Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!
We have had a very fun and busy morning!! The children woke up at 4:45 am... and even thought they begged and pleaded, we made them wait until 6 am to open their presents.
That didn't keep them from rummaging through their stockings, or sizing up their presents though!
They were super excited, which really makes Christmas fun. Christmas through the eyes of a child is really the best way to experience it.
We made the kids wear the elf hats while opening their gifts!! They agreed of course just so they could get their loot! But I think they look adorable.
Opening presents probably took all of a half hour! We just let them rip through their gifts and I stand there and take pictures.
And when they're done, Art and I exchange gifts off to the side while the kids open practically everything they got!
Santa was very generous at our house, and I hope he was at your house too!
We have a busy day of visiting and partying ahead of us...
Merry Christmas to all, and most importantly,
Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Look at Kaden!

We visited with my Dad, Becky, Brittani and Kaden last night. I was very nervous but I think it went very well. I was amazed at how big Kaden has gotten. He is 6 months old now, and he's a little person with a great little personality!
Here are a picture of dad with his kids- Amy, Mike, Tracy, Kaden and Dad!

And here are some adorable pictures of Kaden!! Wow, isn't he a cutie? At first he was scared because he is just starting to have stranger anxiety and really, we are all strangers to him... But once he got used to everyone he really opened up and I took some great pics!

The kids enjoyed seeing their "Li'l Uncle Kaden" and also Papa. It's hard not seeing them often but I guess that makes it even more special when we do.

So much going on!

It's been snowing here in NY!! Finally, as the kids say! Last Thursday it snowed all day, and so much so that the kids were sent home early from school.
I took this picture of Colby, Desiree, Will and Adam playing in the backyard. I love that you can see the snowflakes! And there are the boys making their "peace" signs- their new thing!
It isn't snowing anymore, but we had a little storm yesterday... between the snow and the freezing rain and the wind... it really did a number out there!!
I did bring the kids sleigh riding out in the pit! That was fun! Although the walk there is quite a hike considering you have to walk through a foot a snow!! :)

But as the snow was falling, we were toasty warm inside, working on the basement! Here is a picture of the bar... on the front is the mosaic Art and I did with the tiles. (He did three, I did the one on the far left!) That was fun. It still needs to be grouted though (which Art is doing right now!)

Something cool thing that happened Saturday-- we got our couch!!! This is our new sectiona!! I love love love it! It is so big and comfy! Here are the kids (and Desiree) hanging out on it. They all really love it!

I cannot believe that Christmas is just a week away. Wow! How did that happen? There is something on my schedule every single day from now until then. Tis the season!!! I'm just SO HAPPY that the basement is done for this!
We also decorated our tree on Saturday, and it is so pretty to lay on the couch and look at the tree all lit up in the dark!!! Love it!
Happy Monday! Better be good this week!

Look at our basement!!! WOW!!

I am so super excited about our "new" basement!! Art has been working very hard these past weeks and it is so obvious!! I am so happy to be able to post these photos!
The top photo shows Art's bar (that he designed and made all by himself, he is so talented!) and also shows the new carpet.
The bar isn't done... he is going to do a mosaic of tiles in the 4 open rectangles in the front. The tile will match the tile on the other side of the basement.

This picture shows the stairs! They have carpet on them!! Woo hoo! Jay just put this in last night!! And it is so soft under my feet! I love it!

The stairs aren't done, of course... the rails and sides all need to be done. But we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!!!

This is a before picture of the bar, and the floor.

It is so great to have this so close to done!! We are definitely going to have Christmas in our basement!! We are all so excited about it. The kids love the carpet-- the boys keep running downstairs and just playing on the floor. Almost makes me not want to put any furniture down there....almost!!

On another note, it is SNOWING!! A lot! Roads are awful, school is closing early, Will's concert is cancelled tonight. (Sam had her very first band concert last night! And chorus! She did awesome and had fun). Now we need to wait and see when Will's will be postponed to.

