new bulletin board

Okay, after looking at the bulletin board on my new desk for a couple days it was starting to bug me. So I changed it. What do you think? I like it so much better. :o)

my "all purpose" desk

About a month ago I found a desk on Craigslist that I knew would be perfect for my scrapbooking/cardmaking/sewing/crafting needs, it just needed a little work. :o) I wanted to add a back to it so I could have my most-used supplies at hand without taking up valuable surface space.

I finally found the time to finish it! I'm so excited to start using it. I'm still in the process of organizing all of my supplies and figuring out what goes into which drawers. But I don't mind. It's just nice to have an area of my own where I don't have to stress about taking up valuable family space. I guess I really have no excuse for not scrapbooking now!

of mice and kids

Last Wednesday we made a surprising discovery outside by the garage door--a little white mouse. I have no idea where the little thing came from. It was obviously not a wild mouse because of the coloring and it didn't scamper off when you got close to it. We were on our way out for the day and I honestly didn't expect to see it again. We do have cats in our neighborhood and we've had some really cold, wet weather lately.

So you can imagine how surprised we were to find it the next day... and the next... and the next! It just kept hanging out by the back door (it probably didn't hurt that the kids were leaving sunflower seeds and crackers for it!). By Saturday, I figured we needed to do something about it. I didn't want the kids to find a little dead white mouse in a few days, but I absolutely did not want to take care of it either. Thankfully, Shailey stepped in to rescue the poor thing. Somehow (without touching it, too) she coaxed it into an empty tissue box. I was able to contact our local animal shelter that said we could bring it in.

On our way to the shelter, I asked Shailey what she wanted to name the mouse since she rescued it. We started giving our own suggestions just assuming it was a boy mouse. Shailey said, "I think it's a girl mouse. She just doesn't have any babies yet." So we asked her what her name should be. "Elizabeth" she said. (For those of you who don't know, that's Shailey's middle name).

When we got to the animal shelter, the woman there was very friendly. They identified the little mouse as a young little girl mouse, so Shailey was right after all! And it sounded like there were other little mousey friends for Elizabeth to play with. Thank goodness for Shailey, our little mouse hero!

happy birthday shailey!

I can't believe she's already 6! How time flies!

She started off her day with a phone call from Cinderella (courtesy of Disney's Enchanted Calls). After that (and spending about an hour at school) we took Shailey to Disneyland. She got to pick out everything that we did. The boys were troopers. :o) We met Tinkerbell and her fairy friend, Fawn. We met Jasmine, Fairy Godmother and Cinderella. And we shopped in the most princessey places we could find. We got to see the new Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough (which scared Eli a little). We also took her to the Tortilla Factory in California Adventure where she got her own bag of yummy tortillas (they do that on your birthday--by the way, she ate the entire bag herself!). And we also went to see Turtle Talk with Crush where Crush talked to her for awhile. She was named "Shellin' Shailey" this time. It's always fun to go to that show. :o)

Since we had signed up for Disneyland's Birthday Club (and since we are already annual passholders) Shailey got a Birthday Fun Card (basically a gift card) in the amount of $59 to spend on whatever she wanted! She bought Princess Mickey Mouse ears and got her name stitched on the back, she bought a Tinker Bell play set, and being the sweet sister that she is she bought the boys swords. :o) She still has $14 left on the card. We thought it had to be all used up that day but after asking four different cast members (hey, we wanted to be positively sure!) they said it doesn't expire. So next time we go she can buy something else.

So aside from the fact that she threw up unexpectedly on our drive there (that's a whole other story), and we had to make a stop at Target to buy a new outfit for her, she had a great day! You can see some of the fun that we had while we were there!

christmas in oregon

Okay, I'm finally getting around to this post. I think I've put it off long enough! :o) Keep in mind that I don't have all of my pictures yet. So all of my pictures from Grandma Berta's are on another camera. So this will just be a few pictures to highlight our trip up to Oregon.

Making Cookies at Mom and Dad's

Shailey's First Lost Tooth (it's hard to see it in her hand but it's there.)

Graham Cracker Houses (where more candy is eaten than decorated with!)

(Notice all the empty Tootsie Roll wrappers, yet there doesn't seem to be any on her house. Hmm...)

Meeting Santa

Christmas Morning

Dad's and Theresa's House

And lastly, a funny video of Eli playing the guitar. Man he's good! :o) I will post the other pictures when I get them.

the nutcracker

Shailey had another dance recital on Monday night. They danced to music from the Nutcracker. It was very cute. :o) Her group was the candy cane group so everyone tried to dress up their dance outfits to go with that theme. We decided to do pink candy canes since her dance outfit was already pink. The first picture is right before the performance. The second is a picture of Shailey, Avie (on the left, who is in Shailey's class at church), and Dannie (on the right who is Avie's cousin). All the girls did such a great job. And they're so cute!

I included a couple of videos of the performance. You can watch them if you'd like. Sorry it's so shaky. They were taken on our little digital camera so the slightest movement looks like an earthquake! If you look closely you can spot Shailey dancing around. She's usually in the back but she's wearing a bright pink top and a light pink skirt (if you hadn't already notived from the pictures!). Also, in the second video all the girls take turns leaping across the stage so you can see her a little better. Enjoy! :o)

christmas decorations!

I finally finished setting up my Christmas decorations. It's not much, but for our little house it's just enough. :o) I decorated the front porch, too, but I don't have a picture of it yet. I usually do blue and silver ornaments on the tree but decided to do something a little more festive this year. Hope all your decorations are coming along nicely!