Lucky Me

Just thought I'd share another photo. I categorize these types of photos in my "Lucky Me" photos. So I opened the fridge yesterday to get something and was reminded of just how blessed I am to have my beautiful children. I love these little reminders. Sometimes being a Mom isn't all that fun, so I often need reminding of how great it really is. I have wonderful children and a super life. I hope all of you are feeling blessed as well as this year comes to a close. Happy New Year to all! ....and Happy Birthday to my sis, Erin (yeah, I spelled your name right!)!

Little More...

Aaron cut down our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving, and Elder Crawford put up a garland on our banister, so as far as Christmas decorating went, we were way ahead of the game. During the day, our tree looked cute, but at night it was fabulous! The kids did a great job decorating it. We also had fun dressing up in Biblical dress for the Ward Christmas party, and caroling to our neighbors (although everyone only got half a song because it was insanely cold and windy). Of course, Christmas was great! We feel so blessed this year and hope that all of you too feel happiness in this season and into the New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Shouldn't we have the Christmas Spirit all year round?...so let's pretend I'm filled with the Christmas Spirit and not that I"m late in my well wishes! Yes, another catch-up post. Luckily, I haven't taken too many pictures this month.
First off we actually took Christmas pictures before the New Year this year. This one has our missionaries. The bigger one is Elder Kay and the other is Elder Crawford. We still have Elder Crawford for about a week along with his new companion Elder Scholes (pronounced Skulls), but we call him Elder Shoelace.
Lanny had a Christmas program at school. As soon as he walked out onto the stage, Kessie started shouting, "Brother, Brother, Hi Brother!" She was pretty excited to see him. He did a fabulous job, and other than them all looking terrified, it was fun to watch.
The same night as the Christmas program, Lanny lost another tooth. He is super fond of the tooth fairy and concerned about her welfare, especially since it has been so cold. He made her his own recipe hot cocoa and left it for her. He also made me some, and wow!!! it's great if not interesting.

Cold...

Thought I'd show you what the kids made on Saturday. I saw these on the Scrapbooks Etc. website and thought they were adorable. Since my kids have all had colds and we couldn't go to the work party on Saturday, we crafted instead. I think they did a good job. All I did was cut the circles and glue on the snowflake.
It's been very, super, completely, amazingly cold here. Most nights with the windchill it goes to at least -20 F. Currently it is -2 but with windchill it is -16. Yippee!!! On Sunday, Lanny asked if we could go home and knit some sweaters for the chickens. If only I knew how to knit, oh well! But in case you are concerned, they are doing fine, but do wish we would let them out of their house! Hope the rest of the universe is staying warm!

Safety First

I bought Kessie a skirt at Walmart yesterday, mainly because it was on sale for a dollar. She put it on this morning, and as I suspected, it was too big around the middle. So holding her skirt up so it wouldn't fall off, she came out of her room and said, "Mom, I need a seat belt!" Yeah, she wasn't too happy at all my laughing..."Don't laugh at me, Mom!" I had to assure her I wasn't laughing at her and that something hysterical was going on outside our window. I got her a ribbon and we tied it around her to hold up her skirt. She looked pretty cute and was super proud, she even showed our missionaries, "Look, Elder Kay, I got a seat belt!"

The Stockings were Hung...

So last Sunday Aaron put up the Christmas tree. It's not decorated yet, but Lanny was really getting into the spirit of things and was trying so hard to get everything ready for Christmas. So, since I wouldn't put up decorations, he took matters into his own hands. He drew cute little decorations and hung the stockings! It was so cute, I want to leave them up, but I'm sure once I get out the real stockings, the kids will want those instead. Don't worry, the socks were clean!

;)

Yes, More

A few more. The point of the trip for the girls...riding the horses. They rode Maggie and Hoodoo. Grandma had to go catch the horses and bring them to the house. Kessie pointed out into the field, and said, "I like the blue one!" I agreed, he was my favorite too, unfortunately, he belonged to Slim (and was actually a buckskin). She still enjoyed riding the other ones. Louie is a natural on a horse. Grandma gave her a mini-riding lesson and she did great. Lanny also does great. He went from being terrified to asking to ride in just over a year! Unfortunately he didn't get to wear the hat while riding, since Maggie has a problem with things flying past her head and it was a bit breezy. He still looked like a cowboy to me.

...Beauty...

