Cat Tales

For a few months now, Dave and I have been discussing how we can get a cat. I know this is a shock. The Huntleys? Get a cat? No way! Why? After years of Dave hating cats, and openly dissing on anyone who would own them, not to mention my allergies to cats, why would we want to get one? One word. Mice. Cats are supposed to eat them, right? And we have them so it seems like a logical step. We had mentioned to a few people that we want an outside cat that won't require a whole lot of maintenance. So I get a call from my Grandma. "I've got a nice cat out here that you can have. I think it will ride on your lap to go home."

Dave and I drove out to her house last night to get the cat. We decided to take Leah while the others were getting ready for bed. The whole way Leah doesn't stop shouting Cat! at the top of her lungs. She's so excited for the cat. It was indeed a pretty cat. Gray and white. And as we walked up she jumped up to us like a dog. We thought she was really friendly so after chatting a bit with my Grandma, we started to load her into a box. Neither one of us really wanted to hold the thing and figured we could just get it to sit in the box. Wrong. That thing jumped out and was too freaked out to go back in. It wasn't even really comfortable with us holding it. Dave and I had each held it for a few seconds but then it just jumped away. It's a wild cat. My Grandma even came out with a big piece of liver sausage she called it. (Liverwurst?) The cat liked it but not enough to get into the box. We decided we didn't want a crazy, clawing, biting cat in our car so we gave up.

It seemed like a good idea at the time but I think next time we'll start with a kitten.

Match 2 Matchers

Alexis loves to match other people. Every week for church, she checks out what Leah is wearing and picks something to coordinate with her if at all possible. When I wear something that she can coordinate with, she's in heaven. Nana and Buddy really made her day for Christmas when they received matching dresses AND matching pajamas!
They have worn them as much as possible since Christmas, and sometimes they wear them all day long.

Christmas Celebration #3

Christmas celebration #3 took place for us on the day after Christmas. I actually should make a side note here that this was the continuation of the pre Christmas celebration we had the Sat. before. My sister Rhonda and her family came out the week before because Jeremey's band (Ohio U.) had practices close to Christmas time. (Jeremey had the coolest opportunity to play in the Rose Bowl Parade. I got to see the band on TV. It was awesome.) So my sisters Tracy, Rhonda, and Laura all gathered that day but we didn't do presents because some of Tracy's older kids couldn't be there until the next week. It sounds confusing with all the different schedules and commitments. And it is. It really is. It works pretty well most years so I guess we are pretty lucky that way since our family is getting so huge.

It was pretty fun that day. It always is when we get together. We ate a lot of course and the Wrights opened their presents and most of the family took the church's bus to Davenport to see the Christmas lights.

Unfortunately, I don't have even one picture of that day. Sometimes I'm not sure where my head is. But that's a different story.

Back to the day after Christmas. It was fun and we ate alot of food and played games and opened presents.

My parents! My dad was ready to read the Luke 2 passage that he reads every year.

Tracy and Mark. Always so photogenic.Bryce: husband to Kim, father of Noa, resident Bible scholar and all around funny man. (Zach's favorite memory of Bryce is when he pretends to take the heart out of children and eat it.)

Emily: resident beautiful lady and what would I do without her willingness to watch our children?

Caleb: newly on the Air Force. Enjoying his job so far.

Trey: what to say about that goofy kid?

Speaking of goofy kids. Why is his hand in Bethany's face?

Bethany: great cook and willing helper for Grandma

Micah: resident Marine and all around good guy.

And Zach

Alexis and blurry Leah with Hannah. Hannah is also a willing worker for Grandma and always a ray of sunshine.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of any of the Brittens. They were there but they must have all been playing when I took these pictures.

Leah with her new baby and blankie that Grandma made. Then we played games. Micah and Emily both recieved Aggravation boards with marbles. It was fun to have two games going at once.

Caroline and Caleb watching a "show". Caroline has the cutest little way of asking for a show.

This is my niece Grace. She had a super cute leotard and tutu on that day. It was awesome.

I promise I won't share any more Christmas pictures since it is now Jan. 7th. But who's counting?

