Another Day, ANOTHER hike!

We had so much fun on the Dino Trek that we decided to conquer another climb!  This time to the top of what my kids call "Volcano Mountain"! Once again it took us over three hours, and it was a lot harder than it looked! The amazing thing about my kids is that they always think they are going to find some sort of treasure (I always think we are going to find a dead body-which means I have watched to many episodes of Criminal Minds) -which leads to a three hour hike without a complaint! They hiked their little hearts out today and didn't complain ONCE!  Their momma on the other hand...well my feet hurt, my tailbone killed, and my neck and back didn't want my body to take another step with that 20 pound backpack on! BUT-I kept that to myself-because if three little munchkins can do it, SO CAN I! 

They found a few treasure that (to them) made it worth the hike! The first was the survey marker at the VERY top of the mountain that was put their in 1994! The second treasure was the cute little caterpillar cactus! What made it worth it to me is the fact that I had another day without fighting, tattling, and crying!  Christmas break is almost over and these hikes have made the last few days SO much better! 

Little Koda Bear 12/29/2008

Koda loves to dress up...in ANYTHIING! He doesn't care if it is a tutu, transformer costume, or his costume of choice today (SFK) Super Fast Kid- and YES I let him wear his SFK costume everywhere!  The Cinderella dress was a birthday present to Bailia last year from Grandma Jaclyn-I think Cooper has got more use out of it than Bailia!! I hope he always keeps his carefree attitude throughout his life.  He will do anything to get you to laugh, and more importantly to make himself laugh! We love you Matty!

Dinosaur Trek! 12/29/2008

Ok-sometimes my ideas are not the greatest-now that we are home we are all glad that we went BUT while we were on our little 3 1/2 HOUR excursion (it was supposed to be a LITTLE hike) well, lets just say we got a LOT of exercise! My thought was to get the kids out of the house so that they would stop bugging each other so much!  Well, the plan worked!  They are ALL (Harley included) EXHAUSTED!  We FINALLY found the Dinosaur Fossils and the kids had a blast using bushes to dust away the dirt off of the dino tracks! What a great adventure to look back on and I think we will all be sleeping VERY well tonight! 

Merry Christmas To ALL!!

There are a lot of photos-and a lot of the pages are out of order-but at least I got them posted right? We had an amazing month of December-with festivities throughout- and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Merry Christmas!

Once again Adam SPOILED me rotten! Not only did I get a bunch of clothes, perfume, and an all in one printer-he bought me a MAC!!  We just shipped my "Old" (4 months old) computer back to HP to have them try to fix the hunk of junk-I am SO excited about my new computer I can't stand it! There are so many AMAZING things that you can do, and I can't wait to try them ALL! Thanks A for making this yet another memorable Christmas!  

We had a Christmas Eve party at our house and had a great time! The food was delicious, the company even better!  We have played this money game for the last 5 or so years and it is always a hit-if you can roll a dice you have a chance at winning! This year two of Jen's boys won- Jaxon won $80 and Kyler won $20- I took third, winning $10!

Merry Christmas to all from The Milne Family
Little miss Bailia woke up at 6:00am Christmas morning shouting MY TOOTH FELL OUT IN MY HAND!! Missing two front teeth for Christmas is just TOO cute!
Poor dog has had two holes in the toes of his shoes for more than a month now!  He has ALWAYS loved Nike Shox, and I KNEW he would love a pair of custom made Shox even more! To say that he loves his new shoes would be an understatement! I designed them with his favorite colors and had BIG embroidered on the back of the left shoe and DOG on the right!
Grandma Williams spoiled my big kids with gift cards to Barnes and Noble and itunes! The kids kept asking when we could go to B&N, and couldn't understand why they wouldn't be open on Christmas! Cooper LOVES his BUZZ and carried it around for hours!

Tuacahn Nativity 12/20/20008

We received a phone call from Becca yesterday afternoon telling us that the bus of people that were coming down from Idaho, to do the Nativity Program at Tuacahn were not coming because of the weather. She had been invited by Jada Mae's performing teacher, and had been told to invite a few others. So we headed out to Tuacahn and the kids were dressed in their costumes and ready to go through rehearsal. Jaden and Cooper were little Shepard's, and Bailia, along with Jada Mae were beautiful Angels! They performed two shows and were so excited to be there! I, being the proud mom that I am, thought they did an amazing job! During the second showing Cooper somehow got grouped with the townspeople instead of the Shepard's-so he walked across with the townspeople and did their part, then casually walked to where he was supposed to be in the first place and went back out with the Shepard's to do their part. After the show he asked if he had ruined the show-I said you made it even better!! The first showing was packed, the second-not as much, but when we left Jaden said he felt famous! Thank you Becca for thinking of us-you made our Christmas so special!

