We Have A Saying In Our House.................

We have a saying in our house and it goes like this;

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, NOT WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN!!"

This is a picture of Ryanne after she ran into our wall/fire place. I have this long medal Christmas card holder hanging from this tall wall and as Ryanne was running to get into bed she ran smack into the wall and card holder. Seriously? Since the child could walk she has been smacking into the same wall/fireplace like we just built it. Ugh!!! Dan & I often hear ourselves yelling through the house,"WATCH OUT RYANNE!!" Poor kid, hopefully she drives better than she walks.
The funniest part is we get to her classroom yesterday morning and I am fully aware that everyone is obviously going to ask her what happened but here is what went down.
Teacher: "Ryanne, what happened to your face?"
Ryanne: "uummmm, I don't really know."
Me: "Are you kidding? You ran into the wall, remember? Almost knocked yourself out, I packed your face in ice, ringing any bells here?"
(Random parents just staring at me.)
Its then that I realize you sound like you have beat your kid and are trying to get them to tell a different story.
That's OK, I hear they serve a mean turkey dinner in jail this time of year!
"RYANNE WATCH OUT!" Gotta' go!!!

Answer to Prayer

For two weeks now Morgan has been telling me that she was praying for a cold, white Christmas. I kept telling her that Christmas is usually warm and that we often are wearing flip flops playing outside on Christmas morning. I said,"I just don't want you to get your hopes up honey." Well, if you will look below you will see that believing in God is ALL about getting your hopes up & child like faith.Morgan got her Christmas prayer answered as it snowed off and on all day yesterday and through the night. The above picture is taken off the back side of our property.
Here are the girls in our backyard. We went for a walk at 7am this morning and got to see our little bobcat friend walking around and playing in the snow in our yard as well.

This one is taken from our front yard.

And last but not least this one is taken from our back patio. It was fun because last night at like 7pm it was snowing really hard and we noticed Caleb and his dad playing out in the snow and building a snowman so we got all dressed in our snow gear and headed out to bomb them with a sneak attack of snowballs. It was really fun out in the dark until I got hit right in the eye. Thanks Caleb! I guess all those baseball games are paying off huh! ;)

Firefighters Christmas Party

Last night was the firefighters Christmas party and it turned out really nice.

Mindy was showing off her fancy dance moves here. hhmmmm............

Oh ya' and yesterday I cute 9 inches off my hair! Man I think I lost about 5 pounds! So what do you think short or long? I think I might actually like it short. :) The food was great, music was fun and we had the most amazing view over looking the city from our table. Have a great weekend.

Random stuff from our weekend

Happy Tuesday everyone!! Just a few random things from our weekend and week so far. I took this picture the other night from our back porch. I know I take allot of photos of sunsets and things but it is so beautiful that it seems like an insult to God to not run and get my camera. Oh yes, it's that time of year again where its' in the 40's, the kids get in a warm pool and work out and the parents sit on concrete benches freezing our butts to them. BRRRRRRR.........it was cold last night. I have decided that swimmers are REAL athletes and especially our little Yucaipa kids who swim out side year round in the freezing cold. Doesn't Morgan look cute here though!! :)

Every so often our teams play each other and it gets a little, lets see how should I say this? U-G-L-Y at our house. Actually the game was good on Sunday it just ended really badly for my Cowboys. Boo-hoooo! Oh well, I guess I have to follow through with our bet and wear Dan's shirt now. Ugh! I will not be taking pictures of that. I dont want any proof. ;)

We did go cut down our tree on Sunday when Dan got home and it was all cold and rainy. Perfect for decorating a tree! :)

The girls loved it of course!

Have a great day!!

Morgan's Christmas Party

Can I just say that I am exhausted! Whew, never been so glad to see a calm quiet weekend get here. Tons of fun stuff though. :)

Yesterday was Morgan's Christmas party and we had a great turn out. 65+ kids from our home school group showed up. And all of Morgan's friends were there so it was really fun for her. They got to hear a Christmas story.................................

Do an ornament exchange................................

We painted crafts and I got glue flung through the air which so perfectly splatted across my chest, ya' what are you gonna do?
What else do you do when you are waiting for the party to start? You get your groove on right? Silly girls. :)
Now I hate to disappoint but I think this may be my last post for the week. I know, I know, but don't worry I have another crazy week next week so I'll be back. Until then good night! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Gingerbread House Creations

When my girlfriend moved in next door she started the tradition of having the kids get together to make Gingerbread houses. So today was the day and I am pretty sure (no scratch that) I am certain that most of the candy was going into Ryanne's mouth and not on her creation. ;)My pictures down loaded in the wrong order so here is the finished product and then all the hard work it took to get there. It was a great top off to our crazy busy week.
Do you love the tongue hanging out? So funny!

A group photo of all the fun.
We had snacks and things out to try and soak up some of the sugar going into their little bodies. We had lots of fun just being home and with our friends. Thanks Marianne for putting it together for us. And Susie if you are reading this, we missed you & the boys terribly this year and wished you were here *sniff*. You were on our hearts for sure though.

On a side note and just cause I think she is cute, it was hat day at Ryanne's school today and this is the hat she picked to wear.

