Ryan as a baby.

Our littlest critter, Ryan Hammy, recently went on an unapproved expedition, lasting four days and  four nights. We relentlessly looked for the little guy in every nook and cranny of our home. Hamsters are nocturnal, so we went on middle of the night walks throughout the house with a flashlight. We even held hands in a circle, as a family, and prayed we would find him alive.

On day four we were beginning to fear the worst. As Jessica was lying in bed, she heard some scratching noises coming from the furnace closet. We crowded around the closet listening to the sound of faint scratching coming from our ducts in the ceiling. James heard something fall onto the air conditioning condenser directly above the furnace. He quickly ran to the garage to get his toolbox and removed the cover and, in a final act of desperation, Ryan climbed out!

What we saw was a pitiful sight! The bottoms of Ryan’s feet were charred from being inside metal ducts with the furnace running. His black, scabby feet were swollen. His teeth were broken off  and his claws were completely worn down. He was dehydrated and unable to hold the watermelon we gave him in his paws. We could tell he was so happy to be back in his cage, even if he couldn’t climb around in it. He went to bed and stayed there for several days! Elaina cared for her hamster quite well, cutting up small bites of food for him! He has made a full recovery, even his teeth have grown back!

Ryan was a special Christmas morning surprise for Elaina.

I found Ryan on Craigslist when he was just three weeks old. He lived in our master bathroom for two weeks leading up to Christmas. Somehow Elaina never discovered him! He is so gentle, never once showing any aggression. We love watching him stuff his cheeks full of snacks. Elaina couldn’t wait to celebrate his first birthday on November 15. She made him carrot cake cupcakes to celebrate. We will be thankful to have him around for another birthday!

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The girls sat on this rock and fed bread to grandpa’s huge “pet” catfishies.

While Anjelia and her friend were feeding / petting grandpa’s catfish, they were also playing with their beloved zoobles from their McDonald’s happy meals.

Anjelia dropped both of her zoobles into the pond! We grabbed an umbrella and quickly retrieved one. Luckily they floated like bobbers. Unfortunately a big catfish, perhaps this one, ATE THE OTHER ZOOBLE!!!! Yes, I kid you not, he opened his big mouth and GULP!

Anjelia bitterly wept. This was a new toy and a really cool one at that. She was so heartbroken that a CATFISH had eaten her toy. That is a new kind of tragedy for us!

The umbrella went missing later on in the afternoon. We finally found it!

The umbrella was found shortly before or maybe it was after Elaina fell on top of the camp fire! Yes, she tripped and fell right on top of it. I picked her up. . . quickly. Mom time quick. . . which is similar to the speed of light, or something like that. She wasn’t hurt or burned, not a bit!!!!!!

To top off our afternoon of oddities, Jessica found a sea horse shaped Cheeto!!!!

Five years ago this extremely adorable photo of our Anjelia with her good buddy Jaden went viral. It’s the most popular cooties photo on the internet.

Anjelia and Jaden have been together since the womb – born just three weeks apart. We have so many cute memories and funny pictures of them together over the years.

This tops them all!

Anjelia celebrated her seventh birthday! Jaden, despite his shy personality, boldly serenaded her! It was so cute that it hurt. He’s going to be quite the romantic!

Go to Casting Crumbs to read Karen’s thoughts.

This year we honored Aunt Tootsie with a Tootsie Roll party!

We barely had the table ready in time for her arrival! We were thrilled to have found a fun set of party decor.

Aunt Tootsie’s daughter, Kandis. My pretty cousin. The first cousin.

Aunt Kathy took this pic. I hate to have anyone missing. Mom had us all make a jar of exfoliate. It made our hands silky smooth.

Aunt Kathy is in this one, but Mom is now missing.

Here we are relaxing in front of the country home we rented for the weekend. We were so far out that none of us had cell phone connections, the gravel road was completely flooded in one direction, and when outside at night there was literally no light – at all. It was odd to those of us accustomed to light pollution.

We had a blast spending a couple of days in a quaint little town in the middle of wine country. Great shopping and good food were big hits, of course! Kandis, Aunt Punkie and Mom posing showing off their new rings.

I had to get in on it, too!

Ok, so we were all pretty excited over our jewels!

Aunt Punkie was totally in her element when we stopped off at a winery with live music. We had fun watching her dance!

She found someone else to be her partner. A nice, random lady

Aunt Punkie and Kandis ended the weekend perfectly.

