Oh nooooo.... Blogger has change it's format on me! Now to figure out their new system. Once I do I will add what has been happening over the past few months.

I was very fortunate to find Evan on some You Tube listings. Not sure how to add them to my blog if I even can, but here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=LLt3PTj9BeaIU55i7zwDVmGA

If you can't click on it directly from here you can go and look at them on you tube.
I found it amazing that I could locate him at all. Luckily someone had posted on the New Hope group for another video they had added... that helped lead me there.

Did I Mention We had a White Christmas???

Well I wish I had posted this one before the last post, but since I didn't here this goes....

When I woke up on Christmas Morning I discovered on the way to make coffee that we had had snow. Not much at first, but as the day went we got more and more. This made Mike one happy man. He lives for snow. The kids enjoyed playing in it as I took photos. But this all happened after we opened up presents.



My morning was really pretty neat....
I stood in the dark thinking of making the coffee when all of the sudden I heard the back bedroom door open and shut. There were tippy toes coming into the family room where the fireplace is. I saw Wendy holding brothers hand and explaining to him in a whisper that Santa had eaten the cookies and left stuff in the stockings. She turned and tip toed toward our side of the house but before she could see me I ducked behind the counter. Very quietly she said lets go and wake momma and daddy up. We always try to see who can say "Christmas Gift" before the other (this is a long time family tradition on my families side). Along the way they kinda missed that Santa had left some pretty awesome presents out. I tried to trail behind but my boy has a keen since of presence so that didn't work out. hehehe

I beat them at saying "Christmas Gift" and then I told them to hurry and beat daddy. They did and you could hear the giggles.... so precious!

I proceeded to ring the jingle bells to get the big girls up and I beat them saying it. HAHA!! They in turn tried to beat dad and the little's. Fun morning!!!! Here are photos of our morning. It is a shame I didn't have the camcorder running for the little ones coming in on Christmas Morning.

The Holidays Come to an End

We actually have had one of the best Christmas' in a long while. Everyone got along and if something did arise it was solved very quickly. :) It really seemed to fly by this time! Mike was on call and it was just absolutely wonderful to not get any phone calls on Christmas morning. The New Year was just a great. With an extra week off we had time to put things away, but are still not quite finished.
Funny for as much as I love Halloween.... I just don't have as much to put out in the decoration way. Christmas is one of those I love, but not as much as Halloween. The stress always seems to be way more during the Christmas Holiday. I had wanted to have guests in unfortunately that didn't work out since our house even though well endowed with decorations was always kept a mess with the two little's and two big's home. Dad was off more than he has been before; so we all let our hair down and enjoyed lots of home cooking. With that brought lots of dirty dishes to wash.... that was my chore. YUCK!!!
We went to see my mom and brother along with his wife and baby the first weekend of Dec. It was great getting to see them and play with baby Chelsea. We managed to see the REAL Santa Claus at North Park Mall.

Tomorrow is the first day back to school and Wendy is ready for it! My kids love being at school and love being back around their friends. Lucky for me they both behave better there too. LOL!
Dance begins tomorrow for both of them and Evan will go back to his school on Tuesday. It will feel absolutely weird around here, but imagine all I can get done. ha

I forgot to mention the weekend we headed to my moms Wendy had her allergy testing done. It wasn't fun for her since everything they exposed (pricked) her back to she turned red and itchy from. At least we know now what all she is allergic to....
Cats are the BIGGIE!!! Dust, Dust Mites, Bed Bugs, Pollen, Roach droppings are some of the biggest ones. Thank goodness that she isn't allergic to foods!!! They put her on Allegra and Nose spray and so far for 4 weeks she has been doing really well. Believe it or not I have a photo of her back! Mind you this photo was taken 5 seconds after they did the test and then left it on for 10 min.


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Late Halloween Photos....

