Game On

Ever heard of cabin fever? Well I haven't just heard of it I've LIVED IT. Today was another snow day and last night after a LONG day inside (remember when you have a 3 year old that wants to play in the snow you spend 20 minutes getting dressed to go outside only to spend 10 minutes outside because it's cold!) it was almost bedtime and we were all sitting in front of the fire exhausted from......well just exhausted. I pulled open the "game drawer" and found one of my most favorite games: Mancala. If you have never played you should start. Its a lot of fun. I admit I haven't played in a while. As soon as I opened it up Braxton saw the "pretty rocks" and was all for learning to play. He actually played really well and won the first round without me even trying to let him. I have to tell you some funny things he said though. He was putting the marbles aka "pretty rocks" around the game board and I decided I'd start explaining what we were doing. BIG MISTAKE. I forgot who I was playing with and when I told him not to put one on my side he looked at it and said "No your side has more!"( See the bottom picture). He asked a million questions before I convinced him that I knew how to play. When he actually won, I told him to take his marbles out and count them and he said, "Mama I don't want to count".
Brandon said while most three year olds are learning Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, my son is learning Mancala. And I thought a Toy Story 3 Memory game would be appropriate for Christmas!

Snow Day(s)!!

Our second snow day this week. We got a lot this round starting with snow and turning into frozen stuff last night. Looks like it might stick around for awhile. Who knows when we'll go back to school. My semester was supposed to start back tonight. They just canceled for the evening.
I decided that the one thing I hate about snow days is we have to make them up!!!
I've turned into adult!! Scary.

Happy New Year!!

2011 is here. The holidays are over and on Monday I return to work. I can not believe that the holidays are completely over!

We went over to a friends house last night to bring in the new year and Braxton could take the suspense no more and passed out at 11:45. He had so much fun with the kids and I actually witnessed him giving Miley a kiss!! She's always been crazy about him but just in the past few weeks he's started to really come around.

This evening we went over to Dad's to take part in our traditional New Years dinner. As I'm sure you can see, it was absolutely delicious. And even though it was 55 degrees we ate our dinner by a roaring fire.

A Christmas Miracle?!

You never know when you're doing something if it will be the last time youre doing it. Or very rarely do you know. My life is full of examples. I can remember the last time I did somethings in my life and most of the time I'm glad that I didn't know it would never happen again. That makes the memories more special. One of my most fondest memories of growing up was playing in the snow with my brother, sister, and my dad. My mom would get us all dressed in warm clothes and she would stay inside while we played outside. Daddy would go sledding with us and together we would have a great time. In the good old days most of the neighborhood would congregate out at the top of the hill with sleds in tow and we would take turns going down.

This Christmas, they were calling for snow! For the first time in over 10 years it looked as if we were all going to be "home" for snow.

So my Christmas miracle this year was getting to play in the snow again with my brother, my sister, and my dad. We didn't know all of those years ago that the days of us playing and sledding after dark were coming to a close. We didn't realize that life was about to kick into high gear and our childhood was wrapping up. This year Braxton had a blast building a snowman and having a snowball fight with everyone. It took me back a few years and I thought about my mom as I dressed him in warm clothes as he anxiously awaited the opportunity to get outside. Our good time quickly came to a close when our adult instincts took over and we started getting things together to come home and Chris started thinking about the mess that awaited him at the airport.

Now if only Chris could get back home I'm sure he'd say he had a Christmas miracle too!!

Merry Christmas!!

It's so very hard to believe that today is Christmas. Chris made it home last week and he is scheduled to fly out tomorrow afternoon. We all made it to church last night for Christmas Eve service at church which we hadn't been able to do in several years. We came back to Dads afterwards and enjoyed just being together. Santa made a visit and brought Braxton everything he had asked for. (I had no doubts!)

I can't help but reflect on how life has changed since last Christmas. I do that every year and always wonder where we'll be in a year and the experiences that we'll have gone through. This year was full of experiences that were painful and difficult. Somehow, in every thing painful or not, we grow and learn from them. It's sometimes hard to see the joy in some things.

Here's to family and good memories in 2011. May we continue to grow, continue to laugh and love, and continue to hope.

Of all the things in life that offer no guarantee, family and memories are two things that never fail us.

My New Favorite Thing....

Yesterday I went into Costco after church to pick up one thing real quick. Well, you all know how that goes. I walked in past a sample and OMG!! Chex Mix has a new flavor: Muddy Buddies!! Did anybody else love these as a kid (or even more so as an adult)? They were so darn good but so much work to make!!
After trying them and getting Braxton's approval I had to pick up a bag.
They are so delicious. I think I'll have to go back and pick up a few more bags because it seems that they are around only for a limited time. Let me know if you pick up a bag for yourself!!

Christmas Pleasures

Braxton has been so excited and into Christmas this year. We were going to go get our tree from the mountains again this year but with everything else going on we came to the conclusion that was going to be one thing we had top let go of this year. I kept telling Braxton we were going to get to a tree lot and pick one out and don't think he didn't remember. Every afternoon he'd ask, "Are we going to get our Christmas tree?" Finally, we got all set up and decorated this past week and Braxton told me he wanted to sleep under it! I told him we'd sleep under it on Saturday and after getting my dad's queen size blow-up mattress blown up (I don't think I could handle sleeping on the actual floor!) we were all set and he was SO excited. I thought it would be neat for him to fall asleep with the lights on the tree on but after about 45 minutes of him staring up at the ceiling and blowing I decided we'd have to go old fashion and cut the lights out. He slept great. I, on the otherhand, was kicked and slapped and rolled all over ALL NIGHT. At 5am he informed me he was "stopped up and needed his nose blown and some juice!" I ignored his demands for as long as I could. We finally got up about 7:30. I wouldn't have had it any other way~~