Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year! It all started with the girls' school carnival last weekend, and pumpkin carving and caramel apples for FHE! Then they had a costume parade and class parties at school, and a (kid-friendly!) Halloween movie night on Friday! We actually did something unique this year instead of trick-or-treating. Since we are sort of in limbo as far as church and school go (the girls are going to their new school in town while we try to sell our house) we decided to let the kids pick out several bags of their favorite candy (about what I normally would buy for trick-or-treaters) and then divide it up amongst them. Then we just visited Lane's Grandma at the assisted living home, my Grandparents at their house, and Lane's parents out at their house (plus Meg & Jax & my cute niecies were there)! This year Mason was Woody the cowboy from Toy Story, which has been his latest thing. The girls are into American Girl, and we found these dresses that look a lot like the ones from the Felicity movie, which takes place in colonial times. Perfect!

Oooh, scary pumpkins!

The cutest Sheriff Woody this side of anywhere!

American colonial girl Mikayla

American colonial girl Makenzie

Cute cousins! I love the monkey and banana costumes!

Too much Halloween!

Colorful Colorado

We had a good time visiting my family in Colorado during our spud harvest vacation last week!

Azul, the new baby of the fam!


Cute cousins at the zoo! It's funny how much these two are alike!


Cute cousins at the zoo, part 2! It's funny how much they are alike, too!


Zoo train! We had to go on this one for our little guy!


The animals in the cage where they belong. :)


It was fun going to the museum with Grand!


Rexy, just like in Night at the Museum!


Teenage Mutant Ninja Tuckers (okay, maybe not teenagers anymore)!


Overall, it was a nice visit (except for the part where we had car trouble and stayed two days longer than planned, but even that turned out okay)! We felt very spoiled by my Dad's good cooking and everything my Mom did for us. Thanks you guys!

Critters

I am going to miss living in the country. Where we live, we get to see all sorts of neat stuff. Today was wet and cool and rainy, which is perfect salamander weather. So all the salamanders in the world came to our yard tonight! Here are some pix of the critters we have around our house:

Lane grabbed a bunch just around the porch and ended up with about 20 in this little critter catcher!

Run away, run away!

Little froggies...

I just had to post this one!

Baby yellow-headed blackbird

Daddy yellow-headed blackbird

Meadowlark (one of my faves!)

Woodpecker that likes to peck our antenna

Hummingbird (my absolute fave!)

Fox (can you see it, can ya??)

Raccoon (getting into our garbage, grrr!)

A couple of the kittens that adopted us (much to Lane's disliking!)

And, of course, some of the horsey neighbors!

We get all kinds of birdies (there were a lot of babies this year!), and we also have seen owls, ducks, geese, cranes, and moose (but I coundn't find a good picture of any, darn it)! Don't you just love critters?!

Happy Birthday, Lane!!!

Today is my hubby's birthday!! Man, he's getting OLD! He's older than me, so I can tease him that he's OLD! Even though he's so old, he is a great husband and father. He works so hard to support his family, and we appreciate him for that. He's really good with computers, so I don't ever have to worry that I don't know a thing about them! He loves to go fishing, and I wish he had more time for that! He is a really good cook, so we love it when he makes things for us (maybe a little too much)! He is such a fun dad. He enjoys playing video games with the kids and just hanging out and playing with them. They love him and look forward to the time when he comes home every day. Life is just not as fun when he's not around! Lane, we love you and hope that you have a great birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Mikayla!!!

Today my 2-baby turned 7 years old!! Mikayla is my 2-baby because she was my 2nd baby, born on TUEsday, July 2, 2002, weighing 8 lbs. 2 oz., at 2:02 p.m., when I was 22 years old, and her big sister was 2, AND my b-day just happens to be 2/2! Today was a fun day. I started by making her favorite breakfast, then for lunch we went to McDonald's (Mikayla's fave) with Great & Gpa! At 2 o'clock it was party time! First Mikayla opened her presents, then we had chocolate cake (with purple lettering, of course!), chocolate ice cream and chocolate milk! Then the girls (and Mason!) had a water party outside. The Splash Out was a real hit! After the party, we went to Red Robin and then Coldstones. Overall, a very fun day for our tater tot! We love you, Mikayla! You are such a beautiful, sweet, fun girl, and we're lucky to have you! Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Makenzie!!!

Nine years ago, on Father's Day, my first baby was born. Nine years!! Time sure flies when you're having fun! And Makenzie is a fun daughter. She's funny, smart, talented, kind, and beautiful! I'm not prejudiced or anything! So, to celebrate I made her favorite breakfast this morning. Then for lunch we surprised her by going to her favorite place, Millhollow. After that we went to Great's house to visit, and as usual, she spoiled the kids! After driving through one of the worst storms I can remember, we went to Red Robin for dinner. They announced to the entire restaurant that she is turning 9 years old, and they sang to her and gave her a sundae. She was so embarassed, she turned bright red and buried her face in her hands. They thought she was crying! So after that we went to Coldstone's for ice cream, which is what she wanted instead of cake. Okay by me! Then we came home and opened some presents. Tomorrow just her and I are doing a little one-on-one girly shopping as part of her b-day present. It will be fun!! Makenzie, you are awesome. We love you so much and we feel blessed that you are a part of our family! Happy Birthday, old woman!!

