Christmas Week 2014

Merry Christmas to you all!!

What a fun week the Werner's had leading up to Christmas Day!

We got a bit of snow a couple of days before, but nothing stayed on the ground.

Beckham loved the snow, even though we could not find his gloves!

Hudson, not so much!  He kept his hands in his pockets and wouldn't touch the snow!

He came in to get warm, then I asked if he wanted to go back outside...NO!

They sure do love Santa Clause!

Grandma brought a Gingerbread House Kit for the kids to construct!  Unfortunately, not all of the parts made it through the plane ride in one piece!

Everyone still had a great time decorating it!

The roof was the main piece that did not survive, but the girls decorated it anyway and called it a puzzle!

All of our finished pieces!

We had a fun dinner with our McMullin relatives again this year!  It is so fun to be together with family and also to see how much little Kienan has grown!

We had lasagna!

And an awesome Ceasar Salad made by the girls!

Natalie made the best dessert!  It was a Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar on the bottom, then layered with Oreo Cookies, then covered with Brownie Mix and baked!  Oh, my heavens!  It was delicious!

The boys loved having their cousin Kienan over!  Can you believe that he is almost a year younger than them?!

After dinner we had an awesome dance party!  Beckham loves to show his moves on the dance floor!

We are a pretty happy bunch!

But where is Hudson?

He took advantage of everyone else being occupied with dancing, and climbed up onto the table to help himself to Ice Cream!

Caught you, cutie!

On Christmas Eve we celebrated Randy's 30th Birthday!  Oh my goodness, I can not believe the sweet baby boy who made me a Momma for the first time is all grown up!

Randy is not picky about what dessert we choose to celebrate with, so we picked this giant Apple Pie!

Hudson just wanted to make sure it was ready!

And here is everyone right before I sent them up to bed!  Randy and my Mom and I still had lots to wrap and assemble!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Sunny, Windy, Icy, Snowy...

I have always said that if you like weather, any weather at all. Then Kansas City is the place for you! In the last 2 weeks we have had days with 81 degrees and sunny and a weekend like the last one with 26 degrees and 6 inches of snow! Today is about 60 and they are saying more snow on Wednesday! It is so weird!!

But I love weather, rain, snow, wind, or sun! I don't care as long as it isn't the same thing for too long. Which is why I live in the Midwest! In San Diego we used to get "Breaking News" on the television in which the newscasters would break in to your program to tell you that a storm was on the way. There would be this really intense music that made you think you should go to the hardware store and buy large pieces of plywood to put up over your windows and stop at the grocery store to stock up on canned goods! And then...when the (I'll use this term loosely) storm arrived, you'd get one half of an inch of rain!! I am not kidding folks...this is totally true! And the newscasters would sit on the air congratulating themselves for warning everyone and making sure everyone in their viewing area was safe from...what...drowning their big toes?! Talk about a let down!

Which is why, just after I moved here in 99, I watched as the news predicted a large storm in our area, with a Tornado Warning. I watched the whole thing play out on the television and from the window of my home. I watched because I didn't really believe them, even when they said you should be in your basement and NOT watching out of your window! OK, so I learned a valuable lesson...and I didn't get killed which is great because now I actually go ahead and go down to the basement and watch the television down there...yes, I can be taught.

Saturday was actually kind of fun. My friend and neighbor Karen was having a Baby Shower for one of our other neighbors, Amy who is having her 3rd boy. I was in charge of the games...yea for me! I like games at baby showers, I know not everyone does, but I am corny that way.

So the shower was at 10am which worked out perfect as it didn't start to snow until noon. We ended up with about 6 inches of snow. The girls played indoors, mostly in the basement. We had an extra girl, Mackenzie's best friend Kayla came over and spent the night on Friday. This was Mackenzie's first official sleepover. She was so excited and so was Kayla, they did not get a lot of sleep!

I had to send the nanny home early on Saturday because by 3pm the snow was really starting to pile up. So I stopped working for the day a little early and made a big pot of chili and a batch of corn bread muffins. It is so cozy and warm in our house and so wonderful to sit at our table with all of my children eating a cozy meal and watching the snow fall outside. I imagine this could be the last snow fall, at least measurable snow fall, for this season. Spring is ready to burst out here, some of our trees already have flowers on them.

As much as I love the winter and how it makes me feel, I also love the Spring. This year I am having a protion of our yard dug up for a vegetable garden. I am NOT going to try to do anything extraordinary! So don't worry, just a few vegatables. We are going to concentrate on tomatoes and cucumbers since we eat so much of those. We might add some lettuce, but I am not sure. I think the girls will really love to do this and it is something I have always wanted to do. I will let you know how it turns out.

Let It Snow...

I am cheating here. These pictures are not the idyllic snapshots of a snowy Christmas Day! No, they were taken a few weeks ago. And, alas, there is almost no snow on our lawn today. There was a bit yesterday, but then we had a day in the mid 30's and last night just wasn't cold enough to keep it! Darn!

So I am posting these pictures, and humming "Let it Snow, let it snow..." and hoping that the snow will return soon. "Why?", you ask. Because my Mother and my Aunt Marianne will be here on Saturday for a week and I have promised them beautiful snow!! And now I have to deliver!

This is the view from my office, the kids still love to play on the swingset, even in the snow!

They were outside building a snowman, who is now deceased...may he rest in peace. You see, if it would only snow again, then we could resurrect him, and I could teach my girls a wonderful lesson on the resurrection, which is really an Easter story, but, whatever! And we could have hot chocolate, and make snow angels...please snow, please snow, please snow. I'll let you know if it does.