One Year Older and Wiser Too!

Today is my lovely sister's birthday. Adrienne is 28 years old. That is so strange because I still think of us as crazy 19 and 21 year-old roommates at USU. Man, those were the days. All my guy friends wanted her and that really does something to an older sister's self-esteem -- and it doesn't really do anything good to the self-esteem, I can tell you that much.

Here are just some of the reasons I love Adrienne (these are just a few off the top of my head as there are far too many to list in one blog post):

1-She's funny. Seriously, one of the funniest people I know.

2-She speaks her mind.

3-She's a cute mom. This becomes very apparent once you spend even one minute with her little Kate because she's just as spunky as her mom.

4-Every trip we go on together, we will undoubtedly, unquestionably fight with each other. We usually have one major humdinger of a "discussion" on every trip. What I love about her is that she ALWAYS forgives me for the dumb things I say. (Sometimes I say dumb things. But that will probably come as no surprise to anyone who has ever taken the teeniest, tiniest glimpse at my blog.)

5-She's beautiful (on the inside and out. I can't tell which side wins out because they're both so darn attractive!).

6-She makes me happy. It's a selfish reason but it's true. It's hard to get time with her, now that we live so far away, and she has so many darn friends that it's difficult to even get any phone time with her but when I do, it somehow makes my days better.

I love you Aids! (No, she's not suffering from the disease; that's just her oh-so-attractive nickname from high school.)

Much Ado about Christmas

I've been trying to be a good girl by de-Christmasing my house before sitting down at my computer and piddling my time away.

Alas, tonight we finally cleaned up our Christmas crap so ... YAY! I can blog now!

Besides having to drive on terrible, snowy, winter roads all the way down to Utah (and part of the way back), we had an excellent Christmas. I'll spare you the painful details (because my sister, Adrienne, says I give WAY too much background info when telling a "short story") and let our pictures paint their thousand-word stories (that's probably a few more words than I would even say about each picture so it looks like I get to have my cake and eat it too on this one).

Here are some of our highlights:

FINALLY! getting Ruby to calm herself down enough to get a good Christmas picture in front of my Mom's tree (why does it seem like Moms always have the best trees?):

The new bulldog puppy my parents got for Christmas. Seriously, is there anything cuter than a bulldog pup? Seriously? Seriously!

Scott's grandparents, Hal and Mary, reveling in the heartfelt gift he gave them. Grandma Mary was getting "weepy" in this pic. I love Grandma Mary. She cries at almost every gift she gets. This year, I think she cried when Kate gave her hand soap -- she thought it was so thoughtful that Kate remembered how much she loved soap!


We went to the cabin the day after Christmas. I triple-dog dare you all to find a more comfy, relaxing, enjoyable place than the Christensen Cabin. Is there anything more beautiful than snow? Yes. Only one thing -- a mountain cabin covered in snow. Okay, one other thing -- my babies playing in the snow in front of the mountain cabin covered in snow.


Howdy Partner. Henry playing dress-up with "Frampy" Hal's 32-gallon hat:

I got a new camera for Christmas so here's me experimenting with Henry and Ruby as my beautiful subjects. Don't judge my photog skills because I don't really have any. I always wanted to but was never able to take any photography classes in school because my electives were always taken up by other exciting, cool, popularity-enhancing classes like orchestra, choir, French, etc. (Remember how Adrienne says I give too much background info? I have no idea what she's talking about.)


Ruby contemplating the meaning of her existence:


My little sledders:


Tau, the Sled Dog, digging for mice in three feet of snow (go, Boy, go!):

Henry summiting Mt. Everest (aka, the big mound of snow-plowed snow right down the hill from the cabin, right after making his first snow angel EVER!):

Mother and Son Snow Angels (mine's the one on the right, just to dispel any possible confusion):


Look at all that snow! I absolutely LOVE going to the cabin in the winter.


Anyway, it was fun but I'm so glad it's over. Both Christmas AND this post. I've been sitting here for two hours (my computer is so old it takes it FOREVER to upload the higher resolution pics from my new camera. Hmm...old computer? Where were you on that one Santa?)

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Said the tired mom to the grumpy dad ...

Do you hear what I hear?

Way up in the sky, Grumpy Dad.

No song, no song, singing in the night -- we are free from the Christmas delight.

We are free from the Christmas Delight!!


Is anyone else glad that Christmas is over? I mean, I don't mean to be a Scrooge or anything but I'm freakin' exhausted!