Amber is 4!

Our baby puppy turned 4! Of course the girls could not pass up the opportunity to make her some birthday crowns!

Her birthday celebration included a trip to the doggy park, a new treat from the pet store, and lots of walks!

And with that....

final payment on the car, it is paid off! :) This is the second car we've ever paid off, and it feels very nice! :)

Ants!

Finding ants in my pantry on a Sunday morning was not ideal. Not at all. Especially not red ants that bit me as I tried to clean them up! I guess this forced me to clean out the pantry and use my birthday/Christmas present from my mom (thanks, Mom!) which were all the lovely containers.

Here are a few pictures of the mess we had to work around:
















































Here is a picture of the empty pantry... sprayed, cleaned, and ready to be refilled:





















And here it is, organized, put away, and best of all: ant free! :)

Wax Museum

The 4th grade at the elementary school put on a "Wax Museum" this week. As part of a biography book report, the kids all collected facts about an American Hero - someone in American history that changed the world in some way. Brooke chose Helen Keller. She worked really hard to memorize all kinds of facts... Below is a picture of Brooke at the "museum" and her exhibit board.

The Taxes are Done!

And filed! And we are anxiously awaiting our refund!

Glad to be home!

We got back yesterday from a trip to California to celebrate Christmas with my family. I didn't get the camera out much during the trip, but managed to get some pictures while Kara was giving us a violin 'concert'.

Some pictures (pictured below, Grandpa & Grandma, cousin Norah, Brooke, and Kara):

Brooke's Art

I love Brooke to draw... she is so talented. She can sit down for less than two minutes and come up with something like this: