Scary Santa?

The picture below is just the classic Santa terror picture. Kirsten thought it was silly being stuffed in his bag but Cruz didn't find it quite so funny. This Santa was actually a close friend of ours and Cruz goes to him all the time. He just looks a little different in a big red suit.The best part of this story is that after church, Santa stopped by. He said "hello" to the kids and then asked where the "old" man was. Jake was out feeding and watering the horses so I just knocked on the window and motioned for him to come in. He was quite put off since he was in the middle of it. Again, I motioned for him to come. So angrily he puts down his bucket and starts to come up the walk to the back door. In the meantime, I had Santa stand right by the back door. Jake opens it and gets a BIG "HO HO HO!" I have never seen Jake jump so high nor about fall over backwards. It was quite funny. Betsy and I had a good laugh.

Catching up

First of all.....MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Now...this has been a crazy past two weeks. We have been down to Utah and then we enjoyed having Betsy and her family up here for Christmas. We took it simple but fun. Jake told me that I have to space out my pictures and that my posts are too long. So, here is the first set. He has "instructed" me of one short post per day. [Is something wrong with this? :) ]
McKay spent Christmas in Utah with Mike and his family. We spent a few days at Grandma's before she had to go. Can you tell they are sisters? We missed her on Christmas but we are glad that she had a fun one.Nate, Betsy, and their kids came up for Christmas and spent a week with us. We even got an extra day with them when it started to snow yesterday and they decided not to go. We really enjoyed you guys! The house was way too quiet after you left. It was wierd.The first thing the guys did was go to C-A-L Ranch and buy a heavy industrial sled to pull the kids behind the four wheeler. They even lined it with a piece of foam so it didn't hurt when you went over bumps or rocks. Everyone enjoyed it.Kirsten, Aspen, and Cruz posing for a picture in the sled.

Cruz kept picking up the snow to show you. Kids always look so cute bundled up in snow clothes.

......This was the first couple days before Christmas. Sorry to keep you waiting......

Like Father ... Like Son

Today was clean out the garage day ... I have had the garage full of stuff since the day we moved in ... anyway I found one of my old baby books and decided that Cruz & I are two peas in a pod. You be the Judge.

Then again you might notice that my sisters and I all seem to have the same haircut in the original 1978 photo.

Reminiscing

...I was talking on the phone today to a friend and realized that it was a year ago that we were leaving Hawaii. Nice beaches, blue water, but most of all....the nice warm weather. I miss it. I am so jealous of those sitting in Jamaica right now getting ready to enjoy the holidays or those knowing they will be there. I am looking outside and seeing the dark gray storm clouds come. I can hear the wind howling and I am not looking forward for this afternoon when I am having to go to town. I'm not helping myself any either by looking thru last year pictures and seeing how nice it was.

Although I do have a few things I should be glad for. Exactly this day last year I had started my dreaded morning sickness. It was the day we had flown into Texas and picked up our suburban. I am not missing that at all. It is still fresh in my mind. I am not missing having a keen sense of smell and wishing I could spend all my time asleep so I wouldn't have to face the battle of my stomach.

Back to the nice part. Enjoy the beach for me! Hannah....do some of our famous boogie boarding, back before we knew how to do it. Aw the nice beach days.

Anyway we are looking forward to Betsy coming though. My kids are excited and I am excited that family came to us this year. I am looking forward to a nice simple Christmas and I wish everyone the same. Love you all and have fun.

tall, Tall, TALL!

Last night we had our Christmas singing, and this was Cruz's favorite song. Every other song had to be "Once there was a snowman". It was quite cute to see him want to take part.Katanya in her cute blue Santa hat. This was Jake's new babysitting method. Where's the baby? She actually loves this. She sits and plays and sucks on her fists while she watches you. I had to get dinner ready and I guess this worked for her. Baby in a bucket (new trend????) Every year we add a new picture and a thing that "represents" the year best. This is our sixth year of doing this and the tree is getting fuller. (You may remember me telling you about it last year.) Katanya was of course our "BIG" thing this year but since we already have two baby ornaments on the tree, we went with our second option, our FIRST house that we own (or will someday). The ornament goes right next to that year's picture. I still enjoy looking back over the years at how our family has grown.

