'Tis the Season

Christmas is in full swing at our house, I think I am more excited than the girls! The last couple weeks have been full of great holiday activities-Disney on Ice, The Singing Christmas Tree, the annual dinner and Christmas show with my mom, grandma and sister-in-law, decorating Gingerbread houses, looking at Christmas lights, Christmas shopping, decorating the house, wrapping presents, listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies on TV...I LOVE it all! Keaton is really into it this year-she actually doesn't mind turning the TV off if she gets to play Christmas music at full volume. 8 ) She did a great job decorating the tree, and is super excited to make cookies for Santa and prepare carrots for the reindeer (can't believe she remembers all of this from last year!).

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and remembers the true reason for the season-Jesus Christ. God be with you all this holiday season!!!

The View

Okay, so I know that I shouldn't even watch the show The View. But for some reason, I can not help myself. (I told you there might be some political stuff in here...8 ) Some mornings I have to keep myself from throwing something at the TV, I get so frustrated with the ignorance and liberal leaning tone of the conversations. It drives me crazy that they claim to represent both sides-Elizabeth is by herself as the only conservative-Whoopi, Sherrie, Barbara, and Joy are all obviously on the left. And while I shouldn't care, I know that some people to get their news and information from this show, and that is why I get so frustrated.

The reason I am writing about this show is because this morning Whoopi and Joy said some outrageous things-that there is no such thing as a Victory in Iraq and that we messed up more things there than we helped. Are you kidding??? Yes, mistakes were made, our intelligence was initially "wrong" (I put that in quotes, because essentially, they weren't wrong-the UN just gave Sadaam enuf time to get rid of the WMD's during the 17 resolutions he ignored over many years...not to mention our intelligence community was weakened greatly under Clinton's administration, but these are different topics...). Anyway-yes, mistakes have been made-but to say we are only fixing problems we created-what??? Under Sadaam, people did not have freedom of speech, women had no freedoms, people were tortured and executed for speaking out and for disobeying Sadaams laws...NOW-stores and shops are open and thriving, schools are educating children AND women, millions of people have been liberated-people aren't being killed in mass killings, violence is down greatly...I think victory is imminent! Iraq is the closest its been to being a democratic nation. Yes, we will probably have to keep a presence there to help with peace keeping (just like in Germany, Bosnia, etc), but is that not worth a free nation in the Middle East? And to say that US has done more harm than good-yes, we have lost blood and treasure, but for a noble cause-to free millions of people. If Joy lived in Iraq and talked about Sadaam like she talks about Bush, she would have been tortured and executed. It kills me that people can't see that and see the great things we have done there! (Of course, I can kind of understand, because the media chooses not to report the good things, just the numbers of soldiers killed).

A lot of this goes back to the Bush bashing that occurs all of the time on this show, esp. from Joy. For once, I would like someone to question her on exactly what is so bad about him. He is not perfect, no president has been-but she has NOOO idea what decisions he has to make on a daily basis. She has no idea, and chooses not to be educated on both sides of issues. (Not to mention, he has kept us safe since 9/11). She hates Bush and that is that. Whoopi said something a couple weeks ago that just cracked me up-that the terrorists have gotten "crazier" since Bush has been in office. Seriously? Does she need to be reminded that 9/11 was being planned during the Clinton administration?

I am just so sick and tired of the unfairness-get rid of Sherri and get another strong conservative on the show-make it fair. Right now it is more like Bill Maher's show-he is famous for stacking 2-3 liberals plus himself against one conservative. Then when the conservative makes a good point, he cracks a joke belittling him/her and goes to commercial. Besides these shows, TV news programs (cable and network) and many of the big newspapers and magazines are left leaning. (yet if you mention to liberals the unfairness in the press, they mention Fox News 8 ). I tell you this-Fox does lean to the right-although still more balanced than any of the other shows and independent studies have shown that-but thank goodness!!! We don't have a voice anywhere else... So, it is not hard to see why so many people are embracing the liberal, progressive agenda and to be honest, it scares me.

Thankful

It is Monday after Thanksgiving and it truly was a great holiday! We had some of Dan's family in town for a few days and while it may seem overwhelming at times, I kept reminding myself about how lucky and blessed we are to be part of such a great family. I hear so many people talk badly about their inlaws, and I have to say that I am extremely lucky-with the exception of some political differences (LOL), we all mesh together and care for each other, inlaws and outlaws both. 8 )

I have so much to be thankful for this year-my family-my mom, brother and family, aunts, uncles, cousins (who are such an important part of my life)...Dan's family...our home, my husband, my beautiful daughters (so extremely precious!)...my friends...and soooo much more. I could go on and on, but I will just say this-God has blessed me my entire life. This is something I need to remind myself each and every day, not just at Thanksgiving. Even during bad times, I have it so much better than many others out there and I need to keep that perspective.

