Life is like a train ride!

Everyone is sick, I've had a horrible cough, Aubrey is sick, Devon and Regen are both sick with runny noses and coughs. Devon has a double ear infection to boot. Samantha and Hailey both need breathing treatments and Jesse is coughing. Both the babies could use breathing treatments as necessary the doctor said. So, I spend all day wiping running noses, changing yucky diapers, and soothing unhappy babies...very tiring. Now April is home sick from work and Aubrey called in sick too. Kirk is well... unbelievable and so is Alanna and David...Ashley is exhausted from caring for Regen who won't sleep at night and having to get up at 4:30am for her new job(she drops Regen off at 5:45 to get to work by 7:00)
I don't have anything exciting to post. I once heard life is like a train ride, the scenery changes once in awhile and you can get off every so often to do something fun or see something really amazing, but for the most part it's really just the same old monotony. It's what you choose to do with each and every day that makes the difference, it's the people you reach out to, to lift and spread a little joy. So pick up the phone and call a friend, smile at the people in line, say hello...you'll never know the impact you can have on another person. Hope you all have a happy day, Love Debbie

Aubrey turns 29!!!

We had Aubreys party on Tuesday evening. The theme for the evening was Asian. David was the mastermind over the whole dinner. We made a variety of delicious foods to include Hot and Sour Soup homemade by Kirk (so authentic tasting), potstickers, homemade eggrolls made by David and Aubrey, Fried Rice( David is such a good cook), Orange Chicken(Costco), Kung Pao chicken(the best box kit I've ever tried, just add your own chicken), sushi(Costco), an oriental salad and a jello poke cake(made by me). It was all so good!!! Graham and Ashley and April and Damon and the babies came over. Aubrey has pictures of the food on her camera, she'll post some on her blog.


Aubrey collects Willow Tree Statues, these are the wise men to go with her Nativity Set. I bought them after Christmas on a 70% discount. Yah! Ashley gave this frame to Aubrey, do you all have a Hobby Lobby close by?It is such a cool store.

David bought this wood leaf wall hanging, she loves nature, oriental, and exotic animals. Her room is so cool.

All of her gifts, they can't wait to get into a place of their own and finally set up all of their things.
They are such a cute and fun couple.
David bought this fortune cookie and had a message put inside . His gifts were mainly centered around the Asian them. Good job David.

Happy 21st Birthday Ashley!

We were all suppose to go up to Flagstaff for the day, but there was no snow...it came last night. They had over a foot of snow dumped on them. So we went bowling and the kids had a blast. They were excited to be at Ashleys birthday party.

Ashley and Graham laughing at the card Kris and Jamie got her. There are more pictures of the kids bowling on Kris and Jamies blog, so check that out also.

Happy 26th Birthday April and 27th Birthday Damon!

April and Damon came over Sunday evening for a birthday dinner and party. Damon's birthday was on the 29th of December and April's is on the 2nd of January. We had steak and salmon, it was so yummy.
We had an ice cream cake and a german chocolate cake,
Devon enjoyed the ice cream cake.
Regen loves to eat paper.

It's a Guitar Hero, Sing Star Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Here is Alanna the night before Christmas in her Christmas Jammies. Riley is wearing her new blue collar.

Devon came for a visit on Christmas Eve and he opened his new jammies too.

Devon wasn't sure of the whole opening the present thing, we've been taking them away from him all month, and now we're giving them to him.

Regen is very interested in what mommy is holding.She loves eating the paper, everything goes into her mouth.She loves playing with her beads, she is rolling over and scooting backwards now.Isn't this going to look so cute on Regen?
Aubrey buried behind her mountain of gifts.
Alanna is jamming on her guitar, she can't wait to plug it in.
Ashley trying out the keys.
Alanna in her new jacket.
Sierra

Kaleb

KyleeAshlynnTristen
The whole group including Cameron.

Opening our gifts to them.
Debbie and Alanna trying out the Sing Star.

Kris trying to sing.

Aubrey and Alanna on the guitars, what a fun game! David and Alanna, look at the concentration.Alanna singing Kylee, Sierra and Kaleb singing.
Jamie giving it a try.

Graham opening his robot dinosaur. Ashley sporting her aeropostale jacket.

Ashley and Regen

April, Damon and Devon
Kirk and his new t-shirt. Regen wearing her new outfit from Alanna.

Regen enjoying Ashley's dinner.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We love you all.

When it rains, it pours!!!

We are the proud owners of a new water heater. Our previous heater was leaking and so upon further investigation, Kirk said the bottom was totally corroded. When he removed it from the garage, he left a trail of corrosion and water heater all the way to the side of the house. We don't even know how the water was staying inside that thing, maybe the corrosion was piled up just perfectly inside to prevent it from all running out.....hmmm maybe that's why our water bill has been higher than normal lately.
Then I get a notice that my registration has expired....six weeks ago. Normally I get a letter stating it's time to register my car, not this time, so I go online to register the car and I find out I need to get the emmission test thing...so I carefully drive it to the emmission place and it doesn't pass....ugh!!! So now I have a 30 day temporary plate and I have to find a place to take the car for repairs and try to pass emmissions.
I still have a paper to write and a horrible math final on Tuesday.....argghhh!!!! I hope everyone else is doing good, I hope to feel the pressure lift after finals. Love to you all.

It's Finals Week

I only have two classes this semester, but good grief, they are so time consuming! My math class is killing me, it's statistics and every concept is new seeing that prior to this and the bone head math I took last year, the last math class I took was 9th grade math... 30 years ago!! My child development class is alot of reading and class presentations and essays. I have one more presentation and a math final to study for and then I have a month break. Maybe then I can finally get all the rest of the Christmas shopping done, Christmas card and letters written and mailed and day care taxes organized for tax time and maybe even rest....well I can dream can't I.

Regen is getting easier to care for and Devon is happy crawling around with the other kids. It's still hard to find the time to study though, maybe next semester will be easier. I'll be taking an on line computer class, and two education classes; The exceptional learner and Cultural Diversity.

I can't find my camera, the last time I saw it was when I took Kris and Jamies family picture. I hope I can find it before Christmas :( Enjoy everyones blogs. Write more, Love to all Debbie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our family to yours. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend and Happy Thanksgiving. David is taking our picture. We had a fairly small group for dinner, but it more than doubled by desert.

Devon is 8 months now, he loves to feed himself, and notices if you have something that he doesn't have.

Devon loves sweet potatoes, and jello and turkey and stuffing and potatoes, he really enjoyed his dinner.

April is going along with her picture happy mom.

Here is Kirk carving our Turkey, it was so moist and delicious, we've practically eaten it to the bone, time for Turkey soup.

Kirk always makes orange rolls for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are soooo good.

Aubrey makes this yummy sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and nuts for the topping. In the background is moms green jello.

Aubrey's plate full of Thanksgiving goodness.

Ashley's beauty salon is open....Kylee is getting her hair done.

Ashlynn after her makeover.

Sierra posing and Alanna shooting the picture, I wondered where my camera went.

Sierra, Tristen, Kylee and Kaleb playing an intense game of Guess Who?

We had two pumpkin pies, an apple pie, a cherry breeze pie and a chocolate cake. Kris and Jamie brought a pecan pie and a cherry pie....yum.

The kids are lined up in front of the pies, and can barely stand the wait. We had a fun day visiting with everyone and hope you all had a great Thanksgiving also.