Welcome Sunshine!!

Ever heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)? I think I have it. No, not really - I looked it up on Wikipedia and my symptoms are not necessarily so severe. However, I do know that when the sun is shining, I'm happier. Even if it is cold outside - if I can feel the sun or see the sun through my front window, I'm happy. Which is why Eric caught me doing this:

Yes, that is me, in my pajamas, lying across the back of my couch to get maximum sun exposure through the window. It is like the sun can pump life back into me! This is a morning ritual when the sun decides to show itself.

But I'm not the only one...

Our 3 little bullfrogs like to bask too - the sun shines in their tank every afternoon and they all come out of their hidey holes to soak up the rays - but I guess that doesn't do much to convince you all of my sanity...hehe.

Anyway, on to the real reason I am posting this blog. We are planning to build a small water feature/pond in our back yard and Eric wanted to go to the Kings River today to collect some river rocks to put around our pond. So we made it a family outing - the forecast was good today so we headed out around 10:00 a.m. On the way out there, it was very foggy and I was worried that we would be cold and have no fun. Well, by the time we got there the sun was shining beautifully and it was almost 60 degrees! Here are some fun pictures we took out by the river.

Self portrait - we tried to get Haylie to take our picture but she didn't want to.

Haylie and Anna - too cute!


I was able to set the camera up on a big rock and set the timer for a family pic. Not bad, eh?


Haylie had fun collecting acorns and Anna sat on a rock and picked up leaves and pebbles - of course doing a little taste test on each. ;-)

When we got home we had some lunch then headed out to the back yard to enjoy some more of the sunshine. I hope it lasts!!

Puppy Fashions by Haylie

I was working on a quilt today in the sewing room/office. Haylie came in and wanted to cut some fabric too, so I gave her some scraps and told her she could do whatever she wanted with them. So she sat in the chair and started cutting away.





Then she went in the other room for a while and came back with this...



I just thought that was so creative - she made clothes for her beanie baby chihuahua!! I didn't help her at all - I thought she did such a great job! Perhaps there is a market for beanie baby clothing??

Here's one more after she took the doggie out for a wardrobe change...

Eric vs. The Gopher

For those of you who don't know, Eric loves to garden. He takes very good care of our yard. He plants beautiful flowers, veggies, mows the grass, etc. So you can imagine that someone who puts that kind of time and effort into his yard would be a little "annoyed" by gophers. I say annoyed but that really is an understatement when it comes to Eric. Gophers are his nemesis. He hates them. He is very creative when it comes to trying to eliminate them. He uses gopher traps - which work a lot of the time, but I think that is too boring for him. So other times he will pour gasoline down the gopher hole and light it on fire. I am of the opinion that it really doesn't work, but I let him have his fun. Well, I think on Anna's birthday he may have proved me wrong. That morning he had done his gasoline trick in a hole in the back yard. So that afternoon, as we were all hanging out in the kitchen eating cake and ice cream, my brother-in-law looks out the back door and says "What is THAT? A hampster?" So we all look out the door and Eric yells "IT'S A GOPHER!!" Sure enough, a gopher was roaming around the back yard. ??? I did not think they ever came out of their holes, but apparently they will come above ground and collect seeds and stuff that they find in the grass.



So Eric runs out the back door and starts taunting the gopher - you would think he was in Heaven. Then my dad shows up with a shovel, I'm assuming to inhumanely end the gopher's life, and I'm thinking Haylie and her 4 cousins are all inside with their faces pressed to the windows watching the action..."Dad! Don't do that here!" To which he replied that of course he wouldn't do anything in front of the kids. Phew. Ok, so here are some pics from Eric's "gopher boxing" as he likes to call it...

Look at the fangs on this thing! Oh, and the pouches on the sides of his face - those were full of seeds - they captured him and put him in a bucket and he spit all the stuff out of his pouches. Weird.

So Anna's 1st birthday will be forever remembered as the day Eric got his revenge.

Anna's First Birthday!

I absolutely cannot believe that Anna is a year old already! Where did the year go? For the most part, 2008 was kind of a crummy year for me - so I guess I should be glad it went by so quickly! I had a really difficult time coming up with presents for Anna since she has all of Haylie's hand-me-downs - not to mention that Christmas JUST passed and I barely knew what to get her then! So we decided to get her the Little People farm - my kids have never had Little People until this Christmas when my mom got them the Nativity. They LOVED it! So, the farm was a bit hit.


It's been difficult for Haylie to admit that the toys are Anna's, but they are sharing well. Eric's sister got Anna a Little People minivan with a mommy and a baby and our friend Stefanie made her the beautiful cake...


...and gave her a little pull-along puppy dog that barks. I didn't get any super good pictures of her digging into the cake - I got sidetracked, but she definitely enjoyed the frosting - and why is it that they automatically feel the need to put their hands in their hair when they are covered in goo? (Click the picture to make it bigger so you can see the green frosting in her hair!)


She'll stand up for long periods of time but still hasn't taken any steps. I know I'm biased but is she not stinkin' adorable?!

Happy Birthday Anna! We love you!

And as always, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/kmetler to see more pictures.

Pampered Chef Party

Yes, I'm a total blog slacker. The good news is, my medication is starting to work and I actually want to play with my kids! Imagine that! So I haven't been on the computer much. Yea for me!

Anyway, I am sending out invitations to several people today for a Pampered Chef party I'm having at my house on Saturday, January 17 at 11:30 a.m. I wanted to post this just in case there is anybody I forgot or that I don't have an address for. You are all invited and bring your friends. Also, if any of my friends reading this live in another city or state and would like to order something, let me know and I can mail you a catalog. I know another of my friends is having a party this month as well, so there will probably be some overlap, but come anyway - it'll be fun.

So if you don't get an invitation in the next couple days and you want to come, just leave me a comment here, or call me, or e-mail me, or text me...whatever... (-:

And I will be re-entering the blogosphere shortly...