Tuesday December 22, 2009

To be quite honest, I am surprised I was able to get a second one of these up this month. I have been a little, more like a lot, lazy when it comes to this lately. One more day or work and my Christmas vacation begins. A nice benefit of working at the University and being on salary, I am off when it closes. No complaints here, even though I am pretty sure I will lose this privilege next year. Something about lack of supervision, not my crew anymore but others, tend to have some problems.

Anyway, Christmas has been fun and its still three days away. Brianna is really into it this year, except she asked me who baby Jesus was. That followed a game of 20 questions that ended with me telling her we better take her to church next year to answer all these questions.

We keep telling her she needs to stop being naughty or Santa Claus will turn all her gifts into rocks or he wont come to our house at all. This threat has not worked at all. Last week when I picked her up from school, she was horrible the whole day. It was her first day after the snow we had and there was snow a foot and a half high next to the sidewalks. We are walking out and she kicked the snow. I told her to stop because she didn't have her snow boots on. She continued to do this with her right foot the whole way to the car. This continued in the car when it was -3 degrees out and she wanted to take her coat off. The whining was non stop even when we got home. She wanted nothing we had to eat for lunch. While at lunch she kept leaning back on the chair. When lunch was over, she whined about having a snack. I could not have gone to work soon enough. Thankfully her good days prevent me from putting her up for sale on eBay.

Speaking of naughty and eBay, here's a story about this guy!

I will start off with the good. One night last week while I was at work, Kristy and Bri had gone to bed. Around 9:00 PM or so, the door bell rings. I guess he took off and freaked out. Loud barks and so on. It was just the UPS man at a very odd hour. I wont be too mad at this because he was protecting his house and family.

Now the bad. He is becoming very protective of Brianna. Not that bad, but when he nips at people, it gets bad. We were staying the night at Katie's because I had to work last Saturday morning. I was ready for work and let him out of the kennel when he took off up the stairs with Katie's boxer, Jackson. All I could hear is two grumpy dogs barking and growling. I get upstairs and Jeremy was in the garage with some friends having beverages and Reagan supposedly bit one of them. Bri and Evan were playing and I guess this person just walked into the house form the garage and Reagan did not like that. He knew he was wrong, because I grabbed him immediately and his tail was between his legs and his head was almost on the ground. He definitely needs to stop this or I will be looking for the magic needle for his Christmas present.

He is not only protective of Brianna, he is now protective of Tim and Brooke's boxer puppy Paige. The same night as the previous incident, Paige came over to visit. I guess Jackson decided to sniff around Paige and Reagan did not like that either. He started to fight with Jackson and took him to the ground. Its hard to believe this momma's boy of a dog, that I have not yet seen today because he has been in the bed with Kristy since she got home from work, can be such a jerk. I guess when we should have listened when we were told he should repeat puppy school.

Bri has been learned her Christmas songs really well. Below is a little video of her during clean up time.

It started out with her favorite song, "Frosty the Snowman". She knows only three words to the song, Frosty the Snowman. The second was a nice version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Then the bi-polar version takes place. The nasty Brianna. That's the Bri we see too often. I guess if you have seen any of the previous posts, you have seen her this way before.

Too bad we are bad and never have a video camera available, because we found this website, http://portablenorthpole.tv/home. Its a site where you can answer some questions and it plays a personalized video from Santa Claus. When Santa Claus mentioned Brianna's name her mouth dropped open and was shocked. It was fun, but once gain, too bad we didn't get it on video.

By looking at the weather, it sounds like it could be an interesting travel for any of us in the Midwest. We had planned on having Santa Claus make his visit to us in Omaha on Wednesday morning, then head to my parents in Harlan for a night, and then go to Baxter for Christmas Eve. That would have been three visits from Santa Claus! Definitely a spoiled little kid. We will see how the weather goes, if we get stuck in Omaha, as well as our friends, it wont be too bad. We will all pile in a four wheel drive vehicle and find one house to stay at for a few days. We better stock up in booze and video games if that's the case.

Everyone have a Merry Christmas from the Winfield's!!!

Friday December 11, 2009

The Christmas season is definitely in full force here. Brianna is really enjoying it this year. In a tribute to the movie Bad Santa, we bought Bri an Advent calender. Not really like the movie, it doesn't give the story of Christmas, but a My Little Pony calender. It is filled with tons of very small ponies and pony accessories. They will all be chewed up, not by Reagan, and lost by the first of the year. It keeps her occupied and that is half the battle.

Bri still is liking Santa Claus a lot. She has been to see him twice already. The first visit we took her and her Aunt Morgan to see him in Des Moines. They were pretty good. The second time we took her to the same Santa Claus for the past four years here in Omaha. This Santa Claus definitely plays the role very well, I wonder how he prepares for the Easter Bunny? No fake beard either. We showed up early and were waiting on a bench for him and the "Elf" to show up. He came right up to her on the bench and talked to her. Bri was kind of shy and that doesn't happen too often. Here are a couple pictures with Bri and Santa Claus.

We also got hammered with snow this week. Thank God Tim let me borrow his 25 year old snow blower. That things is a beast. On the first day of the storm, before we got snowed in, I took Bri and Reagan out while I shoveled. Bri absolutely loves the snow, even though she was eating it most of the time. Reagan on the other hand, couldn't stand it. He is an 85 pound wuss. He just stood there with his coat on and was ready to go back in. He was also being annoyed by Bri. Somewhere on TV, bri got the idea that throwing snow is fun. Reagan kept getting his face full of snow. Kind of funny, but definitely mean. Below is the best picture we could get of Bri and Reagan together.

On a final note, we have a new addition on the way to the family. I had searched all over for a new puppy. There were some good ones to choose, but we decided to go with a more expensive pick, a kid. Brianna will be a big sister this June. She is pretty excited. Kristy had a doctor appointment a few weeks ago and Bri and I went. Bri thought the baby was going to be here that day. She has been pretty funny. During one of the sick moments for Kristy, Bri walked up and told her to be careful so she doesn't puke the baby out. I think she is ready to have someone other than Reagan to boss around. I am sure it will start this June. Below is a one of the ultrasound pictures. It didn't turn out so well, but I thought I would give it a try.