Damn, I really need a new camera

Emma had her Christmas program at preschool today and I took some really shitty photos. They had the program in the sanctuary which is notoriously dark, plus I had a bad seat, so I had to zoom. So here are some grainy, zoomed, mega red-eyed photos of Emma singing Christmas songs.;)

Snowball fightin' with Geraldo

Christmas scrapbooking

We had our scrapbook group's Christmas party/crop yesterday. My secret Santa got me a bunch of stuff to do some basketball pages. Which is nice considering that both kids are playing basketball this year. I got all my pages completed and again, I'm caught up. ;) Guess I'll just have to be a little more camera happy for the holidays. Actually a new camera is on my list since my current one is 5 years old and in the digital world, that is ancient. At least they no longer cost $400 like they used to. Here are some pictures of some of the pages I did yesterday:

Santa x 2

I've got some kids with Santa pictures to post. The first one is of Emma and Kyle(who no longer believes in Santa and was really put out by having to pose with his sister) with one mall Santa and the second is Emma with from today with another mall Santa. Gee, can you tell which one was taken by a professional? I'll give you a hint, it's the one without the raging red eyes. ;)

Never trust a big butt and a smile

Ah, class of 1990. This one takes me back. ;)

Snow play

We got some snow today and here are some pics of the kids playing:

Dexter

I just got done watching season 1 of the Showtime show Dexter on DVD because, of course, we don't have Showtime. It was entertaining and he sure makes for an adorable serial killer. ;)

Top 10 Chuck Norris "facts"

1. Chuck Norris' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; no one fools Chuck Norris.
2. Some kids piss their name in the snow. Chuck Norris can piss his name into concrete.
3. Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
4. Chuck Norris once visited the Virgin Islands. They are now The Islands.
5. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
6. Superman owns a pair of Chuck Norris pajamas.
7. Chuck Norris likes to knit sweaters in his free time. And by "knit", I mean "kick", and by "sweaters", I mean "babies".
8. Chuck Norris puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter".
9. Chuck Norris once won a game of Connect Four in 3 moves.
10. When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Bill Brasky

The Hobbs family as elves

These are the best moves Rob has ever had!

Christmas decor pics

Here are a few pictures of the house after the Christmas decorations went up. We put the skinny tree upstairs, the fat one downstairs and I got all my Christmas dishes in our new/used China hutch(we got it free from a funeral home and I had to scrub it thoroughly before my family was satisfied that I got the "dead smell" out).

I'm on a roll

I'm officially caught up on my scrapbooking pictures/pages. Good thing Christmas is coming to give me something to do. ;) Speaking of Christmas, I got all my decorations up this past weekend. The guys put the lights up outside and helped with the tree and I finished the rest. No pictures of that yet, though. I like this years arrangement better than last year. I guess I needed a practice year to figure out what I wanted/needed for this house.
On an unrelated topic, guess what my apparently non-women's lib daughter said to me today. We were in the car picking up Kyle from school and got to talking about some birthday presents that she had gotten. Here is the next part of the conversation:

Emma: I got you a present for your birthday, Mommy
Me: Oh yeah, what's that?
Emma: a new cleaner bottle
Me: You got me cleaning stuff for my birthday?
Emma: Yes, and a new mop too
Me(clearly not sarcastic enough for a 5 year old to understand): Wonderful. That's just what I need for my time travelling trip to 1950.
Emma: You like those presents, Mommy?
Me: Yes, honey, they're great.

Most typical Emma pose ever

Some pages

I got some new scrapbook pages done this past weekend. They were pages that I'd made awhile ago and just needed to add the photos, so it was kind of cheating. But still......they are complete and that's all that matters. I got all of Halloween done, most of fall and soccer. This weekend we have an all day crop at the library and I'll be finishing up fall and Emma's birthday. Tonight we are going to take the kids to see Celtic Woman at Wells Fargo Arena as a birthday treat for Emma. She LOVES Irish music and calls the Celtic Women her "girls". :) Here are some of the completed pages:

Emma's birthday

Emma turned 5 years old today. It's hard to believe it's been that long since we've had an Emma in our lives. ;) We had a little family party on Saturday. The theme was Tinkerbell and here are a few pictures of the cake I made and Emma with some of her gifts.

