So Much Fun!!!

Last night Dana, Nicole, Rachael, and I headed north to Prairie Wind Casino. Gosh I LOVE THAT PLACE! Yes, I am one of those crazy gamblers who gets a thrill and my adrenaline going when I first walk in the door and hear and see all those great slot machines. We always have fun when us girls go, even if we come home without anything left in our pockets.

Well...............Last night was a different story. We had gambled a couple of hours and had tried out many different machines of all kinds. (Except my Lobstermania machine. It was out of order. Boo-hoo, that is my all-time favorite one that I always have to play.) Anyways, Nicole and I sat down at some Red, White, & Blue dollar machines and started to play. Nicole hit for $320.00. Of course we cheered because we are noisy, happy people when we win. Not even five minutes after she won, I hit for $400.00 and the cheering went up again. It was so much fun!

We all had such a great time and had many laughs as we always do on the way up to gamble, and on the way home as well. This is something we always try to do when we all get together. The last trip was in July and we were due to go again. Glad we did!!!

Christmas

I hope you all enjoyed your time with family and friends during Christmas. We had a great time and had a pretty relaxing day yesterday.

My best gift (lots of prayers said) was that we were able to get our Durango on Christmas Eve and our car fixed too the same day. We lucked out and had a code go off that was caused from the cold. It doesn't happen very often the mechanic said. He went ahead and did all the diagnostic testing on the Durango and found the transmission was flawless and with the code erased, it was back to normal. That was a huge relief for us. We drove up to Hot Springs and picked it up Christmas Eve morning, then came home so Josh could get his new radiator put into his car. Now we have both vehicles back in our drive-way. What a good feeling!

The kids enjoyed Christmas immensely and got what they wanted from us and Santa. They kept busy yesterday playing and wearing their new clothes. We have Christmas with my family Saturday night in Chadron and then Josh's family on Sunday out at his dad's house. We are looking forward to seeing everyone. It seems like it has been FOREVER since we last saw them all.

I am on vacation until January 5th. I am taking it easy today, just enjoying time with my kids before our company makes it here. Josh had to work but has the next two days off so that will be nice.

Stay warm! They are calling for some snow and high winds this afternoon. I think we may watch a movie and drink hot chocolate.

Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to stop what I am doing for a moment and wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas. May you have a very special time with your loved ones and a blessed holiday season.

We will be enjoying Christmas Eve with Gramps, Grandma Mary, Grandma Dana, Great-Grandma Susie, Great-Grandma Noni, and John tonight at our house.

The menu for dinner is:

Crab Legs
Steak
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
Salad

YUM! I can't wait! Kaitlin has been wanting crab legs forever so we thought this would be the perfect time for her to enjoy them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I WAS TAGGED BY SHAY

This is a picture of Carter trying to hook up his little tractor to Gramps's drill. He just didn't understand why his plan wasn't working out so well. This was taken sometime in September when Carter was out at Gramps's place with Josh for the day.

HERE ARE THE RULES...

1)Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2)Select the 4th picture in the folder

3)Explain the picture

4)Tag 4 people to do the same

I TAG Deb, Becky, Amy, Shauna

Poor Luck With Our Vehicles

Last week was not a good week for our vehicles to behave. Our Durango decided to make a loud clunking noise and the engine light came on when we were headed to Rapid City from Deadwood. We lost power and only had third gear. We drove it home slowly and parked it. I called GMC in Chadron and talked to a friend of ours and he recommended the dealership in Hot Springs to work on it since it is under warranty. We loaded it up Saturday morning and took it to Hills Edge Auto for them to look at it. Then when Josh gave the warranty card to the guy up there, he told him it wasn't a Crystler/Dodge warranty like we thought we had paid for. (Josh was extremely mad!) I called the warranty place this morning because the back of the warranty card said to call them before any work is done to make sure the vehicle will be covered. Low and behold I got a computer voice. It did say we can take it to any dealership. I was worried all weekend we would have to go get the Durango and take it to another place. Now I am waiting for the phone call to see what the diagnosis is. Josh thinks our transmission is going out-It only has 52,000 miles on it.

Then Josh's car decided to act up on his way home from work on Friday. His low coolant light came on so he stopped at a friend's house in Hemingford and put some water in it to make it home. Josh says the radiator needs replaced. Merry Christmas to us!! Now instead of getting him the xBox 360 he wanted, he is getting a radiator instead... Well, we are adults, so we know a radiator is the best choice at this point. Lol.