Meet Izzy!

Samantha has been working on a "crayfish" unit at school. When it was over, her teacher said the kids who wanted a crayfish could have one, as long as their parent signed a permission slip. It was a lottery drawing. And guess who won?
Yes, yesterday Samantha brought home "Isador" and she calls her Izzy. She showed us that she is female, and she even told us quite a few other things I didn't know, like the crayfish is cousins with the lobster, it pinches, it can take its eyes inside, and some more that I can't remember. She's not afraid to pick her up, either, even though she *almost* got pinched a couple of times!
Her friend Sarah also won one! And we thought it was neat that Sarah's was "H" and Sam's was "I" and together they spelled "hi"! :)
They had a little crayfish race in the living room yesterday, and showed how to see their breathing using food coloring. It was pretty neat!
Welcome to the family, Izzy!

Tuesday Chatter

Look, it's tile! Art has been busy with the downstairs, putting in the tile. The isn't the best picture but at least you can see the tile and where it is. He is actually further now, he grouted last night. As soon as I get a better picture I will post it. The basement is really coming along now! Art is now working on "other" things... like the bar, the lights, the heat, you know, those things that I don't even think of!

Other things are going well too. No snow yet, which is a little disappointing. It's certainly cold enough for it!

Today the drama club is announcing which play it will perform this year, and Samantha is staying after school for that. She is really excited and looking forward to being in the drama club. I'm really proud of her-- she has her "own" likes and goes for them and doesn't worry about what the other kids are doing.

Colby starts basketball this Saturday. Luckily, he only has one one-hour practice/combined with a game each week, always on Saturday morning. Of course, that does conflict with Will's bowling, but one of us can go to each. It will be interesting having all three kids play basketball! Already, this Saturday, we have 3 basketball games!

Call me crazy, really, because this is in addition to the other activities. One of which is Girl Scouts, which I just found out last night that my troop is bridging one year *earlier* than we thought, and we just started working on our Bronze award. Now we need to work out that kink.

Not to mention, it's the "most wonderful time of the year"!! Luckily, I can still use the Santa threat on Colby. The other two aren't falling for it anymore :( At least they aren't publicly denouncing Santa. That would just break my heart. I'm not ready for them to grow up!

Have a great Tuesday, I'm off to continue my cleaning!

Sugarland ~ Stay ~ Jennifer Really Crys

This song really touches me. I love how she is crying in the video. And even though I am a horrible singer, this is one of my favorite songs to sing!

See our tree!

On Sunday we decided to go and tag our Christmas tree. We looked in the newspaper and we found a place near Burden Lake advertising trees for $15! That was screaming our name, and off we went. Their was a nice little map in the paper too, so we brough it along. Well, about 5 minutes into our trip we saw a big "TREES" sign, and followed it, thinking it was our place. Turns out it wasn't... but these trees were $20 so we decided to go with it!!
However, we were told that we *could* tag a tree, but they couldn't guarantee no one would take it anyways. Nice. So, we cut one down. Yup, it's short! But we figure since it's going in the basement, it needs to be short. It was a COLD day, so it didn't take us long to decide which tree we all liked, on account of, we didn't want to keep looking! Thank goodness we brought Shea, she made a good tree-puller! ha ha ha. Really though, she did a fine job!
The highlight of our trip, though, was PEANUT! Peanut is a little dog who lived on the farm. We had brought Shea of course, and this dog Peanut followed us all around, playing with Shea. It was so cute! Who knew Shea would have an impromptu play date?? And the kids loved Peanut as well... I think they wanted to take her home! I think this is a really cute picture, just wish I could get a shot like that with *our* puppy!

Garbage Bag Princess!

