Tree

After Thanksgiving this weekend Jason wanted to go get a tree. This is the first time we have ever cut down our own Christmas tree. Usually we just go buy one, and I think in a couple of years we will just get a fake one. None the less we went on an adventure to get a tree up the Mine Hill. I told Jason that these trees are very ugly, but that did not deter him one bit. He hunted and hunted, I say he, because I didn't even get out of the truck except to take the picture, and finally found one. By that time Truman and our dog Chewy had come back to the truck, because they were cold. The tree is not too bad, okay it is super ugly. But it only cost $10, for the tag, and the kids enjoyed it (Elleree was asleep in the truck with me).

It brought back memories of when I was a kid and my parents cut a tree every year. Some were worse than others. I remember if they had a bare spot my dad would just drill a hole in the trunk and stick a branch in it. I also remember when we would look for them we would always spot one and my dad would say it was too big. We had no concept that the 20 foot tree would not fit a 9ft ceiling. We also didn't see why my dad couldn't just climb the tree and only cut off what he needed. So no matter how ugly the tree is, it was a good experience for our kids they love the tree! Who knows they may end up with memories of their own, probably of how their mom kept saying how ugly the tree was.

Turkey day

This year was such a great thanksgiving! All my siblings were able to make it with all of their kids, except Pierce. Heath and Emilee brought Emilee's parents and Grandma and Grandpa Vaden were able to make it too, so we even had a few extras. I was nice to be all together, no fighting (not even our kids). My mom did a wonderful job on the meal, including extras for my dad and grandma that were Glutin free. Arron and Jason took the older kids out shooting pumkins later, so they were out of our hair.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I am truely greatful for my family. I love each of my siblings so much, and although it may not seem like it some times, all I want for them is to be happy! I love my parents and am very grateful for all the sacrifices they have made for me, and how much they still do for me and my family! I am grateful for my grandparents. I am so blessed to have grown up so close to them. I am thankful for the realationship I have with them, and the wonderful advice and insight they give to me!

Busy Weekend

This last weekend was very busy. We had Allison, Arron and their four kid come and visit us. Eli my new baby nephew was blessed on Sunday, so we had everyone from their two families over to the house on Sunday. It was nice to see everyone!


Truman and Elleree both got sick on Saturday at the wrestling tournament I took the kids to. So after the tournament I had to take Elleree to the doctor. On Monday we went and had the 9 grandkids pictures taken. They were all there, which doesn't happen very often. They turned out very cute. These are pictures of Eli and my mom holding Elleree and Paisley.

Forever

It feels like I have not posted forever, but it doesn't feel like I have been busy. So I decided to catalog all the things I've been doing other than the usual housework....

I have been working on cross-stitching Jason's Christmas stocking, while listening to PBS a ton (I will post pictures when it is done),
read two books (Lance Armstrong and The Thirteenth Tale),
cleaned all my M&M dispensers (I know right),
went to two movies (Time Travelers Wife and Bright Star, both of which are not very uplifting), babysitting other people's kids a lot( of coarse they are other peoples kids, if they were mine it wouldn't be babysitting),
Putting up Christmas lights (Jason is afraid of heights, but loves to do them)
Taking Dillon to wrestling practice (I am so taking pictures and posting those too)
Going over spreadsheets, business plans, etc. (Jason is trying to open his own pharmacy, anyone have extra money they have lying around they could give us?)

Hope that gives you an update on what is going on around here. I will post more later!

Best sister

Do I have the best sister or what! She designs all my blog headers for me. This one I sent her pictures (courtesy of Jaclyn Davis Photography, she rocks) and she just puts it together for me. She does it all, in between painting her living room, taking care of her 4 kids and her crazy social life. My sister is the best! Thanks Alli!

It all fits

These picture are mainly to prove to my friend Lori's husband Fancois that all my kids toys do fit into the cabinets.

These before and after pictures really show you what I have to deal with on a regular basis with my kids. The trash everything!

My mom and dad built these cabinets for me. The work really well, and I am so luck to have parents who are willing and able to build things for me. Thanks mom and dad!

