Christmas

Okay, I was planning on having a simple Christmas with not a ton of gifts.  James ended up getting a bonus that he was hoping for, but not really expecting to get.  So, of course, he splurged and instead of buying himself an X-Box w/ Kinect (which he wants really bad, because well he's a guy) he was generous and got extra gifts for the kiddo's.

I got tents for all of the kids which they absolutely love (we gave to them on Christmas Eve).  Then I got baking sets, a t-ball set (for the boys), and a new tea party set (for Eva).  James got them pillow pets and an electric ride on tractor for them all to share.  Can I say score for them and they love everything that they got. 

We had fun visiting with everyone over the weekend!  Thanks for helping our Christmas to be fun and memorable.

Sting Like a Bee!

Okay, I was driving home from picking Ethan up from school today.  It was nice outside so I had the windows down with my hand hanging out windsurfing down the road.  I felt a bug hit my fingers, it was soft and kind of big feeling.  I thought that it was a moth or something, but it wasn't.  It was a bee and it stung me!  Owwwie!  I smashed that bug right off of me! 

If you guys don't know already. . . I have never, ever been stung by a bee before.  Ever. Until today.  It hurt.  Plus, I was for sure that the only reason that I had never ever been stung before is because I just must be allergic to them and the good Lord knew it and didn't want me to die a puffy, swollen death.  Hey, it's been 15 minutes and I'm still alive!  Yay!  My finger does still hurt though.  I am going to have to have Eva kiss it better for me (after I put a band-aid on it of course).  She gives cold kisses and that should help the swelling to go back down.

The boys kept asking me if the bee's bum was still stuck in my finger, but I let them know that I smashed the heck out of it when it stung me and that there was nothing left of it.  After we got home I did find the stinger and bum on my pants and showed it to them.  They were very impressed!f

Peanuts

I know what you are thinking.  Oh hey, it's Mr. Peanut!  Nope.  It is Peanut Man.  Ethan made him.

I have had a bag of peanuts in the pantry for quite awhile now.  The kiddos are always begging to eat them.

But did you know that peanuts (shell on) are a very messy snack.

Today Jacob asked if he could have peanuts for snacks.  I let out a big, long, heavy sigh.  How about after Ethan get's home you guys can have them.  BUT it has to be outside.

When I told them that they could just throw the shells on the ground they got very excited!  It was fun shelling peanuts with them.  While I was out there with them I thought they would be really good warm.  Mmmm.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving this year.  My mom and my sister Stephanie came by.  Between us we still had enough food to feed an army.  We really didn't even touch the appetizers and I may have been the only one who went back for thirds a couple of hours later.  There was so much of it! 

That night James was a good sport and set up the dome tent in the back yard.  The boys and I had a cold night out (James had to work the next day so he stayed inside for his alarm).  Ethan ended up barfing, so about 5am we moved everyone inside.  We will have to try it again next weekend.  (I still haven't cleaned it out)  My knee went out again on Friday, so I am hop along Joe again. 

Very frustrating.  Hopefully it won't last too long.  I have really enjoyed going for walks every morning after I drop Ethan off at school.  And I have finally been able to keep up with the downstairs housework again.

We will be doing our Christmas decorating tonight (if James get's off of work on time) so,  might have some pic's tomorrow.

Lost

Yesterday afternoon I decided to clean the garage.  Ethan was in the house finishing his homework and Jacob and Eva were playing on the driveway.  It got really quiet, I went to check on them, and they were gone!  Oh my gosh. . . . can I say Aaaaaaaaaah!  I looked around the middle part in my street and they were no where to be seen I got Ethan and got in the truck and started driving around.  There were a few people outside of their homes and asked if they had seen them and they said no.  Oh my gosh!  They were very kind and started to help look.  I drove around the park and the streets by it with no luck. I met back up with my neighbors and one of the ladies called the police for me (yes mom, now I know what it feels like).  I left my phone at home so I went back to get it really fast and thought that I would just check with our next door neighbor Toni.  I ring the door bell and it takes her a minute because she has a dog and she is older.  She opens the door and there they are.  Thank the heavens they are safe!  She said that they had been ringing her door bell and she let them in and was feeding them.  She said that she called and left a message.  I asked her to please not let them in if they did it again.  They were probably over there for 15 minutes, but that is definately eternity when you can't find your little ones and horrible thoughts are going through your mind.

If you haven't already, give your kids a hug today.

Toothless!

Ethan has lost his very first tooth!  Not only did he loose his first tooth, but he lost it as well.  It fell out at school and he lost it there.  He was bummed.  He now has another tooth that is loose and is looking forward to loosing that one as well.

Park Play

There is a good sized park right next to Ethan's school.   After we dropped Ethan off to school this morning we hopped on over to the park to play with Jr. (Jacob's friend).   We had a blast!

When it was time to go Jacob hung his head and was sad.

They can't wait to play with Jr. again!

A Very Princess Birthday!

Eva definately had to wear her Halloween costume to her Birthday party.  Thanks to Aunt Steph she got some more bling to add to it! 

We had so much fun and are glad that everyone that could came out to celebrate our little honey's 3rd  birthday!

Halloween Fun!

Ethan (Iron Man)  at his school Halloween Parade.

Jacob just had to be Iron Man too.  His costume is silver and Ethan's is gold.

And last but certainly not least. . . Eva just had to be a fairy princess.  The kids raked in a TON of candy.  They went to 3 count them 3 trunk or treats, snaked candy that we were handing out Sunday, and of course Ethan scored big at school as well. 

 It has been a very sugar coated weekend!

Mmmmm. . . . cake!

I made personal cakes for the kids to decorate.  I used some small glass pyrex bowls.  I tried to find some small cake pans at the store, but the bowls were the only thing that I could find in the size that I was looking for.  They worked great!

