a weekend of celebrations!

we had an incredibly busy but wonderful weekend! happy belated birthday to molly-i am the worst at getting cards off on time, but you were thought about alot on saturday! on saturday morning we woke up early and headed down to the ranch. my dad invited us, my mom, nichole came in from chicago, grandma, chris payne's family, and all of sam's friends to come down to the ranch for a day of sam! sam's birthday was saturday also (he and molly share the day). sam would have been 24 this year. although a bit chilly (like 49 degrees) we bundled up and basked in the sun-it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day!

this is a picture of the party deck on the lake and we kept a fire going in the fire pit all day.

we all gathered at connie and skips house in the morning and my kids dyed easter eggs for connie, we then headed up to the lake where my dad and natalie(his wife) prepared salmon, bison burgers and bison brats for lunch. while we ate we shared funny stories of sam that brought smiles to all of our faces. my mom and i put together a collage of all of his past birthdays throughout the years and everyone enjoyed looking at the pictures and sharing memories.bradley is standing at the door to your dreams-you walk through and make a wish....

after lunch we met back at the bison offices and watched a video of the history of the ranch and bison business and then grandpa skip took us all on a tour around the ranch and into the bison fields where they came right up to us...my kids said it was much better than grant's farm!after the tour we all gathered back at the lake, a few of sam's friends went and conquered the jeep and hummer course successfully (without getting stuck) and others rode dirt bikes around the lake. we girls chose to sit around and eat and chat and play with puppies.

stacy and casey

as they were preparing dinner-bison steaks and chicken-my dad and chris built a huge bonfire (it was at least 15 ft tall)in honor of sam. after dinner, and when it was dark, my dad had my mom light the fire, it burned for a while and when it finally fell we all made wishes on the embers that were "flying up to sam" as my dad so kindly said.

the bonfire

Happy Birthday Sam/Uncle Sammy! We love and miss you bunches!

hooray!

this weekend we celebrated the final games of indoor soccer with the playoffs! tristans ended last week, but bradley and lainie had their last games on saturday! in the past they have been on the winningest teams and this year they were not and i thinking it has been a good lesson for both of them in good sportmanship and being humble. they both played really well and both were goalies in their games!

we also celebrated my niece alayna's first birthday with matt and jamie

and chris's family. i can't believe she's already one!

Does it get much cuter?

Snow Day!

i'm pretty sure that this is our third snow day. we are enjoying today though...the snow is so pretty and peaceful! this is what it looked like at about 10:00 this morning.

lainie came outside with me to take coco out and snap a few

shots of the snow falling.

now, a few hours later, there are at least about 6 inches of snow on the ground here at our house and the snow is still falling. chris is 30 minutes away at work and says they have maybe an inch.

notice the snow on the bench and bushes now!

meet the newest member of our family!

lainie is now the proud owner of a chameleon hamster! her name is chloe and although i am not a fan of furry little creatures (or really pets in general) chloe has made me like her. lainie's betta fish died about 2 months ago and lainie decided that she definitely needed another pet, so she chose a hamster. after telling her the story of nichole and sam's hamsters-and how rambo ate amie-she was still set on getting a hamster. she saved her birthday money and bought chloe and all of her belongings. except for chloe running in her wheel all night long (the metal wheels are very loud and squeeky) she has been a joyful addition to our family.

coco and chloe meet!

we are iced in!!!!!!i.e.-NO SCHOOL!!!!

