If our years were eggs we could fill a carton!

Mike and I celebrated our 12th anniversary today. Looking back over it all I am just amazed at who we have become. We started out as kids and now here we are as adults. I am still rendered speechless when I look at my husband. Thank you for the last half of my life(January will be the anniversary of when we met and this year it be half our lives that we have been together)I know God was looking out for me when he put you in my path. Thank you for always making me laugh. I love you. We celebrated by going to a new Sushi place in Roch that we both love. It is really fun in there and the food is....FANTASTIC.
The Sushi artists creating. You have to love the colors of the place. It was really fun to photograph. They are so nice too. They loved that I was taking pictures.

This is the Christmas Carol roll. It had a bit of spice, perfect for Mike. That sauce in the corner is a hot dipping one.

This is called the Burning Flame roll. It was yummy!!!!! The stuff on top is kind of like a crab salad.

Mike and I both loved this. It is made with Topeka. That is flying fish roe. I love when Sushi rolls have this on the outside. It was made by placing rice on the bottom of a seaweed wrap and then filling it with the roe. Very, very. very good. I wish the color would have come out though. Topeka has a very bright orange vibrant color.

Such a pretty place to eat!

The camera again???Are you kidding. I just want to eat I am so hungry!

Ideas for those hard to shop for celebs in your life...

This first one might be a bit too easy. If you are in need of a gift idea for Plaxico you might consider a nice holster. I am not sure if they make one for sweat pants or not. However, I am sure you can get one with plenty of bling.

Perhaps you are in the market for PE Obama? I am guessing there are not a lot of ashtrays in the white house. Maybe, a few left over from Billy but from the sounds of it his ashtrays were kindly relocated to the Pentagon.

(I was just looking for an ugly ashtray online and I thought this was too funny to pass up)

Then there is our good friend from Illinois???hmm???51 years old and your hair is as dark as night? I wonder if you might want to stock up before being sent away. Just in case, send him a case.

I wonder if any of you have ideas?

My heart is already breaking

Jackson just brought over a bag of Christmas candy for us. Inside was this little note. I can hardly read it without crying. He and Matthew have been such pals over the past 2 1/2 years. I can't imagine life without him living next door. Not to mention how I feel about Luke and Selah. There is also the fact that we love Lucy. I can honestly tell you that I do not know anyone nicer than Missy. OK, and I can't forget how many times I have had to call Brad for medical advice(even veterinary on occasion...my favorite line "Monica, I am a PEOPLE doctor" What am I going to do without you? This note has crushed me! I want to deny that come the melting of the snow you will be gone. There is just no doing that. Merry Christmas Missy, I wish it was not our last one next to you. God Bless!

Forgot one

I had to add this picture of Hannah and her ballerina.

Endangered Moments

I surprised Matthew on Friday by showing up in his class. It was the best! He was so excited to see me and even let me give him a kiss in front of the whole class before I left. I wonder how many more of those moments I will have. I had the chance to eat lunch with him even. Just so you know....school lunch has not changed much! This is the computer lab. Can you even imagine what our kids will be able to do by the time they are our age? They zoomed around on the Internet better than most adults I know.

Visiting always feels like I have 2 kids in class. I love having Matthew and Hannah in the same class.

I played Bingo with the kids after we did the craft. It was really fun.

My job was to help make soldiers with the boys. They are going to see the Nutcracker this week and so they could make a soldier or a ballerina. All the boys made soldiers.

I wanted to show you Matthew's slippers that I send with him on non gym days to make the boots and shoes thing go better.

The class was just getting ready for the spelling test when I showed up. It was really fun to see how Mrs. Olson did this. She is such a great teacher and she is always so kind.

Matthew and Hannah working on a word find before the test.

Christmas questions from Lisa

1.Wrapping paper or gift bags?Wrapping paper, if I have it.

2.Real tree or Artificial?I always swore that I would never get a fake tree when I was a kid. I had one the first year I lived away from home and that was the end. It was the biggest mess ever, not to mention that if fell off the car on the way home. Oh, at the worst intersection in town(Grand and 24th for those of you who know Billings). No more real trees after that.

3.When do you put up the tree?Normally right after Thanksgiving but we put it up early this year. I must say it was nice to have it up on Thanksgiving. It kind of set the tone.