Luckily, my mom has her car at home that she doesn't drive often so she loaned it to us for Josh to get to work while we are without a vehicle. Please put in a prayer for us to get them up and going again. After tomorrow, I am on vacation until school resumes on January 5th. We have family coming (hurray!) but I am bummed I won't have transportation while they are here. I am keeping my fingers crossed that at least one vehicle makes it home this week fixed... I wish you all better luck than we are having. :)

Christmas Program

Tonight was our school Christmas program. Kaitlin played the drums and triangle for band and Kylah sang three songs. We enjoyed listening to the cute little kids out there on stage. Afterwards, we stopped in the auditorium to meet up with Santa. He gave the kids a candy cane and we came home. Now the girls are asleep, anxious to have their Christmas parties at school tomorrow before they begin their long break.

Tasty Treats

We had a wonderful surprise this morning! We heard a knock on the door and it was Shay bringing us all yummy cupcake treats. The kids were overly excited, immediately choosing which adorable cupcake was theirs to eat. Shay has a lot of talent when it comes to making treats for school, daycare, and the holidays.

My absolute favorite are the snowmen! Very Cute!! Cupcakes are my favorite snack so I am going to indulge and have an unhealthy breakfast. Thank you Shay!

(Click on her blog link to see the cupcakes on the bottom right side of my page. I am off to eat...!)

Gingerbread Houses

It is so cold here today! We decided to stay inside where it's warm and decorate our gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun.

Kaitlin made one by herself.

Kylah, Carter, and I made one together.

Kaitlin's is the one with the gingerbread man on the roof. It was exciting. Carter put a lot of thought and concentration into it so it was fun to see him enjoying it so much.

Exciting News!!!

MY NIECE BROOKLYNN IS GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER!!!

This is so exciting for Brooklynn and our families. We found out about this awhile back but wanted to respect Brooklynn's mommy on waiting for the news to be out. She wanted to let her students know before anyone else in the public did. I eagerly waited for the word to be out. She told her students and so now I am sharing the news! (with Brooklynn's mom's permission of course!)

Tonight we are meeting Josh's brother Zeb and his girlfriend Rachael in Deadwood. I CAN'T WAIT! Then we are going shopping for Christmas tomorrow in Rapid. Yay, I will get to do a little baby shopping on the side too...he he.

Anyways, I just had to share the news. Our family is big, but adding another baby to the family makes it even that much better! :)

Excited

Kylah headed to school this morning to talk about her pictures on the bulletin board to her classmates. She was super happy and ready to walk out the door at 7:35 a.m. She didn't actually leave until after 8:00 a.m. though.

I am anxious to head to Rapid tomorrow and get all my Christmas shopping done. I need to get it done before the weather gets bad so this Saturday works the best. Only Josh and I are going so I am wondering if we will get to eat at Red Lobster...oh, I hope so! Yum!

Have a great weekend! Stay out of the cold weather that is predicted for Sunday...

Flu Shots

Today the kids and I went to the clinic after school was out and got our flu shots for the season. This is my first flu shot ever. I don't tend to get sick often so hopefully I don't jinx myself.

The nurse asked who wanted to go first. Carter piped right up and yelled, "me, me, me, I do!" So he went first. He shed a couple tears and was okay til he saw he was bleeding. Once the band-aid was on, he was fine.

Then Kaitlin went next. No problems with her at all.

THEN KYLAH...She was very upset. She kept saying, "okay, just a second, just a second." I gave the nurse 'the look' to have her go ahead and give the shot to her. She did and then Kylah stops crying and says, "where is it? I am done?!" Then no problems after that.

I was last. No crying from me either. Tee hee! I was even offered a sticker with the kids afterwards. They made their choices carefully, then we all left the clinic happy.

I asked Carter what he wanted for supper tonight and he wants orange soup. SO, Cheesy Potato Soup it is then! It should be ready to eat soon. YUM!

Kylah Update

Hmmm...Kind of weird today. About an hour after this post, Kylah's fever dropped and she came out of my bedroom telling me it was past lunch time and she was hungry. I asked her if she wanted toast or soup and she said, "Oh, I think I will have some Cap'n Crunch Cereal, Yeah that's what I want." I was a little leery on giving that to her but she ate and has been giggly all afternoon. I am keeping my fingers crossed it was some crazy 12 hour flu and she doesn't get to feeling bad again.

Poor Kylah

Kylah woke up this morning with a tummy ache and a slight fever. I kept her home from school and she has been resting in my bedroom to hopefully keep the other kids from getting sick too. I feel bad for her. She is so quiet and cries off and on. Then she threw up and said her tummy hurt really bad. I hope she gets over this fast. She is bummed that she is Student-saurus of the Week and not at school.

We just pray for a speedy ending to this flu. Hope all of you are feeling healthy and well!

Kylah is Student-saurus of the Week!

Kylah and I went up to her classroom this morning and decorated the bulletin board for her Student-saurus of the Week project. We had a lot of fun! Then her grandma that's in her classroom came in to see it along with Mrs. Buecker and Mrs. Limbach. They talked to Kylah and let her show them her pictures she was putting up.

