Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

We had a very Good Christmas. Colter of course remembered Christmas from last year, so he was excited for Santa to come. We stayed at home here in Bagdad. It's nice not having to pack presents around to others homes, but will did miss our families. I was surprised that Brooklyn got the hang of opening presents. Colter wanted each toy open and assembled before opening the next one. Colter got mostly cars and a couple of books thrown in there. As tradition in my family both kids got new toothbrushes. I think Santa is worried about what all the holiday candy does to teeth. Brooklyn got a babydoll with a stroller. Colter was excited about that. He likes to rock the baby, which he named Shoe shoe. He makes sure she gets her bottle. Nick's not sure he likes the idea of Colter playing with dolls, but I think it's sweet. Nick got a Cabela's Big Game wii game, right now thats all he wants to do. I got a wii fit. I'm inproving my warm indoors skiing skills. We had Christmas dinner with some friends from our ward. It was fun. We played a game A-Z with everyone. (Thanks Chance and Tawna, its a blast.) We ended the day reading The Night Before Christmas. Its been Colter's favorite book lately. We've read it every night for the past 3 weeks. As we kissed Colter good night he asked us if Santa's going to come again that night. We too are surprised at how fast it came and went.

First step to recovery is admitting it

Many of you might not know that we are addicted. My dad came to visit us and it was to hard to hide our addiction from him. He soon found out and became addicted to. So we're coming out to tell everyone. Yes, that's right we are wii addicted. While we were at families houses over Thanksgiving, we became sucked into the fun. The next day Nick and I bought one for ourselves. It's our Christmas present. We're both really bad with waiting for Christmas and ended up opening it before it was even December. So this is how we've been spending our free time. Even Colter loves to play it. Our favorite by far is Guitar Hero.

My dad rocking out on the Guitar.

Colter boxing. He's actually really good and usually gets a KO by the 2nd round.

My dad and Nick playing darts. I think this is better than real darts because you don't end up with holes in the wall.

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. I'm glad that there's a time of the year to think about how you are blessed. I'm very blessed, but I am most thankful for my family and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This year we decided to venture to the land were everything is bigger(even the speeding tickets), yes that's right, Texas. We started our trip on Friday the 21st. First we went to my parents house in Tucson. It's only about 4 hours away. They were crazy, I mean kind enough to watch our dogs for the week. Saturday morning we woke up and hit the road to Nick's cousin's house in Comanche,TX. Its by Abeline. It was our longest day of traveling, 12 hours. Both our kids did great in the car though. While at Annette's we had Thanksgiving dinner early on Sunday. It was at Nick's aunt and uncle's house with all of their kids. It was the first time I've ever had fried turkey, it was good. Nick went deer hunting with his cousin Kenny. Kenny got a deer. We also went to Glenrose to a drive through zoo. Here's some pictures.

Brooklyn watching the Zebras.
Michelle(Nick's Cousin) with her son Grant. Colter had fun with him.

Colter and Grant feeding the Giraffe out of the SUVs sunroof.

The next leg of our journey was another 4 hour car ride to my uncle Mark's house in Houston. It's so pretty there. I'm glad it was winter time(we could have worn short). We got there Wednesday morning. That night Ting(my aunt) made Chinese food, really good Chinese food. Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner. It was really good. It was the first stuffing that I've ever liked. Mark and Ting's two daughters Shandi and Waisha were there along with my cousin Tahila and her husband Jeff and their daughter lilly. Mark and Ting also have a friends son, Micheal, staying with them. He's from Taiwan, and really cool. Shandi's coworker Bola from Nigeria came too.

Picture of Shandi, Micheal, and Ting working on the food.

On Friday Nick and I joined the crowd and went shopping while Mark watched our kids. After that we went to the Houston Zoo. It rained on us a little, but was fun.

Colter and Nick in a Gopher hole.
Ting took us to China town for some authentic Chinese food. I didn't know the name of anything we ate, but it was great. We also got some fruit smoothies with tapioca ball in it, good is all I can say. We played card games(typical for my family) and had a lot of fun. We left Saturday morning and went to San Antonio, 3 hours away.We walked around the Alamo and then went for a horse carriage ride. He told us all about the buildings we say, its was way interesting.

Us in the carriage.

We got back in the car and drove to El Paso. Another 8 hours in the car. We spent the night and left early Sunday morning to make it to Drake's blessing in Benson, AZ. Drake is my sister Summer's new addition. Hes such a mellow baby. Colter loved being with his cousins. Here's a picture of them sitting as best as 8 kids will.

