Trae is my little sioux chef!! He loves to help me in the kitchen. This is the only way we can keep him from opening the oven...we strap him in his high chair and give him oven mitts. When he hears the timer go off he comes running from wherever he is, opens the drawer of oven mitts, gets 2 out and either puts them on and tries to open the oven, or he brings them to me. He's so funny, and handsome, i might add!

This morning was a crazy morning for me. I realized that today is Winni's last Sunday in nursery. Next week will be the new year and she will start attending Primary as a Sunbeam!! When I realized this I looked at Walter and started bawling!! I don't know if I'm ready for my little girl to be a Sunbeam!! I'm excited for her to have more practice sitting still and for her to learn more songs about Jesus, but my baby is growing up!! Next thing you know she is going to be in Preschool!! I think my trouble is the fact that I asked if she could start Sunbeams this year, instead of next. She turns 3 on January 29th, so technically she should be in Sunbeams til next year, but I didn't want her to be almost 4 and still in nursery and then after a year of her and Trae being in nursery together, she leaves him. So, we decided on this arrangement. I just cry over everything! Winni growing up to fast, this baby not coming fast enough! My poor husband, good thing he is sensitive and understanding!!

1 MONTH TO GO!!!

More of our Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We enjoyed a relaxing day and didn't want to get out of our jammies! Well, everyone but Winni. She woke up at 6 AM wanting breakfast. We fed both kids a little and Winni decided she wanted to get dressed. She was so ornery that we got her dressed and put her back to bed. She didn't get up again til we woke her up at 9!! I got a Scentsy warmer, which is like a wickless candle, and Walter got Karaoke Revolution and Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii. We are having fun showing off our "skills," or lack thereof! We also enjoyed phone calls from friends and family all over the world! This Christmas just seemed perfect! We took it easy on the spending and really found the joy of Christmas in just being together as a family!


Winni & me waiting for Santa to come on Christmas Eve. Winni set out cookies and milk for Santa, then she decided he might need a chair to sit in while he enjoys his snack. So, she went and got him one of her little plastic yellow chairs to sit in! If she only knew just how big Santa's backside is these days!!!!


Winni was having fun taking pictures with my camera. Here is her view of Billy, Walter's cousin. No wonder she screams when she sees him! hahahah


Christmas morning! Trae got a tool bench, which Winni loves, and he also got this cool remote control truck!


Walter & Trae


Winni got a Barbie VW Bug, which Trae loves, and a lot of Dora toys.

I got a new camera for Christmas!! yeah!! I'm having so much fun taking pictures and then putting my camera into my purse or pocket so it can travel with me wherever I go. It's fantastic! I feel so free!!!!!!!



Walter and Winni posed for me!



Winni got this wand with her Dora pajamas on Christmas Eve. She calls it her "resto" because on Super Readers one of the girls uses her wand to write words and then she says, "presto!" I'm not sure why my husband is posing with the wand, instead of his tooth in, but either way we got a great picture, which will be a perfect campaign picture someday. I mean, isn't this the type of person you would like to have running our country??




We had so much fun playing "playground" on the wii on Christmas Eve. This is Cora and Garret playing dodgeball, I believe.



Mark, enjoying the perfect snowy evening.



Winni just absolutely loves AJ! Everytime I told her to say cheese, she would pose, then say, "wait a minute, just one second!" She would either run to where AJ was or pull him to where she was to take the picture!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! This is how my brain works on Christmas....all jumbled and confused, but it all works out in the end! :) enjoy!!

Gramps and Nana gave Winni this, uh, headpiece?? for Christmas! Actually, it is a fairy tutu, but Winni has decided it looks better around her head!



It is, again, time for Trae to get a haircut! We made sure to enjoy a few days of mohawks before we cut it all off again!

mmmmmmm......Cinnamon Rolls!!



Julie found this website, www.thepioneerwomancooks.com, she has some great recipes, but the one we love the most is her Cinnamon Roll recipe! It is a little time consuming, but most of the time is spent doing nothing, but they are so worth it! She has a maple frosting that calls for coffee, so we just used cream cheese frosting. OH MY GOODNESS!! They were so good that Kari called me up and cussed at me for making them. Now that's good!!

We always have fun when Gwen comes over to play. We might not have a nice sledding hill, but we still found a way to fall off the sled...