Here is my beautiful Samantha, dressed up in a garbage bag!!
We went to a Garbage Bag Fashion Show with Girl Scouts last night. It was pretty cool! Each girl was partnered with another girl, was supposed to be someone they didn't know but Samantha was paired up with Caley, one of the pitchers on her softball team! Which was nice, really, because Samantha was a bit shy and hesitant.
They did great though! The outfit Samantha has on (top, bottom, and headband) was made by Caley. Most girls made dresses but of course Samantha can't be seen in anything "girly"!!
The girls were models on the runway, complete with spotlights. It was a really fun time!
And going to bed last night, I snapped a few pictures of Will. This is what he did at the last second, and I love the expression on his face! He is such a fun kid!

Still Going...

Well, we are in full-swing in the basement! I say we, but I really mean Art. He has been working really hard these past couple of weeks... every night... trying to get the basement done in time for Christmas.
It's hard to "see" it in the above picture... but the thing in the back on the right is the bar... or what is going to be the bar. Art has big plans for that!
Under the stairs are two black "boxes"...one is to hold the TV/playstations, etc. The other smaller one is to hold our slot machine.

And here he is painting. It's hard to tell, but the color is like a dark grey. It looks almost purplish when you walk down the stairs. But we like it!
Now he is starting to work on the tile. Can you say "sticker shock"?? I had no idea it would cost so much! And we still have to get the carpet!! It will be SO worth it when it is finished though.
I have visions of watching TV down there, with the woodstove on!! I can't wait!!
Well, I'm off-- going to a Garbage Bag Fashion Show with Samantha and the Girl Scouts. I'm looking forward to a really fun time!

It's been a while!

Well, I haven't been able to update this blog in a while, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy!!
I cannot believe it's already the end of Novemeber... Christmas is right around the corner! Wow!
We celebrated Thanksgiving on the 17th with my mom and Wally. The cousins had a fun time getting together! Colin brought over "Guitar Hero" and the kids had a clast with that. Samantha is a natural!
Will gave Colby a mohawk just for the occassion (with gel). What handsome boys!


Here are some animals pics.
This is my cat Destiny. She is the most beautiful cat ever! I miss her being around, but she is very happy at my mom's house.
And if you look closely in Sam's hands, you will see the newest animal in our house- Blueberry the Dwarf hamster. She is tiny! And she makes these sweet little "peeping" noises. :)
The boys are also officially now ORANGE BELTS in tae kwon do! And so we now are the proud owners of sparring gear... which of course they broke out and used on eachother. They are so excited that they have permission to punch and kick eachother!
And in basement news... it is coming along! Art has been working on the basement since he stopped working on the siding. When we moved into this house, the walls in the basement were all moldy. We tore those down, but haven't really don't much since. Also the floors flooded a lot. Art was able to fix that problem by building a trench. And now there are walls down there, and they are primed! He is so handy!! Today he is going to see about ordering tile and carpet. We might even start painting! Our goal is to have the Christmas tree down there... we'll see! Now that that is in writing we have to stick with it, right?!
Happy Monday! 29 days.....!

Way to go, Will!!!

Will had bowling this morning.
Last week we paid $7 so that his score would try and pre-qualify him for a tournement that is being held at our bowling alley. When we got there this morning, we saw that he was in 31st place (with about 50 people trying). Since they only take the top 7, we had the option to try again today. We did, and guess what? HE MADE IT!! We don't know what place he ended up, but it must be the top 7, or close to it!!! We are SO proud of him!
Now, the day after Thanksgiving, he has to go to another bowling alley and try again. If he does good there, and goes on, then he would be in the tournement, and it would be on TV!!! WOW!!!
Way to go, Will!
He is really coming along with bowling. It's great for him. He's improved so much since he started, and he loves it!!!
PLEASE think of him on Friday morning. I'll be shopping, but I'll be wishing him luck too!! :)

Friday

Some Leahon updates:

