Some firsts

I never realized what a "city girl" Lauryn has been raised to be until last weekend. Lauryn has had smores before but we microwave the marshmellow - which is typically a peep - and mash it between chocolate and graham crackers. While we were at our friends' house for dinner, Matt got the fire pit going and we all went out to roast marshmellows. Lauryn had never done that before so Shannon had to show her how.

Naturally, smores with roasted marshmellows are much better. It was a big hit despite the fact that it was cold outside. I predict more marshmellow roasting in our future. Maybe it is time for the Stetson house to look into a firepit...

Not only is Lauryn a city girl, she has been relatively sheltered. Last night, Lauryn had her first sleep over. We actually turned it into a girls only slumber party so I stayed, too. We went to see the Nutcracker, had some sushi for dinner, went to this fantastic place called the Dessert Gallery for dessert, and camped out with Rosa Ana and Aleena. Here are the girls at the Dessert Gallery. This place is a sugar lover's dream!!! Everything I tried was wonderful!!!

Month by month

I know that my original intention was to be better at updating, but we can see how successful I was at that... We have been busily going about our daily lives. Dance three nights a week and a full work week pushes a lot of activities to the weekend. Busy weekends limit my blog time... Maybe I need to try to update the blog on the Iphone...

We got our swine flu shots about 3 weeks ago. The school district offered them to employees and their families and students in the district for free. I was really unsure about getting the vaccine - especially for Lauryn. In the end, we decided to at least get Lauryn's because Tom and I are not in the "target" group. When we pulled up at the high school, I was anticipating a line out the door of unhappy people. Judging by the number of law enforcement vehicles that were parked in the lot, I think that assumption was pretty normal. However, we were pleasantly surprised to have a small wait and the option for all 3 of us to get the shot. This may be the time to mention that Lauryn HATES needles. When she gets a shot, I normally have to lay across her so that she doesn't kick or try to escape. This time, I could not lay on her, but she sure did scream loud enough several people came over to investigate. As a reward, Lauryn got a trip to Build a Bear and I got a trip to Starbucks for all.

This year, we stayed in Houston for Thanksgiving and our families all stayed at their homes. It was sort of weird to wake up and have a quiet home Thanksgiving morning. We watched the parade and I did some online shopping. Later in the day, we made the long drive (30 seconds driveway to driveway) to Mary and Jim Hentges's home. It was nice to enjoy the meal with Liz and Garth's extended family. And that pumpkin pie was AMAZING!

Molson has been the center of attention lately. Unfortunately, it is due to his limp. He has been slow to get up for a while and we had attributed that to his age. However, on Thanksgiving morning, the limp did not work itself out like normal. Friday, I took him to the vet and was given medication to treat arthritis. By Wednesday, he still was not responding the way that he should so he went back. The vet did x-rays and discovered that Molson had slipped a disc and he had some nerve damage. We are now trying cortizone and crossing our fingers that this helps.

Our other big news happened yesterday. Houston had snow. BIG, fluffy flakes of snow fell from the sky. There was so much of it that schools released early and Lauryn got to play in it with Tom and the dogs.

The temps even dropped enough that the snow was able to stick.

Unfortunately, today we are having to return to the reality of living in Houston. The snow is starting to melt and Fenway is turning into a muddy mess of a dog.