nineteen

1 teenager

1 adult (kind of)

3  degrees (sort of)

4  states

5  kids

7  cars

$xxx,xxx  debt (ouch!)

$0  debt (yay!)

11  homes

several jobs

endless laughs

a few tears

a bunch of love

Happy 19 years!

the festivities part 2

 Christmas Eve and Christmas Dinner 

with the Heywood Family

 I forgot my camera for Christmas Eve at my parent's home, so I didn't take many pictures.

This was the best moment - Grammy reading to the children.

Grammy has a very soft & soothing voice when she reads.

 Everyone came to our house for Christmas dinner.

 Thomas, Kelsey, & Robyn

 Eric

 Keegan

 Mimi, Ashley, & Chase

Ashley and Chase were relegated to the small table.

That's what happens when you get to dinner late.

They're little, they fit.

 Shelle & Eric

 Robert, Grandpa, & Grammy

 Rod & Karen

They are going to celebrate their 24th wedding anniversary on the 29th.

Congratulations!

Haley & Hunter

Robert & Robert

THE FOOD!

There's a face in my food again!

The clown pie is winking.

Aside from the rolls, which I AWAYS love, these were my favorite foods this year.

The pie at Grammy's house was delightful!

Everyone made comments on how good it was and pretty.

These pictures don't really do it justice.

And the sweet potato casserole!

The sweet, sweet potato casserole.

I wanted to swim in it and never get out!

You can't go wrong with a dessert that is called a side dish!

the festivities part 1

 Good morning, kids!

They didn't get up until 7:15am.

That was the best present of the morning!

 After inspecting her "Thomas Bucks", Robyn announced that she got the best ones.

 Eric received most of the camping gear he was saving up for.

What are you going to buy with all of that money now?

Quinny donned her cowboy hat and mounted her trusty steed.

Then she called out,

"HOWDY, PAWTNERS!

And these three things are my favorites of the season.

1.  Grandpa's gingerbread house.  

I have seen many, many variations of houses over the years, but this is the first that is not only all black, brown, and white, but it has renewable candy!  

The cookies and walkway reappear if eaten!  

Brilliant idea.  

I indulged.

 2.  The children's nativity on the fireplace ledge.

I found the pieces arranged a different way every time I looked over.

This was the best variation Quinny came up with.

By the way, she rearranged my mom's nativities as well.

3.  Quinny bending and twisting herself into the Littlest Pet Shop box.

Well done, my mini-contortionist.

gingerbread

"I love our gingerbread houses!"

-Quinny 9:15am

 Mimi and Uncle Bob worked on this house.  Mimi was the mastermind behind the large gingerbread man standing guard.  He is decorated on both sides - you could say he is two-faced.  He must have gotten tired in the night, because he was leaning against the house this morning.

 Robert and I worked on this house.

Haley and Robyn made the Christmas-tree forest.

art by mimi

This snowman is smiling because he is a teacher.
He is so happy that he doesn't know he is melting.
-Mia

 Mimi brought home some Christmas art the other day.

She is always very generous with what she makes.

It is usually labelled to a loved one.

As I was admiring these pieces, she asked if she could staple them.

I said sure, if you want to.

She told me she was having trouble with the stapler, however, in true mothering mode, I pretty much ignored her comment until I heard a clunk-clunk, clunk-clunk from the other room.

Upon investigation, I found her stapling her creation to my wall.

She had already stapled the snowman in her room.

I started laughing;  it was not received well.

 On a completely unrelated note, can you tell what this is?

We are not sure how this happened, but somehow Robert managed to get half of an eggshell in the dishwasher.

He has no recollection of this, but he was the last one to do the dishes.

He thinks it stuck to something in his mad rush to get the dishes done.

Robyn found the shell, nicely cleaned, the next day.

Who knew an eggshell could make it through a dishwashing?

We do now.

little jack horner

This poor kid gets made fun of all the time for how she talks, 

even strangers comment on it.

She tries so hard to talk.  

The best part is how many syllables she adds to one-syllable words.

I love it!

a date with mimi

Mimi cashed in her November Buck for bowling!

We had a wonderful time in our floresscennnnnnt shoeees.

WWWWWWe ended uppppppppppppppppppppp   at   Amazing Jakes ffffooor      thhe evening.       (Thereeeee      wwwwwweeeeeerrrrrrrrrree leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaggues practicinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng at ttttttttttttttthe eeee other bowiiinglllliiiiiing    allllley.)

Creamy Mimi is a great date.  She was patient when things didn't go exactly as planned, and she was flexible.  I should take lessons from her!  After we were done bowling, Mims helped herself to second dinner (mac & cheese and breadstick).  Then we had ice-cream cones.  I think I ate five of them.  I like to just barely fill them up.  About halfway gives it the best cone to ice cream ratio.  The cone is the best part after all.  After the ice cream, we went to Target and did a little shopping.  Mimi was fantastic at picking out her secret sibling gift - her sib is going to love it!  Thanks for a fun and memorable night, Mimi!

You might be wondering about the crazy typing at the top.  Well, I am pretty sure I have a ghost messing with my electronics.  While talking to Shelle on the phone the other day, we were interrupted by some weird noises that sounded like breathing and strange unintelligible talking.  And among some other strange events that I won't detail here, the keyboard just freaked out on me.  It started adding letters and deleting.  Okay, so it was probably time to change the battery in the keyboard, but I am sticking with my ghost theory;  it seems much more likely, right!?!  I thought I would keep the crazy typing as proof.

bob's b-day

Bob turned 33 the other day.

We all gathered to wish him well.

You've come a long way, baby brother.

Mimi, Bob, Grammy, Haley, & Robyn's foot

Grandpa

Robynie, Robert, & Eric

Bob, Quinn, Haley, Robyn, & Robert's knee

Kelsey, Thomas, Keegan, Rod, and Grammy

Glowing Grammy & Mimi

Robert (I don't know why he is flying the bird.) & Ricky

Eric, Thomas, Haley, Rod, Shana, Aunt Wanda, Grammy, & Grandpa

sunrise

This is our neighbor's house.

It was the best spot to see the sunrise the other day.

Because I do so much transporting of kids at crazy hours, I often get to see the sun rise and set.

At a time when things don't seem familiar, but they should, the sky makes me feel like I am home.

I missed these moment living away for so many years, and I welcome them back.

Simply breathtaking.

ornaments

We made ornaments the other day to give to Grammy for her birthday.

I wonder if she ever gets tired of getting Christmasy presents....

Whether or not she liked them, we had a great time making them.

I am not a very crafty person, but these were really hard to mess up.

We all made at least one ornament, and then we picked out our favorites to give away.

I am typically not a klutz, but while walking into Karen's house I found the step on her front pathway.

In the process, the ornament Robert had crafted found its way to the sidewalk.

Sorry, Robert.

Grammy only got six ornaments that day, and my knees got some black and blue ornaments.

no worries, she's in the dog house

 Total panic followed by complete relief in .5 seconds.

That is how I felt when I walked into Mimi and Quinn's room.

Shocked and worried, I saw that there was no Quinny in the bed.

It was dark, but it didn't take me too long to find her on the floor at the foot of her bed.

She was sound asleep next to the cardboard dog house.

(The little girls have taken a liking to constructing dog houses out of old boxes.  

Then they tie up their stuffed animals with rope, ribbon, sashes, etc. and drag them around the house.

Sometimes they tie up each other and pretend they are the dogs.

They want a real dog.)

Anyway.

I thought she had gotten up and played in her room.

She does that a lot, but she always gets back in bed.

Not this time.

I asked her why she slept on the floor.

She said she got hot.

Interesting way to cool off.