Eek! Christmas is here!

OMG, what a loser I am. I can't believe that it's been a little over one month since I've made a post. Where has the time gone? What the hell have I been doing? I mean..last post was November 20?

I have no excuse. It's just been super busy. We had a great time in Houston, but the time just flew. And on the last day, right before we were going to leave, Keira ended up getting sick. It was a doozie of a ride home, let me tell you. The plane was cramped. No leg room. She was miserable and had fever and was on top of me the whole trip back. Poor her. Poor me. Poor Per. Just a bunch of poor us's all the way around.

She held in well, though. What a little trooper. Then, when we did get home, that's when all hell almost broke loose. Both of us were working like crazy and had to take turns doing it from home because Keira was sick the whole week. That was tough. Come to find out that she had the flu and some RV virus which can give little kiddos bronchitis.

She's better this week...and then contracted pink eye of all things. urg.

In the meantime, we have our tree up and decorated here at home! It is sooooo beautiful and Christmasy.

It is butt freezing cold here. I mean really cold It's -15 degrees celsius, which is 3 degrees F here.

COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD.

Today is your birthday...

Today was the girls' 9th birthday and our first day in Houston. We woke up to a gorgeous day and with our tummies rumbling. What's the first thing we did? Why make it to IHOP for birthday pancakes of course!

Here we are on the way...

Making the order...


After birthday pancakes, then I went and got a great deep tissue massage, courtesy of Judy as my birthday gift.

Then, we went home, hung out, played on the jungle gym and enjoyed the great weather. What a great first day!

Houston, the bird has landed

Yeah!!!! After weeks of angst and worry, we are finally in Houston. And, I have to say, all that angst and worry was for nothing...well, almost nothing.

My biggest worry has been that Keira would not handle the trip very well and then I would be experiencing the long trip from hell. But, I have to say that this little one was a trooper. She was well behaved, happy, slept, enjoyed watching "Bolt" on her little TV and basically charmed all the staff.

When we landed in Newark, albeit an hour and half early, which really helped the stres levle, I thought that she was going to start acting grumpy and all, but she was a picture of charm and happiness. We played chase, she had a chocolate milkshake and watched the planes take off. Toward the end of the plane ride from Newark to Houston, she was tired and wanted to be held, but other than that, she was fine.

My sister met us at the airport and by the time we got home, Ms. Keira was enjoying the heck out of being the center of attention with her four little cousins.

The girls and James love being with her and they all fight for the chance to sit next to her, get her attention and push her stroller. What more could a girl ask for! :)

So, all in all, a fine trip and a great start to a two week vacation.

Videos from the weekend

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Getting quite relaxed

If I may say so, myself.

We're at the cabin this weekend. It's about 10:45pm and i' m sitting in front of a waning fire, which was bright and warm only just a half an hour ago, enjoying the last bits of warmth on my chilly feet.

It was a shorter drive last night than normal to the cabin because there wasn't much traffic, but still, it was a long 3.5 hour drive. Ot was cold and dark and we were so tired from the week. We went to bed at midnight and our lovely daughter got up at 5:30am. I was in he'll..let's just leave it at that. I was so tired I thought that I was going to die. It was only big cups of Joe that kept me going.

Although I love this cabin, I don't always relish the thought of coming because the drive is a bit overwhelmingly long, or I'm tired or I feel like we've just got such a long list of chores at home to take care of -wash, groceries, cleaning, cooking, baking,etc. The chores never seem to end and we just get more and more tired. The worst Saturday chore is the grocery shopping. I hate to grocery shop on saturday. Everyone and I mean everyone goes out to do their shopping on a Saturday. The stores are crowded, jam packed with people pushing every which way. It can be summarzed in two words -damn stressful!

We ran our errands out here today in the country. People were nice. There were no crowds. No pushing and shoving and getting run over by baby stroller upon baby stroller. There was even groceries left on the shelves, imagine that!

I never thought that I would say this, but I am getting a bit more relaxed. I don't know if it's the change of the scenery, the lack of city folk, or what, but I admit that I can almost understand why people would leave the hustle and bustle of the city to live in the country. It's good for the soul to get away every once in a while.

Halloween!!!

I've always thought that liking sweets and chocolates was something that one LEARNS, not something that one is BORN with. I am very relieved to find out that this is true...at least in our family. Keira got to open her first chocloate lollipop and a regular lollipop and as you will see....it wasn't as big of a hit as one would think. Whew! Escaped that one for now!

Birthday fun

What a lovely evening my wonderful husband had planned today.

Whisked away in the middle of the afternoon by two friends to get a lovely spa treatment. Then to dinner at a swank little Chinese restaurant called Nodee. Great wine. Lots of laughter and good friends. What better way to spend your birthday?