December 26, 2008

The day after Christmas, the boys spent the morning at the shooting range with Grandpa, Dave, Noah and Clark.

The Girls spent the afternoon with Grandma, Lindy and Megan. We went to Phoenix Symphony Hall to watch The Nutcracker ballet.

What Did You Get For Chrsitmas?

Everyone got what they wanted for Christmas, except for Alex who wanted a black baby grand, maybe next year! lol

Christmas would not be Christmas without new pj's and slippers.

Seth got Dilbert 2.0 - 20 years of Dilbert.

Santa brought marshmallow shooter guns for the entire family, he forgot to leave marshmallows so good thing he bought the soft pellets that can be used in place of marshmallows.

'Twas The Night Before Christmas...

At the Manwaring house...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

It's All About The Packaging

This is a present that I wrapped. You will be lucky to have a store bought bow on it and forget about the ribbon I don't have patience for ribbon and I'm to cheap to use it. Notice my home made gift tag made out of wrapping paper scraps- and no fancy writing.

These are the presents Seth wrapped. Notice the pretty coordinating ribbon with the home made fancy bow.

Notice the fancy writing on the package — done by his own hand!

A close up of fancy writing.

I'm so glad to be married to a straight man who can make bows!!!

Rachel's Band Performance

Rachel joined the band this year in school they had thier first performance last night.

Elf

My worst fear

I hate mice, rats and any other thing that resembles a rodent (hamsters and guinea pigs included). I am truly terrified of them. Two weeks ago we were moving some stuff around in the garage and Seth noticed mouse poop, my heart started racing and my body started shaking I was freaking out! He cleaned up the poop found out where the mouse was living and assured me that our uninvited house guest was LONG GONE. And I assured my husband that if I EVER find a mouse in our house that I would be LONG GONE.

Well today it happened. Seth was bringing a box in from the garage and our uninvited house guest jumped out of the box ran across my living room floor and under the Christmas tree. I screamed so loud, "Mouse, mouse, went under tree". I ran into the kitchen jumped on top of the kitchen table I was shaking and freaking out, literally on the verge of tears. The front door happened to be open and Seth grabbed a broom and was able to chase it out of the house. I couldn't get off the table for a least 5 minutes after the ordeal was over. The hair on my body is standing up as I relive this horrible nightmare.

You might be wandering where the cat was during all this...my screaming scared her and she ran and hid, she missed out on a yummy snack!

Guess what Seth will be doing on Monday? Cleaning out the garage!! I assured him if that happens again I will be MOVING OUT!!

PS..thanks honey for thinking so quickly on your feet and getting that thing out of our house in a matter of minutes. This is another good reason why I need to keep you around to protect me from my worst fear. As I said before you are a keeper! PSS --I'm not joking, I will leave if we ever find one in the house!! oxoxox.

Do Your's Bounce Too???

This is a conversation I overheard the other night and to protect those involved from utter embarrassment I will refer to such individuals as child B and child C...

Child C and Child B walking down the stairs giggling as they walk into the kitchen, Child B looks at self in the window and starts bouncing up and down...

Child C: "Do you feel it?"

Child B: "Ya, I can feel them bounce up and down." Giggle, Giggle (Child B looks at Child C and as she's bouncing up and down) "Do you see them bouncing?"

Child C: "Ya they bounce." Giggle, Giggle

Child C starts bouncing...

Child B: "I can feel mine bounce too." Giggle, Giggle

Child B: "I can see them move too"

giggle, giggle...off to bed they went...

aahh, brings back memories of growing up!

White Christmas ; )

Alex's Piano Recital

Check out Alex…. We are very proud of our pianist.

Bow Making Classes - Every Friday Night!

I have a talented husband and daughter. They are making bows for our Christmas tree. Seth's getting more handy to have around as time goes on. I think he's a keeper!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Food, Family & Friends

The End.

Christmas Tree Stand

The previous owners of our house left their twelve foot, artificial Christmas tree for us. Since summer we've been dying to put it together and see what we've got. When we pulled out the tree last weekend, we discovered no stand. We found nothing available in stores or online — the base pole of this tree has a two-inch diameter — but I would not be discouraged.

I cobbled this stand together out of nothing but a 4"×6" beam and some 1⅜" dowel rod. Evon keeps calling this the Frankenstein Tree, on account of Frankenstein's thick, wooden soles.

IT'S ALIVE!!!

See the gallery here.

