More Anti-Santa from Abby

Scene: Christmas Eve, Abby's Aunt Wendy is asking her about Santa Claus

(I don't remember exact words)
Wendy: Abby, is Santa going to bring you presents?
Abby: No, I'm scared of Santa. I will like him when I'm older like Ellie. (Abby's cousin who is 8 months older)
Wendy: How will you get presents then?
Abby: Order them.

hmmm, I didn't think I ordered THAT much on the internet. :-)

Santa Threat

Scene: Jaiden is innocently walking and Abby comes up behind her to push her. Jaiden falls and I see it all.

Me: ABBY! Why did you do that?!
Abby: I don't know
Me: Fine, Santa IS coming tonight
Abby: (wails) NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Abby is afraid of Santa Claus. lol

Pictures of Jaiden's birthday party that was a month ago!

Her favorite toy was the John Deere tractor that she could sit on (it was also Abby's favorite. lol)

Tyrel picked it out, of course.

Boise!

ARRGGHHH! I'm so behind on my blog. I still haven't put up Jaiden's birthday pictures which I did try once but my computer froze. (grrr) I will get some up though.

Tyrel took me to Boise on monday for a little getaway for the two of us. Okay, before you go thinking Tyrel is so romantic and such, I told him about 6 months ago that when field work was done, he was taking me on a mini vacation. I wanted to go to a concert (ANY concert but preferably someone I've heard of and at least kind of liked) so I got online and happened to find Metallica which wasn't my first choice but a heck of a lot better than Marylin Mason or Miley Cyrus! Anyway, I was in charge of getting the trip figured out (reservations, tickets, and such) because Tyrel just really didn't care where we stayed or anything, he just wanted to go see Metallica. (It will make sense soon about why I am telling you all this) As I was searching hotels and trying to find deals, I used my own judgement to decide that we should stay at the hotel that was 1.03 miles from the Idaho Center instead of the hotel that was .26 miles away because the farther one was cheaper and offered breakfast and I figured 1 mile wasn't too far to walk anyway. Well, there were two problems with my idea that I didn't see coming! First was that the cheaper hotel was on the other side of the freeway and second was the WEATHER! Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought Boise was warmer than Hamer! I thought the low's would be around 30 degrees but no, the HIGH was 15!! Anyway, now to the actual Boise trip. We got to our hotel which took forever to find and traffic was horrid! We decided walking was a bad idea and driving was an even worse idea so we got a cab (keep in mind that I booked the farther hotel to save money *sigh*). It took about 10-15 minutes to drive a mile because the traffic was so awful and our cab died along the way! We finally got to the concert (late) but it was okay because the 1st opening band was still playing. They finished and the 2nd opening band played which was Machine Head and I don't recommend that anybody listen to them. We left while they played. Finally it was Metallica and they were AWESOME!! Listening to them made it all worth it.

Yup, that's pretty close to being front row. Our tickets were for standing and I took advantage of my being small to squeeze as close as I could get while dragging Tyrel behind me (I needed him close for protection!!) It's not a bad picture for being taken from a camera phone.

After the concert was over, Tyrel and I were pretty much stuck at the concert. It was pretty much impossible to get a cab so our options were to wait for probably an hour or two for a cab or walk. Well we decided to walk back to the hotel in 10 degree weather plus a wind chill at 11:30 pm. We got hot chocolate which didn't stay hot very long, stopped at the Walmart right by the Idaho Center to get hats and gloves (all we were wearing was fleece jackets so we didn't have to carry around a big coat during the concert and keep in mind that we spent more money that I thought we would saving), and headed for our hotel. It was sooooo cold and we had to run under the freeway overpass which didn't have a sidewalk (very scary). We eventually made it to the hotel but I was frozen and we really didn't end up saving any money by staying there although our hotel did offer breakfast. :) Overall, it was really fun and now we have some good memories to go with it.

I forgot to write about Tyrel saving me during the concert, it's a pretty funny story. Oh well, if you really want to hear the story I will write about it in a different post. :)

Happy Birthday Jaiden!!!

