Bitter Sweet!

This Christmas has been very bitter sweet. We love being here in Indiana, having our "own" family Christmas, but miss everyone back in Vegas. We missed caroling, our Christmas Eve buffet at Grandma's, and playing games with Thomas' family on Christmas day. We had a great day spending time with each other, opening presents, playing together, and watching movies. I hope that everyone had a wonderful day too!!

I know that some of you are waiting for our pics (Grandma & Papa), so I thought that I would get them up ASAP!! We love you all so much!!

ENJOY!!

Here are a couple videos we recorded...

Just press the play button!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

The kids just opened one gift, which are the new pajamas they are wearing, put milk and cookies out for Santa, carrots and oats out for Rudolph, and are now snug in their beds. I can't believe it's Christmas already!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I Double Dog Dare Ya!

I just love watching Marina play in the snow. She will just lie face down and eat the snow right off the ground. So cute! Then she saw that our light pole was covered in ice and thought it would be yummy to lick it! Luckily, she didn't get stuck...and, of course, I HAD to get a picture!

Well, we had a big snow storm this past weekend! It started to snow early Saturday morning and didn't really stop until Sunday afternoon. There was also freezing rain in the middle of it all. After the storm had past, our area got over 5 inches of snow! The kids, of course, loved it, and were outside almost all day on Saturday. We also got a call around noon on Saturday to let us know that church had been canceled for Sunday! So, instead of attending our meetings, we shoveled our driveway. We wanted to make a snowman, but by the time Sunday morning came, the snow was too hard and icy to make one. Here are some more pics!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY HARLEY!!

Holy Moly! I can't believe that it was 6 years ago that Harley was born! Yesterday was Harley's birthday, but I had to work. So, we convinced her to wait and open presents tonight. When she got home from school, I hadn't yet made the cake that I bought. Since I had to go to work, she convinced Thomas to bake it with her. When I got home, half of the cake was gone! I guess it's a good thing I bought two cake mixes, so I can make another one for her party tonight. Whoops! Oh well, I'm glad that she had fun making it with Thomas.

She was so excited to bring treats to school for the first time! She was also super excited when her teacher gave her this crown to wear. She woke up this morning and wanted to wear it to school again. We will be opening presents tonight, 'cause she couldn't wait ANY longer. (I will be missing it anyway, as I was scheduled last minute to work. UGH!) Trent, Beth & Megan will be coming over, so the kids are excited to see them! We tried to get her to wait and do it Sunday, but she just wasn't having it.

We are so glad she is a part of our family. We just wouldn't be the same without her!!

A couple of laughs for Christmas!

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Well, yesterday was the first measurable snow of the season! You would have thought it was Christmas by the way the kids got up early to see it! They were all up before 7am and wanted to go and play in it. So, I told them that they had better hurry and get ready for school then, so that they had time to play in it before the bus came. They had eaten breakfast and were all dressed and ready to go by 7:15am!! It was so fun! All day, Marina would ask to go out and eat the snow. So, we went out a couple of times throughout the day.

Enjoy our pics of our First Snow in Indiana!!!

Christmas at the Zoo!

One Friday Night, we went to the Christmas at the Zoo. It was FREEZING! We figured it was only going to get colder as the month goes on, so we wanted to go and see it before we chickened out later. It was Beautiful!! I dare say it was prettier than Opportunity Village. (Trust me, I am going to get in a lot of trouble for that comment!) We even rode the train around, so that the kids could have that tradition kept kind of the same. (Every year, we would go to Opportunity Village with my family and ride the train, and just play and have fun.) After the train ride, we decided to go and see Santa. All of the kids, except Harley sat in his lap and told him what they wanted. Marina was so cute. The bad news is my camera's batteries gave out after only one picture.

I LOVE this picture because we had all of the kids bundled up, and wrapped their faces in their scarves to help keep their faces warm. Well, I said, "Say Cheese!" and Thomas looked at me and said," You can't see their faces anyway!" Oh...yeah...

