How to have fun with kids

Bored with your kids? Try this as a way to add some excitement to the mundane:



My brother Chris is what they call "overly strong". Amongst the madness of our family Christmas party he decided he would start throwing children. Let me tell you, they loved it. He was really getting some air on some of these. The second picture is a 9 year old. The Christmas tree in the background is probably a good 10 footer so you can get an idea of the height involved. And the winner in air time is:

Don't worry, he caught him. 3 year olds love that sort of thing.

Family Christmas party

Last Friday my sister Amy hosted a family Christmas party. My family is not going to be able to get together on Christmas this year so we did our celebration a few days early. It was a lot of fun. We had good food, fun games, great company, and my favorite part, an ugly sweater competition. I thought JR and I were doing good with ours until I got to the party and realized there are some pretty ugly sweaters out there.
JR and I had a good time at D.I. picking out our sweater treasures.
Mom and Pops (I'm pretty sure my dad secretly liked his sweater and we may or may not see him wear it at future events):

My sister Lyndee and her husband Rob:

The host and hostess, sister Amy and her husband Matt:

Sister Emily and husband TJ:

And the winner of the ugly Christmas sweater competition by a large margin was my brother Chris. Let me explain. Chris actually pieced his ugly sweater together himself with yarn. He collected a hodge podge of clothing and cut and sewed it all together. In case you are wondering, yes that is leopard print lingerie at the bottom, and yes, those are dangly beads with his name on it hanging from his chest. I just with you could see it with better detail. The sleeves are puffy lace. The beauty is lost in photography. Way to create your own ugly sweater Chris, you deserved the title of ugly Christmas sweater winner.

The prize? A nutcracker complete with walnuts. Oh the glory of it all! Sweet victory.

Pretty awesome looking crew if you ask me:

That's a wrap

What did I do at work on Friday?



Yep, I played kickball. Well, sort of. Today was my first day back to work after being sick and in bed for 3 days so I didn't "play" kickball per say as much as I sat in the dugout and half watched half dozed for a couple hours. What a week. Work a day, lay in bed 3 days, go back to work and work 4 hours then get paid to go and watch kickball and end up going home at 3. Now that is a good work week...minus the wanting to tear my throat out part. Speaking of which, I am feeling much better. I went back to Urgent Care on Thursday because I wasn't getting better and they gave me an extra shot of antibiotics (hadn't had a shot in the bum bum in awhile) and some pain killers. Things started to pick up after that. I'm glad to be back to my normal self!

Ah man

Today I am home sick. Blah. I went to work yesterday having a sore throat and started feeling pretty horrible around 10. I recognized the awful feeling right away as strep throat since I've had it like 167 time in my life. Sure enough, Urgent Care confirmed strep throat. I have to say out of the past 167 times #168 is by far the worst case I've had. I cannot swallow without excrutianting pain. Because of this I do not want to eat even though I am starving. Perhaps that is why I almost passed out in the shower today. Seriously, I had to sit down in the tub and turn off the water for fear that I would drown if I lost it in the shower. All I have to say is that I hope these antibiotics kick in VERY SOON. On the bright side, the body aches have gone away! Woo hoo!

The Bandwagon

Well, I've joined the masses and have been reading the Twilight series. I just had to see what all the fuss was about. I'll admit it, these books do grab your attention once you get started. I have decided to blame my lack of blogginess lately to the fact that my nose is always in one of the Twilight books. I've just started #3and while I really enjoy reading them I'm going to be glad when I'm done so I know how it all turns out and I can stop feeling so addicted to something. There hasn't been much news on our front lately. I can pretty much say that all my Christmas shopping is done now. I feel pretty good about that. I feel especially grateful that I won't have to return to any more crazy stores with their non existent parking. I went out today and spent like 10 minutes just trying to find a spot. Madness I tell you!
A few years ago my family decided that rather than choosing names and buying gifts that we would all scrapbook the events of the past year and make color copies of our pages for all the siblings, parents, and grandparents. We then exchange scrapbook pages as our gifts and have an awesome family album with what everyone has been up to. I'm happy to say that my pages are done and copied! I'd post pictures but then I'd be ruining the Christmas surprise for my family. Perhaps another time. Anyways, that's what's been taking up my time lately. As for J.R., he's still researching grad schools. His application is in to West Virginia but there are still many schools to go.

Thanksgiving

What, Thanksgiving was a week ago you say? That may be true but I just got around to uploading our pictures so today I post! We had a great trip to Colorado Springs. I have to say the 13 hour drive was a bit crowded as I shared half of the middle seat in the middle row with luggage while I squished JR up to the window. Luckily we had a dvd player so things went by faster than I anticipated. My older brother Chris and his son Rylee (who is almost 3) shared the back seat. I did not enjoy watching Barney, Jay Jay the plane and other assortments of baby movies. Rylee was a real trooper though and didn't complain or cry or anything. His dad was more trouble than he was. Here we are during the short time that JR got to drive. Can I just say that it's a miracle, MIRACLE that my dad is sitting in the back like that. Please feel free to print this picture and put it in your journal to document.

JR got a good taste of my family over the 6 days that we were there. We stayed half our time with my brother Dave and his fam and the other half with my brother Mark and his fam. It was so good to see that part of the family. It really is amazing how kids change in a year.
Thanksgiving day was so much fun. We had my dads brother and his family over for dinner and we played a bunch of games afterwards and things were getting crazy. You may recognize such classic games as "Beware of the Scare of the Ricky Ticky Bear", "Big Booty", and the Sign game. Plenty of fun went around.


On Thanksgiving it started to snow. We actually got quite a bit of snow. As much as I hate the cold I have to say it was nice to get some different weather and to spend some time with my hubby walking in the snow.


Other events included Bowling:





By the way, I have never bowled so much in my life. 5 games! That has to be some sort of a record.

Shopping:



Rylee, you're so pretty!

And my favorite event, having a blowout on the highway outside of Holbrook on our way home at 7 o'clock at night. What a great way to end an amazing trip!