We spent the night there and then headed back to home. Our kids are sure glad to be out of their car seats, they did great. We had a lot of fun and Nick thinks it should be our new Thanksgiving tradition. We want to give a big thanks to those who housed us, fed us, entertained us, and watched our pups.

Midnight Twilight

Last night...or this morning, I went to see Twilight. It was the first midnight showing I've been too. It was great!!!!! There's no other way to say it, well maybe excellent, awesome, fabulous, wonderful, etc. We (Christa, Becky, Sarah, & Sarah) got to the theater extra early to get good seats. We were lucky because we didn't have to wait outside in a line. We spent most of the waiting time, about 2 1/2 hours, sitting in our seats. I have to say that from seeing the trailers I was disapointed in the choice of Edward. He wasn't the way I imagined Edward. I can now see why he was chosen, he was sensational!!! He did soooo good as Edward. I think my favorite was Jasper. He really looked like he was painfully holding his breath. As with any movie made from a book, the book was better. I do have 2 disapointments that it wasn't 2 hours longer and that the second isn't out. So go out and see the movie and if your reading this and haven't read the book, read the book-well all of them and then go see the movie!

Yearbook Yourself

Okay so I was bored. Nick is still gone and I had a million things to do like dishes, laundry, organize. Instead I did this, hope you get a laugh and try it yourself.

1996

1990

1972

1966 This is my favorite, maybe this hair style will come back...

1952

Halloween

We have had a busy Halloween week. Translation-long post.
On Saturday the 25th we went to the Community Carnival. Colter was excited to get to wear his costume. He was Peter Pan and Brooklyn was Tinkerbell. Colter played some games. His favorite was the scat cat. The person would hand you 4 various shoes and you throw them trying to knock cats of a fence. There was also a haunted house. Nick took Colter through and surprisingly Colter didn't cry or have nightmares that night.
Sunday-Ahh, relax.
On Monday we went to the circus. Yes, that's right a circus here in Bagdad Arizona. It was alright. Definitely not a Ringling Brothers...what would you expect from a circus in Bagdad. Our kids loved it. Colter has been trying to juggle all week. Brooklyn learned how to clap. We left half way through because it was 8 and had an hour and a half left. We probably miss some cool stuff, I mean Hannah Montana was singing when we left:) I just didn't think she was 3 and a half feet tall. The ad said there was going to be animals from Madagascar, and I was thinking of all the cool, rare animals that live on the island of Madagascar. Well it was a person in a lion costume from the movie Madagascar. The jugglers were good, except for the 8 or 9 times he would drop it. Nick now wants our kids to see a real circus.
On Tuesday Colter, Brooklyn and I went to Christa's house. Christa and I made spider cupcakes while the kids played. Also on Tuesday 2 more of Brooklyn's teeth came out. I didn't even know she was teething(women are tougher with pain even from infancy is my philosophy).
On Wednesday we went to the ward carnival/trunker treat. There were quite a few games. One had gold fish as a prize. Last year our fish survived for less than a day. I'm glad that Colter didn't get any this year. Our YW/RS had a touch and feel room called fear factory. It was pretty cool. There was a brain(cauliflower), hearts(canned whole tomatoes), guts(noodles with jello), eyes(peeled grapes), scabs(the grape skins), fingernails(sunflower seed shells), and maggots(overcooked rice with oil). There was also a haunted gingerbread village that the ym made, and jars of specimens. I should have taken picture, but I forgot. There best part was Rebeca had her head stuck through a candy bowl and would scare everyone when they went to get candy on the way out.
On Thursday Nick had to go to a stake primary training meeting in Prescott. Colter and I carved pumpkins while he was gone. Of course Brooklyn was right there to taste everything. She actually like gnawing on the pumpkin flesh.
Then finally on Friday it was Halloween! There was a home football game, so most people went trick or treating early, that was nice. Nick went to Phoenix to paintball with some pals(I see where his priorities are). We went with the Brimhalls and Colter was excited to go with Logan and Canyon. They were a cactus and a little Mexican man. It was so cute. We also went to Tara and Drew Johnson's for a Halloween party. They go ALL out for Halloween. I'm glad my kids don't get easily scared because they had lots of creepy things in their house. My favorite was the lamp flickered.
Now we(at least me) are ready for a weekend of nothingness.