Tonight was the Science Fair at CES. Both boys did projects with their Cub Scouts troops. Unfortunately, right around dinner time, Colby started feeling sick. He had a small temp (99) and said his throat hurt. We brought them all to the fair anyway, but he wouldn't let me put him down and so we only stayed about 45 minutes. We came home, Colby went right to sleep, and Will headed off to basketball practice (with his new ball- how exciting!) Samantha is waiting for a movie to come on.
And big news-- it was * snowing * at CES. Well, flurries. For about a minute. But still, it counts! It's cold enough, it may as well snow and make the cold worth it.
More news-- and I'm probably the only one who is excited by this!!... but... the oldies station (98.3) is playing *Christmas Music * already!! I just love Christmas music! Art won't let me listen to it in the house until after Thanksgiving, but I can still listen to it in the car!!
Kids got their report cards today. Samantha did excellent!! 100s and high 90s... who is surprised??? She did get one "C" which she is upset about. But it was on an assignment, not a real quarterly grade ;)
And Will...boy, we are SO proud of him! His report card was all 3s and 4s!! (4s are the highest). Compared to last year, it is a huge improvement!! We couldn't be happier.
Colby did great too. His report card was lots of good grades too, and lots of nice comments.
We are very proud of them!!!
Well, off to watch "House Hunters" and munch on my Nestle milk chocolate chips!!!!! Have a great night!

I think I fixed it!

Thanks to Jay, I *think* my computer is on the mend!! He installed some anti-virus software and anti-spyware software. I've used them to scan the computer and cleaned it up pretty good. My computer is working much better today so I'm really hoping it did its job and everything is well now. :)
I will update this blog with some pictures as soon as I can. It was recommended that I take off all the pictures I have on here before I add new ones. So I am off to do that now.
Have a great day!

Boo Hoo

Our computer is sick :( It has some sort of virus. We are working on getting it fixed (Jay is helping me, but this seems to be a stubborn one).... Anyhoo, that is why I haven't been posting in a while.
We are all fine and well and busy as ever. I will update as soon as I can.
Think of us and hope the virus goes away!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!
Can you believe it is Halloween already? I can't! It just doesn't seem right! I felt like we were out trick-or-treating about 2 months early or something. And the weather, sixties! Not bad! It got a little chilly as the night wore on, but it wasn't bad. We went all around the neighborhood, lots of walking! We had to stop back home once to empty the buckets because they were full!!!

Here we are in our costumes. Doesn't Art look so funny in his angel costume? I love it!! The silver eyelashes really made it rock!!!!!

Samantha is Hermione from "Harry Potter". She wouldn't let me tease her hair though!!

And Will is a "punk". That's the best word I can figure out to describe him. He got his accessories for his costume from the "goth" section of the party store. And we made his shirt-- we spray painted candy corns silver and then hotglued them to the shirt to make spikes!

And Colby is a Camo Ninja. Every time he puts it on he has to strike a pose!!!

And I am a devil (to go with Art's angel, of course!) I wore my costume all day today, even when I brought Colby to the dr... he was a tad embarassed, until he saw all the doctors in their costumes too!!!

We got lots of candy (well, the kids did!) I need to hide it so I don't eat it all!!!!

Oh, and Colby was at the doctor's today because he had a bad pain in his jaw, and it started turning red. Turns out he has an infected lymph node. :(

A Scary Story! by Colby

A Scary Night A Sckery Nit

by Colby Leahon (age 6)

Monster comes to my house. Monster coms to my haws. Zombies come to my house. Zombes com to my haws. Ghost comes to my house. Gowst coms to my haws. On Halloween. On holowyn. No one helped me. No won help me. The end. Dye nd.

Pumpkins!