The kids had a lot of fun!  They turned out

 really cute and yummy looking.

                                                
                                                    Great job!

Apples

I have been converted to canning.  So far this summer I have canned tomatoes, chillies, pickles, and now I am working on apples.  These beauties are apple pie filling.  I only did one batch which made 7qt jars, but I will be doing more tomorrow.

                                      
       As you can see I still have a ton of apples left.  I think that I might dehydrate some as well.  I haven't decided yet.  I might do spiced apples or some applesauce.  We will see.

Camping Part 2

We went camping again this last weekend and I forgot to take my camera with me.  Eva was sick and kept getting a fever.  She was pretty cranky and would only go to Kallee (her cuz.) or myself.  I think that she did have a lot of fun playing with Kallee.  Everyone seemed to have a fun time.  I am glad to be back to sleep a bit better.  Eva did not sleep very well and kept stealing James' cot.  I don't think that he slept very well either.

Camping

These are the local alien hunters. 

Look at this cool gun that one of the kids brought.  It is carved out of wood.

My kids loved them!

James had fun with all of the games there were to play.  Here he is

playing horse shoes.  Yo, yo, yo, eh. . . yo!

Bob and Isaac getting in on the fun.

Eva just had fun hanging around with Grandpa, Kristi, and Bob.

We all had a fun time!

Camping Trip Here We Come !

We are going camping tonight.  Woo Hoo!  I think the last time we went camping was before Ryan and Brooke tied the knot.  It was during the winter and we froze!  The kids are very excited and are just waiting for Ethan to get out of school.

Butterfly Mania

I have been seeing an awful lot of butterflies lately. . . so, I thought that I would count how many I saw taking Ethan to school today.  I saw 9 on the way to school and a whopping 20 on the way home!   That was fun to see so many.

Super Sleepy Girl

Jacob and Eva don't take naps very often anymore, this is the result.  After 'naptime' (quiet time)

we pick Ethan up from school they watch 1 show before homework time.  Apparently

10 min. into the show was just enough to make my wonder girl konk out.

Goodbye Steve!

My brother Steve left for his mission today.  My kids love him!  I

am sure that the next time that we go over to Grandma Chapman's

house that the kids will forget that he left and ask, "Where's Steve?".

When he get's back Ethan will be almost 9.

Jacob will be about 7.

Little Eva won't be so little anymore, she will be almost 5.

Daddies Girl

Eva sure did miss her daddy and daddy missed his Eva!

Stinkbug Hunters - Last of the NM Pic's

One of my kids favorite activities was going on stinkbug hunts.

Once they found one they would A-Catch it and never want to release it or

B-Scare the crap out of them by following them all over the yard at a

proximity close enough to just almost step on it with each step.

Happy Hunters

View from the front porch facing the Hwy.

More NM Pic's

Powerlines on the side of the road.

All of these not so pretty bushes are sagebrush.  They are 

kind of ugly, but they make the air smell fresh and minty.

After it rains the air smells so sweet and minty.

Ethan said that it smells like chocolate mint and he was right.

The Rio Grande

Wild flowers on the side of the road.

This is looking down on the Rio Grande from the Toas high bridge.

This bridge totaly freaks me out!  Everytime a car goes over it it shakes like

crazy.  I was singing primary songs to myself and praying that it wouldn't

fall and kill me!  It does have a very pretty view down the canyon.

Just Chillin'

The weather in NM was beautiful compared to the scorching

temps back here in Arizona.  If you guessed it already the

building to the left is an outhouse.  You can even still use it

without getting any slivers in your bum.  However, I would use

it with caution because of the creepy crawlies of the eight legged

kind.  The building to the right is the old garage that is now filled

with odds and ends of all sorts.

Here is Steve chillin' wittling away at a branch that he was

attempting to make into a boat, but sadly it split down

the middle.

Here are my kiddos attacking my brother Ryan and his fiance Brooke during

naptime.

Watermelon

When I left to go to NM all of my watermelon's were the size of grapes.

When I got back a week later I found this little baby.

I also found this cantalope.  I thought that this plant was either

a squash plant or another type of watermelon.  Boy was

I suprised to find this! 

 A big Thanks to my neighbor Toni

for watering my plants for me while I was gone so that they

didn't dry up and die!

Carson, NM School House

I love this building.  It is so pretty.  My grandfather, his siblings, and others

helped to build this.

Boom-a-rang

My brother Ryan purchased a boom-a-rang in town and the kids and

my brother Steve are shown in the pasture throwing it around.

Knee Update

So, I went to Urgent Care yesterday to find out what the deal is.  They did x-rays and they said that they think that it is only a sprain.  It can take up to a month to heal.  The x-ray was just of the bones.  To see ligament and such I would need a CT scan.

I am going to cross my fingers and wait a month to see if it is just a sprain.  If it is not healed by then then I will need the CT scan to see what the problem is.  I am hoping that it is not anything more serious than the sprain.

Family History

During our stay in New Mexico some of the Clarkson's (my mother's

cousin's) came to visit my grandmother's home.  They had come

for the reunion in Colorado at the Pope's.  They brought with them

this amazing family tree that spans my generation all the way

back to Adam and Eve.

With the help of many people who did the geneology, she was able to

put all of the information together and her husband made

the family tree on a 32ft x 4ft piece of canvas.

These are my kids helping to roll it back up, but I placed the

pic's to look like it is being unrolled.

The gentleman holding the family tree is the man who made it.

Isn't this just amazing !

She still has some work to do, but when she is finished all

of the information will be submitted to the New Family Seach

site and family members will be able to enter their information

and just print out a book with all of this information, plus it

will include stories from various family members regarding

my families ancestry.