3 Men & A Little Lady

Friday, December 27, 2013

{There's No Place Like Home}

One of the big perks of moving to Colorado is being a day drive from home!!!

We were all very excited to see the Kansas sign, knowing Ge and Grandad were close.

It had been several years since the last time I went home for Christmas. I could not wait to spend the holidays with my loved ones and the kids could not wait for some cousin time!

Mya loves nothing more than being with her girl cousins!!!

Especially baby Tenlee!

We loved having a baby around!

Crazy Boys!!!

Ge and Grandad with all their GRANDS!!!

The Gift Giving began:

Mya was so pleased with her new doll that she ran over to Ge and Grandad to thank them!

Since I was a little girl, my parents every Christmas come up with a creative poem that sends us on a hunt to find some Christmas $$$$

This year the poem stated that we must have a snow ball fight to receive the clue to where the money was hidden.

Each kid was assigned a cup and the person with the last cup standing was then given their clue.

These 3 were ready for a fight!!

Everybody received their clue and went dashing to find their treasure!

Everyone was a winner!

Even us big kids got to play!

Matt means business!

I love this tradition that my parents have kept up over the years. They are so creative and make the holidays so much fun!

Talking about Fun....

We celebrated the birth of Jesus by throwing him a party on Christmas Eve!

The kids got to decorate their own "cookie"

Then a piñata was brought out!!!

The kids took turns wearing gloves and trying to open the piñata.

The kids eagerly grabbed as much candy as they could stuff in their shirts!

Christmas music was played by Drew and GE...

and Kenny read us the Christmas story. It was such a peaceful and tranquil moment!!! (except for when I dragged Owen out of the room by his ear) LOL!!!

Christmas morning meant more gifts:

Drew loves marble runs and this one was a stunt maze!

Ian was questioning if this was a REAL gun...he was shocked to find out that it was!

Owen loves legos and Super Hero's, however he was very excited about his real mop and broom!

Mya with all her fun girly stuff! Favorites were the Anna and Elsa princesses from Frozen.

Toys were played with. Gotta love when cousins share their new toys!

Owen went straight to work cleaning... boy after my own heart! Ge even gave him her red dust pan! Christmas cleaning!!!

We filled the days we were in Kansas with fun adventures! We took the girls to go see Frozen with GE!!! Best movie of the year!

Days were spent playing games with Grandad!

And we relaxed and cuddled with the ones we love!

Being with my family was the best Christmas gift I could have been given! It was sad to leave everyone and all the fun. I love my family more than anything and am so grateful to know that we are an Eternal family!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

{Snow Day}

When we told the kids we were moving to Colorado they were pretty sad, until I told them about "Snow Days!" They thought missing school to stay home and play in the snow was about the best day any kid could ask for! Unfortunately we started talking to locals of Grand Junction about snow days and they just laughed at us. I guess school has not been canceled due to snow in ten years! I didn't dare tell my children and hoped the winter would pass quickly without them thinking about it.

We watched a movie called, "Snow Days" and the kids quickly asked me when they were going to have a snow day. I did't want to crush their little souls and inform them that they don't get snow days here and told them to just pray for one. Well the faith of a child never ceases to amaze me and the next day we woke up to snow and a text saying Snow Day!!!

It had rained the night before and then froze quickly making the roads icy, so that is why they cancelled school. It was Kenny's day off so we spent the day playing outside. It was fabulous!

Our early morning snow forest!

Owen and grandpa had the path cleared before Kenny even got out of bed.

I Spy Drew...do You?!!!

We still hadn't bought snow boots, so seeing Drew climbing so high up in an icy tree with plastic bags covering his shoes terrified me. I was just waiting to catch his fall.

Our dogs love the field, but not so much the cold. The cold weather seems to have really aged our labs. Luckily their daddy had meds for them and they were able to come warm up inside.

I made Kenny drive into town to buy us all snow pants and boots. It wasn't cheap, but the warmth allowed us to stay outside for hours. We went sledding down a great hill by the kids school.

Kenny really got his exercise! He was the one who sent the kids sailing down the hill!

We had a blast and are excited for another snow day...even if it isn't for another 10 years!

They say the cutest things.....

Mya, my little girl, said in her prayers last night, "Please help us to be strong and healthy like the Hulk!"

