Some snow & other pics

Ahh, innocence

Though he may not strike you as an innocent kid, at times, Tyler is, in many ways, exactly that. I've always had fun with him, making up imaginative stories that seem like they could be true, only they're not. He still has a great imagination....even at the ripe old age of 14.

Tonight Dave mentioned he might go to the driving range tomorrow & take Jordan with him. He asked Tyler if he wanted to go along as well. He wasn't sure what a driving range was, so naturally I took advantage of this & had a little fun with him. *insert devilish laughter*

My answer, that it was a farm you get to drive around in, didn't thrill him too much & I could see him wavering on his desire to go with the "guys" on this outing. Dave, as usual, caught on pretty quickly & added that you get to chase cows at the driving range....Ty's face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning! He was really excited to go now!

He wanted to know if he could bump the cows & if he got to pick the one he wanted to have a steak from later. I wasn't sure, at this point, if he wasn't playing a little game of his own, so I questioned him a bit. I turned to my inner-vegetarian & asked him if he would want to eat something he just saw walking (or in this scenario, running).

His answer: as long as it's marinaded. I didn't see that one coming. I mean, come on! Can this conversation get any weirder, I ask??

And he was serious, too. He's not dimwitted, should you be curious at this point. Just innocent & so much fun to mess with. ;)

Getting in to the Christmas Spirit

When the kids are sick, waking up many times each at night, I find myself having to work a little harder than normal at getting in to the Christmas Spirit. Okay, so I find myself having to work harder at everything, but most especially my mood. ;)

We had snow last week....TWICE! If I didn't have pictures (which are to come), I don't know if I would believe it myself! We really got dumped on the second time around, which was a nice surprise for most of the kids.

Tyler couldn't wait to throw snowballs at anyone in his general vicinity (except me, of course....he knows what a poor sport I am when it comes to the cold stuff on my bare parts & what a mean snowball I can throw in return so he tends not to mess with me).

Jordan just wanted to be out in it. He was the sickest at the time, so I didn't cave & let him out until the day after it snowed, but he didn't seem to mind at all.

Logan loved sloshing through it & was a total natural snowball fighting. He's always had great aim & Ty was his victim for the day. LOL

Hayleah didn't want anything to do with this white stuff. In fact, she was quite scared of it! She refused to even walk on the sidewalk until it had melted. She was perfectly content to watch Logan pelt Tyler in the head & neck area with snowballs from the other side of the glass, getting a big kick out of it all.

Ginger, our pooch, refused to go to the bathroom for most of the day. She'd never seen this white stuff in her 2 years & from the way she acted, she probably would be glad if she never saw it again!

Dave loves the snow. He said when he got his mission call to Canada, he was beyond thrilled because he knew what he was in for. It was probably more the fact that he was guaranteed not to have to deal with over-sized bugs than it was the snow, if you ask me. ;)

I like the snow, too. As long as I don't have to live with it more than once every few years. I like to visit it, but I think I enjoy leaving it behind just as much. One thing I really enjoyed about it this time is the fact that it made Las Vegas feel Christmas-ie to me, which helped boost that fading Christmas Spirit I've been looking to find again.

Aside from all tissues I've gone through in the past week, the sleepless nights, & the breathing treatments, I love this time of year. We get to spend it surrounded by the ones we love, in a home that keeps us warm, with many comforts that a lot of people don't have....all of it just makes me feel grateful to be alive & able to celebrate Christ's birth.

Merry Christmas!

Kudos to my little bro

My brother, Scottie, graduated from the Police Training Academy this past week. I'm so proud of him! My sister-in-law just emailed me telling me he was in the local paper, too!

http://www.kansas.com/news/crimecourts/story/630303.html

He's the one in the first picture, in brown, sitting next to the blond woman. They even quoted him! :)

I've always wanted to be a police officer & I couldn't be more proud Scottie's chosen this noble profession.

Though Jordan calls him the big mean guy (he!he!) he couldn't be better suited for the job. He's such a patient & level-headed guy. He was such a little hot head when he was a kid....it gives me hope for my own little hot heads, seing how well he's turned out. :)

The Terrific Two's!

Hayleah turned two last Saturday. We had a impromptu party for her while my Mom, Dad, brother & his family were here over Thanksgiving & just a few gifts & a bounce house on her actual birthday.
She loves playing cars with her brothers but man, she can be such a girly-girl! I got her a little skirt that resembles a tutu & some pink tights (she absolutely adores anything pink....if it's pink, it's hers....or so she thinks LOL) & put it on her for the family birthday party. She absolutely loved it! I found a little tiara with matching earrings at a store for cheap & left it on the table that day. Shortly after dressing her for her party, she discovered the tiara in a box & proceeded to tear it out & put it on her head. As far as I know she's never even seen a tiara, but she sure seemed to know exactly what to do with it! :)She's been singing "Happy Birthday" for a solid 6 months now, word for word, completely understandable. But when it came time for us to sing to her she didn't know what to do. She loves being the center of attention, but for some reason she wasn't enjoying the spotlight that night. She had Logan open all her presents, acting like she was too shy to even do that much! It was strange, for this very verbose & friendly little girl to suddenly turn in to a timid little thing, to watch.

