Birthday Time (happens alot around here!)

Heidi's Birthday is Sunday the 1st. She will be a true teenager turning 13! Though she has been in the teenage faze for a couple of years. I have been working on her gift for a few weeks now. I should be done by tomorrow!? I have taken all 372 pictures of her growing up and am making her a DVD with music to the slideshow of pictures. Not the easiest task with all the pictures that I had to scan and go through. Lucky for me Ashley really got into it and scanned the over 2000 pictures I had of all the kids. We have Howard's old wedding album and My old wedding albums then we have all the pictures on the computer. YAA!

Howard will be 42 on Monday the 2nd. So I had to put a picture of him and Heidi together when she was little. Working at the dairy farm! Thank goodness we don't milk cows! We only do Angus now. Though we did have a milk cow when I was pregnant with Hailey - wow what a time that was! Not really!! I did it a couple of times and that was enough for my life time. I would rather shop any day!!

Who's Grumpy?

I have to tell you the funniest thing. Last night Howard got pulled over- had to do with the trailer lights not working. The state trooper was telling Howard that "a grumpy old state trooper could give you a ticket for that" Hailey jumped up and hung her head out the window at the cop and said "But you not Grumpy!" The trooper laughed so hard. He told Howard that she had made his day and for that he wouldn't give him a ticket. It was so funny I just had to share.

This is a picture of Hailey and Grandpa McKay. My dad had a triple heart bi-pass a few months ago and is doing awesome!

Do You Want Brownies????

I got this email and I have to share it. I changed a few words and Heidi gave this as a talk on Sunday. She had to talk about making the right choices. Everyone in my ward has been calling us about this since Sunday.......enjoy!

BROWNIE RECIPE

A father of some teenage children had the family rule that they could not attend PG-13, R or X rated movies. His three teens wanted to see a particular popular movie that was playing at local theaters. It was rated PG-13.
The teens interviewed friends and even some members of their family's church to find out what was offensive in the movie. The teens made a list of pros and cons about the movie to use to convince their dad that they should be allowed to see it. The cons were:*It contained ONLY 3 swear words!*The ONLY violence was a building exploding (and you see that on TV all the time they said),*You actually did not 'see' the couple in the movie having sex, it was just implied sex, off camera.

The pros were:*It was a popular movie, (a blockbuster).*Everyone was seeing it.*If the teens saw the movie then they would not feel left out when their friends discussed it.*The movie contained a good story and plot.*It had some great adventure and suspense in it.*There were some fantastic special effects in this movie.*The movie's stars were some of the most talented actors in Hollywood.*It probably would be nominated for several awards.
*Many members of their Christian church, including the pastor, had even seen the movie and said it wasn't really 'that bad'.
Therefore, since there were more pros than cons the teens asked their father to reconsider his position on just this ONE movie and let them have permission to go see it.

The father looked at the list and thought for a few minutes. He said he could tell his children had spent some time and thought on this request.He asked if he could have a day to think about it before making his decision.

The teens were thrilled, thinking, 'Now we've got him! Our argument is too good! Dad can't turn us down!' So, they happily agreed to let him have a day to think about their request. The next evening the Father called his three teenagers, who were smiling smugly, into the living room. There on the coffee table he had a plate of brownies. The teens were puzzled. The father told his children he had thought about their request and had decided that if they would eat the brownies, then he would let them go to the movie. But, he explained, just like the movie, the brownies had pros and cons. The pros were :*They were made with the finest chocolate and other good ingredients.*They had the added special effect of yummy walnuts in them.*The brownies were moist and fresh with wonderful chocolate frosting on top.*He had made these fantastic brownies using an award-winning recipe.
*And best of all, the brownies had been made lovingly by the hand of their own father.
The brownies only had one con :
*He had included a little bit of a special ingredient: The brownies contained just a small amount of dog poop. But he had mixed the dough well and they probably would not even be able to taste the dog poop and he had baked it at 350 degrees so hopefully any bacteria or germs from the dog poop had probably been destroyed.
Therefore, if any of his children could stand to eat the brownies which included just a 'little bit of crap' and not be affected by it, then he knew they would also be able to see the movie with 'just a little bit of smut' and not be affected. Of course, none of the teens would eat the brownies and the smug smiles had left their faces. Now when his teenagers ask permission to do something he KNOWS THEY SHOULDN'T BE DOING the father just asks, 'Would you like me to whip up a batch of my special brownies?'

Help is on the WAY!!

Well, we went to the counselors. She is very nice and I am very grateful!! Natalie seemed to take right to her. The counselor is thinking that after every thing we told her (about all the problems) that she is looking to get attention at any cost. This is a scary way to get attention! The over protective mom in me is still kicked in and wants to protect Hailey. I am going to have to work very very hard to find good in Natalie. I am trying to remember that she is important to Heavenly Father and that I am responsible to help her in this life. But, this is a start, counseling once a week for a while. That with constant prayers we may survive this. My love for Howard is what is keeping me from running away and not looking back.

