Mrs. Clause Big Mistake

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Mrs. Clause had a great idea. She saw in a magazine a basketball hoop for her 7 year old. Not just any basketball hoop; this had a double sided hoop that timed you and counted the baskets that you made. PERFECT! Mrs. Clause put it in their shed and forgot about it until Christmas Eve.

Mrs. Clause came into the family room ,after putting children to bed ,and what she saw kind of left her in shock. This basketball hoop that Santa and his helper had been assembling for about 30 min. looked like a big pile of crap. There were screws everywhere, poles in every direction and two not very happy looking people. Now what Mrs. Clause hadn't realized was that the basketball hoop was about 7 feet tall, my guess is 8 feet long and Santa and his helper had no idea where to put the thing. Mrs. Clause suggested the toy room so they moved it in there. Then my bright little sister realized that there was no plug in that room to plug the thing in. Plug it in? Mrs. Clause thought that it would need a couple of batteries and that would be it!

3 Hours later (11:30 PM) the hoop was set up, Santa had been up for 21 hours, his helper had been up about almost 19, and the two of them kept glaring at Mrs. Clause. I have no idea why!

The hoop. I swear to you this picture does not do it justice. The thing is HUGE!

The kids other toys are stuck in this room forever. They can't get to them to get them out.

The very excited 7 year old!

Parker and the "helper" amazed at what was before them.

Mrs. Clause learned to look at the size of things on the boxes that she buys. Santa learned never to trust his wife when it came to deciding what the children should get. The helper learned to never offer up his services again. But, Parker loved it and that's all that matters.

Let it Snow!

The past couple of days we have gotten quite a bit of snow. The first day that it started, the kids got so excited that they immediately put on all their snow gear and ran outside. Since then, we have more than doubled the snow on the yard, but on this day, this was all the snow that we needed!

Chad practicing for our big ski trip in a couple of weeks! He's never been, but maybe practicing on the hill in the front yard will be enough so he doesn't break a leg.

Pk and Lex at the bottom of the hill. Lex took off down the hill with nobody knowing and Pk ran over to catch her from going into the middle of the street.

Lex doesn't seem fazed that she scared anyone. She got down the hill and started eating the snow that had collected on her glove.

Tan starting the whole thing. I looked up and Tan had a determined look on his face and the next thing I know he took off!

Tan getting snow off his dad's truck.

Pk shoveling the little bit of snow that we had got. Little did he know that the next couple of days he would be out there a whole lot more.

All bundled up for the cold.

Tan dancing because he was so happy to be outside.

Lex happily eating the snow. That's all she did, we just had to explain that if it was yellow she couldn't put it in her mouth. Hopefully, she listened.

Is this a sign?

So, this is the week before my finals. I have been dreading this week since I started since I remember how stressful they can be. I went to my night class and he gave me some great news. My final was going to be a take home one! Yay! Then he said that it would be three essay questions that had to be 2-3 pages long. Oh! Well at least I get to do them at home.

On the way home I heard a song that was talking about it being a brand new day. I was starting to get really pumped up and thinking I can handle this. Then I walked through the door.

Lexie came running up to see me excited and happy. I picked her up and started walking downstairs, and she threw up all over me. I ran her to the kitchen to clean myself up, and she threw up all over herself, the counter, and the floor. I tried to clean everything up but Lexie was screaming, and my poor mother cleaned up the mess, while I cleaned Lexie and myself off. I took her downstairs and found out that Chad had been throwing up too. Brand new day, huh?

The flu ended up not being that bad between the two of them, and the next day I went to my other class where I heard some more great news. This final will be a take home one as well! He's going to give me three essay questions that need to be 3 pages long! I did the math in my head and this weekend I will be writing 15 pages of essay questions. I think this might be a sign of how well my finals are going to go. So, get ready my two siblings who proof-read for me. Your going to have a busy weekend!

Friday Nights

On Friday nights we have a tradition in our family. We pull out all the mattresses, blankets, pillows, and we have a camp-out. We put on a movie, pop some popcorn, and go to sleep when everyone gets tired. I love it because I get to have all of my kids in one room. The kids love it because they get to stay up late, and eat junk. Chad hasn't quite learned to love it yet!


Me and Lex ready for our fun filled night.

Mom and the boys. I'm getting a little tired, but I made it a goal to stay up later than the kids.

Chad wishing that he was in his happy place. He tends to go there a lot in his mind.

The kids watching their movie, and Lucky wishing that she could eat the popcorn. She was waiting for one of them to drop a piece.

These were the last happy memories from the night.

Tanner jumping on the mattress, which we don't allow because some little kid, not naming names, gets hurt a lot when he is doing this!

Tanner in time out because of the jumping on the mattress incident.

Parker and Lexie sharing a nice bowl of popcorn.

Lexie deciding that she didn't want to share anymore and tried to get away with taking the whole bowl for herself.

Lexie crying because Parker found her and she had to share the bowl again.

I found Chad in the pitch black in one of the bedrooms, talking on the phone. He was trying to hide from all the kids, but he can't hide from me! I dragged him back out there to help.

Why do we do this? Because the kids won't let us forget, and because we keep hoping that one of these times we may actually make it throught the night with no crying or fighting. Good luck to us!

The Leaf Blower

Our Thanksgiving was very quite this year. It was my parents and most of my siblings, except for the one that decide's to live as for away as possible from her family! The kids had a lot of fun with their cousin and they were all very hyper most of the day. Now, it wasn't the turkey that was making them excited. It wasn't the pie that they had to look forward to, or being able to stuff their faces the entire day. No, it was the excitement of the leaf blower.

The kids went outside to play in the sandbox because it was such a nice day. They all got so dirty that their Papa told them they couldn't come inside until they got clean. That's when Papa pulled out the leaf blower. As soon as the kids saw this, they ran back to the sandbox and covered themselves in sand. They were rolling aorund in it, pouring it over their heads, just to see how much sand could be blown off of them.

After this, the blowing began:

Pk picked up the dog so that she could take the majority of the hit.

Miranda who his so little that it looked like the power of the wind was going to blow her away.

Tan thinking that the dirtiest part of him was his bum. He was probably right!