Snow

This last weekend we had a brief run in with the fluffy white stuff. It teased us for days with cold temps and a rain/snow mix. On Sunday morning there was a dusting of snow, but not much to speak of. After Church it started really coming down and actually sticking. I got the girls dressed up as fast as I could and off they went to frolic. It was a good thing that we were speedy because within an hour the sun came out and everything melted. At least they got to play for a bit.

18 Months

Woohoo! Neil turned 18 months this last week. Hooray for being old enough for nursery! On Sunday Chris took him to his class and dropped him off. Miraculously he stayed without tears and had a great time playing with the other kids. We were fully prepared for another horrific expeirience like we had with Grace, but so far (knock on wood), he is doing great!

I took him in for his check up on Monday, and he weighed in at 29 1/2lbs (88%), and is 33 1/2 in. tall (81%). He is a big boy and is getting more and more grown up everyday. It just melts my heart when I hear Chris go get him in the morning and he happily says Dadda, dadda. He is the sweetest little man, and his smile is the best. He can go up and down the stairs quite well now on his own. He likes to eat with utensils, and he is still mostly a vegetarian. Neil loves playing with cellphones and all toys that make noise. He especially loves his sisters and follows them around all day. So far they are good about letting him play with them. He is just on the verge of saying more words. In the last week he has started doing a lot of new things. Saying "night, night", "uh oh", "cracker", and signing milk, bath, all done, and up. I'm sure this is only the beginning. My only wish is for him to stay my baby for a little longer. These kids get bigger way too fast!

Feeding Time

My family has a tradition of going out to the Jewell/Mist Wildlife Preservation area each year to help feed the herds of elk. Apparently, winter is a tough time for them to find enough food to eat. Because of this they (the dept. of fish & wildlife) supplement their diets with bales of hay/alfalfa. You can ride along in the tractor and help distribute the hay. It's actually pretty neato to get so close to these giant animals.
This year Chris took the girls. I stayed home in my warm bed while the baby slept in. It was interesting to hear that they sometimes relocate a few elk each year in order to start new herds around Oregon and even as far as Alaska. I think the girls had a really great time seeing all the elk. Afterwards, they headed to Camp 18 for a tasty brunch.

Candy Cane Please

Saturday was our ward Christmas party. We had a tasty ham dinner followed by a musical program. Afterwards there was a special visitor. Neil just wanted them to hurry up and give him a candy cane. Claire didn't mind Santa, but Grace wanted nothing to do with him. She ran past and grabbed her candy cane. Maybe next year I can get the three of them together.

One Decade

This is us...ten years ago. What an amazing day it was! A November wedding in Oregon, and we lucked out with no rain. We were sealed together forever surrounded by our family and friends. A whole decade has now passed, and although we may look a little bit different, we are still very much in love, if not more so. I can't wait to see what the next ten years will bring!

In order to celebrate our milestone anniversary, we headed off to Las Vegas while our kiddos were able to stay with Grandma. What an amazing trip we had! It was so nice to not be on a schedule and get to sleep in everyday! We stayed 3 nights in Luxor Hotel on the strip, and we had a blast! The weather on our first day was perfect! Blue skies and 72 degrees was just what I needed. We took advantage of it by going to the Red Rock Canyon Conservatory that is just outside the city. They have a visitor center and maps of probably 20 different hikes that you can take ranging in difficulty. It was perfect. The landscape was beautiful, and it was so quiet out there. The hike we chose was amazing! It climbed up a rock canyon and ended with a great vista of the city. What a great way to spend our day. We also ate lots and lots of great food, including our stop to Max Brenner Chocolate. We saw Blue Man Group perform, which was pretty entertaining.

The next day was actually pretty cold and rainy, which was a bummer, but we made the best of it. We went to a movie, shopped, went out to eat, and saw Chris's family in the evening. Our last morning we found a great place for breakfast that is pretty popular called Hash House a Go Go. Chris had the fried chicken and waffles, which was actually pretty tasty. I had a more normal breakfast of eggs, potatoes, and a giant pancake. It was pretty tasty!

