A Very Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Our's was great.


On Thursday we went to my brother's to celebrate with our parents and his family.

Wyatt with his new horse Fil.....

We also had a full house with friends and family there which makes for a happy day.

We were obviously feeling very French this year.

Wyatt got hockey skates so he's in Heaven.

Dax got a pole-dancing-stripper alarm clock from his mom.

I think Dax's favorite gift, though, was getting this flag from his Mom. It was the flag that was from his grandfather's service after his death. It really meant a lot to him.

But, it was a lot of work and required a lot of energy, so when the festivities were over, I fell asleep and slept for about 12 hours.

It was glorious!!

I hope that you all had good times with your family and friends!

That silly mouse.....

Ralf got out again.


Fortunately the girls were in the room at the time and saw him make his daring escape.


He really chose to go the unconventional route this time. He made his get away in Berty's mouth.


I just wonder what even gave him the idea.


It's a good thing that the girls were in there and chased the cat to get Ralf back.


Now I'm just wondering if that's the same way he 'escaped' the last time.


Hopefully Dax got the get-away hatch closed so that the cat can't get it open any more.


Hopefully.

Stranger in the night.

Last night the cat was driving me crazy. She had found something to play with and it kept squeaking and it was impossible to sleep.

After trying to get her to stop playing several times I finally just locked her in the laundry room.

Of course she started trying to get out of there and kept clawing under the door which finally woke Dax up at about 2:00 this morning.

He sat up in bed trying to figure out what the noise was and I told him it was just the cat wanting out of the laundry room.

Then.........

Me:  But if the cat's in the laundry room why do I hear something crawling around over here.

Dax: What are you talking about?

Me:  I hear something crawling around over here.

I got up and turned on the bathroom light, so as not to blind us, and went back to investigate.

Me:  Oh my God!!! There's a mouse in here!!!

I run in a panic to the other side of the room.

Dax: (Still laying in bed.) Well, get it.

Me:  I'm not touching it. Oh my God!!! It just crawled into my purse!!!!

Dax: Turn on the light so you can see it.

Me:  I don't want to see it! You get up and get it!

I turn on the light (I have to walk back over to where the beast is to do that.)

Dax:  Is it Ralf?

Me:  I don't know! You come pick it up and see if it bites you. If not then it's probably Ralf.

Dax:  It is Ralf. Go put him back in his cage.

So I search for something to pick him up with because I don't want to touch him (just in case it's not Ralf, you know.)

Anyway, I caught him, put him back in his cage, and gave him some food.

It's a wonder he survived. I feel terrible now that we kept hearing something squeak and had no idea it was him. He appears to be alright and was fast asleep when I checked on him again this morning.

I guess he's as tired as I am after last night's big adventure.

Crazy Busy

We've been so busy. I only wish I could say that when this week is over and the kids are out of school that it will get better, but it really won't.


Oh well, as the saying goes......keep calm and carry on.


On Sunday Addison's soccer team had their end-of-season party. (There's much drama on that front, but I'm trying to just stay out of it.) The girls had decided that they wanted to go ice skating. I'm glad they had the party when they did, because it happened to be at the same rink and right before Wyatt's skating class. Woohoo! I'm all for things coming together like that.


Addison had a great time even though she wound up with a big bruise on her knee from someone else knocking her down. Wyatt.....not so much.

It's hard to see in this picture (he wouldn't let me get a good one) but he fell and banged the side of his face up pretty good. There was some missing skin (I'm assuming it stuck to the ice) and some bruising. He was working on sliding to a side-ways stop and lost his balance. And this was before his class even started, he was skating earlier to practice.


On Monday night Addison, Abigail, and  Wyatt had their first band concert. The band did a really good job. I know they were nervous, but it all worked out. The band is pretty big and none of my kids were in a spot where we could see them so I didn't get any pictures. Oh, well.


Today they start taking their mid-term exams. This is a first for them so I guess we'll see how it goes. Just this morning they were complaining that there aren't Christmas parties anymore, just finals. Welcome to growing up!

The big stage show......

Dax was running a little late yesterday when it was time to pick the kids up from school. In his haste to get out of the office he left his house keys on his desk.

Of course he realised this as soon as he got home and started looking for his keys to unlock the front door.

He called me at the office and I left early to go unlock the house for them. It was no big deal because I was going to have to leave early anyway because Kirsten had a choir performance.

When I got home the kids were scattered, still looking for ways to get into the house. Except for Abigail. She said it was too cold in the car so she was trying to stay warm with the cat's bed.

That looks much warmer, right?


Then we got bundled up to go to Kirsten's choir performance at the Trail of Lights.


She had to be there early, so the rest of us had a chance to wander around and look at some of the displays.

 The three amigos.....

Santa's helpers.......

