It's been awhile

Wow, seems like I have fallen off the face of the earth! My goal of updating once a week obviously failed hee, hee! So much has happened in the last month that it feels like months have gone by! First of all, we had Landon's birthday on November 23 and then Coralee's on December 4th. On November 29 I got a kidney stone and ended up in the emergency room because I thought my appendix had burst. Totally freaky experience, I sympathize for anyone who has had one and hope that if you haven't had one, you never experience it! Not fun. My mom flew out here on the 30th to help with Coralee's birthday party, which we holding the next day on Dec. 1, and while in transit my grandfather's horse came back without him during his morning ride. My mom was in Las Vegas when she found out that he was missing and I was in the Urologist's office to find out if I needed to have surgery because of the size of my kidney stone. My mom was going to wait in Vegas until she received word as to what had happened to my grandpa, but instead she decided just to continue on to Denver. While she was in the air and when I had just gotten into the room to actually see the urologist, I received a phone call from my dad telling me that they had found my grandpa and that he did not make it. He had had a masive heart attach.

It was devastating and I felt horrible that my mom was coming to help me when she could have been there. We figured it was best for both us to be together and things worked out just fine. We had Coralee's birthday party the next day, my mom flew home on Dec 2, I had surgery Dec. 3, Coralee's birthday was Dec. 4 (thankgoodness we had a party for her early because I was so sick on her birthday!!), and on Dec. 5 I flew home to Fallon for the funeral which was held on Dec. 8.

Once I returned home, it was on to preparing for Christmas and trying to get caught up from being gone for a week. Christmas came and it was great. It was very laid back and relaxing. The kids were thrilled that Santa came and we had fun putting their toys together and playing on Christmas day. Our favorite part was the yummy steak and crab legs that Steve made for us! A Christmas tradition at our house. Next, we celebrated Braylon's first birthday on December 30th and then brought in the new year with nachos, sparkling cider with toasts that the kids loved (To the Lewis' was the favorite!), by watching Shrek the Third and all falling asleep by 10! Ya, we're quite the party animals! Next it was on to Steve's birthday on January 1 and it was filled with lots of food and football, just the way he likes it. He loves his birthday because there is lots of football to watch and he always has it off from work. The month flew by and here we are at the beginning of 2008! So, I guess I have some good excuses as to why I haven't updated, but I still will start the new year with the resolution to update at least once a week! We'll see how that goes.

Hope this finds you all well and happy. Now I will try and catch up with pics of everything that I wrote about above!

Let it SNOW!

We had our first snow storm some time after Landon's birthday! I can't remember the date, but I did take pictures! Coralee, Landon, and their cousin Jayla had fun going outside and playing in the snow. It took us about 15-20 minutes to get everyone dressed and bundled up and then they only lasted about five minutes outside! Then they were all back inside and I was left with a huge, wet pile of clothes on my floor to dry out and clean up! You have to love playing in the snow! It's funny now that I am a mom I can see what a pain the rump it is to let your kids play in the snow! Thanks mom for always letting us go out in the snow. Don't know how you did it with seven kids!

Landon's Birthday

"Happy birthday to Lanny!"

Landon's birthday was on November 23. We invited Steve's family over to join us for cupcakes and ice cream. It was nice to get everyone together two days in a row, his birthday was the day after Thanksgiving. He got lot's of spiderman stuff. Our favorite gift (basically because the pictures are so cute!!) was the spiderman scooter, helmet, and pads!

He is very into spiderman at the moment. He got the spider man scooter with helmet, elbow and knee pads (from mom and dad), spiderman bike (from Nana and Grandpa), spiderman shirt (from Uncel Dave), spiderman underwear (from Uncle Dave), spiderman action figures (from Coralee and Braylon), clothes and a gun that shoots balls (from his aunt Karla, Uncle Ivan, and family), a robot (from his cousin Zachary), a cowboy hat and cowboy boots (from Grandpa and Grandpa Sorensen), and Shrek the Third. It was quite the birthday. We decorated the table with a spiderman tablecloth and had spiderman masks, cups, plates, napkins, and cupcakes. He was a happy boy and all of the cousins had fun. That was the best part!

It's so much fun now that he is old enough to get excited about his birthday. From the moment he woke up on the day of his birthday he was bouncing off the walls. He kept singing "Happy birthday to Lanny!" He got to go the movies with daddy to see Bee Movie (a birthday tradition at our house) and that helped make the time go by, but making him wait until the evening to open up his presents was torcher! He was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. We did give him a couple throughout the day to lessen the agony! It was a great birthday! Thank you to everyone who gave him presents and attended the party, we loved being with you all.