"The Nightmare Before Christmas"

OK...So after Kelli's birthday party Brianna comes to me and tells me her tummy hurts. Being the good mom that I am I tell her she needs to eat more so I try to give her some food. After that doesn't help I go lay down by her in her bed. The next time I heard Brianna was when she was throwing up. Shane and I went around frantically cleaning and sanitizing in hopes no one else would get sick... 6 hrs later Kelli starts, then Shane, Kolby and finally me. So much for sanitizing....I guess it was a little late for that. The good thing is it looks like it is just a 24hr stomach flu and we have some how managed to get through it; although death seamed merciful at times. Kelli was scared we were going to miss Christmas but it looks like we might live to see it come. Good luck to those that might be getting the "black plague" know that you will survive even if you don't want to at times!

Look Who's 6!

We have been celebrating Kelli's birthday for what seems like 2 months.....from Disneyland to Christmas....we now go to a restaurant and she'll automatically tell the waiter that it is her birthday. She had a little birthday party with some of her school friends on Saturday. It is hard for me to believe our baby is six years old. She is so much fun and has add a lot of energy to the mix. The kids went upstairs to play and found the bean bag.....I went up to check and they had rolled it over the the bunk bed and were all taking turns jumping off into it. To the parents I'll just say that I am sorry...I am probably to blame for that, when I was young I did the same thing, in fact we used to move my best friend Shannon's tramp underneath their balcony and jump off that onto the tramp... oh to be young.

Here are a few other pictures. Brianna had her little Christmas play at school and was a wise man. She is so sassy.....

It hadn't been snowing so when ever Shane thinks about getting the snow machine out.....it snows....he revised it this year and it works pretty good. He modified the Lawnmower to shovel snow...I went out to the garage the other day and he was cutting and welding and WaLa... it is never boring with Shane around!

Warning!! Long Post

OK, Really? Has it been 4 months? Well, now you can see how my journal looks. I hate when I do this because it takes so long to catch up. It has been such unusual weather here...I am waiting for it to get cold, it was 55 today and felt so warm in the backyard. I told the girls they needed to go outside and play. They came to me later asking if they could have their tents and sleeping bags...I initially said no, alluding them to the conclusion that I could not reach them and that they would have to wait for their father to come home . When Kelli asked me how long that would be I realized they had 3 hrs to dismantle, destroy and fight. I told them to come with me and that I would see if I could get them. After setting up the tents in the backyard you would have thought it was a 100 degrees out there the way my kids were dressed; none the less, they didn't fight once and I had a peaceful 3 hrs to get laundry done, dinner fixed etc. I would have taken a picture but left my camera at my parents.

So, I thought that I would just post the pictures in a big group....have fun looking and sorting it all out. Family, you can now see the pictures from the camping/boating trip. So much has happened; in August Brianna celebrated her 4th Birthday.....hard to believe that we have been living in Idaho for 4 years. Shane's parents came out for it and when they come to visit you better believe we'll be doing a project. This project consisted of adding/enclosing an office onto our house. Within about 4 days we had the room built, wired, sheet rocked , taped and mud, painted and trim and crown molding put up....doesn't sound to bad to the average person but for us who are the do it yourself kind of people .....I can honestly say I just walked around in daze most of the time we were so tired!! But it got finished and then the next part came with Shane building the bookshelves and desk.... that took most of September you know sanding, staining, clearing...to well, you know sand and clear again...etc. It has taken till December , but it officially doesn't smell like stain anymore. Shane and I love this room it is so QUIET! and if it were up to Shane he wouldn't let the kids in the room....but that would never happen. HA!

October came and Shane decided he better clear out the storage area in the backyard to put the boat away (Shane's grandfather left him a big fishing boat....we took the kids out and yep...hooked Kelli right in the side of the head...I felt so horrible...and of course thoughts run through my mind all the other places where I could have hooked her....like the EYE!! but God blessed us and she has since forgiven me.....wow I am laughing as I write this now.)
Shane had a pick-up that he had to move to put the boat in and talked to his dad telling him that he was going to take the S10 pick-up and tear it apart. Well Jerry doesn't want Shane doing that by himself (says it was to big a job) and they decide to come visit to help out.....did I mention that when Jerry and Evie visit we do projects? So in about a day they had the pick-up torn apart engine, instrument cluster...etc out to save to put in...........of course a street rod. Jerry and Evie drove out from Denver so they just took all that stuff back to you know "store out there". Well that couldn't be the only project to do...it had nothing to do with the house... HA HA HA. They brought with them from Denver a wood stove and next thing you know Shane is building a floor, floating wall, laying tile and grouting....and within a week we had a functional wood burning stove... no worries...we're legal, we of course had it inspected and passed off. One nice thing about it is that we haven't had to turn on the heat for a month. Jerry and Evie left a couple of days before Halloween, I asked the girls what they would like to be Kelli said she wanted to be Little Mermaid and Brianna wanted to be Flounder. I said that was very cute but mom didn't have time to make costumes, so I borrowed some really cute lion costumes from my friend Amy and in the end the girls wouldn't do it. Kelli had to go as the Swan Princess, Brianna had to be a witch and Kolby went as a lion.

