Lil' John snow play.

Lil' John snow fun.

Snow bunny, snow puppy, and grommet.

Idaho hookie-bobbing.

Christmas 2015

Christmas 2015

Fun on Christmas!!

Amulet graphic novels from Nana and Papa; even my non-readers hate to put them down.
And Joe Harris, the husband of my mom's longtime friend Marlene, hand made out of wood doll beds for the girls and tractors and swords for the boys. Impressive handiwork!

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!

The kids love their piggy banks and slippers. We were all entertained by the koala bear that grabbed Karsten's change and said thank you.

Help! I'm under attack!

Merry Christmas!!

Nick isn't feeling well so he's snoozing in the tub. I made a Magformer (cool toy!) battleship for Karsten's new Star Wars guy, and Zane is building another spaceship so they can have a battle and shoot triangles at each other. Little boys are fun.

Busy Christmas Eve.

Sleepy Christmas Eve.

Yup...it'll be a white Christmas.

More naps - puppies sleep a ton!

I could probably post many pics of LucyLu sleeping in people's laps, because it is her favorite spot. She better enjoy it now, because she is well on her way to outgrowing her career as a lap dog.

First significant snow of the year.

First significant snow of the year.

First significant snow of the year.

The kids got glow sticks for Advent. They did this in their room.

Why yes, that is a dog sleeping in our dishwasher.

Lucy/LucyLu/LuLu found a cozy spot to curl up.

Populi Christmas party... Prepared.

So sleeeeepy

Lucy got sick yesterday, and we had an expensive vet visit. It's hard to tell if it was just something she ate (she wants to try everything in the yard) or something more serious, but at under 7 pounds she doesn't have much reserves like an older dog. We are glad to see her back to her perky self this morning because we are all getting very fond of her. She was ravenous this morning, and back to chewing everything and chasing a giggly Zane and Karsten around the breakfast table.
When she gets sleepy she loves to curl up in the nearest lap, even Karsten's. Now she is in her kennel napping, which is how she spends most of her day. I wonder if she will still think she is a lap dog when she adds 50+ lbs. to her frame.

Going on a tree hunt

After painting last Saturday we used the remaining daylight to hunt down a Christmas tree. Lucy the puppy tried valiantly to keep up with the boys, but will need to grow longer legs first.

Busy Saturday

Last weekend was crazy, because we had a new puppy and I couldn't imagine Christmas decorating without finally painting the upstairs hall and living room. It had been patched and partially done since last summer, but left undone amidst other busyness. So glad to have that done though, and for a husband that helped more than I expected (can't you see how much he loooooooves to paint?).

How is this even comfortable?

Newest Holloway... Mutt lineage.

This little girl's mom is supposedly Irish Wolfhound and the father is a Border Collie. However, mom looked more like a large full-sized Poodle or a quite small, black-furred Irish Wolfhound with some Lab sprinkled in. Mom also might have some German Shepherd in her as a couple of the puppies in the litter had fur and coloring that looked very German Shepherd.

Either way, she's a mutt and the kids all approve of her heartily.

Newest Holloway family pic.

Newest Holloway close up.

The newest Holloway

This sweet little girl is only 7 weeks old, and the runt of the litter. A couple of her larger litter mates had really cool wavy hair, whereas she is more sleek and resembles a Labrador (yes, like Tikki!). At first in the long car ride back she was scared and clinging to my shoulder, but she soon relaxed and snoozed in my lap most of the way home.

Dog tired

We are on our way to St. Maries to check out a litter of Irish Wolfhound / border collie puppies, and after the initial thrill of finding out our destination for their Advent gift, the little boys crashed. I wanted to wait until at least Christmas to get a dog, but there was no holding Nick back from searching for cute puppies to buy online.

Snow pals

While older siblings work hard at school, these two get to play outside.

Art on a wintry day

Karsten is waiting for cousin Jerome to come over and play with him in the wee bit of snow outside, so in the meantime he decided to draw a Christmas tree (with roots!). I didn't have anything to put on the easel he found, but he came up with the great idea to use the "board you cut with", so I loaned him the bottom side of my cutting board as a base. And yes, he is also using his left hand. He switches back and forth so he might be fairly ambidextrous like Gunnar, but I think he favors the left more. I am really enjoying the time we have together every morning since we opted to delay preschool one year.

Games with Grandma

Signe got her hair stuck in the stairs... Grandma to the rescue.

Grandpa and youngest grandson.

Thanksgiving... Watching the Cowboys get crushed.