Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great day! We opted out of cooking this year and went with Larry & Eva lu to the Red Lion for dinner. The food was WONDERFUL! Brenden and his dad were in heaven! They ate salmon, prime rib, ham, and turkey! Now how many of you had that many different kinds of meat? Kinda fun for a change and nice since there was just a few of us. We ran into Ray and Mel Anason. Heather and her girls were with them. Mel said, "See ya at Christmas!" They go there for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and Mothers day!
Once again my pictures did not load right. Oh well.

This boy loves his hat and boots! Doesn't he look old? My baby is growin up!


The happy bunch! Yes, Casey does have a path on. I never wrote but he does not have to wear his glasses as of now. He has a muscle problem instead of a focusing problem. We take him back in a few weeks and if everything is the same he will have surgery to realign the muscles in his eye. And he may not even have to wear glasses after surgery. We will see...

Papa & Casey

Casey woke up from his nap and snuggled up next to grandma for the longest time. She just loved it! A rare occurrence! He covered his eyes because he didn't like the flash.

Stop mom!

We are so grateful for all of our many blessings. And yes as much as we miss mom and dad we are too grateful they are serving the lord and the people of West Virginia. Hopefully this was the only Thanksgiving without them, but I am affraid there could be another one!!!

Only Cooper

This morning as I was laying in bed trying to get a few more zzzzzzz, I realized I couldn't hear Cooper anymore. I decided to get up and get going for the day and go and see what he was he was up to. As I was walking into the kitchen I realized I could hear water upstairs. I went up stairs to find the bathroom door closed. As I opened the door I found his diaper on the floor, he had had diarrhea and was taking a bath! He got some wipes and tried to clean up and then decided to draw himself a bath! I was cracking up inside. I told him thanks for cleaning up! Only Cooper! I sure am glad I listened to the feeling telling me to get out of bed!

late late night

Last night I went and saw this!


I had so much fun! I only had to be poked (or yelled at) a couple of times to stay awake! That's saying a lot for me!! I am walking around like a zombie this morning. I am sure glad I don't go to midnight movies that often, or ever! Can't wait until the next one...

Crusty Old Women

Warning: Way to long of post
What is with all the CRUSTY OLD WOMEN these days? I am so sick and tired of them. A kid can't do a darn think and they are are shooting them a death glare or spouting of their darn flapper about how annoying and bad they are! I am so sick of it. It takes a lot of courage for me to get up and decide to take my kids somewhere. Quite frankly the two boys don't go a lot of places together, because the two of them together is enough to put mommy in the crazy house. I come home so mad and exhausted that most of the time it is just not worth it to me. With the two of them together it is almost a definite that someone will open their flapper and shoot something out.
On to my story two experiences lately that me me torqued! A couple Saturday's ago I took Cason and went to Walmart. As we were getting ready to check out I was throwing the groceries up on the cart and he was bellering for something. I mean gosh darn what kid does not want something at the Walmart checkout. They have everything you could ever want, chips, candy, gum, toys, and on and on. I was trying to make him happy and tell him to stop screaming, but in order for that to happen I would have had to sit there with my hand over his mouth, and not put my groceries on the belt. The lady behind me literally rested her elbows on her cart and plugged her ears and gave the nasty looks ever! Yes, I know my son has an ear piercing scream, but get over it women you are only going to listen to if for five minuets, try listening to it all day!! Anyways as I am leaving she is spouting of to the checker about how obnoxious and annoying Cason was. I turned around caught her eyes and glared at her! I know real mean! That leads me to last night. I had a couple of things I wanted to check out at the mall. Cooper really wanted to go with me, so I let him go. He doesn't get to go very often and he probably won't again for a looong time, but I took him. I parked at the bottom of Macy's so he could ride the escalator, because usually we have a stroller and he never gets to. Right next to the escalator were some coats I just wanted to check out really fast. He wanted to go up the escalator and was holding on to the side and placing one foot on and then would pull it back. I just kept saying,"Come here don't go on there yet." When this crusty old lady comes along to go up and I was right there because I was ready to go up too, says, " You are making things so difficult."
I was like what are you talking about lady, the kid is holding on to the rail for dear life and I am sorry he is not taking up any room for you to get on this darn escalator! Well, I wish I had said that, but I didn't. This time, my kid did not do anything! I don't know why women are so crusty these days. They look at you like what they heck are you doing here? Stay home! Sorry, can't do that everyday!

