Chesnuts roasting on an open fire....

Last year when we moved into this new house I was a little disappointed that we would not have a propane heater to stand in front of on those cold winter nights. In the old house it was the only thing that really kept us warm. I loved being able to go stand in front of it and just get warm.

I knew we would have the central heat here, but there is nothing like being able to instantly get warm when you've got a cold chill. P kept telling me it'll be even better at the new house, there's a real fire place and we can actually use it. (As most of you know, we had 5 fireplaces in the old house, but were unable to use them because they had not been used in a LONG time and needed to be cleaned out. With the house being so old it just wasn't safe to use them!)

So I thought whatever! It just won't be the same. If we have a real fire the house will smell  and it's just too much work. Well I have to admitt I was wrong!! P started a fire one night and I fell in LOVE! We have had a fire every night that the temp. has gone below 50 degrees I think!

I don't know how I ever lived without the flames for all those years. As you can tell from the pictures, the girls love the fire too! We can't keep them out of the livingroom now!!

There have been several nights that we haven't even turned the TV on because of the fire. We just sit around and talk or play games. It's really been a nice addition. If we ever build a house in the future I want fireplaces everywhere!

1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians....

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We sure did. We even had a couple of Indians join us for the celebration! And they were just too cute.

E and A looking so cute in their Indian dresses.

E and A with their new Scottish Barbie dolls. These were suppose to be a Christmas present, but we were celebrating cousin D's b'day at our Thanksgiving feast and you know how that goes. If one kids is opening presents at grandma's house....all the kids have to open something!!

Here's A (holding the new Scottish Barbie) and cousin D enjoying birthday cake.

E pigging out on the yummy icing!

Finally Pooped....

Okay, so E has been a little sick here lately. Nothing much, just a nasty little cold with the runny nose and coughing something awful. I called the doctor and they said "as long as there is no fever and it doesn't last for more than 10 days she should be fine. But if it makes you feel better give her some children's cold medicine." I can do that....it's a lot better than having to drive all the way to the Dr.'s office and pay the copay.

Well let me tell you....I will NEVER give that child cold medicine again!! Most kids get sleepy or at least a little drowsy from cold medicine. Oh no....not E!!! It had the complete opposite effect on her!! She was so wired I didn't know what to think. She was stripping down to her b'day suit every time I turned around (even when she was outside playing!!),  running from one end of the house laughing hysterically, jumping from anything she could crawl on top of, sticking her tongue out, yelling at the top of her lungs and everything else crazy you can think of.

She was absolutely wired. The pictures above are from when the medicine finally wore off!!  She was playing in her room when I heard everything get really quiet. So I went to her room to see what was going on (I knew something was wrong since I didn't hear her bouncing off the walls!!). As soon as I opened the door I could here the snoring. But she wasn't on her bed!! So I looked under her bed.....not there. I turned around and found that she had crawled up inside of her chiffarobe with all her toys, pillow and blanket to take a nap. And she was OUT!! I tried to wake her up, but once I figured out it wasn't going to happen I just let her sleep! She needed it.

She did finally wake up and calm down. I have never seen her that wired before. And boy I won't be giving her anymore cold medicine anytime soon!!!!

Field Trip

This year A's class was able to visit Homestead Hollow for a field trip and thankfully I was able to take a personal day to join them. We had a great time looking at all the "old timey" ways of doing things. Of course we have been as a family MANY times in the past, but it was still fun to go hang out with A for the day.

This was our little group. We were suppose to have another little girl with us to make it a little more even, but her dad came and of course she wanted to walk around with him. As you can tell it didn't seem to upset A too much. She still had a blast with the boys anyway. (The boy on the left says that he never smiles!! - So don't think it was because he wasn't having fun.)

Here's the group checking out the HUGE turkey. There were too many kids around to get the turkey in the picture too.

A and one of her buddies from a different class.

A's whole 1st grade class. This was taken right before the buses left to go back to the school. Can you tell the kids were just a little tired and ready to go??

A and her WONDERFUL teacher this year. A is having a great year and loves school.