Enjoy Retirement!

Last week we had a little dinner to honor Brett's mother. She has joined the exciting life of retirement.

She has been teaching school for as long as I have know her. She has been teaching junior high which is not a easy age to teach (or to raise). There is a lot of dedication that goes into a school day for a teacher. The extra time and money spent on the kids often goes unappreciated.I tried to have all of her favorites for dinner:

Salad

Shrimp

Relish Tray

I even made her favorite drink . . .Ice Tea with LOTS of lemons

Some homemade rolls (I know she loves them!)

the best part of the whole meal was the Prime Rib. Delicious! I think the whole family enjoyed that part. Even the little girls plates were licked clean. I made homemade horseradish which was Yummy! It turned out to be a fabulous dinner one I was proud of and Brett's mom (and family) enjoyed.

Movie's

I really enjoyed Sherlock Holmes. It was action packed enough and the actors were great! I really like Robert Downey and thought Jude Law did a great job as well. When Brett and I were dating he bought my parents a game "221B Bakers Street" it was a detective game but I didn't realize it had something to do with Sherlock Holmes. Well there you go you learn something new everyday.
The kids and I went and saw this movie a few weeks ago and loved it. I wish I could have the means to change someones life for the better like this lady was able to do. What an amazing women she is. Sandra Bullock did an amazing job and I love her more every time I see one of her movies

Bessie and I are taking a break . . .

Some of you may be asking who the heck is Bessie? Well Bessie has been my sidekick for the last 2 years in Young Women's. She housed my binder, the rolls, scriptures, clipboard and of coarse treats. We talk to her just like a member of the family. . . Bessie move over you fat cow your in the way. OK so we don't talk to anyone else in the family quite like we talk with her. She was a bulky accessory and sometimes she didn't make it out of the car until later in the week, so the kids had to share the back seat with her often. I am sure they will miss her under their feet. Good ole Bessie off to retirement

Our presidency was released from the Young Women's organization today. I just have to say what an amazing experience it was for me. I love the girls and will truly miss being with them every week. They will forever be MY young women!

They just keep growing up!

Madison went and had another birthday. I can not believe how fast she is growing up! all she wanted was a new straightener so that's what she got. Although I really like her hair when she does it curly. She has way better curly hair than I ever have!
She is such a beautiful girl! I am so proud of her.

She had a little party and one of the girls brought over Rock-Band and the girls had a blast. I even gave it a shot. They had a fun night just being together!

It's about time!

I know this may come as a shock but I have never watched Ghost. I read Patrick Swayze's book a few months back in which he talked a lot about Dirty Dancing and Ghost. So I thought maybe it was time I sat down and watched it and lucky for my Santa slipped it into my stocking. Now I know I have seen parts of it but I have never seen it in it's entirety. So one night when no one was home I threw in the movie and turned up the volume and finally watch Ghost!
I have to say it was a good show. It had a little bit of steaminess (the part I have seen before) who would have ever thought clay could be so romantic, it had sadness and humor. I was saddened in the end when he goes to the light . . . It was weird to think now he really has. I really enjoyed Patrick Swayze in the 80's, probably watched Dirty Dancing a gazillion times and never get tired of it. I really enjoyed his book and the learn what an amazing person he was outside of the camera's. It's sad for him to have passed on so soon!

The Season has ended :(

The Goose hunting season has come and gone for the year! I have to say I am somewhat glad! They have gone almost every weekend which means around 2:00 a.m. they get up, get ready and they are out the door. Let me just say they are NOT quiet when they are loading everything up so for that reason I am so grateful the hunt is over! With way to nice of weather, guns freezing up way to often, they did not have as successful of a year as they have experienced in the past which was disappointing for Brett since it was the first time he has been able to take Cole to officially hunt. However the Father/Son time is worth more than anything in the world and those are the times they will remember the most! Cole loves his little dog and has been working all year getting her ready to be a hunter and gatherer. Little Spade learned a lot this year! Next year she will be even better!

Not sure where to start. . .

I have not been very good at updating lately so I will go ahead and try to catch up . . .

Madison had several band and piano performances throughout the month of December. Since she plays the drums we never get to see her (she is always in the back) we had her teacher take a picture of her playing the Timpani (kettle drums). I love that she has talent! We had our annual family Christmas party with my family and we had a special "surprise" show up. It has been a long time since Santa has showed up at our family party, some of the little ones were not to sure about the man in red! Santa had a list and he kept checking it to make sure we were on the "Nice" list. Only one person in the family ended up on the naughty list. Uncle Arden had been a bad boy but Santa told him if he tried harder maybe he could make it on the other list?
Exchanging of the gifts. . . there is always so much chaos it's hard to see what's being exchanged when there is 40 people in one area! However, it is always the best and most exciting part of the evening! We had our annual work party also.
Always so much fun to exchange with the ladies we spend most of our day with. It's fun to see how creative we can get. I love working with these ladies!

And then it's time for the prime rib dinner with Brett's family. The boys have been hunting so much that we ended up giving them several of their gifts early since they were in need of them . . . pronto they said. Madison got some ECO frogs names Lilly and Leaper. She was super excited since we have put the kibosh to indoor pets. I felt safe with them as pets since they do not EVER come out of their bowl. Good Pets!

And off to the dance performance. Unfortunately the boys missed out on how great Madison did. I love to watch her with the little classes she teaches she is so cute with them!

Christmas Eve. . . always a busy day. We go over the my bosses house every Christmas eve and visit with his family for awhile and take him cinnamon rolls. Then we were off to my sisters for a evening of fun. Ate, played games, watched movies and sang Christmas carols and then had family prayer before we all left.

Had the kids open jammies, Cole's consist of new shorts and t-shirts, Madison's are always a little more stylin'

Christmas Day was wonderful!

I told the kids they had to tell who the present was from and only one could open at a time. I wanted Christmas to last longer than 10 minutes! It worked! I think they got everything the wanted and needed and as always they are very grateful!

There is a picture of the two kind of hugging and I just had to put it in. Not something that happens too often anymore :)

The kids having a blast playing Wii. . . . Cole standing in the snow with his decoys.

We didn't really do anything for New Years. The kids went to the region dance but Cole and Brett left really early the next morning for hunting so he wasn't able to stay for long. This was Madison's first dance and she had a blast!

So there I have caught up and I feel good. Now maybe I will be better and not get so far behind again. Looking forward to 2010 so many exciting things already planned for the year. 4 new babies to join our family will be arriving shortly with the 1st any day now, a nephew getting married, Cole turning 16 . . . and the list goes on and on :)