Another Day ....... another trip to the ER

We are going to be on a first name basis with the local ER dept. pretty soon.....

Sunday Abby tried to get on Brendens scooter and it fell on her. The handle bar hit her in the face. The outside of her face was bruised right away, and the inside of her mouth was bleeding badly. It looked like it was cut inside really bad so I ran her into the ER. They said her tooth cut the inside and it would take about 10 days to heal. Not much else could be done just Popsicles. (she's pretty happy about that)! It's looking better but still bruised pretty bad.

Then Monday night...we had a picture frame that broke and it was up on the counter. Natalie took a big piece of the glass and took Hailey held her by the wrist and cut her hand up. Natalie cut Hailey 6 times on her right hand. One spot was so bad I couldn't stop the bleeding and it was really deep. I ran her into the ER. They couldn't stitch it up because of it's placement. AHAAHAHAH! I am having a VERY VERY difficult time right now. I want to take Hailey (Abby & the Boys and run). I can't believe something like this could happen! I called the bishop- Natalie starts counseling today with an LDS counselor.

Sand Dunes - Okay "Snow Dunes"

Howard & Hailey (she really didn't fall she was getting off) She had a blast this was her first time.

This was the shot of the day!! Brenden going down & then flipped and was rolling sideways on the tube. I got the picture right as he fell out.


Abby - sweet thing - she finally got tired of walking and let us pull her around in the sled.

We took the kids out on Monday to play in the dunes. All is fun and games til some body bleeds.... Yes we had a bleeder....Melanie scraped her hand on some hard snow coming down the hill. We then walked the "long" walk back to the suburban to do a repair on her hand. We took the camping stove and made hot chocolate & hot cider. The kids had a blast........Hailey now has a bad cold.....as for Melanie she continued to "show off" her scratch as if it was the coolest thing to ever happen! It's pretty funny!

Family Pic

Ok so the family picture makes us look a little deformed. When I made it bigger it took up half the page but looked great. Oh' well. You at least can see our tribe. You all should know Tyler 13, and Brenden 10, (the younger two boys) then we had Hailey 3, and Abagail 1, together. The rest our Howards children. Greg 17, Ashley 15, Heidi 12, Melanie 10, and Natalie 7. Yes Melanie has a hand but it was 17* that day and everyone was freezing!

Here's to a better New Year!

For some other good news .... Howard and Tyler are in an upcoming play. It's a small town but, the productions are huge! It's a dinner theater at $25 a head. People come from McCall and Boise to see them, the play shows 7 times and are they are always sold out. It's "On Golden Pond". Howard plays Charlie the "mailman" - hard role! LOL he does this everyday!

Tyler plays Billy Jr. the teenage brat - again hard role! LOL he does THIS everyday!!

Tyler has truely got the "BUG" he loves this and is really good at it! He has a pretty big part and is the only kid. He has almost all of it memorized. They were going to cast a couple of boys and have them share this role. The director said Tyler is so good that she doesn't want anyone else to play this part. (I am a proud mom if you can't tell). The play was made into a movie if you ever get to see it, it's kind of older mid 80's.

They are showing the end of Feb.

Sunbeam

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam to shine for him each day! Though Hailey only wanted to go to the class not the Primary Room she loved Sunbeams. She loves her teachers. This last Sunday she had a hard time because they had to split the class and her "Boyfriend" is in the other class. She is very upset and kept telling everyone who would listen, "Jaxon and I are getting married we HAVE to be together!!" The Primary presidency kept telling them that if they were going to get married they had to learn to be apart. She and little Jaxon were both crying for each other and very sad!!

Happy New Year! Do OVER !!

To all my great friends out there! I request a do over to this year. Anyone know how?
*New Years Eve was great my parents came up from Cali and we all hung out but..........
*2 1/2 weeks ago the truck broke down
*last weekend the car broke down (while Howard was going to work)
*Tuesday Hailey slid down my bed and cut herself on the metal frame. Lets just say it was BAD!
She had 3 stiches inside to put everything on top of the muscle back together, then 6 more on the outside to put the skin back together. It's so heartbreaking to watch your child suffer. I was crying while I helped hold her down to be "repaired". Oh' did I mention Howard had the suburban that day - luckly I found a lady I visit teach home to give me a ride to the ER.
*And lastly for the great kick off of the year... The man we bought our house from 4 1/2 years ago has decided that since there's only 10 yrs left and we only have a balance of $52000 owing. That he wants the house back so he can sell it again and get more money. (we put a ton down and only have a 15 yr. loan) So he has called every week for the last 7 weeks telling me to pay him off in full or start packing. He is insane! We have never even been late on a payment! No way are we giving him our equity and house! I have already talked to an attorney and he said there's no way this man is going to be able to foreclose on us. We were smart and all payments went through a title company. Greatfully they have full records.
So for the above reasons I request A DO OVER!!
Anyone who has information regarding how please.....let me know!
(I will work on putting up more pictures.... we live so far out that they don't offer high speed yet)