"the big chill".......

that was the title of austen's winter concert tonight. all of the songs related to "snow days" and how the kids long for them every year, "even if we have to make them up in june" as one of the songs went. they were all so cute, dressed in their sunday best.

lots of dancing and action with the singing. i was amazed at how good and in key the fourth grade sounded. they must have a wonderful music teacher. everyone knew their lines, the songs and the gestures.

austen, however, always manages to take things to the extreme with his class clown tendencies.
we really enjoyed this concert. short and sweet and the kids are still so cute at 9 & 10 years old. 

guns.......

that's what austen calls them..."mom, you have to take a picture of my guns"
he was more than happy to show off his muscles since he has been playing football. he was in a goofy mood the other night and ripped his shirt off to flex for me.
he told me that he has "four-pack abs" and just needs two more for a "six pack".....i told him he couldn't be considered "too manly" with his zipper hanging open....




i guess he takes after his dad.....:) 

scenes from an ice storm.....

we didn't just get winter gradually this year. it hit us like a ton of bricks. we had very warm weather all through the holidays...to the point of trees budding and crocus shoots starting. but this past week winter started off with a small bang...namely, a rather mild ice storm.
i love this picture...if you look closely in the middle of the picture you will see a very tiny but perfectly shaped snowflake. i think this is amazing. how lucky to capture this.
i bet you'll never guess what this is a picture of...give up yet? it is a water meter.
i love the way the leaf is enclosed in the ice. nature is amazing. 

they say pregnant women glow.....

they are right......
she glows...

more and more each day...














you are beautiful. 

can you just see the attitude in this face?......

so sweet, so lovely, so wonderful. a face that belies her personality. she is so like her mother was at that age, tall, smart and beautiful...and she is so unlike her mother was at that age, strong willed, sassy and bossy. she has complete control over champ and he cowers when she comes near him. if he touches one of her stuffed animals, she will yell at him "NO CHAMPERS" and drags him by the collar over and into his cage. we love her beyond life. thank you shannon and jason for giving us this exquisite gift. 

life with champ...chapter 16...

i guess it was our fault. we left the tray of chocolate candy left over from the party at the field's house on saturday up on our counter...at the back of the counter...in an area where champ's electric fence collar will beep, and most likely shock him if he gets too close to that side of the kitchen. our fault that he probably got shocked 4 or 5 times as he ate every piece of chocolate candy off of that tray in the time it took for don to take austen to the dentist. yup, i should have put that chocolate up into the cupboard, with the child lock so the dog couldn't get at it. as everyone knows chocolate=death for dogs. well, we shoved some hydrogen peroxide into his mouth (per his vet) and waited...for him to vomit. which he did, three times. he started to act like himself, albeit a little bit hyper from the caffeine and sugar in the chocolate, shortly thereafter. everything back to normal...right?....oh, no. not our dog. he needed to go back outside about an hour later and we didn't think anything of it. i don't know why i checked, but i did, and found that the piles of his vomit were gone...yes folks, our...dog....ate....his....vomit....all....three....piles....of....it.....
frozen in the snow, no less. so we started him on his second round of the hydrogen peroxide. he knew what was coming this time and really fought us trying to give it to him. i knew that turkey baster had more than one use. shot that stuff right down his throat, i did. he gave up the poison again and don was outside right after scooping it up and disposing of this batch. he is now imprisoned in his cage for the night. i hear him downstairs pacing and circling in his cage because i took his nice big fluffy bed out of it and threw a couple of bath towels in there in case he pukes during the night. they were old towels too, in case i just want to throw them into the trash instead of washing them. i think he really can't believe that i didn't put his big fluffy bed back in his cage for him, spoiled brat...hopefully i won't wake up to a mess.

'nite all.

sweet (chocolate) dreams champers... 

new years eve.....

was spent at our house. we usually do not go out on new years eve because it's just too dangerous to drive home from wherever you are and the prices of everything are all jacked up anyway. shannon and jason went out for the very first new year's evening since they got married because shannon always worked on new years eve. we kept scarlett overnight and kelly and ron and the girls and becky from texas came for a dinner of steak, twice baked shrimp stuffed potatoes and salad. we just spent a nice quiet evening....
watched football, played with the kids and the camera and i think don and i were in bed by 12:10 am.
this, unfortunately, was about the best it got on new years day though. michigan was blown out by usc so that was a little disappointing. but we got to watch this pathetic game on curtis and laura's brand new...57 inch...projection hdtv. wow. the picture quality was amazing. we are going to HAVE to get a tv like this...someday....
yesterday we went to a party on my mom's side of the family. more family fun, great food and a chance to see cousins we usually only get to see once or twice a year. i love this picture of us. since i am usually manning the camera, we don't get too many of the two of us.
happy belated new year to everyone. 

bad blogger, bad, bad blogger

i can't believe i am just getting around to posting about christmas and the new year. christmas, of course, as always, goes by in a blur of activity and family events. this year was no different. austen seemed a little disappointed when he ran down the stairs on christmas morning because it looked a little bare under the tree this year. we did try to cut back on presents (or maybe they were just a little less but expensive little packages). he got everything he wanted, however, and more. he got an ipod, a wii game system, (which didn't arrive until dec. 26 thanks to and extremely lucky coincidence of pulling into the parking lot at eb games as the ups driver was walking back to his truck. they had gotten 3 systems in and i was third in line), some nutcrackers to add to his collection and lots of u of m clothing and gear.


champ even got some fun toys from santa including this long chew toy. i think it lasted about 6 hours. i got my camera lens that i was coveting (85mm 1.8 prime portrait lens) which i love. don got some books, movies and tools. we did a lot of traveling to family homes on christmas eve and christmas day so we were feeling a little tired when it all ended. but it is always so nice to get together with family and it is always a feast.