Halloween 2009

Every year I have a Halloween Party. This picture is of Truman trying to hit the pinyata (I can't spell). We had lots of food, a scavenger hunt, decorated cookies, made spooky picture frames, had a fishing pond, and had a pinata. This year we had a ton of people, it was a lot of fun. Mostly just family, but we have some friends come too. I missed a lot of my friends, and really missed some of my family that could not make it this year.
My friend Lori and her son Xander. She made that costume for him "gasp". She was such a trooper. These are all the pictures before the party, because once the festiviest start, I am too busy to take very many. My poor kids!
Heath and Pierce, he was cracking me up with that wig.
Emilee and Heath, how cute are they?
Truman, Bumblebee one of the "Transformers" he really got into it.
Dillon, as one of those "Star Wars" guys. What are they called? Anyway, I really liked playing with his gun. Jason had to take it away from me. I guess it is pretty annoying if your not the one pushing the button.
All the kids.
Elleree was a little lamb, and she was soo cute. I got the costume on cleance, and bought it because I did not think she would wear anything for very long. Boy was I wrong, she loved her costume. She kept it on the whole night. Plus it was super warm for trick or treating.
My mom made up goodie bags for the grandkids, the boys got wax mustaches. Way funny.

It's a Pumkin Thing

First we had to clean out the pumpkins, Dillon was the only one willing to touch "that stuff".
Dillon decided that he wanted to do his pumpkin all by himself this year. He did a pretty good job, I think.
Truman, on the other hand picked out a design and opted for me to work out the details. He did help a little, as you can see here.
Finished product, not too shabby if you ask me. I love to decorate pumpkins!

Weekend

This weekend we went to the big Mackay and participated in the festivities there. They do this "pumpkin patch" thing that lets the kid paint pumpkins, goo, and a ton of other little art projects. The kids had fun. Heath was there with Pierce. I put in a bunch of pictures of him, because I know alot of you have not seen him in a long time. I can't believe how much he looks like Heath.

Freaking Out

I am totally freaking out! I went to the doctor on Monday, finally, because I had been having joint pain, fatigue and my depression medication seems to have stopped working. She put me on a new medication, and took some blood to do some tests. Today they called and said I have something called Sjögren's Syndrome. So I decided to do some research on the web. Not a good idea, now I am totally freaking out. Hear is what they said:

Sjögren's syndrome is an autoimmune disorder in which immune cells attack and destroy the glands that produce tears and saliva. Sjögren's syndrome is also associated with rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. The hallmark symptoms of the disorder are dry mouth and dry eyes. In addition, Sjogren's syndrome may cause skin, nose, and vaginal dryness, and may affect other organs of the body including the kidneys, blood vessels, lungs, liver, pancreas, and brain.

Sjögren's syndrome affects 1-4 million people in the United States. Most people are more than 40 years old at the time of diagnosis. Women are 9 times more likely to have Sjögren's syndrome than men.

Sjögren's syndrome can damage vital organs of the body with symptoms that may remain stable, worsen, or go into remission. Some people may experience only the mild symptoms of dry eyes and mouth, while others go through cycles of good health followed by severe disease. Many patients are able to treat problems symptomatically. Others are forced to cope with blurred vision, constant eye discomfort, recurrent mouth infections, swollen parotid glands, hoarseness, and difficulty in swallowing and eating. Debilitating fatigue and joint pain can seriously impair quality of life.

There is no known cure for Sjögren's syndrome nor is there a specific treatment to restore gland secretion. Treatment is generally symptomatic and supportive. Moisture replacement therapies may ease the symptoms of dryness. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may be used to treat musculoskeletal symptoms. For individuals with severe complications, corticosteroids or immunosuppressive drugs may be prescribed.

Disneyland

This is the longest post ever. I hope that it doesn't bore everyone. Mainly I wanted to docutment our trip. Here are the kids on the drive. The first day we drove to Prim, NV and stayed at Buffalo Bills and went shoping at the outlet mall there. The next day we set out again this time to Disneyland. We got there and checked into the Hotel.
We went to Downtown Disney to go looking through the shops, and pick up our free stuff. We got a Disney Credit Card for this trip. It turns out you get tons of free stuff and special things that are offered only to the card holders. We got free lanyards, pins, pictures, backpack, discouts and all sorts of other stuff.
So, this trip was with a ton of other people. We had our friends Jamie and Tanya with their kids,(Adessa, Jordon, Morgan) Jamie's Sister Dannai her son (Micheal), Jamie's mom (Annie), Jamie's uncle (Joe), Jamies other sister Shannon her daughter (Alexadra). Then there was Jamie and Tanya's friend Jason his son (Hunter), then Jerry who is friends with all of us. This is a picture with some of the kids.
We went to the Build a Bear Workshop where Truman and Elleree built a dog and bear (Bruno the Bat dog, and Minnie Elleree) Dillon didn't want one, he got a tiger from Indiania Jones when we got into the Park.