New Music

For those of you who turn off your speakers when you visit this blog because your tired of hearing the same old music, we have updated our music finally. Turn on your speakers, relax and stay awhile.

Daddy Daughter Camp Out, part 3

7:45ish...Out like a light!! I should send them on campouts more often.

Daddy Daughter Camp Out, part 2

Looks like they had fun – they came home smiling and smelling like a camp fire!

I was so happy last night to have the bed all to my self and not have to sleep with earplugs (Seth snores really loud). I slept in the middle of the bed and woke up this morning with absolutely nothing to do for anyone. I laid in bed for abut 30 minutes got up, took a shower, lounged on the couch for awhile looking at my Pampered Chef magazine. Sounds fabulous doesn't it? Are you jealous? It was fabulous for about an hour. Then I got really bored and I missed my family.

Welcome home guys, I missed ya!

Daddy Daughter Camp Out, part 1

Seth took the girls camping last night. Can't wait to hear how it went. Watching them get ready was pretty funny. Seth told the girls to pack a back pack for the camp out. This is what they packed for one night of camping out.

Rachel: 3 pairs of underwear, 5 shirts, pair of jeans, and 3 pair of shorts, and six pairs of socks.
Alex: 3 pair of underwear, a couple shirts and 3 shorts.

Seth told them to go upstairs and repack. They were only supposed to take one pair of underwear, one shirt and a pair of jeans or shorts for the next day. As the girls were walking up the stairs to repack a stuffed animal fell out of Alex' back pack. Seth looked at me and I said, "Let them take a stuff animal." Seth asked Rachel if she had packed any stuffed animals and her response was, "Uh, maybe." She had packed 5 of them!

Happy Holloween

Food Storage

I wanted to show off my nice organized pantry it took me almost 2 hours to clean out last night. I found 2 boxes of cake mix that were about to expire so I guess my family will be forced to eat cake for a couple of weeks. I wonder how long my pantry will stay this clean? Anyone willing to place a wager?

And a big thank you to my friend Lucinda for letting me tag along last Friday when she went grocery shopping, Fry's was having a case lot sale and we both did some damage. I think I bought to much tomato sauce/tomato soup, can you have to much of that stuff? I do know you can never have enough cream of chicken soup, I have 30 cans and I'm proud of it!

Scared Silly

Alex's birthday celebration tonight was pretty scary. First, Grandma and Rachel and a few friends came to the house for supper and cake. Then we took the whole party to Rawhide, and into a haunted house called Asylum. Mind you, the six girls with us tonight range from eight to eleven years.
Through practical experiment, we discovered that eight-, nine-, and ten-year-olds can handle no more than two minutes of such a frightful production, swiftly rising to an ear piercing crescendo of screaming, crying, and pleading for an exit. We stayed inside less than five minutes and saw less than half the exhibit before rushing outside to relative peace and safety in the old-west main street.
One of the girls stayed outside with Grandma, to which another girl said afterward, "She's a smart girl."
We walked around Rawhide for a short while, saw an arrest, an execution, and a headless horseman.
After taking everyone home, Alex, Evon and I watched the 1968 version of The Fly with Vincent Price.
I suppose that's what you get if you're birthday falls in October. I'll see what David thinks of that idea Sunday, as we celebrate his thirty-ninth.

Nine Years Ago Today…

After enduring six hours of back labor I gave birth to a 7 lb baby girl. Where has the time gone! Seems like yesterday I was changing diapers and waking up at least three to four times a night, which by the way didn't stop till she was two. I remember on the day she was born she was immediately placed in my arms and for most women they are in awe of this wonderful miracle that has just occurred and it's love at first site (at lease that's what I see in the movies). Me, I was in disbelief that this is what caused me all that pain and I was glad she was out. The love set in a little bit later. Alex has brought so much joy to my life and to those around her. I can't imagine what my life would be like with out her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDRA ELISE!! Please leave a birthday message for Alex.

P.S. I was so happy you were a girl!

Alex Through The Years

Fall Break

Rachel and Alex had the privilege of going to a horse camp for a week during fall break. Every morning they had to groom the horses, clean the barn, memorize the different parts of the horse and saddle. They even had a 30 minute riding lesson every day and had a daily field trip such as going to a horse show and a horse hospital. The last day they got to go on a 1 hour trail ride. They had a blast.

Jeremy spent his time at the bike park hanging out with friends.

Farewell to Summer

We had a great summer and enjoyed having a pool to share with our friends and family.