We LOVE the Nelsons!

Yea!!! The Nelsons made it down for a visit this last weekend, thanks to good timing on weather and healthy bodies (FINALLY).  My family has been DYING to see them since they had to cancel their visit over New Year's due to sickies.  You'd think my family had all died and gone to heaven.  We had LOTS of snow to play in.  The boys cross country skied, wrestled (yes, even Shaun and Mike), and Megan and Emma did some baking (YUM! thank you ladies). 



We also did a couple days of Zumba (SO fun and CHALLENGING with fraline as your instructor)!  We got them hooked on our latest kick, Merlin (BBC).  On Saturday, we got to celebrate Emma's 14th b-day (happy b-day today "M") and had a blast with Cosmic Bowling.  And yes, Mike and Nate, though I was letting you start to feel a little cocky in the last round before they turned everything off, the challenge for next year remains.  I think it should be men vs ladies (combined average score), and whoever loses buys the Artic Circle shakes from now on??  A little motivation can't hurt right?

The ONLY complaint I have about the whole weekend was that it went WAY too fast.  Today I am so lonely and blah!  I had to console the kids in knowing that it will only be 3 months until they come again for EFY, and then one more month after that until the Wardell Family Reunion on the Big Horns.  That seemed to calm them all a bit.  I did not, however, brag at the time that Shaun and I will get to see Mike and Suzanne before all that for a little sunny get-a-way in Las Vegas!  Can't wait!!! 

Thanks Nelson's for a GREAT weekend!  We ADORE you all!!

She's a good girl that one!

WOW!  I was so impressed when I woke up from my Sunday nap to this!!  It looks just like the picture!  I was even more impressed when I ate it...and ate some more, and more and more of it.  It is SO YUMMY!  Megan had watched it made on America's Test Kitchen on Friday, so we printed out the recipe for her cookbook.  She always hates it when you have to watch them eat it after it's made and they moan and groan about how good it is.  Today she said she was still craving something after dinner so I mentioned, hey, you should make Monkey Bread.  It is an ALL from scratch recipe too, no mixes of any kind.  So, I can't tell you how pleased for her I was when I walked out to the smell of cinnamon bread and saw her amazing creation...all on her own too.

Her brothers were equally impressed...especially if the amount of moaning and groaning is any indicator of satisfaction.  Callen said to her, "I want this for my birthday, and YOU'RE making it!"  I'm not going to object to that!  The only problem I can foresee is this is another one of those things I really should altogether avoid because I don't want to stop.  Yeah, it's that good.  WAY TO GO MEGAN!!

HELP! They're Everywhere, They're Everywhere!

Okay, I have enough fevering, hacking, boogers and puking to make a sane mama cry!  For the last three weeks now we've had sickies, and they're not just taking turns.  My favorite was last week when I had Seth home for two days with a sore throat and fever, Callen home with an upset stomach for three days, and even Shaun home with a fever and cough!  Shaun fevered for FOUR DAYS on medication.  In fact, all those that were on meds for fevers still had fevers.  Seth took a break over the weekend and started with round two on Sunday trading his sore throat in for a cough, and continued with a fever of 104.5* on Monday.  SCARY!  And yes, Valentines Day was very romantic with Shaun fevering and hacking!  Very memorable.

Megan and I were the only ones that were holding out until Sunday morning...and then Megan caved in to the dark side.  I'm the sole survivor to date.  I feel like I'm drowning in germs!  I'm just hoping my old bod holds out until the air clears.  Our whole valley is infested right now.  There were 25% of the high school students home sick today, and about another 25% that should have stayed home according to my friend/neighbor/teacher.  We're all just hoping this long weekend gives everyone in the valley time to get better and QUIT SHARING!  This mama's all worn out!

Speaking of love...Looking back to Alaska.

This last August Shaun and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary by going on an Alaskan Cruise.  We went with our buddies (Shaun's sister and her husband) Marilee and Mike Tueller.  It was their 20th wedding anniversary. It was WONDERFUL!!  We LOVED it!  I thought I would share a few pictures so you could get a taste of how great it was.  It is so hard to pick...but I would like you to notice how happy and peaceful we look.  We would highly recommend it to anyone.

This is the four of us in Ketchikan on the boardwalk where there were millions of Salmon.

 

                            

YUM!!  But my favorite food on the ship were their varities of bread...including bread pudding.  They had wonderful food and I really enjoyed eating it all without having to plan it, cook it, or clean it up.  The most stressful part was choosing WHAT to pick.

We would always come back to a new "towel critter" in our room made by housekeeping.  I loved not having to make my own bed! I'm a simple woman, what can I say.

 This is one of the most beautiful places on earth, Butchart Gardens in Victoria.  The pictures did not do it justice.  This was only one part, the sunken garden.  I would LOVE to go back some day.

                                         This is our beautiful ship, the Rotterdam.