There was so much I didn’t capture in pictures. I was too busy relaxing and having fun.

I’m looking forward to next year.

Domino sleeping on the way down!

Our good friends, Robin and Larry, invited us to travel to Branson for the weekend. The highlight was of course, Silver Dollar City, a wonderfully clean and friendly theme park. It was a blast.

Anjelia was rather attached to Larry for the weekend. Robin and Larry were brave to invite a family of six on a get-away weekend!

Elaina and her daddy.

I enjoyed the ginormous Flemish Giant bunny!

And Anjelia liked the little goats!

The girls were curious about the old school house. Kinda wish things were still this way for my kids.

The girls loved the roller coasters. Elaina jumped on the barn swing with Lydia and my blood pressure went up. This thing is a beast of a ride. Elaina and I both survived the experience! Jessica and Olivia were roller coaster riding machines. Lydia was brave and tried them all. Larry bought the video of Lydia riding Wildfire, a 66 mile per hour ride with five upside down loops. Her expressions are hilarious the entire ride! I was proud of them all for being brave. Anjelia loved the Powder Keg. It starts by going from 0 to 60 in two seconds! Pretty daring for a six-year-old!

Our family at The Landing. It was beautiful. Would love to see the fountain show at night.

We toured Marvel Cave. It is a one hour walk underground! Very cool. It’s amazing that there are gorgeous water falls underground! The girls got to see some bats and lots of beautiful formations.

A big thank you to Larry, Robin and Olivia for sharing their bring-a-friend tickets with us! We had a great time spending the weekend with your family. Thanks for the memories!

James and I on our nineteenth anniversary! It’s amazing how deep a relationship can go and I know we haven’t even scratched the surface yet compared with people who have been married two to three times this long.

I enjoy taking pictures of James’ kitchens. I especially enjoy doing so when he is in the pic! With the kids in school I have had a little more freedom and have gotten to tag along a few times. My job is to take pics of the various kitchens!

It’s been such a blessing having his office at home in our basement. He now has his very own man-cave!!! It’s a dream come true for him! (I doubt very many men have guinea pigs and rabbits in their man-cave! hehe!) They are good for stress!

We started the day with swim team pics.

I took the girls to lunch at my favorite lunch place, Olive Garden. They had never been there before.

We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa D joining us! They didn’t know it but I’ve been wishing for this tin wall hanging for my kitchen!

Mom D, Lydia, Jessica, Elaina, Tori, Alyssa with Mary in front.

After lunch we headed for the theatre where Mary, Tori and Alyssa hooked up with us. We watched the new Disney-Pixar movie, UP. This movie is a must-see. It is such a touching tribute to life.

Mom and Dad D took the girls swimming after the movie, while James and I headed off to spend a little time alone. We went to a really awesome worship center to relax for a bit. This is a 24 hour a day worship and prayer room. It hasn’t stopped for ten + years. Even at three in the morning there’s at least a guitarist playing, singing and worshiping. The music doesn’t even stop when they switch bands every two hours. It’s such a blessing to have close by. I love the multi-cultural feel as people from all over the world visit.

We finished up the day with coffee and a croissant from Panera and a little shopping. It was a nice birthday spent with my family.

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. ~Abraham Lincoln

We had soooooooo much fun attending a local tax day, tea party! This grass roots gathering of 5,000 peaceful, polite and patriotic citizens was hosted by a local radio station. We were surrounded by average citizens, children playing with their flags and veterans proudly holding signs. Last night, a  show on MSNBC, filled with perverted sexual inuendo, mocked these citizens. I was shocked! The culture war going on in this country is very disturbing.

As the wife of a small business owner, I have very passionate feelings about taxes, big government and bailouts. I have been very frustrated since TARP. It’s been a VERY difficult year for us, but last night was refreshing to me. It felt soooo good to be among like-minded people.

I am VERY proud of my country. I know I have military veterans who read my blog. Thank you, thank you, thank you! God Bless our veterans, active duty military and reserves! I am so proud of those I know who fall under those catergories!

 As I mentioned, I have passionate feelings about my country, our government and politics. James has always been extremely supportive of my interests, which prompted him to purchase a revolutionary hat for me! James loves to see me receive attention. It’s really sweet. While we were there he said, “Let’s walk around so everyone can see you”. I had the best hat at the event! I am so blessed that the person I love the most is so proud of me. Hon, thank you so much for your relentless support and  encouragement!

