What a weekend!

I absolutely love long weekends! They mean more time with my family and more time to get things done around the house. Kassi had a runny nose and was pretty grumpy during the day on Thursday. She has decided that taking naps is for babies and she is not a baby, so she says"NO nap, NO sleep" and while she does still get at lest 12 hours of sleep at night the afternoons can be a bit dramatic. We did however manage to get the Christmas tree up and had some friends over for supper.

On Friday Wes and I decided to chance the crowds in Billings and try to get our Christmas shopping done taking advantage of the Black Friday deals. We found some really great prices and are about 90% done Christmas shopping. Yeah!!!! We were also able to find some great prices on things we had been looking for, but were too cheap to buy. We finally bought a microwave hood for above the stove. All of them we had looked at had been over $150 we bought this one for $68! Wes had been looking for a new drill, we found a new drill on sale with a battery operated saw included for free. We also found a 6volt jeep for Kassi half price. Most everything we bought was between 50 and 75% off.

On Saturday my dad came in and we installed our new microwave hood. I LOVE it and for the price it is awesome!! It also helped to clean up the look of the kitchen. Before it looked a little cluttered with the microwave on the counter since we just don't have much counter space. We also put up a couple of Christmas decorations outside.

On Sunday the Disney Channel kept advertising that the three Tinker Bell movies would be on that night. Kassi kept asking to watch them. Well remember I said before that she has stopped taking naps. We decided to do what all the books tell you not to do and bribe her. We told her we would let her stay up and watch all three of the movies if she would take a good nap. We could even set up downstairs and watch them on the big screen and eat popcorn. Bribes work really well, rather you are "supposed" to do it or not, it works. She laid down without a fuss and took a two hour nap. When the first movie came on we were eating supper. This one was the original Peter Pan movie. She wasn't so excited about it. The second one was Tinker Bell and for this one we moved downstairs and set up a comfy spot on the floor and had snacks in our jammies and slippers. The third movie didn't start until 9:00 p.m. I figured Kassi would be out before it even started. I fell asleep before she did. About 9:30 she woke me up and wanted to lay next to me. Once she got snuggled in she fell right asleep as well. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to lots of movies nights at home!

Pet Updates

So far Kassi's water pets are all hanging in there. I am really impressed, but I will admit I am a little surprised. You see when she had the goldfish I cleaned the tank every two weeks, changed the filter all the time, etc. With these I haven't cleaned the tank, do water changes when the water level gets low and the filter rarely gets changed. So since it seems to be working I am not going to mess with a good thing!



The other night we had a surprise in the tank. The molly's had a baby. It was the cutest little thing swimming around like crazy trying to eat all of the little bits of food. When I saw it I thought I had better separate it so that the crab or frog don't eat it. So Kassi started getting ready for bed and I figured I had a little bit before she would want to go to bed. Well she decided to go right to bed so I didn't get a chance to try and put it in something else. So sorry to say baby fish ended up as someones supper. Now I wonder how many baby's there have been? I have noticed frog is getting really big. I mean he has grown incredibly in the past few weeks?



In other pet news. Poor Daisey seems to be getting blinder, if that is possible since she had been blind for awhile now. Other than being blind and getting really disoriented she is doing better than I thought she would be this winter considering she is at least 13 years old. We got word to expect our new puppy to likely be born sometime in March and we can pick her up in May. This is exciting, but I worry what Daisey will think. Kassi doesn't yet understand the concept that there will be a new puppy next summer. I think she will really enjoy her though once she gets here.

Phrase of the Week

"Mommy, something is wrong here. Mommy, something is really wrong here."

Just Being Silly

I'm not sure what the fascination is with wearing two pairs of sunglasses, but apparently it is way fun!

This night Wes had her pick out her own jammies and this what she ended up in!

A Few Updates

So what is new for our happy little family?


-Grandma is still back in Iowa so Grandpa is babysitting. Kassi always says great grandma sick, grandma take care of her, bumpa take care of me.


-Kassi and I went in yesterday and got our H1N1 vaccinations. Since I fall in a high risk category I was able to get the inactive vaccine, Kassi was just out of the high risk, but they went ahead and gave her the inactive vaccine as well, per my request. Wes says he won't be getting his since he would get the active he doesn't see the point. I guess I agree with that as well. Just take his chances at least Kassi and I should be safe.


-Kassi refuses to use the potty for my dad. Yet she still tells me and uses it when I ask her to. Today he set a pair of her panties in the bathroom as a reminder for her. She knows too, she looks and them and says "wear those when I use potty all the time."


-Wes has to go to Billings three times in the next two weeks to take ASE tests. Each time he will be driving home late. This always makes me nervous, but at least he is not gone all night then.


-Kassi's new things: "Hello, my name is Kassi Hanson." She almost has her address down too. Usually it ends up something like "13 2 street cody." She can count to 15 now! She sings many songs now. She tattles on bumpa "Bumpa watch Gunsmoke all day long." I know there are many more things, but right now that is all I can come up with.


-I have been busy at work planning our Christmas and Awards Banquet, trying to transition someone new into my place as the chair of our Christmas Decoration Committee, working on annual reminder letters for residents/business owners and trying to find time to update my ever growing and changing list of how to's with the hopes of taking vacation someday and not needing to worry about logging in to do this or that while I am off.


-We will be getting a new puppy in the late spring, early summer. I put a deposit on an English Setter pup from a litter that is planned for that time. The place we will be getting her from had some puppies available this fall, but we decided it would be better to wait until Wes is off of snow call and it is a little warmer outside. They will likely have a couple of litters available to choose from. Our poor Daisey dog is completely blind at this point and I am not sure how she will react to the new addition, but it may help her out. Maybe the puppy can be a new set of eyes for her and help her get around.

Still Swimming

Tuesday's are Kassi's swimming days. I know she really enjoys this and she is actually learning something too. I wasn't so sure at first that she would really learn how to swim at such a young age. Today her instructor said she really is starting to pick up on things and is doing really great. She is starting to remember to hold her breath and blow bubbles when she goes under and today I guess she kept saying she wanted to jump and go under. I am really proud of her. I definitely think her instructor is part of the reason she is doing so good. Miss Pepper is wonderful with her and Kassi talks about her a lot. Pepper was telling me today that Kassi kept talking about something today, but she couldn't figure out exactly what she was talking about. Still don't know what she was telling her? Kassi calls her, "my Pepper". I am getting better too about going out of the pool area. This seems to help Kassi keep from getting as distracted as when I am in on the pool deck.

I figure as long as Kassi is having fun and Pepper thinks she is advancing we will keep up our Tuesday swim lessons!

Halloween

Kassi chose to be Little Bo Peep for Halloween. She really enjoyed getting to wear makeup and have her hair done! We did the downtown trick or treating and she walked the entire way. She was very tired by the time we got done, but she did not want carried and there was no way she was going to let either of us carry her candy bucket. There were times she would stop and set it down for a second then pick it back up. What a doll! She is growing up so fast!