It's almost Christmas!

I can't believe how fast the year has gone and that it will be Christmas in less than a week. We are ready and the kids and I are looking forward to some much needed sleep. We have been so busy and we all have been getting in bed really late each night. It will be nice to be able to sleep in a little. Byron, as usual, has decided he would rather be at work when most people are taking vacation and has therefore, decided not to use any vacation days. He is such a morning person anyways.

Good news!!!! I did not fracture my wrist and it is doing much better. Yesterday was the first day I was able to leave my splint off, but I have to be very careful. I am able to use it, but I can not lift anything heavy or twist it at all without it being painful. Thank goodness it wasn't broken.

Jet, our black lab, has learned a new trick. I didn't believe it when the kids told me, but Byron verified it was true. Jet stays on the back porch most of the time. He likes being close and would rather be inside with us, but the porch has worked great. The porch door has a lever handle that you just push down to open from either the inside or outside. Jet is now able to push the handle down with his paw to open the door and then go out. On the outside, the door has to be pulled toward you to open it, but it does not close automatically unless it is shut hard. So, when he wants to come back inside he just pushes the handle with his paw, the door bounces a little, then he puts his nose in the door and opens it up. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! He is a great dog and we have really grown to love him. He is so strong. When it snowed last week (we had several inches) the boys put Jet's leash on, sat on their sled, and Jet would pull them all around the yard. It was amazing how fast he would run while pulling them. Jet loved it as much as the kids did and it was great exercise for him. When they were finished, he came in and slept for several hours, but was ready to go again later.

TTFN
Tammy

What a day!

I had quite a day yesterday. The kids only had a half day of school, so I picked them up and we went to make some deliveries of our boxes of chocolates. At our first stop, I stepped out of the truck and just slid right down on the ice. Unfortunately, I caught my fall with my left wrist. My doctor was out of the office and I had to go to the ER. It looks like I broke one of the bones at my wrist, below my thumb. The doctor said that the bone that looks broken usually doesn't show up for sure if it's broken for about 7 days. They put a formed splint on my arm and I have to go to the Orthopedic Dr today. WHAT A BUMMER!!!!!! I never realized how hard it is to do things with only one hand.

Byron was able to fly out yesterday for his conference in FL. He is enjoying 80 degree weather and has a beach side hotel room while we are dealing with cold and ice, YUCK!!! The clouds are supposed to finally clear a little today and it's supposed to get up to about 35 degrees. Hopefully we will be able to get rid of some of the ice on our road and driveway because right now it still looks like an ice skating rink.

We have a busy evening tonight with Alisa's dress rehearsal for her Christmas show and a Scout Court of Honor for the boys. It should be fun getting everything done with my bum arm. Hopefully, Byron will not have any problems flying in Fri. night because we have a busy weekend. Brandon is still supposed to have his soccer ODP tryouts on Sat., but it is supposed to snow. We'll see what happens.

It's been a while

Picture 1: Making chocolates

Picture 2: Byron helping!!!

Picture 3: Our new additions: Spooky & Jasmine"

Well, I've not been very good about updating our blog. A lot has happened since my last post. Alisa and Brandon both had awesome performances at school. Brandon found out that he made the district team for the soccer Olympic Development Program here in Missouri. The state tryouts were supposed to be this past Saturday, but unfortunately we had really bad weather and it was postponed. The tryouts were rescheduled for this coming Saturday, but because of all of the freezing rain, it is doubtful.

Yes, we have had some bad weather. All of the schools in the area were cancelled today because of a huge ice storm that was supposed to be coming through. Fortunately, the temperature is currently at about 32 degrees and we mostly just got rain and not freezing rain. However, it is supposed to continue into this evening and they said the temps may be dropping again. Byron was supposed to fly to Florida for a conference this morning, but all of the flights out of KC have been cancelled. He rebooked his flight for tomorrow morning (his birthday), so we will see what happens.

I had a very busy weekend. Mom, Erin and I made LOTS of chocolates and other goodies. Erin and I worked on making the fondant on Thursday. We made 3 batches of vanilla cream, 2 batches of coconut cream and 1 batch of raspberry cream (my favorite). We also made 2 batches of orange fudge. On Friday and Saturday, the three of us, along with another friend, worked on dipping the chocolate. We also made 3 batches of peanut butter balls, 2 batches of turtles, 2 batches of carmels with pecans, lots of nut clusters, and a batch of bonbons. The roads were so bad on Saturday that Byron had to go pick up mom in our 4X4 truck because we didn't know if her van could make it out here. The roads are always worse out here because our long driveway and the two roads that lead to our house don't ever get treated. We had a lot of fun making everything, but decided to wait several years to do a big bunch of items again. It was a LOT of work, but yummy. On Sunday, we put together about 80 boxes of goodies to share with friends and neighbors.

We also have two more additions to our family. We got two kittens from some friends of ours to help with the mice outside (at least that's what Byron says). They are very cute and the kids love them. The are currently staying on the porch because they are so small and the weather is so yucky, but they will eventually stay outside with their home in our old shed.

We are all ready for Christmas. Byron sent most of our packages (I still have a couple to send out) last Saturday and I sent out all of our Christmas cards. We didn't put out any lights this year because the weather has either been really cold, snowy, or rainy.

I will try to keep everyone updated every couple of days, but I'm not promising anything.

New addition to the family

Our latest addition to the family is our new dog, Jet. He is a four year old black lab who was in need of a new home. The people we got him from moved into a new home and didn't have a large fenced yard for him. He is a whopping 100 pounds, is very friendly, and very well behaved. The kids love him. He previously stayed in their kitchen and was house broken, but he now resides on our back porch. We are all excited about once again having a dog.

Alisa and Brandon had their Primary presentation yesterday in sacrament meeting. They both did an awesome job. Tomorrow Alisa has her musical, Humbug!, and Brandon has his choir concert. I'll let you know how they go.

Until tomorrow!!!

Last weeks activities

Last weekend Brandon played in a soccer tournament and played awesome. He is very fast and great with the ball. One of the games the score was 5 to 2, with Brandon scoring 3 points and getting 2 assists. He absolutely loves soccer and his dream is to become a professional soccer player. I told him he can accomplish great things if works really hard and takes care of his body. Brandon and Byron are at a merit badge workshop today and working on his "Citizenship in the World" badge.

Alisa is diligently working on getting ready for her musical "Alice in Wonderland". She had a practice last Saturday and one this week. She has all of her lines memorized and knows all of the dances. We can't wait to see her performance the end of this month. She is also involved in the musical "Humbug!" at school this Tuesday. She has a special singing part with two boys and she is excited to perform.

Tyler is still Tyler. He is doing well in school, but not enjoying it. School has always been easy for him and he just doesn't want to study, but he still has good grades (he should have all A's although he does have a couple of B's and a few A-'s). He loves hanging out with friends and listening to music. He has really enjoyed playing football with the neighborhood kids and with friends and has gotten really good. He has also done an awesome job working on his Scout merit badges. He only needs 1 merit badge and his Eagle project and then he will be an Eagle Scout. He has put a lot of work into it.

I have been substituting and really enjoying it. I will be starting classes again in January, so once again I will be crazy, busy!!! We are going to mom and dad's house tonight to watch the Western Conference Finals for MLS Soccer. The KC Wizards are in the finals and we are hoping they win the game. I better get going and get a few things done before we have to leave.

TTFN

Hello!

I set up this blog to try to keep everyone updated on our family happenings. We are not good about keeping in touch, so I thought maybe this would be a good way. We are all doing great and staying busy. I will write in detail about what's going on with each of us in my next blogs.

Tammy