Be Prepared

Braeden received his Arrow of Light badge last night at pack meeting. This along with the religious knot are the only badges that you can carry forward to Boy Scouts. He actually earned it quite a long time ago but our ward isn't on top of things when it comes to Cub Scouts. Joshua finally got his Bobcat badge. We are hurrying to get his Wolf done. I am now his Bear leader....I know it's hilarious. Not my favorite thing, but I am doing it for him. Next week is our first Den meeting. I think that's what it called, anyways it should be interesting.

It's Horrible

So, tonight as I was making dinner Kate was sitting at the kitchen table listening to my mp3 player and coloring. Her requests were several songs by Taylor Swift followed by Single Ladies by Beyonce. It then shuffled to a song by the Jonas Brothers which she loved and sang along to. Up next was a song by ABBA. This was Kate's reaction...."What the heck is that?" ME: "That is Abba. I use to roller skate to that with my sisters when I was little." Kate: (with a very serious look on her face) "It is horrible!" Meanwhile I left the room to help Joshua who is in the tub. I come back just seconds later with the same Abba song playing and Kate with her fingers in her ears says to me, "Turn it off, it's hurting my ears!" Haaaahaaaahaaa!!!! I wonder if she would feel the same about New Kids on the Block. :)

White Christmas

* still updating from Christmas Vacation

We went to bed on Christmas Eve with the beginning of ice turning into snow. This is what we woke up to on Christmas day. It was so beautiful and perfect for Christmas morning. This picture was taken from my mom's front door.
After opening gifts and a delicious breakfast of Belgium waffles with cream cheese and strawberries we headed out the door for some snow fun! Grandma even got in on the fun sledding down the hill with Kate.

The trek back up the hill....not so fun and a work out I might add.

I take all the pictures so I had to do a little photo session of my own in my borrowed Eskimo coat, gloves, boots, and scarf. Thanks Ashley!

There were several wipe outs.....
some done on purpose...

Kate coming down the hill with Dad

The boys tried some snow boarding..

We had lots of fun in the snow but I can only do so much. I am a warm weather girl and would much rather be sitting in the hot sun by the pool. While the snow is pretty for a few days it is obviously way to cold and begins to get really ugly after a few days. The snow stuck around for the entire time we in Missouri.....10 days! I was sick of it by the time we left. It doesn't help that we are never prepared for this kind of cold weather living in Texas. All we need for our Texas winters (usually) are a heavy sweater or a hoodie and some sweater gloves. All in all the kids has a great time and we did get a white Christmas.

Storybook Tradition

Every year my mom puts together a "storybook basket" for me, my sisters and our families. This tradition started about 5 or 6 years ago and it has become one of my favorites. I look forward to it every year. My mom picks out a Christmas book and then fills a basket, or box, or some form of container with things that go along with the story. A few years ago she gave us "Bear stays Up" with a blanket, popcorn, hot chocolate an several other goodies. This is one of Kate's favorites. Last year it was "The Christmas Candle" with a lantern, candle and a gift card to help someone in need. This year she picked "The Christmas Sweater" by Glen Beck. On Christmas Eve we all gathered together in her family room with the stockings hung, the fireplace lit, the glowing Christmas tree, and all the little grandchildren gathered around in front her and she read us the book. She then gave a gift to each family and we all opened them at the same time. This year it was a big hat box with the book and a sweater for each of us. I love this tradition and I plan on carrying it on with my children when they are grown and have their own families.

Santa Claus is so funny

When Santa Claus comes to our house he has such a sense of humor. He almost always does something wacky. This year he decided it would be funny to wrap all the goodies he brought onto the furniture so that the kids could not see what they got. He even left a note for each of them so they would know which wrapped spot was theirs.

Joshua didn't find this very amusing. He woke up at 3am, got dressed, went upstairs to find this....We gave our kids instructions not to wake us until 7:30. So, Joshua fell back asleep next to his pile of loot.

Back to Reality

We are home from Missouri, the Christmas decorations have been taken down, the kids are back in school, and I have tons to blog about. We had a great Christmas break. We slept until at least 9 every morning sometimes later, laid around a lot, watched some really good movies, ate lots of good food, and I even read a book. Here is a sneak peak of our holiday...

Today

I promise to make a real post......maybe

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