While I had a few minutes of peace and quiet I thought I would fill everyone in on what's been happening at our crazy house!
My mom moved in with us the day after Thanksgiving. She has had a really hard time since my dad died and so we think this is the best thing for her right now. My brothers are also still here and that means that there are now 7 people living in my tiny house!!!
We had an amazing Christmas and I promise that I will post pictures soon, my camera is upstairs and I'm just too lazy to walk up and get it. It was nice to have my family here to celebrate with us. We also got to spend time with Matts family which was great since his brother Jeff leaves on Wed. for the MTC (Missionary Training Center). Jeff will be serving his 2 years in the Oklahoma City Mission. We are SO proud of him!
And lastly we have all been dealing with the nasty winter germs. Just this week I've taken sick kids to Urgent Care 3 times! Shawn went twice because he has Pneumonia, and now Abby has a horrible double ear infection. On top of that everyone has had a round of the ever so fun flu!
Hopefully things will start looking up in the new year!

New Hair Do

I've been a blonde for as long as I can remember. I've done everything from super platinum blonde to strawberry blonde and have had every shade of highlight and lowlight. Dont get me wrong I love being blonde! I actually feel more myself with light hair and I've been told that I have a very "blonde personality" whatever that means.......Well I thought that with the bleak winter months and me being so sickingly pale it would be fun to change things up a little bit and now I'm a sexy brunette! I absolutly love it! I dont quite feel like me, but I think that's part of the appeal; being someone new. What do you think?

Tinkerbell~

Abby has been begging for a kitten for a couple of months and Matt and I were reluctant to get her one just because we have Max our dog that she begged for last Christmas and both of my brothers living with us. The house just seemed too small for another person/animal!
Well we got new visiting teaching routes and I was assigned an older women by the name of Sandy Robinson, when I called to make an appointment to visit she told me that is was no problem for me to bring the kids because she had a lot of toys and cats for them to play with. Well it turned out that wonderful sister Robinson had this tiny little kitten that she was trying to find a new home for, Abby and I both fell instantly in love with the little bundle of fur and so Tinkerbell (thats what Abby named it) has a new home! Tink is the most patient, loving, playful kitty~ Thank you Sister Robinson~

Bugs

All summer both of the kids have been fascinated by all the bugs on the side of the house, Shawns always running over there saying "help me, help me" He wants me to catch them so he can see them up close. The only thing was that both of them were too scared to actually touch the poor little grasshopper themselves...Until now! Being the cunning mother that I am,and with the weather getting colder, I told the kids that the bugs were getting ready to go away for the winter and that if they wanted to hold them they had better do it today. So sure enough they both dug deep and found the courage to hold it, all the while saying "goodbye bug, come back next summer!"

Halloween~

Abby has been obsessed with The Wizard of Oz lately, and so of course that obsession carried over to Halloween! She was sooo excited for her ruby red slippers, the only problem was all the glittery red shoes in her size were sold out. So what did we do? We got crafty! We found a pair of plain red shoes and then with the help of some spray glue we added the glitter ourselves! So we spent $5 dollars for a pair of fabulous shoes instead of $20. And everyone knows that you can't have a Dorothy without the Cowardly Lion. I found this awesome lion costume on e-bay for $3.00!!! Shawn looked so adorable in it, he was even one of the winners of the costume contest at our church party. All in all Halloween was a complete sugary success and Abby is already planning out what she and Shawn are going to be next year~

Frusterated!

I dont know if it's my poor old computer or my super slow internet connection, but I've tried for over a month now to post with pictures and every single time it tries to upload the pictures it says that the page has expired!! I dont know what to do! I feel terrible that I've gotten this far behind, I have a ton of stuff to put up here but I dont want to do it with out the pictures. Sorry to all the Grandmas....Hopefully I'll get this worked out!

Fall Harvest Orchard

I love the fall season, with it's crisp mornings and warm afternoons, I love all the changing colors of the trees and I love sharing it all with my kids!

a couple of weeks ago we took the kids to Fall Harvest Orchard in Delano. The orchard is run by a retired couple and they have this really cute farm where you can go and feed the animals, hold baby chicks and goats, see baby pigs and cows and you can pick your own apples and buy fresh produce like squash and pumpkins. We had an absolute blast! Abby was in love with the baby chicks and shawn just loved that he could run around! I miss the little hobby farm that I grew up on and I am so glad that there are still places like that around so that I can take my kids and introduce them to all of the things that I loved growing up.

