My Favorite Kid....Just For Today! ;)

I have no idea where I was when the artsy fartsy creative genes were being handed out in heaven...I'm sure I was getting a diet coke in another line or something! Makes me sad and frustrated but mostly overwhelmed with all of my kids cutesy school projects. They're jipped in the cool creative mom department. I hope I make up for it in other areas

Today after I took my kids to school I decided to sort thru the never ending always reappearing paper pile by our computer. In it I saw Sawyer had a cute cut out blank guy with a note that said to please have him decorate this person over the weekend to represent his ancestors. And to please send it back Monday. DANGIT!! Today is Monday. And I already took Sawyer to school. And he doesn't have his guy-all decorated and ready to share with his class-and maybe he is sad. Once again he remembers he has a loser mom. My kids need a therapist-or even better a support group. I hope there are other kids somewhere that suffer from the same issues my kids do.

Today was super busy-I got everything accomplished and picked my kids up from school. I apologized to Sawyer and asked how things went. He shared the stories of what he learned from his friends. When I handed him his guy we talked about Sweden...and England...and Norway. I mentioned he could always make it into a Viking. His eyes lit up and he said, "I will get Shaylee to help me!" (Didn't even hurt my feelings he didn't ask me for help-he and I both know better!)

It was fun to watch her go to work and help him.....and his Viking is pretty darn cool. So grateful for these kids-that they all have something different to offer our family. Today I am SO GLAD I HAVE SHAY!!! The cardboard box messes get a little old but dang she knows how to pull of a great art project!!!

The finished Viking-I ALWAYS POST MY PICS IN THE WRONG ORDER!!! Too lazy to upload again-start at the bottom picture if you want to see them the way I wanted them....you get the point!
Priceless! Just google a Viking and she can create it....he even got a red beard out of chopped up yarn! ;)

Happy Birthday Casey!

January is inventory at Casey's work....it's kept him super busy! The kids & I decided to throw a "surprise party" for him last Saturday with just our little family. Can you guess who took charge of decorations and activities? Yep! Shay! She got the kids to help her make a shooting range out of the cardboard from pizza boxes....Casey could shoot the animals with his new marshmellow gun or Sawyer's elastic gun from Cabellas. So funny! He had a blast! We are so lucky to have Casey-he's an awesome husband and amazing dad. He works hard for us and loves us. I am glad my kids can sense that and that they are willing to go the extra mile to make his day special. We think he's awesome! ;)

Clint stopped by and wanted to play....don't they look cool? ;) Not sure if they liked shooting the elk, deer & bear complete with REAL grass on the counters or the ducks hanging from the ceiling more!? :)

Merry Christmas 2010!

We had a fabulous Christmas!!! This is always my favorite picture-after all the hard work of finding just the perfect gift for each one of our kids it's fun to have a picture of the complete Christmas before it's all unwrapped...especially since I am not a huge fan of wrapping presents. ;) Please notice our white trashness....makes me laugh....see our "mantel"?? We had some awesome friends trade a fireplace for a deer mount (thanks ShaLae) but haven't had time to get it all hooked up and finished. I couldn't figure out where to hang our stockings-I thought I was hilarious to put them on the fireplace. We've never had a fireplace-someday it will work-until then might as well use what we've got, right?

Christmas Eve.....getting ready to open our Christmas Eve Jammies!
Christmas morning.....

Santa only brings 1 gift to our house. I hate the things come easy image Santa brings-and I sorta want credit for what I buy! ;) Since almost all of our gifts are under the tree and we want our kids to leave gifts alone we never put their names on their gifts. Last year we labeled each gift with a candy bar name that was code for their name....on Christmas morning whichever candy bar they opened told them which gifts were theirs. Make sense? So this year we did soda pop. We didn't wrap the 2 litre bottles-Casey had them each grab a 2 liter bottle and had an evil plan of saying "2 of you have the right 1...2 of you don't. Switch. K-1 of you has the right 1, 3 of you don't. Switch. K-none of you have the right 1. Switch." He loves to tease. Funniest thing ever-every kid grabbed a 2 litre bottle and they were all holding the one that was their "code"....Casey was super disappointed and I got a really good laugh! I love the fun traditions and memories of Christmas!!! So grateful for these awesome kids that make it so darn fun.

Finally Legal!!!

My kids are teeny tiny people. Their mom used to be teeny tiny but that's another story for another day. Oh well. Skinny is over rated. And exercise? One day I will love it. Whatever.

You all know I am a tiny bit overprotective. Paranoid even. I think I stress people out when they have my kids! Sorry about that. Carseats and booster seats are a MUST. Not optional. The law to be able to just wear a seatbelt and not be in a booster is that you have to weigh 80 pounds. When Alyssa turned 12 she was only 60 pounds. At 13 she was 65 pounds. I wondered if I was making the wrong decision by letting her just wear a seatbelt-how humiliating to ride in a booster to young women activities! It has really given me anxiety. I never want to face a situation that could have been prevented by simply being a little more careful. That stresses me out. We've always joked about how funny it would be to send Alyssa to prom with her booster! We laughed really hard-she didn't.

On Christmas day Alyssa stood on her grandma's scale and guess what!!??? Drumroll please....SHE WEIGHS 80 POUNDS!!! We thought this day would never ever ever come. So nice to know she's legal now and that we aren't taking unneccessary risks!

So this is Uncle Corey showing how amazingly strong he is. He can lift Alyssa with only 2 fingers holding each elbow. Not sure if this shows his super power muscles OR if Alyssa was a good choice to demonstrate with. Next time we see him I will have to see if he can do the same thing with me! ;)