Happy Birthday Dale

I can not hardly believe it.....DALE IS 7.....7, wow that went really fast. And I have decided that I will take a cue from him for my next birthday.....make a week of 1 day!

On Sunday we took two of Dales best buds and went to Green Acres. This really cool golf and games place just outside of town. Bumper boats, paint ball, mini golf, water balloon wars, batting cages, a trampoline thing, go carts, an arcade.....tons of fun. So we went golfed...more like speed golf. There was no score kept and the balls rarely stopped rolling, there were not really turns taken per say, we found LOTS of water but the balls float,and they had these awesome water runs where if you hit the water it rolled down over a grate and back onto the grass...cool we did it like 20 times.. bumper boated, I was glad it was a warm day b/c each boat had a sprayer....Macy was in charge of ours and we sprayed the entire time, tossed water balloons, where again really glad for the warm day. Did the trampoline thing where you bounce really really high, check out my video of my aged skills. The arcade, had some pizza and cotton candy and wore everyone out.

The Mini Golf Pro-Am Open

Dale waging WAR Daddy and Reid on the battle front
Water balloon launching.....look out

Get all of your 50 lbs into it Dale.... Soaring....Flying.....
My jumping monkey

My aged trampoline skills....my old coaches would cringe at that poor form, but I did it!

Reid doing a Jeep game....go figure

On Wednesday he had his cake for breakfast, took cupcakes to school, and then took more cupcakes to football practice that night. He also chose dinner which was at IHOP to get a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger....where he asked Duke,

Dad have you ever had a perfect meal?....

yes Dale I have,

Dad was it here....was it tonight?

No, not here..

Well mine is all perfect?

good Dale I am so glad you like it?

We then went home and opened his gifts. From, Macy Red velvet cake Twinkies, a Dale favorite and he loves having his own box he is in charge of, and a toy gun, from Reid a Ben 10 guy and a Star Wars guy, and from Mom and Dad a Nintendo DS and 3 games, and accessory kit. He was very excited and was allowed to stay up late to play his new toy, then asked if he could get up early to play the next day too....sure we say. At 1:00 am....Dale walks into my room fully dressed, and says

I got up early to go play my DS, and I went down stairs but keep thinking of the Grinch and I am scared.

You have been down stairs already?

Yes, for a while, but I got scared.

Dale it is the middle of the night, you need to go back to bed.

Will you turn off the lights downstairs mommy

Yes, I will, go to bed and we will get you up in a little bit to play your game.

He was up at 6am to play the DS....dressed and ready to roll.

Thursday night Grandma and Bepaw came down and we went again to Dales choice...Mr. Gattis Game Land. Pizza and Arcade time....7 year old heaven. Bumper cars, games, the choo choo train, and tickets galore. Reid hit the jackpot on the way out the door and upped the total ticket count by 100 tickets!!! Again a great but late night.

So I think I am all set for Christmas,the kids have shopped for each other and us, mine are all starting to arrive at my door, just a few loose ends and we are ready to celebrate and relax. Cards, Neighbors and Teachers and I am done.....I think.

We've been ELFED

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1120494024

Check us out!!

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.

So we are continuing with the state of busy here. This weekend we had a fall festival at the kids day care complete with game booths, silent auction, foods, petting zoo, pony rides, and prizes galore. The kids just loved it all....we have no pictures but trust me it was a good time for all. I think the highlight for Macy was the pony ride, Dale sank a teacher at the dunk tank on the first throw, and Reid riding to and from the carnival in Daddy's Jeep.

Macy and Reid having fun

Dale also had a football game immediately after the carnival and although they did not win...they played HARD...I had to miss the game and help at the festival but Duke said Dale is so entertaining to watch....dodging the other players and spinning and cutting... Dale had a great time and said afterwards "it is just a game....and we had fun," Duke said the other team was all bigger kids....as big as our biggest players if not larger....score was 18-6....at least we scored right.

My little man with his team

There he goes!

We then attended a Halloween Party at our neighbors house Saturday night.....much fun was had by all...good times and even better pictures were taken but will refrain from posting as to not tarnish any future political careers....hehehe you know who you are

Spidey, Princess, and Optimus Prime ...Reid wanted to save The flash for Halloween Night

Sunday we did the neighborhood pumpkin carving and we made a little monster, a goofy face an old school pumpkin.... the best tool had to be my battery operated pumpkin saw I got at Michaels for 8 bucks.....so fast and easy it made carving 3 pumpkins pretty easy.

Monday we went to the Dr. and got flu shots for the little crew....Dale and Macy took them like champs and Reid was last and cried..."Why did she hurt me?" The notion that it keeps you from getting sick is lost on the young child. And I really think that the shot is compromised when you have to go to the pediatrician to get it....where all the sick kids are....so my three healthy kids go play with the toys some kid just coughed all over with his undiagnosed strep.....hhhmmmm do I sound jaded maybe b/c Macy came down with a very speedy case of diarrhea tonight....the uncontainable, total surprise kind....she came to me with her brand new elmo undies and said...."I got Elmo yucky mommy." I put her on the potty and bathed the boys and told her I would clean her alone since she had diarrhea...for the rest of the night it was her in song no less..."I have diarrhea.....nope not time for diarrhea now....b/c I have diarrhea....oohh too late I have diarrhea....nothing more heartwarming than a convo about poo.

Now to add more insult to injury when changing them for baths Macy has a huge red lump from the flu shot. I gave her Benedryl all night hoping for the best and woke up the same today....it looks like someone slapped her little leg but it is HOT and hard. I call the pediatrician and she says could be a reaction, or infection from the shot itself or even the needle....we would like to see her. So 30 mins later we see the Dr and yes it is in fact an infection looks like from the shot or needle....need meds. Clendymician....which is a YUCKY tasting concoction even with flavoring from the pharmacist, and it will most likely give her diarrhea.....yea more songs to come soon I am sure. And to top it off.....my parents will have the kids this weekend so Duke and I can go visit Troy and Carolyn so I feel bad that I will have to burden Grandma and Bepaw with Nasty medicine 3 times a day and funky poo.....now that sounds like fun in a bottle!!!