Ha ha...

Recently Jacob's hair was getting really long. We needed to get it cut but could never find the time to take him to the barber. So, I had an idea. Why don't we just straighten it??? Here is the end result. This is too cute!

Happy Birthday Jesus...

We had an amazing Christmas this year. I am so in love with my husband. I love him more now than I did the day I married him. He is kind and gentle and I just love that man... Anyway, we spent the day with our family and celebrated and ate... It was such a glorious day. One of the best parts of the day was learning how to use my new camera. My wonderful husband bought me an AMAZING camera. It looks like (according to my kids) a paparazzi camera!! :0) I love it because he bought it with such care, but also because I can take pictures of my beautiful babies. I just love the thought of taking picture after picture of them doing crazy things. (This might explain future postings and crazy pictures). :0)

Happy Birthday Jesus... And Merry Christmas everyone!

Snow bunny and Christmas play~

Alyssa was in a Christmas play at my mom's church last night. She was magnificent. I guess life comes full circle because I was in the same play about twenty years ago (did I just say that???). Actually it was longer than that!! Anyway, here are two pictures of her in the play and one picture of my little snow bunny. Jada says the best part about snow is eating it! :0)

How do you get out of snow?

You dig your way out of course!! We finally dug our way out Friday afternoon. We were able to go to the grocery store to get some essentials but when we got home we got stuck in our driveway. See, it's up hill on the way in... :0) Here is a picture of my husband and Jada shoveling the driveway. It was too cute not to snap a picture of... I also included a picture of our truck stuck in the driveway and an updated picture of our house (still buried in snow) and I couldn't resist including a picture of the truck that got stuck in front of my house. Believe it or not there actually is a paved road under that truck somewhere!!

A trip to the end of our street...

I just can't stop adding pictures!! The first picture was taken from the end of my street. Brittani had a tournament to go to and we needed to figure out a way to get her out of the house. We walked to the end of the street and saw that three other trucks were stuck on our street. Those trucks in the picture were literally stuck!!! I don't think people realize how bad the snow is. Heck, I don't even realize. When I am inside the house I keep saying to James, "It's not that bad. Why can't we just run out for milk?" But when I actually walked out there I could see how deep the road was buried. It is so odd to me to be trapped by only three hundred feet of snow. The main road to my house has been plowed so it is driveable. But my street and my driveway are too deep to muscle through.

**The picture of Alyssa is her at the end of our street walking through the snow.

**And of course the other picture is our house from the front. Keep in mind that there is a brick wall completely covered by snow, so essentially our street and yard are under two to three feet of snow!

And yet another...

Here are two more house comparison pictures (if you read this blog in order :0). You can look at the bottom of the house to see how much higher the snow is today than yesterday around noon. The first picture is today and the second is yesterday. And my poor trees, in front of the pillars, didn't make it. They froze and broke off yesterday! :0(

Kids in deep...

Here are two pictures of the kids outside. These pictures do not truly show how deep the snow is because the kids can't get all the way to the ground. There is too much ice under the snow.

Comparing more snow...

If you look at these two pictures of our snowman, the first picture is today and you can see that the snow is higher than the two foot wall. In yesterdays picture you can see that there is still about six inches of wall showing behind the snowman.

Comparing snow days

Well, the snow has finally stopped falling. It is sunny and cold, but no new snow. I went outside with boots on (they didn't help because the snow was higher than my knees) and took some pictures of the house today so everyone could see just how much snow we got yesterday.

***If you look at the two pictures of the house you can see how much snow has fallen. Look at the windows and see how much room is left between the snow and the window. In the first picture the snow is almost up to the window. And take a look at the brick wall next to the house. That wall is six feet high and the snow is at least half way up.

More snow!

I don't think people realize how much snow is falling in the HD. There is more snow outside my house than I have ever seen in my life!! The news says that the snow isn't that bad, but I have pictures to prove that it is really ridiculous.

We ventured outside with Jada for the first time, and by the way, she still believes Jesus brought this snow for her birthday! :0) She loved it, but only for a few minutes. She was more interested in eating it than in playing in it. AND~ we built a snowman! I have never built a snowman before, but we did it today. Here are some pictures of our morning...

Snow Day...

And happy birthday to my baby Jada... We woke up today and I told her that God had given her a special gift for her birthday, snow! So she keeps looking outside saying, "Look mommy, my snow!" It's adorable! And I took the day off so we could take Jada to Disneyland... but... guess we're stuck! We're snowed in! This is the worst snow I have seen here. I am posting some pictures of Jada at her birthday party, and some of our house this morning. If you look closely in the front yard, you may be able to see our upside down trampoline!!! :0)

Debbi and Shawn

So here is a picture of my sister and her new man. He is the best one yet! Love you guys...

