White Christmas one day late?

Evidently mother nature did not get the memo from my kids asking for a white Christmas until Christmas was over. She did, however, come through with snow. It snowed basically all day yesterday. The boys wanted to go sledding, but we kept telling them not until after it stopped snowing. That did not happen yesterday.

The first thing they asked this morning was can we go sledding? So we took them over to the middle school and let them have fun. As you can see they had a great time.

As you can see Riley got the hang of it quickly and had a blast. He has no fear, he kept laughing all the way down the hill.

When I took this Conner was on his way back up the hill. His dad and auntie kept throwing snow balls at him so he was using his sled as a shield.

Michael even went down the hill a few times. Believe it or not Riley went farther than anybody else. Probably because he is such a light weight.

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and has a safe and happy new year.

Christmas Program

Last week Conner was in the annual Christmas program at school. The entire first grade got together and put on a great show. They are so much fun to watch at this age and the teacher, Mrs. Herring, does a great job with them.





When it was Conner's classes turn to do their thing Conner had a special part. He had a sign that he got to hold up at a few "special" moments. Here he is doing his thing.

Santa Came to Town!!!

Saturday night was the annual Christmas light parade here in SJ.  Even though the wind was blowing really HARD and it was FREEZING we went.  Last year Conner and Josh got to ride in the SRP fire truck.  They decided they wanted to ride again so Grandpa made a few calls and they got their wish.  That left only Riley to brave the wind and cold to collect candy.  We parked in front of the grocery store and waited in the back of my expedition.  The wonderful candy distributors did not make my baby climb out in the cold to get his candy.  They brought the candy to him.  Let me tell you that is the only way to collect candy in the wind and cold. 

After the parade was over we went to Barth Hall and checked out all of the activities the chamber put on.  The boys all decorated a sugar cookie.  Riley and Conner sat and talked to SANTA.  (Josh was tooooo COOL) 

 

Riley told me before we got there he was NOT going to sit on Santa's lap, he wanted to stand next to him to tell him what he wants for Christmas.  When we got to the hall he walked up to Santa and climbed on his lap and then proceeded to list at least 6 things he wants.

 

Conner was a different story he said from the beginning he was going to sit on Santa's lap.  He jumped right on up and listed countless items he wants for Christmas.  Most of which I could not hear because it was loud in the hall.  Hopefully Santa was listening because our Christmas shopping is done.  Yeah!!!  Now I just need to start wrapping it all.  YUCK

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Roasting Marshmallows

Some people roast marshmallows while camping. Not us. We like to roast marshmallows in our backyard. The boys love marshmallows and it was cold outside so we started a fire in the fire pit and roasted marshmallows.

Riley really likes roasting the marshmallows but not eating them after they are roasted. He prefers his marshmallows RAW. Since he likes to roast them the rest of us are FORCED to eat them for him.

Conner has mastered the art of a beautiful golden brown marshmallow. He really likes to eat them and would have stood there all day and eaten them if I let him. He is amazingly patient with his marshmallows.

Josh on the other hand has NO patience. He puts his marshmallow straight into the flame and lights them on fire. He claims he likes them burned but I think he just doesn't want to wait for them to brown so he burns them. After all it is faster. He hasn't figured out that he still gets the same number of marshmallows as his brothers. I can count after all.

We had a great time roasting marshmallows in our backyard. What more can a kid ask for on a cold Sunday afternoon.

COOKIE EXCHANGE??

Ok so this isn't a typical cookie exchange.  I don't want you all to bake cookies and show up at my house.  What I want is new cookie recipes.  I always make the same ones.  Chocolate chip, snicker doodles, caramel bars and carrot/orange cookies. 

Instead of exchanging cookies I want to trade recipes with everyone.  So please post your favorite cookie recipes.  I want all of you to gain your allotted 5 pounds of holiday weight with me. 

Here is my all time favorite cookie recipe. 

CARAMEL BARS

 

I did not have a picture so I took this one off of the web. 

