BIRTHDAYS ROCK!!!

Today is my birthday!!! Woohoo!!!!

I have this grandma. Her name is Nan, or Nanny or Nana. And she is one of my very best friends. We talk a couple times a week, usually for an hour or so at a time. When I was little, I would go over and spend the night at her house, sometimes several times a month, even though I lived 45 minutes from her house at the time. Once, we were at her house for dinner and my sister kept taking the t.v. remote and changing the channel. So when she wasn’t looking, I took the remote and hid it in the sleeve of my coat. Naturally, my 7 year old self forgot about it and when it was time to go, I put on my coat to leave. I remember noticing that my sleeve felt funny, but got in the car anyway and we left. When we got home, Nan called and asked if we knew where the remote was. Sheepishly, I gave the remote to my mom and she drove it all the way back to Sunnyside. That has nothing to do with it being my birthday, but it’s a fun memory that I have of her.

Every year, my Nan calls me on my birthday, usually between the hours of 5 and 6 a.m. It’s her “thing.” And I love it. Last night, I even called her to ask if she was still going to call me at her usually time (jokingly, of course). And then we ended up talking for over an hour. I love her so much! This morning, her phone call came at 6:15 and was the best one I’ve ever received. It went like this and was said in a low, sultry, late-night-radio-show voice:

“This is radio station N-A-N in Washington. I have a song request for a little girl in Wyoming so I’m going to sing the song. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday sweet little angel. Happy Birthday to you. Now go back to sleep, Roo (my nickname from her).”

Isn’t she the greatest?? I never want to forget this.

Christmas Program 2012

The kids had their Christmas program last week, on the 5th, and it was AWESOME! Well… except for one thing. Their music teacher, Mrs. Held is INCREDIBLE. Like… out of this world. I don’t know how she gets a bajillion kids to sing, in sync, without stepping out of line or goofing off! However, this year, they added an additional music teacher, who took over half of the program. He was AWFUL. I know that sounds mean, but it’s true. He’s very talented and seems nice, but he is way more concerned with putting on his own little performance on the piano while the kids sort of sing together. Connor had him while Haylie had Mrs. Held. It doesn’t help either, that Haylie is a TOTAL PERFORMER (like I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up on Broadway someday) while Connor couldn’t care less. Here’s a little clip of one of the songs Haylie got to sing:

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a video of any of Connor’s songs. Not like I really needed it. I think this picture says it all. 

He lost the scowl after the first song, but not the blank stare. He was thoroughly unimpressed. Like, barely moved his mouth to sing, kept his hands in his pockets while all the other kids did hand gestures to different songs, and gave the girl next to him dirty looks for twirling in her dress. The boy is just not cute out for the limelight.

Here’s a few more from the night.
Cousin Naomi and Maggie – Sometimes best friends! And sometimes best enemies. ;)

I think this was the only time he smiled all night.

On our way down a very long hallway to take this picture, Haylie decided to test her high heel athletic abilities and rolled her ankle. She fell on the floor and her face immediately turned purple from silent screaming. First thing she says to me, “Is my mascara messed up (I put a tad on each eye for the occasion)?” Her foot ended up being OK, although pretty sore for the rest of the night and next day.

Cousins: Haylie, Naomi, Maggie, Connor and Lucy.

Such a fun night!

O’ Christmas Tree…

This was one of those days where I kept thinking, ‘Now, this is a GOOD day!’ The weather was GORGEOUS, much to Joe’s annoyance… He is under the impression that looking for Christmas trees should be done in a blizzard. Weird, right? I, on the other hand, am perfectly content to look for my Christmas tree in 50 degree weather and then decorate it while it’s snowing outside.

My mom says that my brother and sister and I always liked to be outside when we were little, just like any kid does, but I am positive that my children did not get their love of outdoors from me. My husband is 100% mountain man at heart and all three of my kids have inherited this gene/trait/characteristic (or whatever).

This is Lady, our Beagle, who is a tad plump. She loves us a lot though… she just turned 7 a few days ago. I didn’t remember until the day after and felt sorta’ bad that I didn’t even get her a doggy treat.

This is our other pup, Lucy. We got her for free off Craigslist, not knowing just how amazing she really was. It turns out she has INCREDIBLE blood lines. We’re pretty sure she came from an abusive home because for a long time she would cower every time anyone came near her. She still does if we have to get after her for being naughty, but she has come a long, long way. She has the sweetest temperament but is extremely protective of us and she absolutely ADORES Joe. Getting her was the best decision we ever made.

OK, funniest thing… I just noticed that Connor is winking in the next 3 pictures. Not great lighting, but oh well.

Best thing I’ve ever done in my whole life is teach Maggie how to pose. SO FUNNY! I love how she even has some hip action goin’ on.

