Rachel's birthday is the day after Christmas, and Olivia's is the 28th.  As you can imagine, that can be kind of difficult.
  And to make it worse, the 26th was a Sunday.  We couldn't really do anything that day, except we went to an "annual" Christmas party for some old friends of my parents.  My dad has known these people literally from the time he was born in Cincinnati.  He said that we went to this party every year when we were little, but either they stopped doing it for a couple years or it just wasn't in AZ.  It was so strange to have all these people saying, "I remember you!" or "Oh my gosh, you're so grown up!"  because honestly I had no memory of any of them except Brent, my dad's friend who we went to the party for.  (*One funny moment of the party*: Brent asked me if I was a Senior or a Junior, which totally confused me because, due to my height, people are normally shocked that I'm an eighth grader.  They think I am a seventh grader!  Anyway, it was probably because he thought I was his oldest daughter's age, but I'm actually his younger daughter's age.  Still, it felt cool.)
  Before the party, though, we blindfolded Rachel and had her feel and guess what my presents were.  Mom and I bought a bunch of stuff to decorate her currently plain room.  (I will take a picture and post it once we actually get them up.)  Then the next day we tried to do things for her that we couldn't do on her birthday.  She went out to eat, found out she's getting a cell phone, and our cousins came over for dessert, presents, and a sleepover.  Yeah, we made an ice cream pie for Livy AND a vanilla-blackberry cake for Rachel! As if we didn't have enough sugar left over from Christmas...  Today we are going to look for a CTR right for Rachel.
  For Christmas, good ol' Santa Clause got Livy-Loo her third doll, Rebecca, which surprised us all.  Lucky enough, Rachel had already bought her two doll dresses, Adam one, and I had hand-sewed a Greek goddess dress from scratch for her.  She also got a full art kit including colored pencils, a book of instructions, paper, etc.  She also got some adorable clothes.
  I am so glad I have these beautiful sisters.  Now Rachel is a teen and Livy 9.  They are both so unique, and I know I am the luckiest girl in the world to have them!
   

Sometimes  get tired of the Arizona weather.  It is the second-to-last day of the year and I have hardly worn a jacket all winter.  But today the high is supposed to be only 48º.... and tonight it is supposed to dip down to 25º!
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I may be 4'11", but that doesn't mean I am weak.
What other fourteen-year-old girl does three sets of 100 jackknives in just one day after noon?
I had earned six pack in fifth grade... and though now it is only a four... I think it's coming back.

Today is Christmas.  I got lots of neat things.

• A Flip Video camera
• A purse
• Wii Fit
• Jewelry
• Clothes

Basically I woke up and started cleaning.  Certainly it pays off, because, though not finished, the house feels fresh and gorgeous.  Today is Christmas Eve, and Grandpa Paul and Nana Hanny are coming today.  We are going to have a fabulous time.  At five we will all go to our cousins' house.
But like I said, there still is stuff more to do.

Or at least, that's what Mom says life's like right now.  One after the other, things have been happening to us that make us just want to cover our faces with our hands and shake our heads, mumbling, "Seriously?!" And just in two-and-a-half weeks!

1. Adam and Olivia got pneumonia, and everyone else got sick except for me and Rachel (luckily because of finals).  Those two got sick right after we skipped two days of school for Disneyland, so they had so much make-up homework by the time they finally went back.  Olivia even got a letter from the district saying that if she missed just a few more days she would be kicked out of Neely!  Seriously, Livy is a straight-A student!   She did miss more than she was allowed, but the doctor sent a note right in time.
2. The Mercedes died.  Literally.  Actually, that's more of a fortune, not a mis-.  That thing was as old as Rachel, had a lot of things wrong with it, and gave me a headache every time I rode in it because it smelled weird, due to the gasoline that had been spilled on the carpet at some point.  In its place we got a Mini Cooper!  It has four seats and is stick-shift, and is the fastest, most awesome little sports car ever! (It also has the Broadway station in the radio!)  It is all white with a black stripe down the middle.   
3. Mom had to have dental surgery.  She was in bed and hurt like crazy.
4. The same day Mom had surgery, Eric fell off his bike and got a concussion.  Mom was on meds and Dad was helping in the kitchen, and we thought Eric was with the other kids still.  But they had gone inside, and he took off his helmet.  After an hour, my mom couldn't get him to wake up, then made him stand up and he vomited.  Immediately he was all chipper.  He was given a blessing.  But then it happened two more times and he went to the ER with my parents.  Yeah, my mom was still suffering from the surgery.  They were up until 12 or 1:30 in the morning.  Fortunately he was fine, and actually he was really funny the next morning.  "I got to see my brain!  It's huge!  I am so smart!  Sophie's not smart because she has a small brain."  Etc.

      5.  Not 24 hours later, we were taking my friends home from a late night.  We saw a little dog        wandering around, and pulled over to help it, because it was a nice dog my mom had met before.  Of course we couldn't just let him be lost when we knew who he belonged to!  Kylie picked him up, and as my mom reached to look at his name tag, he yelped and bit her!  We dropped him and he ran off.  There was blood everywhere and it was really bad, with many teeth marks including one that had gone underneath her nail.  Now the nail turning purple, and her whole finger looks terrible.  We dropped the girls off and went home, and my dad took my mom to get it examined.  She has been soaking it in epsom salt to draw out any infection.  No stitches were needed, but it still hurts.  They went to the owners' house that night, and he had returned home, but they were so sorry.  It turns out that he had even bit the babysitter last week, though  he didn't break the skin.  Apparently he hates clipping his nails and assumed my mom was reaching for his paws, so he bit her.  Still, they have a baby who like to pull his beard, and he could easily take off her finger the way he bit my mom.