Vacation...

My husband and I were able to go on a mini vacay last weekend and it was amazing. We didn't do anything to speak of, but we recharged our batteries and reconnected and it was soooo good. We spent a few days alone, and for those of you who know us that is a feat in itself, and we just did nothing. It was a great way for us to be reminded of why we love each other so much! :0)

Here is us in the hotel!

Jada reads...

I just had to show you my "smart girl." Jada loves to read so much. She has a few books that she reads over and over again, and she even "reads" one herself. The book, The Gink is her favorite and she can read the entire book by herself! And she is only two! Must take after her mommy... :0)

Such Love...

Looking at these pictures reminds me of what true love is...

Kudos and glasses to you my babies...

I'm just going to say it... My kids all have glasses! Brittani has needed them for quite a while, but now Jacob and Alyssa have them! I'm shocked that they all have such poor eyesight, but I must admit they look so stinkin' adorable!! Both Jacob and Ally got black framed glasses and they are so cute I could just smother them with kisses (much to their dismay). I can't help it though, they are really precious in those glasses.

Also... Jacob and Alyssa both finished up their sports seasons. Alyssa scored a few goals this year and had quite a few assists. She really rocks out there. And Jacob. Oh My!! He played like I have never seen him play before. He was AMAZING. He was full back, and middle line-backer and he was the best little dude out there (of course, he's my son)! He even made the All-Star team. Only 4 boys were picked and Jacob was one of them. I am so proud of him, of both of them. I just love being their mom! :0)

The Shack

Wow! I just read an amazing book. It's called The Shack. My mom forced me to read this book(ok, so forced is a little strong. Maybe she just persuaded me... ok, so scratch that too. Truth be told she just had it lying around and I begged her to let me read it). Anywhoo, she let me borrow her book and I literally ate it up (ok, so not literally, but I would have)... I loved it (and that is an understatement). It was powerful, and beautiful, and full of God... I loved it so much that I put a quote at the top of my blog from the book. The point is... READ IT! And then have a blessed day! :0) Like Papa says, "If anything matters, than everything matters!"

Thanks IHOP

So yesterday we went to IHOP after church and they were having a raffle. They have them quite often, infact, last time we were there Jacob won a backpack full of school supplies. So, we entered the girls in the raffle (because it was for a girl's bike) and Jada won!! The bike is way too big for her (and too small for Alyssa) but we were so shocked that she actually won it!! She looks so big in this picture. *Tear* I'm so sad that she is getting to be such a big girl. It makes my heart hurt... I want her to be a baby forever...

Sweet Dane Jordan...

Well, my sweet "nephew" Dane Jordan is here! I saw him the other day and he is one hot boy... :0) Tara had her baby Sept. 15. As you can see he takes after his auntie... :0) And he is really smart. He looked at me like he really understood what I was saying. I wonder if he is interested in older women... Huh Jada... :0) God is good!

Happy Halloween

We took the kids "trunk-or-treating" last night at Ally's school and the kids were so darn cute. Alyssa was a nice witch and Jada was a monkey. I wanted a warm costume for her, but all the warm ones seemed to be more "boyish" so I made some bows for the ears... And then everyone thought she was a dog!! Whateva... They were so adorable, even though Alyssa looked like an 18 year old woman!! She is hot! That's definitely a bad thing, but she is such a cutie! Dad, get the gun ready!! :0)

And another thing... everytime I look at this picture I am shocked that there are only two kids in it. We have six children in our home and only two are still of "trick-or-treating" age... That astounds me. This year Jacob was "too old" to trick-or treat, so it was just the girls. Pretty soon it will be just Jada... *Tear* The time goes so fast...

And how come they are too old to trick-or-treat but not too old to get Christmas presents?? I mean, Jeesh, save me some money too while you're "growing-up."

Punkin Carving

Ok so we went to Nanny and Pop-pop's house to carve punkins with the children. Wow, my kids did such a great job. I just had to post these adorable pics... The first one is a werewolf (profile) carved by Jordan. The second one is a ghost/ghoul carved by Jacob. The third one is a witch carved by Alyssa. AND the last picture is an honest to goodness tarantula crawling across our very own driveway!!! Yes! I'm for real! That HUGE spider was just making it's way across my yard! So nasty...

Also, the kids are posing with Aunt Kandi in one of the pictures and Jordan and Jada are fake-lip kissing in the other picture... They can't kiss for real; Jada said to me, "Jordan stinks. I can't believe he doesn't take a shower!" She is so funny...