Christmas 2005

The budding artist wasted no time at all making big messes, I mean master works of art.

Spoiling Daddy's Girl, & getting it on video tape.

Here's a quick shot of all her spoils before she dug in. Blixx & I had a great time spoiling her rotten, with a lot of help from her friends.

V & Cass are teaching little Q to get into trouble. He's Grip's nephew and cute as a bug. I'm actually watching him on a fairly regular basis now - I must be nuts!

Here's Jillybean and her honey in the kitchen with Q. They came back from Alaska for a few months to spend time with the family.

Christmas Day leaves Grips with a housefull of people and the desire to sharpen knives with vigor.

Holiday Open House Pics

With Christmas on a Sunday this year, it gave the perfect opportunity to have folks over on Saturday. The idea was to have Blixx's sister & the kids up but they ended up not being able to make it - go figure. It would have been too many kids anyway for my little house to take. Amazing how my house gets smaller & smaller every year.
Cass had a yummy cookie and got it all over herself & Daddy.
The guys hiding in the kitchen.

A festive party to be sure. Kids climbing everywhere. Ahh, but the wine & cider were out in force.


It always amazes me how many people can jam into my livingroom. While I certainly wish I had a larger house for entertaining, and I'm sure I'll get my wish one day - I know I'll miss the casual comfort of piling in on top of each other.

Clearly Purge is a kid magnet. One of the kids came up with a joke - which Purge calmly blew out of the water with a series of one liners that left the poor kid stunned in his tracks. Clearly he didn't know who he was messing with.

It was wonderful to see Tempest & Purge the day before Christmas at our open house.

Cass was on the sit n spin with her friends. With Auntie Birdgirl's encouragement, she spun herself into a total frenzy. She actually fell over when she dismounted.

MLK Day 2006

It was cold cold cold outside, so we decided to let the kids run around at the indoor playplace at McD's.

Cass was dressed in her hippy best to head to McD's playland with her very best friend.

They played for HOURS and were so good together. V even shared her icecream with Cass.

This is in our back yard, after I'd sent Cass down the hill on just her snowpants. Her response - "AGAIN!!'

Catch Up & January Thaw Pictures

Greetings one & all. Sorry I haven't posted more pictures lately. I figured that since it' a snow day I'd put in the time and play catchup. Hmm, what's been going on? Blixx has been working crazy busy, as well as traveling for work too. He's been to St Louis MO, Naples FL & Albany in the past 2 weeks, and almost to Las Vegas and Bahamas! In years past it's been slow from Thanksgiving until Feb school vacation - in 2006 Blixx has turned down work
I've taken on watching little Q one day a week, whenever his Mom & Dad are both working. It's only been once now, but having 2 toddlers running around in indeed craziness. Cass is in non-stop eating mode, so I expect that she'll be 10 feet tall in the next 10 minutes.
I read the latest Harry Potter and currently I'm reading a series by Elizabeth Haydon which has me hooked. Mainly, I've just been trying to keep up with Cass and Blixx's work schedule and trying to keep my sanity.


Two weekend days in January at over 50 degrees. How wacky is that? We definately took advantage of the nice weather & got outside for some fun.
This was taken at a playgroup, after crafts. She's really big into art projects and is totally thrilled to have her own eisel at home.
We got a new camera for ourselves for Christmas and we're thrilled with it.
It was such a beautiful day out that we grabbed up the girls & headed to the local playground for some fresh air fun. They play so well together.
Cass was running around the house with crazy hair and a crazy smile, so we thought we'd snap some shots of ourselves.