Rock on

Everyone that I know that has guitar hero says that you will become addicted. Well it has claimed one more!! Brian likes the game but now he will have to fight with his dad over when he can play.
After what seemed like the LONGEST day ever I came home to Dane rocking out to the Wii. He was all over the game, they had been playing ever since Aubrie came home from school. I guess really Dane had been playing. He was all smiles and Brian thinks his dad is AMAZING at it. They played the whole time while dinner was cooking and when dinner was done they were playing again!
I think that they will be excited when they see the second guitar and the drums!!!

McTeacher night

Thank goodness that Rhonda reminded me tonight that it was McTeacher night for Brian's school!! He was really not that excited about it but he said that he would be fine eating there. Right after school we had to take Aubrie to the doctor and since we were out already it was nice to just stop and get dinner!
Brian was bummed that the teachers were not working behind the counter like Aunt Valerie's school did. But he saw some friends and it was time to go before it got to crazy.

More Presents

On Brian's Birthday we were all so tired that Grandma and Aunt Valerie decided to wait and give him his gifts on Sunday when we had dinner.
We ate and Brian was ready to open his gifts! He was rushing me around trying to get it started.
Finally it was time to open the gifts, he started with Grandmas first. He was excited to see a Cameo scripture case and scriptures that had his name on them!!! That was way cool and he got some highlighter that fit right in his case!


Aunt Valerie's were next!! She got him a cars marker/coloring book set that he decided would go in his church bag! Then opened A pout pout fish, he was so funny he looked at her and tried to act like he was not happy. He was and he read the book that night. This book is funny for the fact that when ever Brian is all pouty in front of Valerie she says "Are you a pout pout fish, spreading dreary weary all over the place"? Now he has the book to always remind him of that!!!

Rock Star

Brian has wanted to play this game all day and finally he is playing. With Aubrie not there to bug him, he was practicing his moves for Goose who had to play close attention to him or he said GOOSE......

Unlike most of his games this one takes some practice and he is really not liking that it did not come natural. But hopefully with practice he will get the hang of it!!

Solitaire Lesson

Grumpy brought some decks of cards for to teach the kids how to play Solitaire. Aubrie was all over it Brian was in to it because Aubrie was then he got bored and did not learn how!! I was not aware that there is more then one way to play but there is. Grumpy thought Aubrie 2 ways to play.

I am thinking that she likes it, because she has been at the table for the last 2 hours playing and reporting to Grumpy how she is doing!!

Happy 60th Birthday Goose

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Goose got to celebrate her birthday with us this year! The girls spent the day shopping and looking at everything at the stores we were at!! Grumpy made carcass soup for dinner (once again so yummy) and we watched all my pictures from the year on the TV so Goose and Grumpy could see them.
I had bought her a red velvet torte and of course we could not fit 60 candles on it so we had one for every decade that she has been alive!! The kids were all ready to see 60 candles but they were OK to help her blow them out!!!
This weekend has been fun and we will be sad to see them go, but they will be back soon to have Christmas with us!!!

Cold Creek

Dane decided that since The girls were going shopping that he was going to take out the Rhino for some Man time. Grumpy did not go because he did not feel well but I think he was looking forward to having a some time with some quiet!


Dane, Brian, Bert, Andrew and Evan loaded up and where on their way to Cold Creek. They had lunches packed and were ready to have some fun. I sent my camera with Dane and he got some really good pictures of the boys!!Enjoying the lunches that the moms had made for them!! Rhonda won though because she packed cookies and all I had was fruit snacks.

They made a new friend while they were at the pond. This dog came and hung out with them while they fished! As you can tell the kids were in love with her!!
They got home unloaded and it was time to Celebrate Goose's birthday!!

Biggest pancakes ever!

For Breakfast this morning Grumpy made these HUGE pancakes!! I make pancakes but these were not anything like the ones I make! Two of my pancakes ALMOST equal one of his!! The kids were so excited and hungry. Brian ate his whole thing and Aubrie who is still not that well she ate about 1/3. I ate all of mine and they were great!! He made so many that we have left overs and he told us to make them again!!! I have been very spoiled these last couple of days with his cooking!!

Happy birthday to Brian!!

