Merry Christmas

 It was an early morning full of crack-of-dawn Christmas excitement.

Even Isabella, who was sick with an ear infection, got into the Christmas spirit.

 I'm still recovering from yesterday's sugar overload.














I have to say, these things sure are harder to make than they  look like in the magazines. Good thing, my friend Megan is a super cake architect because she brought our crooked little house back to life.

Isabella is psyched to get into the kitchen and tryout her new apron and hot pads. 


This year's biggest surprise was our new friend Mr. Bun Bun. Not a very dignified name for such a stealthy little rabbit, we have to think of something better.

We thought we lost the little guy, but he finally showed up six hours later. He had been hiding out on the bottom shelf of a book case, nibbling away on one of Andrew's old text books. At least someone got some use out of the book.

We hope everyone is having a happy holiday!!

Question Tuesday

As I was digging through my boxes in the storage room looking for all my Christmas decorations to put out.

1. I was amazed/horrified at the amount of stuff I have crammed into that room.


2. I was like a little child going through all the boxes looking for lost treasure/junk.


3. I wondered out loud how we would ever dispose of all the lost treasure/junk if we ever moved?

But then I stumbled upon a box that had various sizes of video in it. I wondered if this was the lost video of daughter number one. When she was so tiny just learning how to walk, and how to share her corn on the cob with her favorite dog duchess. A video worthy of a spot on America's Funniest Videos.

I quickly went and dusted off the VCR and put in the first tape and relived the first days of her life. I soon realized that this wasn't the lost tape but it brought back so many forgotten memories of her younger days. We watched as a family as she learned to crawl, walk and talk.

It was time to move on the smaller cassette tapes which required daughter number two to retrieve the video camera as we have no player for the smaller tapes. I soon remembered why I quit using the camera. You can watch video on the TV but not able to see through the view finder any longer. We watched about five hours of both girls learning how to do many things, playing with the cousins, friends and each other.

I was surprised at how many little things the girls did then that I had forgotten about.

Fast forward to 2010, I have been taking some video of Trey on my Kodak camera. Just a minute shot here and there, as that is all it is able to do. I decided after watching all the video I need to invest in a new camera so these moments were not lost with Trey.

1. First Question: What kind of video camera do you recommend? Best places to purchase such camera?
2. Second Question: Is there some sort of program to transfer the VHS and 8mm (I think that is what they are called) tapes to DVDs?

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime I will finish Christmas decorating and looking for the lost video tape.

The Great Pumpkin Massacre of 2010

This summer I bought some twenty-five cent clearance plants at Menards.

The were marked as being Doral Melons and I had never grown those, so I 

figured what the hell and decided to give them a try.

It turned out that they were not melons at all --- they were pumpkins.

Atlantic Giant Pumpkins.

The grasshoppers ate all but one,

but one was all that we needed.

We grew an 80 pound monster .
Okay, okay, so maybe 80 pounds doesn't constitute a monster
when one considers that the record is 1,785 pounds, but when
you thought you were growing a melon --  trust me, it's a monster!

I decided to give it to the nieces and nephews
and I was lucky enough to get to help carve it.


Okay, truth be told, I just wanted to get some seeds for next summer
and I didn't trust Dani not to roast all of them.




We drove up early Halloween morning.


It was a family affair, so we all bundled up and headed out.

Is he not just the cutest little bugger?!

I cut the back out and we scooped out the guts.

Dani made the first cut and cut the first eye while Krista
patiently waited her turn.

Of course, shorts probably weren't the best choice
because it was C-O-L-D!

Dani chose the nose, and then Krista went Harry Potter on the mouth.
(Did you know it's only 12 days until the next movie comes out?)

Tucker wasn't too sure about the final result ....

.... but I thought it turned out quite good.

We went inside to do the little ones
because it was so cold.

Of course, I opted to hog the nephew instead of playing in pumpkin goop.

I'm telling ya .... he's the cutest.

Just ask Jack.

Full Circle

 Recently I was asked if I kept in contact with any of the sixteen foster kids that had spent time with us.  I explained that we knew where most of them were, but that we were not in contact with them.  We've always left that up to the kids and once they are reunited with their biological families, our job is over.  It's hard and that's what eventually led us to stop taking in kids.

But the question stuck with me.

It bothered me because Ann, our good friend at The Woodshed, had explained to me a long time ago that most of them wouldn't even remember us.  It appeared as though she was right.

And then, one Monday in October, I received a call at school.

It was from Brandon, one of the boys for whom we had become legal guardians.

"Do you remember me?" he asked after he had identified himself.

"Remember you?  I could never forget you," I replied.

We agreed to meet for supper the next night.

When I got home from school I drug out the boxes and boxes of photos.

We had always had duplicates made, thinking that someday the boys might want them.

I'm glad that we did because he doesn't have many photos from his childhood.

His favorite book in the whole world was The Little Red Hen.

We read it at least every other night.

We spent many hours working together in the garden.

But it wasn't always all work and no play ....

We had a great time with our Super Soaker guns.

I taught him how to ride a bike.

He dearly loved playing dress-up with Marissa.

We celebrated holidays 

.... and birthdays .....

(Woodshed Annie with Nick and Brandon0

(Brandon's birthday the night Mardell brought home four more kids)

(Brandon, Michael J., and Nick on Michael's birthday after a supper of grilled burgers and smores)

(My 30th birthday .... ye gads, that was a long time ago!)

(Nick's birthday with the caseworker and her son ---- I named my donkey after her)

We also went to the fair and took in the carnival

and visited Cabela's in Sidney.

But mostly, we just hung out like most families.

We've come full circle now .....

and have met his fiance.

It's been fun reconnecting and he is looking forward

to reuniting with the rest of the family as well.

the little man

You got to love chocolate!

our summer vacation

It's been a long time since I've posted because I'm too scattered to get it together to write anything, but here's a belated hodge podge from our summer vacation.


We took an extremely long road trip to good ol' Nebraska in August.

We stopped at our town's claim to fame, Carhenge.

 and spent a little time at the fair. We took a moment out of the busy schedule to snap a few shots of the three sisters.

Then we went by some of my old summertime favorite places: Zesto's

 and the fountain at city park.

 Then, we cruised over to Boulder for a day before heading back West.

Now I'm daydreaming about where I secretly want to  sneak away to with the other nerds of the family. . . .

http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/

My House

Scenes from my house

puppies wanting a snack

baby wanting a snack

puppy taking a cat nap

baby fighting off a cat nap

puppy wanting to play

baby wanting to play

puppy posing for a picture

baby posing for a picture




puppy sleeping

baby sleeping