it got colder and colder. Then as we were closing we all noticed something outside. We grabbed our cell phones and text messages were flying back and forth. Guess what was going on outside…
Look it was snowing last night!!!! O.k. some of you have seen snow, maybe lots of snow. But to me, this was pretty cool.
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December 9th, 2008
Today I will share some ornaments with you that are special to me.
First I will start off with an ornament Nichole and I made for Rob during our first Christmas. We were in Kansas where I met Rob’s family for the first time and where he proposed to me, 14 years ago. It says “Merry Christmas Rob, love Janell and Nichole on the front.
The inside had a picture of Nichole and I together, look at how little she looks.
After we got married I couldnt wait to get our 1st Christmas ornament. Rob mentioned he would get it so I didnt bother to get one. I should of known things would change after he said “I do” and those little things are soon forgotten. He forgot to get one and I wasnt too happy. After the years went by I always teased him how we dont have an ornament for our 1st Christmas while we have other milestone ornaments. Many years later with the help of Ebay I got my ornament, complete with the year 1995 on it.
Every year I am the one to hang my children’s ornaments torwards the top of the tree. I have three baby booties for Nichole, Andrew and Emily and I have two angel wings for the two little ones I had lost. Since this is our “family” Christmas tree I wanted to include them as well.
We have owned two homes so we have have two ornaments representing our two homes:
Last we have a very adorable ornament, look at that cute kid. 🙂
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December 8th, 2008
The Christmas tree was taken out of the box, set up and then forgotten. I had a cold and for once I wasnt up to decorating. Once I started to feel better I had to work so we didnt have time to decorate.
Finally everyone was home, everyone was healthy and it was time to decorate the tree.
I usually take out the ornaments and put them out so all the kids have to do is place them on the tree. We have a huge assortment of ornaments, mostly belonging to the kids. Their grandparents send yearly ornaments and pretty soon we are going to have to get a bigger tree.
There are so many home made ones fro the kids, those are my favorites. Then we have the ones from Hallmark, then the ones that represent us. Notice the cake on the bottom that one is mine.
When you have kids spaced far apart you know you could have the whole tree decorated in different levels. Emily takes care of the bottom, Andrew the middle and Nichole the top, it works out great.
Half way through we decided to have a little fun. I will post the finished tree in a future post.
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December 7th, 2008
Today I will share the Santa pictures I have displayed on the mantel. I have different pictures taken of the kids, niece, nephew and even Rob. I have a picture of me with Santa some where but for some reason I cant find it.
Here are a few pictures I have, Enjoy.
One of the best jobs I have had was working with Santa in the mall. I love to see the kids with wonder when they approach the big guy in red. One time some children from the school of deaf came to visit. They had their teachers and parents to help talk to Santa. An elf (I hated that darn costume but we were forced to wear it) came up to them and signed to them asking their names. I know enough sign language so I was able to talk to them for a bit while they waited. They were so excited that I was able to talk to them, but the best part is when they got to Santa. When Santa seen them signing he started to sign back, the children had a look that said it all, this is the real Santa. Of course it was that was why this elf and Santa was able to talk to them. O.k. had to share that story and back to the picture, does Santa look a bit familiar?? That night we did not have a Santa, the one scheduled didnt show. So what did I do, I called Santa(Rob) at home. Guess what he answered and he saved the day. So this was officially our family Christmas picture. We told Nichole daddy had to help Santa cause Santa was sick, or something like that. She thought that was the neatest thing in the world.
Here is a picture of Rob with Santa taken so MANY years ago.
Here we have baldy chubs, aka Nichole. Her hair took forever to grow so we had to use those little headbands so everyone would know she was a little girl.
Here comes our little boy with tons of hair and I cant put a bow in it. I guess I could of but it wouldnt of been right.
Last we have Em asking for some socks, I wonder why she wasnt wearing any.
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December 6th, 2008
Bet you thought I was going to miss a day huh, so soon after I started this countdown. We were busy decorating outside and went shopping for a suit for Rob to wear to a Christmas party. He started to look like he was wearing construction size black garbage bag since his old jacket is too big. It is great to lose weight but you need to buy so many new clothes once you do.
Today we are going to take a look at the internation Santas I have on my mantel. I got them from my MIL Linda as she was collecting them before I was around. Once she heard that I wanted to decorate my house with an international theme she sent me her Santas.