Jolly Days at the Children's Museum

We decided to go to the Children's Museum last Saturday for their Jolly Days. They had a Yule Slide, Ice fishing, an Ice castle, and a cookie shop. It was a lot of fun! The kids had a blast on the Yule Slide which is a slide that goes from the 2nd floor down to the 1st floor. Even Thomas got in on the action and made a few trips down it. It was so much fun!

"That's Just a Guy Dressed Up!"

So, I was talking to Ryker and Harley today about wanting to go to the Children's Museum this weekend, to go to the Jolly Days there. I started telling them about all of the cool stuff that was there. There is a Yule Slide, which is a slide that goes from the 2nd floor down to the 1st floor. You "sled" down it as if you were on real snow!!

Ryker," AWESOME!"
Harley," I don't like big slides."

I went on to tell them that there would be Ice Fishing, where we could pretend to ice fish. There was also going to be a place set up to make your own ornament!

Ryker & Harley," COOL!"

AND....Santa will be there!!!

Ryker," YESSSSSSS!" (At the same time he does that "cha ching" move with his arms)

Harley," That's just a guy dressed up!"

Me....."Oh Crap!!" (Silently, of course)

I wait a few moments to see what she says.......

Harley," Santa is in the North Pole and can't come here, he's too busy!!"

Me," WHEW!!" I go on to ask her if Santa has helpers.

Harley,"Well, yeah, the Elves....but there at the North Pole too."

Me...."Oh, so these guys that dress up, do they help Santa?"

Harley," Yeah!! That's how he finds out what we want!!"

Me, "Cool!"

Whew...that was a close one!!

Photo Shoot

I am thankful for...

These are only SOME of the things that I am thankful for. There are so many more people and things that I am grateful for, but I thought that I would give you just a little taste!

Press the Play Button:


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" 'Bout Me?"

This has got to be the most saddest, but cutest thing Marina has ever said! (And she sure can say some cute things!) So, I took Ryker and Sierra to the Doctor today. When the doctor finished checking them both out, (Ryker has Strep Throat...Sierra has an ear infection) Marina was swinging around in the "doctor's chair" and looks very sadly at the doctor and asks, " 'bout me?"

Come on, everyone all together now...AWWWW!

Well, the doctor just couldn't say No. So, she tells Marina, "Open up" and she takes one look in her mouth...looks at me...and says, "Oh my...she's got it too!" They swab her throat, and sure enough, she's got Strep too.

I was shocked!! Well, at least I won't have to make another trip to the doctor. Then the doc asks me if I had considered getting them their flu shot. So...long story short...the 3 of them also got their flu shots. So Brave!!

Aspen & Harley are next!! Bwahaahaa...Bwahaahaa!!

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Hey there everyone!! Sorry about not posting for awhile! There really hasn't been anything too exciting going on here in Indiana. We have just been riding the weather roller coaster, and I think that it has finally caught up to us. Aspen has had a pretty bad cough for the last week or so, and today Ryker and Sierra are home sick from school. Ryker got a fever last night and says that his throat hurts, so I am hoping we don't have Strep Throat going around our house again. Sierra's ears are hurting her. She had some fluid leaking out of them last night, and when she woke up this morning, she said she couldn't hear anything. Needless to say, we are going to be making a trip to the doctor.



On to funner things....I got FREE passes to the sneak preview of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium for last night!!! We were super excited to go!!! The kids loved the movie. It was really funny and a great Christmas movie. I would definitely recommend it! We got to the theater early to make sure that we were able to get in. They always give out more passes then there are seats, so you have to make sure you are in line pretty early. We got there about an hour early, and hardly anyone was there! The kids all got a cute poster, and they were obsessed about getting pens from the all of the sponsors that were there. I let all the kids put some of their Halloween candy in ziploc bags, so we didn't have to buy any snacks. Harley was laughing so loud throughout the whole movie, and Marina actually sat for the entire movie! All in all, it was a fun night out!

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING!!

Extra Extra!!