Jaiden is now 1 year old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Here is a little update about Jaiden.
~ she has 1 tooth. Yes, only one and she has had it for over a month. I think that's weird :)
~ she has taken a few steps
~ she can say mine (mea) and hello (hao) along with the normal momma and daddy
~ she is a little copy cat lately. she likes to copy anything and everything Abby does or we do
~ she loves hugs and kisses from us and to give them back to us or stuffed animals, whichever is closer :D
~ and she is our little snuggle bug. She absolutley loves to put her two fingers in her mouth and lay her head on us (or stuffed animal)

I will post picture later.

Give Hope to Benson and Claire

This story breaks my heart. Visit givehopetobensonandclaire.blogspot.com. They are having an online auction to help this family and it ends Nov. 16. Look at the stuff and maybe you will find Christmas presents while also helping this family out. There are some really cute things on it.

Just too cute

I just wanted to put this picture up because it's so cute. For some reason she loves to sit in that little hole and play.

Halloween

I know, I know. Halloween was a week ago and it's old news but I still want to put pictures of my kids on here in their costumes. Abby, of course, wanted to be a princess and since Jaiden really didn't care, she got to be a kitty cat. Friday we went to the Carnival in Terreton mostly so Abby could be there with her cousins and then we went to the Hamer Carnival because that's Abby's future school so we needed to show them support. (when I say 'we' I mean 'me and the girls', Tyrel had a scout campout) Saturday we (Tyrel and I) only took poor Abby trick or treating to the Mud Lake store. DON'T JUDGE US, she was still high on candy from the carnivals and we were really tired but needed some groceries. :) I promise, we will take her next year to more places than just the store. She was thrilled to just wear her princess dress again anyway.

The Things I'm Thankful for Today

1. A healthy Family.
2. A husband that loves me and his kids enough to feel guilty about going on his "man" trip.
3. The nice lady at Arby's who asked if I needed help while I was struggling to carry Jaiden and my tray while at the same time keeping track of Abby and dragging a high chair over to the booth and when I told her I was okay, she helped me anyway.
4. The sales people in the mall who said my kids were adorable even though one of my kids was running around knocking the clothes of the shelves (I did not think it was adorable!!!)
5. Abby's dance teacher who has SOOOOO much patience with the 3 years olds that don't listen!!
6. That Abby isn't the only girl in dance class with a short attention span. :)

Catching Up

It's been a while since I posted and a few things have happened. Harvest came and went without drama for once, Jaiden FINALLY got a tooth but still only has one and that was 3 weeks ago, and I got a new church calling which I'm very excited about. I am the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society and I think it will be fun to have a calling that is just a little more challenging than showing up to church and playing the piano or organ. (although I loved playing the piano in Relief Society) So just a few things have happened, not much. Oh yeah, we got some turtles. I guess that's kind of exciting, at least the kids like them especially Jaiden. It's so cute to watch her look at them.

Enjoy the pictures of Picasso Abby and Tyrel the Master Pumpkin Carver.



Just a side note, that pumpkin was planted and grown by the very mice that torment me. If you look closely at the sides of the pumpkin you will notice scabs on it which were put there by the mice. They knew Tyrel would be carving a face in it and they just wanted add to it. We just pretend that the mice gave the pumpkin hair. :)

And I have yet ANOTHER mouse story.

I really don't enjoy writing about rodents and wish with all my heart that this stuff would quite happening to me but I guess I do live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields. Maybe to someone else this is no big deal but you have to understand people, I REALLY hate mice. On to the story now. I was on my way home from canning peaches and pears at my parents house and I stopped at the mailbox to see if the mail came yet. Well, when I opened the mailbox there was a whole bunch of dead grass in there and I thought "What in the world? It must have been some of Tyrel's punk scouts just being dorks." So I left the lid open hoping the grass would just blow out (there was tuffs of mice fur in it so I didn't want to touch it). The mail came so I walked back over to the mailbox and I as reached for the mail and was just about to scrape out the grass with it, a little mouse peeks its head out of the pile. I, of course, scream and run over to the shop trying to find Tyrel. So there I am in the shop freaking out to Tyrel about the mouse (he is just grinning) and there are tons of people in the shop that probably think I'm crazy. My wonderful husband drops what he is doing to walk over to the mailbox with me and proceeds to catch the mouse and kill it. I am so lucky that I married someone who really enjoys killing mice. lol :)

PAYBACK!! mwahahaha!!! (evil laugh)

