I’m going to try to get caught up on my blogging. There’s so much to cover - I’ll just hit the highlights. Since my last post in December, we went to California for Christmas! This was a real treat for us since we have been celebrating Christmases by ourselves in Kansas since Ryan was born - 13 years ago! There's no way I can remember everything we did, but it was a great trip.
Todd also gave me a
big girl camera! It was supposed to be my Christmas/Anniversay/Birthday present. I hoped it would make me a better photographer, but I’m still learning. Emily got the exact same camera & has even started a new blog showing off her talents. I want her skills. And since being out of our normal Christmas routine caused us to throw all sense out the window, Todd also gave me a new MacBook laptop. I haven’t learned how to do everything yet so I still mostly use my old desktop, but it is fun to have my very own cool toy. I’m trying to use the new camera and new computer to put this post up.
Christmas itself was party after party. We got up early and opened our presents from each other and Santa with Emily & Mike and Mom & Dad. About noon, Amy’s, Tammy’s, & Ben’s families came for more Christmas! We opened more presents and had a huge feast. Then the Sunday after Christmas, my grandma, aunt, uncle, and a few cousins I hadn’t seen in years came for MORE Christmas and MORE great food. I loved it! Christmas is my favorite holiday and it was so great to spend it with family.
My mom and dad gave Tyler & Ryan R/C airplanes so Ben & Dodd got theirs charged up and we went to the high school to fly. Tyler was an instant pro and he even let the other boys try flying his plane. Ben is a really good flyer - we kept saying he could fly a rock - so he helped keep the planes from crashing too hard and taught the boys a few tricks.
We had also planned this trip to be there for Curtis’s & Brooke’s baptisms. It was so great to see those 2 get baptized. We tried to take a quick family picture after the baptism since we were all there and dressed up, but we are a crazy bunch and even with 2 people taking roughly 140 pictures, we didn’t get a single great shot. I just picked this one at random - it's actually not too bad.
We thought we’d fly kites at the beach (one of our favorite CA activities) but wouldn’t ya know? No wind. So Dad, Todd & the boys hiked down on the rocks and I practiced playing with the settings on my camera. The boys even played in the water. Kansas boys running on the beach on the day after Christmas! Amazing.
One day there, we went to the butterfly preserve in Coronado. I thought we would see butterflies fluttering all around us in clouds of rainbow colors. No. They apparently go there to rest, so they were hanging from the trees in big brown clumps, looking like leaves.
It was interesting and we had a nice walk through the woods. Then we were out on a cliff over the beach and the kids played on the natural playground provided by the trees.
It was a really nice day to enjoy the outdoors. Amy & I took the little ones back home & Todd took a group of adults & big kids horseback riding! They really liked that.
While in CA, Todd & I celebrated our 17th Anniversary! We went to see the
Mary Poppins musical in LA. We got the very last 2 cheap seats so some of the stage was out of our view, but it was really cool. They have added some songs and changed the story from the movie, but we liked it. It was a good anniversary date. I love being married to a really good guy. I love that he loves me. I love saying that we’ve been married for 17 years - that used to sound like a reaaalllly long time. I love our life together. I love Todd.
We got to be at Amy’s house for New Year’s Eve. We ate tons of yummy treats and played some games. Tyler went to the Stake Dance with Cody and Dodd & the little kids went to bed before midnight, but Amy was a good sport and let us hangout until the countdown.
The next day, Don took Todd & Tyler & Ryan paintballing with some friends of theirs. It was a rough game and they all came back with bruises and welts. I don’t get it and Todd didn’t like it, but the boys had a great time. I’m afraid they will want to move on from airsoft to paintball!
We got back home to Kansas to find the state covered in snow. There were below zero temps for a few days. They even cancelled school because of the cold! We have been cold all month! I stayed inside and worked on projects. I had started knitting a hat for Emily’s baby on the trip and finished it here. Then I knit the booties to match. Then I knitted some mittens for me. I’ve never done mittens & booties before, but they turned out right! I love it when you get good results just from following directions, even if you don’t know what you’re doing! I still have some of the yarn, so maybe I’ll do a jacket for Baby Boy.
