Christmas 2007

I finally have gotten around to getting some pictures up! Here are some from Christmas.

Family portrait in front of the tree on Christmas Eve. Shannon and the kids went to Mass with the family, and I had to go to work.

The Ramsay Grandkids: Madeleine, Noah, and Maia

The Pucketts

Gramma and Grandpa with the grandkids.

Madeleine is so excited it's Christmas Eve!

Noah in his Christmas jammies.

Maia in her Christmas jammies with Daddy.

The tree on Christmas morning. It was our first Christmas at the Ramsay Villa. It was very nice to have so much room to spread out and be comfortable.

Madeleine's stocking (left) and Noah's stocking (right) were both cross-stitched by my mom. Madeleine's was sewn together by my grandmother in 2005, and we first used it for that Christmas. Deb Gross, a good friend of the family, made Noah's stocking for us this year.

Santa Baby Maia!

Maggie, Noah, Andy, and Maia on Christmas morning.

The next few pictures are us doing stockings, which ends up being a kind of free-for-all, especially now with the kids.

Noah and Daddy open a present. This is one of the coupl times Noah was interested in helping open presents, and actually fell asleep about halfway through.

Madeleine considered herself Official Unwrapping Supervisor.

After his nap, Noah was much more ready to play with the new toys.

Yay Christmas!

My New Year's Resolution:

GET ORGANIZED!

I'd put up pictures of my messy home, but I'm too embarrassed. Just know that it's really, really bad. Not dirty, much, really. Those two British chicks who clean homes on BBC America aren't going to bust in and start culturing my carpet for microbes and cleaning my furniture with hairspray. There's just stuff everywhere, and no good way or where to put it.

Yet.

I have resolved to get this house in shape. We will be able to store and access our hobby items easily. We will be able to park in the garage. We will be able to find our seasonally appropriate clothing quickly. I have decided to purchase one or two organizing tools with each round of big groceries (aka payday groceries) to help bust the clutter. Today, I bought a long wire shelf for the laundry room, a wall hanger for the iron and ironing board, and a pack of three large sized Space Bags. The ironing board hanger is already up and functioning. The shelf will go up in the next week. The Space Bags are for the children's outgrown clothes that are currently housed in diaper boxes, piled up in the garage and threatening to completely block our access to the rest of the crap in the garage. We are planning on clearing out the guest room and turning it into a room for the boy, which will help to clear out Madeleine's room and give each of them their own space. We are finding that Madeleine is needing a place to go and play with less than baby-proofed toys and games. We are also noticing that she really needs her own space to chill out for a few minutes once in a way, to ward off a full blown melty whiney tantrum.

When we get thing a little more under control, maybe I'll post pictures about our progress. We've got a ways to go, some more Space Bags and shelving units before we get to that point, though. I'm serious, we're in pretty bad shape, and it's going to take all year and then some.

Back from Christmas Break

I didn't really take a Christmas break from blogging, I just haven't gotten around to posting lately. I've got tons of pictures from December to post, I just haven't had the time to do it.

Stay tuned, I'll put some new stuff up soon. Currently, I'm watching our weird Missouri weather. We've had two days of 70 degree weather, topped off this afternoon with tornado watches and even a warning for us here in Callaway county. The sky looked very funny for a while, and then we got some hail and strong rain for about 20 minutes. We don't have a basement, but I was all ready to hustle the kids and the cat into our laundry room, which is our most interior room. (I swear every spring that our next home WILL have a basement). Things are much calmer now, but we're watching the next line of storms comming from the east.