The coolest gift ever!

For Christmas, Clint and his parents pooled their resources and bought me a vinyl cutter. I have wanted one for about 5 years but could never really justify the cost. I certainly spend enough money ordering from everyone else that has one, so I guess it was time. I love it! I am so excited to go crazy with it. I have done lots with it so far, but my camera died, so here are two things I got pictures of.

And hooray for my friend Lexi, who has been an excellent teacher and font-giver. Want some vinyl? I'll totally do it for you!!

Shed it up

We have a garage full of items. We decided a shed would be a wise investment. For 6 months we have been haggling with the HOA about whether or not we can have one. They came through and so now we have one. The ground slopes down 18", so Clint had to build it up and level it out by building a deck under the area where it would go. It rained the entire week, but the three days he chose to to work on it, it was sunny. Thank goodness for small miracles. The kids have incorrectly assumed that is a playhouse, but once we fill it with pitchforks and fertilizer (not the good smelling kind), we think they may choose elsewhere to play. It's our plan anyway.

Yes, it does look totally unlevel, but it's not. Oh, trust me, it's not. The 487 checks on the bubble level were not in vain. Our camera man, Carson, isn't quite skilled on the practice of taking a straight picture yet.

What sounds like shards of glass, but isn't?

My MIL brought my birthday gift from my parents when she came out for Christmas. She handed it to me and said, "This is your birthday present from your parents." I thanked her for bringing it and took the gift. It sounded like shards of glass. I was certain that it had once been fragile but had been crushed into a million pieces by the airline baggage throwers. I felt bad, so I called my mom. Here's how the conversation went: ME: "Mom, is my birthday gift supposed to sound like broken glass?" MOM: "Did you shake it?" ME: "No, but when lightly jiggling it, it sounds like shards of glass tumbling about." MOM: "Yep, it supposed to sound like that." Curiosity was killing me, but my birthday was still 2 weeks away. I dutifully waited till the right day and opened it. Behold, broken glass:
Yes, I know my outfit looks amazing. That's called, "Post-Church Comfy." It's where you pair part of your church clothes with pajama pants. Don't tell me you've never done it.

Skating Frenzy

We took the kids ice skating for the first time. It was a ton of work as Carson and Cambria were extremely apprehensive. Carson finally got the hang of it and Cambria...well, we mostly just had to put her scarf under her arms and hold her up with it. She only went around twice. It was fun, but will most likely NOT become a tradition.

assembly

building a motorcycle takes skill and precision

The three best shots of the day

I took a million pictures on Christmas, I am not sure why, but I did. I decided to just share my three favorites. Cambo in Carson's Nerf Gun glasses
waiting patiently to come downstairs to see what Santa brought

Nana and Bompa crashed out from all the morning festivities

Eve at the house

We had a great Christmas Eve at our house this year complete with the new sets of jammies. With Clint's parents here, we were able to have a family night and it was really nice. We had our tradtional mish-mosh dinner of randomness. A little seafood, a little BBQ meatballs, some appetizers, and fizzy drinks. It has no rhyme or reason, but it's good nonetheless. After dinner we had our talent show. Cambria sang Away in a Manger (to my terrible accompaniment), Gavin played two songs on the piano, and Clint showed us a video about the true meaning of Christmas. Ideally we'd like to remove a lot of the toys and gifts and commercialism of the holidays, so we tried to keep Christmas Eve special. Maybe next year we'll try harder to cut back on those other things.

Christmas cookies?

Of course! I have never actually done Christmas cookies with the kids. Santa usually gets a graham cracker and some carrots, 'cause we know he's watching his weight. Nana and Bompa came for Christmas this year and nana said we needed to make the cookies, so we did. Good times and messy counters, you can't beat that!

Cutie hair

I like Cambria with a cute little bob haircut, but for her dance class, they had to wear it in a bun for the recital, so we grew it long. Recital's over, folks, so here's the new 'do.