The Gingerbread challenge

We had so much fun making "real" gingerbread houses this year. I have never made gingerbread before. It was really really fun! It made the house smell like Christmas. We should have done it earlier in the month. I can't believe it is the 22nd. Where has the time gone?? Oh my goodness, it is FLYING by. We still have so much to do to get ready for the BIG day! Yikes... Anywho...

This was Nate's house. He had the perfect little house. It stayed together beautifully. But he probably could have cared the least. He actually wanted his house to fall apart. As you can see Gracie and Ben were not so lucky. Their little houses were a mess. I learned that the thinner you can roll your dough, the better. Gracie was loading her roof full of candies and the whole thing just caved. Poor girl! She was a little sad, but then, we created a new style of gingerbread house. One that was "much better" in our opinion. I love her creativity! Thank goodness for that!

Ben didn't care at all that his house caved. He just wanted something to put candy on.
The finished product... So cute...
Nates perfect little house, and he didn't even care, so I helped decorate it. haha...

Nate caught in the act... we told him NO MORE FROSTING... that is all he cared about.. and I swear he ate an entire container. He kept sucking the tip of his frosting, saying, "ohh no.. it's spilling Mom!" Yeah, that worked the first time Nate... It was obvious it was not spilling... Then he started just going straight for the back of the bag... Easier access...
Stinker.... =)

Cute Gracie was so proud of her little creation!

Keeping her eye on the prize... the frosting...

Who does she look like??

Julia had a fun night too... she had her first tast of candy cane and frosting... this was the reaction after the frosting... Yumm!

P.S. This very special "Christmas music" is a shout out to my Dad... Love you Dad!

I know...OKAY!!

This post is only to be read by all who promise to read, and not judge. Hence the picture of Julia, it is, I am sure, the reaction I am about to receive from ALOT of those that are close to me. (ehh hem...Mom and Dad)

K, so let let me start from the beginning. So like all of you out there, we wanted Christmas to be fun and special for our kids this year blah blah blah. (who doesn't right) Our kids really aren't asking for anything special, of course they want everything they see on TV, but that doesn't count. Nate really wanted some Lightning MCqueen stuff, but that was really it. Gracie and Ben change almost daily. So one day back in November we started talking crazy talk, and we said to each other..."wouldn't it be so fun to give the kids a puppy for Christmas?" Of course we both laughed at each other, (hahaha) cause we both new there was NO WAY we'd ever consider something so ludicrous. (I mean, could our lives be anymore crazy right now?) Well the more we talked about it, the more we started checking out breeds, and just sort of window shopping our options. We weren't buying a dog, but it was fun to consider the "what ifs."

Still very level headed at this point, the first week in December we get this call from this women who unknown to us at the time, since 1960 has been a big time West Highland Terrier breeder. She has won countless medals for her dogs, and prides herself on being "best in show," from sea to shining sea. ( I added that last part) She told us she had just received a 6 month old "Westie," from a family that had counted on showing her, but after she had grown, realized she had a crooked jaw and wouldn't be eligible to show. So they gave her up to sell. (Sad, huh?) So she said we could come take a look at her, and see what we thought. So we go see Feebie and the kids immediately fell in love with her. She was so playful and fun and spunky, and best of all potty trained! She was such a great little dog. (Might I warn that we were still in a level headed state at this point, so of course we did not buy Feebie. We simply walked away, and said goodbye.) The lady was asking WAY to much for her, so there really was no way we were buying the dog, and we weren't going to BUY a dog.. this was just for fun!!

Well, a week goes buy, and Jake and I are both getting a little braver talking to each other...neither one, at this point is eluding to that fact that maybe we were getting serious, we would just sort of talk in passing about it.

Well with-in this same week we happen to come across a breeder in Twin Falls that happened to just have a litter of Westies puppies all ready to be packaged up and sent off just in time for Christmas. (And by the way... the Dad is one of Miss Sea to Shining Sea's 5 time prize winning studs, so these dogs have "champion bloodlines.") suckers...

Huh.....all of the sudden our stable level headedness starts to leave. The crazy talk comes out, and before we know it Jake is on his way to Twin Falls this morning. But he is just going to LOOK at them. We have never seen them, and we needed to see first hand if it was something we would really want to do. (I promise mom and dad... we spent Monday and Tuesday talking non stop about "should we, or shouldn't we. We stayed up till 2 am both nights debating back and forth as to if Jake should even go down. (because I think we both new what would happen if he did go down.)