Mallory

Mallory, or Mally as we call her often is 19 months old already! She is at a super fun stage where she is starting to repeat words and figure more things out. She is also a little monkey! She loves to climb and jump and "explore", totally unlike Keaton so this was new for me. 8 ) Here are some of her current words:

"This" she says as she points to something she wants

"Caka" This could mean a variety of things-cookie, candy or chicken

"Poop" also could mean a variety of things-poop, toot, or Pooh (as in Winnie the Pooh)

"Sissy" is Keaton

She also says puppy, kitty, bye-bye, daddy, mama, play, and some others. The list grows daily!

Right now she is also into pens/pencils/colors...I am wondering if we have a future author on our hands...8 ) If there is a pen around, she will have it in her hands!

Another funny thing about Mally-she has no patience for being hurt. If she falls down and cries, she will see me coming and she will get up right away and run for her life. I don't know what she thinks I am going to do, besides comfort her of course--but if I get to that point, she just says "Play, play, play" as though I am not going to let her play anymore.

I just love watching the personalities of the girls form-they change so fast and it is fun to watch them change and grow!

Some Keaton Stories

It is hard to believe that Keaton will be 5 in January-where has the time gone??? Wow. Anyway, I have a couple recent stories that I want to get documented before I forget them:

I had gotten Keaton these soft pillows that light up and change colors. Well, we finally (after 2 years???) got batteries put in them and she was so delighted! Loved them! So Dan and I were putting her to bed and playing with the pillows and the following conversation takes place:

Keaton: I love these pillows! They light up so pretty!!!

Dan: And Keaton, we love you!

Keaton: But I don't light up! (With a very serious face!).

Too cute!

Next story: a couple weeks ago we took Mallory in for her checkup, shots etc. When it came time for the shots (which we all dread!), I of course was paying attention to Mallory, holding her, soothing her and dressing her after the shots. After I was done, I look over at Miss Keaton and she is silently standing there, tears rolling down her face. Melted my heart-she proceeded to ask if Mallory was going to be okay-she was crying for her sister! So precious. We went directly to McDonalds. 8 )

Right now Keaton is in this "loving hotels" phase, so our living room is a hotel, the kitchen is the breakfast room, etc. Totally cracks me up-she literally pretends to put the card in the door, open it and close it every time she goes in the living room! About this time last year, she was in what I call the "Magic Carpet" phase-on any given day, we would have 3-8 blankets on our floors and they were magic carpets. She would have dolls and stuffed animals on them, etc. Love the imagination of this girl.

Starting Over

OK, this is my second shot at starting a blog. I had done so a couple weeks ago, but mainly used it as a venting machine for political issues. So, since I got it out of my system, I decided to start over! Now, I am very passionate about politics, so I am sure some of my opinions will end up in some posts, but my main goal for this blog is to write about things that are important to me, like my family, friends, etc. Scrapbooking is a huge part of my life, so I hope to use this as another way to document my life and the lives of my family members.

So, I'll start with this weekend. On Thursday evening, we all went to Hastings to the Celebration of Lights. We froze our tails off as we waited for the downtown lights to be turned on and for the "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" song that Keaton has been singing all week. However, Miss Keaton missed out on much of the fun because she was freaking out the entire time, anticipating the fire works, which they didn't have this year. This girl-she is terrified of fireworks...I have no idea why, but she is. She is also very hesitant about large crowds and loud noises/music.

Anyway, after the Celebration of Lights, we headed to Lincoln to go to the C-2 State Championship game, which the BLUE HILL BOBCATS were playing in. Now, Keaton was in heaven at this point-she LOVES staying in hotels, so much that lately our living room has been the "hotel room" and we have to knock to come in. Now, the great thing about this, is that she keeps it clean as a result of her pretending it's a hotel room....love it!!! 8 )

We made a mistake on the way to Lincoln. We allowed the girls to sleep all the way. BIG mistake. It was a nightmare trying to get them to sleep-with the excitement of being somewhere new, and the fact they thought they just took a nap and were ready to play!

Friday and Saturday were a blast. The Bobcats won!!! (Yeah!!!!!), then we moved on to Omaha, went to this Pizza Place that had games, mini golf, bowling, go-karts (all indoors of course!), went swimming in the hotel, ate at Famous Daves (YUMMY!), then today went to the mall and happened to catch Santa Claus and even got some Christmas shopping done. Now, I am thinking today is Sunday and I am sure to be confused for the rest of the week.

I did do something very unusual this weekend. I didn't pull out my camera once. I am one of those, you know, chronic picture takers-the obsession goes hand in hand with this scrapbooking thing...anyway, I made a deal with myself that I would just have fun, experience the time with family, and remember it in my heart instead of on photo paper. Big deal for me, huge. However, I am sure I will find someway to scrapbook about the weekend, photos or not...8 )

I am anticpating a fun, but crazy week ahead with the wonderful holiday coming up. We have lots of family coming into town, which means the next few days for me are cleaning, shopping, and preparing! I am super excited to meet our newest niece, little Baby Shea from Colorado.