Gingerbread House

Well, we survived our first blizzard and we now know what negative 19 degrees feels like. Despite a dead car battery, a frozen pipe and lots of shoveling -- all of which are taken care of now -- it really wasn't too bad. We spent the day inside playing and we got our gingerbread house decorated. Harrison helped for about 2 minutes -- long enough to peruse the candy and help me eat half of it and then declared himself "all done!" You'll notice that the general theme of our baking and decorating this year involves me "taste testing" -- the gingerbread house followed a pattern of "one for the house, one for me...." But I think it turned out perfectly:

Tomorrow is our big Christmas party at daycare and rumor has it that Nette even invited Santa! I'm so excited! Hope everyone is having as much fun getting ready for Christmas as we are!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I'm really getting into baking and was more than willing to help Mommy make the Christmas cookies this year. I love measuring, pouring, stirring and (as you can see) tasting to make sure we're doing it right! We might have had an extra dozen cookies if I hadn't eaten the dough. I licked the bowl and as I tour the dough away from the cutout shapes, I just went ahead and ate that too -- Mom's amazed I didn't get sick!
Once we got that done, it was time to help Daddy with the Christmas lights. And by help, I mean play outside in the snow while he does all the work. I dove right in and made snow angels and snowballs and ran around --- Harrison didn't like it quite as much as you can see here:
Once we got out his beloved red car (which he really has outgrown and just doesn't want to admit) he was happy. In this picture it looks a little bit like he might have been trying to turn Sydney into a sled dog... Daddy did a great job on the lights. When it got dark I walked outside and yelled "Wowwee Kazowie!" - a huge compliment that I learned from watching way too many Oswald episodes (mom & dad really don't understand the appeal of that show!)Daddy had to be in Pierre on Sunday and Monday and we decided to tag along as a family and play in the hotel while Daddy worked. Our hotel room had a door that went right into the indoor pool area -- how fun is that????
While in Pierre we also went down to the Capitol building to see the display of Christmas trees they put up every year -- there's almost 100 of them! This is us writing letters to Santa -- they had a post office for Santa there
It was a fun weekend that took a quick turn for the worse when we got home. As you read, Sydney got out of the house while we were unloading the car and shoveling the driveway and got run over by a car. She spent the night at the animal hospital but got to come home to us the next afternoon. She has a broken pelvis and some road rash on her belly, but they say she'll be good as new after 4 weeks of strict cage rest to let the pelvic bone heal. She's a pretty sad sight right now, but we can already see little improvements each day. We're just grateful that she pulled through for us! Thanks for all the prayers for her -- keep 'em coming that she recovers quickly!

She's Coming Home

The vet is sending Sydney home - bruised and broken, but she'll be just fine after a few weeks of cage rest. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers...keep them coming for a speedy recovery!

Updates Coming Soon

We had a great week of decorating, baking and even another stay at a hotel with a swimming pool and we have lots of pictures to post of all that. But right now, we're all waiting for news from the vet about Sydney and we're asking for prayers for her. Yesterday when we got home from our trip, we were unloading the car and Dad was shoveling the driveway. Sydney must have snuck out the door and was playing outside. Dad heard a yelp and looked up to see her rolling out from the back end of a car. The x-rays show a broken pelvis and she's got some road rash on her belly. They've got her on pain meds and were going to give her a full exam this morning and then hopefully be able to send her home to recuperate. We'll keep you posted, but keep her in your prayers today for us!

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

I looked outside this morning and saw the most beautiful sunrise. My first words were that I wish Daddy could be here to see this. (Daddy is in Pierre for some new legislator meetings and today is the Budget Address from the Governor). So, I asked Mommy to take a picture to show Daddy the pretty sunrise. Here you go Daddy!

Santa Claus Was Here!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving here and hope you all did as well. So much to be thankful for this year! And luckily we had lots of family over to help us enjoy the day. We didn't take very many pictures of the family or the bird, but Daddy did snap this picture of Harrison. He doesn't feel that the table is completely set until there are some cars and trucks sitting near him....then he proceeded to start loading up his truck with corn -- we've been out with Grandma and Grandpa a few times to check on the corn and watch the trucks unloading at the elevator. Apparently Harrison has been paying attention! (or maybe he just didn't want to eat his corn...)
We stopped in one of the new stores in town on Friday and Harrison and I each found a toy to buy -- I bought a bubble machine (mom and dad were thrilled) and Harrison found a remote control car. It took him a minute to figure out the whole remote control part, but now he loves to set the car on top of the coffee table and launch it! He thinks it's equally hilarious every single time!


Friday we spent the afternoon with Grandma while Mom and Dad took advantage of the nice day, got out the monster ladder and started hanging christmas lights. They told us they had a surprise for us when we got home. They pulled up to the house and Harrison gasped and said "WOW!" Meanwhile, I was silent. They weren't sure if I was just so excited that I was speechless or what. I sweetly asked, "but how come there's not more lights????" Apparently I'm tough to impress! They only have about half the house done so we'll post pictures when the decorating is complete (and once I declare that there are enough lights, apparently!)

Saturday, I went with Mommy up to the Manor to call Bingo (her CCD kids were helping with that this month and I got to tag along.) I had a great time and Mom was genuinely impressed with how well behaved I was. I even made friends with a nice old man who gave his prize to me when he won!

The highlight of my weekend, though, was the Parade of Lights. My daycare made a float and they asked me to ride along on it. The theme for the parade this year was Disney and Lynette and her daughter decdied to go with Hannah Montana (Avery is a huge fan -- I actually don't even know about Hannah Montana yet, but luckily we just dressed in warm coats and blankets, so there was no dressing up involved). Our float won first prize!!!! Then to top it all off, when Mom and Dad came to get me off the float we walked up the street a ways and spotted Santa Claus! I let go of Mommy's hand and ran to him and jumped up in his arms -- I was so excited!!!! Santa asked me what I wanted this year and I informed him that I was writing him a list in my letter --- then I asked Santa if he knows how to read!!!!!! Santa assured me that he can so I better get working on my letter. So far, all I've written is "Dear Santa"