Aforepromised Pictures

Urgh, still feeling sick. So, I guess it's a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse day for Angela so that I can sit around and rest some more! 

Not sure if I already shared these ones. A few weeks before Christmas I scored these roller skates with arm and knee pads from Goodwill for the girls.

True "extreme sports" 

The girls 'helped' me do a lot of my holiday baking.

Which mainly meant that Angela ate my ingredients and made a mess. 

Took our neighbors cookies- a great annual tradition!

 Just what I like to see; everybody getting along, no cannibalizing. The chickens are doing well and though they still act like 2 distinct flocks, they occasionally roam together in the yard while free-ranging. Expecting eggs from our younger ladies any time in the next 6-8 weeks.

 The view of our Christmas tree from the back yard though the breakfast nook into the living room.

 School's out and temperatures are endurable! Yay, park time!

 We spent Christmas Eve at the beach, with highs in the 80's

Natalie loves sweet potatoes so much that she scraped the peels clean after I steamed them for sweet potato casserole.

After our Christmas Eve nativity reading/playing with the new nativity set/opening Christmas eve jammies. Angela had wacked Natalie right on the forehead and given her a giant goose egg for the occasion.

Sampling the cookies, making sure they're good enough to leave for Santa

Waking up Christmas morning and immediately heading to the stockings to check em out.

 Candy makes the perfect breakfast

 Santa knows just what everybody likes best! Some gourmet dried meats came in Micah's...

 We let the kids open just a few gifts before church

When we returned from church, it was back to jammies and presents.

Santa got Natalie these awesome pokemon figurines, fortunately Angela got her an encyclopedia of pokemon to help us identify all the non-indigo-league ones that we don't know

 Sammy is now on his 3rd coon. Each time it gets so gross I throw it out, I find another one of the exact same type of toy at the store!

 Angela chose a jewel-studded cosmetic mirror for Daddy.

"Uhh, thanks, Angela..."

 New swimsuits from Grandma

"You're welcome!!!" Natalie got Angela these little Mickey Mouse figurines that she has loved.

Ear and Nose hair timmers. Thanks a lot.

Ruunzel, Flinn Ryder, Sleeping beauty and Ariel line up to pay their respects to baby Jesus.

Our second year of sleeping under the tree on Christmas night. This year, the experience was much-improved with this air mattress!

Natalie received, as a gift from her cousin, this little baking set to make cookies. She begged me all day on Christmas to make cookies and finally I let them do it the following day.

Here is what used to be my view from the breakfast nook. I sure will miss the beauty of this tree!

And here is the stump before being ground down. The lower part of the trunk had a big hollow center where the wood had rotted. Yikes! You can sort of see it in the middle of the stump here. Definitely much safer now.

These monsters picking clean the carcass from our Christmas turkey

 We enjoyed a lovely walk through the nature sanctuary a mile from our house while Micah was home between Christmas and New Years.

The place was crawling with pokemon!

 Angela got that scuff on her upper lip from Natalie dropping a giant rock on her face from the top of the playground while she was below. She is officially even after the Christmas Eve goose egg that Angela gave Natalie.

 We saved this piece of trunk from the tree we lost in the hurricane. Micah spent 2 days over the holidays chiseling of the bark and sanding and staining it. It looks great, but unfortunately the underside keeps developing mold, so we might need to let it dry out a bit more.

 Natalie's birthday cake!