"Golfballing"

The kids got juniors golf set from Justin for Christmas and they were so excited. It was too cold to go golfing for a few days after Christmas but as  soon as we could stand to be outside for longer than 10 minutes we headed over to the Black Mountain Golf Course for their first lesson. They looked so cute walking with their golf bags over their backs and walking hand in hand with Justin. Tanner was so determined to get it right. He lined up his club, checked his stance before every swing. Madisen was a wild child. Stand back when she is taking a swing. Both did very well and enjoyed it. At least until our hands went numb and we headed to the car while Justin finished hitting the balls.

Madisen and Justin are hilarious. They are exactly the same. The way they stand, hold the club and look for how far the ball went. My two peas in a pod!

First you take the graham...

"First you take the graham. You put the chocolate on the graham. Then you take the mallow, you roast the mallow. Then you put the mallo on the chocolate. Last you out the graham on the mallo. And finally you eat. Wanna bite it is really good?"

If you can tell what this is from you will score huge points with Tanner. This is the smores can we got from our super awesome babysitter! The kids loved it!!!

A few highlights from the past year.

I decided to post a few pictures form the past year since a new year is about to begin. I took about 5000 pictures this year so this really is just a sliver of them. A few of my favorites

Swimming with the dolphins in Mexico

Tanner and Madisen playing soccer. I love to watch them play. The pride they take in themselves when they do good at something brings us mothers such joy.

Madisen and Tanner love their Great Grandparents. Madisen was with me while Tanner was camping with Justin when I took this one.
I chose this one because Tanner spent about 30 minutes out in the water helping Madisen to boogie board. He is such a great big brother. 
This is the kids at Grandmas's house on 4th of July. She picked them up and took them to watch the fireworks in Boulder City and then back to her house to light their own. The spent the night and she caught them watching out the window as the last fireworks of the night died down. They fell asleep like this.
Tanner and Justin lighting fireworks in Moapa. Our favorite 4th of July tradition. 
These two of Tanner are so classic him. He is this super skinny but freakishly strong kid. Above he is "posing for the camera" but would never admit that is what he is doing.




Left is the kids on the 4 day Carnival cruise we took in March. It was a spur of the moment trip we booked just a week before boarding. Maybe one of my favorite times this year.


 Madisen falls asleep in he most random positions and places. Below she is sleeping on the hardwood stairs. She had to have been there for at least an hour. And above she is asleep in her bed but at least once a week she falls asleep with her piggy on her face.

Well it's official, I have the best babysitter ever. I have always loved Cassidy. My kids adore her and she is so sweet and I really can't say enough good about her. Last week when it snowed and we had a snow day for school I called her and asked if she would watch my kids all day long on her day off of school. She did. She dropped everything and watched my kids while I delivered baskets to all our customers. It took me 8 hours. When I got home my kids were happy and my house was clean. Then today when I picked her up to watch them while I finished up my holiday shopping she had these in her hand. A bucket for each of the kids full of goodies and a smores kit for the family. Thanks you Cassidy for taking such wonderful care of my kids. We love you!!!

What a wonderful world we live in. When I see something like this I can't help but think about how beautiful heaven must be. If this is what we get here I can't wait to see what is waiting for us in our Celestial home.

These were taken with my camera phone on the way home tonight. Isn't is beautiful. The sunset was gorgeous and even though they are poor quality I thought I would share with you what God's hand can paint in the sky. 

Well Disneyland usually puts me in the holiday spirit. Not this year. We first told our kids that they had to earn it with things like good days at school, making your bed without being old, playing nice together ect. Well to say they didn't earn it is an understatement. Tanner had yellow lights at school 5 our of 7 days prior to leaving, he was teasing Madisen every chance he got and Madisen didn't even come close to keeping her room or the toy room cleaned. BUT Justin is a big huge softy. We took them to school on Wednesday morning and they thought that was it we really weren't going. We picked them up at 12 and headed out to California the long way through Searchlight because they were doing some demolition at state line and it was closed. Mistake number one was going and number two was going through Searchlight which added an extra 90 minutes to our trek there. We got up the next morning and although the weather in Cali was awesome the weather back home was super cold. Justin was on the phone all day long. When we leave our business travels with us in the form of a cell phone which is forwarded from the office to Justin and a laptop which gives us access to the computer in the office. Mistake three leaving when we were headed into the coldest days of the season this year. Justin was on the phone for the whole 7 hours we stayed at the park. We left to get lunch when Madisen, who refused a churro and popcorn earlier in the day tells me her tummy hurts and she feels like she is going to barf. To say the least we headed back to the hotel as fast as possible just in case this really was going to happen. While back in the room Madisen is trying to act like everything is fine so we don't go home says she just is tired and wants a stroller. $5 minutes later we finally decided not to head home but to finish out the day by getting a stroller from Target and feeding ti kids so real food. Not ten seconds passed when we stepped off the elevator into the hotel lobby did my sweet angel stop dead in her tracks and barf all over the tile splattering yuckyness in a ten foot radius. Mistake four actually thinking we could finish out the day and head home in the morning. Tanner and I stayed while Madisen and Dad headed home. She barfed twice in the car. Tanner and I had a great time the next day just the two of us and all his cousins at California adventure and came home later that night.  So never again will we go to Disneyland when it is going to get super cold back home which pretty much rules out December.

