White Christmas

What a Christmas! Not only did I get everything I wanted from Santa- it SNOWED!

Daddy is pulling me up the driveway- I'm on my way to go sledding down our big hill.




Daddy pulls me to the very top of the hill and then lets me gooo.....












Yippeee- this is SO much fun.













I got more daring. Here I am on my tummy....













Whoo Hooo- this is the life!













See that big blur going down the hill- it's my daddy.












He wanted in on the action- not bad sledding for a dad!












I eventually got bored of sledding and decided we needed to shovel the walkway- hope this spade does the job?!

Say "Cake"

Cookies For Santa

Mommy and I made cookies for Santa. Since he's bringing me 'Thomas Goes Down-Down-DOWN', the least I can do is make him a treat.

I spent all last evening scouring Mom's cookbook looking for the perfect cookie to make.


We made devils food cake cookies with a Hershey's kiss center... thanks for the recipe Auntie -Oll!












See, here are the Hershey's kisses...maybe mommy won't notice if I take one (she's busy taking pictures)

Just to let you know, Jakie decided it was a good idea to lick the bottom of the candy before placing it on the cookie. So the next time you find yourself at our house being offered cookies, ask who made them first!

Here they are- Santa's cookies. They are yummy. To quote Jakie after he took his first bite "ohhh, gooey!"

Being the neat freak that he is, Jakie refused to eat the center because he got chocolate on his fingers-I had to feed it to him!



Making cookies for Santa is alot of hard work- in fact you get so hot that you need to take your shirt off!

Cookies and milk-that Santa sure knows what to ask for! Happy eating.

'Babysitter' for Hire

Before going for walk, you must dress the dolly. Afterall, it's cold outside!

Maybe this is how all the cool dolls are wearing their hats?!










Then you take the dolly for a stroll...duh, that's why they call it a stroller!

Notice the technique, the stroller handle goes in the crook of your arm (mental note to try this)










And then you skip, strolling is for wimps....













Forget all that, a full gallop is the way to go...hold on dolly we're going to hit mach speed in 1.1 seconds.


Words cannot express Jakie's ability to babysit Lily's dolly, so here's a video. I think you'll want to hire him the next time you're in desperate need of a sitter...enjoy!

My Christmas Tree

This is my very own Christmas tree. I liked mommy's so much that she went out and bought me my very own tree- I can do whatever I want with it...put trains in it, fall into it, and take the ornaments off.









"Hey Gigi, where does this ball go?"













"Over here, Lil, on the bottom of the tree"

I bet you're getting warm fuzzy Christmas feeings just looking at this picture. But wait...










"NO,NO Lil, come back with the ornment. STOP, it's mine!"

He proceeded to tackle her to the ground and pry the 'ornment' from her fingers









"It'sMY tree, Lil"













While Jakie went to play elsewhere, Lil decided this time she wanted Santa instead of a ball...can you guess what happened next?!

First Snow of the Year

Saturday there was a huge snow storm. When I woke up Sunday morning there was a lot of snow outside. There was so much snow, that Daddy got to use his new snowblower.

When he was done, he popped his head inside and asked if I wanted to go play outside in the snow and go sledding...umm, does Pope Benedict wear Prada? Of course, I want to go play outside!

Here I am getting all bundled up- I even wore a hat and gloves (the hat stayed on, but the gloves kept falling off)

Dad unlocked the backyard gate for me, I took one step and fell on my tummy. I couldn't get up on my own no matter how hard I tried (think kid from 'Christmas Story')- dad pulled me up multiple times.




I went sledding up and down the hill in front of our house. It was a BLAST! Oh yeah, sippy cup came outside to play with me- I don't leave home without it!










I also made my very first snow angel- if you squint you can just make it out (it's hard to photograph a snow angel)








Then it was time to come inside- tired and very rosy cheeked I put up a fuss, but I lost...I came inside, undressed, had some hot chocolate, and reminisced about sledding for the REST of the day.

Stay warm!

Oll and Marker's House

Greetings from the southside of Chicago! We stayed with Auntie -oll and Uncle Marker. They have an awesome house- lots of room to run crazy and play cars/kuggas. Auntie -oll built me this cool fort- she and I had a blast playing in it!




This is my Auntie -oll! She warned mommy not to publish any pictures of her on the blog...mommy didn't think feet counted. Doesn't she look like the wicked witch after Dorothy's house fell on her?





This is Uncle Marker. He played and played with me. He didn't even mind wanting to go downstairs and then upstairs about a million times! Pudgie and Stinky also live in the house- for dogs they're not half bad. The helped me get over my fear of dogs. By the end I was hugging and kissing them (not as much as Lily- but that's her story).

