Feliz Navidad

Here's a little re-cap of our holiday season. For the complete version you'll need to come to my house and look through my photo album ; )

5(ACTUALLY 6) LITTLE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED
They decided the mattress in the extra bedroom in G & G's basement was their new trampoline. They spent the entire night downstairs playing on it.

I did manage to have them at least sit still for a picture, however looking at the camera was a whole different story.
L to R: Lukas, Drake, Isaiah, Gavin, Treysen & Taiya

This is why we didn't send family pictures out with our Christmas cards. We have about 6 of these pictures, different poses, different scenerios. Lets just say there was laughing, crying, farting and a whole lot of hocus pocus that prevented the pictures from even turning out.

Our cute little Christmas elf!

Cody built a big snow fort in the back yard for him and Gavin to play in. We need a little more snow to completely finish it, but it's a good start.

I bet you are wondering why my son is in the bathtub with his shoes and clothes on, so here's the story. My nephew had an accident (the brown kind) in his pants so his mom put him in the bathtub to clean him up. She went to go get him a diaper or clothes and when she stepped out Gavin decided to get in which wouldn't have been so bad but there were little poopy floaters in the water and after I undressed him and went to take his diaper off, he had went #2 also so his diaper was not only soggy, but full of soggy pooh! That did me in and I had a visit with the porcelin pot. Merry Christmas to me!

Gavin hangin out in his diaper after the bathtub incident. This was his present from G & G that he was pulling around the house behind him.
We spend every Christmas Eve with Cody's family. We have dinner and then open our gifts to each other.

G & G got all the grandkids new Christmas outfits. Aren't they adorable?
Front Row: Drake, Gavin, Isaiah, Treysen & Lukas
Back Row: Taiya, Savannah, Madilyn, Alyssa(the baby), Alexandria & Aidyn

Gavin in his Christmas PJ's. They came with a bathrobe and booties. We get him new PJ's every year and let him wear them on Christmas Eve. Cody kept calling him Hugh Heffner all night.
We read the Christmas Story and then it was time for bed so Santa would come!

Every Christmas we meet at my parent's before 10 am and make a HUGE YUMMY breakfast and eat it all together, it's so much fun! Here we are cooking away!
Me, Chet (bro-in-law), Marie & Erin (Sister-in-laws)

Cody loves the Miami Dolphins and he loves to cook so this was the perfect gift!

Gavin got a new four wheeler from Uncle Paul & Aunt Erin and he was riding it all over the house.

We also ride snowmobiles every year in the field, snow permitting. Uncle Kenny gave Gavin his first ride this year and he didn't want to get off. He either wanted to be on the snowmobile or get pulled on the sled behind one.

Erin helping Taylor get up the hill so he could snowboard down again.

Chet & Karen

The Cousins
Gavin, Faith & Taylor

I raced Karen down the hill on the sled. I'd tell ya who won but I don't want Karen to feel bad again!

Mommy taking Gavin for ANOTHER ride on the sled!

Gavin got these goggles with a pretend chainsaw from G & G and he wears them everywhere now.

This is the funniest. He continually takes them off and on and sometimes he pulls his bottom eyelids down and so you can't help but laugh and then he just looks at you and wonders what is so funny!

All under 200 calories!!!

Cody decided to start his New Years Resolution early and I'm along for the ride. We are really watching what we are eating and cutting down on the amount of calories we are eating each day. Cody found a really good website (not sure what it is because he is the one that does the checking) that tells you how many calories everything in the world has which is pretty cool and makes it easy. So these are some of the things he found:

Bacon is 110 calories raw, but if you cook it, it is only 52 calories per piece.

Alaskan Native Ground Squirrel Meat is only 111 calories/100 grams

And last, but not least, Raw Walrus Liver...
only 125 Calories! Yum! Stop me now!!!

