Kaden's Valentine's Party

Kaden has the best teacher out there! Not only is she incredible with the students and does a wonderful job teaching and encouraging them, she's also a party animal. Ha! I love it! For Valentine's Day I planned a bunch of games for the kids. We broke the class up into teams and played a Famous Couples game where the kids had to complete the grouping. For example...I say cookies, the kids write milk. You get the picture right? Well I added a few trickier couples. Bare in mind these are 2nd and 3rd graders. So I said, Romeo and believe it or not 2 teams came up with Juliette. Not bad. So next I said, Bella. It took them a second, but of course my friend Nichole's daughter Anna wrote down Edward. Ha!!! It was so funny. In fact her team was awarded a bonus point! The other surprise I had was when I said Barbie, and it took the kids forever to come up with Ken. Hello??? Mrs. Randklev and I were in shock. Seriously when did Ken fade into the nonexistent?

After the Famous Couples game we moved into the gym for a few rowdier games. It was awesome! Kids were running, screaming and laughing. We made it out with no blood, but a few tears. Freakin Girls! One kid totally took a solid elbow to the eye and cried less than the girl who thought the other team was cheating. Mercy!

Before we headed back to the classroom Mrs. Randklev had the class run a lap around the school to work off a little of their sugar fueled energy. She's very wise!

We ended the day with the game Who Do You Love? It was so fun. Only problem was when the kids discovered how fun it was to be it and the little buggers wouldn't find a seat. Kaden was it several times. The boy's got a lotta love!
The party was a success. And now I'm gearing up for St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, you know we gotta party it up for that day! Bust out the green Kool-Aide and gold foil chocolate coins. Sounds like a party to me! The class room was a bit of a mess by the time the party was complete, luckily it's easy to get cleaned up with 28 little homeys around to help! Nice work Kaden!

Ethan's 2nd Birthday

My sweet baby boy is now a sweet toddler. My how time flies. Jason woke up early and made a special birthday breakfast for Ethan. Apparently Ethan never got the memo as he slept in until after 10, long after Jason had to leave for work. The chocolate chip pancakes were wonderful even a few hours later. Ethan was rockin the bed head look!

We spent the day doing Ethan's favorite things. We had lunch at McDonald's, played at Grandma Marley's and had hot dogs and macaroni & cheese for dinner. It was a great day.

Yeah presents!!
Trucks, trucks and more trucks!

Ethan was in the zone lining up his new trucks.

Happy Birthday little man!

Shiny Toy Guns

Look out world...Hottie with a gun! That's right, I'm armed and dangerous. I was invited by my boss to go out shooting. I use the term out loosely, as we went to the indoor range, which I highly recommend! I hadn't been shooting in forever and it was so much fun! That's me bustin' a cap with my Kimber 1911 .45. Yep I'm sooo thug!
Diana and I are pretty deadly. That's her target she destroyed with a 22 rifle, and my target from Mike's old school 35. It was a good ole' gun. Ok, it's kinda hard to tell, but I was about 1/2 inch away from the X. Boo Yah!!

Yeah, I wouldn't mess with McDonald's, we are hard core!

So the scope on Mike's rifle is pretty sweet. I had a hard time at first finding the target, but once I located it, I annihilated it. Bang Bang!

Oh mercy those safety glasses are h.o.t. HOT! Whatev I rocked 'em!

Lunch Time

Lunch time has been so comical as of late. Ethan's been improving his etiquette skills daily!

Observe his doggie dish technique.

The "tip it" method.

Here he demonstrates the proper use and his mastery of the fork.

The ever popular slurp system!
He knows to keep his elbows off the table, but who said anything about your knees?

Day 2: Spaghetti-O's.

Maybe next week we'll work on napkin usage...or not, that's too dang cute!

Snow Shoeing

I finally made it out snow shoeing with Jason. For one reason or another I haven't been out for a few years, and it was great to get to do it again. It was pretty cold the day we went and I was worried about freezing but about 1/4 mile into our trip I was hot (well, I'm always hot, but this time I was really hot.)

