Washing 2008 Outta My Hair

I know I'm not the only one that 2008 did a number on for the worse. Thank goodness for Logan's arrival, finding Ashley's beautiful cello on Ebay and discovering Facebook to make the year happier.

Today I have taken several steps to close the books for 2008.

• I began our income tax return on Turbo Tax.
• First I extra conditioned my hair.
• While my hair continued to hydrate by being wrapped up in my towel, I cleaned the hardwood floor.
• It made me sick to not really be into Christmas so much so that I only watered the tree once a week. The tree looked horrible, was drooping and was very dry so I carefully put all the ornaments away. Ashley helped my take out the tree. I am usually sad to see the Christmas tree go but this year, I felt relieved when it was out at last.
• With the tree out, I swept up the needles and was thrilled to mop the floor.
• Sharing the last of the pictures I took for 2008 here is the last page to turn of my task list today. I feel relieved and am ready to get on with 2009

Ashley & Spencer at the Rainbow Christmas Party. They are both very competitive and do not tolerate losing. It is good that they are best friends.

Alex & Ashley peeking out of the snow fort they made with all the snow we had before Christmas.

We certainly had a white Christmas!

The week of Christmas we spent a bunch of time at Grammy's. Alex & I ran a bunch of errands while Ashley helped Grammy make yummy food for Christmas Eve.

Our niece Cora is so pretty in her red dress on Christsmas Eve.

While I wasn't full of my normal spirit & wasn't convinced that Christmas was really going to happen, it turned out to be a great Christmas. This is our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.

Ashley & Alex don't sleep on Christmas Eve. It is tradition that they watch ballets and Christmas movies in the middle of the night until they finally can't stand it to wake us up that it is Christmas! We taught them good to not ask for things for Christmas or you get crap. The less you ask for, the more you get. We also taught them that it is critical to Believe. They have both strategies down. Ashley came in & woke us up at 5am. I told Drew they won't be waking us up on Christmas morning forever so we should get up. We were up by 5:30am. It worked out good. The kids got Guitar Hero World Tour band game so we had time to play before going to Grandma & Grandpa's by 1pm. This picture is Drew rocking out on Christmas morning.

Ashley is excited they both got DS.

I love Webkinz. Fortunately the kids are still amuzed by them.

Our niece Logan with Elmo Live. Here Elmo asks for help getting up. I was happy that both Logan & Cora were amused by Elmo. Doesn't everyone love Elmo?

Our cat Sundae rarely gets recognition but she an amazing cat. She will be 16 in June. I think our younger dog Maddie has mellowed Sundae out and kept her young. I had this basket sitting on the bench in the kitchen empty. Sundae has learned to tolerate both of the dogs so much that she has made herself at home in this basket. I guess she is done with her days of living in the basement alone. Personally, I think she has come around so much because I rarely buy cat food anymore. Months ago, I had run out of her food & found her eatting dog food. She doesn't bark, she isn't sick and is much more friendly so I only buy cat food as a "treat".

New Years Eve day Ashley, Alex & I went down to visit Julie & Cora. Julie & I got to visit a little, the kids played, we had lunch & came home. It was a fun little playdate.

The Lambert Band Rocks! We had a marathon on New Years Eve. Alex & I are a little annoyed that Drew & Ashley are so good but we are catching on & getting better.

Good grief those are some good kids! Here they are for their traditional PopIts after midnight. for years they have thrown them on the sidewalk. This year they are old enough to 'play in the quiet, dark street'. They took an entire box & spread them out across our street so that when people drove by, the PopIts went off. It was fun & it was better than the real gun shots we could hear in the far away distance.

So there it is. 2008 is over. I love the cleanliness and simplicity of white in January. All that is missing is the bunches of white tulips I love to put in a vase on the mantle above a roaring fire with a glass of wine!

Happy New Year!

It's been a long time since I have updated this blog!

The cute kids in the picture below ~ Ashley & her only cousins at the time ~ Clint Goldsboro, Kaitlyn Gatton, Wyatt Jackson & Ashley Lambert.
This was taken at Grandma & Grandpa's house just a couple weeks after Ashley was born.
They have all grown up into great kids!

I have hogged the computer for hours now - there are 3 new posts (4 including this sentence).

Our Series of Pictures... be careful what you wish for, these are pretty sweet!

Can you identify all these little ones?

Drew & Ashley

Ashley 6 weeks old

1996 Tree Cutting

Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock


Drew & his little princess snug as a bug.

Ashley & Alex

Ashley 1 year, Alex 2 1/2 months old
Visiting Santa 1997

Ashley did not want to have anything to do with Santa.

Those are the shoes! The nubuck shoes I thought Ashley had to have. Alex's mocasins were from our trip to Colorado in 1996 before Ashley was born.

