My Husband is......

Amazing, thoughtful and talented.

I had picked up these prints up at an estate sale a long time ago.

They have been buried in my craftroom forever.

I know that sounds SCARY.

So Troy braved the craftroom, retrieved the prints and made it out alive.

He made the frames just for the prints.

Love them.

Seriously love them.

Thankyou to a very loving Husband.

Good job Santa!

Soren is always using the girls dollhouses to play Star Wars guys with. So this year for Christmas Santa's elves made him something to play Star Wars in.

Santa found some pictures of Star Wars scenes on line and laminated them, then put velcro on the back so Soren could switch out the scenes when he wants.

Soren is loving it.

The girls are loving it also.

Soren is the kind of kid that will play with something like this for hours.
I love this present.

Olivia had a very special present made for her by Santa's elves.

A doll house that she could use for all her toys.

Even her raccoon and beaver are enjoying the house.

Maybe there will be some baby beavecoons soon.

To get that joke you need to know that Olivia had a phobia of raccoons and beavers for the longest time. We got her these little toys to try to help her with it.

Then one night we were watching I-Carly as a family and what does Spencer start talking about?

A big ol' mean Beavecoon!

An animal with the head of a beaver and a body of a raccoon.

Olivia had nightmares for weeks.

All our girls are loving it.

Santa did very well this year with finding something to keep my kids occupies and out of my hair.

Love you Santa and Santa's elves.

Merry Christmas-Dunow Style.

We are incredibly blessed to have the Porter family in our lives. The two giants on the ends of the sofa?

They have GROWN up together.

It has become a tradition to go over to their house and eat, play and visit on Christmas Eve.
Can you imagine what it's like with all these kiddo's talking at once?
It's loud.
We wouldn't want it any other way.

I wanted to take a picture of each one of the kids in front of our sad looking tree.
Olivia is always posing.

Soren is all decked out in his daily cowboy gear.

Ella, with her bright sunny smile.

Our oldest daughter Anna who just wanted to be done with it.

Logan is thinking how good looking he is.

Now how good looking are you know Logan?

Christmas morning all the kids come into my room and wait to go out.

Number 1 is a little cranky.

I love Soren's expression.

Priceless.

We have had a wonderful Christmas season surrounded by our friends who have become our family here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Decking the Dunow Halls.

This is our Christmas tree this year. Olivia and Soren seem to always be rearranging it and moving things around. It has tipped over a few times too.

Imagine that with 5 kids and 3 dogs always running through the house and jumping over furniture.

These are the lamps that Troy and I made. I love them because I can change the decorations inside of them for the seasons.

I have enjoyed decorating the house this year. The only complaint is all the dust.

New Mexico has been terribly dry this year.

That means more dusting for me, except I just pretend it isn't there.

So just ignore the 4 inches of dust on everything.

As most of you know, I have an addiction to old books.

I saw this tree on a blog and tried to do it myself.

I love it.

Some don't.( I won't name names) ANDREW MEYER.


More pictures are coming.

Enjoy your day.

I definitely will. I made wassail and the house smells fantastic.

Birdzilla attacting Christmas town.

We let Edward out of his cage this morning for his daily exercise.

He went on a rampage.

I wonder if this made Edward feel powerful.
He is used to feeling small around all of us giants.

I hope he enjoys it while it lasts.

Catching up with the Dunow's

One of the kids favorite things to do is dress up the bunny Thomas.

When I say the kids I don't mean Logan. Can you imagine a 15 year old boy dressing up a bunny?

Oh never mind.

We got Thomas from a friend of ours and we have fallen in love with him. Such a cute personality he has.
That sounded like it came out of Yoda's mouth it does.
Plus he puts up with the kids. Anna doesn't like his name so she comes up with a new one weekly.

Our two elementary school kids had literacy night. Soren and Ella both had projects to show off.

This is what Soren does in the morning when he is suppose to be getting ready for school.

You can't see them real good, but he has bobby pins on his ears.

This is at Shining Stars Fall Festival.

The kids loved the Archery.

I'm just surprised that one of our kids didn't shoot anyone.

Anna would love to do Archery as a sport.

Just trying to go through my pics and catch up our friends and family on what has been going on with us Dunow's.

Never a dull moment.

There is an absence of Logan is these pictures. Two reasons.

1: He is hiding from me and the camera.
2: He is on his butt watching all the back episodes of Phyche and The Office.

The after Thanksgiving sillies.

Olivia, Autumn and Ella acting goofy after a long day of playing.

Troy's parents stopped by our house on the way home to Missouri. They brought along his sister kids with them. Our kids were excited to see and play with their cousins. The girls had just all bathed for the night and came out to the family room looking like this.

Andy stopped by just as we were sitting down for dinner. Coincidence? I think not.
I thought it funny that Logan and Andy were having a conversation while both doing things on their stupid little phones.

Olivia was thrilled to have some one read to her. She loved her books and nursery rhymes.

In her preschool they practice all the nursery rhymes all the time and she was happy that she could recite them to Grandma a thousand times.

Soren and Blake had a blast today outside rock hunting.

Guess what?

We have A LOT of rocks in New Mexico.

It wasn't a very long visit but it gave the kids a opportunity to play with one another and see their grandparents.

The Dog days of winter?

I know it's actually the dog days of summer. Our dogs are not liking the cold at all.

We usually leave them outside most of the time, except for Fred who wants to sleep 24/7.

Molly(top) is the most rambunctious dog we have and she loves to be out playing.

Lately all she wants to do is lay on the couch and sleep.

This is how I found Fred the other morning when I woke up. Logan had him all tucked into his bed because he said Fred was shaking he was so cold. The big baby! Fred is our laziest dog. He won't budge from the couch unless you pull him off it yourself. Then he just plops on the floor.

Izzie is our most human of the dogs. She will sit on the couch like a real person would. We find her sleeping on her back all the time.

I know the kids, Troy and I have totally spoiled our dogs.

They are worth it.

Miss Muffet Turns 5!

Our baby turned 5. How did that happen? She is growing up so fast yet still my little baby.

We had a little birthday get together with some of her friends.

Carly is telling us about Sampson, who she is holding. We had each of the girls bring their favorite doll and tell us about them. Some of them were pretty funny. One little girl told us her doll was named Carlos.

Katie, beautiful Katie. Your the only K-k-Katie I adore.

She was telling us about Sparkle, her doll.

Getting ready to sing her Happy Birthday.

She opened her presents in 2.4 seconds flat. Now that was crazy!

One of her favorite songs is "Stuck Like Glue" By Sugar Land. We let the girls dance to it.

Lo and Soren were having a good time.

I know this has nothing to do with the party. I want this little boy. He is so fun to watch. I love how he is so inquisitive and wants to look and investigate everything. He gives his mother stress, that I am sure of. He so could of been one of mine.

We had all the kids sitting down ready to tell us about their dolls and Soren wanted to sing Olivia a song for her birthday. He made it up all by himself. I am sure everyone of us were laughing hystericaly and crying inside as we watched how sincere he was about the whole thing.

I am so thankful that my children love each other.

Just another child I could take as my own. My little Lo with her Mommy Marissa.

We had a good time with all her little friends and I am so glad that I don't have to do that for a while!