Skiing Fun

We were invited by my brother's, inlaws to go cross country skiing.  They have a plenty of equipment for us and the kids and there's lots of snow outside, so we figured why not.  We were going to go on MLK day but it had rained the night before and so the snow had turned into ice which is not favorable weather for 1st time skiiers.  So we decided to try for this last weekend and it was perfect.  The mountains had gotten an inch or so of fresh powder, the temp was about 40 degrees and it was sunny.  It was gorgeous.  Unfortunately, Morgan had gotten sick the day before and Randy had gotten a call to prepare a lesson for Elder's quorum.  So he decided to stay back with Morg and Malia (since I didn't want to take her by myself), and do his lesson and some homework, leaving me to take Mac and Micah with my bro and his dad-in-law. 

 Let me just say, the kids did awesome, way better than me.  I've only every been waterskiing and snow is a little bit different.  Mac stayed in front with Billy kicking my trash.  Micah, as long as we were on flat ground, went way faster than me too.  Micah fell a lot but laughed the entire time.  Mac went down a few small slopes and did amazing.  I need to get her some lessons or something.  I think she may have found her nitch.  Unfortunately I did not get many pictures of them skiing.  This was in the meadow where you could choose different routes that all lead back to this spot.  It was beautiful.

As for me and my ability, I have some serious practicing to do.  I could get into a rythm and do pretty good and then have to go up a hill and try and help Micah and that combination was bad.  I fell quite a few times but didn't realize how bad I was until I got home and saw these beauties on my legs. . .

Ya that's right, both legs, huge bruises.  I did have a lot of fun and it was an awesome workout, but this is one thing I am just not a natural at.

Thanks Billy's inlaws for the fun day. Hope we can do it again before the white stuff goes away.

Babysitting already???

I'm having a "old" moment.  My friend/neighbor called me and asked if Mac could babysit.  Her baby had just fallen asleep, which he hadn't done all day long, and they were planning on going out to eat.  They didn't want to wake him up, so that's where McKenzie came into the picture.  So really it was going to be "please sit in my house for an hour and call your mom if the baby wakes up," type of babysitting.  She has a long range monitor so we plugged it in so she could call out to us if she needed me or Randy.  I know she is only 10, but she is sooo excited to start babysitting.  I'm really excited for her to start babysitting too ;).  I started babysitting at 8 (granted I'm number 4 of 9 and was changing diapers before I was pottytrained), but it feels weird to have a kid almost old enough to really babysit.  Double digits was hard enough.  What's going to happen when she goes into Young Womens?  From my perspective, however, I feel like she is really mature and knows how to watch kids and keep them out of trouble, she usually does that with her siblings.  What is the legal age for babysitting anyway these days?  Anyway, I just had to share my "old" moment. . . can I stop the clock pleeeeeeaaaaassssseeeee???

Happy 6th Birthday Micah

Our little man had a lucky weekend of a birthday.  His actual bday was on Thursday and we celebrated the best we could (being a school day and all) and then it gradually got bigger throughout the weekend.  I'm tired and get too frazzled on school mornings to make any decent kind of breakfast for my kids, but on their birthday's I usually make pancakes.  It seems every bday, it gets harder and harder.  So I got this idea in my head, how about cinnamon rolls (frozen one's that is) the night before and all I have to do in the AM is put them in the oven. So that's what I did.  Here's to a day full of sugar, woo hoo!

 Micah really liked them though and that's all that mattered.

 He really wanted donuts for his classmates, so I exercised and then went to the store and got 2 doz donuts and brought them into class for him.  Randy even came home from work early and came into class with me and Eah.

 I can't remember the last time we had been to McDonald's, I think it was last spring during Spring Break, anyway, we decided to surprise Micah and take him out for dinner there.  He was really excited.  The kids got Bakugan toys which they played with all weekend.

 The reason we went out to dinner instead of me making him his fav dinner was because Randy's basketball team had their first game and he wanted us to go and watch.  (this will probably the only time we go, there's no where to sit)  Anyway, the kids were pretty good.  They got antsy, I got this shot of Malia and thought it was cute.

 Randy after the game.  They kicked the other team's tooshies.  Here are my 2 guys.

 Friday, we had a family party.  My bro and his fam came, Randy's parents and sister came.  We made tonz of pizza (since it's Micah's favorite dinner and it was Friday night Pizza night anyway) and had cake and ice cream (I asked Randy's mom to be in charge of the cake, she got him a Tron cake and Micah was pretty excited), and opened presents.  Micah was very patient with the presents since he didn't open any on his actual birthday.  But we made up for it.  This is Micah holding his newest cousin Raleigh (known to Eah was Wall-E).  She is soo cute and such a good baby.

 Kiki had fun to with all of the party excitement, especially watching her dad play the Wii.

 Micah and his Tron cake.

 Gma and Gpa gave him a remote control car.  That things hasn't stopped going around the house all weekend.

 We got him a Star Wars Lego set.  He was very excited but I don't think it compared to Randy's excitement.  Micah probably put 2 of the pieces on that thing.