Here are some of the Santas:
Arent they so cool, once again I love to see how different countries show their unique styles.
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December 5th, 2008
As soon as I had trouble with my pregnancy I knew something was going to be very different with my last child. Every since she was born Emily has been a challenge of my mothering skills. Everything I have learned, dealt with in the past had to come to an abrupt change cause it wasnt working with Emily. Lets just say she keeps us on our toes, every single day.
As with many children they love to draw on walls, Emily included. With Nichole and Andrew they did draw on wall but they were little tiny scribbles every now and then. Emily on the other hand drew huge murals and we have had to repaint several walls, more than once.
One day I got a bright idea, to paint a wall with chalk paint in our kitchen eating area. Once it dried Emily was ready to have a place where she is ALLOWED to draw on the walls. I have noticed that other walls in the house hasnt seen artwork for a while. So by allowing her to draw on a wall she has stopped drawing on other walls. Wierd, but hey whatever works right?
So what did that long story about wall murals do with the countdown? I just wanted to share a picture of Frosty the Snowman with you all:
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December 4th, 2008
Here we have a picture of my fireplace:
You could see how we decorate the fireplace, with a Santa theme. I have pictures of Christmas’s past with Santa, stocking holders that spell SANTA, and my international Santas.
Today I am going to focus on my stocking. As you could see I am the odd ball, for some reason only my stocking is facing the opposite direction than the others.
Upon closer inspection you will notice my name is spelled wrong, this has the dreaded letter E at the end. My name is Janell with no E, thank you very much. When I was young a friend of my moms made two stockings, one for me and one for my sister. She put our names on them and that is how the E came to be. My sister and I often fought over the stocking regardless on whose name was on them, they made great foot warmers! As I grew up I often said I was going to remove that darn E but now it is staying. It came that way, I grew up with it answering why it has a E at the end over the years so I decided to keep it.
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December 3rd, 2008
Growing up we had a nativity scene, my sister and I always looked forward to putting up. It is a wonder that baby Jesus never got lost as we always wanted to carry him around. Since that nativity scene was something I grew up with I decided to have my own. Then I decided I needed another one, and another one. Then family and friends decided I needed a couple more. What is unique about my nativity scenes is that there is an international theme. I love how different cultures stand out in the nativity scenes.
Here is a picture of my nativity scenes from last year, I had the picture taken and didnt want to take another. I know, lazy.
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December 2nd, 2008
Rob had this great idea to wake his supporting wife really early on Thanksgiving morning to see this record breaking event. There was over 13,000 that participated in this event called the Turkey Trot. The purpose of this event is to kill yourself by running five miles in downtown Austin. Just to let you know, I was not one of those 13,000 participants.
What did I do instead? I jumped on a helicopter to take pictures:
Never mind how impossible it was to take a picture from the outside of the helicopter when I was suppose to be inside it taking pictures.
O.k I had to climb three floors of stairs, (gasping for air) to take some pictures of the runners.
Here we have a great picture of the start of the race, Rob was not there though:
Maybe you could see him some where towards the back?
Do you see him? He is the one right over there wearing a grey shirt.
Still dont see him, maybe in this one you can. Hint: he is waving.
Finally almost 16 minutes into the race Rob got to the starting line. He wore a chip on his shoe that starts the time for him and keeps track of his race time. With all those runners you need something like this. If you look at the dark spot between the yellow and orange shirt, you will see Rob’s head.
Here we have a picture of the poor drivers who had to wait at least a half an hour to just go through the intersection. They had a cop there stopping traffic so the drivers there were stuck with no way to go until the race was almost over.
Here we have Rob finishing his five miles, way to go Rob! His time was 47minutes/34 seconds. I think it would take me that long to run a mile, we will never know.
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December 2nd, 2008
Every year I start buying butter in October and stick it in the freezer. Then I buy about 20lbs of sugar and flour and many other things to add in. Around this house you know it is almost Christmas when the cookie baking starts. Everyone close to me knows that, right after Thanksgiving I start to get hints that were favorites from Christmas’s past. “Oh, remember those cookies that tasted like such and such, you are making those again, right? Right?
To start off I made some Peanut Butter Blossoms. For the life of me I cant get the cookie part to rise higher than what is shown. Oh well, they still taste great!
For the better tasting cookies, or different ones I will post a recipe with them.
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