Exercise is good for the soul

Scott got a new exercise bar. The kids love to help him exercise.



Megan likes to exercise also. She even grunts and makes faces as she does. She is actually pretty strong.

Newest Family Member

Meet Brian!

Okay - I didn't choose the name. Scott started calling him that so Adam did and I can't get Adam to change his name. He is so cute and starved for attention I think. He follows me all around the house. Not sure what kind he is we got him at the Humane Society. We thought it had been long enough without a dog. The kids were acting afraid of dogs they met especially Megan. She was to young to remember Buddy. They both are getting used to Brian. Adam will even play with him. I have almost taught him to sit today. We think he is about 2-3 years old so he hopefully is out of the puppy "chewing" stage. We even think he is already housebroken. He hasn't hiked his leg up on anything in the house yet! We took him for a walk yesterday and he did so well on a leash. When we let him off the leash while we were at the park, he stayed right around us and didn't run off. The kids don't bother him. If he gets annoyed he goes to another spot. Here are some pictures of our first day with Brian.

Well, I can't get my upload pictures button to work so when I do I'll post the rest of these pictures. Sorry.

Christmas

Christmas this year was the best yet. All of my sisters were home with their families. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. Everyone came out to our house. We played games (of course). We had soup and sandwiches for supper (of course). Then we went to church (of course). Funny thing this year - so many people were confusing me and Carmen. So many people came up to me and said how much we look alike. After church we had Christmas with my side of the family. It was so much fun with the kids this year. I just smile thinking about it. Everything was exciting to Adam - even clothes!



Christmas morning was so wonderful. It was just the four of us. Their little faces looking at all that was under the tree and that Santa had eaten his cookies and drank his milk. These are the moments I want to remember forever. Megan went right along like she knew what she was doing. She just watched Adam and did everything he did. I just can't say enough how cute they were! I know they are my kids and I'm a little prejudiced.... Oh yah - I finally got a new wedding ring after losing mine in AZ. Its so pretty!

Later Christmas day we went to Scott's mom's house. Its always crazy fun there. We had a good dinner and then opened presents. Megan got a doll that makes sounds when you put the pacifier in her mouth. She also starts to close her eyes and it looks a little creepy. After presents we played games. We had so much fun.



Then on Saturday we had Christmas number 4. We went to my parents for our extended family gathering. The weather was so nice. Here is Adam, Sylvie, Aunt Mandy and Uncle Jeremy sword fighting in the front yard. Somehow Uncle Jeremy won this battle. I was so happy to have both my sisters here. Its so great to see them and spend time with them. It was wonderful to have Grandma & Grandpa there too.



A finally, just barely in January, we had our final Christmas celebration. Scott's Dad came down. He had some problems before and couldn't come any earlier. But we were glad to have them here. Max, Megan and Adam are seen here opening up an Elmo chair for Megan. I think all the kids helped all the kids open their presents. And that concludes our many Christmases.

Aaaaaarrrrrrrggghhhhh Pirates!

Pirate Adam

How safe is that? Give a 4 year old a stick, blindfold him and tell him to swing it!

The whole pirate crew

Pirate Dad

Megan thinks she is just as big as the big kids.

Adam & Grant on the Pirate Challenge!

We had a wonderful day for Adam's birthday. Its crazy that he has better weather (warmer) than Megan at her birthday. As if you can't tell our theme was Pirates! Scott and I were up the night before making swords out of cardboard and duct tape - and nobody killed anyone the next day! I also made bandannas with a skull & crossbones and red sashes for everyone. I even found eye patches and earrings. Some kids wore them - others didn't. Our first game was the Pirate Challenge. Scott set up an obstacle course in the backyard. They loved it. Even after we had served cake and ice cream they left that to play on the obstacle course some more. Then we went on a scavenger hunt. I took pictures of different things around our yard and used those as clues since 99% of these kids can't read yet. Our treasure was the pinata. Everyone had fun with that. Then we had cake and ice cream. I made a pirate ship cake. All Adam wanted on it was a skull & crossbones. I've never put so much frosting on a cake before! When we finally got to the presents Adam did real good. He is learning to get the card first so we know who its from. When he opened Grammy's present, which was some superhero walkie-talkies, there was also some batteries in the bag. Adam pulled out the batteries and was sooooo excited! The look on his face was hilarious! It was a great day. I can't believe my baby is 4!

Big Girl Megan

Yee Haw!!!

What? I'm not doing anything!

I just love to eat!

Megan is just growing so fast. She is doing everything brother does and she is on the go go go. She can almost run. She is just getting her 4th tooth. She doesn't want to be fed anymore, she has to do it herself. She is finally starting to look at books herself. She likes to dress up and talk on her cell phone. Her hair is finally growing too. I can actually put a clip in it now - not that she keeps it in. She also is getting her temper and starting to throw tantrums. What else would you expect from a daughter of mine?

Sooooo Excited!!!

I just had to write a quick blog and then get to work. I am sooooooo excited!!!!! I just got back from buying an outfit for our anniversary night out and I bought a size 7/8 jean!!!!!! I haven't worn that since pre-Adam! I had almost given up hope. That's all!

Cooking for a month?!

My friend Amanda and I have been doing once a month cooking for a couple of months now. For the past two months we have picked out around 7-10 meals and took one day to cook them. This brilliant idea came from a book she had. So this month we decided to go with this authors plan. Basically we ended up with 35+ meals. Oh - My - Gosh - was it a mess. I'm not joking when I say I think we dirtied every dish in her kitchen. This was last friday. I had to get up at 5:00 that morning because I didn't do all my "prep" work the night before because John McCain's speech was on at the RNC and I couldn't miss that. So at 5:15 I'm headed to good ol' Walmart. (Thank goodness they are open 24hrs a day.) Got home and started cooking just a little after 5:30. About 10am we took our kids to Mom's Day Out and I moved all my stuff over to Amanda's house. I felt like we were moving along pretty good - but then we had to pick up the kids. This is whats wrong with our plan. We don't want to pay for daycare (okay we're cheap - why do you think we are doing this to begin with) so we are trying to deal with kids, who we thought would take really long naps since they played so hard at Mom's Day Out. Yeah right. Adam never took a nap but he still did pretty good since he just likes to watch movies. So about 5:30 I am trying to get ahold of Scott to come get the kids. He makes it over and I send some food and the kids home with him. All the while we are still cooking. Amanda finds out her husband isn't going to be home till late so she takes her son over to my house for Scott to watch. Eventuall we break out the wine - it has been a really long day. So once we get done cleaning up her kitchen she helps me get all my food and supplies to my house and clean and put everything away. I finally set down at 11:30 PM! What this author says should take 6 hrs took me 18 1/2 hours..... I know I'm sounding like I'm complaining but I'm really not. I haven't had to cook yet and the meals have been pretty good. Once we get the hang of this I know we'll go faster. I'm sure it would go faster if we each cooked in our own kitchen but whats the fun of that?