Hooray its Christmas Again!

So my Christmas Season starts on November 1st. I know there are some Naysayers out there that claim it doesn't start until the day after Thanksgiving but to them I say "Nay." With all the time it takes to decorate for Christmas, and the good feeling that it gives you when you see those decorations up, why not get the most out of it? So my blog is officially "wintery" today. However, I will say we all took a walk outside today with short sleeves and shorts on because its in the 70s and sunny here in Dallas. Yep, its wonderful. I'm feeling grateful today for being here in Dallas. Grateful for my wonderful family, both my close immediate family as well as my extended family. And I'm grateful for all of my friends too. I read the words to "Count your many blessings" today in Relief Society, that is such a great hymn. If you have the time, go take a look at it, it really helped me as I'm feeling overwhelmed with work and home and the holidays and just life. I've got so much to be grateful for. During testimony meeting the counselor's wife bore her testimony and said, and I quote... "God Rocks"... that's Texas for you. But he does.

-angel

First Tooth

Victoria lost her first tooth last night. It took at least an hour for her to get up the courage to count to three. More videos coming soon. She had some great one-liners though, here's one of them...

Coodie Bugs

Well, about a year ago a little Kindergarten Boy kissed Tori on the lips. She was of course horrified... (and probably a little delighted)... this was around October when the weather was changing. She had some dry skin and was itching like crazy. She told me that a boy kissed her on the lips when she came home from school and I informed her that she shouldn't let boys do that. I told Brad later that day when he was on his way home from work. Tori was itching her dry skin at dinner time and complaining about it and asked why she was so itchy. Brad, as quick thinking as he is, said, "Oh No, do you have the Coodie Bugs?" She looked at him confused and said "What's the Coodie Bugs?" And he replied, "Did a boy kiss you?" Her eyes got big and surprised that he would know that since he just got home. She sheepishly said, "yes." And Brad said, "UH OH, when a boy kisses you, you get the coodie bugs, and it makes you itch!" She was determined to never kiss a boy again...

Continuation of story...

Abbie informed Tori that a boy kissed her on the lips about 3 weeks ago and this is how it went:

Abbie: "A boy kissed me."
Tori: "What? Where?"
Abbie: "On the lips."
Tori: "Oh no, you must have the coodie bugs, are you itchy?"
Abbie: "No."
Tori: "Oh, you just wait, you'll be itching soon. That's bad Abbie, you can't let boys kiss you on the lips because you'll get coodie bugs."


So apparently Coodie Bugs are just as real as... Santa Claus... and the Tooth Fairy ;)

Abbie's Growing Up

I was watching Wizards of Waverly Place the other day with the girls and realized that Abbie has a lot of resemblence to Alex. So I took pictures of Abbie today to post... But as I took these pictures and looked at them, I realized, wow, she really is growing up, and then I was trying to figure out who she looks like, and maybe she looks more like my sister, Andi? What do you guys think? She's definitely getting bigger. (First two pictures are Alex from Wizards of Waverly Place, Last two pictures are of Andi and I growing up, probably close to the same age?)

Lizzy

Well, here's a little update on the Lizard now, since so many have been asking... "Do you still have the Lizard?" The answer is of course, Yes. I'll be honest, I've named her, so now I'm growing a little attached. As much as I play that this thing is horrible and yucky... I'll admit I do find a fascination with this lizard, its beautiful colors, and the way that it snaps crickets in half leaving their antennas hanging out its mouth. Don't get me wrong, I think its disgusting, but... its still fascinating. So not only do we still have the lizard, we actually also acquired a sort of Cricket Hospice. I would consider it a hospice only because calling it a hotel would be weird. These crickets often stay there for 1-5 days, their last bit of home before they make their final journey to their "home in the sky" by way of Lizzy's mouth. Brad found out from the guy at Petsmart that if you put a wet papertowel and some crushed up dog food the crickets will live longer, that way you don't have to go to Petsmart every other day, you only have to go once a week. The large crickets are about 10 cents each. It adds up though, so I've supplemented her diet with wild crickets I've found on our floor. I'll bet they were looking for the hospice anyway. Can you believe I've caught 3 crickets in our house? These aren't the cute little buggers I used to catch in the field when i was little, these are the nasty black crunchy ones. SO GROSS! I don't catch them with my bare hands, don't worry, I use a cup and a paper. Those little guys are FAST! So yes, we still have Lizzy... and a cricket hospice. Maybe one of these days I'll get a video of Lizzy eating a cricket so you can enjoy watching with some popcorn :)

Lizard on the Run...

Written on 9/15/09: So it all begins last Saturday when Brad was on a hunting trip with the Boy Scout troop he volunteers with. They drove 4 1/2 hours away to teach the boy scouts how to hunt. They were on the look out for Dove. I told him that before he pulls the trigger, I want him to put himself in the place of that Daddy Dove when the Mommy Dove gets shot and dies, how much that Daddy Dove is going to miss his wife, and how bad the baby Doves will feel when their mommy is shot dead and how sad they will be the rest of their life. That and why in the world would you go out to shoot the very symbol of peace?! Well, turns out the weather wasn't so great, so thankfully no Dove were killed in this story. However, they caught a lizard and a baby rattlesnake. Brad brought both of them home. He kept the baby rattlesnake in a 7-11 Slurpee cup, put it in the freezer and let it die peacefully. I still felt bad going to sleep that night, wondering when the baby snake's spirit would separate from its body and meet its maker. I told Brad we were NOT keeping the lizard. Its about an 11 inch desert lizard, and it loves the heat. It was pouring down rain outside. I knew if we let it go in the storm it would die, and I couldn't let that happen, so I allowed him to keep it overnight... until the rain stopped. Well, the rain still hasn't stopped, and in the meantime he has purchased a glass cage, desert sand, and about 30 crickets to feed the guy. Actually, we found it he's a she. I'm still having a hard time considering that something like a reptile could be a girl, but considering Brad's odds at home with 4 to 1 (our dog is a girl), I'm not surprised. So anyway, the lizard is in its cage, happy as can be... Abbie is of course very excited to have a pet lizard and loves to see it move, so she likes to move the light we put in there, and the box, etc. to see it move. I told her this morning that if she touches the cave again, we're getting rid of it, even if its raining outside. I made sure she understood that. She even repeated the consequence to me this morning.... okay, so...

I had a meeting this afternoon from 3pm-8pm with work. We got a babysitter to watch the girls. I got a call around 6:00 asking where the vanilla was because she was making muddy buddies with the girls. I got a call at 6:30 which I gave to Brad who then went out of the meeting to talk to our babysitter. He came back with a huge smile on his face, and here's what happened...

Abbie went upstairs to play with the sand in the cage with the lizard. When she put her arm in the cage, the lizard ran up her arm and onto her back. Of course this freaked her out, to quote her she said, "The Lizard Tackled Me!" She ran downstairs screaming as the lizard was attached to the back of her shirt the whole way. As soon as she got downstairs to show the babysitter, the lizard LEAPED off her back, and scurried into the kitchen. They all went to go try to catch it, but it jumped into a little whole underneath our kitchen cupboards and there she remains.

Avri, our babysitter, said that Abbie was so upset, and was crying so hysterically, that she threw up. I couldn't stop laughing as I envisioned her running down the stairs with the lizard attached to her shirt back. Can you imagine?!

J. Hilburn on Fox Business News!!!