100th post!

I couldn't end 2008 with just 99 blog posts, so with just minutes to spare here is post 100! (Can you tell I am just waiting until midnight so I can put Jaco to bed!)
I don't really know what to say but has anyone out there read The Host by Stephenie Meyer? If not you should! I just finished it tonight and was so bummed to have it end. It is a very unique book and soooo good!

Happy New Year!

We are quite the party animals around here! Justin and the girls are already snoozin and Jaco is rocking out on Guitar Hero. This is his favorite night of the year because he loves proving to me that he can stay up when nobody else does. I don't know if I will make it!
Around 9 tonight, our neighbors lit off some fireworks so that was the extent of our big New Year's celebration! A few minutes after the last spark died, my neighbor called to say the police had already come over and threatened to charge them $75 for lighting off fireworks! The funny thing was they knew the cops were coming because they have a scanner and heard our street called out over the scanner but they didn't have time to clean up all the garbage on their driveway before the cop showed up! They had planned to light off bigger fireworks later on but have decided it isn't worth $75!
Happy New Year to everyone! Here's to a fabulous 2009!!

Care Bear's Lullaby

Care Bear sings Mary's Lullaby, a song from the Children's Hymn book, all the time. She actually does a pretty good job too! She was sitting on my lap singing it to me this morning. All of a sudden, she stopped and said "What about the clown part?" I asked her what she meant and she said, "You know, it says and his father is a clown!" For those of you not familiar with this song, the part she was referring to actually is, "Thy gentle head shall wear a crown, for Thy Father is a King". I got a good laugh and then decided to record her singing. So here she is, snotty nose and all!

Christmas!

We had a very fun Christmas! The kids and Justin were 100% completely surprised when Granny and Papa arrived from Idaho on Tuesday the 23rd. I had known they were coming for about a month and it was so hard not to share my little secret! They were able to set up an appointment at Justin's clinic. He thought he had a new patient and was bewildered to see a lady on the exam table that looked an awful lot like his mom! Then they showed up at our house. Care Bear answered the door and stopped dead in her tracks after she opened the door. She turned around and said "Grandma is at our house!" with a look of absolute confusion on her face. Then mass mayhem broke out and the poor satellite guy at our house couldn't finish installing our program fast enough. It was so fun!

Leading up to Christmas, our family did the 12 Days of Christmas for an elderly couple on our street. It was one of the highlights of the season. The kids had so much fun trying to sneak up to their door without getting caught. The couple looked like they were having as much as we were. We could see them watching for us and peaking out their window to try to catch us. On Christmas Eve we took them a plate of goodies like we had done for all the neighbors to try to fool them but they knew it had been us and gave us all the fixings for ice-cream sundaes. We still delivered our final gift later that night, but this time when they yelled thank you, we said you are welcome back and that made them laugh. Here is the list of what we gave.

Day 1 - One bag of gourmet popcorn
Day 2- Two loaves of zucchini bread
Day 3 - Three oranges
Day 4 - Four gift wrapping supplies
Day 5 - Five things for hot cocoa
Day 6 - Six ornaments
Day 7 - Seven sugar cookies
Day 8 - eight chocolate candies
Day 9 - sparkly snowflakes
Day 10 - Ten candy canes
Day 11 - Eleven chocolate chip cookies
Day 12 - Twelve Ferrero Rouchet candies

On Christmas Eve, we woke up to a white world that only lasted for a couple hours before changing to rain. So I kind of got my white Christmas but not like most of you! We had our traditional green pancakes for breakfast and shared them with our friends from across the street. We made cookies and candies all day and fixed a delicious Prime Rib dinner thanks to Justin's mom. I am now a Prime Rib convert! It helped that the meat wasn't red like you usually see. La-La couldn't get enough. After dinner Santa Clause made a short appearance and brought each of the kids a small gift. Jaco had seen on the news the Santa Tracker and then when he arrived in person at our house he was starting to believe again. He asked me if I had lied to him about Santa not being real. It was pretty funny. I just told him Santa is what you believe him to be. We let the kids open their new P.J.'s from G&G Finch and then their cousin exchange gift and we read from Luke chapter 2 after watching a short movie about Jesus' birth. After leaving Santa and the reindeer their treats it was bedtime which went surprisingly well! The girls went right to sleep and Jaco only came out once or twice. But then he woke up at 12:30 and tried to convince dad that it was morning time. No such luck! La-La woke up at 5:15 but I was able to keep her in bed until 6:30 and then I let her loose to wake everyone else up.



