Loving Christmas Break

Only a few days into Christmas break and I am LOVING it!! Having nothing to do and no where to be is fabulous. We sleep until we can't sleep anymore and I have decided that I deserve a break from the 6:00 am treadmill run every weekday morning until school is back in session. The kids are enjoying playing outside until the sun goes down and we even saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs yesterday. We have already made a quick trip down to Austin to visit with the Jones side of our family and tomorrow we will head to Missouri to be with the Martin side. We are very excited about Christmas and Santa Claus coming to visit...only 3 more days!! Hooray for Christmas Break!

Grossology

On Friday Joshua and I went on a really gross field trip. In Frisco there is a Sci-Tech Discovery Center where Grossology is now on tour. Most the time we are trying to teach our kids when it is the appropriate place to burp or toot or whatever...and to use their manners. Well at this place it is very acceptable to talk about all of our bodily functions...in fact they want you to. The kids thought it was great as we learned about throw-up, poop, toots, blisters, burps, snot, boogers, and every other gross bodily function that is part of the human body.

Did you know that your small intestines is 20 ft. long?
- or that on average we burp 15 times a day
- or that E. Coli is good in the body but bad out of the body
- or that we swallow 1 liter of snot every day
These are just a few of the fun facts that we learned. We also got to help dissect a cow eyeball, and see how our stomach digests food...it was pretty gross to say the least.

Joshua with a giant pair of kidneys

His homemade blister....ewww!

We walked through a gigantic nose. These are some lovely nose hairs.


Noses come in all shapes and sizes. I don't know what Joshua is doing in this picture....silly kid.

Dissecting cow eyeballs. Another interesting fact that we learned is that cows have night vision and all cows have brown eyes.

A giant game of operation..Joshua with part of the intestines

This is Nigel...he constantly has snot dripping out of his nose.
The boys loved this station. They got to make farting noises over and over and over again.
This is the skin wall. Their were hair follicles that the kids could climb on like a climbing wall. We were running out of time so we just took a quick snap shot. The kids were really tired at this point and ready to have lunch. I don't know how they could even think about food after all the disgusting things we had seen and learned.
Joshua's group ready to head back to school.....it was a really gross day!

Cutest Baby Ever

I swiped this picture from my mom's blog. This is my niece, Payton. I love this picture...it makes me smile. Isn't she the cutest thing ever? I could just eat her up!!

Joshua's 9th birthday...Lego style

Joshua had a great birthday party yesterday. He is obsessed with legos so we had to have a lego themed party. He and his friends first rocked out to lego rockband (which by the way is so much fun), they each had their very own lego kit to build picked out especially by Joshua, and the goody bags were a big hit...complete with a lego coupon, lego magazine, lego club membership, tips and tricks card, and of course a bunch of candy. The goody bags were so cute but I totally forgot to get a picture...ugh! It was a fabulous party if I do say so myself. :)

Josh and one of his best buds, Andrew rockin' out to "We are the Champions" by Queen. (please ignore the red eye)

Most of the group with their power miner lego kits

Building the kits...

The finished project

Hmmm.....What should I wish for??

Joshua's favorite series of books......Diary of a Wimpy kid. He reads these things in just a couple of days. They are very easy reads, but if you have a kid that hates to read. These are great!

Joshua hit it big with cash and several gift cards...he's a "loaded man", or so he says.

This gift got all the "oohs" and "ahhs" from the crowd. His friend, Jaren was very generous with this gift. Joshua is dying to put it together.

One of Joshua's favorite things about legos is the little lego people. I haven't figured out why, but they have become a real obsession for him. He has a small tackle box in which he stores them. He takes them with him almost every where we go...or he at least tries to. Cary figured this lego tic, tac, toe game would be perfect for him because it came with 10 lego people. As of this morning I think Joshua estimated he has about 50 of these little guys.

It was a good birthday...now only 19 days left until Christmas!!

"This is like the best birthday present ever"

Today is Joshua's 9th birthday. He woke up to what he says is the best birthday present ever....SNOW!! Of course it is raining now and almost all melted, but it was super exciting and fun while it lasted.

I want to see it again, and again, and again.....

For those few of you who read my blog...I am sure you have been dying to hear what I thought of New Moon. :) I LOVED it!! No surprise I am sure...but it was awesome. I would love to go see it again and take my wonderful husband, but I am sure that won't be happening. Only 219 days until Eclipse! Ha ha!!

Our very cute T-shirts were made by my very talented friend, Jeni.

My fellow twilighters...Jeni, Emily, and Audrey

Build -a- Bear

or a sparkly cheetah....This trip to Build-a-Bear was long over due. Kate received some gift cards for her birthday back in August to Build-a-Bear and because of very busy weekends we were not able to go until just recently.

