Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Page family!

A Florida weekend

We took a quick trip down to FL in June, for Rich's cousin wedding.  Jessica was a beautiful bride and we are so happy she has found a wonderful husband!

 Of course, the highlight of any FL trip is a chance to spend time with Andrew.  He is growing up too fast!

We brought Chase home with us, for a week, and had a great time!  I love spending time with my nieces and nephews...it does this Aunt's heart good!  The kids built a fort in the car, on the trip home.

 My mom and I took Kalee & Chase tubing again this year.  We had a great time and I LOVE floating down the river with Chase.  He tells me all kinds of 'facts' about the river, and the rocks, and the sky, and the trees, etc.  It is very informational :) and I love seeing how his mind is working!

 The worst part of the trip home was a call from my dad, saying that Jasper had been hit by a car!  Kalee and I were a mess the last half of the trip...Thankfully, all is well!  Jasper looked pretty rough when we finally made it home ~ he was HAPPY to see us walk through the door.  After a quick trip back to the emergency vet for another pain shot he settled down for the night.  I took him to our regular vet the next morning and after some x-rays she let me know that he was one lucky dog!  He had to suffer through 6 weeks of crate rest and NO playing, but he/we survived!  The pic below shows Midnight trying desperately to play with Jasper...but he wanted nothing to do with playing for about a week after the accident!

 He had some nasty road rash on his legs and his chin, and all kinds of little cuts everywhere...

 I snapped this picture after putting some cream on his road rash - he hated the cream and would pout after I put it on...I couldn't resist taking this picture, especially since he shoved  his snout under the blanket!

 A few weeks after the accident I took him outside to sit in the grass for a bit while Rich mowed the yard.  While we were outside my mom drove up the driveway - Jasper couldn't get close enough to me and far enough away from the car.  I would like to say that he learned his lesson, but he's pretty stubborn! 

Spacers!

Kalee sure likes to start things early...and following that trend is Braces! I can't believe my baby is getting so big! Oh, and someone really should have told me how expensive it is to have a kid! :)

Kalee was SO excited about the idea of braces and has bugged me about getting her spacers put in since the day we first went to see the orthodontist last October for a consult. The day FINALLY arrived, in June, for the spacers to be put in. Here are a few pics of my cute kiddo, on that day...

Still excited about the idea...
Not so sure about it, now! I told her to be careful what she wished for!

A few weeks later we went back and had an appliance put in her mouth, called a Herbst Expander. That was fun...ok, not so much. She actually cried during that visit - it did look quite painful. The appliance was MUCH bigger than we thought and didn't sit as close to the roof of her mouth as I thought it would, so it was pretty funny watching her try to figure out how to talk and swallow (we heard a LOT of slurping and sucking up of saliva those first few days/weeks)!

We went to McDonald's on our way home and she got a milk shake and a small fry. She was quite freaked out when she realized that she couldn't eat the french fries! But, all is well with the world now, as she has figured out how to eat (although we still hear the slurping sometimes). :)

The actual braces are supposed to be applied on October 3rd. She's not sure if she should be excited or scared!

a GREAT time with Family!

All of Rich's siblings and his mom were in town this weekend and we had a wonderful time visiting. I really was the happiest Aunt in the world - I so love my niece and nephews (and my bro and sista-in-law's). I am EXHAUSTED today, but it was so worth it!

We spent a lot of time outside - the weather was beautiful most of the time. The kids enjoyed playing in the kiddie pool, we went to the community pool another afternoon, the boys made a potato gun and took aim at each other and set up a RC Car racing course. Fun times!

Charley was the slide 'dare-devil'! She went down the slide every way she could think of!

Kalee spent the weekend loving on Colton...she was amazing with him. She enjoyed every second.

Colton is such a smiley baby! He flirted with us all weekend, and we loved it!

Beautiful Charley - she is such a joy!

A pic of all the cousins. Always fun trying to get a pic of them together!

Aaron, enjoying his promised 'after the picture' cookie! Bribery works...every time (ok, almost everytime!)

My beautiful Kalee! She is growing up toooooooo fast!

Charley, loving on Andrew...

My turn to love on Andrew. Such sweet times. Love it!Betsy took a picture of the 3 of us...I think it came out great!

A pic of the siblings...the boys are doing what they do best...being ornery! Crystal keeps them in line, though!

A pic of all of us...it came out a little crooked, since Betsy had to set it up on her car. We'll take it though, since the boys were being ornery, again, about the fact that we wanted a pic to commemorate the weekend! After all, it's not that often that we all get to be together!

A little bit of decorating with Shellie!

The Hanley's came up for a visit this week and Shellie and I did what Shellie does best...decorating my house! :) My spare bedroom is now beautimus...just a couple more things and it will be complete - but that will have to wait until the next trip. The dining room, however, is now complete...finally! It's been almost 2 years, but we got there! I love it!

Happy Birthday Kalee Brooke!

I still can't believe my baby is 9! We had a lot of fun celebrating Kalee's birthday this year...she's so much fun to spoil! :) We spotted this watch for her when we were at a party for another little girl...she REALLY wanted it, so we thought we would surprise her and get it for her birthday! She was also THRILLED to receive her first Georgia sweatshirt...

Papa and Nana were being sneaky using Kalee's new..... CAMERA! Again, she was surprised and thrilled!

I love this picture of Kalee...her face says "no way...no way..."

because she realizes she is unwrapping a skate board! LOVE her expressions, for sure!

