Happy Birthday Corbin! October 30, 2008

I am way behind here… :/

Corbin had his 10th Birthday last week! I can’t believe I have a 10 year old child!

We had planned on waiting until after school to give him his presents…but that didn’t work out…lol!

Ok…let’s go back a week or so before his birthday…I was in the kitchen preparing breakfast/lunch/dinner? I can’t be sure which one…Corbin comes in and says, “I can’t wait til Tuesday!!!” To which I reply, “What is Tuesday?!” Corbin…”WHAT?!……(slow and sad)…”You forgot my birthday!?” heh…NO! lol…I had to quickly remind him that even though he has been counting down the days and knew exactly what day of the week it was, he caught me off guard and I didn’t remember it was on a Tuesday. LOL! No harm no foul…

On his birthday, I woke Seth, Ashlyn and Sage up after Chaz woke me up and we quietly went in and started singing Happy Birthday! He had the biggest happiest smile when he woke up. It was fun!  I will have to start doing that with everyone! I must admit…I am lazy when it comes to birthdays. I remember my mom would go out early in the morning and bring home donuts on birthdays…I am not so good. heh…

So we gathered in the living room and the present unwrapping began…The highlight of his gifts was the one I was unable to wrap…He has been playing Warcraft III a lot and I thought the expansion would be fun. Well…it was harder to track down than I thought so he had to get the downloadable version. Which made no difference to him of course he couldn’t wait to get home from school to play!

While he was unwrapping his gifts Sage decided it was her turn to open one, which of course was not Corbin’s plan. I was surprised though after Sage put up a bit of a fuss and Corbin said…”Oh you can all open one!” What a sweet kid!

Over the last 10 years and the many many birthdays we have had in our home I noticed a trend…i would make a cake or buy one…and NO ONE would eat it! So frustrating…so I had decided to have the kids ask for another type of dessert.  Corbin’s request was Peach/Strawberry Cobbler!

OK! Sounds great! So while making it and pouring in the milk, Ashlyn came to me mad about something and crying to me…so I lost count. So I am pretty sure I put in one to many 4th cups…it was a bit to moist…oops…AND THEN…it was getting late when it finally got done so I was hasty and not thinking and stuck the candles in the cobbler way too soon…SOOO…I ended up with candles melting and tilting here and there all over place…*note to self…you can’t rush the cooling process…

Have you ever… October 28, 2008

…picked up a book…flipped page by page…reading…so into it you look up hours have passed…pages are gone and you just can’t quit!? You can’t stop and yet you have that nagging feeling that the faster you read the sooner it will be done!? But you have to know! How will it go!? How will it all turn out?! You laugh and cry and get mad and frustrated at all the choices these characters, that are just ink on a page, are making!? They’ve become so real! You feel like you could be right in the middle of the story!

You read through parts that seem to drag on without meaning and frustrate you even more only to see it all come together in the end and there was no way it would have been the same without it!

I have read a lot of books in the last year and I loved them all for some reason or another. I read through the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr…Cynthia Voigt’s Tillerman Cycle…Here, There Be Dragon’s…And they were all awesome books!

I had heard the buzz about another set of books…they didn’t seem like the kind of books I would be interested in. I would see things all over the internet about these books, taking the country by storm. It wasn’t until I was visiting my brother and he said I HAD to read them…did I give it another thought. And I caved…

Let me just say this…If you haven’t already (I know it’s probably not possible, since I am way behind here)
but if you haven’t…Go out and read…The Twilight Saga! I know, I know…most everyone on the planet has read them already.

I went out and picked up Twilight last Monday. I started reading Tuesday…Wednesday I had to go pick up New Moon…I was almost done and didn’t want to wait when it was done. Friday I went ahead and got Eclipse and Breaking Dawn so I wouldn’t have to wait for those either! And Sunday night it was all over…WOW!

Chaz would start to talk to me during those long hours of reading over the weekend and I would look up to talk to him and he would say…”Oh, nevermind…you do your thing!” LOL! It made me laugh! He was very patient with my sudden obsession. I’ve never been so sucked into a story. It was THAT good! It definitely lives up to all the hype!