okay, so when chris and i went to bed last night we were pretty confident that the sleet, ice, snow mix that our fabulous weather forcasters here in st. louis called for-was not going to happened....oh it happened and is still going on and is supposed to for the next 36 hours! let me express my joy in the snow day we are having today following our oh so wonderful presidents day celebration on monday! snow days with 8 inches of snow that you can sled in are a blast-ice not so much! we started our day with scrambled eggs, toast and juice. we have had a guitar hero competition, hide the dice game (which then turned into throw the dice as hard as you can and hit your brother or sister), star wars galactic hero figures war, a game of monopoly, a few races of mario kart on their nintendo ds's, while i was in the shower a pillow fight-turned chase through the house ensued-i quickly jumped out as i heard screams followed by a few tears shed (no major injuries), a game of school, and taking care of their webkinz on the computer...all of this and it is only about 12:30. not sure what the rest of the day will hold but i'm thinking maybe a movie on pay per view or some quiet reading. i'm pretty sure that the ice brings out some bad behaviors in my kids-but then i have to remind myself that they are just that-kids- and they are creatures of habit-they have been totally uprooted from their normal schedule and they cannot get outside to run off energy. a few minutes ago i was pretty sure that my kids saving grace was that i was able to get up and go to my 6:00 am kick-butt workout class, that helped me destress and energize me for the day. when i left this morning at 5:45 it was starting to sleet-when i came out of class an hour later and had to skate to my car that was covered in a sheet of ice (which i used a cd case to scrape the windshield) i was pretty sure i would come home to cheering kids with a school closing....i was exactly right! with more ice and sleet to come i'm wondering what tomorrow may bring...i need to invest in an ice pick and crampons for the kids shoes!

celebration of presidents day!????

as a group of us parents gathered last night to watch our adorable children play in an indoor soccer game, a few of us moms were talking and discussing the important matters of the day...the ingredients for the perfect smoothie(after school snack), the process and paint colors we have been using in redoing some of our houses, tips on great sales in stores around the area...etc...and one hot topic of the conversation was what in the world we did with our children on this wonderful day off! we have come to a unanimous vote that presidents day is not so much our favorite holiday(kids day off of school). yesterday in st. louis started out partly sunny, then at about 8:30 a.m. a 10 minute blizzard with whiteout conditions hit! it was then decievingly sunny and beautiful(with freezing temperatures and gusty winds!) as the blizzard is hitting we were anticipating enough snow that our children could play in it or go sledding-something to do on their day off!-not the case. there wasn't even a dusting! next idea, go somewhere that is kid friendly-so we ventured out to yucando(an arts and craft making place) after 2 hours of painting and crafting, we had created masterpieces!...in a room filled with tons of kids many whom were hacking, coughing, sneezing...need i go on, and there was a waiting list for many others to join the fun. these were the conditions at all of the kid-friendly places throughout st. louis, as every child was off of school yesterday. i am not a parent that is extremely excited about taking my kiddos to an indoor play/craft place when there is an epedemic outbreak of the flu hitting our area hard-and knock on wood-we have remained healthy! so what is there left to do, too cold for outdoor play, too germy for public places, and trying to find something that 2 boys (6 and 10) and a girl (7) all want to do...it left me and many moms wondering...as one mom stated"why do we celebrate our presidents?"-i pointed out that there are many great sales-but that may not win the holiday over for us....we just wish that we could vote to move it to a warmer date...maybe when we're all getting spring fever and there is that 75 degree day in april when we wish our kids were off of school so we could take them to the zoo or park! what do you think?

Happy Birthday Tristan!

what a weekend! friday was tristan's 6th birthday! his request was an evening with family, imo's pizza and cookie cake! i have to confess that i have never made a cookie cake before and so i was a little worried about how it would turn out-all agreed it was great and tristan requested that i make one every night! after we were all completely stuffed tristan opened presents from everyone...a few favorites were guitar hero 3 and a really cool star wars book that gammie got him (its a pop up and the lightsabers even light up!)

saturday morning we woke up early and got ready for tristan's big 'friend' birthday party. we headed to monkey joe's (a bounce house/slide party center). tristan had 19 friends from church and school and i think that they all had a really great time. they ran, bounced and tumbled down slides for and hour and a half and then we went into a party room where we had cookies, cupcakes and presents. tristan's friends were so generous and gave him everything that he wished for and more!

after the party everyone went in all different directions. bradley had a soccer game in the afternoon followed up by baseball practice in the evening. lainie went to a friends house and chris went to practice for the church talent show....so tristan and i went home and spent the afternoon building ALL of the lego sets that he got from his friends!