Brook's 4th Birthday

Brook and Hayden (cousins) share a birthday- 1 year apart

Christmas 2009

Everyone got new PJ's from Papa and Patty on Christmas Eve. Bob got "Grandma Pants"

Brook got Dora

Janna got Hannah Montana

Suzee got fuzzy clothes

Lilly got a unicorn

James got aliens that he wants to wear day and night

Emma got a cat and polka dots

Abbey got Ballet slippers with polka dots

See us coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. That's me all wrapped up in a blanket holding the puke bowl. Yep. I was sick Christmas day.

Janna chose to open several presents as a dog. No explanation.

All the kids tore into the group gifts together.

Ranch Trip 12/12/09

We took a trip out to the ranch a week ago Saturday to get some work done. Jay was in the bulldozer. Jay, Jr. and Robert were on skid steers. The rest of us took turns in the Ranger. We collected rocks throughout the area they were rebuilding a water tank. We dumped the rocks at the top to pack in with the dirt as a form of erosion control. Through no fault of her own, Brook's face and arm met with a mesquite bush. She was a good sport about it once we got her some bandaids. We even got grandma on the bulldozer.

Accidents

I'm getting a little nervous. A week ago Friday we witnessed an accident. I had 6 children with me (Brook was with Cami and James was with Jay). We had left the bank and were heading home to get dinner ready. I pulled onto Hwy 191 (we live on this street) and there was a motorcyclist traveling in front of us, going the same direction as us- south. I saw a car turning left in front of the motorcycle, and thought my depth perception was just off when I thought they were going to collide. I started yelling "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh." The motorcycle hit the car, and it's rider flipped over the car and landed on the street. Hard. No helmet. I slammed on the brakes (it's on a 35 mph zone, so we weren't going too fast) and put my hazards on. I got out and dialed 911, and told the kids, in no uncertain terms, they were not to get out of the car. The man immediately began seizing, and his left leg was badly broken. I was afraid to go close to him for fear he might be dead. No helmet. My kids were glued to the front windshield of the van trying to see what was happening. Two other women in scrubs stopped. I was glad they were nurses. The man tried to stand up on his broken leg- obviously unaware of his situation. The two women convinced him to stay down. A police officer arrived- a friend of Jay's dad. I told her what I saw, and she asked me to wait around. I put a sweatshirt on because it got cold. More police came, and an ambulance. They cut his pants off, got the motocycle off the road, got traffic diverted, etc. When the medics were taking care of the man, the police got my statement, and told me I could leave. I left before they got him in the ambulance.

Yesterday this man's mother called to thank me for helping. I didn't really help. I watched. I told her it was okay for the insurance to contact me if they had any questions. It was pretty obvious that the 83-year-old woman driving the car just plain didn't see the motorcycle coming. She told me he had brain bleeds, a cracked skull (no helmet) and pins and plates in his ankle. He still has ringing in his ears. Black eyes, and pretty bruised up. She said he's doing as well as can be expected.

Sunday at 1:00 am, I was in and out of sleep when I heard a loud thud, followed by a huge flash of light. Either there was a storm I didn't know about, or someone had just taken out a power pole. I looked out the blinds from my bedroom window while Jay groggily asked what I was doing. There was a smashed up car on the said of the road. Jay went outside (in his underwear) to see what was going on. I peeked out too, then when our neighbor came out, went upstairs for clothes for Jay. He talked to our neighbor while still not fully clothed. I thought that was funny. After getting dressed, Jay walked out to the accident and found a friend of his who is a police officer. An officer had been following a car debating about whether or not to pull her over. I guess she wasn't driving too well. Next thing he knew, the car hit the telephone pole and snapped it in half. All the power was out. They said the woman walked away from the accident- her airbag had deployed. They found a bag of weed, and said she was definitely high. She's lucky she wasn't hurt. The power was out for over 7 hours. It was cold when we woke up in the morning- no heater all night. It came back on as we were getting the kids ready for school in the morning. I'd been wondering how to get through my day without power. No dishwasher, no laundry, no oven. That could have been disastrous. A big thank you to all the city and county employees who spent their night installing a new power pole.

Barbara on the Bulldozer

O, Christmas Tree

Well, after feeling very grinchy, grinchish, grinchlike, grinchesque for a few weeks, I finally decided it was time to put the tree up and get some decorations out. Amy Grant's "A Christmas Album" can't be outdone. It always puts me in a good mood. We walked the tree from the nursery to our house with a wagon. The older girls helped me get it set in the stand, and practically did all the decorations themselves.

Within the first 24 hours we had 3 broken ornaments. I had to invest in a few shatterproof ornaments to hopefully last us through one holiday season.

Saturday Was a Special Day....

We made cupcakes for Richard- his birthday was Sunday

Then, in a weak moment, I agreed to take 7 kids (Bob was working on the ranch with Jay) to the light parade on Main Street. We got red and green kettle corn, and enjoyed most of the parade, but left early when my children thought it was okay to crawl INSIDE the city's large tree to play tag.

Thanksgiving 2009

In no particular order:

Me stuffing my face.

Lilly on the roof of the playhouse.

Emma

Bob

Me and Suzee

Bob at Merry Main Street with a hot chocolate face.

Some Thanksgiving pie- my first attempt ever at Lemon Meringue
Friday, the Christmas trees arrived.

Saturday the weather started to get a bit dreary.

Lilly, among others, enjoyed the pool.Everyone took turns cleaning out the leaves so the kids could swim.