Move Over Gingy and Make Room for Frosty

I think we started a new family tradition tonight, instead of decorating Gingerbread houses/men we made snowmen out of rice crispy treats. We had a great time, and it was one of those moments where I let go and let them make a mess and have fun (after all it is Christmas). Lance was having a hard time refraining from eating the girls snowmen, oh wait he didn't! Merry Christmas to all!!

I'm thinking Nice

We had Lainey's Christmas dance concert/performance last night. At the end Santa comes and lets all the kids sit on his lap. At the very end I snuck Gordon in and this is what we got. Needless to say Santa was very taken with him.

Raph's funeral

Raph had a good funeral we wanted to share the pics...

Thanks to Cari for the great idea for the tombstone.

Farwell Raph!!

Raphael 198? - 2008

Today I found my pet turtle of almost 20 years had died. It is really a bittersweet moment really. Taking care of a turtle is a messy dirty job, but I can't think of any moment in my life with out him.

Of course, Raph is named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Raphael. the name, course was an obvious choice because he was a red-ear slider and Raphael has a red mask. He came into my life when I was 8 years old and my TMNT obsession was in its infancy. We have had many ups and downs over the years

• sunken lego ships in his tank
• being used for show & tell lots of times (school & Home Teaching)
• annoying the Life Science teacher all day long because you were so noisy because you didn't have enough water in the tank
  
• escaping and getting stuck behind the tank for an undetermined amount of time (right in all the wires)
  
• basking in the sun and getting lost in the back yard
• getting a little love sick with a big rock in your tank (and everyone wonders why his tank was empty)
• swimming in the full size pool in the backyard when it was too dirty for the kids
• biting and scratching me lots of times
• splashing us with dirty gross turtle water when we would feed you
• swimming/living in the tank when it had an electric current in it (one of the heaters - and no this is NOT what lead to his death - I on the other hand got a nice little jolt)
  
• entertaining my kids and neighbors

Lainey of course is trying to talk me into getting another one. Although, I very much LOVE turtles that is NOT going to happen. It was pretty cute as she tried though.

Funeral Services

Funeral services will be held grave side Saturday December 12, 2008. Raphael will be interned on the side of our house.

In lue of gifts or flowers the family has asked that you never purchase a red-ear slider turtle for a pet unless you can fully commit the needed time and money to give them a proper home. If you can then great, do it an enjoy every minute of it. :-)

Third one down....

Lainey got her cast off today. Hurrrrraaaayyyy!!! She celebrated with a good long bath. :-)

We all signed this cast. I don't know if you can read Mom's:
"No More Broken Arms"

Winter Wonerland Boutique

I have already spammed most of you about this but this is the Boutique I am doing this month. With other Vendors such as
Close to My Heart
Scentsy
Vinyl Lettering
and Arbonne!

Here are some pictures of some of the things I am offering. One of the door prizes will be one of these adorable hats, functional and cute!!
I have a lot of other things available as well as some finished jewelry or make your own!!

Isn't painting fun

My brother just bought his first home. The walls in the Living Room and hallway were pink. That of course had to go for this new bachelor pad. The girls were very excited to help out.

Lilly won the award for the messiest kid.The happy homeowner. We made him do the hard part. :-)

Lets not forget my sister was there too. Now we only needed Trevor to have all the siblings there - slacker!

So it begins...

Welcome home Will

Today my (Lance) Brother-in-law came home from Saudi Arabia. He is in the Air Force and has been there for 6 months. We asked the girls if they wanted to go and be there to welcome them. We are so glad they did. It was wonderful.

We got to stand out on the tarmac and watch the plane fly in and land. They gave the plane an escort with sirens and it drove through an arch made by water guns from some firetrucks right over to us. I felt bad for all the families (especially the wives), it seemed to take them forever until they were able to get off the plane.The happy family is reunited. Will hasn't seen Kailee for half of her life.

Will finally gets to meet his new nephew.

I must point out. Since I have been in Cub Scouts (which rocks) my patriotism level has gone through the roof. We were all crying or holding them back. Seeing those boys in uniform and being a part of the sacrifice they go through is priceless, absolutely priceless!

"God bless the USA" and those that serve for our freedom. Thank you! We love you! We love you Will, welcome home!

Update

We took Lainey to get her cast today. They took more x-rays they think they found another fracture. They didn't give me any specifics but they said they going to treat for both. (Same course of treatment). She has her armed casted in pretty hot pink. She did great at the office she didn't cry at all. A big accomplishment because the kid in the room next to us was screaming hysterically. She is a trooper!!