A few years back we hiked up Indian and walked the ridge to Old Tom and down to the freeway, so I thought it would be fun to do it again. Of course the first time we did it, it was summer. We knew it was about a 7 mile trip but I was feeling up for it. Like my wardrobe change?
I think sometimes we forget how beautiful the landscape is around us and we take it for granted. It's not so very difficult to see the grandeur of the land when you are alone with it. Like that pink sky? So pretty. Thank you photo shop**wink wink**

We got up on the final push to the summit and it got nasty. The wind picked up and was blowing ice crystal at about 50 mph. Not to mention it was frickin' freezing. Ok, I try to be all hard core on occasion, but as we were heading up this I swear I heard something growl at us. Quickly I combined that with all the tracks we had been seeing, added the fact that we forgot my pistol, calibrated how quickly I can't run in snow shoes and deduced that hike time was over. I don't play close encounters with wild life. I yelled at Jason who was leading the way that I was done. He just smiled and said ok, and we turned around about 200 vertical feet from the summit. I've never not summited, but I value staying intact as opposed to being torn apart by a wild beast. Maybe that's a tad dramatic, but better to be safe than sorry.

Thanks Jason for listening to me and not making me feel like a big ole wuss for freaking out. Oh and for finding our way back to the car!
The sky was so pretty that day as we watched a storm circle around us. We only saw the sun for a brief moment and Jason captured it. What a lovely picture.

This is a little video of where we were. Jason just missed filming me eat it as I was making my way down the hill. It was a fortunate fall however, because I figured out how to "ski" down the hill on my snow shoes. It was much more fun after that.

Christmas 2009

I'm finally getting Christmas posted. We had a great Christmas this year. As the boys get older Christmas just gets more and more fun. Christmas Eve was full of activity getting ready for Santa. Kaden and Jase both wanted to write Santa a letter to go with his plate of cookie (reduced fat Oreo's cuz that's Santa's favorite).

Jase wanted to draw a picture, so he made Santa his specialty, a tornado.

Christmas Eve night is the easiest night of the year to get the kids to stay in bed. They are so excited to get to bed so they can wake up. Plus Santa is really watching that night and they made sure they stayed in their room until 7. Jase was super excited to get a guitar. Rock star!

We tried to impress on the kids the true meaning of Christmas and not focus on gifts. When the boys woke up Kaden looked under the tree and said, "It's a Christmas miracle." Apparently we had done too good of job with the whole gifts aren't what Christmas is all about. Kaden was sure he wasn't getting anything. Ooops.

Kaden was most excited about the table Jason built him in the basement for his train set he got for Christmas the year prior. That is the face of one happy kid!

Ahhhh, see they are grateful!

Ethan finally woke up for Christmas about 10:00 (love that little boy). He received many many many trucks, and he couldn't have been more happy!
More presents!
Ethan was too cute Christmas morning.
Jason's parents got him a new drill/saw/sander thingy...I'm not really sure what it is, but he was very excited about it. As quickly as he opened it he was cutting wood in the basement, sanding some slate on the fireplace, and then he went at my dad's feet...yeah not really sure how that transition was made, but whatev!
My dad has very ticklish feet and he was laughing so hard, it was pretty funny.
After Christmas breakfast which we have with my parents every year we made our way over to the Byrd's. Traditionally we draw names and make that individual a home made gift. I drew Melissa's name and since I've been baking a lot lately I thought it would be fun to make her some cookie dough to bake up whenever she liked. I think she was pretty happy with it.
Ahhhh Boyd, Mr. Christmas spirit himself!

Ethan with another truck!

Presents for the boys.

Jason's mom drew him this year and she made him a lovely denim quilt. He's been waiting for years for her to get him so she would make him one. He was quite happy!

Ethan was quite happy with the quilt as well!

After lunch at the Byrd's it was time for Christmas dinner at the Marley's. My mom requested my amazing apple pie for dessert this year. It tasted even better than it looked, I wouldn't know for sure I didn't eat it...pie yuck. But I love to make them!

Where's the beef?!? There's the beef! Ahhh yeah! I made a beautiful prime rib roast, and I did eat this one and trust me it was even tastier than it looks! Soooo good!

You know it! That's a Snuggie! HOT!

Lane and Serena got mom that Snuggie, but Serena kind of took it over. I don't blame her, all kidding aside they are incredibly comfy. And I was a bit sad I was one of the few people who didn't get one. Oh well...maybe next year.

It truly was a wonderful Christmas this year. We were blessed to spend time with our family and share in each other's love. Many gifts were exchanged and memories were made as we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you to all of those that have touched our lives this year and may you all be blessed with the Lord's most choice blessings in the year to come!