1 ½ Cups flour

1 ½ Cups oatmeal

1 ¼ Cups brown sugar

¾ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

2 ½ sticks melted butter

1 package craft caramels

1 ½ Cups chocolate chips

8 tbsp milk

Mix together all but the last three ingredients. Set aside 1 cup of this mixture for the topping. Press remaining mixture into greased 9 X 13 pan.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

While that is baking mix caramels and milk, melt in microwave stirring frequently.

After the bottom layer is done baking sprinkle it with the chocolate chips, pour on caramel/milk mix, then sprinkle the reserved topping over it all.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Cool COMPLETELY before cutting or the caramel will run all over, or so I've been told.  I would never be in such a hurry to eat one that I would cut into them before they cooled.  I have more self control than that, most of the time.

Now it is your turn to wow me with your cookie recipes.  I want something new and out of the ordinary.  I challenge all of you to surprise me with your recipes. 

Polar Express

We went to the Polar Express the beginning of the month. The boys were excited before we got on the train. Just look at Conner, he can hardly stand it.

They all got dressed up in their PJ's for the train ride, but it was pretty cold so they had to wear their coats with their jammies. After the ride to the north pole Santa got on the train and gave all of the kids a sleigh bell. Conner is sure that Santa gave away all of the bells and won't have any left for his reindeer. It has been a point of discussion in our home for some time now.

Riley and Santa can be friends as long as Riley can sit on mommy's lap. When we got done with the train ride we went back into the hotel lobby and took this family picture in front of the fire they had going. It is probably the closest thing to a family portrait that I will get for a long time.


The boys were hungry after we got done (big surprise) so we went back up to our room and ordered pizza and wings. After that they were off to dream land. They all keep asking when we get to go on another train ride. I have a feeling they will keep asking until Christmas and then hopefully they will find something else to focus on.

Sewer issues

We are currently unable to use our bathrooms and kitchen. This afternoon one of the toilets plugged up, or so I thought. Then, a little while later one of the other toilets plugged up. Then, to my suprise, the bathtubs backed up. I will not give you any of the gross details about what keeps coming up in my bathtubs. Let me just say, I will be filling them with pure bleach for a few days before we will be using them again. We called the city and they came out and tried to unclog the line. Unfortunately, we can't find the clean outs for our house and we have no idea which way the line runs.

Without the use of the kitchen sink I did not cook dinner. The kids and I went to El Camino while Michael went to a planning and zoning meeting. When we got home I tried flushing one of the toilets and it worked. So we flushed another and it to worked. Yeah.

I decided I did not want to take the chance and flood the house, so I took the boys to grandma's to shower. Josh was finishing up taking out the trash, so I told him to come to grandma's when he was done. When he got there he told me that the bathtub in one bathroom was half way full and the toilet in the other was about to over flow.

I ran home to check, and sure enough there was water backing up into the house. Nothing has actually over flowed onto the floor, yet. But I had to take water out of one of the toilets so it did not spill out onto the floor. Yuck.

We have called the city, again and Smoke, the great guy that he is, went to city hall and figured out where our sewer line runs. They are currently working to unclog it. I am hope full that we will be able to flush a toilet again soon. If not we will be doing a lot of walking back and forth to grandma's house to use the facilities.

Some day we will look back at this and laugh right???

Raining eggs?

Has it ever rained eggs in your kitchen? I think that must be what happened in mine today.


Riley and I went out and collected eggs. We found 2 and brought them in the house. I realized the carton in the fridge was already full and searched in the pantry for an empty one. When I found one I dropped it on the kitchen floor. Riley decided to put the eggs in the carton by himself. Lets just say that 2 eggs, 1 carton and 3 year old hands don't work. As you can see one of the eggs did not make it to the carton. Oh well, I needed to clean the kitchen floor again.

Here is a closer look incase you were wondering what a fresh egg really looks like up close and personal. I still can't get over how yellow the yolks are compared to store bought eggs.

