It has been so long since I've Xanga-ed, that Xanga didn't even recognize me anymore. It said, "What?! You are actually posting something? This is a red letter day!" Na, nothing special. Just a Wednesday evening, waiting for Daddy to come home for dinner and wanting to catch the rest of the blogging world up with what's been going on in the Stout house.

Christmas was a lovely and festive time here in our new house. "The New House" is still what Rachel calls it. We had both family Christmases here. My mom's side was the three of us, my parents, brother, Gran and Uncle Ken. My dad's side was about 20 more than that. But somehow we all fit. The dad of the Brummel Christmas was the Saturday it was 65 degrees. I shut the heat completely off and we even opened the slider a bit and some window. It was wonderful. Except for the mud part, but no one got stuck and the mud stayed outside.  I think minus dinnertime, the Wii was on the whole time. The highlight of the Brummel Wii Games was my Aunt Sue and Uncle Mike boxing each other. That was some funny stuff.

Rachel loved Christmas. It was a Thomas the Train filled Christmas for her. She got lots of tracks and some new engines and a Thomas pillow, Thomas DVD set, Thomas plate and cup set... Lots and lots and lots of Thomas. Forget the dolls! Thomas is her best friend! She loves building tracks with Daddy. She is really into reading books now too. Some times I find her on the couch with a pile of books just reading them to herself. And she doesn't whip through the pages at lightening speed like she used to. She will turn each page slowly and sometimes even say parts of the book out loud. We try and go to the library once every week or two. Our library has a nice kids play area which she loves and holy moly, there are a million kids books these days! I don't remember there being such a selection back in my day! But she always picks out the same ones- Thomas or Franklin the Turtle. We did branch out and get "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" though last week. Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum...

I enjoyed the Christmas break. You know, short work weeks, family coming over, cookies and goodies and general festivness. But boy, is it HARD to get back into the swing of a normal schedule. I think I'm finally there, but it sure took a while. I took all my Christmas stuff down yesterday minus the tree. I need Nathan's help with the tree and he's been gone every weekend for the past few. So it looks like next weekend.... It sure is nice to be in a place of our own. I know the housework will get old eventually, but still, I enjoy it. I enjoy doing laundry in my nice cheery laundry room and putting clothes away in a closet where there is acutally space to hang things. I enjoy vacuuming the new carpet and sweeping the floors that I know I can get clean. I don't really enjoy cleaning the toilets, but I like the fact that the toilet looks new and shiny when I get done, instead of our old grungy one that just looked plain gross. Same goes for our sinks and shower. I'm very thankful. God is good!

A couple weekends ago, my dad's Corvette was down at the Auto Show downtown. He wanted me to bring Rachel down so that he could show her off as well as the car. I had some assignments at the movie theater, so my parents met me downtown. I was getting off the highway off of I-196 and all of a sudden Rachel says, "Ooohhh!! Mommy look!" I said, "What? What am I looking at?" She said, "Look at all the castles, Mommy!" She was referring to the big buildings. I suppose, having never been downtown, the giant buildings looked very much like castles. I thought it was the most precious thing. We'll have to take her downtown this summer maybe so she can walk around and see the castles. Some other cute things she has said... I laid down with her on the couch while she was watching TV one morning and she said, "Go, mommy. Go do dishes now." Excuse me...  She also will say to me, "Mommy, I have a question for you." I say, "OK, what is your question?" She will reply, "My question is... Pizza!" Not quite a question.... When I am sweeping the floor she will say, "Oooh! Thank you, Mommy!" I say, "For what?" "Thank you for sweeping my floor!" At least I am appreciated for it, right?!

Well, that's pretty much the update. This weekend is Girl's Night. Nathan will be at the quiz meet and so I have invited the girls over for a fun-filled, stress free night to just hang out and do whatever. I'm SO excited! And next week is the last week of January which means that it will soon be February. Which means that it HAS to warm up! Right?!?!

Finding the Christmas Pig with Grandpa.

Don't take my picture while I'm bundled!


Messy face!


Ah ha! There is the child and the missing Apple Jacks!