Christmas Vacation

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It seems like it takes forever to get everything prepared and then it is over in the blink of an eye, much like a wedding. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house with my dad's side of the family and visited and ate until our belly's hurt. I had the best pumpkin "dump" dessert ever while I was there and I am hoping Rachel will so kindly share the secret of the dump. After everyone left the kids opened their Christmas Eve gift which every year happens to be the same thing, pajama's and slipper, however after all the consecutive years of this happening they seem to still be surprised. I am sure next year they will have it nailed. Then on Christmas day we spent the day with my brother and his kids, my grandma, and parents. I can't believe how big Kye, Zoe, and MaKenna are each time I see them. I shoved them out in the snow for a Christmas photo. Take note of Lex in her Christmas eve jammies, not coat.

Alexyss scored roller skates from grandma and grandpa and have not taken them off since we got home. Thanks so much mom and dad :) She is getting better but I fear bilateral broken wrists or a hole in my wall sometime soon.

Oh and I wanted to share a picture of my Dad at Christmas. I believe 50% or maybe more like 62% of my photos of him appear much like this one. He shared with me after my complaints that Grandma Golda's photos were much the same. I guess I can't blame him if it is a genetic defect. I love you dad!

Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas. My mom was a saint getting up at the crack of dawn to start the turkey since we had to leave LG by 2 to be home so I could nap a little before work. Dinner was fabulous, the company great and now I am glad it is over and we can get the kids back to school (in a week) and start to get ready for our trip. Happy New Year to you all as well since I most likely will not post before them due to a hectic work schedule.

Merry Christmas!!

We just want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We hope everyone will take the time to remember the true meaning of Christmas and enjoy the time you are able to spend with family and friends.

Pathetic! We have another Lemon (aka Myah Lemon). This is what she does when we make her go outside in the snow. She sits on the steps and stares in the window or paws at the door. That's it I want a refund!

Here is the snowfall accumulated for the weekend so far. We get to go x-country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling right out our front door. Today the neighbor was hauling the kids around town on sleds attached to his snowmobile. I was even able to sneak a little ride in. I have to say we are having a blast with the snow.

And a picture of my husbands "kill". He and the kids even decorated it while I was at work. I guess he wanted ALL the credit this year. We hope everyone is enjoying their beautiful White Christmas!

Annual Christmas Tree Hunt

This past Sunday we squeezed in our annual tree hunt. I got home from work that morning and had a monstrous headache, not to mention Tob and the children needed to search the area for Tiger Lemon's "real home" so I snoozed until they woke me up at 1:00 to go find our tree. I have to say that "usually" I have the most perfect, patient husband who waits for me to pick the perfect tree. It often goes on for hours something like this, "Oh look at that one", "wait no not that one", "nah that one is flat on one side", "what about this one", "nevermind it has a big hole", "oh oh lets go look at that one", until we end up miles from the car. Well, that wasn't exactly the case this year. First of all we ended up in a large batch of lodge pole and a few ponderosa pines, not my ideal choices for tree's. So the story starts off with...

the kids tromping off in their snowshoes, not so much I think to find a tree, but to roll, stomp, jump, push and shove each other in the snow. Whatever, as long as they were having fun. This is all about our memories so I am not going to try and sugar coat this. Our trip made me laugh at the time and I still laugh about it now. Tob was a "little" grumpy that morning, due to whatever, that's his prerogative to have days as such. Anyway we were out in the woods probably 2-3 hours, the dog wouldn't listen, or the kids, which precipitated comments such as these.... "hurry up" "stop throwing a fit" "get up out of the snow, your going to get wet", " I am sick and I am tired of this behavior" . Most of the time I was laughing although I know a few of the comments came out of me as well :0). Anyway with all of this going on Toby had disappeared into the tree's and Nojah yells "Dad's cutting down a tree"!! I thought "WHAT? I didn't authorize that?? So I go running over and sure enough Tob has made a decision and is hard at work sawing down some random tree. After he was done I asked "Did you just cut down a tree without asking me?" and his reply "YEP" "Merry Christmas"! Huh? This is a little out of character for him which made it even funnier, at least to me. On a positive note, I was lucky enough to get the best Christmas video ever in the process. So here is the annual family picture. Yes I know, I wasn't included and I am ok with that because this year was so ummm "memorable"!?

And here is the tree that was drug in unison to the car by both Toby and Alexyss. Later when I asked him how he found it he said "it was one of the only two fir tree's he saw on our hunt". I'll forgive him this year as it has turned out to be a pretty good tree.

So the story ends with the kids in the car, Nojah crying with frost bitten hands and Alexyss starting on the bag of goodies. Tob just happy the hunt is over and so proud of his kill.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! BAH HUMMBUG!

Tiger Lemon Update

Tiger Lemon spent 2 nights with us before we took her to the shelter. Unfortunately the shelter was closed the day we drove an hour to get there. I stopped by the vet's office and our WONDERFUL friend Jeanne took her in for the night and offered to drop her off at animal shelter the next morning if she didn't find her a home first. I have been working so I haven't called her to see how things went. She was very cuddly (after she was fed & not starving anymore) and should be adopted in no time at all. Her and Myah had a special bond as you can see so it was a bummer to get rid of her, but what can ya do?