RADIAL NECK FRACTURE

Our dear sweet Lainey has done it again. Another broken bone. This time it is a "Radial neck fracture." Don't worry it is her arm, I don't know why they call it that. She was climbing down the ladder of the bunk bed and fell. Were we afraid she might have to have surgery again, because her elbow hurt. Luckily it is only the radius.

The scanned image you can't really see the break unless you know where to look. This close up I have traced the break.

Let us review the history of Lainey and her broken bones.

Summer 2005 (1.25 years old)
Fell off dining room chair
Buckle Fracture (ulna & radius - left arm)

September 2007 (3.5 years old)
Fell down Grandma Jessup's stairs
Supercondrial ???? (humerous - left elbow - surgery & pins)

November 2008 (4.5 years old)
Fell off bunk bed ladder
Radial Neck Fracture (ulna - left elbow)

Notice that they have all been her left arm. This child of ours.....

We won't even mention the fact her cousin broke his arm at out our house on Sunday, click here for details.

Rub a Dub Dub a Gordon in the Tub!!

This morning I gave Gordon his first bath in the big tub because he is out growing the little blue one. He had a splash!! (get it;0)) He is growing so quickly I can't believe it!!

Its almost been 10 years!!!

So as many of you know, Cari and I were high school sweethearts. We are approaching our 10 year reunion next year. I just found our reunion site and wanted to post it if anyone else in our class hasn't seen it yet.

http://www.wjhs1999.myevent.com/

Also, thinking about high school means we should post some of those pics. Feel free to laugh to your hearts desire. :-)

10th Grade

11th Grade

12th Grade

Cari shaved my head the summer before - hadn't grown back yet. :-)

Graduation

On to college....

Happy Birthday Elder Crumpy!!

So many of you have heard me say that I have a little brother serving in Ireland on a mission right now. It was his birthday on the 3rd and I forgot to email him and wish him a Happy Birthday. Bad sister Bad!! So Happy Birthday Camby!!

Happy Birthday Shannon!

It is my dear sweet and like oldest friend Shannon's Birthday. I have been thinking about her all day and remembering so many things about her and things we have done together.
We have shared so much over the last 16 years.
Slurpees
Watertowers
Graveyards
lots of walking
speeding home to make sure you got there on time
Almost jumping out of bedroom windows,
fruit loop sandwiches (potato chip ones too!)
Droping pennies on peoples heads through holes in floors,
breakups with boyfriends
getting married
baby showers
having kids
having more kids
phone calls in the middle of the afternoon to insure that one of the above mentioned kids survives the day.
I love my friend Shannon and know that our friendship will last into the eternities, so today I will wish her a Happy Birthday and a year better than the last!!

I truly believe that some friendships will last into the eternities and ours is one of them.

Ode to a Gal Bladder

It has been a while since a post, and I wanted to write some extremely clever post, to let you know I had my gall bladder out. While laying in bed I have come up with some clever rhymes but alas as I have fallen asleep they have left my mind. So update, the attacks that I was having that we thought were kidney stones, weren't they were gal stones. I had sugery on Monday to have it out. While it is a laproscopic surgery, it is still very painful surgery. I won't gross you out with the gory details of my four incisions and so forth. But I am healing well and hope to be back to normal activities in a few more days. Thanks to those who have called or come by and brought dinner. A very big THANK YOU to those who have helped out with the kids!!

Tag You're it!

Ruthanne tagged me so here goes.
6 Quirky things about me.

1 I always correct people if they say "SHER BERT", there is only one r it is "SHERBET"!!

2- If I'm talking to you and your glasses are crooked I am mentally adjusting them in my head, and sometimes I will ask you if I can fix them because it drives me crazy.

3- I love to pop peoples toes. Lance HATES this and gets cranky when I try to pop his.

4- When I go to girls camp I morph into my alter ego "Camp Cari", Lance is afraid of her and is glad she only comes out once a year and he is not there to witness it.

5- You can give me just about any topic and I could sing you a song somehow related to it.

6- I am a very disorganized person, if you have seen my living room you know this. However my beads have to be organized according to color. Having them disorganized totally bugs!!

I'm sure there are so many quirks that I have that I'm not aware of or can't think of right now, so if you can think of one please feel free to comment.

I tag:
Shannon, Nadja, Lisa, and Kristi

Pictures

You know you have a good photographer when he can make me look good. Thanks Peter!! Take a look at a few of our pictures by clicking here!!
http://looslitaken.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-went-jess-up-mountains.html

The Girls Get a Turn

Every night we brush and floss the girls teeth. On this particular night they were having issues and didn't want Lance to do it. Lance talked them into it with a promise that they could floss his teeth. Now every night they request it again!!