More December

Okay, so I uploaded the pictures off my camera so I could do the first new post of the 2013 year, and, oops, there were still of a few days of December on there that didn't make it into my last post. So, here is my very, very last post for 2012. I think. ;o)

Normally, our cat Calvin has dried food out in the garage, but the other day I gave him a rare treat of canned food (rare because all he does it lick a bit of the gravy and then I have to throw the rest away!). I told the kids not to "bug him" while he ate. Jake did not follow my directions very well. :)

Late that evening, I was folding laundry and watching a movie when Abby came into the living room. She was having trouble sleeping, so we snuggled, giggled and pet the cat together for awhile. It was a sweet few minutes with my sweet daughter.

On New Year's Day, I took the kids over to show them my sister Debbie's new house. We ended up babysitting Aiden for a bit while she ran to some stores. 

The kids were pretty thrilled when the garbage truck came by. Although this is an exciting weekly occurrence at our house, they got a new experience getting to watch the action from the second floor. 

The picture below is horribly blurry, but I had about .2 seconds to take it before Aiden crawled off and it was too cute not to include.

Later that evening, Abby and I decided to make some cornflake Christmas swags that we'd never gotten around to making for Christmas. Her job was to put the red hots on before the marshmallow mixture cooled, and she took great pride in it...I laughed when she went to get her toy princess camera to "take a picture." Like mother, like daughter. :)

At the last minute, we invited my parents over for an evening of games to ring in the New Year. Jake made it until about 10pm, Ben until 11pm, and Abby was happy and excited to stay up past midnight and won several hands of Uno. And there's two more ways she's like her mama: she loves games and she's a nightowl. :)