We carved pumpkins on October 21 (yes, exactly one week ago... so I'm a bit behind!) It was such nice weather that we were able to do it outside.
We pretty much let the kids do whatever they wanted, however they wanted. They all took the gooey stuff out...Samantha was very over-dramatic, but she did it! Will was okay with it, using a spoon. And Colby only did a little himself.
Colby's pumpkin is a bit of a "self portrait"... he kept saying "How do my eyebrows look when I make this face?" "How does my mouth look when I make this face?" It was very cute. He drew it all by himself, but Daddy cut it out.
Samantha didn't need any help this year either. And she did an awesome job on her pumpkin!!!
In other news, the house is coming along nicely. Art is now working on the outside door downstairs in back. The whole frame around the door was rotting from the continual water that pools in front of the door. So he put up a new frame (made of some plastic material so it won't rot!) and it's looking good!!!
The weather is getting a bit colder. And lucky us, me and Samantha have to go do a Girl Scout thing today. Our troop made a "butterfly garden" over the summer at a local retirement home and today we are going to go and clean it up.
Last night we went to a Halloween party!! It was SO FUN!! I got great pictures of us in our costumes... but I'll post them on Halloween :) Art was the hit of the party!!
Happy Sunday!!!

Fall is here!!!

Fall has arrived at our house!!
Yesterday was just beautiful outside. Temps in the high sixties, which are great to play outside! Bright sunshine! And LOTS of leaves flying around!!
We took the opportunity to play in our neighbor's leaves!

Colby loved laying in the leaves. Will preferred throwing them, and burying himself in them! They all loved throwing them!

"Mom, if we smile, will you stop taking pictures?"

And a great picture of Sam, who was very willing to pose for pictures yesterday!!
I'm so glad we were able to get outside and play because last night it started pouring and is still raining today.!

Good bye until Sunday!

I'm leaving in a about an hour to go on a "Scrapbooking Retreat" weekend with my sister. We have been to this same retreat numerous times, and it's lots of fun! It's held at a church camp... they make all of our meals (Yum yum!) and we have to sing a prayer before we eat! It's funny, but it's nice, and a nice "family" setting.
Most of the girls who usually go aren't going, so it may just be me and my sister.
I have packed all of my scrap stuff (that took about a week, and the back room still looks like I didn't pack anything!) but I haven't packed my clothes yet. You can tell where my priorities are!!
The weather is beautiful today. Barb and I took the boys for a walk, and this really nice breeze followed us the whole way. We thought it would rain any minute, and here we are almost 4 hours later and it's still not raining. I bet it will be raining when we get to the camp, so that we'll have to carry all of our stuff out in the rain...!
Art is bringing the kids on a "Haunter tour of the Capital" tonight. I was signef up to go too, before I realized I wouldn't be here! It should be fun. I hope it isn't too scary, Colby will flip out.
And Samantha went to a friend's house today to begin practicing for the Follies. I think they're going to do the song "Supermodel" by Ru Paul. Ahh, the memories! We danced to that song when I was a cheerleader in high school!!
Speaking of cheerleading, it's almost a good thing we didn't advance...one of the girls (Madison) is in a cast because she broke something on her foot! Ouch!
HAPPY WEEKEND!! :)

Thursday

Have you ever seen a hermit crab out of its shell? One of our hermit crabs decided to switch shells, and stayed "naked" for a whole day. I got this neat picture of him (or her?)! He stayed in the corner of the tank the whole day, but he finally decided on a nice blue Snoopy shell!
Got a nice compliment about Samantha today. One of the girl's basketball coaches mentioned to us that "Sam really stood out" at tryouts and did "Very well". That meant a lot to us considering the coach was also her softball coach and he really knows her.
Speaking of Samantha, she got STUDENT OF THE MONTH for September!!!
Will had his first basketball try out today. He did really well! And he looked like he was having a lot of fun so that is the most important thing! He even wore his "Pippen" jersey (that is about 5 times too big!) to the try outs!!
I bought Will the book "Joy of Origami" and it is really cool! He has already done a couple of the birds in the book. I even surprised myself by figuring one out! It's pretty funny when your 8 year old is teaching you how to do something. He's a great teacher too. Much more patient than me!
I got a BIG SCARE today. Little Samantha never got off of the school bus. When I called the bus garage, no one answered. So I called the school, and was told that they couldn't reach the bus garage either and I should just keep trying. I tried again, but when I couldn't get through I finally called her parents. I reached her dad and he was like, "Oh, um, that's because she came home sick today. Sorry, I forgot to call you". He did certainly sound like he felt awful...but oh my God! I was so stressed out!!
And I am now officially 1/2 of the way through the book "The Crazy Ladies of Pearl Street" which I am reading as part of a book club at the library. It's a really neat book, even neater since it talks about Albany and Rensselaer and all other places I am familiar with. I recommend this book!