To the mom's reading this post, do you remember the nights of waking up with your baby 2 or 3 times a night and then hearing your husband say "The baby sleeps all night" and you just want to punch him! Well, it's payback. Apparently Abby has been waking up in the middle of the night EVERY night and I have no idea!! hahaha. Tyrel hears her and always has to get up and get her a drink. I love it. Jaiden sleeps all night (has been for quite a while :)) so I get an excellent nights sleep and I get to be the one that says "Yes, both of our kids sleep all night long" while Tyrel gives me the evil glares. hehehe.

lol

Update to the question of the day written in Harvest Time post.
The question was, Is Abby a Case or John Deere girl? Well if you still haven't figured out the answer this might make it even more clear. Tyrel got his new combine and we went to take him dinner again, as I pulled into the field Abby said "Daddy's combine works because it's green." LOL. She's so funny. BTW, it was actually a red combine but it was dark when we got to the field so she couldn't really tell, she just assumed it was green because it was working. :)

Rant

I really need to say what is on my mind right now so if you don't want to listen to me rant, then don't read it. :) I was on my way home this afternoon after my weekly shopping trip to town and I was listening to some talk radio that happened to be about kids, whether to have them or not. Well some idiotic lady called and said that her father told her that back in the olden days people would have 14 to 15 kids so that they could help on the farm (which I half agree with but the other reason was NO BIRTH CONTROL and if I'm correct, I believe men liked women just as much in the olden days as they do now). Anyway this idiotic lady went on to say that since we really don't have farms anymore, there is no reason to have kids. Yes, you read correctly THERE IS NO REASON TO HAVE KIDS. All I can say is oh my gosh, I sincerely hope SHE NEVER HAS CHILDREN because her theory is that they are only around to work for her. I have nothing against people that don't want kids but to say on a nation wide radio broadcast that 'there is no reason to have kids', is she really dumb? I can think of one really good reason, TO REPOPULATE THE PLANET! (the part about not having farms anymore bothers me too but not as much as what she said about kids) Enough of her, I will move on to one more lady that really made my blood boil. This lady is 37 and has never wanted kids and says that her and her husband are extremely happy with not having kids. I think that's great for her and have no problem with that but here is what upset me. She went on the say that all her friends are married with children and all of the husbands have told her they regret having the children because now their wives neglect them. REALLY! I have two things to say to guys that think that, SUCK IT UP and QUIT BEING A WHINING BABY! Their wives are busy now raising THEIR children, so grow up. Maybe they should help their wife out more so she can make time for them and herself. I'm done with my ranting and feel much better now. Since I live on a farm, I think I better have at least 12 more kids and we better make Abby start working now. A 3 year old can drive a tractor, right? :)

Harvest Time

So after a few days of making Tyrel starve while he's been driving a combine or truck (depending on weather and break downs), I decided I should finally be a good wife and mother and take him dinner while letting the kids ride in a combine. Well guess what, a major beak down that is so bad he is getting a completely different combine tomorrow. At least my intentions were good and Tyrel did get his dinner. :)
I went ahead and took a few harvest pictures while I was there because who knows when I will be so generous again. (maybe tomorrow if he's lucky) lol

Look at the top of this picture and you will see Tyrel

Question of the day: Do you think Abby is a Case or John Deere girl?

As we left the field she said "Daddy better get a green combine."

Sometimes I just have to laugh

From the mouth of Abby. Keep in mind that a barely 3 year old is saying this.

Me: Abby, where are you?
Abby: In the bathroom.
Me: Are you going potty?
Abby: Not exactly.

Hahahaha. I still don't know exactly what she was doing but I heard a toilet flush. Hmmm, maybe I should be worried! :)

Abby is 3!!

I can't believe Abby is 3 years old!! My little girl is getting so grown up. Here are some pictures from her party last night and today she wanted to go to the zoo for her birthday (in her princess clothes of course. :))Her cake. Candie helped me decorate it.
New princess clothes, crown, earring, etc...

Using her new doctor kit to make sure Izzy's okay

At the Zoo

:(

I miss Tyrel and can't wait until Scout Camp is over.

Dirty Little Ground Squirrel

We went camping at Georgetown Lake a couple weeks ago which was so beautiful, but that's not the reason for my story. I could write many things about how wonderful Georgetown Lake was but I will choose to write about the dirty, little ground squirrel. (don't worry, it's shorter than the mouse story, i think. what's with us and rodents!!!)