Then we made it back to the stage for the choir performance......

After her performance we looked around a little longer.

I thought this tree was really neat!

Here's an up-close picture so you can see what it was made of.

All in all it was a good night. It was cold but fortunately it wasn't windy. Being on the top of the hill in the cold and wind is just miserable, but last night was good.

Watch 'em fall

My parents came for Thanksgiving but didn't get to leave until December 2.


No, we didn't hold them hostage.


Dax and I were going to be out of town and they were kind enough to stay with our kids while we were gone. I really don't know what we would do without them.


Anyway, my Mom brought some dominoes with her to play games with the kids. They played their games just fine until my Dad showed them a video online of falling dominoes. That started a whole new obsession.


Here's Abigail's creation.

 And some video....

How can it be?

How does time pass so quickly without any updates to this blog? Sometimes we're just so busy that there isn't the time or energy that it takes to make a post. But then, it seems like we're so busy but there really isn't much to tell. How can that be?


Well, it's official now. We have less than one year left of having 'kids.' Next year we'll have teenagers.


I shudder at the thought!


My babies turned twelve last month.


How can it be?


We surprised them for their birthday with dinner out and then to a hockey game. We told them that we were going to dinner at a place that Dax had seen in Austin and wanted to try. After dinner Addison asked if we could go watch a movie. I told her that we would go watch 'something.'


Since we wanted this to be a big deal because of their birthday, Dax and I both contacted several people about having their names on the jumbotron (without knowing the other was doing it.) I think that between the two of us we must have contacted everyone in the organization!


It worked out to our advantage though.


I had bought tickets at center ice only about 5 rows up this time since it was a special occasion. Two different people from the Stars showed up at our seats with gifts for the kids.


They were thrilled to get autographed pucks.

They also got other pucks, some championship banners from last season, and a blanket. It was great!


Wyatt and Dax even got to see their favorite players out on the ice.

And they did get their name on the jumbotron and announced during the game.

All in all it was a good birthday surprise for them.


Not to mention all of the other great gifts they got.


But, I still can't believe they're already 12. How can it be?

It made me laugh.....

I grabbed a spiral notebook the other day to write down a list of what we needed from the store.


When I opened it I found a note to myself of something Kirsten had said that I didn't want to forget.


I didn't date it so I'm not sure when she said it.


Anyway, she told me that she took a tankini with her to wear swimming rather than her regular bikini because she didn't want her stomach to get wet.


How funny is that?


Although, I hope she didn't just say that sometime this year. That wouldn't be funny, it would just be scary!!


In other news, Abigail has strep. I don't know why she likes to get sick the week before a holiday, but she does.

Catching up again.....

Wow!! Time flies by, doesn't it?


I can't believe a whole nother week went by without getting anything posted. I'll try to catch things up now.



On the 6th, we went to another hockey game.


Now, I'm not saying we had bad seats, but look how tiny those players look from where we are.

Just kidding.


During one of the breaks they had these little kids (I think they're 4 & 5 year olds) come out and play an exhibition game. It was so cute!!!


Anyway, we had a good time.

Even though our team lost.


The week was busy as usual. School and soccer practices take up a lot of time.


This past Saturday, Addison had her final soccer game for the season. Her team was on the line for the play-offs. A win on Saturday meant they advanced and a loss put them out of the play-offs. Unfortunately they lost. All of the girls were really upset about it. We reminded them that last season they only won one game and this season they almost made the play-offs. That's huge improvement.


They really didn't care about that at all. lol


Then on Sunday, the girls and I volunteered at the village thrift store. The proceeds from the thrift store go to seven different local charities. We spent several hours cleaning and sorting at the store. It was good for them to go do.


Addison was thrilled when we first started and wanted to go do it every weekend. By the time we were done, though, some of the excitement had worn off.


Okay, all of the excitement had worn off. She just wanted to go home and eat. But they worked hard anyway.

Renaissance Festival

Since the kids decided not to dress up for Halloween this year, we decided to go to the Renaissance Festival instead.

I just want to make note that the kids not dressing up made me both sad and happy at the same time. It's saddening that they're outgrowing these things. It just serves to remind me how quickly time passes. On the other hand, it was really a relief not having to get them to settle on one costume idea and then getting the costumes all put together.

Anyway, back to the festival......

I don't have a lot of pictures of the actual festival, just us eating our way through the day.

We had funnel cake

Jerky

 Fried mushrooms

Turkey leg

 Chocolate pudding

Chocolate covered strawberries

Chocolate covered cheesecake (on a stick) (Addison's favorite)



Brownie sundae

Cheese sticks

and more ice cream!

And, if you can believe it, they were hungry when we left!!

On the ice

Wyatt has been obsessed with hockey since we went to our first game last year.



It's that time again and he's even more obsessed.