Wednesday

It's Wednesday, but the kids are home from school so it is very confusing! I have Sami and Nick, but I also have my three!! Needless to say, I haven't "done" anything today!

Samantha is done with basketball tryouts. We're waiting to hear what team she is on. I've heard rumors that this year they start having an "A" (better) team and "B" team. Sam is pretty good at basketball so are a lot of the other girls!

Yesterday, Samantha had a tick underneath her armpit. Yuck! Sami and Nick's dad pulled it out... and then Art got more out last night (what looked like a leg?) We tease her about her "hole" because Art really had to dig in there to get it out. She was such a good sport though!!! We were very proud of her because she was SO brave!

Tonight Colby is supposed to go to a "go see it" at a local farm for Cub Scouts. But I'm not sure if he will go. Honeslty, it's our ONE night that we are all home as a family and I really want to go get pumpkins and maybe some apples. We really need more time. It seems funny because I'm home all day, sometimes bored out of my mind, and then come 2:30 and the kids get home and it seems like bam bam bam, we need to go here and there and there is no time!! But I'm NOT complaining! I know they will grow up all too fast and I'll be bored again!

Well, I hear Shea barking outside and I'm pretty sure Nick is awake, so I should go and tend to both of them :)

Sunday

Today was Samantha's cheerleading competition at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY. It was a great competition. Our pee wee squad was only up against 4 other pee small novice squads... but they were all really good. Unfortunately, only 3 teams placed and moved on to the next round. We weren't one of those teams. I can't say I'm surprised though. Our girls were good, and they did a good job. But the teams that won had harder, stronger stunts and really great routines. Sam isn't really upset. I'm a little teeny bit relieved to be done with cheer.

Here is Art's progress on the house-- moving on to the back!!! He is really moving along! Too bad he ran out of siding and has to order more...



And I can't keep updating the blog without a picture of the boys!! Here's a pic I snapped in my bedroom for no reason... they weren't really wanting to have their picture taken but they are good sports.

Happy Sunday!

Go Devils!

Everyone shout "Go Devils!"
Tomorrow is Samantha's *cheerleading competition*!!! We have to be to the coach's house at 6 am... erg!! They should be performing sometime around 9 am... so wish them luck!
Art has been siding all day... he got lots done in the back of the house! I will post pics hopefully tomorrow. Thank goodness it warmed up a little bit today. Am I brave enough to say luck might actually be on our side?
I babysat Hannah today... and Will and Colby had 2 friends over, plus our neighbor Adam! It was a fun day! The boys played so much, and it was so nice to spend a whole day with no fighting :-) They ate a ton of snacks too... I can only imagine what it will be like when they are older.!
The girls had to cheer at half a game tonight... I have no idea what the final score was since we left at half time, but when we left we were winning 19-0! We have such a great team! Go Devils!!!
GOOD LUCK TOMORROW, Sam!! And Madi and Mikayla and Makenzie and Loren and Taylor and Antania and Adrianna!! Good luck girls!!

Is it really Friday????