I don't know if this was the culprit or not because there were probably a dozen of them around.

My story begins with Abby falling asleep on my dad's lap and when he went to lay her down in the tent, her sandals fell off and me being lazy just left them on the ground all night. The next morning, Abby woke up and wanted to go outside but I wouldn't let her until she had her sandals on. I went to get her sandals and ,you guessed it, one was missing. I looked around the camp and all over in the tent and others looked all over the camp ground but there was no sandal. Oh well, I thought, there's nothing I can do about it and I had brought a spare set anyway. I figured it was the dirty, little ground squirrels but I had no proof. Life went on and later that day Wendy was sitting at the picnic table and looked up. There was the sandal!! It was pretty much in our campsite and as we went to investigate, we discovered that it was right by a squirrel hole and this was the result. (the pictures not very good but hopefully you get the idea from the chunk missing!)

We know now that it was the dirty, little ground squirrel, but what had this poor shoe been through!! It was obviously not very tasty and was rejected from the dirty, little ground squirrel society but had it been in the hole and then kicked out or did the dirty, little ground squirrel return it to our camp but purposely put it next to a hole to frame another dirty, little ground squirrel!! We will never know. :)

From the mouth of Abby

Scene: We are in a hotel room and Abby is banging the toilet seat against the back of the toilet while Tyrel and Jaiden are trying to sleep.
me- 'Abby! Be Quiet!'
Abby- 'Mommy, I go poo. POO NOT QUIET!!!'
needless to say I laughed so hard that I woke up Tyrel.

Scene: I am raking the grass after I mowed and Abby decides to help.
me: 'Abby, you are messing up my pile, go start your own.'
Abby: 'okay mom'
I go to help her with her pile.
Abby: 'MOM! Stop messing up my pile! It's rude.'
hmmm. I wonder where she heard that word. :)

Scene: Abby is "helping" Tyrel put a license plate on the scout trailer and a mosquito lands on him. (I'm not exactly sure what Tyrel said but I will improvise.)
Tyrel: 'Got him'
Abby: 'What's the matter Daddy?'
Tyrel: 'A mosquito landed on me'
Abby: 'Oh no, that's terrible'
That's a pretty big word for a little girl. lol

Now here is a random one that I shouldn't have laughed at but I did anyway. This just happened out of the blue.
Abby: 'Mommy, I say heck.'
great...

sigh.

This happened a little while ago but it is a good example of what can happen when a mom is too tired to get out of bed so she tells her 2 1/2 year old to find some cereal but that 2 1/2 year finds fingernail polish instead.......

.

It was all over the floor but luckily it was the kitchen floor. Easy cleanup.

Camping at Henry's Lake

Henry's Lake
Abby being a weirdo

Jaiden being cute but do not be fooled by this smile, she cried most of the time. :(
Hopefully our next camping trip will be more successful!