8 Reasons I love you....
1. your hugs make the day that much better
2. The way you don't get out of the car without kissing me Goodbye
3. your sense of humor
4. how much you care about others
5. your smile
6.the way you love to read (just like me)
7. your special relationship with your Grandma
8. the way you make everyone laugh

My baby is 8. Time has flown by I remember bringing him home and he was so little!! I miss those days but I love the little man he has become. He is still my cuddlier and he will run any errands with me at any time!!
Goose bought him and cake and the girl even wrote on it!! He was so excited to open his gifts that he could not stand it. He was eyeing them all through dinner. Which was home made biscuits and gravy and all the breakfast food that you could think of. Thanks to the chef Grumpy who made enough for us to have so many leftovers!!!
Brian wanted to open his presents first then do cake! SO he opened them and was excited that Goose and I had found a Monster truck he did not have. He got some pistachios his favorite nut!!!

Dad and I got him a guitar hero game for the Wii! He was so excited about that until he opened his last present!! He opened it and jumped up and ran around he was so excited!!!

A Yankees t-shirt was the hit of the night! He wanted to call Grandma and tell her what he got!!!
After the excitement of the Yankees shirt we blew out the candles cut the cake and watched Captain America that I wanted to see but slept through the whole thing. Guess I will have to rent it again!! Happy Birthday to little man Brian.

Yes!!!!!

Right after I got back, I heard Grumpy and Goose telling Brian that he should believe in the Birthday fairy. He kept telling them that he should really check and see if she came. I have never ever heard of the fairy and either had Brian but he ran into the room and found the gift that he wanted so bad. He was stoked that he had gotten this game they love it and ripped it open to play it right away I fell asleep to him playing his game!!

A Birthday Breakfast!!!

I went into the house and found that everyone was still sleeping. I climbed into Brian's bed and snuggled with him and sang him Happy Birthday. He smiled and went back to sleep. I got up and found out that Aubrie was sicker then she was when I left.
When Brian go up I had to bribe him with Starbucks to go get Breakfast with me. I took him to Dunkin Donuts. He got to pick all 12 out and he was so excited the girls behind the counter made a big deal about his Birthday!!! Then it was time to go and get Starbucks where the girl that was working is my normal girl and she made an even bigger deal about his Birthday!! I was so tired that I could not think straight but I was glad that I made his morning special because he was so worried that I was going to be gone the whole day!!!

It is over

Joannes was our last stop and Rhonda and I were not even really coherent. I was so sleepy and my feet hurt so bad!!!
It was around 645 and we were so tired that we were not even willing to get out of the car and take our annual end of the shopping day picture. While we trying to get a good one we were freaked out by a noise that we thought was someone trying to scare us by tapping on the car, then Rhonda saw that it was black bird on top of the car!! We turned and snapped a picture and were waiting for Valerie and my Mom. The ride home seemed to take forever and I knew that I was not going to be able to go right to bed since I had to celebrate Brian's birthday!!!

8:30 pm REALLY

I think we are crazy this year!!! We were planning on leaving the house at 830pm to make the sale at Walmart this year that started at 10. This year Tasha(Rhonda's soon to be sister in law) went with us. Dumb us for giving WalMart another chance. We got there and there was a HUGE line and all the sale merchandise was already ripped open and mostly gone there was mass confusion that left me ANGRY and I did not buy anything from them and will never go to that store again on Black Friday again.
Then it was time to met up with Valerie and Mom at the Target. I was worried there was a long line already and I really just did not want to have a horrible night all night. Target got it right and let us all in slowly and I got everything I wanted for the kids! We waited in a line that went so fast, It was so nice to see that it was not going to be a lost night.
Kohls was next on the list and it was crazy too as always the line went around the whole store from both sides. I found Brian a dress shirt and was not going to wait then Valerie found something she wanted and they were staying to stand in line. Rhonda and I took Tasha back to her car and headed for our usual Roberto's breakfast Burrito. It was great just like last time and gave us the energy burst we needed!!

We had to wait for Valerie and Mom to call us when they were done with Kohls. We decided to go back to Target and get some Starbucks since we had some time to kill. We walked around looked at stuff slowly and left with nothing. Valerie and my mom were still not done so we then waited at Moms house. It was getting really comfy in the car and we had to roll down the window. At this point we were so slap happy and it was only 345 in the morning!!!
Finally they got there and we went to the mall where we found a couple of things. I was so tired that I was not even in the mood to buy stuff at bath and body which is very not like me!!!

