Mom's day

Sahara, Canyon and I went to Little Rock for the day. We shopped til we dropped!

This was at the food court. We haven't been there at night before. The giant sky-light was so pretty. 

Directly under center. 

We had hot pretzels for lunch and Chinese for dinner.

2 malls and 4 shopping centers later, we made it home and I opened my gifts. 

Mom and Dad got me a fairy star pendant and earrings. Very pretty :)

Oh, and before everyone starts freaking out that this is some sort of satanic symbol of some sort...there are many meanings behind the fairy star also known as eleven star and spelled in many ways:

Meanings include :

Seven wonders of the world.

Seven visible colors in a rainbow.

Seven notes to a musical scale. 

Seven elements (earth, air, fire, water, heaven, earth and self.)

Seven directions (north, south, east, west, above, below, and within.)

Seven chakras (or energy centers) in the body. 

Seven days of the week.

All of these represent the seven pointed star. Oh, and there is the belief in fairies too ;)

Need to take a trip back soon it looks like. I'm thinking Spring Break.  Thank you Kris. 

Thank you Brian and Mel for your birthday wishes to me. 

And my kids, both biological and acquired, did the LOVE sign in sign language with their hands for this group of photos of them. I love it!!

Good-bye to Christmas

We usually bring in the new year with Christmas still up. but since I had a dead Christmas Tree (though still green) and this was the last day of warmish weather for the next week or so, we decided to pack it up a few days early. Supposed to get a bit of snow or sleet tomorrow night.

Just to see what would happen and how fast, we took our little tree to the fire pit.  

 WOW!

In a way, that was really sad, but it was either burn it or set it in the burn pile for however long it stays there til we get around to having a huge bon-fire. It did have a little bit of lighter fluid help but it went up faster than I thought even with the lighter fluid.

Then we took all the bills, important papers, tax forms and such I had cleaned out of the file cabinet (some dating to 1997) and added them to the fire. That felt good.

I realize we really need a better fire pit by the way! These bricks just never stay standing upright.

\

Christmas pictures

Fall Family / Christmas Pictures

Christmas Morning

Canyon was first up and Sahara found him out at the mailbox in his Santa shorts. It's 18 degrees out! We spent the next 15 minutes warming him up in moms bed. Then it was time to see what Santa brought and get the banana bread in the oven. 

 

Thank you everyone for some great gifts. We wish we were spending the holiday with you. Love and Happy New Year to all. 

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

We exchanged gifts and opened them with Jared tonight. 

Canyon got a Pottsville shirt, pajama bottoms, and a Hog truck. 

Sahara got a beautiful opal ring, pajama set, and massage gift card. 

Misty got latte mugs and a massage gift card. 

Jared got a camo LED flashlight/work light and a life proof case for his phone. 

Merry Christmas Eve

A night with the lights.

Bitmey's birthday and early Christmas

Bitmey (as Canyon calls her) came over today for her birthday and early Christmas with her.

after he completely destroyed the box...

She got Canyon a Hog Snuggie.  

Sahara got a necklace with her name.  That never happens.  She was excited.  Brittany said she had connections! haha

Brittany got a mug, fuzzy socks, scarf, bracelet, candy, and itunes gift card.

And I didn't expect this, but she got me a redbox gift card :)

Now the girls headed to Little Rock so Brittany can wedding dress shop!