My little beauty queen! I just love this face!! She found out how yummy snow is! She has to taste the snow every time we go outside, then she turns to me and says, "Mmmmm....tasty!"





Gwen attack!!



My cute kids, getting ready for the fun in store for them!

Well, after some colorful comments about my picture I'm guessing I've confused or mislead some of you. Yes, I am pregnant, but not in that picture. And no, I don't look like that anymore. All I can say to those who didn't like or don't approve of my picture is this...

"And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." ~Nelson Mandela

So, with that said, thank you for the kind comments. As for the other comments, just keep them to yourselves! Well, at least I feel better now. Moving right along....


Here is how I really look, today, 8 months pregnant, in all my prenatal glory. With all you experts out there, I'm asking.....Boy or Girl!?!?!

WOW! I am such a slacker!! I have just been enjoying reading other blogs that I haven't had the desire to add to mine! I still think my kids are the cutest and my friends and family are the coolest, I've just been in one of those moods lately where thinking about the positive things in my life would help me forget how uncomfortable this belly is getting and how much I'd rather just stay in bed all day. And who wants to be happy this time of year, really!! OK, I do! So, in an effort to bring myself and my millions of devoted readers some happiness, I will open my front door once again and let you all come in and enjoy the mess we call life!

VIEWER BEWARE!! PICTURES NOT APPROPRIATE FOR YOUNG MISSIONARY EYES!! :)

What better way to get back on the blogging bandwagon than to post a picture of myself, looking my best. Well, except for all the fake body paint and globs of make-up....not to mention the modesty of my attire, but isn't that the nature of the past. We learn from it. So next time, maybe a little less makeup!!! hahaha



I know, it's far from the 13 year old challenge, but dang! I once looked really good!! And that's how I got my hot husband. If he only knew what was in store through the baby years.......

Our first big snow fall! I know it's been like 2 weeks since this snow fall, but my kids are so dang cute! Here they are all wrapped up, getting ready to go play in the snow...


Luckily, this picture doesn't show their feet! I couldn't find Trae's boots, so he got to wear Winni's rain boots, which are pink kitties! He didn't seem to mind too much.



He loved the snow....until he fell over a few times and couldn't keep his gloves on. Poor kid! He lasted a good little while out there, and we've still got the cold to remember his fun by!



Winni could stay in the snow all day long! She absolutely loved it! She realized how much she loves the taste of snow, too! I just had to make sure she ate the fresh stuff...mmmmm yummmm!!!

Well, if I wasn't the coolest person you know already.....

You Are Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"We saved the world. I say we have to party."

What Superheroine Are You?

The weekend after Thanksgiving we had fun putting up Christmas decorations. I decided that this year I would save my sanity and not put out my mother's precious porcelain nativity or anything else that my kids could destroy. We also decided, like last year, that we would put the tree in the port-a-crib so that the ornaments stay on the tree, the tree stays upright, and the gifts stay wrapped. Hopefully it will work as well as it did last year. I "allowed" Walter and the students to decorate the tree and they did a great job. All I had to do was ask them to start over 1 time, when they used only one string of lights for the whole tree. We had a moment of education, and then they went on to do a fantastic job!




Winni got into the holiday spirit and decided she would dress up for this special family tradition.




If only I'd known the new dress code for Christmas decorating was swimsuits and pasty white legs....I could have turned a few heads!




Lastly, Walter got the train out. We decided to do without the train last year since Trae had just become mobile and for some reason we couldn't get the train to work. This year it works great! I only have to superglue it back together every time the kids get a hold of it. But other than that, our holiday decorations, inside, are complete!

HAPPY DECEMBER!! We woke up this morning to lots and lots of snow! It has been snowing all morning and it just keeps coming! It's days like this I wish Walter didn't have drill so we could go sledding or do something fun. Maybe we'll have to venture out by ourselves! Luckily, Julie came over yesterday and we got the crocus' in the ground. Hopefully they will bloom nicely in the spring!


Winni loves satsumas! We recently started buying them when my in-laws were in town because Maddy loves them and can't find them in Georgia. They are like tangerines and clementines, only without seeds! It's perfect! She shoves her thumb through the middle and wears it for a minute, then she turns to me and asks, "Mommy, will you pickle this for me?"