Introducing....

Our new 2007 Honda Odyssey.

Told you I wanted one.

I'll let you drive it sometime, you'll want one too!

My favorite feature: Automatic doors!

A very Late Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

If you haven't gotten one in the mail, we just FINALLY mailed them today (3 days before Christmas), so they may not arrive in your mailbox until after Christmas, or here is a digital version if we forgot about you.

Let it Snow!

This morning it snowed a lot. It was the good kind of snow, too. Perfect for sledding and building snowmen. We invited ourselves over to our neighbor's house to sled down their PERFECT sledding hill. It was a blast! We had so much fun with them. They are the best neighbors and we really adore them. Benson especially loves playing with them. Here are their 3 cute kids:

Boston

Tyton

Season

Benson was not shy at all. He went up and down the hill all by himself a ton of times! Molly, on the other hand, was not so sure about all of her snow clothes. She couldn't really move, so most of the time she just sat in the snow, although once in a while she bummed a ride down the hill. Thanks for letting us come over, you guys! It was so much fun!

He's the luckiest!

Casey is SUPER lucky!!!! Besides the fact that he's married to me, he is constantly winning prizes on the radio and such. Today he won an AMAZING prize from google. (Casey loves google. It pretty much runs his life). A while ago he applied to win a logitech review with google tv, worth $300. Wellp, today google gave away 10,000 of those babies to mostly current google web developers and a few android developers. And guess who was one of the few android developers to win? You bet it was Mr. Dalpias himself, the luckiest duck I've ever known. Good thing too, cause you know Casey would have had buy it eventually (since it's google).

About Molly

Last year at this time, we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this little girl.

In just 2 weeks, she will turn one. It is amazing to me that she is already one! When Benson turned one, it seemed like it was about time. But Molly seems like our baby still, although she is obviously getting bigger. The time has flown by! I can't believe it's almost been a year since she came to join our family.

Here are some things about Molly:

She is the happiest little girl ever. Really. It is very rare to see her without a big smile! She hardly ever cries, and usually when she does, it's because Benson is squishing her or I have left her.

She loves people. She will let anyone who will, hold her. She isn't afraid of strangers and she get really excited whenever anyone pays attention to her.

She is starting to be very curious. She's starting to get into things and make messes. She understands NO, though. So far she has yet to really touch our Christmas Tee. Benson can't keep his hands off of the ornaments, and although she's curious about the tree, if we say "no", Molly won't touch it.

Molly is VERY sensitive. If she ever gets in trouble, her face melts into a big frown. She hardly ever gets in trouble, but once in a while she will, and it's always a tradgedy.

She loves Benson. He is getting better not to squish her, but sometimes he'll try to wrestle with her, and even then, she still loves him.

She's got her Daddy wrapped around her finger. All she has to do is flash her sweet smile, and he'll do whatever she wants. It's REALLY cute!

We all really adore this sweet girl. I love her red hair, bigs mile, and sweet giggle. She is the most precious little girl, but even precious girls love to get MESSY!

Here are her birthday invitations I made.

Am I "mom" enough?

I need some advice:

I have been thinking lately about maybe looking into a minivan. I have ALWAYS said that I would never, ever, ever in my life drive a minivan. But the more I think about getting one, the more I think I would love one.

Right now we have our Tahoe and our Malibu (classic). I LOOOVE my Tahoe. It is super roomy, and can fit 3 car seats in the back easy. Plus a stroller, groceries, coats, blankets, etc. without any problem. It's a little big to drive around town, but I really don't mind it that much. I love the 4-wheel drive and that we can go to the cabin or pull a trailer anytime we want without having to borrow a truck. Basically, our Tahoe is like a truck. And it gets super bad gas mileage, which is why Casey mostly drives it to and from work while I drive our car. So the whole point of our "family vehicle" is thrown out the window because anytime we go anywhere, we either pay a fortune for gas, or we have to drive the car and there goes any roominess or comfort we ever thought we might have.

The car is fine, but it's so squishy. I hate to take it to the grocery store because if I have the stroller in the back, which I usually do, I cannot fit many groceries. It gets cluttered so easily because with 2 car seats in the back, even just putting your coat in the back seat feels like claustrophobia (never mind 4 coats). Plus if I ever have to get in the back to referee or give Molly a bottle or anything, there is no way I can fit between the car seats, let alone ever thinking of putting another car seat or child in there.

But a minivan? Seems so mom-ish. I guess I am a mom, though, so maybe that's why I feel like I would love it. I think I would love that we could have enough room for all of us (and for future children), but we wouldn't be spending our live savings on gas. I need to know what you other moms think. Do you have a minivan? Do you love it? Which minivan do you have? What should I be looking for in a minivan?

Thanks for your help!

Sew, Sew, Suck My Toe

I love to sew. It is one of my favorite things to do. When we were first married, I made our tree skirt and stockings for Casey and I that match. Then, for Benson's first Christmas, I made his stocking. So now it is Molly's first Christmas, I made her a stocking too. Casey and my stockings match each other and the tree skirt, but the kids' are their very own. I loved making these stockings for our little family.

Don't tell Molly, but here is her birthday present. She is getting a doll for Christmas and then she'll get all of the things to go with it for her birthday. I sewed her a few burp cloths, a baby blanket, and a baby sleeping bag. It was really fun to make tiny doll things. Benson helped decide what to do, and he was WAY excited. I think he might end up playing with these things as much as Molly.

Oh, and notice behind Benson's head, there are about 75 boxes sitting in our living room. I've fallen completely in love with Amazon Prime, and have pretty much ordered almost all of our Christmas gifts and Molly's birthday gifts from there. Also, Casey has been building some computers for people, so we have seen a lot of FedEx and UPS. And, yes, the boxes just sit in our living room because if I don't open the boxes, then I don't have to hide Christmas gifts. The kids aren't too curious about brown boxes since we have a million of them.... And, there are more to come!

Black Friday 2010

Black Friday this year ROCKED!

Thanks Dan and Shan for braving the cold with us.

Here's what I learned:

1. Walmart at midnight = MADNESS.

2. You can sell your seat at the front of the Target line for $60 a pop.

3. Enlisting the help of cousins is a good idea.

4. McDonald's does NOT taste good at 3 am, no matter what everyone says.

5. Crocheting on the floor of Walmart helps time go faster.

6. The walmart lady watching the leapster crowd WILL yell at you. LOUDLY!

7. "I'll get you this, if you get me that" goes a LONG way!

8. Target is the BEST for getting people through the checkout.

9. People get pretty ticked when someone cuts in line.

10. No matter what time it is or how sleep deprived he is, Casey is ALWAYS pleasant