I'm a Minivan Mom

I'm so not ready for this, but it happens to the best of us. (No offense to those of you who own a minivan) I recently acquired a minivan to replace my car I totaled. I LOVED my car and I didn't want anything but one just like it , however with the money the insurance paid out and what we have saved this van just fit the bill. So I now am in the minivan club. I do have to say that getting kids in and out all the time is much better , I have much more room to haul my month's supply of groceries, and the gas mileage is the same as my car was. I just really liked my car. It was a part of all my travels for nine years and I was sad to see it go. I will get used to the longer vehicle to drive I suppose. But at least I do have a vehicle now. Cory was none to thrilled that I had to use his white work truck for my "car" these past few weeks. I think he was going through withdrawals :)

Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve day Sadie, Lexi and I made chocolate chip cookies to put out for Santa. Sadie decided that he needed a drink too, but wasn't up for putting out a glass of milk. She thought Santa needed a pop, but couldn't decide if Santa was a Pepsi drinker, or a Mountain Dew drinker. I told her to put out one of each and see what he drinks. Well we found out Santa drinks both but prefers Pepsi because it was all gone and the Mountain Dew was only half gone. (That tells you which of Santa's helpers stayed up the most doing all the work! Me!)




We have a tradition that we get new jammies for Christmas and this year I decided to make them. The girls got to pick out the material, which wasn't pink and purple flowers much to Cory's surprise! They settled for a giraffe print that we could all wear and we all wore our matching jammies. It was fun. The girls had a great time opening gifts from us and Santa who spoiled our children this year :) We then had our tradition of Sourdough Pancakes for breakfast with Buttermilk syrup (they are so yummy, if I can figure out how to put the attachment on here, I'll put the recipe up). We then went over to Cory's parents house for their part of Christmas. The girls were spoiled there as well, even more so. Haylee got a Bumbo seat which I personally was VERY GRATEFUL for. Sadie and Lexi each got a dump truck to play in our future sandbox. Cory got some for Christmas when we were first married so now we have our own fleet of dump trucks! Hee Hee! We traveled down to Rigby to see my family a few days later and got to do it all over again! We were very blessed this past year and are eternally grateful for the abundance of blessings and family in our lives. Merry Christmas to all-

A day to remember: Sadie's Birthday

There are a lot of events to catch up on so I will try to break it up a bit. December 16th was Sadie's 5th birthday. The day started out as a trip to Salmon for Haylee's four month shots and running errands. As we headed away from the District Health Department, Sadie was talking to me about her party that night and asking me questions about the details. I looked up in the mirror to look at her and smile without noticing the stop sign in front of us. We collided with another vehicle and thus ended our carefully planned day. Nobody was seriously injured, Sadie got the worst of it with a bruised up eye.

I was sore from whiplash but we were really lucky. The other two girls were just scared. My car was totaled and we had to wait for 90 minutes in the laundromat before Cory could come get us and take us all home. We were very blessed and I am humbled to think what could have happened if we weren't all wearing our seat belts.

Sadie still wanted to party when we got home. So the guests arrived and we had a great time. Her friends Brooke and Jordan came with their mom, the Herbsts, Whittakers and of course the Birds were all there. She requested a Barbie cake which I was planning to do when we came home from town but because of the events of the day, I ended up with only an hour to do it in.

Sadie was pretty shaken up over the accident, I think the party helped her put it out of her mind though. Opening presents was a major highlight along with the toys, clothes and candy she got. She will always remember this birthday for good and bad I guess. But the day turned out enjoyable for us all.

Lies, Lies, Lies

I cannot believe what a liar parents become! You have to of course to make the whole Santa thing work but it doesn't help my telling more lies to cover up my misfortunes. I did so bad this year with the whole Santa thing. Sadie has seen three presents this year somehow, (not all hers) but asked questions and I stink at covering it up. Now all those gifts she saw will have to be from Mom and Dad insted of Santa or she may just get suspicious. She seems to have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time for me. Oh well, I guess ithis whole Santa thing comes with a learning curve right!

I'm Freezing!!!

Okay literally I am freezing. This whole week the weatherman had said "Tonight will be the coldest night this week" and that was on Sunday! I always check the temperature when I get up at four in the morning to feed Haylee and I was surprised on Monday morning when it read -11 degrees. I was shocked to see -14 degrees on Tuesday morning. I was appalled to see -18 degrees Wednesday morning. I was absolutely floored to see -24 degrees this morning! My kids are crazy because they haven't been outside much and we are going through soooo much wood for the wood stove. I hauled in wood just now and it is already - 4 degrees at 5:30 p.m. My hands about froze just touching the wood even through my gloves. I heard that winter was here, but I think Jack Frost is out for vengeance this time around!