Arsty AND smartsy M

Mack's artistic ability is astounding.  Hers is the chameleon on the right. Not only did she draw this herself, but she walked me through drawing mine on the left! 

I showed her once how to do some more complicated addition and she ran with it, doing this one all on her own .

Up with the sun

Trickle down days

The days between school getting out and Christmas trickled by. The anticipation seemed to double every day and we just needed SOMETHING to do.  I lugged in the sand table from outside, filled it with water and bubbles and the M's had a great time at the " beach" :

Of course, things ended abruptly when one of the beach goers crossed the line into the water.

December cuties

A new way to travel

Mike's car was first my car. We bought it brand new in 2002 and it has been the best car- never any trouble! But Fanny Focus was getting up in years and , with all the driving Mike does to and from work, we really wanted him to have something a little heavier and dependable.  Mike is becoming quite the car salesman tamer! He left at 3, drove 45 minutes to Loveland and was home by 6:45 with his new wheels! It's a 2008 Ford Fusion ( Frida) with all leather interior and plenty of bells and whistles. THe kids had so much fun exploring the new car and Mike took Mack to the pet store in it. It got her seal of approval.

What's cookin' , good lookin?

My mom got Mike a heavy duty smoker for Christmas, something he has been looking for for a long time.  We just couldn't find the one we wanted in the stores ( at least not for a price we could afford) so mom and I were both very excited to find one in excellent condition at a moving sale here in town!  Mike has been having a good time creating delicious things to eat:

Back wrapping is an art

The end result was phenomenal! A perfectly smoked pork tenderloin. And the following day, we added in some custom made bbq sauce and it was even better!

We found a pork shoulder on sale at Safeway for a phenomenal price. I can't wait to see what he does with it!

Hello?

Mason is calling Santa to find out how many more days there are until Christmas.