Justin is playing Upward basketball again. He likes his coach and his team is pretty good! He should practice more, but I can’t blame him when it’s so cold outside!
Ryan is playing basketball at school too. He didn’t make the basketball team, but he’s still enjoying the intramural team and getting to practice with friends. He’s hoping to make it next year. Tyler (and I think Ryan) will be going out for track in a couple of weeks. He wants to run the 100 yard sprint, and do the long jump, high jump, and pole vault. Tyler has made it his goal in life to jump on and over everything in the house and is constantly trying to jump high enough to slap the ceilings. I hope he makes it and can do his jumping somewhere else!
The boys’ parent/teacher conferences were last week. Justin is still learning some essential study skills, but he’s getting great grades. And Ryan is amazing us - he is doing excellent work and seems to have blossomed at middle school. (Can I use the word “blossomed” for a boy?)
Tyler is still at the top of his class, busy with extracurriculars and already planning his schedule for next year! We are so blessed to have 3 perfectly wonderful boys. On days when they are acting more like normal kids, I have to remind myself that they really are amazing kids and we have nothing to complain about. OK - enough bragging about the boys.
Todd went to China for 13 days and just got back on Friday. He has had longer trips, but this one sure felt like it was too long. Ryan started counting down the last 5 days. We do OK when he’s gone, but I don’t sleep and I tend to let certain household things go. When Todd comes home, it’s a mad scramble to get the place put back together before he gets here. And then I collapse & finally get to sleep! I’m a night owl, but I start to lose brain function after a few days of Todd being gone. Todd’s been jetlagged so we’ve been staying up late watching the
Olympics! Go USA! I’m the exact polar opposite of atheltic, but I really like watching the Olympic athletes compete and do their very best. It’s amazing to me that human beings are capable of such great things!
Valentine’s Day was on Sunday so we did our celebrating on Saturday. I baked peanut butter kiss cookies with Hershey hearts. They were gone really fast! And I tried something new -
meringues. These just looked so perfect for Valentine’s, and they were easy. The boys liked them too, so they will probably become a Valentine tradition!
I gave Todd a framed family picture to take to work and a couple of CDs - the 2010 version of 1980’s mixed tapes. He gave me a very pretty necklace & some chocolates. We had dinner together then took the boys to see the Percy Jackson movie. The movie with the kids isn’t so romantic, I know, but we were running out of times to see it and we all wanted to go and we do love the boys too, so it’s OK. For more mushy lovey stuff see the part about our anniversary. :)
Yesterday was President’s Day so the boys didn’t have school. Todd had to go to work, but we got to sleep in and hang out. After some more Olympic watching, we called up some more boys and went to the church to play basketball, dodgeball, football, more basketball and eat doughnuts. Actually, that’s where I typed this blog post on my new laptop! It's taking me forever to add the pictures, and I’m sure there’s more to update but I’ve rambled long enough.
Life is good. Everyone is healthy. Todd’s home with us. The boys are smart and good. I can’t think of anything else that could make it better. Oh - some sunshine would be nice. And some of these.
He likes heights and Todd didn't have the time this year so it made sense. He recruited Ryan and they got on OK start.
I went out to check on them and started to rethink this plan. They were like 2 monkeys hanging from the edge of the porch roof and standing on the railing! 
They, being directly below the lights, couldn't see what they were doing so I took up the job of guiding/bossing and eventually it all got done. 
When we were building this house I imagined how goregous it was going to be with lights hanging from the roof, gables, porch, lining the driveway and sidewalk. That is just not going to happen. This is enough. Until next year - Tyler says he'll do the whole house up right if I buy the lights.
But this. This is not too bad. Especially when I got 2 teenage boys excited about helping. 
On the other hand, Justin has been planning this costume since last year. He loved an investment company's commercial showing a guy going through his day with his pile of money following him around. Justin immediately decided that that was an awesome idea for a Halloween costume. Unfortunately, we couldn't find affordable play money in time for Halloween 2008. But he reminded me early this year that he still wanted to be a pile of money. So $10 for 1500 pieces of play money + $7 for electrical cable + $4 for spray paint + $3 for glue sticks + free old sheet + free hula hoop + 10 burned fingertips = 
Priceless.
He even won the Most Creative Award at the party! 
