december

december was super-busy which was part of the reason i am just now blogging about it!  

it started off with a man from church calling us about a couple of stray dogs that they had rescued.  he knew that rocky had died and was wondering if we would be interested in either one.  they were cute, and i was ready to take the black and white one home them.  but daryl said to wait and think about it....just because we were looking at them didn't mean we were getting a dog!

 after we left those 2 dogs, we stopped by the spca.

i had never been to an animal shelter before, so i wasn't prepared when i walked in.  there were adorable, barking, begging dogs everywhere!  i couldn't help but cry.  i wanted to help all of them, but i couldn't.

the one that really spoke to my heart was this dog, harry.  he was a couple of years old, and he was blind in one eye from an injury.  he had to move to his own cage because the other dogs picked on him, and he wouldn't fight back.  he was calm and sweet.  i knew we would be best buds.

 basset hounds rock!  i love their ears.  i told these guys that they had awesome ears, and i just had to play with them.  they were kind enough to let me. {grin}

 a.dor.a.ble.

 turns out that daryl wasn't planning on taking any dogs home that day.  we left empty-handed, and i left broken-hearted.  i love animals.

later that evening was the annual bartlesville christmas parade.  as we were walking to our parade float i saw this ginormous snowman on another float!  so i went over there, tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he would take his picture with me!  what an awesome snowman!

somehow i managed to be the only adult on our float for the church.  everytime another kid walked up, another adult bailed off of the float!  i kept asking if i needed to walk instead of ride, and they all said, "oh no.  we need a responsible adult on there with the kids!"

we put our HUGE snowman/snowglobe inflatable on our float!  it looked so cool......

until the generator ran out of gas!  the lights went off and frosty melted.  {sniff}  but that didn't stop the kids and me from singing!  after all, "the best way to spread christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!"

my little buddy, rylie!

a few days later was the annual church christmas party.  the kids from sonshine school sang a few songs for us.  rylie had this same look on her face the whole time she was on stage!  she wouldn't sing and she wouldn't smile!  it was so not like her.

so after the performance daryl gave her a hard time about frowning!  they had fun tickling each other!

of course santa made a visit to the party!  what's a christmas party without santa?

a few days later....it was time for daryl's staff christmas party at our house!  this was us just before the fun began!

the snowman glasses were fascinating to all who tried them!

this is the youth minister's son, john.  he is so stinkin' cute!

 finally the last week of school rolled around.  we kicked things off with a christmas play by the second graders!  colby was a toy-making elf.

 on december 15th, daryl and i celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  i went all out and made sloppy joes before we went to church!  (this ornament was our wedding cake topper 15 years ago!  it always gets a special place on our christmas tree.)

december 16th...a day that changed our family.

out of nowhere daryl called and asked if we wanted to go back to the spca and pick out a dog!  what???  i thought he didn't want one, but i didn't argue.  we looked at many dogs, and held many dogs.  we all finally agreed on this little guy.....smudge!

he was named by the people at the spca, and we liked it so much that we didn't change it.

december 17th....slumber party at nellie's!

gina, nellie and i had a slumber party at nellie's apartment friday night.  it was so great to be together again!  we talked and laughed, ate cupcakes and laughed some more!

this is my birthday cupcake....pretty in pink!

we went to our favorite store, river city trading post in jenks, on saturday morning.  we found these glittery legs with rubber boots and all we could say was "why?"  they were so much weirder in person!

december 18th...happy 37th birthday to me!

since we hadn't done ANY christmas shopping yet, we decided to stay in tulsa for the day and do some shopping.  i thought we, meaning the boys, daryl and me, were ALL going to go to the mall but i was wrong!  daryl pulled up to a mall entrance and said, "i'll be back to pick you up in a little while."  he dumped us off at one of the craziest malls i've ever been to on one of the busiest days of the year!

i was less than excited.  i don't really like shopping at malls, and i really don't even like shopping.  so there i was with two BOYS who only wanted to go brookstone (the gadget store).  we got all of our shopping done in about an hour and had to wait for daryl to get his shopping done at best buy!  we were actually just sitting at the entrance of the mall, waiting....

but it all got better when i got to pick the restaurant for my birthday...TED'S!  there's no place like TED'S for mexican food.  they have the best queso, chips and tortillas!  the boys kept trying to tell our waiter that it was my birthday because they wanted me to have to wear a sombrero while the staff sang to me.  either the waiter didn't hear them or didn't care because i never got serenaded!  ha ha!

spencer gave me the new lee dewyze (american idol winner) cd.  it's really good.

 colby gave me scented socks!  i got 3 pair that smelled like vanilla, lavender and clean breeze!  they are so cute and smell amazing!

daryl gave me a comfy!  it's not a snuggie, but it's basically the same thing.  i've always thought they were stupid, but after using mine while i'm knitting....well, they're not so stupid anymore!  my arms actually stay warm.

the first week off from school was pretty much consumed with taking care of the varmint dog, smudge.
he didn't like the singing penguin, so he kept trying to run away with him!

his favorite place to lay is under the tree, where....

 he chews on lights,

 pulls on ornaments,

 and yanks the garland off!

varmint!

 this is how he redeems himself with me!  he knows i think he's adorable when he sleeps in my arms!

oh, and i think his favorite pastime is eating my yarn!  EVERY time i sit down to knit, he gets in my basket or my lap and steals my yarn!  he must be part cat!

december 23rd...christmas in edmond

we drove to edmond thursday night to spend the night with grandma instead of driving back and forth all in one day on friday.

there is an incredible house near my sisiter's house that does a spectacular light show every year.  i was all excited about seeing it, but my fellow passengers weren't exactly in the mood for looking at lights, so i didn't get good pictures.  :(

 friday morning we went to my sister's house to celebrate christmas with my family.  the whole gang was there!

my nephew, marcus, and spencer were playing "the lazy game".  they both plopped down in chairs across the room from each other and played catch.  if they dropped the ball, they would not get up to get it.  thus, the name, the lazy game.

 dad and me!

 mom and me.

 let's open presents!

spencer and marcus don't look quite so thrilled...

i have no idea what makenna is doing!

grammy and pappy gave the grandkids the perfect gift....cash!  they were all excited about that!

 thank you grammy!

 thank you pappy!

 he's so funny!

 christmas morning....

we made the boys wait until 7:30 christmas morning to get up. of course they were wide awake before that, but they were told not to bug us before then!

 we even waited to open gifts from each other until christmas morning!

spencer was so glad to get a heated mattress pad for his bed!  he freezes at night!

the boys gave daryl a new OU watch.

i love that i captured colby's reaction to getting a new DSi!  this picture speaks for itself!

 "yes!!!!!!"  spencer has been begging for a cell phone, and he finally got one!

i got a new phone, too!  an iPhone!  how awesome is that?  i've been playing on it ever since.

december 27....

so here we are.  i've done a lot of nothing since christmas day.  knitting and sleeping.  that's pretty much it.