The Grand Adventures of Christmas Break Part 2

We are finished! Jerimiah and Justice's rooms are clean! It has only taken me two more days to get motivated to tackle their rooms but they are finally done. Hopefully this cleaning mood carries over to the rest of the messy house!
I am happy to report that Justice's room wasn't near as messy as I expected, with the exception of his dresser. I found every bit of garbage in there that I expected, plus some. We got rid of a ton of clothes that don't fit him so he has room to actually put everything away. I had to laugh when I opened up one of the drawers, it was full of toy guns. I guess he has his priorities doesn't he! Clean clothes on the floor... toys in the drawer. (It probably makes more sense if your nine.) We made it through the room and I didn't even have the urge to cry once! All in all it was a success.
Jerimiah decided to save his poor mother... or save himself, I don't know which. He cleaned his room all by himself... moved the furniture and everything! I guess stuffing things under the bed wasn't an option for him this time. His room looks great and I think he is pretty proud of himself that he did it all. I am really proud of him and very thankful that we didn't see how far mom could go before she lost her mind!
Now... on to the dinner dilemma... any suggestions? Ha ha!

The Grand Adventures of Christmas Break

I should start this post off with a little explanation. When I was growing up we always had plenty of things to keep us busy during spring break, summer break, and Christmas break. All of us kids dug many fence posts, helped build fence, picked rocks out of the arena, helped with the flying business, horses, or a number of other things. We were never in need of a chore to keep us busy, there was always something to be done. I'm sure we spent a fair amount of time trying to avoid all of those things and at the time probably felt like it was a punishment to have to do them. However, now that I am a mother of three little boys I appreciate so much the amount of work that we did as kids. I loved that we lived out of town and had animals to take care of. I loved that we were all involved with the family business and the horses.

Since we live in town with a pretty small yard there is only so many things to keep my kids busy.
They have their chores that Aaron and I expect them to do, and sometimes it happens without any reminders and other times the kids have to be told to do them. The boys all have their own rooms and are supposed to keep them clean. A couple of times a year I like to help the boys go through their rooms and reorganize and de-clutter them. So, because we have no fences to build during Christmas break my boy's grand adventure will be cleaning their rooms. (Believe me it's probably more of punishment for me then and adventure for them. Ha ha!)

I decided that we should get Eli's room out of the way first. He got a fish tank from Santa and wants to put it in his room on his desk, and I would love for that fish tank to find another spot to live then under the Christmas tree that needs to be taken down. Eli is a pretty good little worker. He was very helpful with the demolition part of it for sure! We emptied all the toy boxes into the middle of the room very first and he thought his mother had lost her mind. (Truth be told I probably did years ago, but he still believes I'm all there!) Then we sorted all the toys into different boxes. He was pretty good about getting rid of things too! Believe it or not we got rid of a bag of garbage and three bags of toys and clothes that are going to Good Will. We went through his closet, dresser, and under his bed... boy I'm tired! Ha ha! His room looks amazing :) Hopefully it stays that way for a while. Tomorrow I will tackle Jerimiah or Justice's room. (I may tackle one of them in the process! What is it with teenagers and garbage EVERYWHERE?!)

This concludes our Grand Adventure for the day. Thankfully we made it through in one piece which gives me hope for the other two boy's rooms.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all! We love you and hope you have a wonderful day.

Bye Bye long hair!

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends the Goulds, the Heards, and the O'Hearns this year. We have known the Goulds and the Heards and were just introduced to the O'Hearns but I can already tell we are friends for life! Good friends + good food = Great time!
We sure missed all our family in Mtn. Home this year but we are thankful to have people here who love and support us too... we miss all of you!

Chef Eli

Eli loves to cook! He wanted to help me with the things we were making for Thanksgiving. He can crack an egg pretty good! I usually have him practice in a bowl just in case we have to dig out any shells but he did great! No shells!

He wanted to help make the deviled eggs so I told him we had to peel the eggs first. He climbed up on the bar stool and helped peel the eggs. He probably peeled about two dozen on his own... the night before this huge dinner, what a helper... he may be my favorite person right about now! Ha ha! (Give him five minutes and he will do something naughty!)