Wii

I got a Wii a couple of months back and have kept it hidden as it is a Christmas present for the family. Rob and my brother know where it is and this weekend convinced me that we should get it out and use it. You know, to "check and make sure it works alright" wink, wink. The kids were at the in-laws this weekend, so I agreed. We only had the sports game that the system comes with, but we played for hours. We were up until 3:00 am, 2:00 with the time change, thankfully. That thing is just a shit ton of fun. My shoulders were sore yesterday from all that tennis. ;)

Halloween 2007

Here are some pictures to enjoy:


The kids right before trick or treating


Kyle and Nosferatu from down the block


Emma at her preschool Halloween party today

Tarzan's medical history and a Halloween party

I went to the library today and as I was walking though an aisle I caught a glimpse of a book entitled "Tarzan's Tonsillitis". That's not a subject I thought they'd cover. ;)
We had our playgroup Halloween party the other night at a friend's house. She did a great job decorating and making a "spooky room" in her basement. The kids looked so cute in their costumes and their buckets were overflowing with treats and goodies. Kyle was a little annoying with his Yu Gi Oh hair that he kept taking off. I was like "you picked that costume, now you wear it". Another friend's son had the same issue with his Davy Jones costume. He kept taking off his octopus-type headgear. So between the two of them, my friend and I were telling them all night to put their head/hair back on. ;)
Here is a picture of Kyle pretending to be scared by the spooky room.....you know for the benefit of the younger kids:

And here is Emma in the yard before the apple bob:

More pumpkin patching

Today we had Emma's field trip for preschool. It just happened that Kyle was out of school today so he got to come along too. We went to a little farm outside of Ankeny that had tons of pumpkins and some fun other activities like a hay bale maze and a corn barn. They also had a giant log swing that the kids liked, but had trouble staying on:

Redneck tank top

Just thought this one was humorous:

Early trick or treat

My mom and I took the kids to trick or treat at Living History Farms this past weekend. They have scary stories, marshmallow roasts and stops along the trail for the kids to get candy. It was a nice night to be out so it was really busy and the kids were bitching about being tired and their feet hurting, etc. Kyle has a Yu Gi Oh costume that he refused to wear for whatever reason so Emma was Strawberry Shortcake and Kyle wore Rob's Frankenstein mask and a Halloween t-shirt. Whatever!

Pumpkin patch pics

Phone books

Because of my industrious and penny pinching ways, I decided to earn some extra cash by delivering phone books this year. I'd done it before back in my college days. Here is a list of differences between delivering phone books then and now:

Then: I was young and in shape
Now: I'm old and flubbery

Then: I had no children
Now: I have a 4 year old "helper"

Then: Filling up my car cost $10
Now: $35+

Then: I was delivering in Ames, where phone books are about 3/4 of an inch thick
Now: I'm delivering Des Moines phone
books that are about 3 inches thick and heavy as shit

Then: $100 seemed like a good pay check
Now: Fuck your measly $100 DEX!

Sinks and faucets

Old sink



New sink




All for a grand total of $50 spent. Pretty sweet, huh? ;)

Hilariously cheese-tastic song lyrics

You know it's going to be terrible when "farther" rhymes with "enchilada". ;)



BABY BASH (f/ Akon) LYRICS

Baby I'm Back


[Intro - Akon & Baby Bash]
Hoooo
Yeah
Said everything that you want me to I'll do it
Tell me what the word is already [x4]

[Chorus - Akon]
Don't look no farther!
Baby im back (yeah)
Im here to cater to you (any thing that you want me: do ill do it)
Cause Ill be your lover (ill be your lover)
Ill be your best friend
Tell me what I gotta do (tell me what I gotta do and ill do it)

[Baby Bash]
Now im back in a flesh
Feelin so blessed, back in your corner suga, suga don't stress
Forget about the rest; let's go inside, im back in your zone
Baby im back in your vibe, now I cant be denied I can lie im on ya
I never ever wanna say sayonara
Some body told me that the grass was greener
On the other side of lake Arriba
Never really used to be a mean to cheat her
What I gotta do to be a keeper
These words comin out the speaker, true love is off the meter

[Chorus]

[Baby Bash]
I was gone for a minute but now im home,
Please forgive me for being a rolling stone,
Please forgive me let me polish it up like chrome,
Get off the phone till he swears to leave me alone,
Let my start your interest, now there's no more dating on the internet,
Cause you already know how I get it wet, how I get it so saucy and I get respect,
You don't have to look no farther, you dealin' with the whole enchilada
You don't have to look no farther, you hotter then a fire starter

[Chorus]

[Baby Bash]
I was gone for a minute, (oooohhh) [repeat x4]
Now im back let me hit it (oooohhh) [repeat x4]

[Chorus x2]