Christmas card photo contest

Would any of these make a good Chrismas card? Please vote for your favorite.

number 1

number 2

number 3

number 4

number 5

number 6 - keep trying for a better picture

The winner is number 3 and will be arriving to you by mail, if I have your address. Thank you for voting!

I am thankful for my children..........usually.

We went to my mom's on Thanksgiving. But before we did I took Audi to urgent care. She had been coughing for a couple weeks and that morning she was throwing up. I thought it was an asthma attach. It wasn't. She has upper respiratory congestion and apparently an ear infection. So she was well medicated before going to mom's. Gabby's eyes got red and itchy, but other than that well all did pretty good. Juan was taught how to throw stuffed animals off the catwalk in the loft. Audi kept asking where all the other children were. And great Grammy had fun watching the chaos that children create. I did very little. Mom and Brydie did the clean-up and played with the kids. It was quite relaxing for me.

I don't remember why Audi was upset here. I thought it was cute that Juan had his arms on the counter like everybody else.

This jar is full of lady bugs. They come into mom's house by the hundreds to keep warm. They die from lack of food and mom sweeps up the little body's. They girls had a great time finding them. They wanted to bring them home but we couldn't since the bird is allergic. We let them go outside. I am sure they will make their way back into mom's house.

And for this I am thankful.

Knitting hats

I have done a little more knitting. Here are two of the hats that I have done. I am finishing a yellow duck hat for Audi. I need some orange yarn for the bill. Right now we call it the "yellow frog hat". Gabby wants a camel hat. Any ideas on how to do that?

This is the green frog hat. I think I did pretty good considering I made it up as I went.

How do you get syrup off a bird?

The answer is warm water. Lots of warm water. Like hold the bird under a stream of warm water in the bathroom sink and soak him to the bone and rub him until the sticky is gone. Now you may be wondering why I have the knowledge of "how to get syrup off a bird". Well, I have four kids and a husband that does not pay attention to said kids while babysitting. (Can a parent babysit their own children? Hmmm...that is a question for another day) So anyway, at least two little heads got together and syrup was brought into the living room and syrup was poured onto the birds back. The next natural question is "WHY!?". Well nobody seems to be able to answer that question. This is the mind of a six year old we are talking about. And it is even worse when two or more six year old brains get together unsupervised. The strangest thing is that when I called the Bird Store to ask them how to remove the syrup from the bird, they did not seem surprised at my questioning. Kinda like it was a question they heard everyday. So now we are all a little wiser.

Juan enjoyed holding the bird until Nibbles bit his ear.

Josie is doing better with the bird. Well, that was until the syrup incident. Now she is grounded from the bird. (Along with Audi, big surprise)

Full weekend

After the bird purchase (see below), we met up with Tom and Joy and family for dinner at Bandana's. We invited Carly to sleep over. The girls were up until around 1:00 am. Then Chino showed up unexpectedly around 5:00 am from Iowa. Then the kids were up at 8:00 am. So you can guess how much sleep I got. I don't think Juan got too much sleep either, considering he slept under the girls bed. We had a great time playing outside on Sunday. Riding the little cars, swinging, riding scooters and climbing trees. Gabby actually was the one climbing. Which she does often. She did wear tennis shoes for a change, but she wore a silky dress as usually. Juan climbed a little. He wanted me to put him up high with Gabby! I don't have children, I have monkeys!

Then after Carly left Abuelo showed up and Tia China with family. We had a little BBQ/wiener roast. Our fire pit has really come in handy. The kids crashed hard and fast when they went to bed!

Welcome a new family member!

We have a pet! (again) I hope this one does not turn out like the frogs. This one was a lot more expensive than frogs. Gabby is beside herself. She has been asking for a bird. So I told her to get a book from the library at school to study about them. Then I took them to the bird store to look at them and planned to just start introducing them to some to see how they would handle one. I kept saying "We are not buying today, we are just looking". Then we came home with Mr. Nibbles. I was as surprised as anyone! Gabby does very well with him/her. I keep reminding her that it is a family pet. Although everyone pretty much considers her to be Gabby's bird. Audi will hold her and pet her a little. Josie will pet her. And Juan could really care less. I think Josie will come around eventually. She has already showed a lot of progress. So welcome Mr. Nibbles to the family. May he/she live a long happy life!

Hay ride and so much more!

Each year Aunt Cathy has a Halloween Party. This year it was the day after Halloween. There is a bon fire for roasting hot dogs and marsh mellows and other food like chili, cheese dip, meat balls, cocoa and desserts. This year was so great and the weather could not have been better.

My cousin really out did herself this year. These costumes are so great, right down to baby Yoda!

Juan did not want his picture taken for some reason. He kept telling me "NO picture" and covering his face. Maybe he is wanted and I just don't know about it.

I don't remember Uncle Don being this much fun when we were kids!

This is the Fort that Uncle Don built. There are two tree houses with a bridge between. There is electricity in one of the tree houses. There is a climbing wall and a slide. The kids love it. It is amazing!

This is on the hay ride. It is a bit blurry. I think my camera was low on batteries.

Happy Halloween!

Do you like my costume? I went to work like this on Thursday. Don't ask me why our company celebrates the day before Halloween but they do. Once I removed the mustache tape I was quite comfortable all day long. I had my pink fuzzy slippers to go along with the look.



Juan is Scooby-Doo. He was not really liking the costume. But he did wear it for trick-or-treating.

Here we are dressed and ready to start. It was such a beautiful night. We didn't even take jackets.

Audi as Sleeping Beauty.

Jonathan as Superman.

Carly as a Vampiras.

Gabby as Belle.

Josie as a High School Musical Cheerleader.

Marianna and Owen were so cute as a Referee and Ballerina.

Some people really got into the decorations. We found this in front of there house. Their garage was a spoke house.