Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all those I love!!!

A Few Random Happenings

Jeremy left for baseball coaching school today. This is Abby "camping out" in front of our house while he waited for his ride. Doesn't she look comfortable?

Santa brought Abby a new baby for Christmas along with a diaper bag complete with a bottle, pacifier, bowl, spoon, etc. Abby loves her baby so much and is such a good mommy. Sometimes Abby will start "crying" when she is taking care of her baby. Within seconds, though, she is rocking and patting the baby and scrambling for a paci to give her. The funny part is that Abby often gets confused as to who is actually crying and I end up holding, rocking, patting, and finding a pacifier for both of them. Here, Abby decided she wanted her baby to swing with her.

Finally, Abby also got a kitchen for Christmas, and she absolutely loves it. Her only problem with it is that the microwave doesn't work. She probably spent 10 minutes one day trying to heat a piece of bread. She would put it in, push the buttons, wait a few seconds, touch the bread, say "No?", and try the process again. She finally brought the bread to us and pointed to the microwave like, "It's broken..." Very fun!

Merry Christmas

Milk and cookies for Santa. Be careful not to spill. (The funny thing is that there was a major spill. As soon as I get the video, I'll post it!!)

Looking for Santa's sleigh with Uncle Justin

So Santa comes down the chimney?

Christmas morning

Making Fudge

A friend of a friend had the ultimate Christmas card. She chronicled the process of her daughters making and decorating gingerbread cookies. And of course, the girls had on chef hats with their names embroidered on them and matching gingerbread aprons. It was absolutely adorable.

So to cope with my feelings of inadequacy as a mother (ha ha), I decided to chronicle the process of Abby making fudge...minus the cute apron and amazing Christmas card. In my defense, Abby did have on a cute sweater, but I took it off so it wouldn't get dirty. Good idea!

Enjoy the pictures!

First Snow of the Season (in Amarillo)

Abby and I woke to about 3 1/2 inches of snow on the ground this morning. There is always something magical about the first snow of the season, especially when there is no snow when you go to bed and the ground is covered when you wake up but there is nothing falling anymore. Kind of like Christmas morning.

Anyway, when Abby woke up, I told her that it had snowed while she was asleep. She must be figuring this out, because she immediately looked out the window and wanted to go outside. So, of course, we were outside before we even ate breakfast. It was a very short-lived playtime experience, though, because the wind chill was 7 degrees. (Just for comparison...Jeremy is skiing at Wolf Creek this weekend...the actually temp there this morning was below zero).

Notice that Abby is not looking at the camera. Just to let you all know, this is what I have been dealing with as I have tried desperately all week to get a picture for a Christmas card. She is either not looking or isn't smiling or is in motion at a very high speed. It has been quite the challenge, but I think I got a pretty cute one in the end. You'll have to wait for the card to see.

One other thing...Doppler Dave is only predicting 16 inches of snow this year; it's a La Nina year. Last year, his prediction was 40 inches.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving in Stamford visiting with all of our family. It even snowed on Thanksgiving Day!

Making snow icecream

Dancing on "stage" with my cousins

Most of the Walker family

Snake Encounter

What an afternoon! It all started with Abby wanting to eat her snack in the front yard. So out we went and sat on the step up to the front porch. We sat leisurely for a while, watching Sassy dash around in the front yard and commenting on how quickly the leaves were falling from the trees now. After a few minutes, Abby stood up and walked down the sidewalk. She walked a few steps and then turned to come back. When she stopped, she was standing on one of the cracks that all sidewalks have (dividers of sorts). I just happened to look down and what was in the crack? Nothing but a snake. Abby was standing on a snake!!! PANIC! Instantly, my mind started racing, and I mean racing. It went something like this, "Save Abby! But what if it strikes? Okay...stay calm. AHHHHHH!" At some point in this half a second I started thinking a little more clearly. My uncle, the snake expert, once told me to move slowly around snakes so as not to startle them. But this was my daughter's life at stake. I jumped into action. "Abby, come to Mommy." (Shakes head no). "Abby, may Mommy see what is in your cup?" (Looks at cup (oh no, don't shift your weight) and shakes head no). "Abby, please may Mommy have a grape?" (Smiles and moves toward me). I grab her!

It was not until we were safely out of range that I finally was able to see the tail and know that it was not a rattle snake. Still, a snake is a snake and the only good snake is a dead snake. We fetched a hoe out of the storage shed; I have since learned I was supposed to use a shovel. After safely depositing Abby and Sassy inside the house, both glued to the door for a better view, I returned to kill the snake. To make an already long story a little shorter, I was unsuccessful...probably because I was shaking beyond belief at this point...to the point that I missed the first time and obviously didn't do very well the second time either. So, on lives the snake somewhere in my flowerbed. And Abby, Sassy, and I are avoiding the front yard, possibly forever.

This picture is NOT of the real snake but is as close as I can find on the internet. Not that I could really even pick the snake out of a line-up at this point.