Here are some other pictures from our awesome visit with Grandma & Papa! Most of these are when Marina, Grandma & I took Papa downtown to see some of the sights that he wanted to see before he had to fly back home on Monday. We went down and walked the canal and saw a war memorial. Then we went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That was so cool. We got to go on a tour bus that drove us on & around the 2.5 mile track. We got to see the starting line and Winner's circle, plus lots of other cool things. Then we looked around the Indy 500 Museum. It was very interesting, and I now know what Thomas and Ryker will be doing for Ryker's birthday coming up. Enjoy!!

Halloween!

I know it has taken me a couple of days to post Halloween, but oh well, you'll just have to deal with it!! Hee Hee We had a fun Halloween day with Grandma. Marina and I learned how to make donuts! I am pretty sure that this was the first time I have actually seen them made from start to finish. Mom has been making donuts every Halloween since before I was born, but I guess I was always a little preoccupied with other things...that, or I must have thought that they just miraculously appeared every Halloween evening! Marina absolutely loved being Grandma's little helper! The kids loved walking in the house after school and smelling that fresh donut and homemade root beer smell. I didn't get any pics of the kids because I was busy fryiny, frosting, and serving guests...but enjoy the pics I have!

Day 3 of Grandma & Papa's Visit

Well, we took it easy on Sunday. We were all exhausted from all the fun we had over the weekend. We went to church. We had a wonderful Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting. All of the kids had speaking parts (Aspen & Sierra had 2), Sierra played a piano solo, and the 4 older ones sang the 2 middle verses of "This is My Beloved Son" all by themselves. They all did a GREAT job. It was so beautiful and the spirit could be felt strongly. On the way home from church my mom took some pretty pictures of the fall colors. When we got home, we had "Thanksgiving!" Mom thought it would be fun to have a Thanksgiving dinner, since we won't be able to be with our families this year. It was Yummy!! After that, we all rested. Trent & Beth came over later, so Aspen could finally open her Birthday presents. All in All a great day!!

Day 2 of Grandma & Papa's Visit

On the second day of my parent's visit, we took the kids swimming at the indoor pool of their hotel. They had fun just hanging out. After swimming, we went to the Indy Children's Museum. It was packed, but still lots of fun! Then we went home and got ready for our ward's Trunk or Treat. We all dressed up, and had a good time visiting, eating and getting lots of candy! Enjoy the pics!

Day 1 of Grandma & Papa's Visit

Grandma & Papa came to visit, and we had lots of fun showing them around our new home. We went to the "Punket Catch" as Marina would call it, and then we went out to see the Headless Horseman. Boy, was that fun! I decided I better do a slide show, since I wanted to include tons of pictures. Believe it or not, I didn't use them all. Grandma ended up taking well over 100 pictures of our day. The first slide show is of Waterman's Farm. The second slide show is at Conner Praire, where the Headless Horseman hangs out. Hope you enjoy!!

My mom recorded parts of the spooky hayride, but we weren't allowed to use flash photography. So this is a movie of us when the Headless Horseman scares us. By the way, the really loud screaming is me! He totally freaked me out! (and Harley wasn't having it at all!) Listen carefully, and you can hear the horse galloping. We were wearing glow sticks, so the little green things are us.

Just in Time For Halloween

We woke up to this very cool & spooky fog this morning. The kids thought it was so awesome to be able to walk to the bus stop in it...and I do mean IN it!! Can you see the bus in the picture?? That is only about 5 houses down the street!!

This is a view of the woods behind our house. I thought it was so pretty with the fog!!

Indiana Weather Station

This is the funniest sign I have seen in awhile! Notice the rope hanging to the right, then read the sign to figure out what the weather is like!!

Covered Bridge Festival

Yesterday, we decided to do some more exploring here in Indiana. About 1 1/2 hours west of Indy is Parke County. Every October they have a Covered Bridge Festival. This county has the most covered bridges in the state. We only saw a handful of them, but it was really fun and interesting.

Roller Coaster Weather!

Well, remember a few weeks back, I posted about the nice fall weather. Well, like a week after that we were back into the upper 80s even the lower 90s. Monday was a record, not only for that day, but for the latest October has ever seen 91 degrees! Ok, fine, I can deal with that. After all, I was born and raised in Vegas. Fast forward only 2 days later. We have dropped more than 30 degrees in less than 48 hours! Today's high was 57 degrees, with the wind chill, it felt cooler than that. Now, they are saying that by the weekend we should be back up towards the low to mid 70s. Can't Mother Nature just make up her mind??