 On Saturday Micah had a birthday party with his friends around the neighborhood.  6-6 yr old's can be very entertaining to watch. 

 These guys are such hams.  We played a Star Wars pin the tail kind of a game.

 Lego creation competitions. . . that was a fun/quiet/time-consuming activity which I loved. (BTW thanx Gma and Gpa for letting us borrow 1 of your boxes of Legos).

 Then we created cupcakes-do you sense a theme here?  The kids had fun making messes with frosting and sprinkles and everything else.

 Lots of messes.

 We opened presents and played another game and then let the boys just have some free time to just play.  Some of them went upstairs to Micah's room, other's played Just Dance, which is hysterical to watch.  These guys had a lot of fun.

Then is was over (big sigh) and the boys went home and we got back to real life again.  I can't believe he's 6 already.  He sure has grown overnight.  Micah you bring such an amazing spirit to our family.  Hope you had an unforgettable birthday.  We love you Little Man.

Happy Birthday Toots!!!! Micah Lost his 1st Tooth!!!!

1st off, Randy turned 34.  Seriously can time just stop now.  Before we know it we'll be hitting 40, AHHH!  I'm not ready for that.  Anyway, we kind of had a long birthday weekend.  We celebrated New Years day with some cousins.  Had a potluck and a white elephant exchange.  It was fun visiting with them.  Randy's mom brought down a birthday cake to share with everyone.  So we sang to him on the day before his bday.  Then on his actual bday on Sunday, my brother, Billy, blessed their new little baby girl (btw congrats to them, I still haven't taken a picture of her yet).  So we went up to their ward and then had dinner with them and didn't celebrate that day.  But on Monday we decided to have a few of Randy's friends over for dinner and cake. 

Hope you had a fun day/weekend Toots.  

Micah lost his 1st tooth on Wednesday.  I had been doing P90X with my friend Jess when he bit into an apple and Randy said it started.  He noticed on Monday that another tooth growing behind his 2 bottom teeth (which made me nervous) and neither of his teeth were loose at all.  I figured well we have a dentist appt next month, I'll let him deal with it.  That was until he bit into the apple.  From Monday until Wednesday, there wasn't even a hint of it being loose.  I came home and he was holding a cold rag in his mouth.  I asked him to just let me see it and would not cooperate.  So I pinned him down and barely touched the tooth and it fell right out, literally. 

That little white thing behind the hole in his mouth is the new tooth coming in. . . craaazy.

Our little man is sure growing up.  On another side note, we had another Micahism. McKenzie taught him the "turning the apple stem through the alphabet" game.  So now every time he eats an apple (which is daily) he turns the stem and lands on a different letter. So far he is going to marry Isabel, Maya, Hadley and someone named Nikki or Nicole.  He giggles every time we think of a corresponding name to his letter.  Oh boy.

Yes I know, it's not Christmas anymore and Happy News for me

I finally got my jump drive over to my friend's home so I could get the some of the pics she took of a couple of things we did.  One being the ward breakfast.  My camera's battery died and it also doesn't take the best pics in the gym's light.  So here are a few she got.

Malia being. . . Malia

 Micah as a shepherd.

 Mac as an Angel.

 She was the angel who announced Jesus birth. (I love the little girl on the left, almost looks like popcorn popping, hu?)

 Morgan is the angel with the blue belt.  They all did a really good job.

 And yes, I did let me kids go and see Santa this year.  Micah really wanted a pillow pet.

 Morgan also wanted a pillow pet and some slippers.

All Malia wanted was a double stroller.

 Mac wanted a pillow pet too, do you sense a theme here?

 Our friends got together for our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.  Everyone got pretty creative this year.  Here's Kelly and Kye with their Santa bellies.

 The winner was Brian.  Isn't that awesome.  Sarah made theirs out of old, ugly DI finds.  They were great.

We went to Cafe Rio and showed off our awesome sweaters.  Randy's was pretty sweet too.  It was a green suit jacket with poo brown slacks, a green/red plaid shirt and and heinous tie.  I added the holly and ivy to the lapel for a better affect.  I should've gotten a pic of us, but we were having too much fun.  Thanx guys for the great time.

So it's been over a week since Christmas and I've been dying to announce this, but I had to wait until my dad ok'd it since he's the bishop in his ward.  But he has told them, so it's my turn. 

My dad got a job transfer. . finally. 

He has been trying to get a promotion since he moved to Michigan and it just never happened, until now. We are alllllll soooooo excited. He starts at the end of February in Montana.  Do you know how happy that makes me?  It will be be only a 9 hour drive instead of 2 and half days.  I can't wait till they are out here.  They are going to let James finish his senior year before they completely pack up and head out, my dad's nice like that, he did that for Shauna when we moved from Virginia to Oregon too.  But by the end of this year, my whole family, minus my bro who's serving in Afghanistan, will be in the west.  That is an amazing accomplishment.  Anyway not that this affects any of you, I am just really excited and happy that after many years of hard work, patience and being faithful, my dad is being blessed.  He deserves it.