Enjoy the rainbow!

Jake and I thought it would be fun to "give our blog a new look". We were messing around with the HTML codes and it is way over my head. Although I figured it out just enough to give it the colors I wanted. If you notice they match the them of our house. Also there is a little something for Karl on the link of your blog! Enjoy the rainbow!

I'm Thankful For ????

We had some family (Joey, Sarah, Hannah T. and Maddy) over for Thanksgiving break. It has been really fun and we have all had a lot of laughs. Here is what we are thankful for.... (the words under their picture is there main thing this year) SleepToffifay (Cruz went in last night and opened every box that was for the candy game, btw Axel, they are a dollar at the Dollar Store so why have we been paying $1.70 for them.)Littlest Pet Shops whose favorite is a dogAnimals (squirrels was one mentioned)Family, Friends, Corey, Fourwheelers, Horses and CopperJacob's wise words of dating wisdomTortilla and refried beans and homegrown pig baconPainkillers (ask him about his horseback riding 10 hour experience)The negative population growth in North Dakota

My family most of all but second.....Turbo Jam :)

(I got my second edition yesterday, I was in heaven when I saw the Fed-Ex truck pull up in the driveway. Sarah and I got our butts kicked but we love it anyway!)

A manly man

Cruz's true passion.........anything that has power. (Yes I know his hat is pink, we couldn't find his brown one and it was really cold outside.)

A new Halloween Tradition? maybe ?

We started a new tradition last night. We gave our kids the option of going out into 22 degree weather, go trick-or-treating to a few houses, be freezing cold, and go home. OR Go to Toys-R-Us, Have $10 to spend on a toy, frost sugar cookies, and have fun with the fam. The kids were smart and opted the last one. They still got to dress up and celebrate.

Anyway on to the pictures. Cruz had been dressed up as a stealth pilot for the whole day.

Kirsten who was a witch came to me to put some clips in to keep her hair out of her face. Cruz came running up and wanted clips in his hair also. It gave me this IDEA...... And you have to admit....he could make a really cute girl. Although I SWORE to Jake I would never do this again. That this was the ONLY night.He enjoyed clopping around on the heels....needless to say he stumbled many times.A close up......Halloween was simple...we went to the dress up box and they picked their costumes. McKay wore her genie costume again this year to school. Since it was so cold I made her wear two layers. Kirsten was a witch. Cruz was a fighter pilot and then a girl.

Election Saturday

It finally warmed a little (Wednesday we had snow) and I got my kids and husband together last night and snapped a few family photos. Now I don't know if I go with the color or the black and white. Also I welcome any opinions on which one you like. I have my favorites but I always seem to pick the wrong one. So like I said....Opinions are VERY welcome....

Number ONE

Number TWO Number THREE Number FOUR
Number FIVE
Number SIX Number SEVEN Number EIGHT
Number NINE
And of course the Funny Face shot to keep the kids happy.

Katanya's four month pictures

4 months

14 pound 11 ounces

23 inches

I finally had Katanya's pictures taken. I couldn't get her to smile at all. She doesn't look like our "preemie" baby anymore. She was four months old a week ago. She also had her doctor's appointment on Friday, along with the shots. She is our little miracle....
...and is such a blessing.

Spooky Jack-O-Lanterns

Last night for F.H.E. we carved our pumpkins. The older girls drew their faces on with markers and Jake and I cut them out. I cut Cruz's pumpkin just the way the knife went. The kids enjoyed pulling out the "slimey" stuff inside. Kirsten must have washed her hands five times though. Here we go....Mckay and her goofy smile.The family shot.....The "smile" photo with the pumpkins.... And now the "silly" shot....
The final "glowing" product. In order from left to right, Kirsten's, McKay's, and Cruz's.