So...it gets much worse I promise....

So Jake goes down to Twin Falls, and meets Daisy, and her litter of six of the most adorable all white little fluffer nutters you can possibly imagine. But, at this point we had agreed that we weren't going to buy, we were just looking, and if we decided to do it, he was going to go back down the next week and pick it up right before Christmas.

It continues to get much worse at this point....

So he narrows it down to 2. He calls me up and I am hopping on the internet trying to possibly put a picture with what he is describing. I am getting all excited, they are so cute, and so fun, and "wouldn't be so fun on Christmas, to have the kids open up a puppy!!" Yeah, so then the talk was turning... hey, do you really want to have to go down again? Yeah, that we be such a pain to have to travel 5 hours round trip again, when really your there already! So... Jake steps outside, and we talk, we decide to "go for it" and the last thing I remember is him saying..."Okay, I am going back inside now...I will call you."

He did it....we are now the proud owners of the most adorable little westie puppy on the planet. She is perfect, all white, not to spunky, she was the most tame of the bunch.

It is all down hill from here....

So remember that great idea of giving our kids this fun special Christmas? Well now we had a puppy a week and a before Christmas was here, we have absolutely NOTHING to bring this poor little thing home too. The breeder was kind enough to give us a small dog carrier that Jake brought her home in. That is all we had. So to make a very long story short.. after Jake brought her home and we went through all the options like..keeping her in our closet for a week...(impossible)...having Nate and Luisa take her...(totally unfair to them)...and our neighbor who is so sweet and kind offered to put her up for a week. We just decided to give our kids their big present a week early!! We put her in a big wrapped box, and Viola... Ahhh...we are so week.

I think most of you can remember we have done this once before, and it was a disaster! We ended up giving the puppy away 2 weeks later. Jake and I both agree this time is different. We both committed we were going to do it this time. Not give up, no matter how hard it is. We are going to make this work.

So... our little town actually has an amazing dog store. I went there and the guy totally hooked me up with exactly what I needed, and recommended this great "how to, no fail puppy book", that I am actually enjoying reading. He was exactly the kind of person I needed to talk to, and there were all these different people in there giving me tips and snip-its of sure fire things I would need to know in order to make this a positive experience. In all seriousness I am actually really excited about this little gal. I think we did it wrong the first time, I was totally ignorant to what it meant to have a dog.

I am well aware this time... and I still said yes....hmm.. I think my brain has officially left me. Ohh well.... my life was starting to get a little bit in control... why not through a wrench in there =) Wish me luck!

Ohh what a night...

We had a great Halloween! The kids were so much fun, and so cute in their little costumes. We went back and forth about what to be right to the day of Halloween. I think they chose the right things. Everyone seemed to choose the right costume for their personality.

Ben was so funny this year. He didn't really care what he was, as long as it had a gun, a sword, a light-saber, anything boyish. Since I am sort of a caucious Mom and don't really let him play with that sort of stuff on a regular basis his eyes were opened to a whole new world when I said he could be anything he wanted to be. He saw all the weapons to choose from, and he could barely contain his excitement. He dragged a scythe complete with blood dripping scull, all through Target. He didn't know any different, to him it was the biggest sword he has ever seen! Hahaha... thats when I knew I was maybe being a little over protective. So we settled on a knight. Just the right size sword, and plus it came with a shield. He could't have been happier.
Gracie originally wanted to be a Ballerina. Jake and I were trying on all sorts of wigs in this costume store, and we were all laughing so hard about how silly we looked. Gracie said she wanted to wear a wig, but none of them really went with a Ballerina. So when we saw the red wig, we knew we had something. She wore it to bed that night. =)

We had to convince Nate to be Lightning Mcqueen. We already had the costume we bought last year but it was to big. He wanted to be baby Mario. Thank goodness they were "out" of those costumes... What kind of message would I be sending at trunk or treat if my 3 year old was Mario.... haha...(wonder what he does all day? ..hey...not ALL day...) =) Just kidding.... we would have let him be Mario, but it wasn't hard to convince him to be McQueen.

Jake and I went to a really fun costume party Friday night. Who would have ever guessed that I would get Jake in TIGHTS! Hahahaha! What a trooper! It was just like him to sport around the house in true Jake style.