He sleeps with his t.v. on all night with the hockey channel playing.


Last Saturday was Texas Hockey Day (bet you didn't know that!) so I signed him up for a chance to see if he really liked it. The kids got to put on some actual hockey gear and spend some time out on the ice.

He's already told me that if I was hoping he wouldn't like it, that I should give up.


He loved it!!


Abigail wanted to skate, so even I got out on the ice with her.

I felt very lucky that I didn't fall down at all.....and yes, I did let go of the ledge.

Miss me?

Sorry for the absence. I was sick and just didn't have the umph to post. Even thinking of what to write seemed like it took too much energy. Somewhere in there I actually slept for 12 hours!!! Thanks to Dax and the kids for even letting me do that. I love you all!


Dax and I celebrated 15 years of marriage on September 30th. That's a really bad time of the year (at the office) for us to be able to celebrate our anniversary so we put it off until the weekend of October 23rd.


My wonderful parents came and stayed with the kids while Dax and I slipped away to San Antonio for the weekend.


It was a wonderful weekend, too.


We even napped on Friday and Saturday afternoons!!


I know that all parents out there know what a luxury that really is.


Although, on Friday my mom called and woke me up to give me an update on what was going on at our house while we were gone.


Apparently, the dogs discovered a coral snake trying to get a drink from their water dish. When my parents tried to kill the snake, one of the dogs grabbed it and started running around the yard with it. So, not only did my parents have to kill a poisonous snake, they had to wrestle it away from the dog first. It was a really big coral snake too, 24 inches long! Yikes!!


It's a wonder my mom wasn't calling to tell me that they were done and it was time for us to get home!


After that, I guess things at home settled down into the usual, expected chaos because I didn't hear from them again.


In addition to naps, Dax and I also celebrated by having Haagen Daz ice cream for two different meals. Yum....


It was Founder's Day on Saturday, so we watched a bagpipe group. We also watched some Irish dancers and some Polish dancers.

 Dax with his true love, Purple Sage (my Indian name......that's for you Dad.)

And I found this unusual.

I've never seen the Book of Mormon in a hotel room before. The Bible was in the night stand drawer on the other side of the bed.

All in all we had a great time and enjoyed the time to ourselves. We adore our kids, but it's nice to get away and just be husband and wife every now and then.

Unfortunately, I was already sick by the time I woke up on Sunday morning. It's still hanging on, but I hope that last nights rain storms will get rid of whatever decided to get it all started in the first place. *fingers crossed*

Sometimes.....

Sometimes Wyatt likes to follow his Dad around all day and pester him.



Sometimes when he's doing that he likes to poke and prod Dax and try to get him to wrestle with him.



Sometimes it works the way he wants to and they wrestle around and it's all good and fun.



But sometimes he's on the losing end of these games.



Because sometimes he gets a face full of his Dad's dirty socks!

Weekend Re-cap

It seems that with school back in session we only get to do anything fun on the weekends. The week is eaten up with school, tutorials after, soccer practice, choir, and getting homework done.That makes the weekends kind of hectic.

Abigail spent most of the weekend at a friend's house. This little girl is an only child so I think Abigail really kind of likes getting away from the mob at our house a little bit.

Addison had a soccer game on Saturday afternoon. They won 4-0. They're doing great so far this year. I think they have 4 wins and 2 losses for the official season. They had only 1 win last season so they're thrilled with this season.

After her game we stopped and grabbed a bite to eat and then had to rush home so that she could get ready to go to a party on Saturday night. Abigail went to the party with the friend she was staying with. Kirsten and Wyatt didn't care to even get out of their pajamas on Saturday so the party was a no-go for them.

Dax & I droped Addison at the party and then headed to meet our friends for dinner. After dinner we went to a play at the local theatre to see some of our friends that were performing in it. It was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. They did a really good job.

I wish I had been able to take some pictures, because there was at least one I could have used as blackmail for one of our friends.

It was a long play, 2 1/2 hours, but we enjoyed it. By the time we got out of there it left us just enough time to go pick Addison up from the party. Abigail was spending the night again with her friend.

Sunday morning I went and got Abigail from her friend's house. I figured she could at least spend a little time with the rest of us. lol

Dax and Wyatt ran some errands and then spent the rest of the afternoon making repairs to their 'shooting range' and then did a little practice shooting.

Addison wasn't feeling well and didn't get out of bed much all day. As a matter of fact, she and Wyatt are both home sick today!

And that gets us back to the start of another week of school, school work, and practices.

Big weekend

We had a pretty important weekend around our house.


Friday night was the big homecoming game. Our team won (sixty something to zero is what I heard.)


But more importantly.........the big homecoming dance afterward!!

