Bend-a-Roos and Grandma

03Grandma & Grandpa suprised us with a visit on Friday and Grandma brought her Bend-a-Roos/Wikki-Stix. These are waxy sticks that you can cut, bend, repair, stick together, etc to make anything you can dream up. Grandma had some wikki-stix and the kids (and the Grandma) had so much fun playing with them, she ordered a bunch of bend-a-roos (she has hundreds in numerous colors). Well, we all sat down (including Ky's friend, Bronwyn) and played and made things for a couple of hours until it was bedtime and time for Grandma & Grandpa to go to Dave & Robyn's. Ky & Bron began making glasses, and then everyone wanted a pair. They all wrote their names. Lyssa likes to make people and animals. Kylie liked symbols (peace is her favorite right now). Treyson liked the most difficult animals, which required Mom's help (gorilla, dinosaur). In the picture, he ended up with a bone. :) I'll attach the pictures below of our great time!

Sledding Fun

Let me begin by saying I believe Idaho is the coldest (ok, maybe not THE) place on earth (or at least out of Utah, Idaho and Guatemala). So, the reason we choose to make our annual trip to visit TJay's parents and brother around Christmas? Ya, I don't know either. When they told us it was warm, after all it was almost up to 30 (30 is still BELOW freezing), I knew we were in trouble. Luckily, his parents' new home is very well insulated! :)

However, while we were up there, we were invited to tag along with Jeff and his family (T.Jay's brother who has kids our kids' ages) up to a neighbors "cabin" and go sledding, hot chocolate drinking and chili eating. LOVED IT!! We traveled up to Ashton, Idaho and it was absolutely beautiful! The view of the valley and the river running through it was awesome. Everyone had a great time sledding. I was amazed at how many times Treyson went down and walked back up (except when he could hitch a ride on uncle Jeff's snowmobile - which is the way to go when you go sledding)! The girls got in this big sled and went down an iced trail Jeff carved out with his machine. They jumped! and totally got air so many times! They loved it. Ky was even in the sled when it jumped the road. TJay had a great time going down like crazy. I, of course, screamed the whole time (I am such a wimp sometimes). It was so much fun! Idaho is fun also, we don't love it for the weather, but we love it for the cousins and granparents! We have so much fun!

I can't find the pictures that TJay's mom took. She stood at the bottom of the hill most of the day getting the perfect pictures! Glad she loves to do that so that I can just copy! :) I will just put them up randomly when I discover their where abouts! :)

ummmmmmmmm

It is 5:21 AM (didn't realize that time still existed). I was awoken around 3:30 to help Ky clean up a bloody nose (tons of blood). Washed the sink, the girl, the sheet and got back into bed around 3:45. Still awake. Too much info flowing through my head. Too much to do on Thursday. So what am I doing? Surfing, drinking hot cocoa, trying to get tired enough to go to sleep. Gotta get up and get the kids moving in a little over an hour. Good times.

I had a very bad and very good day at work. I got some news Tuesday that I knew would skew my life. Bad vibes Wed morning. Way bad during the day. Then way good news, followed by more bad. It's going to be a turbulent time the next week or so, or 5 months. hmmmmmm.

TJay & I are chaperoning the "school ski club" the next two Saturdays. We were scheduled to go to Sundance in December, but there wasn't any snow. They rescheduled us for this & next Saturday. Think there will be enough snow? If not, we can use our cul-de-sac which is apparently on the cities "do not plow" list. Good thing I have 4wd or I'd be stuck every day. Someone asked me why I'd be stuck but TJay is fine. It's because he's a better driver. Let me clarify, he's a better driver when he's in the driver's seat. He's not when he's in the passenger seat. :)

Good news/Bad news. The good news is I'm going to finish all of my classes and have my teaching license by the end of August! Woo Hoo! The bad news? It means for the next 8 months my life will be full of studying. 3 classes this spring (along with teaching part time) and 3 classes this summer. 8 months of pain for a good pay off in the end.

I'm going upstairs to see if I'm tired enough to go to sleep. I may be since I'm rambling so much.

Good night (I hope). :)

Crazy!

If you think I'm a little crazy, this is my family . . . .

. . . nuff said?!

Loved the party! We've got to do it again soon!

Christmas PJ's

I think most people have a tradition of Christmas PJ's. I want to hear everyone's tradition of why they get new pajamas at Christmas and how it began.

Here is ours: When I was little, we could open one gift on Christmas Eve. My Grandma & Grandpa Cash always gave us pajamas for Christmas (which I eventually caught on to). I always wanted to open them on Christmas Eve so I could sleep in them and play in them all day the next day (we don't get dressed on Christmas). I also wanted to open 2 gifts Christmas Eve so that I could wear my PJ's & play with something cool. That was a no-go, so I stayed with the pj opening on the 24th.

When Kylie was born I began getting Christmas Jammies for her, TJay & I. I now get them every year for each member of our family (see this year's in the post below). This is the required gift to open on Christmas Eve. So we still open one gift, but no one but MOM chooses. It's not a suprise what the gift will be, just what it will look like. Every Christmas we get to wake up in new, snuggly jammies! The kids love it! They love getting new jammies & always remind me that I need to buy them new Christmas PJ's!

Comment and post your tradition! I think they're fun!