ASTA needs help

Our daughter Holly has a request. Her little pup Asta has been diagnosed with patellar luxation. Her knees keep sleeping out of joint and is causing this little thing pain. Holly is a Grad Student and is low of funds. Please find it in your heart to help. No amount is too small, every penny helps.
Holly and I found Miss Asta at the Animal Shelter and rescued her. She was nothing but fur and bones that day. Poor little thing was only 5 months old and had been found dumped. I can't imagine no one not loving this precious pup. She knows no stranger.
Please click on the title above to go to the link. I know these are hard times, but like I said even the smallest of donations helps. Please feel free to share with your friends.

At the Request of a Friend....

I'm going to update. I'm so very sorry not to keep up with this. I guess life and fb have taken over....
For those of you who follow along, I'm truly sorry I'm so bad at blogging. I really need to do this more for my children's sake. I so want to turn this into a book, but haven't a clue how to go about it. I have looked into it, but as understanding exactly how to go about it just isn't there for me. I'll have to see if I can just sit down while Evan and Wendy are both in school for the day.

Our fall has been extremely busy, but what's new right? The week before Evan's 5th birthday our oldest daughter moved home. Finding jobs in Dallas wasn't working at all; so she is looking here and doing some deep thinking of maybe going back for her masters. Not sure, but at least she is here and has a roof over her head.

Evan turned 5 last month and we were going to have his party here at the house. Our theme was "Carnival". With Lacy moving in we had boxes everywhere; so it wasn't a good plan to have it at the house. We moved it to the park near our school. It just happened to be very hot that day unfortunately. Evan got sick from the heat and we had to bath him down with a cold towel. After sitting in the shade for a bit he started feeling better. I have never had one of mine get so sick on their party day... Of course we were worried about his little heart at that rate. We had a bounce house and several carnival games, but the favorites were the clown pinata and pin the tail on the donkey. Funny how the old games were the best loved. Can you believe that many of the children didn't know what pin the tail on the donkey was? It is a shame our children of today are so into electronics and not the good old fashioned play. Mine are guilty too, but when it comes to parties we go into our old party game mood. Lacy made his cake with a little help from Holly and me... I had found this idea in the Wilton Cake book of long ago... It was a car with clowns poking out of the windows and sunroof. It turned out to be one of the cutest cakes we've had. It also prompted Lacy into getting classes at Michaels for cake decorating. His actual birthday was on a Tuesday. I told him we would fix his favorite meal for his real day... He then said "You mean I turn 6". Oh my he just doesn't understand birthdays yet. :) I bet next year it will sink in. He even has trouble with going to friends parties thinking it is his birthday again. LOL

On Columbus weekend we went to Colorado to ride the Cumbres Toltec Train. It turned cool compared to here and we were lucky enough to pack warm things. The early morning Saturday we got to see heavy snow fall in Alamosa. It snowed in the mountains and we got to see the snow on the beautiful fall foliage on the Aspens. My word how beautiful the Aspens were!! We saw Prong Horn Deer, Elk, and a Coyote. I love riding the train, but not as much as Mike. Evan and Wendy enjoyed it so much, but NO ONE LOVES it more than MIKE!! I go along for the scenery! This was the first trip we have taken with just the 2 little ones in a long while.

Over this past weekend we went to the pumpkin farm. We had more fun than I expected. The kids again had fun just doing simple things... Like checking out the bunnies at bunnyville,riding a John Deere Trike around a cool track, Tractor wagon ride, a cool obstacle course with a glide wire,that both accomplished, and bouncing on an air pillow (which I really wish we had one), Ducky Derby racing... this is where they put the rubber duck on a metal track and pulled a hand crank water pump; the fast you pumped the water the fast the duck moved to the other end. Not an easy feat. Then they climbed a hay pyramid and a large hill with a slide. After this we went over to the Hayride out to the corn maze and then to the pumpkin patch. We had a hard time with the maze and decided to back track out. Next off to pick out our pumpkin; well we got more than one... We thought we were spending a lot, but our load only cost us 35.00's when anywhere else would be selling them for much more. We got many different sizes. Lacy had a wonderful time and so did Mike and I, but the two little ones really had a good time. I do believe we will be having Evan's 6th birthday party here next year.

I've also added our pumpkin photos and one of Evan on his first school field trip.

School is going well for both kiddos. Dance has been busy and life is just a blur at times. Isn't life grand!