Visiting with Santa

UPDATE: Here are the professional pictures that were taken with santa....




We got to visit with Santa again this year. It was really cute this year too! My Mom and Shane were in Moab so they missed it but my Dad came along. Shayna wanted to give Santa a Christmas book, a picture that she drew and her wish list. Britton just gave him his wish list.

Santa was really fun this year. He liked Shayna's sweater and asked her if it was the one he made. He even looked at the tag to see if it was his work. When Shay handed him the book he told her how perfect it was. He said that he was going to the Hospital to visit the kids that have cancer and he was very excited to read the story to them. He told her she just made some kids very happy! And of course Santa loved Shay's picture and their wish lists.


Neither one of these pictures are very good quality. I took them with my phone. I'm excited to get the professional ones. I should be getting it any day now.

Afterwards my Dad took us to breakfast. It was really good and we had a great time just sitting and visiting. Thanks Dad! As soon as we were done eating we had to run home and get Britton ready for his soccer game. Unfortunately they lost.

After Soccer my Dad came over for dinner and we watched the rodeo. Good luck Cody and Jesse Wright.....were cheering for ya! Hopefully we will get to watch you in person next year, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Winter

When we got home from Nebraska we had a ton of snow. The kids were too sick after our first snow storm so I wouldn't let them go out. When they saw all the snow from the second snow storm there was no way they were staying inside.


I didn't get that great of pictures. I didn't want to go out so I stood in the doorway, snapped a picture and went back in.

Nebraska

Tylers little brother, Jordan got married in Nebraska over Thanksgiving weekend. We left early Thanksgiving morning for our little adventure. We stayed the first night in Laramie Wyoming. I can't even begin to explain how cold it was. And the wind was INSANE. But the kids had fun swimming in the pool with their Cousins Beckham and Mckye. I took my camera with me and never took one picture. I actually lost my camera while on this trip and didn't find it until we unpacked when we got home. Tyler knew where the camera was the whole time, he just failed to inform me. All of the pictures are off of my Mother-in-Laws camera. Thank you Merilyn for sending them to me.

The next morning (Friday) we woke up bright and early. After breakfast we headed on to Grant Nebraska. Kolay's family are dog breeders so we went to her house to see all of the dogs. I couldn't believe how many they had. And they were all so cute. It was really hard to come home without a puppy.

Mckye, Jonny, Jordan, Kurt (Kolay's Dad) Tyler, Shayna, me, Merilyn (my Mother-in-Law) Britton and Beckham

We left Kolays house and went to the church for the wedding rehearsal and family dinner. Grant Nebraska is such a small town the we had to drive to Ogallala Nebraska for a Hotel. It was only about 20 minutes away. We got back to our Hotel room around 8:45 pm and let the kids go swimming. They were begging us the whole night and we don't get to do it often so we gave in and let them enjoy themselves.

We knew some bad weather was coming in so we wanted to try to leave a day earlier so Saturday morning we had to be checked out of our hotel room by 11:00. Nobody in Tyler's family, including us, thought about where we would get ready for the wedding if we all had to be checked out by 11:00. We didn't have to be to the church until 3:30 for pictures. Jordan and Kolay were nice enough to let us have their honeymoon suite to get ready in. The whole family piled into that room to get ready and let me just say it was CROWDED. Tyler and I were stressing over how dirty the place was getting. It's hard to keep a place clean and organized when there are so many people. Tyler went down to the front desk to ask them if they would clean the room again once we left if we left them a nice tip. Fortunately they would and some family members were able to pool some money together for the tip.

And we're off to the wedding.....

Tylers family. Carey, Kim, Shelley, Josh, Kolay, Jordan, Johnny, Tyler, Kelly, Dad and Mom Carver. Missing is Heidi and Mary. They were not able to make it.

The most handsome Ring Bearer I have ever seen! I just wish the picture didn't turn out so grainy.

The boys

The kiss! WAHOO!! Jordan's married! To a pretty fabulous girl I might add. I really love Kolay and her family are some of the nicest people I have met. I think they are both pretty lucky. Kolay's older sister made the cross that is in the back ground. It's beautiful.