Snow day!

The boys had two snow days the week of Thanksgiving... it was awesome! Wednesday afternoon I took the boys sledding. By the time we went a lot of the snow had melted but we found a fun little spot. This is Justice rolling down the hill... goofy boy!

Eli loves the snow, he was so excited to have a snow day! He loves school but I'm afraid he may love snow days more.

Jerimiah has been using this snowboard for the past few year, he loves it! It may be time to get him a real one... he is getting pretty good.

Justice and Kable

Justice just loves Kable! Justice is such a good helper. He was so excited that Kable actually appreciated how nice he can be!

Girls Weekend 2010

All of us girls at mom's house getting ready to go shopping for the day. We had such a great time hanging out all weekend! This is definitely something we need to do again.

(I know I said girls weekend, but it is dad's house too so he got to hang out with us for a night! I think he decided that being the only man in a house full of seven women might be a little scary! We love you dad!)

Dinner with Melissa and Vanessa

I went to Idaho to meet up with Melissa for a night and then hang out with all my sisters and my mom for the weekend. Melissa and I tried out this new place called Jalapeno's. The food was awesome! I would definitely go there again. Vanessa went to dinner with us, she is so stinkin cute! She is such a busy little girl! I don't know how her mama keeps up with her.
(Oh yeah, this is not the best picture of us, but it's the only one I have! We are going to have to change that.)

Halloween

After carving his pumpkin, Eli decided he wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween. He was so cute and so funny that he totally made this costume work!

Aaron and I dressed up for our church Halloween party, I'm not sure where the rest of the pictures are but here is one of Kable and I.

Justice, his friend Zach, and Eli at the church party. We went trick or treating the next night and Zach went with us again. Justice and Eli both changed their costumes for Halloween night... funny kids! I guess when you have a ton of costumes and more imagination then you know what to do with you can change as much as you want!

Carving Pumpkins

Eli is the only one who wanted to carve pumpkins with us this year. We had a great time hanging out with our little buddy and carving "stitches." Eli just loves to create anything... he is so much fun!

Crafting with Melissa

We decided to try and design our own jewelry bag. For the most part it worked out pretty good, there are a few things that we would do differently I think but all in all it turned out great! It's always so much fun crafting with someone who loves crafting too!

Melissa comes to visit

Vanessa loved Aaron! She kept walking around say hi in her cutest flirtiest little voice! She was cracking me up!

Of course Melissa and I have to craft while we are together... we made these Halloween blocks- it was so much fun!

Sweet little Natalie wanted an apron like mommy's so we made her one- she loved it. She is so cute and so sweet.

Melissa found this bread box at one of the stores we have here and loved it so she bought it and we painted, sanded and distressed it! It is so cute I wish I could find another one!

My biggest kid

When we were taking family pictures I thought it would be nice to update the picture we have of just the two of us... this is how well that went. Every time my friend Debbie would say 1,2,3 and then snap the picture Aaron would do this. Ha ha, he thinks he is so funny! Actually he is most of the time... but I have figured out why my boys love to torment each other... there dad sets such a great example!

Go BSU

We have loved watching the BSU games as a family this year. We were so bummed that they lost to Nevada! Here about a month ago we decided to take some family pictures at our friend's house in the mountains. Jerimiah said he would only agree to take pictures if we could wear our BSU gear. OK! Here is my favorite... I just love Aaron and Jerimiah's expression in this picture. I'm so lucky! I am surrounded by a bunch of wonderful boys!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We went to the pumpkin patch with our friend Debbie... Eli says she is his favorite mom! Little stinker!

This photo cracks me up because it really is the sky behind them, but it looks so fake! I could never get a photo with the sky this perfect on purpose! Hahahah

Crafting

Halloween fun with the girls. Mom and Samantha came to visit for the weekend and we made these little signs. We had so much fun! I wish we could get together more often!

Cub Scout Day Camp

Justice had a great time this summer at his Day Camp. He learned lots of new things about the State of Oregon, he learned how to shoot a bow and arrow, and loved it! He also learned how to tie a tie. It was a lot of fun for the boys and Justice did a great job with everything.