Flanagan Clan

I don’t remember the last time we had snow during Christmas, but we definitely had it this year. I’m not sure why I’m mentioning it, since the snow was barely noticed today as we kept ourselves busy inside with family and new treasures. We’ve kept ourselves very busy the past three days spending time with the sisters (who arrived home late Monday night), hanging out at our or my parents’ house, and playing board games, watching movies or playing Guitar Hero on our Wii with various family members. We’ve taken a ton of pictures the past few days, but probably less than a third of them have been taken on my camera! The rest are on Diane and Dad’s cameras, and I don’t have the files here. So, here’s just a few that I was able to take with mine. Normally I don’t like doing the little photo show on my posts, but I’m being lazy and don’t want to sort through these, so here’s everything, 149 pictures that I took in the past few days. I’ll be more than happy to provide explanations for some of these if you’re curious. Enjoy!

…is a good steam cleaner. Trust me on this one.

I’m so glad we found a good deal on a Rug Doctor on Black Friday!!!

Here are just a few pictures from the past few weeks at our house… these pictures are pretty random and might not all be in chronological order. Sorry about that!!!

Patrick helping Daddy with the new Christmas tree that we cut down

Watching as they trim the tree at the bottom

The boys enjoyed watching the tree get put through the shaker

All decked out… yes, the tree was too big this year yet again, and we could not squeeze the angel on top!!!

First snowfall of the year and the boys are timid in the snow

One of Sammy’s shoes after being out in the snow… he had snow platforms!!!

What Ethan did while his brothers played away: Sat at the door and expressed great displeasure that Mommy wasn’t letting him go out, too.

The Gingerbread house that Mommy and Patrick made together

Patrick is quite the character!!!

Our house in the snow

A nighttime walk in the snow with three boys and a brand new sled

The sled was a little squishy, so we ended up having the boys take turns :o)

Sammy held on to Ethan very well while they were in the sled together. Ethan loved it!

Our house, minus the snow

Kitchen decorations

Patrick carefully decorating cookies at Oma’s house

Sammy not so carefully decorating one (and only one) cookie at Oma’s house

And decorating his one cookie some more, accidentally spilling a bottle of red sugar crystals

Sammy and his cookie

The finished cookie- pretty gross, huh???

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering: While I normally like to get my Christmas cards out by the beginning of December, I won’t have them out until probably January this year. We decided to wait and do family pictures once the girls were home from Iowa, so we have our picture sitting set for Dec. 27th. Once we get the pictures done we’ll finally have those cards out on their way :o)

More really good news: Not only are we getting a Sonic, we’re getting a new Mongolian Grill two blocks away from the Sonic. I think God wants me to get really fat. There’s this Mongolian Grill in Tacoma that I use to go to in high school and through my college years that I absolutely loved, and it was seriously my favorite restaurant ever. However, as time has gone on, the quality of the establishment, from the cleanliness of the bathrooms to the overall appearance of the place has deteriorated. When I was pregnant with Sammy I even got food poisoning there. After one last visit almost two years ago in which the water tasted funny and all I could see was a dirty fish tank, we decided to never go back. Which wasn’t too bad, since Andrew was working up in Lynnwood and there’s a great one up there. He would often swing by after work and pick up food to go. So yummy. Now Andrew is working in Kent and is far from that Mongolian Grill, so I haven’t had a fix in a while. There is one down in the Puyallup Valley off River Road that is alright, but we rarely find ourselves down in that area since we have almost everything we need on the hill. So, when my mom mentioned that she thought the other new plaza was getting in a Mongolian Grill, I started hoping… and today I actually drove by and saw the sign! I’m just hoping that it will be good… since these are not chains they vary so widely from restaurant to restaurant, but I’m really hoping that this one will be good because I know if it is I’ll be a very frequent customer!!!

Ok, I know I’m crazy, but I have some fun news!!!

WE’RE GETTING A SONIC!!!! CORNER OF MERIDIAN AND 136TH, LESS THAN A MILE FROM OUR HOUSE! Why so excited? For years I’ve watched the Sonic ads on TV with the yummy milkshakes and slushies, but I have never, ever lived near one. When we visited Texas over 3 years ago I was able to try their food out, and it only lead to me wishing we had one all the more. Well, on the way home from church we drove by a new shopping plaza going up near our house, and I saw the sign… Sonic coming soon… I’m so excited!!! This might be a bad thing though… I could see myself getting addicted, they way some people are addicted to Starbucks. I am going to get FAT.