AND…of course everyone probably already knows about this too, but if you don’t.

Go check this out…MIDNIGHT SUN (rough draft) Apparently it was leaked by a friend of hers and put on the back burner…if not completely dropped.

It is really neat to see Edward’s side of all the stuff that happened in Twilight. I only wish there was more. I hope she finishes it and publishes it!

I am really looking forward to seeing the movie…of course with no expectations of it being anywhere near as good as the book!

updated… October 19, 2008

I finally got around to updating the tabs above…so go check em out!

I want to do more with them some day but for now they work.

Down with Halloween… October 19, 2008

I haven’t ever loved or hated Halloween…It’s fun to dress up the kids and take them to the 4 Ward Trunk-or-Treat…but beyond that…bleh. LOL!

We went to Target to buy costumes and candy for the Trunk-or-Treat, yesterday. By the time we were done and paid…I just wanted to throw-up! The prices for costumes is ridiculous and they are poor quality too. I am not creative enough to put together costumes from scratch either. And of course that costs money too! I should have held my ground and made them all wear what they wore last year.

Chaz said…”They better wear those things out and play in them everyday after what they cost!” :/

Soooooooo…we have a Darth Vader, a Harry Potter(who may get their hair dyed for the occasion, lol…his idea.), a Wood Fairy and…my worst nightmare come true…a Cheer Leader…pictures to come in the near future.

(Sorry to anyone who loves Halloween and puts their heart and soul into the holiday…I’m just not feelin’ it)

Happy Anniversary! October 19, 2008

Chaz and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary yesterday!

The whole day Ashlyn would come up to us and say “Happy Anniversary!” or “What are you going to do for your Happy Anniversary?” She was too cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ashlyn ate her Starbursts while we were driving around and had to show off her bright red tongue!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sage of course had to show off her tongue as well!

 

 

 

 

So we got up early to take a stereo over to one of Chaz’s co-workers to set set up for her. She lives over in Prescott in a nice quiet area…the kids had fun playing checkers and chess and chasing her new kitty around the house. After Chaz was done installing the stereo the kids wanted to see her yard so they went out and played for a little while. It was really nice over there.

Next we took a trip to Target to get costumes…my post on how much I loathe,despise and completely dislike Halloween is next…so I won’t talk much about that trip, cuz I want to gripe about it later! HAHA!!

By the time we were done there I had a major headache coming on…so we went home ate lunch and I crashed on the couch, for 3+/- hours…

So our spectacular plans for the big night were this…Ward Fall Festival at 6:15 to feed the kids and let them have some fun and then off to dinner afterwards, the kids were going to hang out at the Thompson’s.  When it was time to leave my headache had reached the point of giving me nausea. But I didn’t want to cancel because the kids were looking forward to it.

It was a good and bad idea…all the noise and the smell of food everywhere caused me to have to run to the bathroom. Luckily the feeling passed and the Aleve I had taken finally kicked in and I was feeling much better.

So the kids got their hands and faces painted, they painted little wooden leaves, pumpkins and acorns.

 

Corbin was in a pie eating contest. Chaz said he needed to be in a see who could eat the most over a period of time contest! LOL! He can eat all day long but not in a rush!

I’m done…LOL…I had to yell “Come on you can do it! GO CORBIN!” And he tried to eat a little more. LOL!

We ended up staying much longer than we had planned so by the time we got to the Thompson’s it was after 8. So we dropped off the kids and headed to Cracker Barrel.

11 Years!!!

Chaz says he missed the trade-in period at 10 years so we may as well stay together…such a romantic! HAHA! Several things put a damper on our evening but it was really nice to get out together and enjoy a nice hour or so of alone time! Even though my headache was pretty much gone by dinner, I ended up not being able to eat…I was still nauseous…

Surely he doesn’t get tired of my camera in his face all the time…right!? LOL!