~Tiny Dancer~

Abby started her first year of dance last week. She has been begging me since she was two to let her go, but they only have classes for as young as three. So when Abby had her birthday in May we told her that she's a big girl now and old enough for dance class! That was a mistake because all summer she kept asking if it was time to go to dance class.... Needless to say Abby is loving it!

Goose Hunting Part 2

After our failed attempt at shooting a goose opening morning, we decided to go back that night and take the kids with us. Abby is always asking to go hunting with daddy and she's fairly good at staying quiet. Shawn on the other hand...well all he wanted to do was run around and eat rocks! Both the kids loved the decoys we had set out, Shawn decided that he wanted to ride them and and Abby had to give them all kisses before we left! So once again no geese but we still had fun!

Goose Hunting Part 1

Matt bought me a bow this year so that we could do more things "together". I was a little hesitant at first, but it's actually really fun! So friday night we lugged the kids over to Matts moms house and picked up his brother Jeff so that he could enjoy the festivities as well. Saturday morning we woke up at 4am and then hit the road so we could meet up with the rest of our group. We hunted on 37 acres of freshly plowed oats where we had seen TONS of geese feeding before. Well as it so often happens we were out there for 5 hours and only saw one goose....It landed 74 yards out and all of us shot at it at once. Not a single person hit it. The dang bird flew away and probably warned all of his buddies to steer clear! Oh well goose season just started and dear opener is next saturday!

Sorry....

Sorry to all the Great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other various members of family and to all of you friends. My camera broke while at the beach taking pictures (Arrrgggg!!!!) and I had to save money for a new one. Thats why I haven't posted new pictures in FOREVER! It sucks because while I was cameraless we took the kids to the zoo and the state fair and had a blast! Fear not I bought my new camera last week and will start right back up. Enjoy and sorry for the delay!

Fun at the Beach

I took the kids to the little beach access that is just a couple of blocks away. We like to go there a couple of times a week and fish and swim, the kids love it! Abby was a water baby, and Shawn is certainly following in her footsteps, he loves to dunk himself under the water. That little boy scares me! We also made an awesome sandcastle with a mote, and a scary man eating dinosaur :)

Lil Mountain Climber

Well my little mountain Climber finally had his first fall! I guess I've been lucky that he hasn't seriously hurt himself what with everything he climbs. Yesterday he was climbing up the computer desk and fell, I'm guessing by where his war wounds are that he fell and hit his ribs where the keyboard is and then his back on the chair that is in front of the desk. I thought that maybe he had learned his lesson, but he got right back up there!

Puddle Jumping

I thought these were really cute, it just made me think of when I was a kid and played in puddles and got all yucky. Ohh the joys of being small and not having a single care in the world....like trying to figure out how to get nasty muddy puddle water out of your kids clothes :)

Monticello Riverfest

We took the kids to yet another little fair here in town, and this time they got to go to the petting zoo and have pony rides! Abby was in baby animal heaven! Shawn didn't really like the pony rides; but hey it was his first time, and even those mini horses can seem HUGE when your just a little guy!

My little Picasso

I love my little buddy, but Shawn has become a challenge for me. I guess I always knew that boys are different from girls for all the obvious reasons; anatomy, etc. But Shawn is a handful! Abby was a very cautious baby/toddler which I was thankful for, Shawn on the other hand is into and on top of everything. Literally. He climbs the bathroom counters to get into my makeup, he gets on the kitchen table, and now he how found his inner artist. I'm glad that he is artistic, I think it's a great talent, just not when it's on my walls....or fridge, or TV, or door. But hey, maybe Picasso's mom had the same problem?

WALL.E

The kids have been dying to see WALL.E for months. Well since they started showing the previews anyways :) Matt finally had a weekend off, so today we surprised the kids and took them to go and see the beloved little robot. I knew Abby would be great and hold still, but I was surprised at how well Shawn did, he actually sat there and stared at the screen for most of the movie and and pointed and said "Wa-wee!" That's Shawn talk for WALL.E. It was really cute! For anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet I give it an A!

Turkey Hunting

One of Matts latest hobbies has been turkey hunting with his bow and Abby, being the daddy's girl she is, has been begging and begging Matt to take her along, so Matt went out and bought Abby her own bow and arrow set, and then set up a special Daddy Daughter Turkey Hunt! They didn't see any turkeys but the memories they made will last forever!

The Fairest of the Fair!

With the hot summer weather come the small town fairs, and we love them! Abby gets so excited when she see's the rides being set up and I know that this is my chance to get her to help out around the house because she'll do just about anything the earn some extra money for the rides. Shawn even got in on the fun this year!