Santa Claus Came To Town!!!!!

WOW did we have a big Christmas!!! I think Santa went a little crazy this year, although Santa goes crazy every year if it's a Walpole Christmas. The kids had an absolutely amazing time opening all their presents. The big Barbie house turned out great considering it was painted an ugly barney-purple on the outside and nothing on the inside when I got it. Now it's adorable and the girls can't stop playing with it. It's definitely big enough that they can share. Brandon's shed turned out great too, especially since I had to help Douglas build it. He separated his shoulder in a snowboarding accident on December 19th so he couldn't really do much with his right arm. That was quite the experience! Brandon is really excited to have somewhere to park his big tractors and it's sturdy enough for them to climb all over it too. Brandon got TONS of Legos, which is keeping him very busy. For the first time in his life he will disappear into his room for hours and I don't hear a peep out of him. They all love the new train table too. Brandon got an electric Lego train to go on it but we also got a Thomas train set to go on it too. The girls think their new playhouse is super cool, especially because there are two parts to it so there's room for both of them to play. Douglas spoiled me, but I think I kind of spoiled him too so it all worked out okay. Brandon made us an adorable wreath at school that he couldn't wait for us to open so we had to open it early. He was very proud of his hard work! We were very grateful to be able to spend time with family. We know some loved ones who have been having an incredibly difficult time lately and we hope that everyone will have a better year in 2010. You are in our prayers and we love you! There were so many Christmas pictures it was easier to do a slide show than try to post them all individually. Enjoy!

A little holiday fun!

For Thanksgiving we had our first dinner around noon with my in-laws and then we had our second dinner at my parents' around 5:00. So much turkey! One Thanksgiving dinner is big enough but doing two in one day makes me full for about a week. I made a ton of pies this year for family and friends. I ended up making 3 pumpkin, 2 peach, 2 apple, 1 blueberry, 1 cherry, 3 banana cream and 1 french silk. Here's a picture of my pretty cherry and blueberry pies. Yum! I did quite a bit of Black Friday shopping this year. I got up early and left the kids at home with Douglas so I could get it done fast. When I got home Douglas was putting the lights on the house so I helped him finish that and then we put up the tree. The kids had a ton of fun with that. It's a good thing we don't have too many breakable ornaments! We each get an ornament every year that represents something we did that year or something we really enjoyed that year so it makes it really fun to look all the ornaments. Then, of course, my family just did their 3rd annual Gingerbread house contest. It was a lot of fun, as usual. The kids love to help decorate the house! I don't know if we have picked a winner yet for this year but here is our house. Kind of cute isn't it? I liked our house last year better. Douglas had to make sure he had his dog house to stay in when he's in trouble.

Katie's Birthday and Halloween!!

WOW...I can't believe my baby is already 3!!! She was so small when I brought my little preemie home from the hospital and the sticky tabs to keep the oxygen tubes on her face were almost bigger than her face. She was very insistent that she wanted a castle cake but it had to have Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White on it. She is my most stubborn child by far but she also has a very contagious sweet smile. And of course we can't forget Halloween! This year Brandon was a green Power Ranger, Emily was Tinkerbell, and Katie was a pink fairy. They were so darn cute! (Of course I may be a little biased) I took them to Centerra for their Halloween Hullabaloo in the afternoon and then Douglas took them trick-or-treating. They had an absolute blast!!! Now I just have to figure out what to do with all of that candy...

Brandon's Birthday Bash!!

Wow I can't believe my sweet little Brandon is already six! It doesn't seem like it has been that long since I had him. He is such a huge part of our family! He is such a peacemaker with his sisters and very helpful to his mommy. He is so smart and the things he says sometimes absolutely crack me up! And, of course, he idolizes his dad in every way and wants to be just like him. He says his dad is his best friend. Of course we'll see if he still feels that way in 10 years... I went to a Billy Currington concert a little over a week ago with some girls for a girls night out. It was fun! Of course it helped that women got in for free :) Here is a picture of all of us with the good morning guys from K99 before the concert started.

Summer Has Come To An End

Wow...summer is already gone and it's fall. I can't believe it! I've been completely slacking in the blog department. Oh well. I love summer but I also love all the beautiful colors of fall. (It's just that darn winter I don't like). The kids have been busy spending most of their time outside riding their bikes. That's their favorite thing to do! Teaching the preschool class has been fun too. The kids are absolutely hilarious! They sure keep me on my toes. Of course Emily's best boyfriend Sean is in the class so I have to keep an eye on those two. When I took everyone for a walk they were walking about 10 feet behind everyone else holding hands. They're only 4 years old! They're cute though.

