Happy New Year and I'm not a good blogger

We just celebrated Chinese New Year. We had lots of fun, had family and good friends over for Chinese dishes and board games, and I didn't even take any pictures! I'm hoping my friend will share them with me, she is a much better photographer than I am anyway. Sara and Chuck came in for the fun, and for the Super Bowl, and well, they haven't even been here since Thanksgiving! so it was about time. They brought their new puppy, Nixon. Taylor has wanted a yorkie for a long time, so this was not a help to me. She carried this puppy around gently for two days and cried when he went home. I think daddy should let her have one of her own, we'll see....

Jennifer has been with us for 6 months this week. She is still finding her way, but is a happy child and doing so well in school. Penny turned 4 months old yesterday, time just flies.

OK, off to ask my friend for her pictures, my mom for the pictures she took of Penny, someone should just take my camera, I never seem to use it!

Spirit Week

This is spirit week at Taylor and Jennifer's school. They are little kids, homecoming basketball really means nothing to them. But for two little girls who have to wear uniforms on a daily basis to school, a chance to 'dress down' is always a fun thing. One day was red/white/blue day or patriotic day. Today was blue and gold day, school colors - go Tornados!

Finally..the beach

Its New Year's Eve, our last day at the beach and it finally warmed up enough to venture out. This is the first time this winter that Myrtle Beach has had an average temperature day. We enjoyed a sea shell gathering contest, then a shuffleboard tournament. Emilee got some awesome shots of seagulls and pelicans that I will be 'borrowing' to make prints for my home. I saw Jennifer writing in the sand and went over to take a look, and her written message said it all - What a wonderful day, what a way to end this year, hoping for many more days at the beach in 2011!

Christmas traditions

Our family has been going to Myrtle beach after Christmas for years, its one of my favorite family traditions. And usually we escape the cold and its nice and warm and we get to spend some time on the beach. This year it snowed in VA and we drove through two states, and guess what, SC had as much as snow as we did! So no playing in the waves, but some time spent at the discount outlets and much time spent in the awesome indoor pool area of the place we're staying (we chickened out at camping, just too cold). We still wake up to the sun coming up over the ocean's horizon with the gulls flying, so life is good. Hopefully by Friday its actually supposed to warm up to 62 and we'll go seashell collecting :)New Year's Eve at the beach is always lots of fun...fireworks on the beach. Love family traditions

Merry Christmas

After counting down the days, the hours, the minutes, Christmas is here! Last night's Christmas Eve service at TRBC was wonderful, and set the mood for our Christmas season. This morning, Jennifer found out that Christmas is not scary (her words, she was a bit apprehensive last night). This morning when she opened her presents, she looked at me, and said, do I get to keep them? Yes, baby girl, its all yours, and our love as well. Taylor enjoyed Christmas in her new Taylor Swift t-shirt Emilee gave her last night, more fun at my parents house later today, but for now, we'll go apply the new press on glitter nails and have a nerf gun war :)

Oh Christmas Tree

A good friend posted on her blog about how her Christmas tree is special, not because its one of those perfectly beautiful trees that has a theme, but that its full of memories and meaning.

We have a tree like that, I have an ornament from every year since I've been married (and thats a lot!) and then years ago Tom started a tradition where the kids got me an ornament for my birthday every year because its the week before Christmas and add those in and then the ones the kids made and we have a tree full of memories too.

This year Emilee made me a special tree for our family room. I always wanted our tree in our family room but tradition dictates that it be in our living room and Emilee cannot stand to break a tradition. So to make us both happy, she got me a small tree and filled it full of ornaments that she hand made, its an art form called quilling. As usual, my pictures don't do justice to the subject, but I had to share some of my special ornaments from my first family room Christmas tree.

Christmas 2010

The Christmas season is officially upon us. We've decorated, we've shopped, we have not make Christmas cookies yet, but plans are to do this once the girls get out of school. Today we traveled to Sara and Chuck's to celebrate Christmas with them, and see how much Penny has grown and changed since Thanksgiving..and the answer to that is a lot! She laughed as Taylor danced for her, and just soaked in all the fun as we had a great meal prepared by Sara, who is reallly a great cook, accompanied by Chuck who holds his own in the kitchen and was assisted by Emilee who made the most delicious brownie cheese cake dessert (I feel like I need to walk 50 miles tomorrow after today). My parents came with us and we all had the nicest day ever. My post is pretty much just an excuse to post these adorable pictures of Penny, holding her was the best present ever.