Oh the weather is outside is... AWESOME!!!

YES!!! Complain and you shall recieve. Well at least this time. S'Mee posted a blog about the snow that was falling at he desert home and I complained that that was all we wanted. One hour later it was snowing. And it didn't stopped for about 12 hours. When we woke up this morning there was 4-5 inches of snow in our backyard and our work phones were ringing off the hook all day.

We had so much snow that we had a snowball fight and built a snowman and had plenty more left over. Two years ago we woke up and had two inches of snow in our backyard. We built a snowman and that little thing used all our snow. 

Here is the snowman that Tanner, Chris and Justin built for all of us to enjoy. I took cover in the garage claiming that my camera couldn't be in the snow which is true but really I was so cold it was nice to take cover for a minute.

Tonight our sunset was beautiful. The blues were so blue and the clouds white and fluffy. These are true to life pictures. The colors were amazing.  

I knew I had cute kids but I think these pictures of my babies are BEAUTIFUL!! The Cullens don't hold a candle to these too snow babies. (That is the our street as there backround)

Tanner started to make a snow angel and Madisen joined him. Yes they are wearing jackests not coats. The coats are in the dryer from earlier. To say were are illequipt for the snow is a huge understatement. My kids had on fleece gloves and fleece pullovers and that was all we had. I had to dig there coats out of the back of the closet just to go outside.

And we thought this was the only snowman we would have this year! When we got home from Target at 2pm this is what had fallen at stuck to the ground. Little did we know that we would have four inches later that night.


This was taken at 8pm after Justin finally made it home. The kids were so excited and had waited all day long for him to help them build a snowman. I told them I would help but they informed me it was a dad thing and when I shared this with Justin he forbid me from building one anyway are he agreed with them. I was so sad he was at work for most of the day.

Well living in the desert and not having snow plows in town can cause wuite a problem on the roadways. So the school district declared for the first time in 29 years a snow day. Well I got a  phone call from Justin that he needed me to help deliver gift baskets to all of our wonderful customers. With the snow our phones were ringing like crazy and leaving the office was not an option. So I called my super awesome babysitter to see if on her snow day off she wanted to babysit my kids. She agreed and like I said she is super awesome. She took the kids out back and played in the snow and helped them build this really cute snowman. And yes it is still super cold and my son is in a sleeveless shirt. Like father like son!! 

Our little Gingerbread house

These are the lights that are hot glued down to my concrete

Well Pea asked for it. Here is the finished product. Now you have to relized also that the lights on the bushes dance to the music that is playing and we cut down the ginormous tree that was blocking the whole front of the house.  

Hands off Mom! You may only touch the camera.

Tanner and Madisen's own Christmas Tree.

Tanner sat and looked at the lights for about an hour after they were finished.

Decorating and instructing me to keep my hands off the tree and on the camera only.

Sweet little Madisen. She loved the round lights.

Finally I got the kids there own tree. I know that some of you are probably thinking "why wouldn't she want her kids to decorate just on tree together as a family?" Because I am nutty!!! And a control freak!!! Last year I let the kids decorate our big tree and then when they went to bed I fixed it. I moved the ornaments around so they were spaced evenly around the tree instead of in a big lump at there level. It was so pretty when I was done but.... the  next morning the kids came down to look atthe tree and turn on the lights and the flood of tears that followed was rediculous. They cried so hard and sad because I moved their ornaments around on the tree. So this year to avoid the tears and the mental freaking out on my end of an uneven tree they got their own. They got to pick out the lights they wanted at  Target(my favorite store), they hung the lights, and then decorated to their little hearts content. It turned out cute. I do have to admit though I am having a hard time not fixing it.