6 Quirks

Ok, since I've been tagged with this twice, I should probably do it. It was hard to think of my own quirks. And unlike John, Nick wouldn't help me, I think he did want to get in trouble. He said sweet things like "I don't think about your quirks, they are part of you and I love you."

1. I hate tomatoes. I cant stand cutting the and feeling them and cant stand them on sandwiches, salads, stews, etc. But I love chunky salsa with chunks of tomatoes.

2. I have to have the bed made before getting in. There's even been times when I go to bed after Nick's asleep and I take of the sheet and blanket and remake the bed with him in it.

3. I don't like touching feet or anyone touching mine. I would never give or receive a pedicure. I won't even let Nick touch my feet.

4. I am very forgetful. I'll write lists of thing to do or buy. I'll forget where the list is or forget to bring it to the store.

5. I have a hard time finishing a project before starting a new one. Right now I have 2 craft projects going and am looking for a new one.

6. I can't say specific. Well...I can now-I've practiced. I have to think about how to say it before I say it slowly. I won't use it in casual conversation because it doesn't always come out sounding right.

I tag Jennie Davenport, Christa Johnson, Crystal Kestler, Alyssa Mangum, and Cim Alder.

Why 3 year olds shouldn't babysit

Nick asks me why I don't like making phone calls (besides visiting) while the kids are "playing". I usually wait until Brooklyn's asleep and Colter's resting to make any. If not they're both screaming where I cant talk and the person I'm talking to says "Would you prefer to call me back at a more convenient time" (yes that's happened) or they destroy the house. Today I needed to call to get the internet up and running again. When I got of the phone this is what I found. At least I got the call made and no one got hurt, just a sugar high.

New Addition

This is our new addition to the family, Bandit. He's Zorro's puppy. Colter just wants to hold and play with him all the time. He only weighs 2.5 pounds. And still smells like a puppy. The best thing is that he came to us from the Garcias almost house broke. He started to whine and so I took him outside and he went. We're really happy to have another puppy, and I think Zorro will like the canine company.

Caged Animal

This weekend Nick and Colter went to Pima while Brooklyn and I stayed home. The boys had fun quality time together. This is what I do when the boys are gone, find wild animals:) Brooklyn got herself stuck under the laundry basket. She was of course mad and screamed at the top of her lungs. We also went scrapbooking. It was fun. I am glad to have the boys back now. The house seems so much quieter without Colter's constant chattering. With scrapbooking, I was looking at lots of pictures from when he was a baby, and I noticed how much he's grown since then. The past 3 years have just flown by, I cant believe that next year he's going to be in preschool.

How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

This weekend we went camping with my parents and my grandparents. Nick went quail hunting. It was a little colder that I liked. When it was warm enough, we went on a ride to go frog hunting, of course we only caught them on the camera. Zorro hates water, but when it came to trying to catch frogs, he willingly went into the river. I grew up in a family with a morbid sense of entertainment. We went graveyard searching. Yes thats right we like looking for graves, at least we don't bring shovels with us. We then went exploring an old mine. It was crazy thinking that they carved and laid all of the stones by hand.
Like all our camping trips, we had some great dutch oven food. Nick usually does the cleaning, which involves starting a fire, and he paid attention in Boy Scouts I bet he could start a roaring fire blindfolded. He was busy trying to find birds, so I did the cleaning. It takes me forever to get a fire started. Good thing we have a surplus of matches. I'm better at making smoke, not a fire.
I was being a sensitive mom and worried what Colter would think of seeing dead birds. He had no problem, he kept wanting to hold and play with them. He would say "This bird doesnt fly, daddy shoot it so its dead." He was even carrying around a headless bird telling my mom and I that it was a broken dead bird.
This was probably our last camping trip for the year, its getting too cold in the arizonian sense.

On the road again

Yes, we're at the point of saying "what is Brooklyn in now" This has been her favorite place to go. Now I know why trees indoors aren't good. Its almost fallen over on her a few times. She likes the taste of the leaves and of course the dirt. It looks like we're going to have another climber.

This weekend we were going to stay home, but of course we didn't. Nick had to work in Morenci on Saturday and Monday. So we spent the weekend and part of the week there...well in Pima. Colter had a lot of fun. I think the earliest he went to bed the whole time was 9:30. And of course he was always up by 7. Both him and Brooklyn slept the whole car trip, so now I'm the only one exausted from the trip. I'm a slacker and didn't take any pictures, but I'll tell you the highlights. Colter and Riley played. Zorro played with Mia, Steven and Cim's great dane-very funny. Colter and Riley played. Brooklyn got stuck in a shelf. We stayed up late playing cards with some friends (ok...we're getting old it was only til 9:30). Colter and Riley played. Well you get the picture. As we were leaving Pima yesterday Colter was asking if we could go back to Rileys house.