It was fun watching everyone open all their gifts and opening my own stash too! Care Bear got a Barbie Jeep from Santa, La-La got a guitar and Jaco got a DS Lite. Then they got other gifts like games, dolls, books, and puzzles and Jaco got a lifetime supply of Bakugan. Justin got a huge plasma TV (too big if you ask me!) and I got a new watch. Justin also got Guitar Hero from his mom and now I am questioning myself for telling her to get him the game! All I hear is screaming electric guitars! I got a kitchen mixer and I am so excited about it! I also got a bunch of jewelry and some other kitchen gadgets. For Christmas dinner we ate an $80 turkey that Justin received as a gift. It was good but not much better than the $5 one we had for Thanksgiving! We had a very good day and I loved staying in my jammies until 4 in the afternoon. I love Christmas in my own home!


Thanks again to Granny & Papa for braving the horrible roads to come spend Christmas with us. We had so much fun with you! It was a Christmas we will never forget.

Cody's Carol

I have been learning a piece from Handel's Messiah titled Rejoice Greatly O Daughter of Zion. When ever I start singing, Cody joins in by howling along. Sometime he will even sing as he is napping on his bed. He will lay there with his head down, eyes closed and howling away. It makes me laugh! So enjoy Cody and I's duet!

Why????

Why was school canceled today? This is what I saw when I looked out my window.

I guess the district leaders saw something much worse? I have been told the roads are a little slick? Maybe they were worried it would get worse? They wanted to torture all the parents by adding more time to Christmas break? Will they have school tomorrow, the last day before Christmas break really starts? In the district's defense, we have gotten a little more snow since I took this picture but now it is turning to rain. Yes, I said rain and now I am stuck home with all three kids and no chance of a nap!
The real reason I am frustrated is Jaco needed to learn a lesson. He failed to complete a school project that was due today. He told me about it last night at 9:pm and I refused to let him stay up to do it because he had told me he had NO homework. I did wake him up early this morning so he could work on the project and I was almost ready to take him to school with the project still incomplete, when I found out school was canceled. Now he has all day to finish it. Lucky kid!

Mama's helper

Miss Care Bear was my big helper today. She saw me finishing up my Christmas cards and wanted to help. So I let her stuff the envelopes, lick the envelopes and put the stamps on. She was so serious about her job. If I tried to help at all she freaked out because she wanted to do it by herself! I was so proud of her because she was so patient and stuck with it until the job was done. She kept telling herself that Santa would be so proud of her and she would give him a big hug! I am happy to say my cards are done and somewhere between here and there and everywhere! I was crazy and handmade them like usual but this year's card was really quite simple, thanks to my Mom-in-law who gave me the great book with the card idea!!

Santa and first "snow"

We had our first "snow" storm this morning. The girls were so excited to go play in ALL the white stuff. They ate breakfast as quick as they could then they put on their snow gear including hats, scarves, gloves, snow pants, boots, and coats and ran out the door. Their friends across the street were just as excited. Don't you love all the snow! You might have to look hard to see it but I promise it is there.

This afternoon we went to see Santa! We went to a place called Blind George's, a local glorified news stand that sells magazines and famous popcorn and the only place in town that Santa visits before Christmas. The kids were excited, especially the girls. I was afraid Care Bear would be too scared but she did great! Jaco asked for Bakugan stuff and a new DS, La-La asked for a camera, barbie, puzzle, and guitar and Care Bear asked for a Barbie car and a camera.

Jaco might be getting too old for this but I am glad he humored me!
Do you like the wad of green gum in La-La's mouth?We got Care Bear to look at Santa because we asked her to see what color Santa's eyes are. He asked her how old she is so she said "fwee!" He said he will take her home with him since she is free! When we got home she kept talking about Santa wanting to take her but she wants to stay with us!

Go Brandon, Go Brandon!

My big bro Brandon is graduating from college today! Woo-Hoo! Brandon is an awesome guy who would literally give the shirt off his back if he knew it was needed. Graduating is a huge deal for him and I am so proud of all he has accomplished. He is a great dad, husband, and brother.


