Purpose

My son's new thing is to ask, "Who made this/that?".....

so I always tell him...and body parts are no exception.

Z: Mommy,.. who made the table?"
M: "The Amish."

Z: "Who made the sky?"
M: "God."

Z: "Mommy, who made this?" (pointing to his face)
Me: "Definitely your daddy." (he's a spitting image of Jason)

Z: "Who made this?" (pointing to his eyes)
Me: "Mmm. They look more like mine, so I made them."

Z: "Who made this?" (pointing to his nipple)
M: "That's all Daddy." (chuckle)

So it appears that he knows he came from Mommy & Daddy, so I wonder if he can put it together who made me....

M: "Zander, who made Mommy?"
Z: (Looking at me thinking real hard)  "I DID!!"
M: (Me, thinking real hard) "You know what......you sure did!"

It was only when I had children, that I realized why I was made...

Wintertime Blues...

Today it's cold. Yesterday was cold.....& tomorrow.... it will be cold.

In fact, here in WI it's probably going to be cold for another 4 months. (shiver)

I hate cold, & I hate winter. I still can't believe that we moved back here from beautiful, sun-loving Arizona. 

Today I really miss what I used to call home. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm thankful to live in a place where we don't have hurricanes, earth-quakes, monsoons, etc... and I know that wherever my family is, will always be home, no matter where....

but today, right now, I'm sad, & I just miss Arizona.

I miss the drives in the mountains to Canyon Lake and finding peace in God's beauty, stopping by Ghost town on the way back and picking up some fresh fugde.

I miss hiking at Pinnacle Peak and the view of it from our bedroom window...or driving home past the McDowell Mountains, & seeing the gorgeous Superstition Mountains.

I miss going to Carrabas, PF Changs, Rubios, & Sonic with my brother, Tracy & Jersie. I miss the Cheescake Factory too.

(03' Christmas dinner taken at Cheesecake Factory, yum)

I miss wearing flip-flops and driving in my Audi TT with the windows down on the 101.

(Goodbye Audi, Hello Mini-Van)

I miss taking road trips to Vegas with my beautiful,crazy friends...whom I miss too.

(Their motto: suck in and stick out! Oh those crazy girls!)

I miss going to "our spot" at Sedona and again, looking at God's amazing creation.

I miss the smell of the orange blossoms, the palm trees and cacti, and most of all, the mountains.

Oh how I miss those mountains!

Now, I'm going to find a nice cozy blanket, or child, and snuggle.

Maybe a road-trip is in store....

Thanks Santa!

Once again, Christmas came & went in the blink of an eye! McKenna & Zander had a great time making cookies for Santa & decorating the tree. The previous years they were still too little to partake in all of the festivities. Gagers managed to get into EVERYTHING, & the ornaments were no exception. I should have taken a before & after picture of our tree.

Before: Breakable ornaments hung delicately on the tree.

After: Broken ornaments thrown all over the ground.

We ended up having a tree that was bare for the first 3 feet that Gage could get his little hands on. The majority of the glass ornaments were taken down....at least the ones I was able to salvage, & replaced with Princess ornaments. There was no denying that a princess lived at the Bartel household.

I think that next year McKenna will have a tree of her own, seeing she has SO many princess ornaments of her very own.

The kids top 3 gifts :

McKenna: Barbie Townhouse, Kid Tough Digital Camera, Ariel Umbrella (which she actually used on Christmas because it was raining!)

Zander: Dinosaurs (& anything related), Box of Rocks (supposed to be a joke but he loved them!), Zhu-Zhu Pet

Gage: Huge bag of balls, Building Blocks, Playing with Daddy & his remote control helicopter.

Here's some pics from our Christmas Morning:

(Grandma Bartel made all the grand kids some PJ's)
Here's a pic of the "aftermath"....Jason putting the Barbie house together, while Gager's & McKenna helped out, Z playing with his Dinosaurs....& of course, me, taking pictures & videoing it all.

It's been really cold out lately, so we haven't been outside as much as we'd like to be. Yesterday it snowed the entire day (& previous night), so the kids & I went outside to play while Jason plowed the driveway. He plowed a path in the back yard to the swing set too. Snow suites made for a fun & fast ride down the slide!

Hopefully the weather will get at least tolerable to make a snow man....& I will post it then too!