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Thanksgiving Break FUN

Four generations

The whole Crew
One TIRED farmer

Shuffle Board

The worlds smallest snowman
Snow Fun
Dead Possum
Cows
Tractor rides
Macy loves shuffle board too!
So we began the Thanksgiving Holiday with a 15 hour drive to Filley, Nebraska. The kids, my brother, and parents drove up on Sunday afternoon after a brief lunch with Scott and Tanya in Marble Falls. We made it to the Texas border and got a hotel and swam to burn off excess energy and then headed out Monday morning and trekked the rest of the way. Arrived in Filley to gorgeous weather and woke the next morning to cold weather that turned REALLY cold and had snow for the rest of the trip. The kids had a blast at Great Grandmas and at the Farm. I think I might have 3 new farmers to add to the farming industry. The kids played with the same 40 year old toys I played with....and loved them, had snow fights, and created kid chaos. Reid was in heaven with all the farm equipment. He became my Uncle's Little Buddy and they plowed, fed cows, greased a tractor, picked turnips, and even shot a possum. Macy loved the animals the cows and the quail and pheasants that Dad, Uncle Tom, Brad and Drew shot. Dale well he liked all the above items but his very favorite thing was the shuffle board table and the shuffle board tournaments at the Farm.

Duke flew into Omaha on Wednesday and we had a yummy Thanksgiving with homemade everything....a real treat. Came away with a few new recipes, and tons of great memories. I am really blessed to have a great family and extended family. It was super special to share with my kids, a place that I have so many fond memories, I am also super grateful that all of my extended family accepted my kids with such open arms, they are the only grand kids thus far so 3 containers of constant attention seeking, energy filled, super excited kids is ALOT to take in and they did, which really meant so so very much to me. Not too many kids get to experience their Great Grandmas house in the exact same fashion you did as a child. Ok so back to the trip. We left on Saturday morning and made it 15 miles before we were stopped by the POLICE....nice. Insert back story.....We stopped and filled up with gas.....at 7:00 am in 20 degree snowing weather, at a brand new gas station. Duke went through 3 pumps before he found one that was not frozen and would pump. So he had scanned his card 3 times....one for each pump....well the first for .89 cents went thru....the 2nd for 1.00 went thru and the 3rd allowed him to pump the tank...and said see clerk for receipt...we said forget it we do not need a receipt ( a thought we would rethink later). In Beatrice we get stopped, now we are the only Hummer to hit this area in a while I think and figure he is gonna find some DUMB way to ticket us just for that fact.....well he approaches and says "Did you get gas a little while back?" Yes Sir, says Duke...."Well we got a call to look for this car, apparently there was some gas that was unpaid for, the clerk said she did not think it was intentional but you are going to have to go back and pay"...OK, so we turn and get an escort 20 miles back to pay for gas a 3rd time when they HAD the card information....why not apply the info to the 3rd pump, .....OH NO the clerk says NEBRASKA privacy laws we can not do anything like that!.....whatever..... so 40 mins later we are back where we began and headed home. We drove all the way and made it in around midnight. It was a good trip and would have been better had Nebraska won and UT beat that agg school but I guess you have to let them win once in a while....better be a long while until it happens again!

Brad and crew with a Pheasant.....pretty birdie....

10 minutes later....skinned Pheasant....UGLY Birdie!

Dale looks shocked and Reid thinks its cool!

Macy and her "baby birdie"...aka Dead Quail

AHHHH Memories...thats good stuff!

Tylonel Painting video

Finally these took forever to load but here they are.....

Randomness

So last night a friend and I went to go see STOMP....it was awesome. We had front row seats, the performance was outstanding and very funny which was a suprise to me. I highly reccomend seeing it if you have not....and one of the cast tossed his gloves at the curtian call and I got one......yea....but it stinks....eeew, most likley it will see the trash soon.

