Odds 'n' Ends to 2007

As the year comes to an end I thought I would display our crazy family doings. Andrew made a Ginger Bread House with the little boys and Jilliann...that was fun! I am not sure who yelled more, Andrew at the boys to not eat it or the boys at Andrew because he wouldn't let them eat it. Andrew thought he would get them to wait until after Christmas but it was gone before dinner!

Even though it is winter Christian cant seem to keep his clothes on. Instead of getting dressed to go outside and jump on the trampoline he just brings out a huge blanket and jumps wrapped in that. I suppose he is pretty smart. I just don't understand what is wrong with wearing clothes!!

Jilliann gives new meaning to "Bareback"...doesn't Kodiak look thrilled.

And finally, here is Jilliann escaping out the dog door. She has now discovered that she can climb out the dog door and be free to play in the backyard. Don't worry...the pool area is safely locked and she cannot get in there...but she does enjoy jumping on the trampoline and playing with all the toys outback. She figures if it is good enough for the dog and cat it is good enough for her!!

Tis the Season!

'Tis the season for lots of adventures. December is such a busy month with all the things that go on but the best thing of all is our anniversary. Whoo...we made it to 12 years. I am not sure how but we have managed to stay relatively blissful and happy. After all these years, the ups and downs, the hard times and the amazing times...John is still my #1. We had a romantic dinner then snuggled with Starbucks coffee at the Country Club in a cozy chair for 2. It was nice. It is mind-blowing to think we can find contentment and true peace amidst all this chaos but we do. We even manage some "alone" time...as long as we make sure the door is locked and the kids are sleeping.

Benihana

We made our annual trip to Benihanas. We got there just as they were shutting down for an hour before they re-open for dinner. So, we had the place to ourselves. Thank goodness. Not much I can say about the pictures. It is my family...I suppose I love them regardless!!

Stitches and Leiderhosen

Oh Christian!! That boy is a walking disaster. John took the kids to the park (notice JOHN was in charge) and Justin was playing with Christian on the teeter totter (notice JUSTIN was involved!). Who knows what happened but all I know is Christian jumped off and Justin jumped on and stitches were needed! He was sedated (thankfully) and had 7 stitches put in. Watching him wake up was hysterical! He thought we all had 2 heads. John and I stayed with him the whole time and watched them put in the stitches. It was great. They have already been removed and he is fine. He left the heart leads and IV bandage on as long as he could. We think he was getting sympathy from the girls at school.

Justin had a report due on his family heritage. I pulled out John's old Leiderhosen hoping it would fit Justin ... I was gonna make him wear it at school. Darn! It only fit Christian. He looked so cute!! He is an awful close replica of John. We should have named him Little John.

Decorating

We got all our decorating done the weekend after Thanksgiving. It is so much nicer and easier to put lights on the house when it isn't snowing! Jilliann was amazed at all the lights and was very interested in the angel that lit up and moved. The tree now has NO decorations on the bottom half thanks to the baby. The top of the tree has tons of them. I cant remember the last time our tree went unscathed for a whole season. Some day...

Thanksgiving 2007

Here we all are at the park for Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful day full of good food, family and amazing weather. We are so blessed to spend another Thanksgiving with my Grandparents (88 and 91) and lots of cousins. We had a great time.

3 men

How many of you can say you slept with 3 men in your bed last night?? See how much room was left for me (and Jilliann at 6am).

Halloween 2007

This Halloween brought out some scary possibilities. First Austin went "GOTH". Oh geez! We sprayed his hair black and he wore all kinds of freaky jewelry with tattoo sleeves. I pray this isn't a view into his high school years! Yikes!!

Justin and Christian were each a Power Ranger. I have no idea which one but they were happy.

Jilliann went as a chick again this year. The outfit still fit and it was cute so I was happy to get 2 years out of it. We got a lot of candy and I am sure I will gain 10 pounds. Oh well, fat and happy!

SURPRISE!!

Guess who showed up?? Last Tuesday my Mom called and asked if we wanted to go out to dinner. Being one to never say "no" to eating out we met at Logan's Steakhouse. We were all sitting around when the waiter came up behind me and asked what we wanted to drink. I turned to speak to him and it was Andrew. I couldn't believe it. I was so shocked. The boys were thrilled and all over him from the start. What a great surprise. He will be hanging out here with us for a few months while on leave. He doesn't have to go back to Iraq any time soon so we are thankful for that. Thank you for all the prayers and support as he was deployed. We are so blessed and thankful to have him home safe and sound.

Oh Yeah

Oh yeah...I forgot to mention that Kent and John were there too. Afterall, I needed someone to escort me to the wedding until Jensen realized he loved me and needed me!

My Fantasy Wedding

My cousin Evan got married this last Saturday (Oct 27) in Temecula, Ca. I would like to say the wedding was beautiful and blah blah blah but really it was all about meeting my true love, my soul mate, my new husband to be....Jensen Ackles. He is an actor who was on Days of Our Lives as Eric Brady, he had a role on Smallville and is currently co-starring in the WB show called Supernatural. DeeDee, my sister-in-law, and I stalked him all night like the psycho people that we are. He was gracious and kind and stood by as we took tons of pictures of him. Poor guy.

