Is January really almost over?!

Okay, so my life seems very eventful and crazy day in and day out, but I find that I have no pictures to go with all that craziness, so I'm going to post some pictures of Rubie - the Hamster. When I downloaded my last set of pictures to the computer, I found that Aleah had gotten hold of the camera and had taken about 35 pictures of her wonderful pet. Of course, Rubie was not a very cooperative model and most of the pictures were very blurry or of her backside.

Rubie has been with us since Halloween and has proven to be a very tough hamster. Aleah has made Elvis, Chinese New Year, & Mummy costumes for Rubie - it is very sad & funny at the same time. Rubie has survived Charlie throwing her off the bed twice, Cameron playing soccer with her (while she was in her ball & he kicked her across the room), and jumping from her cage multiple times (she has learned how to twist off the top and jumps from a 3 feet window ledge.). Yes, Rubie has made our home a much more interesting one.

Aleah & Aaron on New Years Eve.

I've already failed one of my New Year's Resolutions

Well, I said I was going to post every week and I find that I'm 2 weeks behind. I'll try to be better :).
The kids went out and made 'specialized' snowmen. Aleah made an Elvis Snowman for me; complete with pulled-up lip, black hair, and guitar. It was very creative.

Cam said his was a Spider-man Snowman - of course, everything he does is either Spider-man on Transformer themed.

Hand-free headsets have to be the best invention ever. My mom bought me one. It's completely fabulous. I can talk to people for hours and still do dishes, laundry, or whatever. Aaron is sick of it already.

My 33rd birthday was completely wonderful. The kids bought me paperclips and a battery tester - yes, that is what I asked for. I can never find a paperclip when I need one and we have batteries all over the house that I'm not sure if they are good or bad, so I wanted a tester to check them before I tossed them. Aaron also got me an ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen, bought Cafe Rio for dinner and made me Shirley Temples. I love birthdays!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We let Cam and Aleah stay up till Midnight, but they fell asleep. I woke them up a few minutes before 12 to have kisses and go to bed. Aleah woke-up enough to take this picture of Aaron and I. She kept saying "EWWW" the whole time - someday she's appreciate that her parents still like each other enough to kiss :).

More Christmas Pictures

We had a huge snow storm Christmas Night. You can barely see Aaron out there shoveling - um, yeah, he's in shorts - and we've had snow every other day since. The kids are loving it; I'm freezing.

We had our Akes Family Christmas Party on the 27th of Dec. My sister got me a Barbie Head. Long story, but the short version is that for about 3 years in my childhood, I would just look through the Sears and JCPenny Catalogs and dream of a Barbie Head. With 8 kids and little money, I had some fabulously inventive and fun Christmas gifts, but no Barbie Head. I can't believe she remembered that.

I made Cris a "Sisters" block. It's hard to see in this picture, but I made some for my friends and Mom-in-law. They were way fun and easy - got the idea from wonderful Jessie - and they sell at craft places for $15 & $20 - I should go into business :).

One of our Akes Family Traditions is Graham Cracker Houses. This year both my kids decided that houses were "So not cool". Cam made a Spidermobile.

Aleah didn't think she needed the Graham crackers at all. Aunt Cris had just shown her how to Knit and she was so excited that her artwork was a ball of yarn (the heap of chocolates in the left-hand corner of the plate), a partially knitted scarf (the read and green M&Ms in rows across the middle), and Knitting needles (the white frosting line across the M&Ms). She definitely gets points for creativeness. Oh, I was going to make a house with Charman, but we ended up "helping" the others and just eating way too much candy.