A few Christmas pics.....

5th annual Cookie party!

I can't believe how the cookie party has grown! When we started out I think we hade 12 or so kids and they were all so small and cute. They all sat on little tyke tables and spread sprinkles from here to Cheyenne. Now, with everyone growing and parents reproducing, the numbers and table size has grown!! If everyone would of come this year we would have had 26 kids! But, with schedules filling by the years, its hard to find a day that works for everyone. So, this year, we only had 19 kids. But what is so different, is how big they are now. No longer do we use the little tables, I have 2 regular size tables set up in the dining room. And 4 dozen cookies wouldn't even make it 10 minutes, now we have 12 dozen cookies! The girls are so careful and creative. And the boys, they want to test the weight bearing capabilites of a sugar cookie by piling on more icing than required for 4 cookies:-) Oh, I just love this day, I love all the kids running around and the mom's eating and talking. And I love to see the house after they are all gone. Not because I'm glad there gone, but because you get to see what toys they've gotten out, where you find juice boxes, who forgot what, it is just all so cute. But the little tables may be coming back, as this year, we had some babies and toddlers, so room will be made!

This year though, there was a little excitement though. My mom was nice enough to pick up the 12 dozen cookies for me. No, I don't make them, that's crazy! When you can buy them for $2 a dozen, its a great deal!! Well, mom left that at my aunt's for me to pick up after work. Then mom and Joan headed to KC to spend some time with my cousin. So, house is empty and locked and my cookies are safe inside.......way to safe, the electronic garage door opener wouldn't work!!!!!!!! And there was no key anywhere in town for the place. So, I had to call my 80 year old cookie maker, the night before, and ask her if she had any more. Oh no problem she said, she was already making 60 dozen for something else, so she'd just through me in. Lord, thank you for old people with big hearts because if she couldn't of done it, I think I would of had a tiny meltdown. I wonder what next year will bring.....

Winter Recap......

Man, where has the time gone!? Between Dawson's broken leg, the holidays, work, and the cold weather, I just haven't blogged. So I guess we'll start with the broken leg on Thanksgiving day. We had been at mom's for 10 minutes. I know I asked God to help me with no over eating but really, a broken leg and a 3 hour stent in the ER with another hour at Walgreens, a little excess, but he is God and knows all, so. As for how it all went down, my mom sitting in my grandma's walker, Dawson was pushing her, walker and mom fell over and Dawson was flipped the opposite direction. He immediately stood up because he was scared he was in trouble. We all attended to mom, who was fine and then Dawson fell to the groud. To which I said, "oh get up, your not in trouble". Anyother time he does it it is to get out of trouble, how was I to know this time he was ACTUALLY hurt??!! So, since farm boy Dad was with us we had to try to walk it off. I suggested within 10 minutes that we should go to the ER but he made us wait 2 hours. After that I said, you can come or not, we leavings. So, off to the ER and let me tell, what a great time to go, 3 pm on a holiday, noone was there, not a soul, we got right in. However, poor Dawson was freaking out because he is invisioning the pain of the stiching he got in his forehead for his birthday. We reassured him regularly that he wasn't going to hurt anymore than he was now but he just wasnt' buying it.
So, we left there with a cast from the tip of his toe to his butt, bent at a angle...lovely. We then went to Walgreens for some pain medication, only because they are the only people open on the holiday. I never go there, they are wayyy to slow. So, 55 minutes to get some prescription tylenol, crazy. I sat and stared at them the whole time they were back there working and any time they tried to talk or laugh, I rememinded them of my child in the car, you know, the one with the broken leg! So, we carried DAwson akwardly with that crazy full length cast until Tuesday, when we got a smaller one. Thank goodness because with the full cast, he weighed 70 lbs!!!

7 years ago, 7 years, not months........

Hunter turned the big 7 on November 14th, yes I cried. It is just to hard to comprehend at times, just a few years ago you couldn't even take him out in public for fear of him running off, running someone down, or just plain running his mouth about whatever. Now, he is so polite, thoughtful, still crazy, but so much more mature. It is just so amazing the changes that have taken place from kindergarten to 1st grade, AMAZING!! We left parent teaccher conf. last year with me almost in tears. This year we left in a fog, 'did that just really go that well', I thought to myself???!!! But it did and it has been going well ever since, and I pray each day that it continues!!

For Hunter's birthday we had a total of 13 boys. We had to invite both 1st grade classes because with Hunter, its all or none. If I had told him to pick 3 or 4 boys, it would of been the same as if I'd shot his dog in front of him. He is almost like a little politician in the making, shaking hands, hugging babies, that's him, a little democrate in the making, (Mike is turning Dawson into a republican, so all is even again in the home).

The party started off with a scavenger hunt, we then decorated 4 dozen turkey cookies, ate pizza, cookies, cake and opened gifts. The party was from 1 to 4 and it was NOT long enough! The boys had such a great time and there were no fights, how great is that!! My friends Missy, Dawn and Carrie helped me out and the day was just a blast, very memorable.
While we were parting, Mike was off driving his 11 point buck around. It is his Christmas present for the next 3 years as I found out its going on the wall. We now have a deer head for each member of our family.....super:-)

29 again!

Well, it looks like I turned 29 again this year on the 26th. It feels a little different each year, but it usually goes so well that I'm just going to keep it up. Will it end up that my kids will one day be iligitimant children because of my never increasing age? Perhaps, but I always wanted a brother or sister...

Mike and Dawson picked me up a cake at Gerbes after their duck hunt at the duck lease, it was the opening weekend of youth duck season. Well, once again, there wasn't much to choose from on a Sunday evening and Mike wanted to try another store. Well Dawson was set on a Halloween cake with my rival whipped cream icing. Mike tried to talk him out of it, but the tears started rolling and when Dawson cries, Mike gives. So, here is a picture of me loving my boys, the cake, the thought, but secretly hating the person who invented whipped cream icing.....

Happy 36th Birthday Dad!

We helped Mike celebrate his 36th birthday on the 17th of Ocotober. The boys love to pick out a cake for him. However, the night we went the choices were few and far between. Dawson wanted to get him a pack of 12 john deere cup cakes but I talked him into a cake instead. He wasn't happy about it, but he finally gave in. For Mike's gift the boys and I went to MO Valley Mercantile to pick out some new Carhart clothes for winter, they were a hit. Mike loved the cake, the gifts and the thought. I asked him though if it bothered him that each year he was one year closer to be 10 years my senior, he said he wasn't to worried.

Good-bye summer, and my muscle shirts..

This weekend I finally talked Dawson into putting away all his muscle shirts, all 22 of them. This phase started last summer, he wore a muscle shirt everyday but 3. I'm not sure where this infatuation with these type of shirts came from, but apparently it is here to stay. I thought for sure last fall that a year off from them he would forget about the need to wear them and we could wear 'normal' shirts the next summer. Well, apparently a year was not long enough! Already in April we were wearing them and he was fighting it until October to continue to wear him. He is the most hot natured kid. If you let him, he'd go outside in 40 degree weather wearing a muscle shirt, shorts and flip flops and would still be asking if he could take his shirt off. That is another thing we started this summer, we wanted to go shirtless all the time. It is like we are slowly raising a certified redneck here. I don't think I'm going to tell him that muscle shirts are not allowed in kindergarten at St. Joe......he may refuse to go!