And the rest of it…..

Things have been wild and crazy and fun around here. I’m just finishing up with this quarter at school which will be WONDERFUL. This is the only time I’ve actually had to go to the college for classes. Everything else has been online. It was a lab science so I’ve been going to school for 3 hours on Wednesday and Thursday nights. It’s been pretty inconvenient, but it was good too. I really enjoyed the class. But things should be getting back to normal now. The kids will probably like that.:) And truthfully, so will their Mom.

Anyway, it’s just been day to day life around here mostly. Haylee is growing like a weed. So are the boys, but the changes in Haylee have been the most noticeable. She turns 2 in February, but she’s verbally astounding. She uses complete sentences and understands absolutely everything. All of my kids have talked early, but she is BY FAR the most verbal of the bunch. Sometimes I forget how young she actually is. We’re finally rid of the binky. Mostly because she pitched a fit and threw it in Wal-Mart and I couldn’t find it. So, she quit cold turkey after all and it has NOT been pleasant, but I think we’re finally there. She’s such a little tomboy, but she’s starting to act kind of like a girl. In the last couple of weeks she’s actually been playing with her dolls. This is an improvement seeing as before she would stuff her dolls in the back of a tractor or truck and push them around the house. She’s into everything, but is so darn cute that we survive it. She calls hair things, “Pretties,” and so I guess it’s about time that I learned how to do hair. Great. Anyway, she has an obsession with shoes. Seriously. She wears everyone’s shoes all over the house. Here she is in Daddy’s snow boots.

Thanksgiving was a crazy good time. My sister, Wendy, and her her little family came to celebrate with us. They just moved to Sandpoint, ID and we’re excited to have them closer. Then we all headed up to Aaron and Shanae’s (friends of ours) to spend the holiday with them. I mean, we headed up right AFTER Kyle brought Sugar back from the “Pet ER” because she ate two containers of mouse poison at the hatchery. She nearly killed herself and right now is on a prescription of Vitamin K to counteract the poison. Hopefully it works. She seems to be fine…as you can see…lazy dog.

Anyway, while waiting for Kyle to come back, Hunter also broke my vacuum by sucking up the cord to the blinds (a new belt and it’s as good as new) and I was pooped on by another bird! Yes, this IS my fourth lifetime encounter, thank you for asking. I am a magnet for bird poop. What can I say?

Anyhow, as a highlight, our Thanksgiving meal was wonderful. Good friends and good food. I cooked my first turkey ever and was pretty impressed with myself for not ruining it.:) Plus, our kids love their kids, so they were excited to go. Hunter and Kali are like two peas in a pod. She calls him, “My Hunter.” So cute. We only had one little mishap. There was a little accident and Tanner broke both of the bones in his right forearm. Missed all of the growth plates and we managed to escape surgery, so we can’t complain. The social worker at the hospital CAN complain however, seeing as how this is my third and last child to break his right arm (all within about 2 years). I’m pretty sure they thought they were going to have to turn us into a CPS case, but they seemed to be satisfied with our story and actually let me take my poor child home, so that was good.:) For the record, Haylee was in there like 6 months ago with a broken arm, so I can’t imagine what they were thinking. Anyway, Tanner got his cast on this past Wednesday. He’ll have it on for about 3 weeks, then he’ll get x-rayed and hopefully it’ll get to come off. He broke it pretty good, so we’ll see. He chose a blue cast because it matched his eyes.:) He’s so adorable I can hardly stand it. I’ve only been hit in the face with his cast like 3 times already, so I’ll just keep reminding myself how adorable he is.

Does he look cute in Kyle’s hat or what!? Tanner totally has that redneck look and pulls it off quite gracefully.:)

Anyhow, it was by far the most disastrous Thanksgiving we’ve probably ever had, but it was definitely memorable.:) And considering Tanner’s personality, this will probably not be his only broken bone, so I’ll just brace myself for that.:)

Oh, and this is just a random backtrack, but I need this picture to be in our “family history” when I print this blog. You’ve all heard of our horrible mouse problem (which, by the way, has magically disappeared since the snow came…you can’t imagine my excitement) and we tried getting cats. We haven’t mentioned to our poor Tanner that the cats were probably eaten by the coyotes. He thinks they must have run away and I refuse to correct the poor kid. He loves cats. And he loved his cat, Cherry. Hunter’s was Coyote. They stayed with us for a week and then disappeared. I felt so bad for my little guy. He STILL asks when Cherry is coming back. We’ve repeatedly told him that she isn’t, but he doesn’t quite get it. And maybe that’s good.:(

Okay, so I think after these three posts, I’m finally caught up. Which means that I hopefully won’t get too behind during the holidays. I mean, let’s face it, I probably will, but I’ll at least try not to.