Thanksgiving

After a busy morning the turkey, the rolls and all the fixing were ready to be eaten. This year we were joined by Janice, Jerry,Mom and Aunt Valerie. I made Dane turn off the football game but all he really did was mute it. That was not a fight I was in the mood to fight for. Dane carved the turkey and all we were waiting for was the rolls.

Like always dinner take 15 minutes to eat and 8 hours to make. We enjoyed listening to the kids and talking about everything. -




After dinner it was time to start getting our list ready for Black Friday. All the dishes were clean and the left overs were stored. No sleep for me I was getting ready to leave at 830 pm. Yes it was going to be a long night!!!!

Can I

This morning I had Brian go and get the mail since I had not gotten it on Wednesday. He ran in and was asking me can I open it can I open it. Please, can I open it. I had no idea what he was talking about , I asked him what are you talking about. He showed me a card that was from Aunt Debbie. I told him that he could open it and he ripped it open read the card and did a Happy dance about what he found in the card! A target gift card that had 20 bucks on it!! He started adding up his money and he got more and more excited!!!

O.N early again

Since last year went so great we decided to do Old Navy again on Thursday morning before we started getting dinner ready. We stopped at Starbucks and went to meet Rhonda's mom. There was no line when we first go there but it started to form shortly after we got there. We got out and waited for them to open the doors.
Rhonda and I went straight for the jeans which were huge last year but not so much this year. I got Aubrie a cute Pcoat and they both got 2 outfits!! We made out again this year and it is one less place we have to go tomorrow!!!

Shooting

Every other year Dane and Bert take the kids shooting on the morning of Thanksgiving. Aubrie was sick this year and did not want to go. So it was just the boys. They all got up early and left on time ( i was not there to see it I was getting some EARLY black Friday shopping). Dane took all of his guns and Brian's guns too.
They lite a fire so they could stay warm while they were shooting stuff. All the kids got to shoot Brian's 22 and they all shot their dad's shot guns. Brian and Andrew were kicked back a ways after shooting the shot gun, Evan was not happy to shot it at all and after he shot it he dropped the gun. Always a funny story to tell after these boys get home from an adventure!
They got home in time to clean up and get ready for some Thanksgiving grub.

Presents for me

Brian made this for me. He gave it to me with a huge smile on his face! He made Dane something too but mine was cuter!!! It will be one that I put up every year!!!

A worm......

Tonight after school and haircuts and spending what seemed forever getting dinner, guess no one wanted to cook since they had to cook all day tomorrow. Valerie made it over to my house and we were off to Grandma Stucki's house to make stuffing and roll dough.
We had already received phone calls from a NOT HAPPY mom who was tired and was not doing this midnight madness next year. She also informed me that it was not about me this night it was about her when I told her that we were all tired!!
Anyways when we got there they had already made the stuffing so we were on to the rolls. I started and once again Grandma changed something up, she keeps doing that and it really screwing me up since for years we made them one way and one way only. When we started to add the flour I saw a weevil come to the top. GROSS!!!! I was slowly dying inside and knew that I could not say anything to anyone, but she soon realized that they were in the flour and was so embarrassed. No big deal I said I remember my mom always saying that a little protein never killed you. It killed me a little bit but I will survive!!! Out of no where Grandma said "is that a worm?" I froze in fear and thought I am not eating these. She picked it up and said " oh it is a Cheerio" we have not laughed that hard with my Grandma in a long time!!!!

Thanksgiving Turkey

In class today Brian made this so cute turkey and this cute little poem that I was so excited to get and then he gave them to Goose and said that it was Grandparents day and he had other presents for me. What I really wanted to say was that it was mine but that was not happening since she was so excited about it! Unless she forgets it on my counter I will have to give it up... Fingers crossed she forgets.

Placemats!!!

I found these place mats in the dollar section of Target and thought how fun it would be to color them and everyone could have a different one. The kids started then got bored and then started again and then got bored again! Finally I made them finish them at Grandma's house so we could have her laminate them for us!!
I think they turned so cute and even Dane was picking which one he wanted under his plate!! Hopefully they last a while and we can use them for a couple of years!