Side note: I woke up on my own today! Yes, no little body coming and getting me at 5:30 today!!! He woke up while I have been writing this at 7:30!!! I can not, repeat can not believe he slept in this late. I could not tell you the last time he slept till 7 let alone 7:30! Hallelujah! It is great to know that it is possible! We are on for a good day just because of that!

Kool-Aid Play dough

This recipe is hands down the best Kool-Aid Play dough recipe. I lost it and tried lots of other ones, but could not find one better than this one. My cousin Andrea gave it to me and it is a lot like the store bought stuff, but BETTER!

Kool-Aid Play dough

1 C. flour 1 pkg. unsweetened Kool-Aid
¼ C. salt 1 TBSP. oil
2 TBSP. cream tartar 1 C. water

Mix flour, salt cream of tartar and kool-aid in a medium pot.
Add water and oil. Stir over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes.
When mixture forms a ball in pot, remove. Knead until smooth.
Put in a plastic bag and refrigerate.

I mix it all together first before turning on the heat. That way you don't get any flour clumps. Watch out it smells so good you will be tempted to taste!!

W.V.

More W.V. posts. so many pictures I have to post. I know there is one more after this, I just have to get the pictures from Hayley.

This was a beautiful park mom & I went to with Betty on Sunday, when mom did not know what else to do with Cooper.

We went back the next day and took Hayley and dad.

This is at Donna Baker's house. Mom just loves this lady. She is from England and has a really cute accent. The drive to her house was breathtaking.

Dad babysitting out on the porch. He was worried about where the kids would go, but needless to say there were not too many places they could go and get in trouble.

Putting his bino's away.

Looking for deer. We sent him outside to look for deer. He loves looking for deer.

Grandma Betty's dog. She had just taken the dog to get groomed, so she brought her over for the kids to see. Kate loved her dog climbing on her.

These people we went out to see raise miniature horses. She has 35 right now. Don't ask me how many goats she had. prob around 40. She had 12 regular horses too I think. There were so many animals there I can't even think of all of them. The kids liked the miniature horses. They were cute. The baby was only a few days old.

Cason put on Kate's boots. Too bad they wouldn't zip up. Poor kid has cankles.

At a beautiful home up in the mountains. They were swinging on an old wood swing.

How cute are these two. I think they look like they could be brother and sister in this picture.

Almost Heaven

My Pictures are not loading in the right order. I don't have time to try and spend another 30 min working on it, so here you go!

Papa & Casey. This is the second picture, when Cason ended up with the popcorn!

Sharing popcorn with Papa. Does this look familiar???? Dad on the couch? It was usually dad on the couch and Hayley on the love seat, mom up cleaning or doing laundry and me trying to weasel my rear onto a couch with out their feet being in my face!

Deere Bride! Only in WV!

We saw these also while we were out driving. Did I mention how much we drove? I don't even want to know how many miles we drove. It was a lot!! Hayley and I would get so tired, but not mom and dad! They just can go go go!

Ever wonder what Heaven looks like? Well, this is almost Heaven! That is what they called this area we went out to. The driving never was boring. There were so many beautiful views! I could not get over the breath taking views. Much, much better than the ugly sagebrush here. We told a lady that in Washington where we live if you want trees you have to plant them. She could not understand that!!

Agusta, WV

Julie and Mike's (Julie is Betty's daughter and lives right below Mom & Dad) dog had puppies, well the puppies ended up getting the puppy disease and I think all but one died. This is the puppy grave. Yes, that is the first thing the kids found when we let them outside.

Case jumped right into the grass clippings.. Great!!

Hayley and I busted a gut when we drove into town and saw this restaurant. Mom & Dad said they don't have the courage to eat there!

