Indoor football

When I bought the flag football set for Cade for Christmas my goal was for the boys to play OUTSIDE!!! They could gather their neighborhood friends and burn off energy and enjoy the game of football. Little did I know that it would be raining for days on end and the field would be set up in my living room with dad as the opposing team. Let me remind you that dad has deemed this the "no-kids" room not because our couches are free from stains or the carpet is clear of any mysterious spots. He just likes one room in our quaint home to remain clutter free unless, that is, if it is being used as our football field. Before I could even get the dishes cleared from the table the game was set up and on with Aric/Avery vs. Dad. Cade got to view from the sidelines (dinner table) because he refused to eat the lasagna that dad cooked for dinner. Which by the way was fabulous with the Bruschetta that he made from scratch. It didn't last long before we had flags thrown and the word "cheater" thrown around. The kids were no match for dad and I believe his ending words were "I own you!"

2:38am

That was the time that our eldest decided to quietly creep into our room, come to MY side of the bed and gently tap me on the shoulder trying to wake me from a dead sleep to see if we could open Christmas presents. He just as quietly retreated back to his room after being shut down. At 4ish I heard our door squeak again and rolled over to greet his sweet face and remind him that it was not time yet. Six o'clock didn't get by either with out him trying to rouse us from our slumber. Finally at 7:30am he joined forces with his brother and sister and succeeded in getting us out of bed and to the tree. Boxes and wrapping paper everywhere it was over in a flash and everyone was happy (except dad who has the privilege of "some assembly required").

After our lazy morning we headed over to my parents house to celebrate the day with them, my sisters family and my grandparents who were rescued earlier this week from the snow thankfully by Jess. We filled ourselves with our traditional fondue, twice baked potatoes and jello salad. Later we topped it off with Jenelle's homemade pumpkin cheesecake. YUMMY! Due to the severe heat wave, that is my mother's house, the little kids and big kids quickly opted to head outside and take full advantage of the four-wheeler and snow.

Konnichi wa!

For those that may not know Konnichi wa is hello in Japanese and that is where are Christmas Eve began. We spent a great evening at Bush Gardens with Jess' family where we ate and drank until we were merry. Although we were a bit worried about food choices for the kiddo's it turned out to be no problem and the boys couldn't get enough! Shoes were a no no which for my kids is awesome plus we had our own dining room and sat on pillows. Once we were back home the kids could hardly wait to open gifts and among the favorites were legos, electric scooters, drum set and for Avery her new stuffed puppy and a Husker cheerleading outfit. We are very blessed and had a wonderful night.

Twice in one week!

Not even pizza is easy for me.

I bet you didn't believe it could happen but it did. Dinner is ruined again and Papa Murphy comes to the rescue! I am SO glad I have them on speed dial! After my husband took a two hour trip in the snow to pick me up from work today we stopped by the store to pick up a quick and easy lasagna dinner. We made it home and I started preheating the oven only to discover that this quick dinner takes TWO hours to cook when it's frozen. Woops! That was definitely not the easy answer. I dialed up our favorite and cheap stand-by and Jess is out the door to pick it up. Soon after he left I started smelling smoke. I didn't think much of it as I cooked Carmel corn the night before and thought a few kernels must have dropped on the bottom of the oven. No worries. Then I started seeing smoke coming out of the oven door and the air vent. Not to panic I quickly opened the door to find billowing smoke pouring out everywhere. I then found the pan to the Carmel corn with small flames all around it still sitting in the oven. I wish this was a scratch and sniff because my pizza just isn't tasting the same and my quick and easy dinner has now cost me around $30. We should have just gone out in the first place.

Ham

Ever cooked it? That's the beauty of ham it's precooked! At least that's what I thought when I decided to pull out a ham for dinner last night. It's amazing in itself that I actually thought ahead as far as what's for dinner but none the less I still managed to screw it up. We all know I'm no Betty Crocker when it comes to making meals but I did pull out the old cook book to see how exactly I'm supposed to heat up this ham. I easily flipped to the meat section and found the roasting guide, set the oven temp, turned on the timer and waited eagerly for the delicious smell of cooking ham. My first clue that something had gone terribly wrong should have been that there was no delicious smell of ham when the timer beeped. Second clue was that my ham was only slightly warm to the touch after an hour and half in the oven. What happened you asked? Did I throw a fit and rant and rave about hating to cook? Did I threaten that we needed to go out to dinner because I screwed up again? Yes, to all of the above. I'm sure you are wondering what went wrong and thankfully I'm able to laugh at myself and will explain. My first error was that dreaded cookbook. I wasn't aware that the "internal temp" of the ham should be 140 degrees instead of the oven. Second error is that they have the nerve to wrap that stupid ham in plastic which does not cook very well in an oven. Third error is that I thought this was going to be an easy dinner. After my minor melt down and the fact that my sweet husband was dressed and ready to go out if needed WE managed to salvage my ham by quickly slicing it up and throwing it on the BBQ for all to enjoy.

What were they thinking????

Who would do such a thing as put gravel on icy roads??? That is exactly what my kids woke up to this morning. They are obviously upset but have found new ways of sledding down the sidewalks. Anything to keep them from climbing the walls because of being cooped up and home from school.

Oh Christmas Tree.....