Logan's Candy Cane's

Last night was Morgan's home school field trip to Logan's candy shop out in Ontario. I know I have posted allot this week but stay with me it's just that time of year. We are having fun but trying to keep up with us all having that nasty cold is crazy. We weren't about to miss the handmade candy cane and chocolate lesson though. ;)The tour started outside in front of the old candy shop that has been making all of their candy by hand for 75 years. I know this picture is blurred but I still thought it was cool of the kids trying to all get in front of the picture window to see the candy man.
Then we moved inside where they showed us from start to finish how they make their candy canes. Afterwards we all got to sample a piece of warm candy cane. Have you ever done that? They melt in your mouth!! So good!!!!
Ryanne getting a little lift from daddy so she could see over all those big kids.

Did you know the peppermint oil they mix into the white part of the candy cane costs $600-$700 a gallon? OH MY GOSH! Now your probably wondering why the candy doesn't cost more then right? Well, for every like 45+ pounds of candy canes they use less than an ounce of the peppermint flavoring. Whew!!! Little trivia for your morning. :)

Morgan and her friend in front of the store.

After they were done I snuck in and bought Dan and I a piece of chocolate, YUMMMMY! After the candy demonstration that lasted about an hour the kids all got a little sample bag of the candy from the store and of course a candy cane. If you have never been and you get a chance stop on over at Logan's in Ontario. It's tons of fun, the people are super nice and they even shared a little about Jesus on our visit which totally topped it off.

Ryanne's Christmas Program

Last night was Ryanne's Christmas program. Below are my attempts at getting pictures of the girls together before we left. None of my pictures from the actual program turned out. :( Oh well, I got a few good ones here and of the kids in her class getting ready. Seriously, do you love the leggings and brown crocs? It's SOOOO Ryanne. She is not a foo-foo sort of girl so she was NOT having some shiny, fancy dress.
It took me forever to get the girls to stand still. I guess they were a little excited about Ryanne singing at school. ;)

This photo really speaks volumes about my family!!

Ahhhhhh, I love when I catch moments like this on my camera. So stinkin' cute!! I am going to blow this one up and when they are fighting show it to them.

Love you girls!!!

More Pictures

Here are some more random pictures we took as we were getting ready to leave for Ryanne's school. Morgan took this one of me and Ryanne. Good job Morgan! :) I think this is the only picture where you can really see Ryanne's Croc's that match her outfit. Those are the only shoes she will wear so when I was buying her Christmas outfit I was determined to find ones that matched. I found those cute brown ones and they were perfect! I think she has a pair in every color now!!!! Ryanne and Daddy!

I LOVE the look on Dan's face here. We were trying to get the girls to look at me and instead they are climbing all over Dan and he just had this hilarious look like,"why did I come home again?" He,heeee!!

This is more like it.

Here is Ryanne with her teacher Mrs. Kidd. The program was super cute and the kids and teachers worked really hard to make it special. At one point I found myself getting choked up. I realized this is my last one going through Pre-K. It's my last Pre-K Christmas program. Or maybe I was crying tears of joy because God answered my prayers and Ryanne didn't do anything to embarrass me. Either way it was moment. ;)

The look on Ryanne's face here says,"that's right Mrs. Kidd, smile pretty cause tomorrow we are going toe to toe you and me!"

Homemade Treats & Blessings.............

This yummy plate of homemade goodies + these cute hand painted boxes=

really cute, really simple gifts for friends and neighbors, or teachers or the mailman, or your hairdresser, or.................OK, you get the idea! ;) I just went to the local cake decorating store and bought some candy boxes. Put some cute red and green polka dots on the boxes and tied them up with some raffia and little ornaments. On the inside I dipped Treader Joe's peppermint Joe-Joe's in white chocolate and dusted them with red bakers fairy dust stuff and then I also made peppermint bark. So easy and something the kids can help with too.
I had my appointment today for my infusion and I have not been feeling well with a cold (thanks Dan for passing that on by the way) so I was kind of blah, not to mention Dan is on a 72 and that makes for allot of work for me when I get home feeling poopy from the hospital. This is going to sound horrible *gulp* but I had these little gifts all done up for my oncologist and the nurses that take care of me every month and frankly I didn't feel like being jolly and delivering treats. Since I wont be back till' after Christmas I delivered them and smiled and thanked them. They were SO happy and touched and then the nurse hit something bad in my vein (twice) and I started sweating through my clothes as she tried to "fix" the problem. At the point where I was thinking I was either going to pass out or throw up I thought about taking my cookies back or wishing I had put ex-lax in that batch. Hey, I'm just being REAL honest here people. Any-whooooo, I survived and after some apple juice was back to having some color. I left feeling a little beat up and so when I got home and the girls said that these had been dropped off.......................


I guess you could say I was a little surprised and humbled that someone was thinking about me all the while I was sitting at the Dr.'s only thinking about myself. I have had the privilege of being reunited with my softball coach from high school and let me just say I knew he and his family were great people back then but unfortunately when you are a teenager you are, well you just ARE! So God is faithful and has allowed that friendship to continue with my brother in Christ. When I was trying to earn money for Angels family he didn't miss a beat to help out. When he needs prayer he lets me know and the same goes for me. Isn't that fun? Something I most certainly took for granted has been brought back around full circle. He knew I was going in today for my treatment and he just wanted to send encouragement. Made me wonder about my own attitude just an hour or so before. OOPPSSSSS! God knew what I needed. Well, besides a swift kick in my grumpy cookie delivering butt! ;)