Help American Farmers Every Day

Some time ago I was sent a link to this website that is helping raise money for the National FFA organization. I was an active FFA member in high school. All you have to do is visit this website once a day and click on the barn to help out. It only takes a few seconds and benefits a great organization. I added this website to my favorites and I click on the barn every morning. Please take the time to help out.

http://www.helpgrowyoursoup.com/supporting.aspx

PS. Will one of you please tell me how to make this into a click here button instead of having to post the web address/link. I would love to be able to say click here and not have to copy the entire address into the post.

Halloween

This year the Halloween costume parade was back on for the kids. (Thanks Tana) There was an amazing turn out and the kids had a blast. Even Riley walked the three plus blocks. Here are a few pictures of them at the parade.

They all three started out walking together, Clone trooper rex, the UPS man and Superman.

The farther they walked the farther our clone trooper got away from his brothers. He found more than one of his friends and needed to walk with them instead of his brothers.

Josh did a great job helping Riley. He even saved him from falling a few times.

At the end of the parade all of the kids got a candy, which made all the walking worth while. I hope that this parade happens again next year. The kids all seemed to have a great time and it was so fun to see them all dressed up for Halloween.

Carving pumpkins

This year grandma and I took the boys to the pumpkin patch in Snowflake to pick out pumpkins. They all three found a large one to carve for Halloween. We waited until the day before to carve them so they would still look spooky for Halloween. Josh did all the carving on his, Conner did some of the carving on his and I did all the carving for Riley. All three of them helped remove the guts out of their pumpkins. They had a great time and made some really cool jack o lanterns.

Riley was not about to reach in and use his fingers to dig out the pumpkin guts.

Conner on the other hand thought it was the coolest part of carving pumpkins.

Josh stayed focused on that pumpkin longer than I have seen him focus on anything for a long time.

Conner's school has an activity for the kids for Halloween. They ask them all to decorate a pumpkin and bring them in for the weeks before Halloween. This is what Conner decided he wanted for this year. He and I made this together. We could not use pretty white gauze for a Halloween pumpkin mummy so we dyed it with coffee and added some fake blood.

Conner is falling apart

Conner lost his first tooth a few weeks ago. I know I should have posted about it then but I was busy plus I was sick. He came home from school complaining about how bad it hurt. That was either Wednesday or Thursday. Saturday on the way home from the pumpkin patch in Snowflake he had a sucker in his mouth and we went over a bump in the road. He lost his tooth right there in the back seat. He of course couldn't wait to leave it for the tooth fairy. Things sure have changed since I was loosing teeth. He got $15 for one little tooth.

I love my UPS man!!

I am officially in LOVE with my UPS man.

He has got to be the world's cutest UPS man. I know what you are thinking what about Michael. Well he just doesn't stack up to this UPS man. If only UPS could hire all new UPS men like mine I think they would double or triple the amount of packages they deliver. I would order things just to see my UPS man.

I am so in love with this UPS man that this morning I took pictures so I can always remember how cute he looked today in his brown uniform. You know that all women love a man in uniform.

Trust me after you see the pictures you will know what I am talking about. Don't be jealous you to can have a UPS man as cute as mine. Wait what am I saying you can't have a UPS man as cute as mine because mine is the cutest UPS man ever and I AM NOT sharing. Hands off he's mine.

OK, so I am not really in love with the man who delivers packages to my house. I am in love with RILEY. Is he not the cutest UPS man that you have ever seen. He picked out this costume and Auntie Caren found it for him. He has a Halloween party today at preschool so he gets to wear it on 2 days. Don't think that has not made him the happiest boy in our house today. His brothers are a little jealous that he gets to wear his costume today and they don't. I will of course take more pix of the three of them in costumes trick or treating tomorrow but I could not resist taking a picture of Riley this morning. Now I'm sure you can see why I love my UPS man.

AZ STATE FAIR 08

We left home on Tuesday the 14th for State fair in Phoenix. Josh, Riley and I went to my aunt and uncle's house and clipped his 3 lambs and his goat. Wednesday we went to the fair grounds and the fair began. Josh took the same lambs and goat as he showed at our county fair.