4.When do you take the tree down?Our priest from Utah taught us that your Christmas decorations should stay up until the wise men get there on January 6th. Mike and I really respect that. It is hard some years to leave it up but the holiday really is about Jesus and so we wait for the wise men. We also try to set up are Nativity without the baby Jesus or the wise men. Jesus is set out on Christmas Eve and the wise men start traveling across the room. They get there just in time to be put away(poor guys)

5.Do you like eggnog?Yes! I do. I love eggnog shakes too! My favorite holiday flavor though is Chocolate with candy cane mixed in.

6.Favorite gift received as a child?My dad was remodeling this hotel out in Oregon(someone burned it down before they finished) and he was able to salvage this giant M from the top(Medford Hotel) He had it redone for me. It was painted pink and the M was neon. According to the Hotel people you could see this neon from 5 miles away. I really loved it. Mike and I threw it out when we moved from Utah to here. It was just not practical to haul a 4 foot neon M around the country. Honesty, I had forgotten about it until now, and it makes me a little sad. It was a spot on gift for me.

7.Do you have a nativity scene?I love nativity scenes. See question #2

8.Hardest person to buy for?My father in law. He has everything!

9.Easiest person to buy for?Matthew. Funkies or Pokemon and he is happy!

10.Mail or email Christmas cards?I love mailing cards, I love getting cards. However, there has only been one year that I have been on top of it. When we lived in Utah I had them done at the start of November. I was so organized and I vowed to keep it that way. Then 3 months later we moved cross country again and that was the end of that. UG. Sorry to all of you who are waiting for my card. Maybe I should do Valentine cards..hehe.

11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received?My family for years lumped me into 2 categories. Group one: The girl who needs a coat. I swear for years all I ever got for Christmas was a new coat. I am glad that they will not be reading this because I have always been grateful for any gift I have received. However, I must say that a new winter coat at the end of December was never really exciting. Then when I started College they gave me a new book bag every year. There was that one year my dad gave me this 4 foot tall bottle of vinegar with lemons in it???????He said and I quote “I saw this and though who on earth would ever want that, it is awful, then I bought it for you” I promptly returned it!

12.Favorite Christmas Movie?No thought needed! The Ref!!! I love that movie so much. I also love A Christmas Story.

13.Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?I do not understand people who keep things just because they were a gift. My house would be full of carp if I did. IE….a large bottle of vinegar! I encourage all of you to recycle any gift I give you if it is not what you need. Please, feel free!!! 14.Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?Stuffing!

15.Clear or colored lights on the tree?I love clear lights! One of my greatest memories from my childhood though is laying in bed with the glow from the colored Christmas lights coming through the window. I just loved that. Too bad I don’t put up lights.

16.Favorite Christmas song?I am not a Christmas music girl. I do love the old stuff sung by a choir. I think it is because most of it is so overplayed that by Christmas I am done.

17.Travel at Christmas or stay home?hmm…I love being with Mike’s family at Christmas but I hate traveling so far. We are going to try to travel to Georgia next year and that I am all in for! Warm weather, some place new, and Mike’s grandma! Wonderful!!! This year Mike’s parents are coming to see us and I love that too.

18.Can you name all of Santa's reindeers?Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and the most famous reindeer of course, RUDOLPH!! That is from Lisa’s. I did not even want to try

19.Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?We got to open one at night and then the rest in the morning. We have just kept that tradition.

20.Most annoying thing about this time of year?Commercialism!

21.Favorite thing about this time of year?The lights, and the season of Advent.

22.Favorite ornament, theme, or color?silver shinny things, and my picture ornaments. I love putting the tree up and seeing all of our old memories from past years. I love making new ornaments from this years big events. I still need to do this for this year. I am so glad that Mike’s mom got us started doing this. It makes the tree so much more fun and memorable.

23.What do you want for Christmas this year?I want something personal. My favorite gifts have been a CD Mike made for me with all my favorite songs and a few that reminded him of me. I heart that Matthew made at Kaden’s house for me. Things like that. I am not big on monetary things. I guess anything for my camera is always good though.

24.Who will reply to this the quickest?Jenny might post this on her blog

25.What is your favorite Christmas memory?I think the Christmas that the tree fell off the car. It was also the year Mike and I got engaged(like you Lisa) Mike bought me a jewelry box and he had a fake ring inside it. My ring was being made at a local jewelry store so he had that one inside. I still have it. That was about 14 years ago. This Sunday Mike and I will celebrate our 12th anniversary. In January we will have been together for half our lives. It is amazing how time flies. It seems like only yesterday I was kissing a baby on the head as everyone said “he will be in school before you know it” Now he is in 1st grade and people keep saying “Once they are in 1st grade the time really flies” Honestly, can it go any faster

In Goose hunting world, this is kind of a big deal

Mike got his first banded goose. He was so excited! Many good goose hunters have necklaces with 20 or more of these. It is considered lucky. I think you are just lucky if you get a goose, and he is not alive when you get home. If your goose has a band you have to call an 800# and report the ID number. Then they send you a certificate. Pretty cool stuff.