I've been super busy canning the last few weeks. It's been a lot of fun and it's really scrumptious too! I canned green beans, corn, tomatoes, salsa, spaghetti sauce, peaches, peach jam, pears, and pear jam. Of course it's hard to find the time to do canning between the preschool class, volunteering in Brandon's class, being a SAHM, and doing my medical transcription work but it's definitely rewarding. About a week and a half ago poor Brandon was very sick. He was fine at school but started to complain of a sore throat after he got home. Then by that evening he had a temperature of 103! When he woke up in the morning he was crying so hard because his throat hurt and when I looked it was almost swollen shut and it looked so painful. I decided to take him to urgent care and when we were in the waiting room he broke out in a rash from head to toe. Turns out he had scarlet fever, which was a little scary! It's a good thing I got him to the doctor quickly. If scarlet fever doesn't get treated fast it can be very bad. Of course by the next morning he was pretty much back to himself again. Antibiotics are GREAT! I felt bad for my poor little guy. By the way, the kids picked the song for the slide show. They were dancing all over the house to the music :)

School starts already????

Brandon had his first day of kindergarten today. He was soooo excited to ride the bus and it was actually on time in the morning (which is a HUGE accomplishment for the buses around here). Of course it was 20 minutes late in the afternoon and they told me the wrong place to pick him up, but we got it all figured out. He got lost on his way to class this morning so they had to hunt him down but they found him and got him to class. He absolutely loves his new teacher, Mrs. Carlstrom. She seems to be really sweet. I hope he'll make some great friends in his class because he doesn't know anyone there. Last week we had some terrible hail. In fact it was the worst hailstorm I've ever seen! Just the first hailstorm lasted 20 minutes and then there were two more after that. Unfortunately our poor garden didn't do so well with all of the hail. Our 15 tomato plants were just getting lots of big red tomatoes on them too. Now they're all mush and most of the tomatoes got knocked to the ground. Our cucumbers are completely gone and our zucchinis are shredded but trying so hard to survive. Our peas were knocked to the ground so they died too. Oh well...maybe we'll have better luck next year. I made some new dresses for Emmy and Katie. They love them! Of course they love all dresses. They're just dresses kind of girls. Somedays it's a battle to get them to wear anything else! I'd only had the material for like three months before I actually got them done. I think I often have too many ideas and not enough time to do them!

Summer Fun!

We've had an incredibly busy July and it's only half over!!!!! Of course it started out absolutely amazing with Justin, Jamie, and Lexi in town for the 4th of July =). We had the usual completely chaotic 4th of July out at the farm like we do every year. Luckily no one got blown up and they did a very impressive fireworks show! Of course we started off with a nice big breakfast to get ready for the day. I can't believe how many kids there are in the family now! We're taking over the world one Walpole at a time! Then of course we had to make homemade root beer, which the kids thought was so cool because we used dry ice and it looked like witch's brew. The kids had the most fun with the fireworks though. The loved the sparklers and the little snappers too!Then the next week my Uncle Kirby and his family came to visit for a few days. It was great to see all of them again. We had a great time playing Farkle! Today was my little Emmy's 4th birthday. She's growing up so fast! She had a great time at her party. Her favorite part was opening the presents of course! We had all of her cousins who live close come to a party at our house. Emily really wanted an Ariel cake this year (she has always loved Ariel) but I had never done one like this before. It was fun and I think it turned out okay. Of course it could be better, but she loved it anyway. When Douglas got home we took the kids to the Windsor Lake to swim. It was tons of fun! The kids are little fishes I swear! We had to literally drag Katie out of the water even though her little chin was quivering really bad. We'll have to go back again soon. Of course I think our next big adventure is going to be Elitches because all of our kids are finally big enough to ride the kid rides. Yay!

Camping at Hermit Park

We just had our 2nd Annual Lage Family Camping Trip at Hermit Park. The kids had an absolute BLAST there. We went on several little hikes, had lots of campfires, and the kids were so excited that they saw deer. Overall it was a good trip with no big issues although Emily did bite her glow stick and it exploded in her mouth and all over her face. Apparently it burns but it's nontoxic so we just had to wait a few minutes for the burning to stop. Oh and then a couple minutes later Brandon forgot the grill was hot and touched that, but it had been off for a little while so he didn't really get burned. Katie refused to go to poop in the purple porta-potty so we had to eventually go into town to find her a real bathroom because she was trying to hold it the whole trip. But the smores, banana boats, and roasting hot dogs over the fire made it all worthwhile. I'm just glad we only do it once a year...

Oh and here's a picture of the strawberry cake I made my father-in-law for his birthday/father's day (they were the same day). Yummy!

