SNOW DAY #2

So, we were driving back from North Carolina (where we were visiting the Prouses for the Super Bowl weekend) and as we got closer to Knoxville it started snowing. Anyways, as we were driving through downtown knoxville on I-40, Christian looks and says "Wow. There's a blizzard out there. I wish we lived here!". Well, I made his day when I responded with, "Sweetie, this is Knoxville and you do live here!" The snow did not last long but school was out for the day and for the next two days due to the snow and right afterwards we had a bout of extremely cold weather. The wind chill factor got down to the single digits. So, of course Christian had a few days to have fun in the little snow that we got. Steve shoveled some snow into a pile and made a neat little ramp for Christian to slide over. Here are some pictures. Of course, I was MIA due to working 12 hour shifts and needing my beauty sleep.

SNOW DAY!!!

Yeah! It actually snowed in Knoxville. We only got a dusting but it shut down the city for the day. The funny thing was, the kids actually thought it was enough to do some sledding. Although, in my opinion, we can still see grass through the snow, there really isn't much to sled on. But that did not matter to the kids. Snow is snow and they were ready to sled. Christian was the only with a real snow board. The rest of the boys had beach boogie boards. We have a huge hill in the back yard and several boys from the neighborhood came over and decided to slide down our hill with Christian. The only problem was that our house was at the bottom of the hill. So, the boys would slide down and slam right into the back of our house. I was afraid that they would seriously hurt themselves so I came up with a solution. I blew up an old air mattress that was used for camping and set it up so when they came down the hill they would run into the air mattress instead of our home. It worked out great. Of course, the snow was gone before noon due to the fact that the sun was shiny and we only got a dusting of snow. You wouldn't believe how everyone was reacting around us. The roads were all terrible and people were running off into the ditches due to the icy parts. You would have thought we had had a huge blizzard or something. Gosh, these Southerners!!!!

Christmas 2008

I am finally off work and have some free time for myself. I decided to spend sometime updating my blog. I hope everyone's Christmas was great. I can't believe it is already over with. I am still trying to put away all my christmas decorations. Anyways, we had a good Christmas. My brother, Jason, and his wife, Sunshine came down with their 3 year old son, Camden and stayed with us throughout the Christmas holiday. It was nice having family around and we had a lot of fun. Camden is so awesome. I forgot how 3 year olds are. It was quite entertaining to watch him. Of course, Christian wasn't enjoying much of his little cousin being underfoot all the time so he spent most of his holiday week playing with the neighbor's kid, Hayden, and stayed over at his house a lot. Oh well, at least I enjoyed having my little brother and his family around and that's what counts in the end.

Jackson taking a peek at one of Christian's present.

Jackson enjoying his favorite new toy, a squeaky, stretchy elephant.

Christian pulling out his slim jim (one of his favorites)

Camden, opening one his gifts. Isn't he cute!!!

Camden, coming down our stairs for the first time Christmas morning to see what Santa brought him.
Christian's creativity coming out. As you can see the above and below pictures, he has made up two different looking roofs.

Camden's favorite part of making gingerbread houses was being able to eat all the candy.

Christian's Santa Letter

The following is a letter to Santa Claus that Christian wrote in class last week.

Dear Santa

I want a 1. XBOX 360, 2. one thousand dollars, 3. all the games in the world, 4. a cool looking sled, 5. and a big pen. Ps. about number three of all the games in the world I don't want the girly games.

Love Christian Yoder


Well, there it is. I have been bugging Christian for things that he wants for Christmas and I finally have it. Will he get all that he asked for? Definitely not! Maybe I can handle the big pen request.

Happy Birthday Denise!

Denise's Birthday Cake!! Today is one of my best friend's birthday, Denise Vancena. Several years ago, we started a birthday club. We would take each other out on our birthdays. This is the first year in a long time that I have not gotten together with the girls to go out. Here are some pictures of last year's birthday outing with Denise. First we surprised Denise when we showed up at her house in a rented Hummer. We went to Benihanas for dinner than headed downstairs to the Karoake bar for some singing and dancing. I think we all had a blast and it was fun to just let down our hair and go crazy (in front of total strangers!).

My Christmas Decorations

I am finally done with my Christmas decorations. The tree is up and decorated, the train is up and running, and my two villages are completed and displayed. The North Pole village was easy to put up with snow blankets and little sprinkles of snow on top but my Dickens village takes a lot more work. I had to find a way to squeeze 16 building plus accessories into one long skinny countertop. I did this by creating a bi level town with styrofoam, moss, paper, hot glue, and lots of VHS tapes (Can anyone guess where the tapes are at?). But I am very happy to be done with it and it turned out wonderful. I love to sit with the village lights all on, my tree lights on and a fire burning in the fireplace. It is such a wonderful time of the year and those are the times when it is so very peaceful (especially when Christian is in bed and Jackson is in his crate for the night). Now the toughest part of the holidays are upon us and that is keeping Jackson from getting in to all the stuff. He has had a field day with a few of my deers already, has had fights with the animated Mrs. Claus and the caroling kittens, and has had a run in with the train. Having a little puppy around at christmas time is hard work!!!!

Halloween 2008

SPOOKY!!!!!!!!
Do I hear someone calling for help? I must fly to their rescue!

OOOH! The Grim Reaper is here to get me. Watch out!

What did you do to me?

Well, I see that a lot of people have posted their halloween pictures up already. Here is mine. I thought Jackson's costume was adorable. Everyone in our neighborhood loved him. Steve took him out with Christian trick or treating and he was the center of attention. Poor Christian!! Nobody could see his face but he did get lots of comments on how scary he was. Some even gave him extra candy for being soooo scary! I, for the first time in 5 years, was able to stay home and pass out candy. It was great! "One for you, and one for me" was what I found myself saying all night to the kids that came by. I think I ended up eating half of the candy myself!!