Free Kitten

Last night due to very LOUD uncontrolled meowing outside Toby assisted this little critter off of our fence and gently set her in the neighbors yard because she was clearly not ours. Next thing I knew I was getting a phone call at work explaining that there was a fuzzy orange kitten pawing at our front door. Huh? Due to freezing temperatures and the fact she is a baby Tob brought her in for the night. In the morning the kids and Toby went door to door and none of the neighbors seem to know where little Tiger Lemon came from. The kids came up with Tiger for reason's that are quite obvious and I came up with Lemon because she was very loud and obnoxious for the first 24 hours meowing and growling ferociously at her food so I figured someone dumped her because she was a "lemon". She has actually turned into quite the little cuddle bug tonight however she is going to be dropped off along with a donation to the humane society tomorrow. So if anyone is looking for a kitten let us know before 8 am tomorrow morning!! **
Bonus: She is becoming quickly litter box trained.

Weekend visit to Gramma Karen's & Grampa Tim's

Beware, LONG POST and some Fuzzy pictures. The story goes like this........ We left after I got off of work Thursday morning and arrived 10 hours later at Gramma Karen and Grampa Tim's house for a weekend of laughter and fun.

On Friday while Karen and Tim were at work we headed to Borders for a little coffee and some good reading material. We probably spent a good 2+ hours just wandering around reading books. A huge bookstore is one thing I yearn for in our little po-dunk town. After enriching our minds, we swung by Old Navy for some boys jeans, and then to Trader Joes. I LOVE TRADER JOES! A dark chocolate paradise for both girls and dogs. After shopping we had pizza for dinner visited awhile and then started a card game. That's when our night started to get interesting.

Please meet Dexter (those of you who haven't met of course). Dexter is an 11 year old 1/2 lab 1/2 dalmatian pup very well set in his ways. He's a great dog although he has a little problem he may not admit. He is addicted to food. Yes ...A COMPLETE ADDICT. There isn't anything he won't eat (to my knowledge and testing) including sweet ginger. While involved in a card game we noticed Dex was missing. We looked upstairs and then down and found him in our room indulging in an 8 pack of dark chocolate bars from various foreign countries, a purchase we had made at Trader Joes. While we weren't paying attention he managed to enjoy 4 (3"x3") bars as well as 1 & 1/2 raw hide bones. Needless to say after calling the vet and spending the next 36 hours with him, ferocious gas appeared to be the only major side effect.

On Saturday morning we went shopping at Target. I wish I would have brought my camera in the store because G & G gave both the kids gift cards to spend for Christmas and let them run with it. The look on Nojah's face was priceless. They picked out little MP3 players that will come in handy in Guatemala. I don't know what would have been more painful for them, picking out gifts for the kids without knowing really what they want or need or walking the isles of target playing with toys and listening to "I just can't decide", "It's just too hard", "mom, what should I get?", and on and on. The kids eventually made a great choice and had a blast doing it! Thank You Gramma Karen and Grampa Tim!! After Shopping and Nojah's hair cut, we went to pick out their Christmas Tree,

The tree farm had limited choices so we brought along these boys who were a key part in protecting and guarding the potential keepers, while we looked for the next best one.

After choosing a little (but very pretty) tree we went for a walk. The lighting was terrible so the pictures are a result of that as well as my lack of true photography knowledge and skill.

Here is Gramma Karen and Lex on the sketchy deck at the small pond we had wandered up to. Notice the reindeer antlers off at this time. I think this was a first for her during the trip. Once she discovered those she wore them everywhere even to bed. I wish I would have gotten my camera out when I woke up at 2am and found her fast asleep with them still attached to her head. Such a funny little girl. She finally took them off for school this morning but that was the only exception.

We played cards again on Saturday night when Tim could join in and kept a better eye on Dex too. Nojah won and was pretty excited about it as you can see. He is such a humble young man...

Last but not least the forced arm around the shoulder sibling love picture in front of the Christmas tree. Our drive was long and we didn't get home until almost 10:30 last night but we stopped and let the kids go to the make a bear workshop. Nojah gave birth to a husky dog he named Myah and Alexyss a puppy in pj's named Gloria. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, congrats if you actually read all of this. Lucky for you I have to go as I have an exhausted little girl lying on her daddy's lap snoring while I am in here typing away. All in all we had a WONDERFUL weekend and were so glad for the opportunity to go visit! Hopefully it won't be another year and a half before we see each other again.

Little Critters

This weekend Isaac came to visit. We love having the happy little man here. He is always full of smiles and the kids play well together. He is so sweet with Alexyss and I don't ever recall him yelling at her or upsetting her (I mean EVER not only this weekend) even when Nojah isn't so sweet to her. Between work and sleep we went up to the lake and did a small 2-3 mile hike up to a little waterfall with beautiful views overlooking the lake. Other then that, the kids hung out with grandma, played basketball, football, ran around acting crazy, watched movies and played video games. I am happy to say that now Tob and are sitting at home this morning relaxing without the little critters. We are looking forward to a trip to Eugene this week after I get done with work!! Yippee! Can't wait to see Karen, Tim and Dexter of course!