Coming into our first port, Juneau.  It was a untypically sunshiny day there.  We went whale watching and got to see a humpback whale that breached multiple times for us.  The guide told us it was not normal behavior in their feeding grounds.  We were so happy.  It was AMAZING!

Hubbard Glacier...we were told on the way out to it we would probably not get to go very close, BUT DID!  We got to see and hear it calving.  It was so cool...literally.

             This was one of out two formal nights.  It was fun to get all dressed up. 

It was a trip we will never forget and we had such a great time with Mike and Marilee!  I won't bore you with anymore pics or details (although you know how I could really go on and on).  WE would HIGHLY recommend it to all.

Another one bites the dust!

Well, I've finally reached the big 4-0!  Can I really be that old all ready?  I still think we should determine age off of mental status, don't you agree?  Though I wouldn't want anyone taking away my driver's license, or wonder how in the world I've got 4 children.  Never mind!  You know, it's not as painful as every one's made it out to be though.  I was expecting more to tell you the truth after all the hype.  I will pass on a bit of advice to all of you youngsters who are only gazing upon the 40's still.  Milk it for all it's worth.  Let's face it, birthdays in general are not that exciting any more, but I did find that since everyone feels extra bad for you for some reason, they also go out of their way to be extra nice when you turn 40.  I had a day that my children didn't fight and were happy all day, a birthday dinner from my honey and delicious cake made by Megan, and a look of love in every eye that was edged with a touch of elderly concern. . . and I was even gone most of the day.  My family was all extremely kind to me-they're the BEST!  I'm just glad Megan didn't put 40 candles on my cake. . . I about passed out blowing out the few there were!

Megan's cake was SCRUM-DILLY-UMPTIOUS!!  (Unfortunately for my rear-end, I couldn't get enough of it! DARN!)

Ry-Man Superstar!

Ryan is playing little league basketball this year.  It has been so fun the watch him and all his little teammates.  It's amazing how quick the small frys pick up on the sport.  Ryan is quite the little hustler.  He was feeling bad about some of his skill ability so I had to remind him that he was playing to learn.  The skills will come as he works at it, but being a hustler is harder to teach, coaches always love the guys that hustle.  He was thrilled the last game to make a basket.  Callen has even been getting to go to his practices to help even up the numbers for scrimaging.  He's been loving it too.

Vermin...that's right, two of them.

Okay, you're right, this is just wrong!  I couldn't believe it when we allowed Megan to get a rat last spring...and like vermin do, they've multiplied.  Callen has been wanting a pet for a long time.  We keep reminding  him that we already have a dog, Chewy, but he wanted one to call his very own to love and to care for.  Megan got "Squeakers" from her science teacher for $2 (cheap pet).  She insisted that she had bonded with the rat and needed to save it from being snake food.  I was not easily swayed, but you can see who holds the power around here...not me.  Callen has the same teacher this year and so began the pleading.  We told him that if he would get an A in Science that he would be able to get a rat.  After his grade school science grades we felt fairly safe.  Little did we know that Callen's totalling clicked with middle school work and has had straight A's in everything.  So, after Christmas, with a big smile on my face, we welcomed home "Whiskers", also saved from some very nasty snakes.  I've officially cracked.  Shaun and I decided we should have made the requirement of A's throughout the school year instead.  That was way too easy for him.

So, the moral of the story is...be careful what you let into the house, things tend to multiply.  We started with a dog and now we have a beta fish and two rats.

Seth's 7th B-day!

          My BABY is now 7 years old.  It is hard for me to believe.  He's my New Year's Eve (not so much now) baby.  We went to our local pizza place, Studebaker's for lunch.  Seth decided right then that it was the best birthday EVER!  Callen got cross country skis for Christmas this year, and so he and Seth were both ecstatic when Seth got cross country skis for his birthday.  SNOW BUDDIES!  They went out for a couple of hours that afternoon and had a blast out in the 1 foot of freah snow in the back field.  Then, New Year's day, Ryan and Megan got in on the action and they all took turns going out in pairs.  The skis did not get a rest the entire day.  It was so fun to see them out puttering around.  It's so nice that they just go right out in our back yard and can be entertained for the entire day.  Brings me great joy!!  Now I need to scout out a pair for me!

                                                            Seth showing off his new skills.

                                                              Callen-my cute poser boy!

CAN IT REALLY BE?

Yes, I finally made it into the high speed world!  I can tell you already I will be wasting way too much time trying to figure out how to do all of this.  For those of you who have gone before, you might have an idea of how long it took me to just decide what I wanted things to look like, and that's without all the extra sights to search through! 

All I know it that I have loved being able to SEE and read about what's going on in everyone else's lives.  It makes me feel close to those of you that I don't get to be with as often as I'd like.  I guess I just want you to be a part of my life as much as I feel like I get to be a part of yours. . . reciprocal sharing.  Trust me, when you think your just wasting your time and nobody cares, you can know I appreciate all of your efforts.  I just hope I can figure out how to get a picture on here now!