here they are!

It's pretty obvious that I really need to be consistent

with my picture worthy moments.

I found some photos that I had forgotten about

because they were on a different camera that I had

forgotten I had used.

So here we go on some nice catch up moments for

Presidents Day 2011

While my mom was here in February,

(we were supposed to be in DC but a scheduling

conflict happened last minute and her ticket was already bought,

so she still came to hang out with us for 10 days.)

sorry I digress....

We were able to take the boys for some fun and adventure.

I took them for their first experience on the ice. They both had a lot of fun,

there were some crazy falls that made me wish I had brought them helmets.

But overall they did really well.  Mack was especially daring and wanted

so badly to master the art of skating in one day. 

hehe... if only it were that simple. 

Grandma and Grandpa Shirley sent the boys

some Star Wars cookie cutters and aprons for Valentines Day

so one  sunday afternoon was spent making those.

This was one of those projects that NEVER looks

as good as the professional ones on the box.

And believe me, my boys noticed.

But at least they tasted good.

oh yeah, looking at this picture I am trying to figure

out why he looks so disheveled

but I remembered ath this guy was still recovering from chlorine poising.

(true story!)

The next day was President's day and we met up with a bunch

of families to go sledding.

Unfortunately, sitting in the sled at the top of all the hill

was all Callan did.

He went down once, that was all it took for him to

realize he didn't want anything to do with that. He hated

all the snow spraying up in his face..

I kind of don't blame him.

That is cold!

Creed on the other hand was having a ball!

And Mack sure tried to have fun, but he still wasn't feeling all that great.

our LOVE day.

 I really tried hard this year to make our Valentines day a little more special

for my family. We have had a slightly rough start to our 2011 and I felt

like this holiday was the perfect opportunity to show the men in my life

how much I LOVE them!

Cam and I went out over the weekend with our friends

the Slinkards to Dinner and a Rush game that way

Monday could be spent as a family.

it started with the basket the boys and I dropped off to Cam at his work.
Filled with some silly little things
such as:

a plea to actually be able to see and communicate with my husband more frequently.

Part of our rough month is contributed by his new "above his rank" last minute DO job . 
(i know this means nothing to anyone out there who isn't involved in a flying squadron,
but trust me.  Its sort of a big deal)

This has added an enormous amount of pressure and an even bigger time commitment than usual.

we are talking 12 hour days everyday and even working a few hours on sat and sun.

(WAH WAH!)

these little pictures were also sent to loved ones living far away.

Overall, it was a fun basket that he seemed to appreciate and enjoy!

Now onto our family affair.

I found this great idea on some random blog that really sounded like fun.

To say it was a HIT is an understatement.

.

this copied idea was easy peasy to pull off...

they had to pick the order they wanted the items served. The kicker was the

items were not recognizable by them. So for the first course you could end up with parm. cheese,

ice cream and a toothpick. The kids were great sports and couldn't wait for the next

course to be served to see what they would get next.

poor Cam, we couldn't even wait for him to change his clothes from work...

                                   our basket of valentines for each other that we handed out after dinner

who wouldn't want to show these boys

some EXTRA love?!

and no holiday is complete without Kinga!



Tonsillectomy & Toothectomy?!

I  know many kids that go under anesthesia for a

tonsillectomy/adenoid removal but to go under also

 for a TOOTH removal!

Creed did!

(notice the scratched cornea and blood on his eye, that was a football/finger

accident while playing with a cousin in Texas)

 

His first loose tooth was dangling by a thread, but 

he was too nervous to let anyone help him

remove it. The doctors said they would be careful not

to disturb it while they were taking out the tonsils.

I had to quickly interject and let them know that

that was his preferred method to loosing that tooth.

I actually had to repeat myself because they thought

that was so unusual.

Such an unusual boy! (but in a very GREAT way)

FOUND: Lost tree hunting photos

 There weren't lost, they were buried deep inside our
video camera on the SD card.

I honestly didn't remember using that particular camera,
I could have sworn it was my normal SLR one. 

I guess that goes to show how sick

 ( nasty stomach virus from Thanksgiving that decided to
 descend upon me that very morning)

and uninterested in the whole process  I truly was.  

That could be why we ended up with one of the first
 trees we saw that ended up being

GINORMOUS!!! 

Oh well it worked and we were able to carry on with the tradition.

Down South

                      There are 6 kids and 24 grand kids in my family and we are spread out all over the country.

Needless to say it is extremely hard to get us all together.

In fact I don't think it has EVER happened. 

All 6 kids and their spouses in the same room....nope NEVER!

So this year it was a big deal we were only missing 2 grand kids

Rachel and Zach (her husband) and Derek.

Not too shabby!

There isn't too much to do in Paris Texas

except CHEAP movies. And we saw

a lot of them in fact I think we saw 4.

That is crazy since we were only there for 5 days!

The kids had a blast playing with all their cousins and running

back in forth from Grandma and Papas house to

Uncle Matt and Aunt Cindy's who live right next door.

And our New Years Eve Party was

absolutely ROCKIN!

Great memories we made, since I am sure an event like that will not happen again

for quite some time!

disclaimer: I am very disappointed in the skills of the amateur photographer.
Unfortunately, you get what you pay for.  Lesson learned!
Also, I can't believe I didn't pull out my camera any other time that week
to take candid photos...sheesh!
I guess it just proves how little excitement there really was.  







the girls



the boys

 Yvette and Family

Katie and Family

                                                                                                    Matt and Family





Spencer and Family

Stuart and Family



Our Family



All the cousins (missing the 3)
also notice who's children aren't  cooperating... 
REAL shocker!

Babies of 2003 (turning 8 this year)

The babies born 2005 (turning 6 this year)

 The 2008 babies (turning 3 this year)

some future missionaries.
 I just loved this one of my older nephews. such cuties!







Christmas

 Christmas Eve jammies after our Bethelehem Supper
with the Kidman's, Christensen's, and Thalman's.
I didn't mean to get them all Paul Frank monkey jammies, it just sort of happened. Luckily, Mack was okay with his skeleton ones. 

 The cookies Santa ate and the note he left.

Along with the magic key which was a special addition added this year.

An elf dropped it off so that Santa would be able to unlock our front door.

 Mack's santa loot

Creed's haul

Callan's gifts

the ornament Creed made us at school.

Such a great gift to treasure.