I love taking pictures of my kids. I went crazy with the camera while up at Karen's for Thanksgiving. The kids were happy, the weather was great, and of course, nature is beautiful. We had a great trip. We rode horses, fished, I went and saw "New Moon" with Debbie, ate turkey, had a game night (if you ever have the chance to play games with Grandma Clark...do it...she's hysterical!), and as you'll see from the picture, all of Karen's kids were there...so fabulous! So, on to pictures!

Bountiful Harvest

I'm falling behind in my pictures because we've taken so many lately. Aaron, Lanny, and Louie went hunting last Monday and Tuesday. It is becoming apparent that we now have to have a wild turkey for Thanksgiving. They loved it. Not only did they get both a turkey and a white-tail deer, they got to see some awesome scenery...I'm a bit jealous about that one. On Tuesday when I talked to Lanny on the phone, he even mentioned all the scenery...something to the effect of.."I guess we're just gonna take pictures for our whole lives!!!" He was mad at Aaron because Daddy kept stopping along the road to take pictures and Lanny wanted to be hunting those turkeys. No wasting time, just get to the hunting! We did eat the turkey, but compared to the 27 pound turkey that Karen cooked, ours looked a bit undernourished! Still tasted scrumptious, though! Happy late Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for all of you!

Perfect Princesses

Here are a couple shots of the girls party. We had a princess theme, shocker. They got to dress up and we did make-up and nails. Someone also stole Cinderella's slipper and so they had to go on a hunt for that. My favorite part was when Lanny asked me to buy him a wig so that he would fit in and be able to play the games too. No, I didn't buy him one, and he played the games anyway! I think it went well. The biggest hit was the cake. My sweet neighbor made it. When she brought it over a few days before the party the girls were squealing with delight. It was all I could do to keep them from eating it. Every time Kessie got a prize for something she would ask for cake. It did make it to the day of the birthday party, but we cut into it pretty quick!

Too Cute!

I'll post pictures of the girls' birthday party a little later, but I wanted to quickly write a few "cuties" that my kids have said or done. First, the kids have really been into playing "name that tune". One of them will hum a few notes and then have the other two try to guess what song it is. They were doing this at the breakfast table the other day and Kessie looked at me and said, "We will rock you! What's dat one, Mom?" I tried to pause for a moment and look contemplative, before my face lit up and I beamed, "We will, we will, rock you!" "You right!!!" Kessie exclaimed! Man am I good at this game. This is the only song that she ever does, so even though the first time I guessed the song it was extremely hard to figure out, it has since gotten a bit easier.
Next, please note the picture, (wow, that was a pun!). For the past few weeks Lanny has been obsessed with getting strong. He wants to become strong enough to lift a house. He has repeatedly asked me how to go about such a daunting task. I tell him he has to eat healthy, exercise, and lift weights. He keeps waiting for me to exercise with him, which, big shocker, never happens. So Sunday he took matters into his own hands. I heard some thumping upstairs and went up to investigate. Lanny was running back and forth, up and down the hallway. In the middle of the floor was this note that he wrote for himself.
Get Strong
Exercise
Lift Weights
Take a Walk and Jog
NOW!
He put it on a little note holder that he made out of wood and a nail. It now is on his headboard. He is determined. I know he will succeed. If you see someone who looks like the governor of California in Cheyenne, it's just Lanny!

Not Enough

If you thought that this was my blog, you were wrong. Apparently, I didn't put enough views of the boat up, so Aaron asked me to put a few more up. I would like to fill my blog with butterflies and flowers, instead there are boats and fish, but alas, I love what my family loves. So without further ado...

Sketch Challenge

I love this blog called Sketchy Thursdays. They have a lot of fun...sketches, of course, on it. Here is the picture I posted earlier of Grandpa and Kessie. I tried some glimmer mist on this one for the first time. Not sure that I like how it turned out, but I still love the picture. For other sketches, you can go to http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/.
P.S. Here's a quiz for everyone. What books are each author known for?

Two Boats?!?

Yep, it's true. Aaron got us another boat. Apparently he is now taking after the outdoor writer Patrick McManus who claims a man needs at least eight. We're well on our way. This boat is a pleasure boat, whereas the other one is a fishing boat. The kids are pretty thrilled. There is a place in the front to go in and lie down, if you're not claustrophobic, which I am. And according to Aaron, you can take the cushions out of the front and there is a hole you can use as a toilet. Yippee, a boat with a bathroom, we're set! I won't say much more, I'm too overcome with joy, but I can't wait for this summer when behind our truck we are pulling our trailer and not one but two boats...is that legal?