Alright....onto November almost done! :) (Yes, I will be copying and pasting this in my journal) The long awaited trip to Disneyland. The girls have been saving all their money in a piggy bank waiting to go to Disneyland. So in June I started looking and wanted to go in November when they had there Christmas Decorations up. Once I saw how much this was going to cost us I tried to talk them out of it by bribing them with some water slides that they saw at Sam's Club. I obviously lost, so since it was the girls first time Shane's parents came and most of my family came. We had a lot of fun, the girls LOVED the princesses and eating breakfast with them. What they didn't love.....the scary rides. Poor Kelli was scared of all the rides that went into dark caves ...Brianna never seemed phased. It was so nice the weather was in the 80's and we didn't have to wait in any lines......now that is how I like visiting Disneyland....but that's because I hate lines. Kolby was a gem the whole time we were there. The flight over there went so smooth, the flight back...........um not so good. Kolby was starting to get sick, his ears wouldn't pop and he started teething. Yep...the last 40 minute of the flight he screamed like a madman. I felt so bad for him, myself and the people around us. OH.... We were so glad to get home! When we got everyone to bed, I took two Tylenol PM's (I wanted to ensure a good sleep) we were off to bed. Kolby woke up at 12AM and I went to feed him a bottle and he puked all over me. Shane and I were up the rest of the night and I was wanting to beat myself for taking those Tylenol PM. So after being sick for a week yesterday he official slept through the night!! :) (and so did Shane and I) Thanksgiving was great and the food was wonderful as always, we went to my parents in Oregon. Oh yeah, Brianna came to me two days before Thanksgiving and told me I was going to be really mad.......so of course I can't get mad, she swallowed a penny...Yep can you believe it? was the bead not enough? This kid and putting things in her mouth....she'll be the death of me!! We have be waiting to see the arrival of Honest Abe....and it has been a week....I'm officially assuming he came through just find and is off on another adventure!

After reading this I feel like my life has been on a roller coaster ride this year! (Put your seat belts on tight, keep your hands and feet in at all times.....AND ENJOY THE RIDE!)

Superhero Brianna

All of the sudden Brianna has a been wanting to play superhero and uses Kolby's blanket for her cape! I am always laughing when she decides to play. She tells me to watch her and clap for her when she comes running....and of course, says I HAVE to laugh ( no she's not demanding...ha ha ha!). So I'll attach a picture and a little video I took of her.....as you will see she is not the most smooth superhero, but she makes up for it by being so cute! No worries, we will always be safe in this house with our SUPERHERO BRIANNA!!

4TH of July

For the 4th of July we went over to our good friends the Williamson's. The girls had a great time playing in the pool and having water gun fights with the others. We were able to eat some yummy food and watch some fireworks. Of course I forgot my camera and have no pictures....

The next day we went to my parents for our annual boating fest. I bought some cheap sunblock...won't do that again...we all came back a little crispier, whoops! I remembered the camera this time so I got a few pictures. The girls had lots of fun with aunt Millie and uncle Renn on the jet ski's!

PEA PARTY!!!

Well we left Denver 8:30pm and drove all night to get back to Idaho. Shane and I were hating ourselves around 2AM but no worries I didn't put in any books to listen to and I was able to drive a lot more. he he he! When we got home everyone was so excited. We thought that we would check on our garden. It was HUGE!! The girls decided to have a pea party and picked all the sugar snap peas and brought out sodas and watermelon so here is a picture of our pea party!

Auntie Millie and Auntie Erin were so excited to have the kids back that they brought them welcome home balloons. I think that Kolby liked them the best. He was making me laugh....he was holding them with both hands and legs. I tried to get a picture.