House O' Sullivans

On Christmas Day, Kristen (my older sister, that is), brought over her beloved dog--Marley.  Honestly, I was not looking forward to watching him for a week while Kristen and her family lived it up in San Diego (along with Newel and my parents).  Honestly!  A house full of hair.  Muddy footprints.  MORE slobber on the couch.  (My kids provide a bit of their own already.)  And POOP!  All over the backyard!  Where my kids run and play!  Where I run and play!! But, I love my sister, and she and her family love that dog.  So we agreed to watch him.  Although we visit Kristen often enough, I've never noticed Hallee paying any special attention to Marley, but when he moved in for a week, Hal fell in LOVE.  She cuddled, snuggled, and talked to that dog constantly.  Casey and I have actually CONSIDERED getting her a puppy for her upcoming birthday.  Honestly!!!  What are we thinking?  Hallee is our firebal...

Check out Sophie's dazzling performance in this vintage clip.  (Soph was 2 at the time.)  I just saw this a few days ago and had a good laugh. 

So since Christmas Eve was Saturday night, it was bath night at the Sullivans.  The girls wanted me to add some bubble bath to their water and finding none, I dumped in a bit of baby oil, telling them that it would make their skin delightfully moist and supple.  What I didn't consider, was the fact that those girls lay down in the water.  Their hair acted like a big mops, soaking up all of that baby oil like a duck in an oil slick.  Exxon and Valdez are Soph and Hal's new nicknames.  Anyway, check out their look AFTER a night of drying on their pillows.  It still looks totally wet and stringy.  Oh my!  Another washing didn't really help.  The third washing (with dish detergent) helped, but it's still not back to normal. Santa brought Soph and Hal each a pink scooter and a doll.  Zeke checks out his minuscule stocking.  Zeke FINALLY has some boy toys--trains from Newel and Karen and some cars and a race track from Sa...

Casey spent the better part of Christmas Eve day carving this piece of slate for Mike's recently married brother.  He finished just before we packed up to go to the Sullivan homestead in South Jordan for the annual barn nativity.  (Except this year festivities unfolded in the front yard.)  Emory, Holly, and I broke out our violins this year.  Luckily my mittens had holes in all the right places to play outside in the bitter cold. Sophie and Hallee were angels and Zeke was a sheep, although he looks more like the Pillsbury Dough Boy in his puffy snow suit.  If you look CLOSELY you'll spot his little sheep ears atop that sweet little head.  The mad scene after the nativity in the front yard. The girls had to hang their stockings on what's left where we USED to have a fireplace.  Basically some bricks in a hole in our wall. Sophie wrote a note to Santa informing him of the names of the children living in our home, just in case he f...

So today we spent the ENTIRE day with wonderful friends and family.  As soon as the kids woke up and we got everyone dressed, we went to our friend Natalie's house for a bagel and fruit breakfast.  Our dear friends, Sarah, Don and Carlynn, and the Sundbergs were there, among others.  We hustled home just in time to meet my Uncle Danny (my Dad's younger brother) and Aunt Leslie and kids Stephanie (+ husband Jason) and Sam in tow, wandering up Best Avenue in search of our house.  They drove down from Washington state yesterday and Sam flew in from San Diego this morning.  We felt REALLY LUCKY to get a special visit from them.  I invited the siblings over for the fun.  Mary came with her kids and Kristen came with hers.  We spent the morning and afternoon talking, LAUGHING, and eating.  I seriously have not laughed as hard as I did today in as long as I can remember.  The laughing started after Uncle Danny sorted th...