Category: Our Family

For new years eve, Kyle had to work, but the kids and I stayed up late and watched the new movies we got for Christmas and played some games. The kids really loved the Herbie movies, and we played Cooties before anybody fell asleep. Dinah won the game of Cooties and she was SO excited about that. During the next movie after that Chloe and Dinah fell asleep, and when that movie was over we got out the game of Memory so Ethan, Tyra and Jeremy could play a game quietly while I read a book. Kyle came home and we hung out for awhile and about 15 minutes before midnight I decided that I just couldn’t hang on any longer. I was so stinking tired and my head was starting to hurt so I gave up on waiting for the new year and went to bed! Hey I was still awake when the clock struck 12 though (just very close to sleeping). 🙂

So we made it through another year of Kyle working two jobs, and me being the sole parent at home. And I look forward to the new year and hopefully Kyle will be able to quit job #2 before this year is over….

Kyle have been married for NINE years now! And to celebrate, Kyle got a sitter, and took me out to a movie and dinner. However, I’m sure the sitter’s parents must have thought that we were crazy for still wanting to go out despite the storm….

Driving in the snow, by itself is not scary. Driving when there is just snow on the road isn’t so bad either. It’s when that snow turns to ice that things become interesting. Tonight the roads were nothing BUT ice. We went out anyways, and Kyle drove about 20 mph all the way into town. As we were going down Pioneer Crossing we saw another car on the other side of the divider spin out, because they had tried to go around a curve too fast. Luckily there was no one else on that side of the road so there was no car accident. We kept going and were doing fine until we reached a red light on the bridge over the freeway. Kyle tried to stop, but the car just slid. We weren’t going very fast, so we didn’t slide out into the intersection at a fast rate. And our light had JUST turned red so all the cross traffic were already stopped, so we just coasted through the intersection because there was no way to come to a stop a safe distance out of the intersection without just going through it. Crazy. We were about half an hour late to see the new Narnia movie, so we decided to see Tangled since it would have just barely started. It was a very cute movie.

After the movie we talked about where to go to eat and decided to give Texas Roadhouse a try, since it is new in the area and we had never been there before. Let me just say- SO. GOOD. And maybe I’ll just say “YUMM” too. 😛 Their rolls with their cinnamon butter were so yummy. We got the tater skins as an appetizer and those were so yummy too. Kyle had pulled pork and bbq chicken which he enjoyed, and I had ribs. These ribs were so soft and tender that I picked up the bone to eat one and the meat stayed on the plate! The meat had just fallen off the bone when I picked it up. Yummy.

The drive home was slow but uneventful, and I’m SO glad that we made it home safe and sound. 🙂

Happy 9th anniversary.

Liesl came out to spend some time with just us, since she was in town and the kids had a blast playing with her and showing off their new Christmas toys.

Ethan tried on his new cub scout uniform and decided to wear it for awhile. 🙂

Sorry! was a Christmas gift that we got for the family and the kids asked Liesl to teach them how to play it (while I got a chance to clean out the pantry 😉 ) They had LOTS of fun playing, until someone bumped them back to home.

But we all had a great time having Liesl visit and hang out, and it was fun to see her again.

Tonight we went to Granny’s house for Christmas dinner with Kyle’s family. We got there pretty early since Karen hadn’t given us a time and we didn’t want to be late and get there to find her upset that dinner had been ready for awhile and was getting cold. 🙂 But when we got there she was still working on dinner, and Laurel and her family hadn’t got there yet. So while we were waiting for them to arrive Granny had our family open our presents from her. Man! She went overboard! I honestly don’t know everything that she got our kids because everybody opened presents at the same time (we do one present at a time in our house). I do know that Chloe got an Eeyore stuffed animal, Dinah got a Minnie doll, and each of them got some clothing item. It was just crazy. Laurel’s family arrived shortly after we opened presents and Karen continued to work on finishing dinner. I guess between Laurel and Karen there were a couple of other people that had been invited but weren’t coming, and when Laurel asked if it was just going to be us or if someone else was coming, Karen said that someone else WAS coming. She was asked “Who?” and she just said “A friend”. Kyle asked “What’s his name???” We all laughed, but the conversation changed gears at that point.

After awhile, we were still all talking in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Karen, Kyle and Laurel went to answer it. Roine and I stayed in the kitchen talking, and then we hear Laurel SCREAMING “NO WAY! NO WAY! NO WAY! NO WAY!” So Roine and I looked at each other all confused and then we heard Liesl’s voice! Liesl & Ian decided, spur of the moment, to come up for a visit!

The kids were SO excited, and apparently so was Laurel. 😛

Ian had given Liesl a new massive camera so she was taking pictures left and right. So naturally she shared with me. 🙂

When Chloe finished eating her dinner she started to suck her thumb (which is what she does when she is bored), then she decided to multitask:

Here are most of my crazy kids:

Hey look a crazy husband too:

It has been a great evening.

PS: Naturally there are more pictures in the photo gallery. 🙂