Wer'e still here!

I haven't uploaded any pictures from my camera yet- but some of you have been wondering how we have been, so while I take a moment to catch my breath here are a few things that we have been up to.

Brooklyn Turned 5 ! Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl! She didn't have a big party, but she did have a few friends come over to watch Tinkerbell. Instead of trying to come up with treats and a safe cake, I made a paper one out of cardstock- it was made up of individual boxes that looked like a slice of cake- they opened on the top and were filled with smarties, rings, necklaces and lip gloss. The best part is that she still has a piece or two left of "birthday cake' and she can still enjoy it!

Tyson put pontoons onto his airplane to go fly it on the water- he was doing very well until he flew right into a tree hanging over the water! Luckily there was a couple of very nice guys out walking their dog who volunteered to climb up the tree and shake the plane down. They then got a Kayak and rescued it out of the water for us. WOW what awesome good samaritans!

Cristine had her class party today- which turned out very well thanks to some wonderful helpers who brought a lot of stuff for me. Another Mom even stayed up late last night making snowmen out of marshmallows. Brooklyn and Tanner ran around the room making friends and in general having a great time.

Cristine got to go to the Orthopedist (bone doctor) to find out that her back pain is probably caused by the curving as it is growing (darn genetics) unfortunatly she has both Kyphosis (curving front to back) and Scoleosis (curving side to side) Poor Thing - we are keeping a close eye on her back and taking it easy for a few weeks.

Tanner is a three year old boy, and still gets into EVERYTHING. WE have decided once again to take away all pens, markers, crayons, highlighters, pencils, stamp pads, glue, gluesticks, lip gloss, playdough, or anything else which may make a mark on the floors, carpets, walls and windows. It usually doesn't last very long. I am not sure why he doesn't like paper, maybe for CHristmas he needs something he can destroy and put back together again :)

I will post pictures, when I get around to it...Sooon.....maybe...

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

There has never been two years in a row (in recorded History) that Houston has gotten snow, until NOW!

WE got a cold front come down from the north and some wet come up from the gulf to give us a short snow storm yesterday. Except for one evening last year, it hasn't snowed for 5-6 years here. I was helping at tthe school when it started and ALL the kids came pouring out of classrooms so they could see the snow out of the big glass doors. The teachers were letting kids stick their hands out so they could feel it. Ty called and said that the guys at work were out running in it like kids! , but as much fun as it was- Houston has NO idea what to do with the white stuff! It never stuck to the ground where we were, but schools closed early and even ty was sent home from work early so everyone could get out of the snow! Today all traces are gone and it is supposed to get back into the 70's by later next week, but it was sure fun!

Trying to get a sock over brooklyn's cast to keep her fingers warm
jumping in the snow with daddy! It was the only place it didn't melt right away!

Thanksgiving Guests

Yahoo! Brent Jenny and the kids braved the 14 1/2 hour drive to our house from Kansas just to see us! WE had so much fun having them here! WE hadn't seen them since adam was a month old and now he almost 2! All of our kiddos have gotten so much bigger. I think Ruth Ann was in little girl paradise and Tanner found someone else who liked to be superman with. It is a good thing Ty remembered to take these pictures- because the rest of the time we had so much fun we forgot the camera. On Thanksgiving day ty took the boys out to go fly his plane and ended up stuck in the mud. So we gto to have them rescued and Jake got to see huge Pig tracks in the mud.

WE also got to bring home the school Fire Bellied Toads for the break. It was quite an adventure to feed and care for them. They ate live Crickets (that were quite noisy). When we each fed them a cricket the big toad caught ate them both- so we put in a new one for the other toad and the big toad got that one too! So we had to seperate them to feed them after that. Uncle Brent said it was like swallowing Three Thanksgiving Turkeys! We were glad they made it back to school alive.

Brooklyn's Arm

Brooklyn was wrestling with her daddy and she tripped over his legs right onto her elbow...OUCH!

So we took her to the ER to get it checked, and sure enough it was broken. She was the saddest little girl. They put it in a splint overnight and we got it in the cast the next day. The orthopedist said she broke both the ulna AND the radius. The ulna was in place but the radius was at a 30 degree angle. If she was older they would need to surgically set it, but thanks to her being young and still growing, they said that space will fill in with new bone. Wow! WE are hoping they can take it off just before Christmas.

Oh yeah, this was after tanner Put an epi pen through his finger- then smashed the same finger (had to get x-rays on that too) and got a black eye! WHAT KIND OF PARENTS ARE WE??? A big Thankyou to our own parents who had even more kids and managed to keep us all alive as well as happy and healthy :) (spill the beans...how did you do it?)