It felt great to get away, and have no responsibilities. We definitely needed a break! We were happy to come home and see our kids much more relaxed and ready to tackle the holiday season. a big thanks to everyone who helped make our trip possible! Thanks Grandma's and Uncle Troy! We can't wait to do it again sometime!

PS- We spent 3 nights on the strip and did not gamble a dime....there are plenty of fun things to do there. We were always busy!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HONEY!

Blessed

Last Thursday was a really bad day. It all started bright and early at around 7:30am. Claire went off to school, and Chris went off to work. I was feeling lucky that the baby was still asleep, so I decided to throw a load of laundry in before he was up and hanging on my legs. A little while later he woke up and I went to put in his hearing aids, like I do every morning. They weren't in their container. I looked in all the usual places where they could sometimes be forgotten. Not anywhere. So I called Chris. He didn't answer. So I waited. Then I was getting pretty anxious about it, so I texted him again. Sure enough he knew where they were. He had left them in his shirt pocket when putting him to bed the night before. Immediately my mind flashed to what shirt he had been wearing the day before, and I KNEW instantly that it was in the pile that made it into the wash. I raced up the stairs and took the shirt out. Sure enough they were both still in the pocket...soaking wet. They had made it through almost the entire cycle. I was devastated. I quickly dried them the best I could and put them in their overnight drier. I didn't know what else to do. For those that don't know, hearing aids are very expensive, and we are past the 1 year replacement warranty. I was certain that we would be getting new ones for our Christmas and anniversary presents.

As you can imagine, I was pretty angry. I slammed my computer keyboard tray, which apparently scared my cat...and broke my keyboard. So the cat started hissing, clawing, and growling at me. I was definitely not in the mood for that. I decided that I would just walk away and let him cool off. That didn't work out too well. He started following me around the house, trying to jump at me while growling and hissing. I actually got pretty scared. He has never acted like that before. Eventually, I just didn't feel safe anymore so I called Chris in tears to come and rescue me from the cat. Thankfully, he was able to come right away. Of course the cat was behaving himself in front of Chris, but he did put him in his cage for me before going back to work. I drove the cat to the shelter with the intention of leaving him there. Unfortunately, they wouldn't take him. They were full. So I brought him home, released him in the house, and left to go run other errands, resigned to the fact that the cat was going nowhere. About 3 hours later we came home with groceries. I figured everything would be back to normal. Grace went in the house just fine. Then, with my arms full of grocery bags, I went to walk in the door, and the cat decided to block the door hissing and growling at me again. I had it! I told Grace to open the front door, and the cat went outside. He just sat around in the front for a couple hours looking through the bushes. I opened it up around dinnertime and he was gone. I haven't seen him since. It was a rough day.

I let the hearing aids dry for 24hours and then tried them out. To my amazement they actually worked! I even had them checked out by the audiologist and they are perfectly fine. We are so very blessed to have another chance. I'm still shocked that they are working at all, let alone not damaged.

Halloween night

Halloween was a pretty low key event after the weekend that we had, with birthday parties and the ward activity. The kids dressed up again, and stopped by both Grandma's houses for special treats. Then we hit the neighborhood for some candy. The girls were much less timid this year about going up to doors. I took Neil in early because it was really cold, and he was falling asleep in the stroller. Grace ended up coming in early too, because of a melt down over not getting candy at a particular door. It was quite strange. Oh well. They had plenty of loot for me to "check" at the end of the night. Another successful Halloween! Here are my cute kiddos...a bee, a "butterfly", and Lightning McQueen. (Grace apparently hates ladybugs, but she really liked her "butterfly" costume, so we ran with it. I cringed a bit every time someone said how cute she was as a ladybug. I thought for sure that would be the cause of a meltdown. Fortunately, it didn't phase her. She just knew that they were all confused.)