What Next?!?!

Yesterday was a day I will not soon forget. When the morning forecaster said we would get "shed-tumbling wind" he wasn't kidding. Except in our case, it was a trampoline and a swingset. It was really windy all day long, and that's an understatement. At one point I saw the trampoline kind of scoot over and a ladder to the swingset flap up. Then it started to get really bad at about 5 o'clock, and that's when we looked out the windows just in time to see the trampoline pick up, slam into the swingset, and fly out of the backyard, landing upside-down on the fence. And we laughed. Sort of. After the shock wore off a little, I took a bunch of pictures, and then realized that my van was in firing range of the trampoline if it decided to pick up and move again. So I moved the van to the front of the house and was almost blown away trying to get back to the house. So, later I was making dinner (it was a miracle that we never lost power, like so many others did) and the girls yelled that the trampoline wasn't there anymore. My heart flip-flopped as I looked out the window and sure enough, no trampoline. So I looked out the east side of the house, and there it was, sitting upside-down in the far corner of our property. The shocking thing about it was that I thought the wind had calmed down a bit after our earlier tragedy. I sure am glad I moved the van! This day reminded us of a day, also in May, 3 years ago when we lost our swimming pool to a funnel cloud. So, we lost our whole back yard, even the fence is damaged, along with the roof. Plus, we live right by the sand dunes, so everything inside is covered with a thin layer of sand, and our allergies have been acting up breathing the stuff. And to top it all off, both girls have pink-eye plus Mikayla has had an earache, and Lane is on a business trip in L.A. and had food poisoning! Plus, the realtor was finally supposed to come over today to take pictures and put up the sign to make it official (we are ATTEMPTING to sell our house), but needless to say, that has been put off for a little while.

Now let me just say, that as easy as it is to let all of this get us down, we actually have laughed about it more than anything. And it could have been worse. We could have lost our car, our house, or much, much worse... I am just grateful for what I still have, especially for my family, and that everyone is getting better. The girls are finally going to school tomorrow after Makenzie missed 2 days and Mikayla missed 5. It's really funny how moments like this in our lives make us grateful for the most simple and important things. Life is still good! We just may never buy a trampoline again...

My Mom

My mom rocks. She is such a fun mom (& grandma)! My kids call her "Grand" because she IS grand!! She is always the life of the party and everyone loves her. She does so much for her family. Mom, I want you to know that I appreciate all that you've done for me, way too numerous to mention. Thank you for being YOU. You are THE BEST and I love you!! Happy Mother's Day!!!

10 Years!!!!!

Well, it's official people. Lane and I have now been married for 10 whole years!! I can't believe he's stuck with me that long! I can imagine I'm not exactly the loveliest person to live with. And I can't believe how fast time has gone! The years have flown by, and we've been through some good times and some bad times, but mostly good! I am grateful to Lane for all that he does for me and our kids. He is a great husband and father, and friend. It's nice to be married to your best friend! I hope he sticks with me for another 10 years and more! I love you, Lane McBride!!

Wolves

Well, we went to Yellowstone yesterday, and for the first time ever, we saw wolves!! Twice! The first time, we drove around a corner and saw just a few cars off the road, and were very surprised to see a pack of at least 6-7 right next to the road! Now just for the record, I am deathly afraid of wolves, and it didn't help that some people were OUT OF THEIR CARS, and when Lane got out, I just about died! The second time, we saw a coyote harrassing a wolf trying to eat an elk. The coyote kept sneaking up behind the wolf and biting it in the butt, and the wolf would turn around and chase the coyote away. Good comedy! Last thing of all, we saw Old Faithful. Weird though, we didn't see any bears at all! We always see lots of bears on opening weekend. Overall, beautiful weather, more animals than people, first time seeing wolves, this one will go down in history as one of our most memorable trips to Yellowstone! I was going to do a slide show, but this way you can click on the pictures to get a closer look!

There are 3 in this picture, one black. You can see how close to the road they were!


There was a white one, too.


Here is the coyote sneaking up behind the wolf.


Here you can see the wolf dragging the elk. Fun.


Just too cute!


Woohoo!!


MOM! Just let us watch it!!


Time to go...


Bye!

Easter

On Saturday morning we woke up to see that the Easter Bunny had been to our house! Then we went to Great's house for the traditional egg hunt and lunch. We went to Dairy Queen for dinner with Great & Grandpa, Sydney & Chad, and Deb, Gordon & Bree. It was lots of fun! Thanks guys for such a fun day! On Sunday we did an egg hunt for the kids and they flew the new kite that the Bunny brought.

My cute little bunnies!


The kids with "Peep" (Great)!


Easter egg hunt!


Our cool new kite! It looks like Grand's baby, Azul!