Red, green, orange,white, blue

Dane made the mistake and asked me to help him fix the lights outside that were burnt out. As I was helping him I noticed that the light were not in a pattern so I started to tell him to change this one with this one and I had to repeat the pattern to him every time!!!! He was so mad and thought that I was CRAZY but I told him that it was his fault for asking me to help!!! But at the end we had the neighbor guy laughing at us, but we had a nice pattern that made me Happy so now we are only missing one white light bulb so I am on the hunt because the only ones they sell in the replacement packs have no white!!!

No I want Nothing..

Tonight we were asking the kids what they wanted from Santa. I always make sure that before we go to the mall they know EXACTLY what they want from the big man. Aubrie could not decide between a Video Camera or an Ipod but she settled on a video camera. Check one done.
Brian on the other hand wants an RC car just like our friend Chucks. I explained to Brian that he can not ask Santa for something that cost that much money and that it was a little bit much. He looked at me and said that "Santa does not have to buy them he makes the toys". OK so what to say to that, I told him that he was not allowed to ask for that he was too young and if he broke it mom could not fix it. So he looked right at me and said in a calm voice then "I want NOTHING". He said that since he could not get what he wanted that he wanted nothing. I have tried to change his mind but he is sticking to it.........

A first for Brian

Brian was all smiles when he got home today from his first sleepover!! He was so excited on Friday when we packed his back pack up with his clothes. He got to stay after school and go home with Conner and his Mom. I was a little worried about him staying the night and he assured me that he would be fine. He was right, he got home and told me all about his night.
They started with Subway and even got his favorite ice cream mint chocolate chip (which happens to be Conner's favorite too). They watched Judy Moody and played with Conner's sister. He said that they fell asleep watching the movie. Then Conner woke him up at 6:30 which is so EARLY for Brian.
Later on today he asked Aubrie to watch TV somewhere else so he could take a nap. And he did for about 3 hours!!
He can not wait for when Conner sleeps over at our house!!

Girls night

So while Brian was at his friends house tonight. My mom, sister, Aubrie and I headed to a Tastefully Simple tasting party. It was at my friend Cindi's house and we had a blast and ate some YUMMY food!! Aubrie was thrilled that she got to come with the big girls. She loved trying all the food. We had a great time laughing and talking about life and everything else!!
When we were done we had to go grocery shopping with Valerie to "find" a turkey. Not really since Aubrie and my mom thought they were so funny when they told me that they could not find a big one and that we had to go and hunt one down. Well they had really found a 24 pounder and thought that it was so funny to stress me out! Well the joke was on them when I told them well now great we have to go shopping with Valerie!!
We had a great time and I think we should more girls stuff together!!!

Catch

When Brian was getting ready this morning Dane came in and asked him who he wanted to take to school. Brian was quiet for a minute, Dane told him that he would not hurt any ones feelings so just pick. He picked Dad of course!! Dane told him well then hurry up and get dressed so we can go and look at my truck and play some catch.
If I had only known that saying catch was all I had to do to get him to get dressed that fast. He was out the door quickly and they were playing catch. With the HUGE grin that Brian had on his face I know that he day was going to be a GREAT day!!!

I can not miss SCHOOL!!!

Two 5 minutes early lunch passes
Two free homework passes
One patio pass with 2 friends
and two bathroom passes

Aubrie came bounding in the door today and proclaimed that she can not miss school on the 2nd of December because she got this for having perfect attendance for the first quarter. She is missing school to have pictures with Santa and have lunch with the group. Most kids would love to miss school not my daughter she is MAD!! She even has grandma telling me that she should not miss...... I am sure that everyday until the 2nd I will hear about this and be shown this book 100 more times.

Straight "A's" again

Aubrie brought home her first report card from Middle School tonight and once again she got all A's. She is still loving school and it shows in her grades!! She was so stressed out about her typing class because she was having a hard time with her typing tests, but she practiced and got an A in that class!! We are so proud of her she has had A's since her first report card in first grade and has so many things that she wants to do. With these grades she is on her way to becoming whatever she sets her mind too!!