It's Time to Make the Cookies

Every year my mother goes all out baking sweet treats for Christmas. This year we all got in the spirit and helped her out. She came down to my house on Sunday morning with cookie dough (Peanut Butter Blossoms and Sugar Cookies) already mixed up and chilled along with her yummy butter cream icing. It was just up to me, Kadee, Julie and Dani to bake and decorate them.

Kadence and Cole pitched in more then they know...they took over the job I held for many years, unwrapping bag after bag of Hershey Kisses to place on the Peanut Butter Blossoms.This day confirmed something I have suspected. The baking gene definitely skipped a generation. I enjoy baking but don't necessarily thrive on it like my mother does. Kadence, like my mother, loves to bake and was right there through it all and never tired. She rolled all of the Peanut Butter Blossoms in the sugar before we baked them.Her and Grandma cut out the sugar cookies...We also mixed up three batches of Millionaire Bars...And then it was time to decorate, Kadence's favorite. We all got pretty creative this year and I think they all looked great when we were done.

National Finals Rodeo 2009

My mother raised us loving the rodeo. I still remember my first rodeo in Deer Lodge, MT. I don't remember how old I was but I know I was younger than five. It was at the fairgrounds, I can still see the light blue building that housed the stands. I remember watching all the boys in the mutton bustin event and then gathering in the arena to try and catch one of the many baby pigs that were oiled up so as to make it impossible to capture.

I remember my first trip to Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming and purchasing my first cowgirl hat. It was spray painted turquoise blue and had a beautiful feather front piece. I remember many a trips to the Montana State Fair in Great Falls, MT, local rodeos in Butte and making the yearly trip to the rodeos at the New Mexico State fair in Albuquerque, NM. Like I said, my mother raised us loving the rodeo.

I remember sitting in the movie theater with my mom watching Pure Country (George Strait's theatrical performance) and seeing her eyes light up during the entrance scene of the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas. After the movie while we talked about what we thought about the film I remember her mentioning that she would love to go one time and take in the big event.

Well this year my mother would have her chance. My sister scored some great tickets through her work and invited my mom along with Kadence and Cole. Everyone was sooooo excited. Kadence loves the rodeo as much as my mom, mostly because of my mom so I was grateful that they would get to experience this together.

Giddy Up Cowboy!

Every December my family (mom and sis) looks forward to heading to Cowboy Christmas, a gift boutique that comes to Vegas along with the National Finals Rodeo. This place is like heaven to me...there is bling jewelery, bling clothes, bling furniture all with a western touch...my kind of style. My heart starts palpitating just thinking about it.

This year it was me, the kids, Julie and Mom making the trip. For those of you who have never shopped with me, I can be a pain in the butt at events like these. I have to stroll through every aisle before I allow myself to make a purchase. What if I buy something and then find something better or the same thing cheaper in the next aisle. This year I put myself on a budget so I really was meticulous in my purchase decisions.

We went down a couple aisles, had lunch, treated the kids to the Candy booth, then tried to take in the rest of the booths before closing. I found some really great things but only ended up purchasing one bracelet and Cowboy Hats for Cole and Kadence.

Cole was hilarious in his hat and really got into the Cowboy Spirit! When I put his hat on him, he grabbed a stick pony and headed out into the aisle screaming, "Yee Haw, Ride Em Cowboy," as he ran around in circles with one hand up in the air.

Unfortunately, we just did not have time to take a peek at everything. Oh well, guess we would have to go back next weekend, which we did...

Bonnie Springs with the Gallegos Family

I am very lucky that Tanya's in-laws moved to Las Vegas because now I get to see her a little more often then just when I go to Albuquerque. This year they came to Vegas for Thanksgiving so we got to spend a day with them. I suggested we take the kids out to Bonnie Springs for the day. It was a pretty chilly day, which made it perfect to sip hot chocolate in the restaurant at a table next to the big open fire. While we were waiting for lunch the kids enjoyed feeding the ducks and swan in the duck pond right outside the restaurant.