We also got to see Thomas B. (Auntie -oll's daddy) who played catch with me as well as Jessica, Kelly, and their mommy Sue.



I'm not sure what this Christmas thing is, but Auntie -oll and Uncle Marker had Christmas presents for me and Lily. I got really cool pirate ship (which I managed to break almost immediately), a Mousy and Kitty movie, and Twins shorts (thanks Miss Kimmy!).

I had a GREAT time visiting- hope to see you soon! Love you lots.

Are we there yet?

Lily, mommy, daddy, and I went on a LONG car trip last week- we drove to Chicago to visit mommy's family and friends. I didn't realize it was going to take 9 hours to get there- I got bored really fast. When I couldn't handle the boredom any longer, I fell asleep. That is a tricky thing to do in a mini-van. But I tried...







It's dificult to get good beauty rest while sitting in a booster seat with a seat belt cutting into your throat. Gosh I hate that seat belt!











Ahh-finally, some good sleep. On the way home I fell asleep for almost 2 hours! Gosh that felt good. No more car trips- I'm opting for the plane next time...

Halloween: Part II

Jakie's off to go trick-or-treating! It was quite a chore to get him out of the house- even the lure of candy didn't get him to wear one of his three costumes. He opted for the fire chief raincoat (actually he was tricked into wearing it since it was cold and you needed a coat to go outside)







He started out with some Kit-Kats in the pumpkin. Periodically he stopped to make sure the candy was still in there.











This is the 3rd house Jakie went to. The 1st one didn't go so well, neither did the 2nd one (they had dogs). By the 3rd house, he was agreeable to actually go up to the door- but he wouldn't walk. Dad had to carry him the whole time.

We went up and down our block- by the end Jakie was having fun. Next on the agenda- handing out candy...




Jakie was the look out man- he waited 'patiently' for trick-or-treaters. When some approached Jakie let us know they were coming (no need for a doorbell). When dad went outside to hand out the candy, Jakie followed with his pumpkin. Two pieces for the trick-or-treaters, one for Jakie...nice scam!

3 Kit Kats and 1 box of Milk Duds later- Jakie was ready to end Halloween.




But first he needed to give out some Halloween kisses- hope your Halloween was sweet!

Halloween: Part I

Oh 'Hi'! You caught me getting the pumpkins ready for Halloween. I don't know if you can see, but the inside of the pumpkin is a BIG MESS- kind of like my hands (later on I wipe my sooty hands on my white shirt...)





One of my favorite past-times is falling in the bursh (bush). You take a running start and then leap into the burshes. You should try it- you'll love it.






Yep, this pumpkin will do- it makes an awesome chair.












Say 'pumpkin'- here's me, Lily, and mommy posing for our Halloween picture. I took a little time out of playing to pose for a picture

Happy Hauntings!

Pumpkin Pickin'

On a beautiful October afternoon, daddy and mommy took me to a 'pumpkin patch' to pick out my very own pumpkin!







There were so many pumpkins-I didn't know which one to choose. I made sure to examine at least half a dozen of them before I made my choice (actually, I picked out many great pumpkins, but then I would see one that I liked even better)

It's a wonder that I chose one at all...






But here it is- my very first pumpkin! Gosh it's heavy. When we got home, we put it on the front steps. Whenever I pass by it I give it a hug. I love pumpkins!!!

Bye-Bye 'Blue'

My buddy 'Blue' is broken. As you can see from the picture, the top of his head got cut right off! How this happened we'll never know.

'Blue' was a great friend...





'Blue' came into my life early on. Here I am three days old smelling the lilacs from Grandmas garden with my pal 'Blue'. He wasn't called that back then...he was known as Smackey.






We played together.











We hung out together. He was fortunate enough to have met Fergie.








'Blue', Moo, La-La,and I were the best of friends. We did everything together.
We will all miss him- he was there through the good, the bad, and the ugly. No one could ask for a better and truer friend.

So long 'Blue'...I'll will always love you.




Editor's Note: 'Blue' met misfortune with the kitchen scissors at the hands of his owner's father. Jakie stuck the broken pacifier in his mouth, took it out and said 'Blue' broken! He got a little teary. But he didn't want to use him. We kept 'Blue' out on the room divider for many days- Jakie would ask to see him to make sure he was still broken. One day after examining him, he threw 'Blue' across the room...he hasn't mentioned him since. And 'Blue' is now but a very sweet memory...