Christmas Celebration #2

So Christmas Celebration #2 was a combination of our Christmas at home and our Christmas with the Huntley side. It's never that big of a deal at our house but we do try to have some presents for the kids before we go to Dave's parents house. Our kids had stayed up way too late the night before since we were at my grandma's. So I woke up at 4:15 in the morning. I'm still not sure why. I'm not really the type that can't sleep on Christmas morning because of the anticipation. It was, however, going through my head that I had to wake up at 6:45 to do my shower so I could get the kids up in time to make it to Nana and Buddy's by 8 for breakfast. The thing that didn't figure into my plans was Leah crying at 4:45. She has slept through the night for almost a year now without big crying spells. Once in a while I'll hear her cry a bit and then she'll rustle around and settle back in and sleep. But this time she cried and cried so I decided to get up and take my shower. When I came back up, Dave was getting her out of bed and taking her to bed with him. By his report, she layed with him a few minutes and seemed like she was going to bed but then she popped her head up and was wide awake. So he ended up just getting up with her. For some reason Zach was up too. So Dave decided we should get the middles up and start the day. (This was about 6.)

By 7:00 we were to our destination. Leah hadn't stopped crying. She cried and clung to me the entire time. By the time we got to Sue's house I thought she was ready for nap. She was so tired she wouldn't get off my lap so we went to the bed and she laid with me for awhile but then she popped her head up and it was the same old story.

So I basically held her or someone else did until it was time for presents. We all figured she would perk right up and snap out of it and be fine but it wasn't to be. She sat on my lap with her blankie almost the entire time. Right at the end she decided to get up and play with a couple of her toys. It definitely wasn't how we had envisioned the day since she is usually so much fun. But I guess it was okay. She was really ready for her nap and slept a long time and then was much happier afterwards.

Shelby got to read the Christmas book this year.

Sydney!

This was one of the few times she wasn't on my lap.

Mikayla! Being very patient.

Alexis and Leah got these super cute matching dresses.

And then it was Zach's turn to open this box. I wanted to get a picture of him opening it.

When it started ringing, he was really confused and looked pretty nervous. He said things like "It must be a game of some sort." "Because it couldn't be a phone." "But I really don't know what it is." (Then he started talking really fast.) "It can't be a phone. Is it a phone? Oh my gosh, it's a phone!!"

And it was.

And this is all I saw.

Because he was gone.

Because he started screaming like a girl and ran into the bathroom and slammed the door. And knocked a picture off the wall and broke it and it fell into the toilet.

But we won't really talk about all that.

Suffice to say, he really loves his phone and was completely surprised and that's all there is to say about that. And he hasn't quit texting since he opened it. But that's a different story.

Christmas Celebration #1

On Christmas Eve, our tradition, which actually started before I was born so I've been doing it all my life, is to go to my Grandma Grell's house for a huge celebration with lots of uncles and aunts and cousins.

Here's how we look by the numbers.

1 Grandma Grell

She had 6 children with spouses. Some have passed on but the resulting children came from 6 families.

It's not the greatest picture because they were being such goofballs I couldn't stop laughing and I never did get one with them all looking at me. Worse than a group of children. My Aunt Bev, Aunt Connie, Mom, Uncle Stuart, Grandma, Uncle Gary.

23 grandchildren. Most are married by now and have children.

70+ great-grandchildren (Grandma didn't have an exact number when I asked her) Some of these are married by now and have children. 23 of these come from my parents' family alone

8 great-great-grandchildren (after the next three are born next year)

We long ago stopped going to her house, for obvious reasons, so we meet in the city hall in Dixon, Iowa. We took the opportunity to take a couple of meaningful shots with Grandma. My sister Tracy wanted a five generation picture with her son Bryce and his daughter Noa.

I have taken four generation pictures with my mom and Gramma for each of my children but I needed one of Leah so here it is.
Lexi won this hat in the bingo game and guessed the correct number of jelly beans in the jar!

Skiing Baby

We now have a complete skiing family.

Leah wasn't too sure at first because it was freezing cold the day we decided to take her. But as soon as Dave started taking her down the bunny hill, she started getting excited and giggled.

I was the designated picture taker. For obvious reasons. Look at those little tiny skis!

She loved the magic carpet.

She's saying "Snow!"

A big thank you to Nana for coming out to watch us for a bit and then taking Leah home for nap.

(Someone needs to learn what happens to cameras when they are outside and then come into a warm building. But I won't mention any names, umm, me.)

Trick Jumper!

Happy New Year and Happy Anniversary!

Today is the one year anniversary of my blog. I never really thought I would be able to figure it out and keep it going for a whole year. My husband was quick to remind me that I didn't figure it out-he did. And he's exactly right about that. He has helped me a ton and I'm thankful for it. I'm grateful for what I've been able to learn and I look forward to the next year!

Happy New Year!