Shortcake house

This is Emily's Strawberry Shortcake House. When someone comes over, they have to visit Strawberry Shortcake's house. It is supposed to hold a maximum of 3 kids. It's pretty funny to adults inside. Here are those lucky few who have been able to experience the Shortcake house! I am one of those few, but I haven't gotten my picture taken yet.

Christmas 2005

Here is a little update from our Christmas celebrations. While we were in Dayton, Emily caught some kind of cold, which she very kindly passed onto me when we got home...so we were both out of commission for a few days. I'm finally getting back in the swing of things. It's such a blessing to be able to breathe clearly!

Here are just a few pictures of our weekend. Emily got to make some sugar cookies with her Grandma Lamb. I think Grandma has just as much fun as Emily did. On Friday night, in Dayton, Matt, Nathan, and Steve played a little indoor soccer. You know, I never did hear who won. Emily is really into Winnie the Pooh right now. (This bear has tons of edge.) She saw a video a long time ago and it's been Pooh Bear ever since. She loves her little Pooh bowling set. It's more fun to carry them all around than it is to knock them down with a ball. I'm sure that will change in short order. She is also pretty excited about a little girl named Strawberry Shortcake. I have a few more pictures to post of her with her shortcake stuff, but here are a few that I have right now. She loves her pupcake. It was fun to watch her open her gifts. I had to be pretty sneaky with Nate this year. Two years ago, in Denver, I got him one present that consumed my entire Christmas budget. This year I did the same, but had to be sneaky about how it was packaged under the tree. I'll have to let him write his own post about it. I did succeed in fooling him, though!

Detroit

We got home from Detroit Monday morning at 3:30am. It took a little while to get back in the swing of things. The Christmas Spectacular was a great success. We had a lot of fun doing our jobs in the sound arena. Nate was manning the board, while I ran all of the tracks and sound effects off of iTunes on the laptop. My husband is so smart, he set it all up for me. Emily had fun running the spotlight after everything was finished. Well, at least she thought she was running the spotlight. She was on a complete sugar high from the chocolate chip cookies they were feeding her in the nursery. I think her total was five for one night. We were up pretty late waiting for her to crash. We tried to get Emily and Allie (the beagle) in a picture together. As long as David held her, we were fine...but she was kind of freaked out otherwise. She loves the concept of a dog, but doesn't like to be close to the real thing. But guess who we've been hearing about all week now...Allie..treat..Allie..treat. On Sunday night we had a fun surprise. Nate Bills, Bethany, and Hayden were at the program. It was fun to see them all. Hayden is SO cute. Congrats you two!

Last night, Nathan and Emily worked on a computer for Uncle Matt. We'll be taking it with us to Dayton tomorrow. She is quite the little helper with a screwdriver.
We have been so good this year, not opening presents early. Emily opened a stocking stuffer today, but that's different. If we make it to tomorrow morning, then we're golden. Once we leave for Dayton, we can't access our own gifts until Christmas Eve night. Why is it so hard to be patient around Christmas?

If you're traveling, be safe everyone. Merry Christmas!

Snowman and snowdog

Here are a few pictures of Emily with her first snowman and snowdog.

Let it Snow!

This picture is a lovely view of the alley to the side of our house, but I wasn't going any further than the front porch to take a picture of the snow. We're supposed to get 4 to 8 inches tonight. We probably have 4 inches already, judging by the accumulation on the Jeep. I think sometime this weekend we'll be making our first snowman of the year. Emily has no idea what fun she is going to have!

Speaking of snow, Nate was tested on Sunday of his driving ability when a car came sliding sideways into our lane. We ended up on one side of the road in a field and the guy driving the runaway car ended up on the other side of the road in a different field. We were all okay, had to breathe a little slower after the car stopped. Emily was looking at her Strawberry Shortcake coloring book while all of this was taking place and didn't even realize we were almost in a head on collision. As we bounced through the field to get back on the road, all we heard from the backseat was "whoa,whoa,whoa,whoa" with the pitch of her voice going up and down as if Daddy had discovered a fun new game of bouncing in the car. We were just thankful that we were spared from something that could've been much worse that day.

Have a great weekend everyone! If you're somewhere where the snow is falling, stay safe!