Heaven called...they want the ice cream back!

I am not really a mint girl. Every once in a while I get a craving for chocolate and peppermint. But not much. Today in my very quick shopping trip to buy any kind of quick food to get us by for the next few days I found this. It is so good. The base for it is White Chocolate ice cream...can't go wrong there. Then it has peppermint and Chocolate bits in it. I just wanted to share how fantastic it is with all of you. Plus, I wanted to photograph it..hehe!

Thanksgiving fun

We played another game of Monopoly, it is so much more fun without the money. Mike actually won for once. I am driving my family nuts with the camera... but how cool are these shots!

We started a new tradition of frying the turkey. Mike has been asking to do this for years now and I was always too chicken(no foul pun intended) He assured me that he knew all the safe things to do from Antelope camp and bought 2 fire extinguishers.

The trickiest part is figuring out the right oil level. We thought we had it right but had to ladle off some hot oil.

This is Dr. Mike injecting the turkey with what he said was 50cc's of butter flavor. The turkey was....AMAZING! Really yummy. We will do that every year. The fat actually seals the turkey so it is not greasy at all. Even all of you health nuts would love it. The best part is that my kitchen was turkey free...well there was now bird in it. So I was able to use the oven for all my things easily.

Yes..that is vinyl stuff on my cupboards. Our house is officially a sign factory.

A que from Jenny

Taking a que from Jenny's blog, here is my list of things I am "Thankful" for. It will be hard for me not to put the mushy things in but I will keep it commercial..:-)

I can't live without

Blogs! Love checking on my favorites every morning!

my new camera...If I would have only known about this side of me years ago, I would be in the Bahamas photographing a wedding right now!

Espresso! My new machine comes today!!!

Good books! You all must read "Not Fade Away"

New 5 Lush gum.

Articles by Rick Reilly, if your husband loves sports and you love mush. These are a must read for any woman.

http://search.espn.go.com/rick-reilly/

white chocolate powder for my espresso

Sushi...I will always miss Nara in Billings:-(

Woot! There is nothing like a good woot off

A hot shower! I thank God(seriously) everyday when I step in. There is nothing better and most people do not even know that it is a luxury.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Even though this list is not serious. We could not live without our friends and family. If you read this blog you are probably part of our lego! Jenny and Shana will get that. Love you all.

Beware, all things in the air!

I finally managed to snap a photo of my two boys all decked out in camo. I think they they look pretty darn cute. Mike is laughing because he and Matthew are so sick of being the object of my latest obsession that they always hide when I start snapping picks. Matthew was trying to hide his face as I was taking these and I lost my mind! Maybe it is the three uninterrupted days at home with him....Thanksgiving break is how long? I should really read that book I just finished again, Not Fade Away. It talked about the blessings of even your child's messes. Well I better go before I waste all my 2+ hours alone.

"Izzy" Bella

Our friends asked us if we could watch this gorgeous blond this weekend and we did not hesitate to say "YES". We love Izzy! She is a huge cuddle bug and has spent most of the time here laying on one of the three of us. She actually spent the whole night sleeping on Mike. Not laying next to him, sleeping on him. She does not like Mike and I to touch. Anytime we are next to each other she has to be in between. Oh, and she is quite the blond. She has no clue what to do about the dog door. We have tried several times to teach her how to use it in all her visits. Now we just know we have to let her out. Honestly, I think she does not like the feel of it on her face. Maybe she is afraid it will mess up her hair. It is quite funny to have two dogs that are crazy about food here. Her and Portis actually got in a yelling match last time she came for a visit. It was rather funny. We all agreed this morning that we don't want her to go home yet. See you next time Izzy!

Greetings from Slug Island

Matthew is home sick from school today. He has had a slight cough and last night his glands were as big and hard as marbles. He looked awful. We decided to keep him home. Today he seems to have found new life. Too bad the rule at our home is that if you are sick you are in bed most of the day. He is up having lunch right now but then it will be back to "Slug Island"...if only moms had it that easy.

FYI: His buddy Kaden is also sick today from the same symptoms. Shana and I are wondering if it is from the House of Bounce???? No matter how clean or new a place is if lots of kids are there ultimately it is a "Germ Party"

Good think I got him these new super soft and comfy PJs yesterday!