Daisy, Alex, Ashley, Tricia & Drew

Ashley 2 years, Alex 1 year, Daisy 6 months

1998 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

Visit with Santa 1998

Visit with Santa 1998

1998 Christmas in January

Ashley 3, Alex 2, Daisy 1 year old

1999 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

Visit with Santa 1999

Visit with Santa 1999

Ashley 4, Alex 3, Daisy 2

2000 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

2000 Visit with Santa at 'The Fishy Store' ~ where Santa lives ;)

Another visit with Santa in 2000.

They must have been really good

& Santa must have been really thirsty to have to visit the grocery store!

It is disturbing why we do not have a picture from 2001. It was a crazy Christmas season. The kids & I made star ornaments using wire and beads as a crafty patriotic gesture.

Ashley 5, Alex 4, Daisy 3

2001 Tree Cutting - I know we cut a tree at Grandpa's Tree Farm

Ashley 6, Alex 5, Daisy 4

2002 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

The year Grammy & Papa went with to cut a tree. Papa took this picture.

Ashley & Alex

2002 Andrew Cooke Magnet School

Winter Wonderland

January 2003, a great day for snow!

Ashley 7, Alex 6, Daisy 5

2003 Tree Cutting - Grandpa's Tree Farm, Woodstock, IL

At Grandpa's Tree Farm, the trees were $38. You gave them $40 and you got a $2 bill as change. When they started handing out singles as change, we looked for a new tree farm to go to.

Alex with Santa

2003 Andrew Cooke Magnet School Winter Wonderland

Ashley with Santa

2003 Andrew Cooke Magnet School Winter Wonderland

January 2004 Grammy's Christmas Party

Ashley 8, Alex 7, Daisy 6, Maddie 5 months old

2004 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Farm, Spring Grove, IL

Grammy went with & took this picture

Ashley & Alex Visit with Santa

2004 Andrew Cooke Magnet School Winter Wonderland

Ashley 9, Alex 8, Daisy 7, Maddie 1 1/2 years old

2005 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Farm, Spring Grove, IL

Ashley & Alex Visit with Santa

2005 Andrew Cooke Magnet Winter Wonderland

The year Ashley had the lead in the Nutcracker.

Ashley 10, Alex 9, Daisy 8, Maddie 3
2006 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Tree Farm, Spring Grove, IL

The first year the kids cut the tree down.

Ashley & Alex Visit Santa

2006 Andrew Cooke Magnet School Winter Wonderland

The year Alex had the lead, Papa Snowman in the 3rd Grade Play

Ashley 11, Alex 10

2007 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Tree Farm, Spring Grove, IL

The year we thought everything in our life was going to change.

Drew worked the day the kids & I cut the tree.

We ( I) were worried Drew was going to say the tree was too big. I ended up cutting a little much off & it ended up that it could have had less cut off to be just right.

Ashley & Alex New Year's Eve 2007

We got an awesome amount of snow that night & went out to make a snowman in the dark.

Ashley 12, Alex 11, Daisy 10, Maddie 5

2008 Tree Cutting - Richardson's Farm, Spring Grove, IL

As we all get older, this is still one of the best days of the year.

I am thankful for our Family and Friends

While I really loved being up north last Thanksgiving with our friends, the Hathorns, it was good to be with family this year.

Thanksgiving week began a week ago Friday when Drew & Alex got out of work and school to go up to Bill's to hunt deer. They were up there Friday and came home Tuesday night. They did not have a successful trip but the permits are good for the December hunt at well. Wednesday they took Daisy and Maddie out for a treat to hunt pheasant at Chain O Lakes State Park. The dogs had a great day & the guys made some awesome Greek lemon, phesant & rice soup. YUM!

While the guys were gone Ashley & I had a pretty busy weekend ourselves. Friday after school we had friends over for "Friday Afternoon Club" then we were off to rehearsal for Rainbow Official Visit.

Saturday morning we returned to Waukegan Masonic Temple for Raidant's Official Visit. Ashley is Drill Leader of the assembly now. She was an oustanding drill leader. I am very proud of her. As drill leader, she presents the American flag for the pledge and escorts people around for introductions. For OV there are a lot of introductions so she had a lot of floorwork.

Sunday we continued Rainbow events with pie making for a fundraiser. The adults and the girls made a total of 100 pies to sell at the Lake County Court House on Tuesday. We only worked on Sunday but it was fun.

Monday & Tuesday we went to school and enjoyed the Dancing With the Stars Finally without channel flipping.

Wednesday we went to Borders where Ashley got the books she needed to be in the Rebecca Caudill reading club at school. She has 4 books to read by sometime in January after which kids in the 'club' will create questions about the books, answer them and test each other. Eventually they will compete against students from the other schools in the district. Ashley all ready has 1 book read, a book report for Communications class written and has started the next book.

Thursday we picked up my mom and went to Grandma & Grandpas to enjoy the company of family, especially our sweet little nieces and for a great Thanksgiving feast.

Yesterday, I'm not sure what the heck we did. We did not participate in black Friday. We played games, watched football & just hung out.