Midnight Madness wth a Frozen Turkey

Disclaimer:

(No animals...especially frozen turkeys named Hank... were harmed in the making of this blog)

Every year Rigby has what they call "Midnight Madness". They have a Christmas parade followed by the kids meeting Santa Claus and most of the stores are open until Midnight and have some really good deals. Brouldim's (the local grocery store) gives horse drawn carriage rides, the Senior Citizen's Center has a $5 spaghetti or chilli dinner and there are even free tokens at the car wash to wash your smelly husbands (I made that last part up, just in case you didn't notice). At the end of the parade they have Santa riding an antique fire engine, but my batteries froze before the parade was over so I couldn't get a picture, it was really cold.

Snug as a Bug in a Rug.
He doesn't look very happy here, but Gavin really like the lights, sirens and candy from the parade.

Broulim's had their boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale so we ran in to get a few.
In the middle of one of their freezer aisles they had made their very own bowling lane with real pins and everything, but instead of using a bowling ball (here comes the best part) we got to bowl with a REAL FROZEN TURKEY! How awesome is that?
(From here on out the frozen turkey will be known as Hank)

This is me picking up Hank. (Sorry the picture turned out a little blurry) I was a little hesitant for a split second because I can't imagine it was very much fun for Hank to get thrown on the floor, then skid down the aisle only to come to a crash landing into a bunch of bowling pins, but then I picked him up, got into my proper frozen turkey tossing stance and let him fly!

I convinced my mom Melva Jean ( known in her pre-Teri life as Jolene) to give old Hank a toss also. Apparently Hank didn't like her as well as he liked me though because he only hit one pin when my mom bowled with him. Hank and I had a connection from the beginning.

Hank and I made quite the team and we got a perfect STRIKE and for our efforts, Hank and I won a really BIG Hershey's Bar. If you get a magnifying glass and look really close you can see my mom's itty bitty green candy bar in her hand. I'm sure Hank and I are going to make the front page of the Jefferson Star newspaper! Oh! I also heard that Broulim's is having a sale on one well-tenderized and already partially thawed turkey, real cheap (or should I say "real gobble")!

P.S. GAVIN HATES SANTA
Before heading home we went to the Sugar Mill to do some more shopping. It's really cool, you should check it out and the Sugar Mill should give me a discount for putting in a plug for them on my blog. Anyway, Santa was there and we waited in a really long line and when it was Gavin's turn I walked him up there and he didn't want anything to do with him. He backed into me and said "NO!" I told him it was Santa and he was bringing him presents, but he didn't care. Santa tried to give him some candy, but again he said "No!" and wouldn't take it and I didn't force the issue. I took the candy from Santa, told him "thank you" and we left. I tried to give Gavin the candy that Santa had for him and at first he said "No" once again and then decided to take it only to throw it on the floor and say "NO!" again. Apparently he doesn't want anything to do with Santa including taking his goods!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

Every year we go and get a Christmas Tree. This year we were walking through the forest and we came upon some tracks...

We decided to follow them and this is what we found...

I'm Grateful for...

Rules: I'm suppose to tell 5 things that I'm grateful for, but it can't be sappy, boring, too sentimental, blah, blah, blah. They are suppose to be "fun" so here they are...

I'm grateful that my Brother-in-Law Chet finally got to live his life long dream and learn how to ride a real horse!

I'm grateful for friends who are good sports when I play pranks on them.

I am grateful for the Charlie Brown Christmas tree because it makes my tree look really good!

I am grateful for falling gas prices (that are 6 cents cheaper since I took this picture)!

And last, but not least I am thankful for the two wonderful men in my life!!!

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Cody and I take turns getting Gavin ready for church on Sundays. On this particular Sunday it was Cody's turn. He always dresses him really nice and he always matches and he always makes sure that he is not wearing white sock with his black pants and black shoes. But look really close and you can definitely see something wrong.

Here's a hint! Cody didn't even notice. I had to point it out to him. Gavin even knows how to put his own shoes on and he has never put them on the wrong feet. Way to go Daddy!