Jdog's Gymnastics Practice Meet 12/19/2008

~J's Class Christmas Party~ 12/19/2008

Silly pictures, I know, but we were at the school too early (what else is new) and Cooper wanted to take some silly face photos to waste time. Cheap entertainment!

The snow ball game turned out to be a hoot! The kids had to blow the ping pong ball down the table into one of three cups. The thing that cracked me up is that photo after photo you see the kids that are waiting in line "helping" the person blow the ball! In the pictures above Jaden is trying to help Kate blow her snowball. In the pictures below Koda and Jaden's classmate are trying to help him!

It is SO nice to have such great room mom's! For the past few years the kids haven't had overly eager parent volunteers-so I had to be there A LOT! This year both classes have the most amazing parents! Yesterday Jaden had his Christmas party the ONLY thing I had to do was bring prizes and run the game section-which were already planned out-I just had to be there! Koda had such a great time going from station to station with Jaden! They made everything from candy wreaths, and ice cream cone Christmas trees, to ornaments and gumdrop creations! They all had a lot of fun-Koda and I finished off the party by eating Christmas Dinner in the cafeteria with Jdog!

Snow Day! 12/18/2008

Last weekend I took the kids to the Nutcracker-they LOVED it!!! Today was a NO School Snow Day-Jaden got so excited to play in the snow, Bailia on the other hand started crying since today was the day they were going to "sing for the old people, and now they are going to be sad because we aren't there!" She got over it, after I told her they could go out and build a snowman! FUN TIMES!

Tooting my own horn...Birthday horn that is! 12/11/2008

I honestly have some really great friends, and apparently I must have mentioned that I really like 25th and Main's cupcakes because not only did Jill, Ashley, and Tami bring me a box with a gift certificate, Becca brought me a box as well!

Today I am so grateful for a best friend-my sister. My kids, for all of their love, and for trying to make me a more patient momma. For a husband, who without him I wouldn't be whole. (Cheesy I know) For a Koda Bear who is starting to feeling better (but yes we are STILL in our sweats at this time-yuck!!) For an awesome sister-in-law who "gets" me. (sorry no pictures of my SIL or friends-you all know I don't get out much!) And for great friends (who like me even though they know how weird I am!) Thank you everyone for your gifts, calls, texts, and e-mails-your thoughtfulness has made this a WONDERFUL birthday!

Adam you always go above and beyond when it comes to buying gifts for me! Thank you for the awesome watch, the wonderful smelling perfume, and the beautiful flowers, balloons, and candy! You are so good to me, thank you!

My sister, Jen, is so good to me-I have been wanting this metal stocking at Krumpets since they got it in-I couldn't bring myself to buy it (odd I know) and so she got it for me!!! I totally LOVE it -Thank you so much!

Tis' the Season! 12/8/2008

It seems like the sick season JUST ended, and here we are again SICK! It hits Cooper hard EVERY time! I kept him home from school on Friday with a barking cough-since his pneumonia last year I get nervous every time he gets sick. Saturday he did ok, Sunday he got worse, then Monday I couldn't break his fever and his eyes started to goop. I called the doctor, and since Koda is considered high risk, they had us bring him in. From the time A drove him from our house, to meet me at the doctor's office Coop's eyes were COMPLETELY glued shut with goobers!! The top right picture of him he is trying to open his eyes! We soaked his eyes with warm water as we waited for the doctor to come in-the bottom left picture is of him-SO EXCITED that he could see again! We are now on Antibiotic, cough syrup, eye drop antibiotics, and motrin for the fever! Last night while at the doctor he looks at me with his teary, goopy, eyes and said "I am so sick of going to the doctors" -me too Koda, me too!

Dickens Festival 12/3/2008

If you have never gone to the Dickens Festival-GO! Even if you just go to see the REAL Santa! I have taken my kids every year for as long as I can remember-we all look forward to visiting with Santa, dipping candles, shopping through all of the little shops, eating good food (the crepes were REALLY good), and getting into the spirit of Christmas!

News Paper 12/2/2008

Yesterday was an exciting day for Jaden. Before school Nan called and said look in the paper at the letters to the editor! There in the newspaper was a letter thanking the Sandstone Third-graders and their teachers for putting on such an awesome program. Jaden was on cloud nine-he couldn't believe his name was even in the paper! So we clipped it out and J took it to school for his teacher to read to the class. If you remember my post last month about the program I wrote that it really was a GREAT program. Thanks Nan and Larry for taking the time out of your day to support Jaden and his class by attending, and publicly thanking the students and teachers!

(if you click on the scrabbook page it will enlarge it and you can read the letter better)