Big Toys

So now we're the proud owners of a four-wheeler, a Honda 400 something. We've had 3 beautiful weekends in a row, so we gotten to play with our new toy. Blaine bought it 3 weeks ago and we took it to the Canadian river on Saturday the day after we bought it. Oops! We weren't really prepared and Blaine got pulled over by the game warden for not having a off-roading sticker, riding without a helmet, and riding with a passenger on a single four wheeler. He was is luck though because he went to school with the guy and he let him leave with a warning. So we bought a helmet and a sticker and have checked out the rules and haven't had anymore run ins with the law. We had a great time down at Lake McClellan last Friday. We even saw a porcupine high up in a tree when we were leaving.

Cooped Up in the House?

Eat lots of Popsicles

wear pajamas all day

paint your fingernails

make paper dragons

suck on fingers, while watching movies, reading books, and twirling your hair

(I blame Ava for getting us sick because she sucks on her fingers. Blaine blames me for letting her suck her fingers? Or maybe she's helping us build up our immune systems and I should thank her? Whatever, I could still squeeze her to death, she's so sweet!)

"Mama, watch!" swinging a rubber mouse around by its tail

try dipping chips in hot sauce that's perched on your ladybug costume your mom put on backwards

We've spent most of this winter in the house. WHY? Because one or all of us have been sick since the week before Halloween. I think back, and I don't believe I'm lying when I say we haven't had a solid week with everyone well since the week before Halloween. Strep Throat, colds, coughs and more coughs (that's me), two different stomach viruses, fevers, and finally last week we all had influenza B. So what do you do? You watch lots of movies, play lots of dress up, and you cancel lots of plans, but most of the time we still had fun! Also, it's a great time to potty train.

Mad Scientists

We received some steaks packed in dry ice, so we experimented with it. Alyssa and Ava enjoyed pouring hot water on it and making volcanoes for a couple of hours. Ashlyn had fun too, but she didn't keep at it as long.

"The Best Christmas Ever" according to Alyssa

Trying out their new skates on Christmas afternoon

Alyssa was so worried she wouldn't get skates. She kept asking everyone to go look for skates and buy some before they ran out. I kept telling her there weren't any at the store and there weren't. I had to order them.

Ashlyn with her new big baby doll from Grandma and Grandpa.

Grammy and Ava enjoying Ava's new biggest pet, a stuffed caterpillar from Berne's family. She gave Blaine her pillow pet and said, "I don't want!" as soon as she found her caterpillar.

Alyssa and Ashlyn got fancy skirts from grandma. They would wear them every day if they had enough clean shirts to match.

Caterpillar or pillow pet?

Ashlyn with her jewelry box. We ordered each girl a jewelry box. Alyssa's Barbie jewelry box ended up not having a ballerina. It just played the music. She was sad, and Ashlyn offered to trade. Then they were both happy.

Alyssa opening the long anticipated roller skates. She couldn't stop squealing. Ashlyn couldn't stop squealing about her pillow pet. Blaine and I had so much fun watching our girls this Christmas. We were excited because they were so excited about their presents.

It's the small things that matter. I think the girls were most excited about getting 2 packs of bubble gum (you know the huge bubble blowing pieces) in their stockings. This is Ava's version of blowing bubbles, sticking her gum out of her mouth and hitting herself in the face to pop it. I think this picture is hilarious because the gum looks like a tongue.

My girls don't get up early on Christmas, yet. It was almost 9 before they rolled out of bed. Then we had to wake Ava up. She was happy when she saw her horse though. For the past month if you asked her what she wanted from Santa, she would say, "horse". After a couple of weeks her answer became kind of forlorn sounding like she had given up hope. This is Ava riding her "horse" with her unicorn pillow pet stuffed underneath probably chewing her 3rd piece of bubble gum in under 30 minutes completely happy!!!

Birthdays and Presents in Pampa

Enlarged portions of my mom's painting

My girls love their little cousin, Morgan.

Alyssa watching her nano bugs. Ashlyn, Alyssa, and Blaine got nano bugs and their "habitat" from my parents.

Ava playing with her remote control car.

We opened presents from my parents on Christmas Eve before we headed back to Amarillo for Christmas Eve at my Mema's. The girls loved their toys.

Ava kicking back

My Dad got a full head of hair for his birthday from Helen and Sam. He also got a new grand baby. And I got a new namesake. Adam and Robin had their first baby girl on the 23rd and named her Emily Noel.

This is a photo of the painting the girls and I did for my mom for Christmas. We call it a fairy tale story picture. I thought it turned out pretty cool.

Thanksgiving Visits

Blaine's brother and family came to visit the week of Thanksgiving. This is us at the Discovery Center playing cowboy and painting faces. We never got to see my family because we ended up getting sick. We sure missed visiting with them.

First Snow

My little tough girl

Ashlyn grabbed a hand full of snow to eat on the way back up.

Snow down the pants, burr.

Friday morning we woke up to this beautiful seen. Clumps of snow looked like feathers falling. We planned ahead this year so we already had sleds. This really was the first good sledding we got to do as a family. Blaine was off work and school wasn't cancelled so we were the first ones out at medi park. Ashlyn had fun but was a little whiny. Alyssa is a trooper. She loved sledding. She giggled each time down and ran back to the top as fast as she could. Ava doesn't like the cold, or sledding, or coats yet, so she rode down once with me then I held her and took pictures.