Owen almost ran straight into a woman as we entered a dark parking garage. As I told him to watch out, he quickly yelled, "Well she's all black!" Coincidentally she was African American! She was wearing a black dress, which is what he was referring too!

Owen told me today, "You are the best mom I ever had! I love you all the way up to Jesus!" He also loves kissing and told Kenny, "I just want to stay home from school and kiss mom all day!"

Drew lost a tooth at school when he bit into his apple. He felt the tooth inside his mouth as he was chewing and when I asked him about it, he said, "I didn't realize it was mine and I wondered if it was one of the workers!"

While at church, a teacher asked the kids what happened to Jesus right after he was baptized and brought up from the water. Ian enthusiastically raised his hand and said, "He asked for a towel!"

After a long struggle with my boys, to get them inside, bathed, and into bed, I yelled, "I am done, go to sleep!" Owen looked up at me and said, "Mommy I'm sorry you're sad, but the problem is that you don't beat up Drew and Ian. Just beat them up and I will be on your team!"

We are not a family who eats beans, so when Drew went to a friends house to play and eat dinner, he was hesitant to eat the burrito that had refried beans in it. When I picked him up he said to me, "Mom she put mud inside the burrito!"

Aunt Connie pleaded with Owen to shoot his daddy with the gun instead of her and his response, "No, he's the best daddy i've ever had!"

I begged the boys to quit fighting and Drew looked at me and said, "Its not Mothers Day anymore mom!"

Owen got kicked in his "man hood" and said, "Oh, I hurt my Tenders!"

Drew asked this morning, "Mom in 2011 can we get a cat?"

Everytime I feed Mya prunes, Owen comes up to me and says, "Me like chocolate mom!" I give him a bite and his face turns to total disgust.

Owen ran up to me after wrestling the dogs and said, "Me see Cassie's boobies!"

While I was nursing Mya, Drew walked in and said, "Is she done drinking from your boob?" I replied, "No and it is called a breast, thats the proper way to say it." He looked at me puzzled and said, "No thats the Spanish word for it."

Kenny opened the fridge and said, "Something in here stinks." Ian looked at him and said, "Dad, sometimes I toot over there!"

Last night as the boys were saying good night to Mya, Drew looked up at me and said, "Mom, Mya has a boy haircut!"

Drew was reminding me about how when we saw macaws in Hawaii, that one of the macaws was chewing on a woman's hair. He said, about the macaw, "Thats not very nice, it's not choosing the right."

My favorite word Drew and Ian used to say when they were toddlers was, Laddie- for water. I thought it was such a cute word. Owen comes to the fridge and points his little finger and says, "Wa-Wa" for water. So cute!

Last night Kenny went in on a call to deliver a goat and Ian came into our bed. He climbed in and snuggled up beside me, he usually snuggles into Kenny. I asked him why he was snuggling with me and he said, "I can snuggle you because daddy isn't here mom!" He is such a daddy's boy.

Ian is such a daddy's boy. The other night Kenny had to go to the clinic and Ian was sobbing for him for a good twenty minutes because he wanted to go too. When I asked him why he was so upset he replied, "I just want my daddy, he is my favorite boy!"

Birthday parties celebrated in California are usually BIG! There is always a huge jumper, pinata, food for the whole family, and tons of presents. Well we went to a party last night and the boys spent 2 hrs. jumping in a big jumper. On our way home we saw another party going on that had an even bigger jumper with a slide attached. Ian asked, "Can we go to that party too?" I replied, "We don't even know who those people are. " His response, "Well lets just go ask them their names."

As we prepared to go to the Glenwood Springs pool in Colorado with Kenny's four sisters Drew impatiently said, "Come on girls, you're taking too long!" Kenny told him, "Get used to it, this is what men do, wait for girls to get ready."

Much to my dismay I found black ink all over our white sheets on our bed. I of course went straight to Ian and asked very sternly, "Did you write on my sheets with a pen?" With an innocent look he replied, "I was just trying to write my name."

Drew was watching me as I divided my hair into sections with clips to straighten it. He looked up at me and said, "Wow, you look beautiful!" Then when I was completely done with my hair he said, "You're a cute little mommy!"

Ian was dipping his finger in Kenny's contact solution and then touching his eye. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, "Just putting my eyes in mom!"