Friday, December 26, 2008

Brooke's Christmas Musings

It's the day after Christmas & we're still trying to dig ourselves out of the clutter! Because of the holiday, the trash man will come a day later this week which does not help matters.

Today I was reading a book in the family room and from the kitchen I heard a mournful sound coming from our 7-year-old, Cameron. "Ohhh, I am SO tired of CANDY!" (As I type this I still laugh.) He had me rolling and he didn't understand why. Like all children who love to be the twinkle in their parents' eye he promptly sat down by me on the couch and watched me expectantly, repeating his line over and over with his big (front-)toothless smile.

Along those lines, for those of you who were curious, Cam did *not* get his two front teeth for Christmas, even though we sang and laughed through that song a lot. A little white poking through on one side is promising, however!

A fun memory from Christmas day: Santa brought Taylor a new bike - which of course thrilled her little girl heart. It had all the tassles and the trimmings and the sparkles. You get the idea. She immediately got a crayon and marked her territory. Her name - in red - on the white seat. In her short few years in a home where she is surrounded by boys she has learned to protect her interests. Bravo, Sis!

I hope the holiday warmed your hearts as it did ours. Merry Christmas!

~B

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

Christmas is here!!!!
Last night we had dinner with my family here in Co. I spent some of it in Travis's DJ room mixing some of my fav tunes. I need to set that up in my basement! I love MUZIK! We exchanged some gifts and watched my OLD sister play games. We came home and I read Luke Chapter 2 and The Night Before Christmas.

We were all in bed by midnight. Santa made a visit and the kids were up at 6am but Brooke and I did not roll out until 7. There is alot of noise, toy guns, cap guns, and warm smells from the kitchen thanks to Trent and Corrin. I am going to enjoy the day, my wife and children and get ready for part 2 of the Elk hunt, we leave in the morning.

Peace out and Peace on Earth Good Will to those I like. :)

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Let us go Hunting and get a ticket, stuck and lots of snow!

Last Friday, Tyler and Conner and I loaded up and headed to Grandjunction to do a water test for my work and were going to throw in some Elk hunting for Tyler.

We made it out there and of course the people at the site were not ready for us and I could make a list of things that were not ready, but....

We took off on Saturday afternoon to a place south of Grandjunction and I thought we were in a 75 mph zone. Boy, that is what I get for thinking. I had a very nice Colorado State Trooper infourm me that it was in fact a 55mph zone. He wanted to leave me with a "thank you for speeding card" first one in a long time, 73 in a 55 and $162 to boot.

We got to the land we were hunitng and marched into it. It was cold and 12" of snow, but worth the hike. We kicked up some deer and we were 10 feet away form several deer including a very nice buck we could have hit with a stone. In all my years hunting I have never been that close to a buck like that. We hung out until dark, no elk and went back to our hotel.


The next day we did ou test and headed to Craig. We had a nice Trooper check on us when we stopped to take a break. We got into Craig and went into a spot where my good friend hunts, no elk but a great sunset.






We had been hauling my trailor so we had to go get it and ended up in the ditch!



A simple, put it in 4 wheele drive got us out, Tyler made a happy face on the back and Conner wrote, "we are stuck" then wrote "were" after we got out. Sorry for the blurry, iphone at night.

Then yesterday we drove around and covered ALOT of ground. It snowed all day and we decided to go back to the place where we took the sunset pictures. We got in there and hit a drift from hell and just like that, got stuck. This was not just a little stuck, this was 3 hours of digging and putting on chains stuck. I did some dumb stuff, like, got wet, over did it, got wet, could have had the suburban fall on me, got wet, it was about 20 degrees, got wet.



I got chains on 3 tires, they did not fit but I made it work. I stood there looked at the car, knew I was in touble if it did not move. I told the boys to gather and I said a prayer, got in a drove it out. We got back to the main road after 20 minutes and I got the chains off. It was now dark and I was very gratful not to be stuck.



Did I mention I got wet? Dumb move on my part. We got back to the hotel where we stayed and I got out of the warm car, it was dark, wind blowing, and 20 or so outside. I spent 3 minutes hooking up the trailor and getting dry clothes out of the back when it hit. Being wet, tired, cold and 3 minutes in the wind and I was in trouble. I could not breath, I stared to shake and could barley walk. I was chattering and Conner and I walked across the parking lot to the hotel. I got into a bath room and started to pull off wet clothes, and for a moment thought I would have to call the medics, no joking, I did not feel right and knew I had done a bad thing. I got the dry clothes on and it settled down. I think I got Tyler concerned, he asked me 3 times if I was ok.



We got on the road and drove 40-50 mph for 5.5 hours home. It snowed all the way to Golden.








This is what we saw for 4 hours, but we were warm and dry!

We stopped in Steamboat and hit the candy store and BoJo's Pizza. They made the wrong pizza and gave us the right one, so we walked out with 2 pizzas and hit the road. We got in a 1AM and were all very glad to be home with our family and eating MOMS food!












Sunday, December 21, 2008

Gingerbread Mania

How often do you question your sanity?

Late summer when we preschool moms sat down to plan our upcoming year, I (happily!) volunteered to teach preschool in December and host the Christmas party. I really wanted to make gingerbread houses for everyone to decorate! The day before the party our house smelled like gingerbread heaven, but I was a frazzled wreck. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into...

I am grateful to relate that it was all worth it, though. Happy moms, happy preschool kids & fun memories! Pictured are: Lindsay, Zoie, Taylor, Keira & Brooklyn. Jefferson left with his gingerbread house before we took the picture, otherwise it would have been perfect!

~Brooke

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas Cards part 2

Just to be clear, this is TRENT and TRENT'S thoughts alone!!!!

HILLARY WINS BEST CHRISTMAS CARD OF THE YEAR!!!!! I am still laughing. I have really enjoyed all the cards we have gotten.

The children are all out of school and it snowed as they all came home giving the day a nice touch. I had to be out and about and traffic was a mess. I am going to load up the big boys tonight and head to Utah tomorrow for a few days to run a test and do some Elk hunting along the way.

TJ

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Christmas Cards

How many people like Christmas cards? I like the ones that are down to earth. I REALLY like the ones that tell me how great their children are and how WONDERFULL life is. While I enjoy hearing how everyone is, I don't really care how great life is cuz I know it's not.

All Iknow is that somehow we made it through this year, no one got killed, we still live in a house, I still have a car, and my wife has not kicked me to the couch! That is a great year! I can shoot straight, my boys can play ball, my girl can fight, my sons hurt me when we rough house, and somehow we have money to pay bills...I think.

TJ

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Busy Month of December

Above is a video shot while I played at our big party of the year. Is had to get shrunk to put on her so get out your glasses. We love this party, the crowd is the best and love to dance!

We have begun having our close friends come over to build Ginger Bread Houses. It is alot of work on our end but is quickly becoming a tradition for us and our friends. The children will be in school this week then be off for Christmas. Me and the big boys will go hunting for Tylers cow elk next weekend or right after Christmas. I am not ruling out the posibility of a road trip during the break.

I don't have loads to say right now but needed to update our blog a bit. I am begining to think alot about Trent and Corrin. I will never forget those moments with Brooke when I did not know if I was going to bring her home. So, Trent Seely, you don't have to worry about anything cuz I have it covered.

Peace out for now.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Tree amp load

I created a new light switch just to turn the power on for our tree. In doing so I left the line wire seperate from the common so I could get a true amp load reading. Our tree runs 12.5 amps. I think I need to start looking at a bulk LED purchase. I do not like the cold feel of the lights but that is alot of amps for a niffty tree.