Kalee's party with her friends was the weekend after her birthday. It warmed my heart to see Kalee playing with her friends! So much fun to be a kid! :)

My mom came down and helped me and the girls with their birthday craft. I think all the girls enjoyed making their little purses...

Happy Birthday!

The girls...Elizabeth, Ali, Julia and Kalee

Grammie T sent Kalee a sled dog for her American Girl. The sled will come at a later date - it's back ordered until April! No worries, Kalee was so excited that she said "I don't mind...I can wait!" Sweet girl!

Such a WONDERFUL Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas with my family the weekend before we left for Pennsylvania. So much fun! We played a round of Scrabble while Rich and gram watched the end of the Colts game.

Kalee couldn't wait to open presents, of course!

And the present of the day (well, all of Christmas actually) was Silly Time (a silly band watch), from Grammie. Kalee was THRILLED when she opened the present and jumped up to give Grammie a hug.

Gram carefully opened her presents, so as not to disrupt Daisy. Daisy certainly has the life...I got my momma a new cardigan that I really wanted to keep!We all chipped in and gave my Dad a new set of golf clubs. He was shocked and very excited! :)

And of course, we had our DELICIOUS Lasagne for dinner. It was so good!

We left for Pennsylvania the Wednesday before Christmas. Crystal, Kelly and Charley also drove up and we went straight to Mike and Liisa's so I could snuggle my new nephew!!! Oh, and see Mike, Liisa and Aaron, too! :)

On Thursday, Rich's Uncle Dale took us on a hay ride to pick out our Christmas tree. It was COLD, but Kalee and Charley had an abolute blast on the ride.Our plan was to go pick a nice, small 5 foot tree...but then we found this beautiful 9 ft tree. It was meant to be - it fit perfectly!The kiddo's watching Grammie T pop popcorn on the wood stove...and then we strung it to decorate the tree! That was an experience! When I was little, we spent a Christmas at my Great-Grandma's farm in West Virginia. I don't remember much, but I do remember cutting down a real tree and stringing popcorn for decoration. I wanted Kalee to have some of those memories and we definitely had fun making them! Kalee, loving on Colton.and making snowflake decorations for the tree. This is another memory of mine - I think she enjoyed making the snowflakes! (What I definitely DID NOT realize is how much work goes into making memories...stringing the popcorn was a chore and prepping the snowflakes for glitter was work, too! Oh well, it was worth it!)Our finished tree! It was special, for sure. We all got tired of stringing popcorn and decided that whatever we had completed is what was going to make it on the tree! Good times!Santa Claus, aka Uncle Dale, stopped by on Christmas eve. Kalee thought it was great, but Charley and Aaron weren't so sure!I had gotten matching pajamas for Kalee and Charley - and they were so stinkin' cute! Aaron and Colton's pajamas were similar and sure made for an adorable picture! Opening presents on Christmas day was so enjoyable - I loved watching the kids! Aunt Liisa gave Kalee a super cute ornament with her name on it. Uncle Richie and Daddy (Mikie) setting up Aaron's new train set. I hope it is hours of fun for Aaron and helps Liisa get little breaks! :)Kalee and Aaron in their sweaters from Aunt Betsy and Uncle Stevie. Kalee, trying out her new roller blades! It was so cold, so we took turns going outside with her for a few minutes at a time! I don't think she felt the cold at all...

We didn't have a white Christmas, but it finally made its way to us the night after Christmas. Kalee made a few quick trips outside to play in it, after dark.

Rich's mom lives in his great-grandparents house, which is a 1920s Sears kit home. There is no insulation in the walls and it isn't sealed up too well, in general! The evening and day of the snowstorm the wind was gusting around 50 miles per hour...which meant the snow found it's way through the storm window and the regular window...and floated onto Rich's head throughout the night! He was a little grouchy when he woke up that morning! :)

It was sooooooo cold the day after the snow storm but the girls could not wait to go out and play in the snow. Crystal figured that Charley wouldn't make it 2 minutes out in the wind and she was right!

She was right! Kalee, on the other hand, stayed outside for HOURS! Thank goodness for snow pants and boots! It helped that Daddy and Uncle Mike were outside, too, and that there was a SNOWMOBILE! Kalee thought that was great!

So COLD!!!!!

A pic of the house.

Crystal finally agreed to leave the warmth of the house to take a ride on the snowmobile!

Kalee had a blast playing on the frozen pond. It made mommy a little nervous, but Rich assured me that the ice was at least 7-10 inches thick and that all was ok!

Uncle Kelly had brought up walkie talkies that we used while we were driving up from Georgia. He sent one with Kalee when we went back to the pond and she had a blast updating him with her every move. She was dancing on the ice, rolling on the ice, slipping on the ice, etc...and he got a blow by blow update!

Teresa was going to surprise us all with a dog sledding tour, but the snow messed up her plan! When there is no snow they run the sleds on wheels...but there was too much snow to use the wheels (wouldn't be able to brake) and there wasn't enough snow to run the sleds on ski's. So...we got to meet the dogs, instead!

Kalee thought the dogs were great...and they liked her, too. So much so, that one of them peed on her while she was petting him! EEEEEK! She took it like a champ, though! Again, thank goodness for the waterproof snowsuit!

Such beautiful dogs...

I love being around my sister-in-law's!

Kalee enjoyed being outside MUCH more on this day. The wind was finally gone and she was plenty warm!

The whole gang... It was such a wonderful trip and I am so glad that we got to spend time together. We had lots of discussions trying to convince Mike and Liisa to move south...we'll see what happens!