The Trip

To say we had a good time is a understatement. We had a BLAST! The kids were so excited to Grandma & Grandpa. Cooper just kept laughing and laughing. He wouldn't stop. I think he thought Grandma, I didn't know if I was ever going to see you again!!


The best present in the whole wide world! Asleep! He fell asleep on take off from Spokane! I know big, big shocker! When we were getting off the plane in SLC, Cooper was trying to get back on and screaming and throwing the biggest fit! He thought he forgot something. I kept trying to tell him we had everything! He had just woken up so I was blaming his behavior on that. I locked him into the stroller and he would climb out! I would throw him back him and he would climb out all while he was screaming. We were running as fast as we could to our next flight, since it was time to board. As we stepped foot into the airport, it was jam packed! Immediately every ones attention was on this two crazy ladies and there kids with this one screaming his head off and his mom not paying attention just trying to push her stroller with a big car seat on top and her bags, and the kids blankets falling out everywhere. Running over way too many people's feet. I had one lady stop and say very concerned, "Your son is falling out!"
I replied, "I know!"And just kept on a walking. Luckily a lady that worked there helped me with my car seat. As we got to our gate we just had time to board. I know all the people getting ready to board thought, "Oh, no! You have got to be kidding me, they are getting on my flight!"
Sorry everyone! As we were walking down to the plane Hayley turns around and yells to me, "Never again! Never again will I do this!"
Hayley heard one lady say, "Tell me they have headphones on this flight!"
I took Cason's car seat on board and a lady says so loud to her friend and looks me in the eye, "Why didn't she check that thing?" I though to myself you will be thanking your lucky stars I never checked it. There is actually a chance my son will fall asleep since I brought it on board! Cooper does better with Hayley, so she insisted he sit with her on the flight. He did and he did great. Case slept most of the flight too. I could only think you people do not even know how lucky you are. These kids were angels this flight! For as bad as it started I am still in shock how well the 4 kids did on that flight.


When we arrived to Baltimore. We had this guy help us with our bags to the Rent a Car shuttle and Brooke jumped on for the ride! It was only about 30 feet, but totally worth it. He just kept telling us to get on the shuttle and he would do the rest. With all the kids it was money well spent!!

On the shuttle. They loved the ride.

Mom & Dad's backyard.

Mom & Dad's house. The house to the left is Betty's (Mom & Dad's landlord). West Virgina is BEAUTIFUL! The trees were absolutely gorgeous. I guess we picked a good time of year to go.

Don't Forget

HaLLoWeeN

We had one FUN night!

Cason wanted to give Cooper a ride. He kept saying, "ready?"


Yeah they didn't make it too far.



My buzz and Woody! And me as some dumb pirate that I put together at the last min.

We decided the houses in our neighborhood were too far apart, so dad drove us on the four wheeler. The boys loved it.

Cason loved being Woody. At trunker treat he carried around his woody doll the whole time and said, "yee haw doody, yee haw!" It was pretty cute.



Dad got a little crazy on the four wheeler trying to get out of the garage. Cooper said enough with you and jumped on the gator.

After trying to make it to one house we convinced him to get back on the four wheeler.

We had such a fun night. Cooper looooved trick or treating! And he loved being buzz too. Cason had so much fun that when we headed out to Target yesterday morning for the after Halloween sale he had to wear his Woody hat again!

My sister's apples

So, you will have to turn your head on this one. I have uploaded this picture 3 times and it keep showing me that it is flipped, but then it turns on me. I don't know what to do!! ggrrrr

Anyways, my sister is the next Martha Stewart. She is so creative and can come up with anything. I was at her house yesterday morning and she had all of these apples made up. The packaging is so adorable! She just needed something to wrap her apples up in and went around her house and came up with this!

I love the 31 stamp!

She makes the best carmel apples hands down!!! They are soooo good! Carmel, white choc, rice crispys, cinnamon and sugar! mmmmm!

And lucky for me Brenden does not like apples, so it is all mine!!!

I want to attempt to make them this year, so if you are lucky and you live by me you might get one!!