Christmas Morning

We enjoy waking up on Christmas morning and spending time with just our family of four. We enjoy not having to rush around. It's enjoyable to open up the gifts, check out the stockings, see what Santa delivered and have a nice breakfast or brunch! On most Christmas mornings we eat "Savory Eggs" a dish my Mom served mainly on Christmas and Easter. This year, due to poor planning, (egg carton in fridge, two eggs, needed 12), we settled for biscuits and gravy and a side of ham. Later in the afternoon we headed out to the farm to enjoy a full Christmas dinner of ham, turkey, potatoes, stuffing...the works!! What a great Christmas!! We missed the Shearer family!

Merry Christmas!

Mylen made a gingerbread house this year in first grade. He was proud of his creation and only wanted us to "look and not touch" what a great class project!
Mylen couldn't wait to see Santa on Dec. 11 in Satanta. He had just a "few" items on his wish list this year!
Ready to go to the Annual Christmas Program at church.
Say cheese! Christmas Eve before going to the farm for dinner and gifts with the family!

Indiana Family

Shell, Brian and Abigale were not able to make the trip this year. We were so sad but know that Brian has to follow the doctor's orders. We made it through the weekend but it sure was sad! We missed you so much! Talking on the phone was great and we loved getting these picgtures on our phones. Here's Abigale....posing in some new clothes by her Christmas tree, her gift from Santa was a train table (yes she loves trains as much as Mylen), her cat named Candy. Aunt Mimi loves you and the rest of the family!! Can't wait so see you, maybe in the spring something will work out!

Where's Shrek?

Strange things can happen in the country!! Mark and the older girls were ahead of us but I noticed that his pickup was stopped on the road...I thought the worst of course...flat tire, sick girls, phone call that we were needed back at the farm, etc. I just kept driving to get closer and saw that Mark was outside walking around...smoke break? Nah...as we got there, pulled up behind the pickup we saw three donkeys. Three donkeys--very, very odd and they were so tame, had to belong to someone. I rolled down my window and they wanted to get their noses inside. Charli said from the backseat, "Where's Shrek?" So sweet...we called the country neighbors, no one answered, then called the sheriff's office...not sure whatever happened to them, we finally drove on home. I mean we needed to eat chicken spaghetti, have a rest and prepare for Atomic Bowling!

Atomic Bowling, ThunderStrikes Bowling Center

Saturday night we planned on going bowling! Monet and Mylen enjoyed the atomic bowling with Uncle Mike and Aunt Neva so we gave it a shot when Melodie, Maya, and Charli were in town. We had such a fun time. Gotta love the bowling shoes! Mylen, Charlix, Maya, Monet and Mark all shared the same lane. Melodie and I did some referring and lots of visiting!






What an AWESOME weekend! Sunday we took the kids to Sunday School, helped Melodie get the car tidied up so they could travel home and then met the kids for church. What a great weekend!!

Thanks so much for coming to Kansas...we had a great time! You are my best friend but really I consider you like a sister! Come again....soon!

Thanksgiving Weekend

The fun continued on for us...we spent Saturday morning showing our friends...forget that...Melodie, Maya, and Charli are FAMILY around Satanta and Hugoton! We took a nice walk around town...we showed them the Tepee Park, the Church park, the school playground and on around back to the house. What a breezy walk it was and bike ride for the older girls. When Melodie and I are together we have two groups/names for the kids...the girls and the babies! We are so thankful that the kids get along so well. Monet and Maya can pick right up from the last visit and so can the babies...sometimes with or without arguing...depends on the day! We wouldn't have it any other way! Mark was able to join us on Saturday for all the festivities!

We decided to drive over to Hugoton, show them the new Early Childhood Development Center where I work, grab a bite to eat and head out to my family's farm. It's always fun to show off the place where I grew up...not to mention all the animals. We walked down to the barn to see the miniature horses. The kids enjoyed feeding them apple treats and the horses loved the company. We took a peek inside the chicken pen as well...we were freezing so headed into Granny's house so we could warm up. I told them it was guaranteed to be about 90 degrees inside...sure enough! It felt great though after the walk outside.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was just different. Our families had plans so we celebrated our Thanksgiving at home, just the four of us. We had the traditional meal of turkey (ours was smoked by Fred), mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, homemade cranberry salad (Granny shared the recipe, yeah!) and of course a few desserts!! We ate way too much food and watched movies for the remainder of the day. We did catch most of the Macy's Day Parade...how nice it was to be able to sit and watch without trying to get around, cook and prepare to take our food elsewhere!

On Friday we "had the best day ever"...favorite quote from Mylen. The kids and I met Melodie, Maya and Charli in Dodge City for lunch at Wendy's and a tour of the historical town! Sad news...Aunt Mendy doesn't know much history...I've heard it all...enjoyed it...just didn't keep it all straight in the old brain! A quick drive around town...DCCC, Boot Hill Casino and Resort, then down to Boot Hill museum. Monet enjoyed sharing the museum...she's been there several times. This was Mylen's first time, he enjoyed going through all the buildings with Charli and being "first". We toured all the buildings, had some sarsaparilla, ate a little fudge and enjoyed the gift shop...too many fun things to buy! Who doesn't need a little Dodge City souvenir.