Haylie getting some chopping practice in. *Don’t worry- she was far away from the other kids."*

Pose #2

OK people. It took a lot of guts for me to post this picture. I am not at all comfortable with the way I look right now and RARELY get in pictures, but I have been getting little “nudges” lately to start getting in the pictures that normally I would be taking of my family. We wanted to get a picture by our tree (which you can’t really see here) for our Christmas card this year. I haven’t gotten brave enough to make the decision to actually send this out yet. But if nothing else, it will make my mom happy to see a picture of all of us. :)

And just for kicks…

Connor picked our tree this year. It’s big. And sorta’ looks more like a bush than a Christmas tree. But it’s OK because being together was way more important than having the “perfect” tree!

What is blogging?

Do you really want to hear about my day to day happenings? I mean, people aren’t really interested in the number of times my littlest “Hulks out,” right? If so, prepare to be completely entertained for 12 hours a day because I will totally post every time she does.

I seem to go through these phases where I feel like I have so much to blog about and sometimes post 2 or 3 times a day! And other times (like now) I go a month or two without posting anything! My favorite blog to follow The Hungry Runner Girl, has 2 posts a day EVERY DAY! It can’t be that hard, right?

I really want this blog thing to work. So I am making a New Years Resolution (6 weeks early) to post at least 3 times a week. Did I make this same resolution last year? Oh well. If so, I figure if I start 6 weeks early and don’t follow through, I technically didn’t break my New Years Resolution, right? SAFE!

So because I don’t really have anything interesting to post besides this, I will post a cute picture of my kids that I took on a walk we took before it turned freezing butt cold!

(I had to crop this picture for my mom because if she really knew how high up they were on this rock, I would be in BIG trouble.)

Sometimes I can’t believe I have a 7 year old. Or 3 kids, for that matter.
If I can get my creative juices flowing, maybe I’ll try to post something more interesting next time.

P.S. If any of my blogging buddies can help me with making my blog look a little more professional, I would really appreciate it!!!

Deep Creek Canyon

This afternoon after church, Joe, the kids and I and my SIL and her family drove South of Green River to Deep Creek Canyon for a little picnic. We only got to stay for a few hours before it got dark but we got a little hiking in and had great company. A trip well worth it!

OK. I have no idea what was going on here. I looked over and Connor was walking towards the camp and was unbuttoning his shirt. When he saw me whip out the camera, he wasn’t too happy with me.

This is what he did at first. I guess he didn’t want me to see his ribs six pack.

…this is what he did next.

And this is after I chewed him out and threatened to send him to the car for sticking his tongue out at me. :)

Gotta’ get as many of these little trips in before it gets too cold! Tonight was cutting it close… if there’s one thing Wyoming is notorious for it’s the wind. And boy does it make a huge difference! It was a quick little get-a-way but we had a great time!

A Little Weekend Trip

Yesterday, we loaded up the fam (including the pups) and drove a couple hours North to Pinedale, WY. From there, we drove a few miles North to Half-Moon Lake. This was our view on the way.

This was a huge fire in Lander, WY.

Haylie is definitely our most adventurous child of the three. She had already gone this far up the mountain before I’d even stepped out of the car. No joke.

Everyone set off for a hike as soon as we got there. Everyone except me, Maggie and Joe. I took the opportunity to lean back, read my book and enjoy the peace and quiet. That is, until Maggie jumped on me.

Joe immediately fell asleep. Shocking, I know.

This was my view during my “quiet time.”

I convinced Maggie that Joe didn’t need a nap and so she went and jumped on him! He decided to load her up and they went on their own mini-hike, leaving me all alone for some real peace and quiet!

About a half hour later, he came back and told me I just “HAD” to see the spot he found and that it was WAY better than the one I was already in. So I put my shoes back on, loaded up my book and blanket and we took off! About 5 minutes after we got there, we spotted the rest of the clan walking around the side of the mountain, about 100 yards away. What troopers! They’d been hiking for about 2 hours!

Maggie and her Rachel. Rachel and her Maggie. The two are inseparable. My favorite is to watch Maggie’s face when Rachel comes into the room. Love it.

Playing fetch. Children entertaining dogs… dogs entertaining children. Easy peasy!

Gramma Tami getting bombarded by dogs!

Within a few minutes, this gigantic smoke cloud went from looking like this (above) to looking like this (below).

The whole fam damily! From left to right:
Liesl (Joe’s cousin), Gramma Tami, Lucy, me, Joe, Haylie, Maggie, Connor, Naomi and Rachel. We got this shot on the first try! Pretty good!

K, what’re the odds that 3 out of 6 kids pretend they have antlers without planning it ahead of time? Haylie co-found her antler with Connor. She said Connor gave it to her to keep, but I’m having a hard time believing there wasn’t some sort of flattery and/or bribery involved.

What a fun day! So relaxing and beautiful. Until next summer…