Whistle while you work… October 18, 2008

…and play…and sit…and stand…and…and…and…

Seth started whistling recently…and he does it all the time!  At first it was quite funny and somewhat entertaining…then he started whistling Christmas songs. LOL.

Now it’s gotten annoying. heh…but we try not to discourage him until we just can’t take it anymore and we either tell him to shut his door or find something else to do LOL!

Kids Pick The President… October 17, 2008

My kids thought this was cool!
It gave them the feeling that they had a choice too!
(Click the pic!) 

Fall in all it’s colorful beauty! October 15, 2008

Fall is by far my favorite season!  I love the cool weather and the changing colors! I definitely miss all the creepy crawlies and flying beauties I take pictures of all summer…but the lovely fall weather makes it worth it.

We traveled to our home town over the weekend to visit family and get away!  Fall is in full swing! The trees were changing all around and my camera got a nice workout after not having much activity for awhile!

We drove out toward Escudilla to take pics of the colors and I was so disappointed with the haziness that Chaz was kind enough to keep on driving! Our quick trip to take a few pictures turned into a 3 hour drive up into the mountains! We drove up around Terry Flat Loop.

Escudilla from the highway…a couple miles after Nelson’s Reservoir.

It was a lovely way to spend my 30th birthday!  Driving slowly through the trees taking pictures along the way…and stopping whenever I felt like I just couldn’t get the shot I wanted…even when we were creeping along at 10 or less mph. It was a gorgeous afternoon.  And even with all my stops the kids had a great time.

Here are a few of my faves from the afternoon.  I took so many! It was hard to pick just a few!

We stopped off at one point and Chaz decide to teach the boys the fine art of rock rolling! LOL! When they couldn’t find good rocks at that spot Corbin was obsessed with finding the perfect spot with good rocks and a good drop off with not too many trees or rocks! We heard over and over…this spots not steep enough…too many trees…too many rocks…not enough rocks to roll…I admit it got a little annoying but it was fun too!

Here they are trying to dig up a rock to roll…it ended up being a lot bigger than it looked so after attempting to dig up for awhile they gave up.  It was pretty windy right there on the edge of the mountain so it was quite cold too.

On the way back down the mountain we stopped again and the boys found a better spot and rolled a few rocks across the road and then down the side of the mountain…after getting home I was talking to my mom about it and she said my dad liked doing that…must be a boy thing. LOL!

Across the road they go…

Almost to the edge… 

Watching it go…

“Oh…you get it…it’s too big.” 

As promised on our way up…on the way back we stopped at Hulsey Lake and the kids threw rocks in the lake and ran around and watched dragonflies fly around. It was nice and relaxing. I ended up with the wrong lens on my camera when we got out of the car and walked down to the lake…I didn’t realize til we were already at the lake…so I didn’t get a whole of pics…the lens was to long so I would walk away to get pics of the kids and they would follow me…so I gave up.
 

Ashlyn loves sunflower seeds! Just like daddy!

Hulsey Lake…I have many fun memories of this lake!  Catching crawdads, playing with cousins…sometimes I would like to move back home so my kids could have those same memories…sometimes.

There were dragonflies everywhere! But they wouldn’t land at all! I tried for a long time to get a pic of one but didn’t succeed.  Here’s a fly by of one…arg…

I love how the water looks like silk in this one!

I have a thing for cattails…They are just cool! LOL!

I love how this tree stood out in the sun light!
It was a gorgeous sight!

ophthalmologist… October 3, 2008

Sage had an appointment today and her eyes were finally looked at! She is being referred to a specialist. The nurse practitioner said that if a lazy eye like hers is not corrected that it is possible vision could be lost in that eye. She said the brain could eventually “ignore” the lazy eye and basically shut it off because the eyes are sending two separate images to the brain and confusing it. Yikes! I knew it wasn’t good to let it go on but I didn’t think it could become so serious!

Sooooooooooo…along with Seth’s Speech Therapy soon we will be taking Sage to Vision Therapy also! Fun stuff!