Shayna was busy taking pictures to keep herself entertained while waiting for the wedding to begin.

Family Picture

My beautiful Niece Chamea with her little cousins.

Just a fraction of the kiddos.

We went to a different location for the reception. It was at the Fairgrounds. It was a good time. They had a really nice dinner for all of us and then there was dancing. Shayna was the best dancer out there. She was having so much fun.

I totally missed them cutting the cake. I had to take Shay to the restroom. I didn't know what was going on until Kolay came into the bathroom with cake all over her. ALL.OVER.HER. She had to rinse out her hair and wash her face....good times!

She got him back pretty good. He will be picking frosting out of his nose for days.

We left the reception sometime around 8:30 and headed back to the church to change our clothes. We had to drive back to Laramie, Wyoming for the night. We did it this way so we could have a head start on the weather that was supposed to be coming through. We made it to our room just after midnight and we all crashed.

We were up bright and early the next morning, went to breakfast, let the kids swim for a half hour and got ready for our drive home.

This is what we ran into.

luckily it didn't last that long and we didn't get into bad weather again until we got to Centerville, Utah. We were shocked by all the snow we came home to.

It was a really quick trip and we were all very tired when we got home but we had a great time and we are so glad we got to be a part of Jordan and Kolay's special day.

We are so proud of Shayna!

Shayna brings home a reading chart from school every month. For that whole month we have to write down how much she reads everyday. Shayna loves to read! In fact, a couple of months ago she was moved into a higher reading group. Now she is at the top of this reading group and they are looking into putting her in an even higher level. She reads every night before bed, she is always wanting to read me a story and she loves to read in the bath. Just like her Mom!


The other day Shay brought home a $10.00 gift card for Barnes and Noble from her teacher. She won it for having the most minutes read. The goal was 360 minutes. Shayna had well over 800.

Yes, we are very proud!

It still has not ended.

Why can't we get over this. I am so sick of it. Last Wednesday my Grandma came into town and we were all excited to get to spend some time with her. We had all kinds of fun plans but when I got home from work Shayna told me she wasn't feeling very well. She wouldn't eat dinner and about a half hour later she started throwing up. She threw up every half hour until 3:30 in the morning. We finally got a little break until it started happening again at 6:30 am. Needless to say she did not go to school and I did not go to work. I woke Britton up at 7:30 to start getting him ready for school. He couldn't eat his breakfast and was complaining of a tummy ache. I decided to keep him home from school as well which was a good thing because at 8:45 he started to throw up. Friday they were feeling a little better but I kept them home from school just to let them rest. I spent all day. And I mean ALL DAY disinfecting my house. Door knobs, light switches, you name it, it was cleaned. The flue bug really creeps me out so I always go on a disinfecting frenzy. Britton started doing really well and was getting his appetite back so on Saturday afternoon we let him play in his soccer game. Shay still wasn't feeling great but she had not thrown up since Thursday morning so I thought she would be ok to go. We met my parents and Grandma at the game. This is the first time I was able to spend any time with my Grandma since she got here. The teams tied 1-1. Britton scored their only goal. It was a fun game to watch. Very intense. As soon as we got in the car Shayna started throwing up again. I was a bit frustrated at this point because we had a big Thanksgiving meal planned with my Grandma. We won't be here for Thanksgiving, we will be on our way to Nebraska. That's another story for another day....So instead of heading over to my Parent's we went home to rest for a bit. Shay was feeling much better. She said she just had one more bug in her tummy that she needed to get out and since she threw up she thought she would be just fine. So Tyler went out and rented her a movie and we headed over to my parents house and had her lay down to watch her show and we got to visit with Grandma and eat a very delicious Thanksgiving meal. Shayna and Britton were even able to eat some mashed potatoes. At some point in the middle of the night on Saturday Tyler woke up with a terrible sore throat. Sunday morning he wasn't feeling that great and was talking a couple of octaves lower. The kids were doing really well until about 5:00 PM when they came down with a nasty bout of diarrhea. Gross I know but I'm just trying to explain why I am so frustrated and tired. Here we are today, Monday morning and Tyler went to work, the kids went to school even though they don't feel awesome. I'm just waiting for a phone call, and I am at work trying not to puke. Yep. I feel like crap again. I hope I am just feeling like this because I am stressed over the kids not feeling well. We have missed so much work and school this month that I'm a little overwhelmed. I hope that we are all back to normal by Thursday. We sure do have a long ride!

