Out With the Old in With the New

Before

After

BeforeAfter

So 2010 has already brought quite a few changes. Well, I guess the truck we actually brought before Christmas but that's okay. It had quite a few repairs right after we bought it so Neal really didn't get to drive it a lot until it got fixed and that was pretty close to after the new year.
So the vehicles were bought out of necessity for the most part. Neal totaled the white Honda which was actually a blessing. He wasn't hurt and it wasn't his fault but the accident totaled the car which got us a lot more money from the insurance company then we ever would have got if we would have tried to sell it on our own. And now Neal has the truck he has been wanting for quite some time.
Right after Christmas we had the van looked at because we knew it had some leaks. We found out there were about 3 seperate leaks and the repairs were going to be well over $1000. We decided we didn't want to deal with the hastle of fixing the van anymore. Plus, with its mileage and age we knew it wasn't worth a whole lot more then what it would cost to fix. I'm so excited about our new van. It has been my dream to own a Honda Odysessy. I love it, love it, love it! I couldn't be more happy about it except, of course, the payment. Did I mention how much I love it? Neal is such a good husband for humoring me on this one. He tried to convince me to look at other models but I just couldn't do it. He eventually gave in. It has so many bells and whistles in comparison to the old van. When I tell people about them they tell me that's pretty standard in most cars but to me I feel like I am driving a fancy sports car or something. I guess I didn't know what I was missing until now. I also didn't know how to work a lot of the features. Like, did you know that the break has to be pressed in order to put most vehicles into gear or that there is a button that will lock the window in the back and passanger side so that the kids can't mess with it? Apparently, I didn't know these things. I was stuck at the mailbox for about 15 minutes because I couldn't get the van to go into gear and another time my poor children had to cover themselves as best the could with their coats and hoods on as we drove on highway 6 going about 60 mph with all the windows completely down and it snowing outside. Good thing Neal knows about these things or we would be in major trouble.

Crazy Alice

This is her latest. She loves to take the vents off and put her feet in the hole. She especially likes to do this when the warm air is blowing out. Yes, I know this is a dangerous sport but I'm not sure how to get her to stop. She accidently fell in face first a while back and that wasn't too fun. It did detour her for awhile but she must have forgotten all about that incident because she is back at it.
In other news, Alice started walking. She was taking steps for quite awhile but didn't seem to really want to do it a lot until just after the new year. I guess she changed her mind at that point and decided 2010 needed to be seen on two feet instead of on all fours.
She has also become quite bossy with the new year. She can't really say much except for Mama and Dada but she is very vocal nonetheless. I'm sure it is a necessity with three older brothers. She yells all the time and she especially yells if she sees one of her brothers sitting on my lap or frankly just sitting too close to me. She will come right over and try and push the said brother away. The other day she used all of her body weight in order to have them move. The boys don't think it is as funny as we do.

Alice's Christmas Dress

Okay. So I really wanted to post a picture of my little creation. I'm quite proud of the end result or maybe I am proud of the fact that I didn't give up and throw the whole thing in the garbage and just buy a dress at the store. I thought it would be fun to make a dress for Ali. It was my first attempt at a dress for her not my first attempt ever making a dress. The last time I think I made a dress was probably when Neal's sister Kara got married. (Let's see; I guess that was over four years ago. ) Anyway, I must really be losing my memory because I forgot a lot. I ended up doing almost everything at least twice. So I guess you can imagine it took awhile. I'm just glad I didn't decide to do it last minute like I usually do things. I'll have to actually take a picture of her in it now to prove that it fits and looks pretty cute on. We will have to see if I attempt a project like this again next year.

Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve this year we decided to make homemade pizza. We let the boys each make their own.
We later had a little Christmas program where each person read or told a story about Christmas. We also sang lot of Christmas songs. We then all got to open a present from me. I decided to make everyone PJs this year including me. This the first year in our marriage that I have made myself pajama pants. Tanner and Josh helped me pick out the material this year.



After talking to Neal's family on Skype we ended the night by frosting some sugar cookies so we could leave a few for Santa. We also left some carrots for the reindeer.