It was a fun weekend but I'm sad that I missed our RS service auction and conference. I am ready to stay home and not have to pack for any more trips...Oh and being waited on hand and foot, but I'm realistic and probably neither one will happen. I think we have the first weekend in 2010 set aside for us to stay home. And maybe when I'm in a nursing home I'll get waited on, but by then I won't remember the next day.

hodgepodge

Redneck swimming

Brooklyn kept getting stuck in her bed
The solution to the problem
Colter wanted Nick to lay down in his bed, Nick was the one who fell asleep.
The family's jungle gym
Yes, Brooklyn had found the dog food.

Yes I know the pictures don't really go together but they were all sharable. Not too much has been happening. We've gone through pink eye, no a/c, ear infections, colds, teething, stomachaches, and everything in between. Brooklyn FINALLY has 2 teeth. It only took months of slobbering and gnawing on everything. We were going to stay home this last weekend, we can't even remember when the last time we've stayed home. But we went to Phoenix to see some friends and to go to the temple with my mom, brother and his wife, Tawna. Its hard to pass up a temple trip when someone offers to babysit. We hope to stay home the weekend of the 27th...we'll see. Zorro's now a daddy. Daisy (Zorro Gal) had 3 puppies on labor day. Two males and one female. They brought them over. They were only about 3 inches long. When they're old enough, we're going to get one of the males. Not much else has been happening in our lives.

Riley's Mountain

Colter, Riley, & Seth
Kashlee & AidenSteven, Jody, Shar, & Brooklyn

This past weekend we went camping...again. We went to our friends family cabin on Mt. Graham. It rained almost the whole time. Of course it stopped on Monday right before we left. We still had fun even though it was wet and cold. Colter calls it Riley's mountain because the only time he can remember going there is to see Riley. It doesn't matter the weather or any other conditions, Colter always has fun. The first night we were there, we saw a rat inside the cabin. Chauncy got out a bb gun to get it. After waiting awhile, the rat was in a place he could shoot it. Once after the bb ricochet of the rat, Nick picked up the bb and hand it back to Chauncy to shoot him again. When it was declared dead, Chauncy brought it in to show all the girls. He was holding it by the tail with pliers. It started twitching and its tail broke off. The joke for the rest of the weekend was about the rat. that the rats daddy was going to find someone during the night, and that they should have had it mounted and left in the cabin as a reminder. One other crazy thing that happened was one night all the dogs were going CRAZY. They would not stop barking. Nobody understood why they were going berserk. Then when we got home we saw that there were bear prints on the trunk of our car.

Teach a man to fish...

Brooklyn's idea of fishing (its a toy fish in her mouth)

Colter spent about 90% of the time in the water. Maybe he thought he would have better luck catching them by hand.

Good thing Nick was there, who else would bait my hook?

This weekend we went fishing in Williams with my dad, his parents, and my cousin Arliene and her husband Tom. We went up Friday afternoon and left after dark on Saturday. Both our kids were so excited about camping that they woke up before 5am and wouldn't go back to sleep. Camping with my Granny is great! She fixed lots of great food. And nothing beats eating the fish you just caught. My Dad cooked the fish and his motto is "The fish you eat tonight was sleeping in the lake last night." Like all our camping trips, it ended too soon and we wish we were still there on the lake right now.

Sweet as Candy

Brooklyn has found out now that she is mobile, she can find really cool things. She was behind a chair saying "mum-mum" and this is what I found. Good thing it was before her bath and not after. Brooklyn is as sweet as candy. She loves to give hugs and kisses, especially to Colter.

Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum

Once I became a mom, I realized that quietness is invaluable. Of course it doesn't happen often(only when they both take a nap). Today Colter decided to make beautiful music with his "drums". Brooklyn army-crawled her way over as fast as she could(which by all the rug burns she gets doesn't seem to be a good mode of transportation). Brooklyn couldn't figure out how to be as loud as Colter, but was just as content watching Colter. Brooklyn wants to do everything her big brother does. He can make her laugh so hard. It might have been noisy, but I'm glad they have fun being kids.