I stole this picture from my sister's fabulous photography blog. Miranda, please don't turn me in to the authorities! Everyone really should check out her blog. She does amazing work! (There is a link to her blog on the right column)

Christmas Tree!

Justin got off work early today so we bought our $5 tree tag at the forest service and took a short drive into the mountains to cut down our own tree. Today was a beautifully sunny day. We found our perfect tree and Justin had to work a little harder because it was on the side of a steep hill but he succeeded! He strapped it on top of our truck and off we went. We decided to take the scenic route home and good thing we didn't head right for the highway because not too long after driving off, we almost lost our tree! Once we knew the tree wasn't going anywhere for sure, we continued our drive up the mountain. We saw a scenic lookout at the top of the mountain but we could only drive so far. Against the kids wishes, we hiked up to the lookout and witnessed an incredible sunset. It was cold and windy but so worth it! I am falling more and more in love with our new home. It is incredibly gorgeous and you can be in a dense forest in a matter of minutes. I am in heaven!

Here is Justin climbing the steep hill with our beautiful tree. What a good man!

One happy family! And yes, Jaco is wearing glasses. He just got them today and we think he looks so handsome!Oops! Not tied on tight enough!Can it get any better than this?Maybe it can get better with this shot! What looks like snow in this picture is actually fog rolling into the valley. And here are our happy hikers. :) By the time we made it to the top everyone was in a better mood. Jaco gets very frustrated on hikes like this. He thinks it is not fair that he has to do whatever we say and doesn't get to choose whether he wants to go or not. (If he got to choose, we would NEVER leave the house!) On the way down the mountain we talked about this. He asked me how I thought I was preparing him for adulthood when I don't ever let him choose what he wants. He told me that someday as an adult, he will have to make some important decisions and he won't know how to choose because we always tell him what to do. I told him that someday he will appreciate these little hikes and road trips. Jaco loves to be plugged in to anything electronic like the computer or T.V. and has a hard time entertaining himself in the great outdoors. Poor kid, having to hang out with his mom and dad on a beautiful mountain. LOL

Lost all my contacts!!

Help! I thought it would be fun to change my template to a Christmas background and in the process, I lost my friends list. So please comment to this post so I can have your blog address!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Our friends the Bore family came from Seattle. Thanksgiving day was the typical football watching belly stuffing holiday at our house! We ate the usual turkey, stuffing, potatos and Krystin made the best sweet potatos I have ever had! Princess Aurora loved the turkey! If you look at her picture you will see her licking her lips while she watched Justin carve the big bird. Jaco, La-La, Care Bear, & Aiden sat at their own table and thought it was pretty fun. But they really loved playing in the empty pan cupboard.

First thing Friday morning we headed on a road trip. Our first stop was the Redwood Forest. The weather was perfect for the end of November. Jaco taught himself how to skip rocks and was so proud of himself. We all had fun climbing on logs and playing in the HUGE trees.

Care Bear and Aiden have been friends from the day they met but the romance of the beautiful forest brought out a different side to their relationship. I am sure they will hate these pictures someday but I think they are pretty cute!

We decided to check out the Tourist Trap area of the Redwoods. We opted out of the tour because it would have cost nearly $100 for all of us to go. Instead we took pictures with Paul Bunyan and payed $4 to drive through a tree which was totally worth it!

When we finished at the trees, we headed up the Oregon Coast. The waves were huge and beautiful to watch. One of the many places we stopped had a river that joined the ocean. It was not very deep as it ran into the sea, so Justin puddle-hopped over it with the girls to go exploring. On the way back, a huge wave came to shore and turned the trickling stream into a raging river. Care Bear cried the hardest even though she barely got wet on Justin's shoulders but he and La-La got soaked! At another beach, La-La found a skull. We think it is from some type of bird but who knows! Care Bear and Aiden planted sea weed trees in a small castle while Jaco practiced skipping rocks.

We stopped at another spot along the coast that had a natural bridge made out of stone. To really see it up close we had to climb down a mountainside. Near the bridge, the hike became very tricky so only Jaco, Justin and I continued on. If we had of made one false step, it would have been very easy to fall over the cliff into the ocean. The view was amazing even if it was a little scary!

Our final stop of the day was one of the prettiest with the sun going down. It was a little chilly but we got some fantastic photos! It was a perfect way to end the fun part of the day. After that we had to drive in the dark so it wasn't as pretty. :)