The Mysterious Tail Toy

Since Lyla has retired from her kitty-mommy days–her fir has really grown in and gone nuts. Being half Persian and half Maine Coon–that adds up to tons of awesome hair and a surprisingly fluffy tail.

Apparently, the extra fluff has even caught her by surprise. She’s been playing with this crazy new “toy” all afternoon–not realizing it’s… you know…attached.

I had to force myself not to laugh out loud when she pulled her own tail so hard that she almost flipped herself. The best part was when she looked all scandalized in my direction– like I had done something to her.

Lyla may be a little…ummm…slow on the uptake–so-to-speak, but she’ll save us a fortune on cat toys.

 

My Favorite Place

Black Bear Diner….

It’s official.

I’m deeply in love with you.

I always struggle with a full menu. You know…because if it all looks fabulous–how on earth could I possibly be expected to choose?!

I love ribs. I also love French toast. And then I really love salad.

The waitress helped by suggesting all three. Haha

What a smart girl.

To Find My Boy

Out of the blue–we got news that our Daney boy and his family would be in Las Vegas for about a week–there was only one thing to do…

ROADTRIP!!!

Awesome too that Lily & Beckham both had soccer games there that week as well. Double duty roadtrip! Wahoooo!

We made a quick stop at the Creamery–you know…

long enough to get and ice cream cone, and get our picture taken with  a cow. Heh, heh.

We drove, and drove and drove until the lights of the city came into view.

Now, honestly, none of us are particularly huge fans of Vegas. The whole place feels kinda creepy to tell the truth. But if my wandering Texas boy and his birdies are here then we’ll forge ahead!!

Ok, nowwww I feel better. Haha. Seriously though, it did make me happy to see the Trump hotel. So dang awesome.

Good old Nate found our hotel in no time and checked us in. Then all we had to do was wallllllllk to our rooms.

This place was so huge that there was an airport type moving walkway just in the nick of time!

Though I whined…I did not, in fact, die–as you can see.

Ahhhhhh….what a lovely room!! And what cute kids!

After a good night’s sleep, we were off to find my Texas boy!

We found them!!! Oh, it was so good to see Dane and Kortney, sweet little Merrick and Skylie and Linky.  I didn’t take the pictures that I should have because I was too busy hugging them all.

This breakfast joint was the meetup place for the rest of the family travelers!

I know that other than Dane’s family–we all live right by each other, but for some reason it was just so nice to sit there and look around at everyone. I kept thinking–“These are allllll mine.”

So, so good to see them again. And SO incredibly good to have all my family in one room– even if it was just for a little while.

And did I mention–the food here was great too! The pancakes were bigger than the plate!

My BLT looked positively dangerous!

It was scrumptious, although I had to dismantle it before I could eat it. Nobody’s mouth opens that big.

After that– some folks went shopping…

site seeing…

did some soccer-y stuff…

and caught the water show at the Bellagio. Believe it or not, I stayed in the car in the parking lot because it was just too much walking for me. Look at these little treasures, would you?

Mine. Mine. Mine.  Heh, heh.

I spent the last night at the soccer condo so that I could teach my class from there, Saturday morning.

The crazy boys stayed up half the night playing games. They laughed so much I thought someone would be sick.

We came home after two lovely days with all my kiddos together. I’m pretty sure that this is what Heaven is like.

My Heaven anyway.

 

Let It SNOW!!

Of course it was dry as a bone here–snow-wise for Christmas. Booooo. What is Mother Nature doing?!

I mean, seriously, we ordered snow for the big day but SOMEbody must have missed the memo…until January. Well, fine then.

At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I must say–Christmas snow, January snow… it’s all just incredibly beautiful and if I had my way–we’d have a gentle blizzard that would keep us all indoors for a week.

Sounds like heaven to me.

That’s my dream. A winter wonderland, right here in my own yard.

Even if it’s in January.

First Snow…men

With the very first real snowfall of the year, Rhen was over come with seasonal spirit and promptly went out and made an adorable little snow man. Perhaps this is better described as a snow-ball man–but no matter. We adore him, perched up on top of the car!!

When the family saw our little guy the photos of their snowy creations started flooding the family text group. Miss Chomp and Fluttershy with their frosty fellow–

so cute!!

Miss H with her gigantic snow lady. Check out that hat!!

K & L’s snow chick even has long, lovely hair! Awesome, awesome.

Even my crazy Dane sent in his contribution from 85 degree Texas.

Ohhhh, Dane!  HAAA!

Our silly snow didn’t last long–an hour or two, tops–but we’re pretty good at making the most of what we’ve got…rain or shine.

And loving every minute!