Friday the show started with the breeding classes. Miley is a ewe lamb that my parents gave Josh to show. She was in the commercial ewe lamb (girl under 1 year) class. She won the class and then got to compete for the champion commercial ewe. Commercial ewes are not registered ewes, that are used to raise show lambs. Josh and Miley won the champion commercial ewe, they beat out older bigger ewes and showman. Here is a picture of Josh, Miley and the judge.

Next to show was the goat. Let me just say he was not on his best behavior, evidently he did not get the memo and did not realize he was supposed to be a good goat. He did not do well in the market goat show but Josh managed to take the worst behaved goat and place third in the Jr. goat showmanship. For some reason Michael (the official photographer for the weekend) did not take any pictures of Josh showing the stupid goat.

After the goat show was lamb showmanship. Showmanship is about how well the kids show the animals not how good the animals conformation is. Josh showed Miley because she is by far his best behaved lamb. The two of them did great. Miley did exactly what Josh asked her to and the two of them looked great. Josh did everything he needed to and was named the reserve Jr. showman (second out of all the Jr. showman).

Saturday afternoon it was the boys turn to show. Josh started with his southdown. There were only 3 southdowns at the show. But, there was one that weighed in at 140lbs and was shown by an older more experienced showman. As you know it is Josh's first year showing and when we weighed in Downer he was only 116lbs. Josh and Downer held their own and won the southdown class. Downer was the champion southdown market lamb.

Don't let Josh's expression in the picture fool you. He was very happy to do so well he just wasn't happy when I said he had to go in front of the backdrop and take pictures. (I have got to be the meanest parent ever to want pictures.)

Only three classes later it was Rocket's turn to show. Josh and Rocket were in the black face market lamb division. Rocket weighed in at 136lbs which put them in the third out of four classes. Rocket did great for Josh and they won the class. After the fourth class ended they went back to compete for Champion black face market lamb. They won. Rocket was the champion black face market lamb.

Don't they look great together? Once again I was the mean parent and forced Josh to take pictures in front of the backdrop.

After the black face division there were 2 other breeds to show. Once those were done the champions of all 4 breeds (Josh had 2 of the 4) went back to compete for Grand and Reserve Market lamb. The Grand was shown by a young lady from the valley. She did a great job and had a good lamb. The Reserve champion market lamb was shown by JOSH. That's right Josh and Rocket won Reserve Grand champion market lamb (the second best lamb at the state fair).

Notice the great award displayers that we hired for the occasion? They work cheap. We did have to settle the dispute over who would hold the "big" one (the banner) and who would hold the ribbons. Lets just say it took a mom intervention to settle it.

As soon as the show was over for the 4-Hers it was time for the PEEWEE showman to take a crack at it. Peewee is for little ones who can't be in 4-H yet but want to show anyway. Both Conner and Riley have been doing peewee since they were a year old.

Conner is now old enough that he can show without the help of an older 4-H member. See the look of concentration on his face. I can see the time spent watching Ty, Holly and Josh has not been lost on him.

Riley on the other hand still needs help. This is Peyton Frost from Snowflake. She is Riley's new best friend. He usually has Holly help him show. Not this year, everything was all about Peyton. He was going to show the goat but at the LAST minute changed his mind. He told me "mom, I don't want to show this stinkin' goat". So we rushed back to the pen and changed to Downer.

Sunday evening was the Sale of Champions. Josh sold Rocket. Here they are in the sale ring, again notice the hired award displayers.

It was a great show, run by good people. The kids had a great time and can't wait for next year. I for one want a few weeks of sleep before I try this again. The boys and I came home Monday morning. After being at the fair for 5 days, we were all very tired. Riley decided he had had enough and this is what happened.

There is nothing as exciting as driving home from the valley with a tired screaming 3 year old. For those of you who have not yet tried it, you don't know what you are missing. It is an experience all teenagers should have to endure. I am confident it would put an end to teen pregnancy. All in all we had a great time and other than a few minor incidents (melt downs) it was a smooth show.