Wow, What a hunka burnin love I married.... Need I say more.........

The Farmstead

We took the kidds to this great pumpkin patch and corn maze. We had so much fun picking pumpkins, going on hayrides, and meandering our way through the corn maze that was in the shape of a penny, complete with Abraham Lincoln in the middle as well as the words In God We Trust. It was pretty cool.

Swine Flu Shot??

K... not to get political or anything, but seriously I would LOVE to hear what all you cute moms are doing or thinking about swine flu shots for our kiddos, and ourselves. Having a child that is in the "high risk" category, because of how young, and a child at school I am really torn. Some of the swine flu shots have mercury base in them, but you can get ones that don't. Why aren't they all made without mercury? Is this a governmental strategy to get our money? I wish I new... let me know your thoughts. No judgements will be made I promise! =) I really don't know what I am going to do.

P.S. Just as a little side note, I do vaccinate my kiddos, and we have received the flu shot every year, without any problems. So thats why I am torn on the swine flu one... hmmm

September Happenings

We were privileged to have Jake's parents come visit us last weekend. We spent a few days here in town, and then went up to MCall and rented a cabin for three nights. It was so much fun and so beautiful, the time just went by way to fast. It was one of those vacations were we truly just relaxed. We read books by the fire, soaked in the hot tub under a milky way sky, and four-wheeled all the way up mountians. We were so sad to see them go, we can't wait for another reunion... hopefully soon! =)
Julia started solid foods, and like all the rest of my little chuba chubas, has had NO problems adjusting...
Gracie girl started soccer for the first time, she loves to run, so we thought soccer would be a good fit for her. However, She is about a foot taller than all the rest of the kids, and her coach keeps forgetting to bring her team shirt to the game...(they ran out on the first game, so Gracie opted to wait, and now who knows when she will get it) So I think sometimes she feels a little sheepish, we definitly need to work on aggressiveness....=) she has scored a few goals and as of last game played her best game yet... so only time will tell if she wants to stick with soccer.
Ben and Julia and I went to Texas to visit my grandparents whom I haven't seen for 6 years! Ben was in a little boys paradise. He road big green tractors, swam in the pool everyday, helped on the ranch, and even got to help my aunt Carol collect eggs from her chicken coop! He is still talking about his trip there, it made such an impression on him, I can't wait to take him back.
Ben and my cousin Curtis. Curt plays semi-pro baseball, and is working towards a career to pitch for the Florida Marlins! Curtis was so sweet to Ben, and treated him like a royal. Ben thought that he was pretty stinkin cool.
This is only one of many green tractors Ben road. My uncle Rick took him out on his big ones too, and him and Ben would sing Jason Aldeans "Big green Tractor," song together.

My little Gracie girl turned 6!! I can't believe it! (More pictures to come on that event... =)
Cute Gracie got her ears pierced. She wanted to do it so bad, so we decided to let her do it before she started school. She was super brave and didn't cry. To be honest though she had no idea what she was getting into. We didn't let her watch the little girl that went before her (who walked out bawling with only a hole in one ear ...and her mom yelling at her, cause she didn't finish what she started). Gracie didn't know exactly that they put an actual hole through you, so when it came time to do it, and the gun was to her ear, she was to embarrassed to ask, so she just did it. And needless to say she LOVES her ears pierced!

We became avid boaters this summer! Jake joined a club called Redline, and we are able to pay a monthly due, and in a nut shell use there recreational toys. Our favorite past time became boating and jet skiing. I don't think a week went by that we didn't go. Our kids LOVED it, they had so much fun learning to wake surf, and of course tube! Us adults took up wake boarding for the first time and had so fun bettering ourselves every time we went out.(Never mind Jake and Nate became semi-pro within one summer...haha we all still had a great time.) Wake surfing is also a blast, it is something to do that is low key and super chill after a hard day of wake boarding. Can't wait till next summer!!




Our Newest member of the family. Bella the Bunny! Gracie finally convinced her Dad that she needed a rabbit SO bad, and she would love her and care for her. She is the best pet I have to say, and Gracie does a wonderful job of caring for her. Gracie does all the work, and Jake helps her clean the cage. I didn't know this about rabbits, but they are a very clean animal. They can litteraly be trained just like a cat to poop in the same place every time. So they are really easy to house train, if you wanted it to run around your house. My kind of animal!