(Does anyone remember the name of a cheesy movie from the 80's where everything was 'the big' blah, blah, blah? Like 'the big parade', 'the big game', etc. It was a really silly movie but I can't for the life of me remember the name of it.)
So, this is the first year for our kids to be able to attend the dance. Now that they're in Jr. High.


Kirsten had a friend over, so those two plus Abigail, got ready at our house.

(I didn't want to include Kirsten's friend without her parents' permission.)

Anyway, after much primping and clothes changing they were happy with their looks so I dropped them off at the dance.


While I was talking to some other parents there, Addison and the friend she was spending the night with saw me and asked if they could change into their dance clothes in the back of the car (the windows in our suburban are tinted really dark). I said yes and drove to the back corner of the parking lot so they could change. That's when Addison realized she didn't have anything but sneakers with her. They wouldn't go with her dress at all!! lol


We don't live far from the school so I told her we could just run home and she could get another pair of shoes. Her friend went inside to tell her mom what we were doing, but then they wouldn't let her back out of the dance (for safety reasons) so I took Addison home and then back to the dance. She was 30 minutes late to the dance, her friend was afraid that I was going to be mad at her, and lots of teen girl drama was had. In the end though, it all worked out and the girls had fun.


Wyatt decided to stay at home and watch wrestling.


Yeah..........I know.


On Saturday, Addison had a soccer game.


Her team won 3-0.


Addison got hit in the face with a ball that had just been kicked. Hard!


It hit her in the face, her glasses flew off, and she went down.


It was a little scary, but she's fine. Her right eye was a little puffy yesterday, but she looked fine today.


And, she kept the other team from scoring.


I did advise her not to block with her face anymore.


I don't think she appreciates my humor.


I'm just going on record that I'm not ready for dances, romance, or sports injuries. Where did my babies go?

The joys of Jr. High

I was nervous about the kids starting junior high. I probably started fretting about it about halfway through the school year last year. lol


There have been the expected growing pains. You know the ones, the kids trying to push the boundaries to see where things stand. But, that's expected. It seems to come around every couple of years. At this age, though, it'll probably just be a constant until about age...... hmmmm...........I don't know..........25?


But what I wasn't expecting was the change in language.


Dax and I don't swear/curse around our children, and didn't even when they were babies. So, it was much to my surprise to hear Kirsten call Wyatt a douche bag. (I know that's not a curse word, but still.)


I was even more taken aback the next day when Wyatt called Addison a bitch.


Really?


I'm not even sure what to say about that.


I mean, with Kirsten I just really grossed them all out by explaining what a douche bag really was. By the time I was done, I think she wanted to vomit.


But, explaining to Wyatt what people mean when they call someone else a bitch would only make him feel like he'd used the word correctly.


Instead, I told him that he's not allowed to call his sisters anything that he's not willing to say to my face. That comes with it's own worry of the day that happens. Ugh!


I also reminded him that I can still get him on the ground so he's not too big for me to wash his mouth out with soap. I just wonder how much longer that threat might make a difference.

We're only a couple of months into school. What, pray tell, will the rest of the year bring?

Entreprenuer or philanthropist?

This is what our fence looks like, out front along the road.

The kids are trying to collect donations for band. When they're not there, the donations can be left in the football helmet and whoever makes the donation can take a pencil.

I'm very impressed with the effort they have put into this. And, they've actually gotten a little over $20 in donations!!

I think it says a lot about our community that people will actually stop and leave the money, AND that it's still there for the kids to collect.

Of course, I did have to explain that if they collect money by telling people that it was for the Jr. High Band then they couldn't keep any of it for themselves. It all had to go to the band. They weren't thrilled with that at first, but finally understood that anything less would be lying to people that were trying to help.

I think they said that next they want to see if they can get donations for the animal shelter.

So my question, are they entreprenuers for coming up with these money making ideas or are they philanthropists because they give it all away?

I think I'm going to go with they're just great kids.

Not me

Every time I ask who is responsible for anything that has happened around our house I get four responses and they're all the same.


Not me!


I don't know about other households, but 'not me' wreaks havoc on mine. 'Not me' wastes food, breaks things, and leaves messes.


And 'not me' never cleans up after himself.


For example, I left this in the refrigerator for FOUR days waiting to see if anyone else (including 'not me') would put it in the sink.

I finally gave in and put it in the sink myself.


I'm not quite sure why nobody will take responsibility for the empty cup, but will take pride in something like this.

She even asked me to take the picture!!

They're at it again..........

Last night when I was getting into bed I found a present from Abigail on my pillow. It was all wrapped and waiting for me.


You're thinking that's so sweet, aren't you?


Well, here's what was in the wrapping.

Nice, huh?


Don't you know I was feeling the love?


In case you're wondering, it's a toy like a zuzu hamster that she cut all of the hair off of. It looks like a naked mole rat!!