Feedin' chickens

We bought a dozen chickens at the beginning of the summer. We bought pullets that are all suppose to be hens. Now that they are older we have discovered that some one at the hatchery can't tell the difference between the boy and the girl chickens. We ended up with 3 roosters out of 12 chicks. Not a great success story for the guys doing the sorting.

Riley has decided that it is his job to throw out the scratch to them every morning. He is great at it and the chickens have figured out that when the cute little boy heads towards the shed it means breakfast. It is quite a site to watch them all run across the backyard after him.

Picture 11 chickens (we lost one when it went over the fence and met the dogs) running as fast as they can after one 3 year old little boy. I would like everyone to take notice of the custom feed scoop that he uses to measure scratch for "his" chickens. We like to recycle what we can around here.

My new Favorite website

I am now and always have been a sucker for a good love story. Thanks to a link on another blog I found this website. http://thepioneerwoman.com/ If you want to read a good love story, make sure you have a few hours (nap time always works well) and get started. I must warn you that I sat in my pj's until 11AM yesterday reading this story. Once I started I could not stop and now I can't wait for the next chapter. Like I said make sure you have a few hours. I hope you enjoy this woman's outlook on life and helpful tips as much as I do. I have not checked out everything she has on the website but I am truly enjoying reading what she has to say.

Fat foot

Michael played basketball with some friends Tuesday night. As you can see he had a little problem with his ankle. We spent most of the day Wednesday at the doctor's office and getting x-rays. They tell us it is just a sprain and he should be fine after it heals. It is not a shade of purple that I wanted to see on my husband.

SOCCER

Soccer has started!! Yeah! Conner is on the KILLER BEES this year. They have had 2 games. Conner got to play goally for the second quarter of the second game. He was an awesome goally. He stopped 4 goals (or more I lost count with all the action.) We are so proud of him he did great.

Riley starts preschool!

Riley started preschool last week. Can you believe he is old enough? I can't. Where did my baby go? Who took him and turned him into a big boy over night? He is loving preschool and mommy is loving having a few hours a week ALONE! (that's right 4 whole hours)

County Fair 08

As most of you know I was very involved in 4-H as a kid and am now involved as a volunteer. Josh is showing for the first time this year. He has 3 lambs, 1 goat and 1 pig. He and I have worked very hard with all of his animals this year. He finally got to put all of the hard work to good use last week at the Apache County fair.

He showed "Annabelle" his pig Thursday morning. She would not eat enough to make it past the minimum weight so he did not get to show in the market class, but he did do showmanship and placed second in his class. After the pig show he showed "Brownie" his goat. Brownie was the CHAMPION MARKET GOAT!! Then Josh showed in the goat showmanship. Josh was the CHAMPION JR. GOAT SHOWMAN!! Yeah Josh!!! Yeah Brownie!!!

Friday after the steer show Josh showed 2 of his 3 lambs. He showed "Miley" first and placed second in the light weight market lamb class with her. Then he showed "Rocket" in the middle weight market lamb class. Rocket was first in the class and then was the CHAMPION MARKET LAMB!!! Then Josh took Miley into the JR lamb showmanship class. Josh was the CHAMPION JR MARKET LAMB SHOWMAN!!! Yeah Josh!!! Yeah Rocket!!!

It was by no means the end of the show. Conner got his turn next. He showed Miley in the Pee Wee showmanship. Pee Wee is for younger brothers and sisters who can't be in 4-H yet. Conner showed Miley without any help from Josh. Yeah Conner!!!

Riley had been telling us all week that he was going to show Brownie but when it was time to show he did not want to. I think he was to busy playing with one of the little girls at the fair.

For those of you that live in the Valley all three of the boys will be showing at the Arizona State Fair in October. Let me know if you want more details.

Love Megan

In June we went with Michael's family to a cabin in Munds park (outside Flagstaff). We had a great time! The boys really enjoyed the "FIESTA" birthday party for Grandpa Randy especially the pinatas.