Grandma Mary came to town and watched the daycare kids so I could take Kylah up there. I was glad she did. It's not often I get to see my girls at school and help out with many projects or activities.

Kylah is excited for her classmates to see the bulletin board and can't wait to tell them about it on Friday.

Sunday

It is so quiet in my house at the moment. Josh and Carter are out helping Gramps at his place and the girls are at a birthday party. So, now I am sitting here wondering what to do with my free time... I don't get that very often so it's always hard to decide what to do. I thought I would start with adding this post.

Kylah and I have been working this weekend on her school project. She is the Student-saurus of the week starting tomorrow. Her class theme this year is dinosaurs. For this project, we collect things about Kylah to put on the bulletin board in her classroom for the other students to see all week. Then on Friday, Kylah gets to tell about everything she has on the board.

Last night we printed off a bunch of pictures of her along with family. We cut them out and then put them on construction paper. It was time consuming because our family is so big so she has a lot of pictures. Then we printed out a colorful page of her favorites: food, color, sport, etc.

After we got her board stuff done we put some pictures of Kylah into two small photo albums from birth to present day. It was a lot of fun! I am very disorganized with our family photos and haven't started scrap booking ANY of them yet so we had ten years of pictures to go through. The whole family enjoyed the memories and surprises on how much everyone has changed. That is why is took so long- we were reminiscing:)

I get to go to school tomorrow morning to Kylah's classroom to help her decorate her bulletin board. I will be sure to take a picture of it and post it for her. She is very proud of it. One thing she kept saying when we worked on it was how much she missed everyone and can't wait until Christmas to see them all. That is how we are all feeling. The countdown is on in our house to see our family. We cannot wait!!

I am off to read my book and take a nap. I know, sounds boring to you, but sounds wonderful to me!

TGIF

Hurray, it's Friday!! This week has flown by for us. Maybe because I actually got out of the house. Since I work in my home, sometimes it is 2-4 days before I leave.

Wednesday night Josh, the kids and I went to Chadron and stopped at Walmart for a couple things then met Josh's mom at Taco John's for supper. Then yesterday I had an IEP meeting for Kylah at the school at 4pm then went down to the Eagles for Thursday Night Hamburgers. It was nice. We went there and ate with Josh's Grandma Susie, Nick, and Mary. We also got to see Josh's Grandpa Keith and Grandma Barb while we were there. Then we all came back to our house and talked until 8pm.

Fridays are usually very busy for me. However, today I only have Carter here with two other daycare children. I will have to find something fun for us to do so they can keep busy. The fewer kids, the quicker they get bored.

I hope you have a good day and an even better weekend!

Let it Snow...(or not)

I love snow! I always have and always will but the one thing I don't like is the bad roads that come with it. I like to watch the kids play in it and squeal with delight with their rosy red cheeks. Carter decided last night when he saw the snow on the deck to throw on his coat and Kylah's shoes and bring the snow inside. He grabbed a broom off the back deck and was trying to sweep it into the back door into our kitchen. He soon learned that it melts too fast. Josh and I got a chuckle out of it before we told him the snow had to stay outside. Then I grabbed a towel and got rid of the puddle of melted snow.

I really love this time of year but all the clothes to keep warm for it can be a real pain, especially in our household. I bought 8 sets of gloves a month ago. Yep, 8 for the girls and magically only 1 matched pair can be found. Our inventory is currently 1 hot pink pair that Kylah wore today, one brown, one gray, and one white glove... Kaitlin was not thrilled to wear two different colors. I had to then give the "Mom Speech" of keeping track of our winter stuff. We have a basket just for hats, gloves, scarfs, mittens, and headbands. That basket better start being filled with these things. Then our mornings will go much more smoothly.

Have a warm and enjoying day. I am off on a scavenger hunt for those missing gloves.

Back to Reality

It's back to reality of school and work... I can't complain though. My back is feeling SO much better so that makes everything look good from my perspective. It's so hard to accomplish anything when you hurt that bad so I have no complaints!

We got our tree put up this weekend along with some other Christmas decorations. Josh was going to put the lights up outside, but low and behold, the wind decided to blow Saturday. So, we figured he could do it Sunday but the wind was even worse then. Maybe this week he can get it done...

We are looking forward to the holiday break and family coming to see us in three weeks. We always have so much fun and enjoy all the great company! I am a firm believer that family is the greatest value for us and can't wait to see everyone!!!

We were able to get a little Christmas shopping done on Friday, but not much since I couldn't walk around a lot at the stores. We were in Sidney so we stopped in at Wal-mart, my sister and brother-in-laws' Radio Shack store, and of course- CABELAS. I think Josh would live there if I let him...=)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and some extra time off to enjoy the holiday and shopping. Those little breaks help out a lot throughout the year.