Kate first stuffed her cheetah...

She then dressed her cheetah...

Kate then adopted her cheetah and gave her a name...

Kate and Sparkles....so cute!!

Gobble, Gobble

Kate was assigned a family project in which she had to come up with a creative way to list at least 3 things she is thankful for. I am not very creative, but I am really good and copying others ideas. So, I went to the Internet for help. I found lots of good ideas on this site. I picked several for Kate to choose from and she chose this yarn wrapped turkey. It was super easy. Kate cut out all the feathers herself and wrote on several what she is thankful for. She also made the "I'm Thankful" sign that hangs around the turkeys neck. I wrapped the balls in yarn and did the hot glueing. We both put the tail feathers into the turkeys big, round body. It turned out better then I expected it to and Kate is in-love with it.

Obsessed...maybe a little

** photo taken by Kate
This past weekend my mom made a spur of the moment visit to come see us. I was so excited to see her and even more excited when she brought me an unexpected gift....a Twilight board game. Yes, I am a nerd, I know, but I LOVE all things Twilight, especially Edward! I can hardly wait till next week to see the midnight showing of New Moon....only 7 more days!

so funny

My View

One of the things that I love most about my house is the view that we have in our backyard. From my bedroom and our living room we have an open field and a distant view of the lake. It is so peaceful and relaxing. I love waking up everyday opening my blinds and seeing this....

Fat Dog Brownies

Just in case you didn't get enough treats this past weekend, here is a very yummy brownie recipe. It was in our Relief Society newsletter last month so I don't know who to give credit for it, but it is sooooo good!

1 box German chocolate cake mix
3/4 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 c. chocolate chips
1 bag individually wrapped caramels ( about 50)
1/3 c. evaporated milk

Mix together cake mix, melted butter and 1/2 cup evaporated milk. Mix until well incorporated - it will be thick. Press half of batter into greased 9x13 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, melt caramels and 1/3 c. evaporated milk in saucepan (I just used the microwave) until creamy. When brownie is done, pour caramel on top. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of caramel. Dot remaining brownie mix on top of chips and caramel. Return to oven and bake for another 11 minutes. Let cool for an hour.

* I used a plain chocolate cake mix and less then half a cup of chocolate chips...and it was delicious!

Halloween 2009

This Halloween was fun as usual this year, but we missed Cary a lot because he is off on another trip to London. He missed out big time! The kids costumes were very easy to pull together this year. Braeden thought a lot about what he wanted to be and decided on Urkel, Joshua, with much convincing from me was a Mad Scientist, and Kate of course always has to be an animal of some kind. So, she decided to be a black cat. They were all super cute!!

Did I do that??

MUHAHAHAHA!!!!

My costume were these very hairy eyeglasses.

Kate and our good friend Molly, as Jesse the Cowgirl.

One of my girls as an Oompa-Loompa.....you looked great Darci!

Adria the witch with her little black cat, Kate.

This is my favorite picture of the night. Joshua and Josue are two peas in a pod. There is 3 years between them but they are so much alike. They are both such hams.

This is some random kid as a laundry basket. Loved his costume! He was nice enough to let me take his picture. Great idea, right?

Braeden, Laurel, and Gabby. I wish the girls would leave him alone.... I don't think this will be happening any time soon...even as Steve Urkel.

My kids hit the jackpot with their Trick or Treating...way to much Candy. I have no self -control. I will be hitting the treadmill even harder this week.

The Whole Gang + 2

This is my whole family....1 Mom, 1 Dad, 4 daughters, 4 son in-laws, 4 grandsons, 6 granddaughters + an aunt and an uncle

A crazy bird, some crazy clothes, and reflections

While I was in the kitchen at my parent's house putting together some wedding favors I kept hearing a tap, tap on the window. I went to the window to see what it was.....waited for a few minutes and found that this crazy bird was doing the tapping. He kept running into the widow over and over again. He would go from running into the window, to the rocking chair, to the dinner bell. He followed this same routine repeatedly. I was able to snap this picture of him on one of his many runs...or flights. I think he may have damaged his brain.
This week is Drug Awareness week at school. Each day the kids are to wear something special to show their support and promise to stay drug free. On Tuesday it was "Drugs are Ridiculous"...so this is what Kate and Josh came up with.
At school the PTA is involved with a Reflections program. This is a contest where kids can showcase a Visual arts talent such as photography, painting, drawing, etc. Kate went back and forth on entering and finally decided a few days before the deadline to submit this picture. The theme for the contest is "Beauty is..." They had to explain in one or two sentences how their art goes with the theme. She wrote, "I love dogs. They are beautiful to me."