My new love

Last year Jenny had asked me to be the photographer for her at Hannah and Carter's birthday party. I had no idea how much fun that would be. Now that I have my new camera I love to volunteer my services out for parties of friends. Granted, I am not a pro and I am still learning. It is very fun to take some stress off of them and make them feel like they have hired someone. These pictures are from Matthew's good friend Kaden's party. I loved being able to do this for Jeremy and Shana. I hope they do not mind that I am posting some of the pictures on my blog. Most of them are of Matthew but I can't resist my favorite one of Huddy!

The party was at the newest place in kid unfriendly Rochester, and although it was very crowded it was fun for the kids. It is called "House of Bounce"

This is Matthew and Jackson boxing it out in the inflatable ring. They loved this. Too bad Missy and I do not have this everyday.
I noticed while taking these pictures that Matthew's curls are finally back. I love his curls. I just feel bad for my poor child that inherited his moms reaction to exercise. Our faces turn red within minutes and we look like we are going to die. When I was in 6th grade I went on a ski trip with my class. The teacher made me go to the ski patrol and lay down because she thought I was so sick. Now I know to give teachers a heads up about Matthew....did I mention we also tend to puke! That has already happened once at school. The problem is that he can't return for 24 hours if he does.

Time for presents. Matthew was so excited about giving this to Kaden.

This is the little boy Mike and I always try to adopt. The problem is we always offer on his good days. We need to offer on a day that he is giving his mom a hard time. How cute is he in this picture! The glove is bigger than him! Recently when we went to the Dells with the Horner's I took Huddy in to get something to eat. He picked out a giant twisty sucker. I thought that was just fine. He is after all the cutest thing in the world...I can't say no to him. Our plan was debunked by the "no fun" league as they flew threw the door asking if it was my first time as a mom!

Thanks for letting me be your photographer Shana and Jeremy! I hope you will have us over soon so I can get some family shots of all of you and that belly!

and I "Quote"

I watched Jay Leno last night and he had Steve from the office on talking about how he and his wife keep a quote diary of the funny thinks that his kids say. I realized that everytime Matthew makes us laugh we think we will remember but never do. I am going to start adding his funny quotes to the blog. Here is his latest one:

While walking into Petsmart the other day a dog was coming out with it's owner. Matthew looked at the dog and then at us and said "I wish I spoke better dog" paused and then said "I speak pretty good owl though" Mike and I almost wet our pants. It was so darn funny. If you see Matthew be sure and ask him to speak some owl for you.

That is my funny quote of the week. I hope you find it as funny as we did.

Matthew learns to blend in

Mike bought Matthew a hunting jacket and pants a few days ago. Fleet farm had them on clearance and Matthew thought it was the best thing he had ever got. He did not want to take it off. It was rather warm though and finally he caved. He went out hunting with Mike on Sunday and the two of them in matching outfits was to much for me to handle. I begged Mike to get pictures but he looked at me like I was asking for them to not kill anything. Seriously, they were adorable. Here is a picture that Mike took of Matt in his whole get up though. I will have to get pictures of the two of them and post it.
Funny side note: They have not been able to dig a pit yet for hiding in so they have to lay on the ground and be quiet and still for about 15 minutes waiting for the geese to circle......um...anyone think Matthew is capable of this? I bet that would be funny to watch.

Indiana Jones and the Candy Crusade

Matthew wanted to be Indian Jones this year. I added a mascara scruff to his face but he HATED it. He threw a fit until I washed it off. Mike took him around the neighborhood to collect his loot. I love the father son bonding that happens every year. It is always the dads taking the kids around and they all get to catch up on sports as the little creatures run from door to door.
Now that Halloween is over, do you think I can take the batteries out of the whip?

I tried to get several pictures of little Lukie but he always shows up as a blur. Luke! Any guesses as to what he was???? Thomas? No...not Thomas!

Jack went as a Knight and he and Matthew took one look at each other and the dueling began! They had a great battle before the crusade. Matt and Jack wondered if the real Indiana Jones had ever fought a knight....I don't remember... how many of them are there now?


Selah! She is so darn cute. I love this picture of her.

The Crusade was a huge success! There was lots of candy to be had. Now I understand why my parents tried so hard to ration it.

This is what happens when a little boy eats too much candy! No...seriously. I must say that having Halloween on a Friday was the best. Maybe it should always be the Friday after the 31st!