Christmas Trinkets

I was looking out the window yesterday afternoon at the snow and my eye caught the tree I had decorated up for Christmas. It looked so beautiful with the ice and snow and ornaments. I decided to try my photography skills out and see if I could capture the beauty. My camera isn't the best for this type of picture taking, but I got a couple of nice shots.

Oh, the weather outside is Frightful, but I find it Delightful!

Here are pictures of our crazy snow. We rarely get snow here and right now we have almost a foot. No one is going out and driving on the roads. The city is just not equiped to handle this much snow removal. It snowed wednesday and our road was finally plowed yesterday morning.

This is the sidewalk I cleared with a stupid dirt shovel. I called 8 different stores before this last storm hit trying to find a snow shovel, but they were all sold out, everywhere! I was using our big garage broom, but this stuff was so heavy with moisture it packed instead of pushed.

Leah and I build a snowman on Wednesday. He's still there but hunched over with old age.

Charlie loved the snow until he tried walking directly in it. I haven't been letting him out because he's been sick. He's mad about that, he want to go outside and play in the snow.

Pictures from Derek

Derek called me this morning to tell me a little about the trip he was able to go on this last week. He emailed over pictures as he was talking to illustrate his story. Here are the pictures.

Typical Derek humor...

This is one of Sadam's thrones. It's in his hunting lodge in Baghdad. It was given to him by Yassir Arrifat (I'm too lazy to look up the proper spelling of his name) I personally love the enormous copper tea-pot in the background. Seriously...what is that thing?

This is Derek in the main palace hunting lodge. It is wall to wall, floor to ceiling marble. That is an enormous crystal chandelier in the background.

This is a picture of the grounds of the hunting lodge. A large man-made lake sits in teh middle surrounded by these "houses". Derek said this lake is probably 6 feet deep and miles around. So think of that when you think of all the people dying of thirst and the millions upon millions of gallons used to fill up this useless lake.

This is the main hunting lodge palace. I know I'm calling everything by the wrong name. It's a talent I have.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let is SNOW

I love snow storms. They are so beautiful. Right now we are experiencing quite a blizzard. The snow is thick and wet and falling by the inches. I took the kids for a walk with morning in the snow and we watched all the excited neighborhood kids sledding down our ridiculously small hills. On the way home, there were snowmen dotting the sides of the road. Now I must preface, we don't get a lot of snow here, only once or twice a year. Snow is a big treat. That's probably why I like it so much now. I can't wait to take the kids out after naps and let them play in it and we can build our own snowmen. I'm sure pictures will follow eventually.

Collection of Photos

So here they are, a bunch of photos for you people. So now you can leave me alone and stop asking me to post more pictures. (you know who you are :)

Most of these are from Leah's birthday party. She had an artist party, paint, playdough and coloring. Everyone had so much fun. It was a beautiful day and the kids were even able to go outside and play on the playground before lunch was served. Leah didn't get to blow out her candle. Her best friend Ethan (seen holding hands with her in one of the pictures) blew it out for her. He was too excited to wait for her to get it herself. Oh, and I didn't make the cake, I designed it but had Safeway make it. Her invitations looked like the cake.

Some of the other pictures are from our trip to San Francisco.

the Octopus

This is Leah's Octopus. She was drawing pictures on her new art desk and she ran to me and asked me to come see her octupus. I was expecting the usual scribbles and circles she draws. When I got to her board I saw this drawing. Wow, it looked like a real picture. I had to preserve her first real image. The octopus even has eight legs, well 7 but you can see a scraggly line that could count as the 8th. It was a proud moment for me. Unfortunately it wasn't too long after that that she lost her art supplies. Coloring on the neighbor boy may be considered a form of art in some circles, but not in my house.