Don't let the smiling faces fool you. Our tree hunt wasn't always filled with oh so much merry or joy. It pretty much started off with a melt down on the car ride there (the child's name will be omitted to protect their privacy). That issue was solved by the time we got there however, and for a short while things were going great. We got our saw and tarp and headed off into the trees. The boys had their annual chase/hide-and-go-seek game with dad. Avery and I wondered aimlessly through 100's of trees. It wasn't until it came down to which tree we were going to pick did the arguing start. This one is too tall, too short, too fat, too skinny, why don't you ever pick the tree I like?, the top is not right and so on... After all of that a tree is somehow agreed upon and the boys get to work sawing it down. This is their first year working together to try and cut it down and by no surprise to me it didn't go very well. They started off great but attitudes came quick and then the tears followed. Jess and I stood by giggling to ourselves thinking WOW THIS IS FUN! After what seemed like a lifetime the tree fell over and the three of them carried it to the car. Amazingly the tears dried up at the mention of free candy canes and all was right in the world again. Somehow I think we will definitely remember these tree hunts.

MIA

Yep, I've been Missing In Action because nothing is going on around here. Shocking I know but ever since football season ended we actually have stayed home. No women's bible study, no life group, no sports (except basketball just started), no shopping......nothing. I'm beginning to think it's not such a good thing. I've become a hermit which has put me in not so much of a good mood. Definitely something to work on.

Trick-or-Treat

After all these years of trick-or-treating I have never walked with the kids door-to-door. Jess was always the one to endure the rain, sleet and bitter coldness. :-) Except this year Jess was gone elk hunting which meant my turn is now. In the beginning I thought it would be fun. That is until I was driving in the down pour of rain taking Avery to preschool realizing soon I would be out walking in it. In a bit of a panic I contemplated taking them to Target and letting them each pick out there own bag of candy or heading to the mall with the rest of the parents that wanted to stay dry or pretending that I looked at the calendar wrong and it wasn't Halloween at all. Thankfully the rain stopped by late afternoon and it turned out to be a beautiful night with only sweatshirts to keep us warm. We headed out around 6:30 and the kids barely slowed down the whole night. I'm pretty sure we made it to every house that had their lights on and finally back home around 9:00pm. Lucky for me I was the only candy inspector! YUM!!

Look who's 9!!

It's hard to believe he has been here for nine years and then other days it's not. :-) When Aric was little a lady told me once that she could tell exactly what he would look like when he was older. I laughed and smiled not exactly sure I could see what she was seeing. Now looking at his pictures from birth to nine I understand. He is my only dark haired, chubby cheeked cutie that has a smile that lights up the day. He is my adventurer, creator and leader of the pack. He talks non-stop and of course LOVES football. Happy Birthday Aric!

Birthday Parties

I am going to be completely honest and admit that I STRONGLY DISLIKE kids parties (Jess said I shouldn't say hate.) Don't get me wrong the kids were good but everything about these parties STRESSES ME OUT! I can say this because today was Aric's "kid" birthday party. I'm pretty sure it's the NOISE, chaos, NOISE, food, NOISE, smelly boys, NOISE, all in all craziness and did I mention the NOISE??? We had 7 nine-year old boys ride the bus home after school today to enjoy pizza, brownies, icecream and then off to laser tag. It was all I could do to keep from climbing the walls. Imagine 7 boys playing Rock Band all wanting to be lead singer or a game of football where it takes 30 minutes to decide who is on who's team. PLEASE! When does this stop? I know I need to get a grip but I can feel the number of invitees dwindling in the years to come. Like, lets say maybe one person.....would that be mean? Here is a short video of our car ride to laser tag....I think you will understand about the volume.

Cardboard Testimonies

I first saw this video on my cousins blog and thought it was AMAZING so I thought I would "pay it forward".

A hunting we will go....

One of the requirements of my marriage was that I would be able to "camp out" for at least 7 days without running water, hot showers, telephones, etc... After 12+ years I think I've passed. It's not every one's idea of a dream vacation but I can tell you that this was one of the best and we didn't even get any deer. You might be asking yourself what is so great? I'll try and sum it up for you: no schedules, no practices, no computers, no telephones, endless football games, mini bikes, hiking, BB guns, Dinosaur adventures, movie night, family, friends, sleeping in, going to town for icecream, riding in the back of the truck, reading books, coloring, card games, smores, snow ball fights, snow cones, wood stoves, no diets and endless amounts of candy! Who could ask for anything more.

Can you say OUCH!

Yep! Those are three pins you're looking at in Avery's elbow. The unfortunate fall from the monkey bars happened around 7:30pm on Monday night and she was in surgery by 11:30pm. My little monkey had just learned how to cross the lower monkey bars a few weeks ago and on this particular night she was determined to go for the big ones. Sadly she didn't make it and fell breaking and displacing both bones right above the left elbow. She is a trooper though and barely even cried, just went to sleep for most of it all. Right now she has a cast from her shoulder to her fingers until her swelling goes down and then gets the new cast this Monday for 3-4 more weeks. If you thought this was going to slow her down.... you're wrong. She is still crazy as ever but maybe a little more cautious for awhile.....we hope.

Race for the Cure 2008

Today was the Race for the Cure and we celebrated by walking with Jess' mom who is a one year survivor! Our team name: The Half Rack's and don't be fooled Marlene actually picked out that name. We were proud to wear it and another walker even took the shirt off my back for her mom who is also a "half rack". Vicki Ann has put together our team for the last two years and has done a fabulous job joining family and friends. So if you have never walked think about it for next year!

CAVS football

The boys are doing great at football. Aric is playing both offense and defense and can't get enough football. If he is not at practice or a game he is constantly talking about football, tossing the football in the house or tackling his sister. I knew he liked the sport but I never thought to this degree. Cade is playing flag football this year and loves it because he gets to run. He is pretty quick and seems to be hard to catch which is a good thing. :-) And yes, that is coffee he is drinking. Apparently when you forget the water bottles it's the next best energy drink!