After all that I feel a little better, Thank you blogging world for letting me vent.

Seriously, how long is it going to last?

First it started with Shayna. Sore throat, fever, cough. Then my Dad got it. Then Britton, then my Mom and finally me. But when I got it I just had to get the stomach flu on top of it. I guess I felt I had to out do everyone else.

We worked really hard on getting my Parents and Britton feeling well enough that we could go to the RSL game last Saturday. We succeeded and I think we all had a great time. I know my Mom and Britton didn't feel the best but they were troopers and made it through. I'm so glad we were able to go because it was the last game of the season.

I was so sick on Monday that I missed Britton's parent/teacher conference. I hate that I missed it. I felt so bad for not going but Britton let me know that it would be ok. I knew that he would have a good report and there would be nothing to talk about but I love hearing other people say how wonderful my child is. I was really disappointed I missed out. Tyler went and got to hear all the amazing things Britton has done so far this year. Britton is one smart kid.

I started with my nasty sickness in the middle of the night on Saturday/Sunday morning. I missed two days of work and I still feel like crap. My Parents are still struggling to get better and now Shayna has a rash all over her body. It looks like we will be taking her to the Doctor for the second time since this all started.....YIPPEE!

So anyway, the reason I am writing about all of this is because I owe a HUGE Thank you to Tyler. He really deserves the Husband/Dad of the year award. I layed on the couch for three days straight and he took care of everything. He made sure the kids were well fed, bathed, had their homework done, got their half hour of reading in, made it to Parent/Teacher conference, got the kids clothes ironed for school, took Shay to ballet, went grocery shopping and all the while was taking care of me by getting me drinks and medication and making sure I was covered with blankets and getting me the small amount of food I could eat. He even went and bought me a smoothie. And you know what, he never complained, not once. He is such an amazing Husband and Dad. I owe him BIG TIME!!

Right now I'm just hoping and praying he doesn't end up with this.

Thanks for everything Tyler, you really are the BEST!!!

Crazy busy Halloween

Friday the kids didn't have school so we stayed home and made cookies. My Mom made the dough and then both Mom and Dad came over to help the kids cut out and decorate the cookies.

Britton wasn't really into it this year so he didn't help much. Shayna wasn't feeling very well so she didn't last long and my Dad started feeling sick so they left as soon as it was time to start baking.

So that left me to do the baking and decorating. I didn't mind, I actually like to do that kind of stuff.

But there is no picture of the finished project.

Charleen stopped by to drop off a book she made for Shane's 40th Birthday. It turned out really neat. She also gave the kids a Halloween prize. Thank you Charleen that was very nice of you!

Saturday was the busiest day of all. Britton had his first indoor soccer game at 8:40 am.

The score of the game was 7 - 0. Unfortunately we were the ones that lost. We only have three kids on our team that has ever played indoor before. But they are all good player's so I think once they have a couple of practices and learn how to play together they will be a really good team. Here's to hoping!

After the game I picked up Shane and we ran some errands and went grocery shopping, after I dropped him off at work and got his grocery's put away I headed back home in time to get my groceries put away and have my Mom come over (Dad is still sick) for Halloween festivities, which included watching RSL, then getting Shane from work, eating a fun dinner and trick or treating

For dinner we ate Mummy's and eyeballs and fingers......delicious!

Since we live in Utah we went Trick-or-treating on Saturday. Which I was kind of bugged about, only because Shayna wasn't feeling very well and the weather was crappy.

The weather kept us from doing much trick-or-treating. It was raining pretty hard and with Shay not feeling well I was too nervous to let her be out for too long. But all in all we had a good time.

Since Sunday was actually Halloween I felt like we needed to do something to celebrate. What's a better way to celebrate then by making caramel apples. YUMMY! I didn't take any pictures because they looked just as bad as the last time I made them. Someday I will master the caramel apple.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!