Happy 2009

From Hartland we wanted to wish you all a fantastically wonderful, blessed 2009! It's hard to believe that 2008 has already come to a close, and here I am on New Year's Eve! Looking back it was a good year for us. Tom started work at NASA and we decided that I should drop down my hours at work to part-time. For the most part one of us is home with the girls (but thank heaven we do still have our amazing sitter just a phone call away!) Zoey was a busy girl this year with soccer, play dates and our preschool homeschooling. Camryn has grown so much this year and is no longer our little baby! It's hard for me to believe that she was still only crawling just over a year ago, amazing! God has blessed us so much! Please be safe on this new year holiday!

Getaway

We are so looking forward to our little escape this weekend! We've rented a cabin in Cloudcroft, NM for a long weekend and are all ready to tune out post-holiday chaos and relax. Sadly, there's no snow at the moment--so unless we have a freak storm come through the area in the next few days we'll have a cold, dry weekend. I don't mind though. It will be nice to do some hiking and sort through all the treasures that nature has to offer us.

I've been jotting down checklists about packing, food supplies and entertainment equipment. It's unbelievable how much stuff a toddler and preschooler need for four days! Wish us luck!

My Husband, The Photographer

I was going through random pictures and came across this one that Tom took a couple of weeks ago. It was on the way back for his quick Texas escapade with Zo and Cam. Isn't it fantastic? They were traveling through Hondo, just before you head into the tall pines of the Sacremento mountains. He said that there were deer everywhere in the open fields near the road, and they found this stock pond full of Canadian geese. It looks very serene.

Recovery

We had a fast paced Christmas holiday here in Hartland, but it was wonderful! Our family traveled up to my parents on the 23rd, to drop the girls off--Tom and I both had to work on Christmas Eve. We brought up a new pellet stove for the apartment my parent's rent out and Tom and my Dad had a doozy of a time getting that thing up and running. The girls and I played with Meme at her house for a little while and then headed down to the store to add some helping (distracting?) hands! Having the girls run around the store reminded me a lot my growing up experiences there. I think that I was about 4 or 5 when my Dad, Mom and Grandpa Robert first opened up Valley Market. We helped set out rolls to rise and cookies to bake, and boxed up all kinds of goodies to sell. Good times!

Christmas Eve was horrible at work. You'd think that people would want to stay home for the holiday, but we had women coming in to Labor & Delivery for the dumbest things. Honestly people, call your clinic's after hours hot line! Tom had a nice, relaxing shift--those spoiled guys! Each of the firefighters brought a few things to add to the breakfast buffet they had that morning.

On Christmas day we headed up to Gila again once Tom got home--Dustin hitched a ride with us as well. Once we were at Apple and Meme's we quickly exchanged gifts and then off we went to the family dinner. Thank you Julie for hosting, your new place is really nice! And you're right, very rocky :) It was a great time, I only wish we could have stayed longer in Gila. But soon enough we were back on the road with our beautiful girls, made a pit stop to visit Grandpa Robert and Shelby and deliver gifts, then off to Hartland again. Whew!

On a side note, Christmas day is my little brother's birthday. When we were younger I think I was a little resentful that he always had these beautiful decorations all over and a tree. Man, what's with all the pomp and circumstance? But now Dust, thanks for being a good sport about it! I hope that you had a fantastic day (and that you weren't as stuffed as I was, ugh!) Hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas!

O Happy Day

It's official! Ben & Cynthia we are so full of a million wonderful emotions (as I know that you both are!) that can't quite describe how happy we are that you have two beautiful girls and two beautiful boys that are officially your daughters and sons! All of the many months of paperwork, meetings, fire escape plans (yes, we're still laughing about that!) are done.

Tom, Zoey & Camryn made a mad dash to Texas on Friday to attend the adoption hearing of our new nieces--9 year old Alexis and 15 month old Alissa. Sadly, I had to stay behind and work. Darn the pregnant women that inconvenienced me that day :) Here's a picture of Camryn and her GG (great grandma Mona) waiting at the court house for the adoption hearing to start. Tom was wonderful and took lots of pictures for me! Welcome to the family Alexis and Alissa HART! We love you B, C, A, N, J, A!

One To Share

Okay, I had to share this last one for the day! Our poor little Snoop Dog isn't made to handle these cold December days ( thank goodness we don't live in Wisconsin or somewhere like that!) So I did what I always thought was the most ridiculous thing... The girls and I bought him a little army sweater. He seems pretty content with it. Not spoiled in the least, is he?

Cold & Dreary

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the heat from our furnace is so delightful!!!! It is a cold and dreary day today in Hartland, and I think that if it cools down just a tad bit more we'll have snow today! Of course, it's too wet outside to stick.

On a day like this I'd like nothing more than to stay in my pj's, sit under a blanket on the couch and watch chick flicks. Yes, Tom is on shift today! However, my dirty house is calling to me, there is laundry to be done and Zoey has been itching to make some Christmas cookies. I found a recipe for dog biscuits--I think that might be a good one for the girls to make today, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if a little egg shell made it into their treats :)

Introducing...

Hartland proudly welcomes the newest addition to our family, Snoop Dog aka Snoopy. As you read in a previous post, our Molly dog went missing and we haven't seen her since that time. Our poor fattie girl....Well Blue seemed very content, but a certain unnamed fireman sure had an itch to look for another dog. And he and the girls had been randomly checking out our local animal shelter (while mommy was working!). His story goes that after looking over several dogs he chose Snoop because the little guy crawled into Camryn's lap when she sat on the ground.

After his checkup and surgery (sorry little dog!) he came home to us last Thursday. He's a chihuahua mix and is a little smaller than our monster cat Biggs. And he fits into our family just fine.

Family Time

We had a great time trimming the Christmas tree--and yes, Camryn did already pull it over one time :) The first thing that Zoey does every morning when she wakes up is to run and plug in the tree. They are both fascinated by it. It's been really cold the last couple of days so we haven't put the lights on the house yet, but Zozo reminds us of it every day! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Back In The Day

I was just browsing the old pc files, trying to clean things up when I stumbled across my favorite video clip of all time! This is Camryn when she was probably 7 or 8 months old. The picture quality isn't the best since I videoed it from my phone. But this truly is my favorite of all time :) Hope that you get a kick out it!