Little Mud Monsters

Last Saturday when we were out at the farm my darling little angels found a huge mud puddle thanks to all the rain we've been getting. Now while all the other children there would only get their feet in the puddle, my kids dove in head first (literally)! I thought for sure their clothes were ruined but I actually got them all clean. I couldn't help but laugh my butt off at them. There were so darn cute! I just hope they don't do it again...but kids will be kids. Then a couple of weeks ago we went for a family hike up in the mountains. The kids absolutely loved it. It was good to get out and have some family time in the great outdoors. It was a two-mile hike, one mile up and one mile down, but we ascended 460 feet in that one mile. That was quite a hike for a 2-year-old! They did a great job though and then we had a nice picnic in the park after with my parents and Patti and her girls. Then grandpa took the kids fishing, which of course they loved! Just make sure to keep your distance when they are casting their little fishing poles. It can be dangerous! Now they are super excited for our big camping trip in a couple of weeks. Here's some picture of our hike!

Holy Tornadoes Batman!

We've had several stormy afternoons and it's starting to get kind of old. Yesterday we had a tornado on the ground in Severance with lots of hail, wind, and of course rain. This is a picture that was taken over Severance from 392 yesterday afternoon. My poor garden is looking a little shabby after all the hail we've had and of course we're supposed to get more storms today again...yay!

Those Little Moments...

So all parents have those times when they feel like they are at the end of their rope. (At least I think all parents do, but maybe it's just me.) Like for example yesterday we lost Katie's cup at my in-laws house. I looked upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside, and everywhere else I could think of but it just wasn't there. Now you have to understand that Katie is pretty fond of her sacred red sippy cup. She does not like to go to bed without it. We thought that we could get her to go to bed with another cup but boy were we wrong.... At first it seemed okay. She wasn't screaming as much as the last time we tried this. In fact, she hardly screamed at all. The only problem was that she couldn't fall asleep. Apparently she has to have the sacred red sippy cup in order to fall asleep. So after putting her back in bed several times, scolding her, ignoring her, and even finally yelling at her, we had no luck. She even wet the bed in order to stay awake! She refused to go to sleep. Finally I got tired enough that I just figured as long as she stayed in her room and was quiet I didn't care what she was doing, I was going to go to sleep. Well I was almost asleep (you know that nice happy comfortable place before you fall asleep) when I heard the little pitter-patter of her little feet coming across the house. So I thought maybe if I ignore her and pretend to be sleeping she will go away. Once again I was wrong. I heard a little "mommy, mommy, mommy" and I didn't respond but then suddenly WHAP! She hit me in the face with her magic wand and said "Look mommy, I'm a pretty princess." So let's just say I was definitely not a happy mommy and I roll over and look at her and sure enough she is dressed like a princess from head to toe including the crown and glass slippers. I couldn't help but laugh even though I was tired beyond belief and incredibly grumpy by this time. I admit I thought of duct taping her to her bed but of course I didn't. My little princess eventually went to sleep but needless to say that today we are going to the store to buy a new red sippy cup. The moral of the story is never lose your sense of humor...some days it may be the only thing that keeps you going! And apparently my darling 3 year old daughter has her first boyfriend. I didn't even know she knew what a boyfriend was but she says he loves her and she loves him and they were rubbing each other backs and hugging the other day...scary! For those of you who haven't seen it, this is the infamous Brandon E-brake in his gator! It starts already....

Springtime fun!

Boy it seems like life just gets busier and busier doesn't it? There is always more than you can do and less time to do it in, but that makes life interesting. I am soooo glad that the warm weather is FINALLY here. It took long enough. I was wondering if it would ever come. It seems like the warm weather makes everybody happier. Or maybe it just makes mommy happier and when mommy is happy then everybody else is happy too. :) It's been good for all of us to get outside. The kids have been really enjoying the warmer weather! They especially love to spend their days in water, whether it's in their pool, running through the sprinkler, or playing in the gutters. What can I say, they're my little fishes! The other day I walked out into the garage and saw my darling little Brandon "fixing" his little John Deere Gator. I swear that kid is JUST like his dad in some ways. It was really cute though because he had the front wheels up on empty flower pots and he was underneath it working on it. He is 100% boy! He's growing up way too fast. Then of course we have the adorable stepping stones that my mom helped my kids make me for Mother's Day. They decorated them by themselves and they are perfect for my rose garden. They are really cute. Douglas got me four more rose bushes for my rose garden to go with it. Now I just have to get some more kids enrolled for my preschool classes next year. I am super excited to do the preschool! I'm putting together a curriculum packed full of fun stuff. The kids will absolutely love it.