It's driving me nuts because I can't quite put away the summer clothes, but I am having to also get out the bulky winter clothes! Did I mention that I have 4 girls in one room, sharing one closet??? Yeah, that's not working out so well!!

I was told that Indiana's weather was temper mental, but come on!!

In Honor of Fall

Well, I wanted to do something different for fall on my blog. I really liked this, and I hope all of you do to. If you like it and want to do something like this on your blog go to http://www.matiekay.blogspot.com. The layouts are free!! Hope you enjoy!!

Look at HIS Pumpkin!!

Thomas saw this on his way down to work the other morning. He got a kick out of it!!

Thank Goodness!!

Those of you who know my daughter Sierra, know that she is a bit accident prone.....okay, a lot accident prone. Well, tonight Aspen came running into the house and told me that Sierra had tripped and that she couldn't get up. I go out and help her get in the house, put some ice on her ankle, and get her some ibuprofen. All the while thinking, I've got to go and make sure it's not broken. She has already fractured her elbow, and her 5th metatarsal in her left foot. (All within a year of each other!) Apparently she has tender bones. Anyways, I took her to a quick care, and thank goodness, (hence the title to the post) it isn't broken, just a bad sprain. He told her to stay off of it for awhile and let it heal.

Let's all breathe a sigh of relief!!! (((((((aaaaaahhhhhh)))))))

THANK GOODNESS!!!

Look at the new trick daddy taught me!

In case you were wondering...those are green beans from dinner.
Thanks Thomas!!

Show & Tell

Aspen's Social Studies class is learning about Native Americans. Well, who did she volunteer to come in and teach them more? Thomas, of course! It was fun to see how the kids reacted to Thomas and his outfit. When Thomas was walking down the hall, the kids would just stop and stare with their mouths wide open. He was only supposed to take 10-15 minutes, but the kids couldn't stop asking him questions, so he ended up taking about 35-45 minutes. The teacher was so impressed that she wants him to come back and do a presentation for the rest of her classes!

Smartie Pants!!

Ryker came running in the door today after school and told me, "MOM, I got 5 100s!!" He couldn't rip his backpack open fast enough! Then he proceeded to pull out 5 spelling tests, all with 100% score. Needless to say, I am a proud, proud mama!!

By the way, I had NO idea he even had spelling words each week! Pretty good for not studying, huh!!

Indiana Misty Storm

This was interesting. When I looked out the window, I thought that there was a huge downpour going on. Then when I opened the door, it was just a heavy mist. It was weird!!

Happy Birthday Cowfish!

To the one that always makes us laugh!

To the one that, "Scares us hafee deaf!"

&
To the one who cuddles the best!

A big Happy Birthday shout out to our favorite Cowfish!!

We love you tons turkey buns!!

"That's just perthect!"

Marina has a new saying. Yesterday, we went to pick up Ryker at school for some much needed doctor appointments. Marina was reading a book in the lobby while we waited for Ryker to come up from his class. The book was stamped with "Wanamaker" in the front, which is the name of their school. She pointed to the "W" and said, "Look mom, my M." I, of course, had to correct her, and then pointed out that it was her M, only upside down. She immediately turned the book upside down, and said, "That's just perthect!" I was laughing so hard!! (on the inside, of course, I was in the school) Anyways, ever since then, she says it all the time. It is so cute, I LOVE it!!

This is an older picture of her, but it is one of my favs!!

Keep Going!!

I know, I know...my posts are always so long!! I just can't decide what to leave out. We just had so much fun this weekend, that I wanted to share it with everyone. Don't miss the acorn post. I think that it got pushed to another page. So, just keep going and scrolling and have some fun while you're at it!!

WATCH OUT!

Everyone watch out...Aspen wants to drive! Good thing she still has to wait 5 more years!! Oh wait, that's too soon!!

Pictures of our weekend

I wanted to share some pics from our little day trip. Hope you enjoy!!