One Awesome Week!

I have so many things to Thankful for! I got to take a week of vacation in between my "old job"and my "new job", and I got to spend it with many of the most important people in my life! Originally I was going to leave work early on my last day but the weather prevented that, so I waited until Saturday morning to take off for my long 8 hour drive. The drive was good and we made it home just fine. Saturday night we had a movie night at Sarah's cabin with the whole family, and Allison and her girls. The kids played and we watched Grown Ups. We did dinner at mom and dad's because the hill to the cabin is a little treacherous, and we can't get Dad's van up there without towing him. Sunday we all went sledding down the hill witch seconds as a driveway to the cabin. It was so much fun! I haven't been sledding in years and it was just as much fun as I remember. We would all sled down the hill and then Mom would pick us up with the Explorer and drive us back to the top so we could go again. The little ones spent more time riding in the car in order to keep warm.
This is only about 1/3 of the length of the hill. I think Beth wiped out about 6 times in one run!

Bella staying warm.

Kaeden staying warm.

Emily staying warm.

Me with my amazing SISTERS! Sarah is on the left, me in the middle, and Beth on the right.



My sister Sarah and her best friend and husband Raleigh.

After a fun couple of hours sledding we had to get inside, warm up, and get something to eat. Kaeden refuses to eat what we call good food. He only eats cereal, claiming that he doesn't like anything else. So Beth got him some cereal and the box was empty, so she gave it to him to wear on his head. He was so funny prancing around with a cereal box on his head!

And look how big Eli is getting! He is nine months old now and you would never know he came early with how big he has gotten. He is crawling around now and even cruising furniture. Look at his beautiful big blue eyes! I love to cuddle him, but every time Sarah walks in the room he wants her and crawls right back out of my arms to get his Mamma. And Gracie is taking a big bite out of her burger. She is Beth's youngest baby, and she won't cuddle me for too long either but I still love to squeeze her when I get the chance!

Sarah took a picture of me fresh out of the warm shower after sledding. Notice the LONG hair.

On Monday my cousin came to Mom and Dad's house to cut my Dad's hair, and she did me a favor and cut the kids hair since Jess took the clippers with him to Iraq and Kaeden was definitely due for a trim. For two years he has had his Mohawk, and would not agree to let me cut it when I asked, but he let Megan cut it off. Now he has a hair cut like his Daddy, and he looks so much like Daddy with his new haircut that I just want to kiss him all the time! He played with Lego's every day at Bucka and Grampa's house.

Tuesday and Wednesday came and went so fast I didn't even have a chance to get any pictures, but Tuesday we did another dinner with the family, and Wednesday I went to dinner with Allison. I like getting together with Allison just the two of us without kids so we can catch up. Thursday morning I got everything packed up and ready to go for the drive up to the cities for Dorthy's birthday party at Psycho Suzies (dinner) and Pickle Park (drinks and dancing). Mom and Amanda came with me to help celebrate Dorothy's birthday. We had so much fun! My favorite was dancing with Dorothy. Thank You Gramma Leslie for watching the kids so we could go out. We all had a lot of fun. Even Jesse's aunt Rite and her man Pat came out to celebrate! It was so much fun! Here is a picture of all us girls taking a break from the dance floor. Left to right: Amanda, Dorothy, ME, Mom, Rita. Notice the short hair! Thanks for the cut Megan!

Friday we packed up again! Mom and Amanda went home, and the kids and I went with Gramma Leslie to the cabin. YAY! The kids had so much fun! They loved playing with the toys that seem so new when really they are always there but they see them so rarely that they seem new. Kaeden found a Spiderman Frisbee and Gramma Leslie showed him the right way to throw it. He was doing pretty good and could launch it all the way across the living room.

Our new puppy Bailey was enjoying a little snooze on the couch. She's so pretty!

Bella and Kaeden both got the sniffles throughout to weeks adventures, but still ran around like little crazy people. Look at how beautiful her blue eyes are!

She was having fun with Grampa! She would crawl up in his lap to "Nuggo" and he would pick her up by the legs and drop her back onto his lap making bomb exploding sounds. She would tell him hands or legs, and after running off to play she would come back for more bombings.

Saturday after the kids went down for a nap, Grampa Dave, Gramma Leslie, and I decided to get in the hot tub with three bottles, yes three, of champagne. We were a little runk! But it was FUN!!! A toast to Jesse's SAFE return!

CHEERS!!!

I have to show off my fancy swimming suit! I didn't not think with the cold weather we have been having that I would need to pack a swimming suit so Leslie dug out some of her old suits for me to wear. Can you guess which era this one is from? HOT HOT HOT!!!

After our champagne we headed to the Cajun in hopes that we could skype Jess. Bummer! We didn't get to see him on skype, but he did call while we were there. We also played pull tabs and WON! It is so much fun to win for a  change!

Sunday morning, time to pack up AGAIN! Kaeden was loving playing games on the Wii. He did pretty good for his first time playing Super Mario Brothers. Grampa was helping he fly a plane just before we loaded up in the car for our long ride home.

Bella was playing with Bailey.

And X was doing what he usually does...

That pretty much wraps up our week. We all had so much fun, and enjoyed spending time with all of our friends and family! The drive home was scary! Blowing snow and four foot drifts across both lanes with no snow plows to be seen. I had to drive 30 miles and hours for the last hour and a half. But, we made it home safely and Al and Linda helped my get the truck unloaded into the house. A long week, a long drive home, a long blog (thanks for hanging in there), and tomorrow I start the gym, and my new job! Good night!

Stay SAFE Daddy! We miss you and we LOVE you!!!