Oh, and the roof pictures...Chase finally took the blue tarp off the chimney and took some pictures of what the past residents had done to the flashing there. NO WONDER there was a leak...Thanks to our neighbor that's all fixed now!

I've been collecting pics all week long and haven't had time to sit down and post them, so you're getting them all at once!
Last Sunday Chase and I gave talks in church and then hosted family dinner at our house. There were two January birthdays to celebrate, mine and Eric's. Anyway, it was AWESOME to have everyone at our house to eat, but we missed "Grape-Grandma Rawlins" as Cameron refers to her. She's been dealing with major migraines, but is feeling better now! Yay! Anyway, the boys all sat around watching some game - it wasn't the Bears game, that's all I know. I think the Colt's were playing? So after dinner we had a birthday cake and everyone sang for me and Eric. Well, Cameron thinks that every birthday is HIS birthday so once we blew out the candles we re-lit three of them and said he could blow them out. Well he just sat there. When we said, "cam you gotta blow out the candles" he insisted that he needed the birthday song first. So everyone had to sing happy birthday to Cameron! That did the trick! And Aunt Jeni was so sweet because she sang Happy Birthday for him repeatedly - which made him think he was SO cool - and she even put another candle in his piece of cake and lit it for him. Sweet!
Let's see what else did we do this week? Oh, right, we were sick AGAIN! I HATE BEING SICK! The boys have been super sick, too. Let's hope we just get through this season with no more colds. I'm not going to hold my breath on that one, though.
On Saturday, despite my inability to breathe (are you feeling sorry for me yet?) I went to Little Philmont to be trained as a Cub Scout leader for the Wolf Den. BORING! But necessary. I definately feel like I know a bit more about it now and I'll feel more comfortable with the den and pack meetings coming up.
While I was at Philmont Chase stayed home with the boys and Uncle Garrett came over to help mow our front lawn that has been doubling as a meadow. It has rained every week since we moved in so it was SO LONG that the grass would literally wave in the wind. Terrible. SO the boys got it under control, but not before Garrett came out looking like the grinch. Thanks a ton, Gare Bear.
Lastly was Saturday night tubbie (Saturday, after all, is a special day). These pictures illustrate that Cameron HATES the tubbie and Miles is a complete fish who would live in the water if we let him.
Whew...that was a long one! Now I know why you post several times a week, Jeni!!!

Well, it's true! Chase fought the law and.......................CHASE WON!
So for those who need a refresher, here's the scoop. Chase tried to take a knife on a plane. If you want more info than that, READ THE BLOG MORE OFTEN. So, he was charged with a class C felony. Apparently that's not a good thing. So we got a lawyer (to the tune of $1500) and we were pretty convinced that he was going to have to plead it down to a misdemeanor and be on probation and pay a fine. I guess they take knives personally around here. Actually, in the state of Texas it's illegal to carry a knife at all. Guns yes, knives no. So that only added to our thinking that Chase would get convicted of something.
So yesterday was the date for the grand jury. Chase put on his best blue suit and went to meet with the lawyer so he could practice his "I swear I'm innocent" face. He's already pretty good at it, so it wasn't too much of a stretch. At around noon he went in before the grand jury and told his story. They didn't ask a single question of him! I guess that's pretty abnormal, so the lawyer thought it was a good thing. Well, today we found out that they completely dismissed the whole thing! Not a misdemeanor, no fine, no probation. Chase is free and clear!!!!!! What a blessing! So we're very happy and very excited. Here are some pictures of Chase enjoying his freedom.
Lastly, we found some great pajamas that Kevin and Susan (Chase's aunt and uncle) gave us. They used to be Brandon's and now they're Cameron's (or Spiderman, as he introduces himself to people in nursery and primary). You can see he's getting pretty good at throwing webs! If anyone needs saving, let us know. We'll send him your way.

Here's the recipe, people!

1 C. Mayo
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch dressing
1 C. buttermilk
2 cloves garlic
1 cup cilantro
3 tomatillos

Place in blender. Puree. Eat. Stop. Unbuckle pants. Eat some more. (putting on top of salad helps, but is not necessary:)

ps I like to add half of an avocado. It helps to thicken and it adds a yummy flavor.