Operation Mahi Mahi

Cody found this crazy Mahi Mahi fish at a job sight this spring. We were saving it for a white elephant gift for my work christmas party, but since we are not doing white elephant gifts this year we decided to leave Paul & Erin a little present on their doorstep like they left for us.

Yes, that is the ORIGINAL hot dog that was in our mailbox. I kept it because I knew it would come in handy ( I'm weird I know). We taped it to the inside of the fish's mouth. Unfortunately, Paul & Erin were not home when we made the drop and they live out in Annis (suburb of Menan, which is a suburb of Rigby) and an animal of some sort had it for dinner before they got a chance to see the hot dog.

We still had our pumpkins from Halloween so I decided to get a little creative and put some faces on them for a little extra decor on their deck.

...more pumpkins. The pumpkin on the right is actually Gary Sinise's face cut up.

We also had a HUGE zuchinni that we didn't know what to do with so I jazzed it up a little bit with some rusty nails. I gave it some hair, ears and a cute little face. We put it next to her flower pot on the deck.

Yeah, I'm a Twilight Fan...just like everyone else

My cousin Angie(love ya girl) told me about the Twilight series last year and they did sound interesting, but I never got around to reading them. Then this summer the "Twilight Craze" hit work and everyone was talking about the books, so I borrowed( I didn't want to buy it just in case I didn't like it, little did I know) the first one from a co-worker. She brought it to me on Friday. I started it Friday night and was done by Saturday a little before 11 pm( Gavin takes pretty good care of himself !). I was hooked and I totally wanted to go buy the next one in the series right then and there and probably would have if Cody had not of been giving me such a hard time. Needless to say I bought New Moon and Eclipse on Monday and had them read in the blink of an eye, bought Breaking Dawn the day it came out and of course I went to the movie last night.
I had mixed feelings because I had "My Edward" in my head and didn't want my memory to be invaded by some "Hollywood Edward", but there was so much advertising that "My Edward" slowly became "Hollywood Edward" anyway, so I decided to go.
Steve, a CRNA I work with rents the entire theater in Blackfoot every time a Harry Potter movie would come out, so we (with the help of his wife Stacie) talked him into renting the theater for Twilight! Thank you Steve!!
I didn't get all crazy and wait for hours in the lines (which I don't completely understand anyway because everyone already has their tickets, but whatever!), but I did do something crazy, I brought my husband!!! (I know, I know!)
I took Gavin to my sisters for his very first over-nighter EVER (I cried, he didn't) and then when Cody got out of class we headed to Blackfoot which was actually really nice because with our crazy schedules it seems like we never have time to talk.
The theater didn't open until 11pm so we waited in the car for a couple of minutes. The line was forming, but Cody wouldn't get out of the car until he saw another man in line. Finally another guy showed up so we walked to the line, then the guy went back to his car and Cody almost bailed, but them some more "testosterone" showed up. ( I warned him multiple times that he would be greatly outnumbered, but he still wanted to come, even after our friends decided not to come with us because they didn't think they could stay up....Cassie and Scott!!! You should have went).
While we were waiting they had a Twilight quiz for us and a costume contest for the people who dressed up, Cody decided it was nap time...
Even though a movie could NEVER be as good as the book I loved the movie and once I got past Edwards HUGE eyebrows he was pretty dreamy, James wasn't to bad either and I loved Alice). I was surprised at the details they did put in from the book and of course a little disappointed with some of the others. The house's (The Cullen's and Charlie's) didn't look at all like I pictured, but it was good and I'm excited for the rest of the movies, but I'm definitely re-reading the books before I watch the movie. In their defense it really is hard to condense 300+ pages of good reading into 1-2 hours of a movie. Cody even liked the movie even though he hadn't read the books. I had told him about them, but had to fill him in here and there for a few things. OK so I'll stop rambling, but I'd love to know what you all thought about the movie.