Mouse Story

This story begins at the end of December when I saw some black things on our carpet. I asked Tyrel casually if they were mouse poop and after he carefully inspected them, he replied that they weren't. I cleaned up the mess and went on with my life all the while thinking 'of course it's not mouse poop, how could a mouse get into our house!' Later that night, Tyrel runs into our bedroom telling me to hurry and get up because, guess what, he saw a mouse!! He for some reason thought I would help him kill it, silly Tyrel, but I just stood on a chair and screamed when I saw it run by. Needless to say the mouse escaped, Tyrel was annoyed with me, and I did not sleep well that night. The next day was spent with me buying mouse traps and my mom helping me search for the mouse. We tried to track it down by following it's trail of droppings and that trail led to my bedroom. (shudder) I placed mouse traps throughout the bedroom and bathroom but I am not an expert on mouse traps and put too much peanut butter on it. The mouse swiped the peanut butter and left new droppings in our closet. As soon as Tyrel came home I told him where the mouse had been. He shut himself in the closet, blocked both doors so there would be no escape for the mouse and came out 5 minutes later saying the mouse was not there anymore. I cleaned up the closet mouse droppings and have not seen any sign of the mouse anywhere in our house. We figured he went down the vent and died.
My story continues 5 months later.....
So last night after a very hectic night involving me loading up kids, doing a lot of running, and shutting off a linear end gun a couple times (don't ask), it was 10:00 before I got home and was settling the kids down so they could go to bed. As I sat in my comfy rocking chair giving Jaiden her bedtime bottle, I saw something run out from under the couch and over to Abby's toys. My heart jumped and I gasped. Abby asked me what was wrong and I didn't know if I should tell her the truth or lie so she wouldn't grow up being as scared as mice as me but in the end I told the truth and proceeded to tell her to get my phone so I could call Tyrel (I had to stay where I was to watch the mouse in case he escaped again). I thought my phone was in my jacket and she brought my jacket but there was no phone and I panicked. I told Abby to find my phone and she was running around the house saying 'I don't know, I don't know. Where's your phone mommy? Oh no, a mouse. I don't know, where's your phone.' (That part was really funny) Luckily I heard Tyrel's four wheeler pull into the shop and told Abby to run and yell for daddy, so she runs and opens our screen door and starts yelling 'DADDY'. He thinks she is just excited to see him and doesn't think anything about it, so I tell her to tell him there is a mouse in the house. She goes back to the door and yells 'DADDY MOUSE' and he still doesn't think anything about it so I tell her to tell him that it's in the house so she yells 'DADDY MOUSE IN HOUSE'. Finally we have his attention and he comes in right away. Just then the mouse runs by me again and runs over by Abby's other tote of toys and Tyrel comes to take over. We block the area with boxes so the mouse can't escape but the dang thing runs up the broom I had over there but luckily jumps into one of the boxes. HA, we have him trapped. Tyrel take the box outside so that there will be no chance for escape in our house again and I won't go into many details about how we killed the mouse but I will say that it involved a wheelbarrow and a water hose and the mouse is definitely dead and Abby is definitely scarred from the whole experience. She woke up at 1:00 in the morning and climbed into our bed while crying about a mouse. (oops, I guess I should have handled the situation better :)) With our luck, it was probably a different mouse too. (sigh)

Day of Firsts

There were only 2 firsts, one was cute and the other was not so cute. You be the judge.

Jaiden's first ponytail (she did not like it)

Abby trying to get her own cereal while I was in the shower.

Luckily the milk was almost gone!

6 months old!!!

Okay, technically Jaiden is 6 months and 4 days. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!! (she is half laughing and half crying in this picture)

Happy Birthday!!

It's Tyrel's Birthday!!! Okay, so he doesn't really care about his birthday but I do. He told me not to get him anything but of course I did anyway. He probably won't like what I got him and that's okay because one of the things is more for me anyway. (hehehe) The poor guy is stuck in his tractor planting away, so he really isn't going to have much of a birthday but the rain is coming so with any luck he just might get off early tonight! (I won't hold my breath, though) By the way, he turned 26!

Sad News

I can't believe how bad I am at updating this blog! It's not that I have nothing to write, I'm just lazy. Well, I guess I will start by telling you that we lost our dog, Lucy, yesterday. She was hit on the road. It was a really crappy start to the week. I can't believe she is gone. Abby hasn't asked about her yet and I'm glad because I think I would break down and cry. She was such a good dog and we will miss her. We also woke up to a lot of snow on the ground today, so that hasn't helped my mood this week. Sorry to be so gloomy. I will write about happier things now.

It was nice and sunny last week so I did get a bit of yard work done. Okay, my dad did most of it but that's only because Jaiden wouldn't lay down and take a nap but as soon as she did, I helped him. We also got to have Abby's cousin Ellie stay with us for a few days. Ellie and Abby had a blast playing with each other although they did have their arguments but what can you expect from two head strong little girls!

Tyrel has been in a tractor planting potatoes for the past week so I haven't seen much of him lately. I have to laugh when other wives say they never see their husbands because they leave at 7:00 in the morning and don't get home until 8:00 or 8:30 at night. Tyrel leaves at 6:30 usually doesn't get home until 11:00 or later. He came home at 10:00 the other night and I didn't know what to do because I'm just used to being alone and doing whatever I want. Ya gotta love being a farmer's wife. I do take him lunch and dinner sometimes and yesterday Jaiden got to go for her first tractor ride! It's just the first of many, I'm sure. The picture below is Abby and Ellie riding in the tractor last week but there wasn't room for Jaiden and me so that is a picture of Jaiden chillin' in the old red pickup while we waited. I did take a picture of Jaiden when she went for her tractor ride but it was on my phone. I'm not quite sure how to upload it to the computer yet.