Jensen and I during our first encounter. I have crazy stalker eyes don't I?? John says I look drunk but I swear I didn't drink at all. They are just eyes of love and he doesn't recognize that!

DeeDee got all up in our love so here she is in our future engagement picture.

He didn't know I was stalking him from the other side too! Poor guy is in more pictures then he realized.

Here is is expressing his undying love for me. Really! I know it looks like he is telling me to stay the "h%ll" away from him but he isn't. He is trying to get me to meet him back in his private villa later.

Noses to Nummies

My kids are so weird. Christian showed up on Friday from school with his nose and forehead all scratched up. I never got a call from his teacher or the nurse so I had no idea. According to him he did an awesome somersault off the swings. Apparently his landing was less then perfect but he was proud.

Here is Jilliann doing what she does best....eating the dog food. She LOVES it. I brought the food downstairs so Kodiak wouldn't have to got upstairs since he is hurt. However, Jilliann thought that I did it for her. She proceeded to dump out all the dog food then rolled in it, danced on it and ate more then I care to admit. At least she will have a shiny coat for the winter!

Lucky Dog

No, really! Kodiak is the luckiest dog ever. Last night he got the sh*t scared out of him (literally) and he saw his life flash before his eyes (literally)! We were all outside saying goodbye to my Mom and George after they had dinner here. The dog was out with us too. He ran across the street which he normally does and was sniffing around the neighbors yard when a truck came flying around the corner on our street. I knew the truck would not stop if Kodiak ran out so I yelled to Kodiak to "stay". That was the dumbest thing I could have done because of course he ran right out in front of the truck. I knew he was going to get hit so I turned my head and shut my eyes. Through the shrieks and screams of my Mother I heard a huge thump and knew Kodiak was a goner. When I turned around I saw him running down the other end of the street. According to John, who watched the whole thing, the dog got hit on the side and went flying through the air 25 feet and crashed down. As soon as he hit the ground he struggled to get on his feet and took off. I found the dog a few minutes later and brought him home. He was walking fine and from what I could see he had no blood on him. John checked him out to feel for broken bones but couldn't feel any. We were worried about him dying from internal injuries during the night so I took him to a 24 hour emergency vet. It cost $100 but I needed to know if he was going to die. The vet was amazed that besides him being covered in poop and a few minor scrapes he seemed fine. We brought him home and he seems okay. He is walking slow today and is obviously stiff and sore but otherwise himself. He has been wagging his tail and getting up to greet everyone when they got home. I don't know how he survived. It was horrible. Oh...the people who hit him stopped and were as mortified as we were. They gave us their number and want daily updates on his condition until he is all better. Guess they wont speed down our street again!

A Visit from Uncle Doug

Not long after Kathy left Uncle Doug (my brother) came to visit with his 2 year old daughter Laci. He happened to have a week off of work so at the last minute (2 days before) we booked a ticket and they came out. Unfortunately, Shelia did not have off of work so she graciously let them come out even though it was tough on her. We surprised all the family including Mom. It was a quick 5 day trip (that was all Shelia could stand for them to be away) but we had lots of fun. The boys loved Uncle Doug and thought Laci was great. Jilliann and Laci played and fought like sisters. Laci would love on Jilliann non-stop and often choke Jilliann in the process of hugging her neck. It was so cute!

A visit from Aunt Kathy

Double rainbow




Kathy came all the way from Alaska to stand next to an Alaskan brown bear in Sedona, AZ!




Aunt Kathy came to visit (John's Sister). She flew out for a week from Alaska to hot Arizona. Her goal was to hang out by the pool and tan as much as possible. Man, she did great. She left tan but probably not very relaxed. The kids had fun seeing her and she was shocked at how much they all grew. John took some time off and we drove up to Sedona while the kids were in school. It is beautiful up there and much cooler. While she was here we had a few storms and an amazing double rainbow. The boys loved having someone to go in the pool with all the time and Christian got even DARKER laying out with Kathy. In Sedona we got all the kids suckers with scorpions in them but Jilliann is the only one that would eat it. The boys were freaked out. AHH...to be young and dumb again!

Floors and Divorce

So, we finished the master bathroom floor and the entry/office floor. Yeah, it is done and it looks great but John hates me now. Ok, not really but they were tough projects. We just didn't seem to have any luck on our side with tile changes and wood changes and edging issues and on and on and on. Every step forward we took 5 steps back. After many hours and several nights that lasted till morning we are finally done. I think in a few weeks when we aren't so sore, exhausted and angry at each other we will be really pleased with it all. One thing we have decided is that the rest of the flooring downstairs we are NOT doing ourselves. We are going to have the concrete underlayment acid washed to look like stone or something. I am tired of manual labor. By the way, I am off now to clean the bathrooms. Guess manual labor is in the future for me after all!

Tile in the Master Bathroom

John and I thought it would be so great to tile the master bathroom. Sure, in theory. This project has been a killer and has taken us almost a month to do. John got really sick and that delayed us then we went back and forth about the tile and ended up returning this stuff and getting 12 inch polished travertine. Then we had to go back and get more because there was such a huge variance that we werent happy so we bought tons of boxes and picked the ones we liked. We finally got it all down and today I am off to touch up the grout and seal it. Sad thing is we are going to lay Pergo downstairs in the entry way and office this weekend.