Saturday night was so fun! We started out by going to Chase's cousins basketball game. He's eight and aside from a few superstar kids (who YOU KNOW are providing vicarious success for their over-eager crazy sport parents who spend thousands each year enrolling them in private sports lessons and buying them expensive equipment, only to enroll them in the local league so they can smash the smithereens out of the regular joes...but I digress), the kids were all pretty funny. I wish I had taken a picture. You've probably seen it. The kids basically just run from one end of the court to the other and try to get under the basket without any regard for whatever play the coach was trying to get them to follow. And then when one kid gets the ball everyone just tackles him until the ref calls for travelling. ANYWAY, it was a fun game and Brandon is so cute.
So afterward I announce that I have a lasagna at home and whoever wants to is invited to come eat it. The Rawlins boys arrive in force! I love watching people eat my food and love it. I also made the Cafe Rio salad dressing (which is so good it's drinkable) and watched them put it on a variety of things other than salad. It was so fun to have people in our new house!
After dinner we put the boys to bed and Chase and I headed off to the mall so I could use my gift card and left everyone there. When we got back it was time to game. We played cards and laughed our butts off until I had a headache from laughing so hard! It was midnight by the time everyone left (with Brian demanding more games so he could figure out the card game well enough to kick everyone's trash...a true Rawlins trait). Kathleen and Eric actually stuck around to use our internet so they could finish their talks for church. They didn't leave until 4 AM!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully their talks were all the better for it.
Anyway, we love living so close to the Rawlins clan! Enjoy the pictures!

So I feel like I've been without a camera for so long that I have no choice but to take pictures obsessively. And Chase is working late (bring on the busy season!) so I'm bored. So here are a few pics from the past couple of days. We're all sick so never mind the red noses. I threw in a shot of Cameron while he's got the nebulizer going just to show you how pathetic the poor kid is. He's got "reactive airway disease" which is basically what they call asthma for kids. Anyway, when he gets sick he starts wheezing and coughing constantly and it's rather sad. He's such a trouper, though. I think it might actually be harder on us as parents than it really is on him. As soon as he gets done with a treatment he's up and running and making messes and picking on Miles. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy the pictures!

Well, finally, some pictures of the house. As you can see we have a few projects that we'll be doing over the next year or two to get it how we really want it. Overall, though, we're really happy to be in a house (finally) and we love this place! It's hard to explain some of the pictures, but I'll try. The deck sits in the middle of the house, kind of like a courtyard. There are windows on all sides of it, and if you see the sliding glass doors in the picture, that's where the master bedroom is. The mini blind picture was taken to show two things: First, the house is full of these ugly mini blinds that we need to replace with 2" wood blinds. Second, the windows on the very front of the house are all long and skinny and in groups of two or four. Very 70's. We have to find out if they are load bearing and if not we'll make 4 skinny windows into 2 large ones. The other projects on our super long list are:
Wood floors
Paint, paint and more paint
Re-do the deck
New windows throughout
Re-do bathrooms with new tile, new countertops, new fixtures
Re-finish all of the cabinetry in the kitchen and bathrooms
In the living room we'll be taking out the wetbar and that hideous book case and replacing the white mantel (what were they thinking?) with one that will match the hard wood floors. The wetbar will become the new pantry in the kitchen.
Front walkway dug up and re-poured
The yard...it needs help.
Lastly, we'll have to do SOMETHING about the garage floor...

So we've got a lot on our plates, but it is mostly cosmetic. The house has good bones for the most part. I'll take a picture of the outside of it when I'm not in my bathrobe.

After reading all of the Christmas posts from my family's blogs I realized that I missed out big on Christmas day. We did spend most of it unpacking. The Rawlins boys brought over some food and then fell asleep on our couches while watching the Incredibles. That was festive. Anyway, here's to a better-late-than-never Christmas best wishes to all of you. And oh, yeah, Happy New Year.