So Macy is a HAM and yesterday was singing and dancing to a Hannah Montana song in the kitchen and I got it on video....check it out sorry it is sideways but I can not figure out how to rotate the video like a picture.... But she was jamming out

Ok so then this morning we wake up and Dale says his tummy hurts....refuses breakfast and I send him off to school, no fever so off he goes. Macy wakes up and I greet her at the stairs where she is throwing up. She refuses to eat and lays on the ground to watch TV and again throws up.....so this is the routine of the morning but with out fever, and then at 11:30 she finally busts a fever so I give her Tylonel and then she kept that down long enough to have it take effect and make her feel good again and I found her in the kitchen painting her face on a Tylonel High....and I grabbed the camera before I grabbed the washcloth.....enjoy

Longhorns WIN again

Yes they beat Texas Tech and I am sure thousands watched but there was an even better game, with fewer spectators that was twice as good. The little Longhorns beat the Dragons....20 to 6. It was a scoreless game until the last quarter when we scored, then they ran the kick off back for a touchdown. The very last play of the game we had a zig zag play that looked kinda unorganized but resulted in a touchdown...yea. The kids were really pumped up and Dale did great, he had a few good yardage runs and several flags he nabbed.....and Momma Sam even made the trip down to watch. The best had to be several spectators who sang the Eyes of Texas at the end of the Touchdowns....very cute....Hey we are the Longhorns.

Here is Momma Sam and the kids on the trampoline playing and Macy is "asleep"in her lap.

Momma Sam has to miss Dales birthday due to a trip to India for work, so she brought Dale 1/2 of his gift.....these awesome collectors series Star Wars figures and ships....really neat and Dale was in heaven....

Plates Plates Plates

So last year I decided to make my immediate family these Christmas cookies plates...they were cute and pretty easy to do. My Mom loved the idea and commissioned me to do plates for all her real estate clients of the year and a couple for her personally to give......25 plates in total. So I get the plates, paints, and sealer in 3 trips to separate Targets, and Michaels and Hobby Lobby and chose Friday as the day to start painting.....it took all day 8 am to 8 pm but they are done and I have one coat of sealer on them....so if you get one for Christmas from my Mom....act surprised. You might be thinking....where were the kids....here with me making forts and playing games...they were really really good at occupying themselves for me, surprisingly no catastrophes happened.

Bike Rodeo

Imagine a school full of eager bike riders, a course of circles, lines, and cones, a gaggle of helmets and parents with cameras....you have bike rodeo. Dales school does it each year and kids can bring their bikes and ride a circle, then down 2 lines, weave thru cones and down a straight line. He did great, rode his WRFF bike so he was inelegible for a trophy since that was limited to 2 wheeled non training wheeled bikes. He had fun and was glad he did it, Reid wanted to do it too....next year I told him and he was pumped up about that.

Recall this ....lead in that....

Is it just me or lately has there been TONS of toys and junk recalled. I just found out that Aqua Dots...this really cool looking art project for kids contains a chemical that if ingested can cause seizures and other really horrible stuff. It seems like every time you turn around there is lead in a kids toy paint.....maybe we need to pay more for toys and make sure they are safe.....jeez. Ok enough on my rant but the Aqua Dot toy was a top 10 Christmas toys gift....what a gift respiratory depression and unconsciousness... see for yourself.... http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idINN0758602120071107
And now I am really miffed b/c there is an article that said they do not think this will really effect the sales...parents will buy, equating it to ice cream and the American Public and they say they want to be healthy but eat premium ice cream. Continuing wiht that when you are 5 years old the only country of orgin that matters is the North Pole... OK Ice cream while it might add a pound or so will not KILL you....can I have this ladys address and pay her a visit! http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN0822971820071108?sp=true

Monkeys and Transformers and Flash OH MY!

Halloween went off without a hitch....or too many tricks. Dale was Optimus Prime from the Transformer movie, Reid was Flash and Macy was a Princess then Monkey Princess and a Princess again.

We began the candy fest at the day care where Macy and Reid went and trick or treated each classroom and got candy and goodies, then came home and I attempted to feed them food that was not in a candy wrapper....marginal results but better than nothing then at 6:30 we took off to beat the streets. Dale and Reid were speedy treaters and Macy well she and I took our time, to see the decorations, look at pumpkins and whatever else caught her eye and were MUCH slower...but she got her fill of candy. Then we made it back home and handed out to treaters at our house. You can say what you want about my OVER-decorations but I had 5 people stop and take pictures of their kids infront of my house's decorations....that is a compliment to me.