I'd Send It If I Could...

No, I haven't converted. I still don't shall we say, fully appreciate BYU, but I had to post this picture for Uncle George. So here's to you George, a BYU cake, that is way bigger than it needs to be. I'd send it to you, but I can't afford the shipping and handling. The BYU football team and coaches gave a fireside out here this last weekend. A man in our ward made the cakes. There were three huge ones apparently, and they only ate a small corner of one, so they had to find a home for the partially eaten cake. And...because we are cool, okay it's because the missionaries live with us, they brought it home for us (after giving some to other families in the ward). Elder Crawford told Louie that the frosting would turn her teeth blue and so that has been her goal all day. She has done nothing but eat frosting...gag! And yes, her whole mouth was sufficiently blue. Kessie went for the green look. Don't know how we're going to eat the rest of it...seriously, it's huge, but we'll give it our best effort!!!
Cheers George...too bad BYU isn't as good as this cake!

Happy Hallowe...I mean Birthday!

That's right, another birthday! Kessie is now my big, okay so she's still pretty little, three-year-old! She now is old enough to understand about birthdays, and she was so cute telling everyone, stranger, friend, telephone solicitor, that it was her "burday". She would proudly hold up two fingers and say, "I free!" Seriously, so cute! Our neighbors came trick-or-treating last night and we told them it was her birthday, they broke into song, a fantastic "Happy Birthday to You"...it was so sweet of them. When I asked Kessie what kind-of treat she wanted for her birthday she said, "cupcakes and lemonade", so we made cupcakes, but have yet to have the lemonade, or even blow out the candles. I don't feel too bad about that, seeing as how we've been singing "Happy Birthday" to her since Louie's birthday, and she's blown out candles on her muffins for a month now. She insists on a lit candle every time we have muffins...and she insists we sing as well. (Lanny got his birthday candles on a muffin, thus Kessie's tradition was born.) I wish everyday was my three-year-olds birthday. She's still so innocent and everything is joyous and exciting for her. Happy Birthday, Kessie...we love you!!!

Prepare for the Scare

WARNING: Due to it's scary nature some images might not be suitable for all viewers. I.E. we look pretty scary so be prepared!!!
Lanny decided he wanted to be a goblin for Halloween! Well great, but I have no idea what a goblin looks like so I asked him. "You know, Mom, they're green with long noses and bumps, and pointy ears...and naked!" Don't know if my son wants to become an exhibitionist, but I told him he could be one, only he couldn't be naked! Louie wanted to be a pumpkin, and Kessie wanted to be a princess. As I was buying make-up for Lanny's costume, the girls changed their minds. Suddenly a goblin was "the" thing to be. So okay! I have three scary goblins on my hands. I dyed the long underwear, and Kessie was showing it to Louie the morning after I did it and said, "Look, Louie, Mommy cooked our costumes!" (It requires a boiling process---I don't recommend it!) Kessie was so excited. As I got them ready for trick-or-treating last night, they had no thoughts of candy....seriously! All they wanted to do was scare people...because to them, they were terrifying. I kept telling them to growl when our neighbors opened the door, but they were afraid they actually might scare someone, so they stuck with the safe and un-scary "Trick-or-Treat". No one had a heart attack, so I guess they calmed the neighbors fears! I know I'm their mom, but they were so cute trying to be all fierce. Especially with their make-up, their eyes just glowed! There's something so exciting about dressing up and Halloween, it's so contagious! I didn't dress up, but definitely loved showing off my terrifyingly cute kids.



P.S. After I finished Kessie's make-up, she looked in the mirror. As she did so, I started to scream because she was so scary. She got a huge grin on her face and said, "Mommy, it's just me!" With that voice how could I mistrust a green-faced goblin!

Belated Birthday!

With all the craziness that goes on around here, I haven't put a picture up of my five-year-old! I know, totally crazy. Louie had a great birthday, however, she has commented several times that she is sad because she may be five, but she still looks like she's four. I tried to explain that you don't just change overnight, but to no avail, she's still crushed that she doesn't look five. Aaron thinks she looks like a fifteen year old, our children are growing up way too fast. Louie wanted a cheesecake for her birthday. We lit the candle and as we were singing (I was looking through a camera) the flame suddenly went out. Kessie had silently come around the table and blown out the candle. Louie was crushed. We, of course, lit it again, but I missed Louie blowing it out because I was still giggling. So happy birthday to my Louie! Super Duper Five!