We just finished the first disc of the John Adams mini-series, an HBO orignal movie. The acting is great as Paul Giamatti plays John Adams. I can’t wait to get the next disc from Netflix. It’s fantastic! If you want to be reminded of our roots, I recommend it.

I feel very few Democrats OR  Republicans are truly representing my values and persuasions, with the exception of Mike Huckabee. Governor Huckabee is my hero! He is a proponent of the fair tax. The fair tax chapter in his book, Do The Right Thing brought me to tears. You can also check out www.fairtax.org to educate yourself about this idea. Imagine the IRS. . . gone!!!!!!!

Thank you so much to Mom and Dad D for babysitting for us. It was awesome to have some adult time with James! We ate out afterwards. It was HEAVENLY!!!! Thank you!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Yesterday, Lydia celebrated her eleventh birthday! In just one year she’ll move up to the youth group at church! Yikes! Lydia is a very thoughtful, generous young girl. She can be surprisingly selfless for a kid her age.

Lydia’s favorite color is green.

Lydia had a slumber party Friday night. Four of her closest girlfriends joined her to celebrate. We all had a great time. Lydia asked her Daddy to grill for her party. James did a great job cooking up yummy hamburgers and hot dogs and Lydia’s favorite, grilled asparagus. We also served Slim Jims and chocoate animal crackers – Lydia’s favorite snacks!

Anjelia spent an entire day making “confetti” for Lydia’s party. Hundreds of cut up pieces of construction paper were strung all over the house. Anjelia was VERY proud of her contribution!

Lydia received a digital camera! Her life will be well documented now!

She was thrilled to get David Archuleta’s cd! She was heartbroken when he lost to David Cook. The family was divided over that one!

Daddy likes to wait until all the presents are opened. He then gets out his hero cape and says something like, “Come here and see what’s in this pocket!” He then pulls out some coveted item that’s supreme above all others. In this case, it was a Sly Cooper 3 game! It doesn’t matter how hard I work to plan a party, James will walk in and instantly become the hero. I guess that’s how it should be. What little girl doesn’t want her daddy to be her hero?!

We went to see Hananah Montana, The Movie. It was soooooo much better than I expected. James and I actually loved it! It’s about the importance of family and not forgetting where you came from. Chase your dreams, while being proud of your roots! Life is about enjoying the climb! Grandma was one of the main characters! Come on all you people and your negative reviews, let’s just thank God there’s wholesome family entertainment out there.

We went to dinner at Red Robin. We had a fabulous time embarrassing Lydia with singing and mascotts.

The balloon guy was lots of fun!

Bunny!

Monkey!

Frog!

Lydia had been waiting and waiting to use birthday money to go to the mall and get a Fred shirt. This one says, “Brushing My Teeth Tickles”. As soon as we left the movie, we went to the mall to pick it up so she could wear it to dinner!

Bonus pic

Jessica’s party table.

Mom took Jessica birthday shopping Saturday. She picked out the newest Webkinz, a guinea pig!!!! Webkinz are really hot items around our house. It doesn’t get better for Jessica than owning her own Webkinz guinea pig! If you want one you have to go to Justice. It’s an exclusive item there.

Thursday I went on a school field trip with Elaina’s class. She didn’t let go of my hand for literally hours. It was so fun to ride on a bus with her and spend her school day with her. I’ve been able to enjoy special times with all my girls over the past couple of weeks. I love my family. This life is all about our relationships with one another. I am very blessed.

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127: 3-5

Jessica is now a double digit kid after turning 10 this weekend! It’s Tuesday and I am beginning to feel back to normal after her slumber party, birthday bash Friday night! Jessica had six girlfriends over for her sleepover. Ten kids made the night a busy blast! The girls settled down and seemed to be falling asleep at 4 am only to be up and going strong at 8! I know they would’ve stayed up all night if I had let them. I wanted their moms (my friends) to still like me the next day!

Duct tape fashion designing

For those of you with tweens and teens, I highly recommend stocking up on some multi-colored duct tape! The girls spent hours making duct tape bracelets, wallets and purses. Duct tape now comes in every color imaginable!

Duct tape wallet with matching “J” purse.

Jessica has been dreaming of owning her very own pair of black, high top Converse. Her dream was realized Sunday when we took her shopping at the mall. She also picked out three pair of neon shoelaces in pink, green and orange. We stopped off at Claire’s and Hot Topic to accessorize.

Showing off her new Converse and some really funky socks!

Happy Birthday, Jessica! You’re a girl with style!

Know Hope