Reid, Dale and Macy were the best treat givers...they had the most fun.

Thursday Grandma and Bepaw were coming to get the kids and first thing in the morning Reid packed himself and Dale. This is VERY common for him to do but this time he actually got more than just toys and blankets....just missed pj's and socks and underwear....pretty good I say. So we fixed that issue and packed up Macy and then at 2:00 Grandma and Bepaw arrived to hugs and kisses and they were eager to go to Kerrville. They picked Dale up from school and hit the road to KIDTOPIA.... feeding the ducks, Bepaws pond, Hot dogs, the charged doonbuggy, trampoline and swinging....heaven for a kid. They came back for Dales football game on Saturday b/c Dale said I need to go...it is for the TEAM! They won 24-6....go Longhorns. They came home to stay on Sunday afternoon....tired and worn out...were Grandma and Bepaw....and the kids were wiped out as well.

Duke and I left to Philadelphia on Thursday night and Troy , Dukes brother who is in his 2nd year at Wharton Business School picked us up from the airport and almost took us to Delaware...Troy is not the driver of the family....this information will return later oh well we had no schedule to adhere too....We stayed in the B&B right across the street from Troy and Carolyns brownstone. It was very nice, and the Breakfasts were great. We had a very quick trip but saw and did tons. I had a tasty cake....a philly icon twinkie style treat, Dunkin Donuts...another northern icon treat, and whoopie pies...more later on that. We visited the Penn and Wharton campus and met Coach...who is actually was an old coach for Penn and he was on campus drumming up people to come to the Penn game ...he was a Hoot...he has a megaphone and a giant mobile Penn Helmet and was hollering " How you doin?" you then respond "VERY WELL" and he retorts "Didn't we?"...""How you doin?" "Very well!" "Didn't we?" again and again and again. If you have a clue as to the meaning fill me in. The campus was beautiful....historic and very cool looking. From there we went and had Pats Cheese steaks another Philly must do....we had a little detour on the way but it was worth the extra effort b/c they were great. It was very much like the Seinfeld episode with the soup...if you ask for something different or take too long....NO SOUP FOR YOU!...well you have to be prepared wiz...wit, wiz wit out, steak wit, steak wit out...preparedness is the key, otherwise you might mess up the flow of the workers that is like a well run machine. We then went and ran the Rocky Steps and saw some amazing Philly countryside. Then returned to Troy and Carolyns and played Blokus....Duke favorite new game, and then went and ate in the City. Saturday we headed out to Amish country and saw them plowing the fields, shopping in town with cart and horse...and beards the whole nine yards. Side point I really feel that the Amish have gutter minds or maybe just whoever named the towns.....Intercourse, Paradise, Blue Ball, and we ate whoopie pies...side bar really yummy but gutterish none the less or maybe it is just me....and Duke, and Troy and Carolyn? Finally we ate some wet bottom shoe fly pie which has nothing to do with a gutter mind but that is just an awful name for a food...it was good but hard to get past the name. And we did see an Amish girl getting in a horse drawn cart with Van's on?...skater Amish must be a new breed.....hmmmm. To finish the day we watched the Texas Oklahoma game and we all donned rally hats...ie Winstons dog toys....and played blokus a game I personally brought to a whole other level of awful, to make UT win and it worked...yea I was very relieved we all know the Duke UT final game standing thing...win he is happy, lose and he is UNBEARABLE and it was an awesome comeback.

The visit was great we loved seeing Troy and Carolyn and their place is awesome....small but very well though out and has so much personality. Duke and I were in culture shock, walking everywhere, for everything, Cars are definitely the minority and only used when necessary since parking is always an issue, and if you have a car it is a small....gas efficient or hybrid car, it is so great they are so close to downtown and can and do walk to everything. We knew we were in Texas again when we saw an F350, diesel, lifted, with ranchhand bumpers on the front and rear, complete with a real longhorn skull and horns attached to the front bumper and a set of truck nutz hanging in the back....ONLY IN TEXAS.