Happy New Years...

We just want to take a minute and wish all of our friends and family a very Happy and Healthy New Year. We hope that 2009 is good to all of you. We have no exciting plans for ringing in the New Year tonight. We are just sticking around the house enjoying our last few days with Mimi and Poppy before they head back to NC. My how quick time goes by. We feel like they just got here and we have enjoyed having them here so much that we are not really ready to let them go home, but we know that they have to go sooner or later to take care of matters at home. Well we will miss them greatly when they do depart, so we are just going to enjoy the next few days and not think about the goodbye that is creeping up on us. Sunday will be here before you know it:-( Well all of you enjoy the last day of 2008 and know that we Rose's wish all of you the best that the New Year has to offer! Until next year.........

Mark's new dog house...

He is the one that said his pop-up blind was his new "dog house." I just plain told him that it could be his new home away from home. Ha!!Ha!! Maddi had no objections to being in the "dog house" with her Daddy. She says that her tent is a lot better than Daddy's. It has Dora on it! She wants to put hers on the deck with her Daddy's new spotting scope so that she can see the deer in the cornfield. Lord it seems as if I may have a little boy with the wrong plumbing!!! No she is too prissy and right now it is so cool to be just like her Daddy. I was a tomboy growing up, so if she decides to do just what her Daddy does, then I am 100% fine with that! Here's a couple of photos...

Merry Christmas from the Rose's!!

Hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas! We certainly did enjoy ours. The girls made out like champs and I was truly blessed to have my Mom and Dad here to celebrate the holidays with me this year. I could not have asked for things to have been any better. Ok well maybe a little less white stuff on the ground, but none the less, things were perfect. We enjoyed a wonderful prime rib for our Christmas dinner and the only regret we had was that we all ate too much. I guess that could be a good thing. It at least means that the food was good:-) Here are just a few of the many photos that we took. Merry Christmas to all!!!

Maddi with her some of her new toys

Les with her goodies

Court with her goodies

Poppy with his Tom-Tom Mimi with her coat

Maddi and her presents

Mark and Vanessa (We don't do morning photos very well)

Poppy and Mimi

Looks like even the dogs got visited by Santa

Preparing for Santa...

Here is a small collage of photos of the girls preparing for Santa to come and see them. We know that it is a day late, but we have been a little busy and are just now posting.

Maddi writing her letter and her first signed letter to Santa. (Too many first lately)

Les and Court writing their letters to Santa

Les helping Maddi pour the milk

note to Santa and warning to Poppy (not to eat the cookies:-))

posing with Mimi in front of the tree

Christmas Eve PJs

Just to give you an idea...

of how much snow we have. Here are a couple of photos. Mark took these looking out of our front door, so you can not see just how deep it really is, but if you look at those poor deer, you get a good idea. It is a good amount, but it did not stop the girls and our neighbors dog, Bailey, from getting out and playing in it today.

What else is there to do on another snowy day but...

to make cookies and construct a gingerbread house that Sissy sent. Guess Santa will get a belly full this Christmas Eve.

Pop Pops checking out Maddi's finished cookies

Maddi cutting out her cookies

decorating her cookies

Les doing her cookie cutting

carefully decorating

Little Paula Deen doing her magic

putting the finishing touches on her masterpieces

posing with their gingerbread house

one more photo

The dogs and the snow.

Mark making a path for the dogs.

The dogs looking for the ball.

Rookie

Our girls enjoying the oysters...

that their Daddy brought from NC. Can't get much better than that!! Maddi even got the hang of opening her own oysters. Big mistake on her Daddy's part because she thinks that she can do it all by herself now. We have to remind her that she is only 4 and that is a real knife that she is using:-0 And yes she is supervised Papa Wink! MMMMMM!!!! GOOD!!!!!!!!!

Maddi had her first school program tonight...

And they were so stinking cute. Her pre-school class got on stage and sang and did the motions to "Away In A Manger." It is one of those bitter-sweet moments because you can not wait to see them do something like that and then on the other hand, you realize just how big they are getting. We were a little surprised that she was not nervous or scared to get in front of everyone and sing. They all did a wonderful job and put a huge smile on everyone's faces. She insisted on wearing her dress that Nana bought her last year, so there you go Nana, I guess you were there with her and you just did not know it:-) However, as tall as she is getting, I do believe that it will be retired. Enjoy the photos.

Maddi walking to the stage holding Mrs. Veldheer's hand.

Going through the motions. Sam in the middle is a little off. He is still doing the stars in the sky part. Too cute.

And again...