Spring Finally Arrived

(Even though its only for a few days. By next week it'll be in the 30's again)

Yesterday was the warmest day of the year so far, not too shabby since its only the first week of March. The high in KC was 81 degrees, so we decided to take Lily to the park before dinner. I've never seen the park so crowded. Lots of people were feeding the ducks and geese, which Lily observed from a safe distance. She loves animals, loves to say what they are, and make whatever noise they make but heaven forbid they get with in licking distance of her. We met a nice little 4 lb fully grown Chihuahua named Sam, which Lily refused to pet, even though he was smaller than our cats. We must have done a good job of working up Lily's appetite because when we got home she actually ate some chicken that wasn't from Chic*Fil*A. And broccoli, with cheese! It was a banner day for her. We plan on going to the park again tonight, its only 70 here today but not windy so it feels perfect.

***Please forgive the pictures, we forgot the camera, so I took these with a piddly camera phone***

Playing in the Snow

I believe this is Lillian's first time actually playing in the snow. She has seen it several times, but was always too small! We were out less than 15 minutes; It was pretty cold today! Afterwards we had hot chocolate which she absolutely devoured!

Yep, It's Cold!

This is what happens when you leave a case of pop in a cold sun-room.
Luckily it was the only one to explode...

Our Christmas Lights

FINALLY! Here are some pictures of our Christmas lights this holiday
season! I am cross-posting them to my business blog
(JamesWearPhotography.blogspot.com), our family blog
(TheWearFamily.blogspot.com), as well as my Facebook page! Please leave
comments; let us know what you think! We had to start from scratch this
year, and we are kind of burnt out by the whole Christmas light thing.
But we do love putting them up each year. And by WE, I mean ME up on a
ladder in the freezing cold while Lily and Kristin relax with a mug of
hot chocolate! It's OK though, as they took care of most of the indoor
decorating, which I find to be too tedious. My job is to put up the
lights and carry in the prickly Christmas tree!

Fun, Productive Day

I (James) got up at 4:45 this morning, and walked 3 miles on the treadmill. Then cooked omeletes for the fam. Kicked Kristin out the door for an hour of Lily-time, then off to the dentist for a filling (which was actually painless. He used an air drill and a light-cured enamel). Dropped some stuff off at Kristin's work, then back home for 2 hours of power cleaning. Lily helped put away the dishes. Next: Laundry, spot-bot some coffee-stains and clean bedroom. Then we ran around playing in the living room as you can see. Now we are getting ready for lunch. This afternoon I plan to get some business stuff done on the computer while Lily naps, then cook dinner and go check on good ol' Boy Scout Troop 93 this evening. Amazing how much you can get done if you schedule your time (even free time!). If I can keep this up I will quickly get skinny AND rich, or die an early death, one or the other!

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses...

OK so the Christmas lights were partially done since before Thanksgiving, but the last two weekends we have been out of town, first to St. Louis to visit Kristin's parents (and grandparents and sister and aunt) for thanksgiving, and then last weekend to Branson with James's parents to see the lights at Silver Dollar City.

We enjoyed a nice long visit with Kristin's parents (They say fish and houseguests start to stink after 3 days. We were there for 5. You do the math.) Stuffed myself silly before, during and after Thanksgiving dinner. I am proud of Kristin; She was pretty good and managed to stay on her diet and still enjoy herslf! As mentioned below Kristin and her sister Kim went Wedding Dress shopping. Apparently they were successful

Silver Dollar City was nice as usual (supposedly their biggest Christmas light show ever, but when they have 4,000,000 lights, who is going to notice 4,000,001? :-) ) Of course we went to see their stage version of "A Christmas Carol" and we got to ride a few rides. They actually have quite a nice selection of roller-coasters now; we rode Wildfire (5 loop-de-loops) and The Giant Swing, (which is kind of like the Viking Boat on Crack). It was a whole new experience while hauling an 18-month around; let me tell you...  I had to stand in the back of the auditorium with her during the play; she wasn't being naughty or really fussy, just very fidgety and talkative. Our visit was a little shorter than usual due to the Wear-a-van breaking down. And for some reason there are no services shops open on the weekend, even in a tourist destination like Branson! So we had to drive 10 miles to the rent-a-car place, another 10 miles to the nearest Ford dealer, drop the van off, and then go to breakfast and the amusement park. Lily enjoyed herslf and enjoyed the pretty lights, and parts of the musical she really liked. Plus she got to be bundled up warm and pushed around all day sleeping most of the time which sure sounded good to me! Sunday we crammed all out stuff into the rented brand-new Dodge Journey, which is a lot smaller than the full-size conversion van!

But I digress... So anyway back to OUR Christmas lights, I got them finished today, in the snow... As Kristin mentioned earlier we have several burnt-out strands that we bought just last year, but when I took a closer look, most of them worked at least 50% or 75%. So I just overlapped the net-lights that worked with the ones that didn't and somehow managed to get full shubbery coverage. So I PROMISE that pictures are coming soon, but Kristin's Holiday Party for work is tomorrow night at our house, and I am not going outside any more than I have too today, it's been snowing like crazy! So of course, more excuses...

Here are some Branson pics to tide you over:

The sunrise view from our condo:
 

And some Christmas lights at Silver Dollar City:



And finally, my "artistic" shot of the trip:

Where are the pictures?

Yeah, so not totally done with the lights still. We got the new blue and white icicles up, and the columns done, and the two pine trees out front, and the two baby trees at the porch. But we had a snag in the net lights department and those boogers are expensive, so we are trying to repair last years. Only have half the lights lit, because we need the nets to connect everything together. But we are headed to Branson for some Silver Dollar City Fun this weekend. I'm off tomorrow, we might be able to get some of the net lights out by then. Either way though, we have to get it done ASAP. I am hosting my work Christmas party here at Casa de Wear on the 10th. I want the house to be festive, which means I still need to put garland on the inside stair banisters, add lights, pick out a tree, pay for a tree, trim a tree...you get the picture. All while baking a desert for a larger work Pot-Luck on Tuesday, and making 2 appetizers, green bean casserole and another desert for Wednesday. Thank goodness for Honeybaked Ham.

We have some pictures from last weekends Thanksgiving visit with my family in St Louis. Lily had a ball and got lots of attention, being the only grand baby and all will do that!

I was able to go with my sister wedding dress shopping and her dress is lovely, but shush. Can't talk about it here.

Also went to a Holiday party at my future brother in law's parents. She goes all out with Christmas decor, but so tasteful. And her appetizers were fabulous, plus she makes her own wine coolers with whine, 7-up, orange, lemon and lime slices. Fun times were had by all. Except Lily, she had to stay at home with the baby whisperer.

My mom and I went Black Friday shopping. Check out my other blog if you want to hear all about my hatred for Wal-Mart and my love for Target.

We'll post pictures when we return from Branson.