Is it really Friday???
Today was, of course, another busy day for me. I babysat Nick today. He peed so much in his diaper that it leaked all through his pants, right down to his socks and shoes, and on my carpet. Nice. So he got a nice warm bath and I got a nice warm wet carpet.
Really, though, we had a good day. I spent a lot of the day emptying my inbox. I have a bad habit of keeping all of my emails as new... and then all of a sudden I have 350 emails and I can't find a certain one I need. So, I decided it was time to clean the inbox. That took a while. Thank goodness Nick naps for two hours!!
Tonight was Art Works night at the school. I got to bring all 3 kids because Art is still working on the house. It's a good thing we left, I think, because he wasn't too happy. It's very very cold today and now the siding and stuff is breaking on him. Uh oh. Let's hope it warms up a little, just for a little while longer. Please!
Back to Art Works... that was... interesting. Samantha made some really nice, colorful pictures. Colby did one that is pretty cool. He put a lot of effort into it and of course it's adorable. And then there's Will's picture. At first he drew swirls, in pencil, and tried to pass it off as his artwork. He was way too busy playing with the other kids. I finally got him to draw something. I would have felt awful leaving there getting something for two kids and not the third. His artwork cost me a guilty $7.
Now we are home. It's almost 2 hours past bedtime and the kids are wired. Me, I want to crawl into bed and go to sleep. But of course that can't happen until the kids are in bed, because Art's not home. He went to help his dad install a furnace.
Did I mention how cold it is? I doubt it reached 60 today. And it started off pouring rain. Did I ever tell you how my dog will not go outside in the rain? No, she hates the rain. So she will sit by the door and whine and whine, but when you open it, she turns and runs. That always makes for a fun morning.
Hopefully tomorrow will be warm. Or at least warmER. We've been spoiled with this awesome warm weather lately. I haven't even checked to see if the kids have pants that fit!
Happy Friday Night!

R.I.P. Hamtaro

I'm sorry to say, Hamtaro passed away this morning. We're not really sure what happened. He escaped from his cage yesterday... and this morning Shea "brought" him to me. We think maybe he just had a heart attack or something. He was almost 2 1/2 years old.
Art made this adorable little coffin for him. (Anyone recognize the old tablecloth!?) Samantha decorated it. Art made it totally freehand... and it was just the perfect size.

***warning, you may not want to see the next picture...***





As you can see, Hamtaro fit perfectly in Art's little coffin. Yes, I know it's a bit morbid to have a picture of a dead hamster... but I couldn't resist.
Samantha is pretty upset. But I think she knew this was coming... she knows the life expectancy of a hamster is only 2 years.
Colby was really upset too... he's the one who found him, so he's a little traumatized.
Will was perfectly fine with it though. Didn't shed a tear. He's the one who picked the hamster up and put him in a box for me.
So interesting how different they all are.
Well, rest in peace Hamataro... You were a great hamster.

Onto some other Leahon news...
Samantha's cheerleading squad has competition in just 3 days. Wish them luck!! We have to be at the coach's house at 6 am on Sunday morning... ooph! It will be a fun, long day!

"A light at the end of the tunnel" says Art

This is the back of the house. That big hole is the hole Art made for a slider door to go in. Notice how all of the other windows are nice new windows?
And here is the new slider door!! Woo hoo!! You can see that there is a big piece of plywood behind it (inside). Well that is because Art still has to work on, and we have to put some locks on it so that no one (the little ones especially) open it up and fall out.
And that piece of wood underneath it... that is where our deck will be eventually (next year I hope!)
Hard to see in the picture, but all of the windows are in!!! Art is so excited-- we all are!! Some of the windows are damaged and they have been re-ordered. But he says it's not too hard to just change them. I hope he's right!! And now onto siding.
And here's something fun we did today!! We went to Plaster Planet and painted!! Samantha made a Christmas gift for Nellie and Braelyn (a unicorn), Hannah did Blue's Clues, Colby did Patrick from Spongebob and Will did a plaque that says "Homework Causes Brain Damage". Isn't he cute?
The other people there had a hard time believing Hannah wasn't part of our family :) She does look a lot like Colby with the red hair... but no...