Girls' Night!

Tonight David is at a concealed weapons permit class (I'll be getting mine in the near future as well), but tonight I had better things to do! I got together with some of the girls from high school, it is always so much fun to be together and catch up! An, Kel, Emily, Heather, Lis, and Julia (plus yours truly) SO much fun. I must admit, we are getting old :) Time sure does fly! I love getting together and talking about the past, present and future. You know what is crazy? I'm enjoying getting older! I think I always will!!! Every stage of life has new adventures and feats to conquer and it's great to share those moments with friends old and new. Girls, it was wonderful, let's do it again in 6 months to a year (ha ha).

Christmas!

David and I are the luckiest parents on the planet! Malarie went to bed early last night (7:30 pm instead of the usual 8 pm), and she slept in this morning until 6:30 am! PLUS, after I fed her she slept again until after 8 am. We all got up (David earlier than me, as usual, and he went to organize the gifts), went downstairs and started to open gifts. OK, so we opened Malarie's gifts... David and I didn't have gifts to open since we are planning on going on a Grenadian vacation next year (that goes out to you CeCe). She got some toys, books and clothes. She absolutely loved sticking the tags, wrapping paper and gifts in her mouth:

David and I took turns helping Malarie unwrap her gifts (from the looks of the photos, it turns out I'm better at getting her to smile, ha ha)

 

She loved sitting with and exploring her presents all around her.

 

 

 

Juneau and Ash weren't left out of the mix, they each got a raw hide bone. And just in case you were wondering, yes, we did actually think that they'd unwrap them themselves...that didn't pan out.






After we relaxed a bit, we decided to get ready to go to my mom's house. Let me explain something here; my idea of Christmas is staying in my pj's all day and just keeping it cozy. David, on the other hand, prefers to actually get dressed and ready for the day. Unfortunately for me, I always concede and reluctantly change out of my sweats and into real clothes. So, although David and I looked like normal people, we thought it'd be fun to dress Malarie up as an elf. Target had these super cute red dress elf outfits for girls, but that was not authentic...everyone knows that there is a very strict non-gender specific dress code at the North Pole, thus we opted to go with the green elf uniform (you'd be surprised to know that the elves actually have to purchase their own uniforms, they aren't provided).

At my mom's we were all sufficiently spoiled rotten by my mom and Max (her husband)! We gave Brady (my younger brother) and Lace (his girlfriend) a box of Twinkies for Christmas (come on, they were only $2 after Hostess went under), and Mal was loving on that box as you can see:

We ended the night at David's parent's house with a nice ham dinner and fun family fun, and, yes, more gifts.We still have my step-mom's to go to tomorrow...it's been a busy Christmas, but oh so good - not because it has been full of things but because it has been full of moments, love, laughter, and family!

Bear with me, I know this is a long one... David and I had a discussion about whether or not to have Malarie believe in Santa. I wasn't so sure about it. I was leaning more toward telling her that Saint Nicholas was a good man and wanted to do nice things for people, and that we all want to remember the way he was so we can try to remember that it's better to give than receive. I just don't want her to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas: Christ, and the service we can give to those around us as He would do if He were here. David convinced me that Santa isn't the problem, we will just need to keep the true meaning of Christmas in our home so that she knows what's really important. I love this time of year when charity abounds and we (as Christians, in general) tend to focus a little less on ourselves and a little more on those around us and especially the ones we love!

Merry Christmas Everyone, I hope that your holiday season was and is full of love, joy and peace!

"Yeah, But You Didn't Post About Malarie's First Tooth"

After creating this blog last night before bed, I went in and told David that I had started the blog. He said "I know, I saw on Facebook", I asked if he'd read the post, and he hadn't. Then this morning while I was getting ready for church he said "I read it". "Did  you like it?" I asked. "Yeah, but you didn't post about Malarie's first tooth". In my rush to simply start up a blog, I neglected to mention that our 6 month old daughter cut her first tooth yesterday! I would post a picture of it, but it's just barely coming out, you have to feel it with your finger (in other words, just trust me on this one), pretty exciting, she's growing really fast, and as you can see from her little dress, this will be her first Christmas (just in case you were wondering if a 6 month old was around last Christmas). Malarie's ordinary life consist of talking (a lot...ok babbling), laughing, smiling, entertaining us, eating, rolling over, sticking anything she can get her hands (including her hands) in her mouth, burping, farting and making messy diapers. She is fascinated by our dogs:

Enter Ash, our Great Dane rescue. She is a little skiddish around the men folk (we have to assume she was abused by men) but is getting MUCH better. She enjoys eating table scraps, and by eating, I mean swallowing whole! Even her dog food she gulps down in 2 min flat (that's 6 cups of food, like it's nothing). She loves to be pet, she will stick her giant head on your lap in the hope of getting some love. She is very aware of the baby and is careful not to step on her (I wish she were so careful with my feet!). She does not like to get into trouble or when Juneau is being pet. The thing Ash hates the most is David in his church clothes, for some reason she will not go near him when he is dressed to impress.




Next up is Juneau, our Alaskan Malamute with enough sass to go around. She loves to be the alpha dog. She, unlike Ash likes to taste her food and really take her sweet time doing it (I'm not entirely convinced that she doesn't do it to make Ash jealous that  she still has food). She only wants to be pet when she can steal the attention from Ash (or when ANYBODY else is over, she'll want them to love on her). She enjoys playing catch and of course the cold. Juneau does not like being told she can't dig under the fence to get to the neighbor's dogs, or bees (she's always trying to eat them up and has gotten stung a couple of times). The thing that Juneau hates the most is Malarie! She does not like the baby around her at all (unless it's on her terms and she's come to have a sniff), she will move so that Malarie cannot touch her (I guess she just doesn't trust her, ha ha). Much to her dismay, Malarie loves all that fur and is constantly reaching out for it.


Dog rant? Maybe, but I wanted you to have something to reference should I mention them in future posts.

It's Official... I'm A Blogger

Last night while driving to a hockey game (side note: while we were there I discovered that I don't really like hockey. I like the fights that break out, but, just in general, hockey is not for me) David and I had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: I think I'm going to start a blog.
David: Why?
Me: I don't know, because everyone that has a blog seems to have awesome adventures, and I just feel like I need to start one for those of us who don't really do anything.
David: What will you blog about?
Me: Trips to hockey games, WalMart...nothing really, this is going to be great!

And now here we are. I'll be upfront and honest, I've never been diligent at writing in a journal, so this blogary may get neglected more often than not, but hey, that's pretty ordinary if you ask me :)