Logan picked out a pair of very diva-esque sunglasses for her at the store & was really excited to give them to her. Once she saw them & put them on, she wasn't interested in anything else but hiding behind her new shades. Needless to say, I think that was her favorite gift.
My parents got her a little tea set & she took all of it straight over to my Dad, of all people, to have a little tea party with him. This is another thing she's never seen or done, but her instincts must've kicked in & she knew just what to do. My Dad, who almost never allows a picture to be taken of him, actually gladly posed with his little cup & saucer! LOL It was all very amusing. Tyler got her a little neckless with a locket with the Disney Princesses on it. She really liked it & kept screeching "my bling-bling", in her excitement, until we were able to get it out of the package. She tends to roll her L's so it sounds pretty funny when she says it.

We gave her a pair of miniature Cabbage Patch dolls, a prince & a princess. As soon as she got them out of the package, she had them kissing. LOL Funny girl. :)
Saturday we had the bounce house delivered while she was napping. When she woke up, she must've looked out the window & saw it in the back yard because all I heard were squeals & the words "my pincess", the whole way down the stairs. She loved seeing the princesses on the jumper but when it came time to go in it she wanted no part in that. She screamed her head off when Dave took her in it but eventually warmed up to the idea of getting in to it & jumped for maybe 15 minutes before she lost interest. Even still, the boys enjoyed it immensely & that made it worth the cost.
I'm so glad to have this sweet, vivacious, motherly, doting, perfect little princess in my life. I didn't always have the best relationship with my Mom but now she's one of my very best friends....I'm holding out a strong hope it will be the same with Hayleah & I. She has her Daddy wrapped around her finger, for sure. He loves his boys fiercely, but he's completely enamored & absolutely in love with this little girl. We're really grateful to have her in our little family. No matter what, she will remain my little ray of sunshine. :)

Twenty-some days, my 100th entry, Turkey day & so much more!

It's been a while since I've updated our blog. Things have been a bit hectic with the holiday & a vacation right afterwards. I can't believe I haven't taken the time to post something in this long! And this entry is my luck number 100!! :)

My Mom came in to town on the 23rd & was able to stay for 10 days. Not nearly long enough! My Dad came in a few days later & stayed for 5 days. My brother Jake, his sweet wife AJ & her daughter Kylee came on the 26th & stayed through the 30th. We had a house full, for sure! My parents stayed at the resort (it's nice to have that inexpensive hook up!) while my Dad was in town, so the house wasn't overflowing but it was definitely a busy week!

We did our first turkey for Thanksgiving this year. I'm a borderline vegetarian & refuse to touch anything that looks like it once had a name, so I've never cooked a turkey. Dave & my Dad filled up a turkey fryer with some oil & went to town. The first one came out more like turkey-jerky (lol) but the second one was pretty good. Luckily we had 2 turkeys thawed & ready to go. One cannot survive on stuffings, twice-baked potatoes, & green fluffy stuff alone! At least not on Thanksgiving.

We stuffed ourselves in the early evening & later had a pie eating contest. My brother Jake, the one who looks like he just stuck his face in a newborn babies diaper, won first place. Tyler took a close second & Kylee came in third. This was our first year with the pie eating contest & it was so much fun I'm sure it'll be a tradition from now on.

After getting my mom, brother & his family off Sunday, we started gathering our things for our Monday morning departure. We were headed for Flagstaff, AZ, one of our favorite places to go. There's a gorgeous resort down that has rooms that are more like a large condo with private hot tubs on the back porches & everything. We were lucky this time & got the condo right next to the park & directly across the street from the activity center.
The activity center had everything from pool tables to computers to mini-golf....you name it & they had it! We got to play mini-golf a few times & the kids really enjoyed that. Jordan's been begging Dave to take him golfing for a while now, so this gave him a small taste of it & he really wants to play more. Tyler enjoyed the free games & spent a lot of time being one of the big kids, playing & making new friends. Jordan was constantly searching for more pinecones while we were there....he's such a little collector!
We had some local cats that kept coming to our back door, which the kids absolutely loved. There were at least 3 of them & they were pretty timid but let Jordan pet them at one point.

Wednesday night we got to drive down to Williams, AZ, & rode the Polar Express. This was the highlight of our trip, for sure! We weren't really thinking about the weather, just that we were all going in our PJ's. When we got there the thermometer read 27 degrees!! Luckily we thought to bring blankets so not everyone froze.

Once we picked up our tickets, we headed down the train depot to the area we would be boarding. Once we were off & running we were served hot chocolate, all the while listening to the song "Hot Chocolate" from the movie, & cookies. Our train's chef held up the story book while a voice from the speakers read The Polar Express to us, as we sipped on our warm cocoa. Hayleah had never had hot chocolate before but quickly decided she loved it. The recognition on her face of was priceless!

Once the book was finished & we sped through the time warp that pushed us closer to the North Pole, the train was rockin' & rollin' & Jordan was looking kind of green. I had to try to distract him from the way he was feeling which worked out nicely because it distracted me too. I was starting to feel a little off myself.

We started seeing the lights of the North Pole & before we knew it we got to see Santa's village, his reindeer, a helper elf & Santa himself! It was all lit up with Christmas lights. Once there, we didn't spend much time checking things out before the train was headed back to Arizona. As we all waved goodbye to Santa & the lights became distant again, our train's chef lead us all in song. My favorite was The 12 Days of Christmas, where the everyone in our train compartment had a part. We were near the front, so we had the 2nd day of Christmas. All the boys & men had to stand up on the 5th day with their hands in a circle over their heads, which was very amusing.

Soon we were surprised to see that Santa had caught up with us & had boarded our train car! He came through the aisles, greeting each child, & gave all the kids their own bell. Last year seeing Santa was a huge ordeal (classic kids screaming picture) so I was a little worried about it this year, but they all did great!

Overall this was a great trip. I would totally do the Polar Express again...it was absolutely worth it.