We went to Goofy's Kichen to eat that night. We meet a ton a of charcters there. The kids got pictures and autographs from Minnie, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Goofy, and Aladdin. They got to go out and "do the twist" with Goofy, and they also got to help him cook. We had a really good time!
The first morning didn't start out very well. Dillon had a fever and was throwing up all night. So I stayed at the Hotel and Jason took Elleree and Truman out. They spent the morning in fantasy land and part of fontier land. They rode all the rides there and met some characters.
Elleree and Truman in front of the White Rabbit's house in Alice in Wonderland.
That afternoon Dillon was feeling better so we set out to the park. We rode all the ride we could in frontier land, and adventure land. We even made it over to Tomorrow land and rode a few rides there. The boys got to build there own light sabers that night.

This was the only time Elleree let me put her down. She really liked to play with the wheel.
The Haunted Mansion, they decorate it in the theme of Nightmare Before Christmas, for Halloween.


At the end of the first night we got our pictures taken at the entrance to the park. They had some amazing decorations for Halloween!

On the second morning we got to enter Mickey's Toon Town an hour before everyone else, because of the credit card. We got to see a little performance with Mickey's gang and then go through Mickeys house where Donald, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Goffy and Mickey were. Then we rode some rides before everyone else showed up.
The boys both had to have Mickey ears and we got them a lollypop too. They only lasted about two seconds before they were done with both. We spent until noon at Disneyland and then I headed back to the Hotel so Elleree could have a nap. The Boys headed to California Adventures to ride some rides, until we met back up.
We got "preferred seating" to the Pixar parade, because of the card as well. It was actully reall cool. We got to sit on these benches where no one else was allowed, and watch the parade without anyone in front, or behind us. The kids loved it, and the charaters payed special attention to them because they were the only ones there.
I had to go back to the hotel early that night because Truman and Elleree were tired. This is how I pushed them both through the park that night. Truman wanted to stop for some ice cream, so after waiting in line for a half hour we were almost ready to get our ice cream and I look down and they are both asleep. Needless to say we didn't have ice cream that night.
Next morning was California Adventures. Dillon and Jason stayed that moring in Disneyland so the Dillon could go to the Jedi training. He had a blast, I guess they get to learn how to fight the bad guys in Star Wars. Elleree wanted to ride the Carousel and loved every minute of it! The boys thought it was lame, but she loved it and wanted to go on it again.
The boys next to the Cars characters at California Adverntures. They went off to ride some "cool" rides, because Elleree wasn't big enough to ride them. She and I went to the Bugs Life section where she could ride most of the rides, and had fun without them.
Picture with Snow White at California Adventures. The only girl that the boys would get their pictures taken with. Scratch that, Dillon wouldn't get in the picture, Dillon said " We don't care about Princesses." After California Adventures closed that night we went back over to Disneyland, but I ended up having to take Elleree and Truman back to the Hotel early because Truman threw up in line. He and Elleree ended up being really sick that night and throwing up all over the room. We woke up the next morning and checked out of the hotel, to start our trip home.
We went to Newport Beach with the the kids, I got to play with the kids in the ocean and teach them how to body surf, it was soo much fun! Alot of things are not as much fun when you get older as they were when you were a kid, but for me playing in the waves in not one of them.
My favorite picture, Dillon with his hands down his pants, love it!
After the beach we headed home. We spent 4 hours in heavy traffic and finally made it to our hotel in St. Gorge, where I vomited in the bushes like a drunk. For some reason I got really sick that night. We woke up the next day and went to Tai Pan. Then we set out for home with a historic stop at Fort Cove, which was really cool. We finally made it home about 11:00 pm that night. What a trip! Tons of things have changed since I was last at Disneyland (the parking lot being turned into California Anventures being one) but it was still alot of fun. A little smaller than I remember, but alot of fun.