Micaela and Cole posing by the duck pond...Matthew and Cole feeding the ducks...After lunch we headed over to the old west town where the kids got a talkin to from the cowboy. They then got to watch a bank robbery and help the sheriff to capture the bank robber and put him in jail.The kids with a "real" cowboy...Love this pic!We also caught the Cowboy melodrama in the saloon and we treated the kids to rootbeer and crackerjacks. After the show we mosied on over to the petting zoo which the kids loved. Here they are posing with one of the burros that was just hanging around.Micaela tried to get a closer look at the baby doe that was walking around the petting zoo with her mama.We topped our trip off with a ride on the choo choo train.On our way home we ran into a bit of a traffic jam...there were three wild burros just hanging out in the middle of the road.I rolled down my window to get a pic of this burro and quickly had to role it back up, he thought I had a treat to share with him and he practically stuck his head inside my car window.
It was a really fun day and we enjoyed seeing spending the day with Tanya and the kids...I really wish they lived closer though...we miss them!

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving this year was a little hectic only because we literally finished fixing the house (still had carpet to do but that wouldn't happen until December) about three days before! The rush to get the house ready for Thanksgiving dinner was on!

This year Charlie's parents were coming to Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with us. We were hoping Robin and Cindy and there families would be able to join us but they unfortunately weren't able to make it. We missed having them!

We started cooking early in the morning. We decided that we needed to cook three turkeys, oh yeah and we definitely needed a ham from Honeybaked Hams (my favorite!). Yes we were a little out of our minds and would have leftovers for days to come but hey isn't that one of the best parts about Thanksgiving dinner, leftovers!

My mom came down to the house early so we could make her famous homemade rolls. It just isn't Thanksgiving without these rolls! This year we all pitched in to help her, including Kadence.
I told her she wasn't really baking unless she had flour all over her and flicked a little bit (okay a lot) all over her face to make it look like she was working really hard.Charlie cooked a turkey on the BBQ Grill and we borrowed Joe's (a friend from work) Infrared Turkey Fryer to cook another turkey. It does not use oil and makes one heck of a yummy turkey! The third turkey was cooked the traditional way in my sister's oven. The kids ate olive's off of their fingertips, because that's what kids do on Thanksgiving.And then it was time to eat, the table was set and we were ready to chow down.
It turned out to be a wonderful Thanksgiving and we were very thankful to spend the day with our loved ones in our newly put back together home! We had a lot to be thankful for this year, a new baby boy to add to our family, good jobs in these hard times, and a roof over our head when so many in this town were losing theirs. Today my cup runneth over...

Ashley's Birthday at the Pony Ranch

Kadee's friend Ashley invited her and Cole to her birthday party at the JR Pony Ranch. Cole was starting to get a cold so Charlie kept him and Chance at home, it was just me and Kadee up for the party. It was a super cute place for a birthday party. They had a petting farm full of billy goats for the kids to play with.After a little play time it was time to get the ponies ready to ride. Kadence helped carry the bucket of brushes out to the horse pen.Kadence took a break from brushing the horse with the other girls to give Madison (our babysitter's little girl) a hug.

Finally it was time to ride. This was the kids' favorite part of the party! Kadee and Ashley rode those ponies quite a few times!

Madison loved the playhouse next to the horse pen the best. She is such a cutie!After a chuck wagon lunch it was time to celebrate with cake!All of the kids seemed to have a great time.

At the end of the party the kids got to do a scavenger hunt in the tack shed to find goodies hidden in a huge pile of hay.

It was a great party! Happy Birthday Ashley and thanks for including us in your special day!

Kadence's 1st Grade Progress Report

We had Kadee's 1st, 1st grade teacher conference today. I know my daughter pretty well, I know she is a great kiddo and typically very well behaved but before every teacher conference I get a little nervous. I always anticipate the teacher dropping a bomb on me and telling me something I would never imagine Kadence doing. This time I was more nervous than usual because the night before her conference she told us that the teacher said she didn't have to go and she really didn't want to go. Immediately we bombarded her with 100 questions..."why don't you want to go, what'd you do, did you do something bad, are you in trouble?" She assured us everything was okay, there was only one small little problem, she had lost her math workbook...AGAIN! She lost it a couple weeks earlier, the teacher gave her a new one and now she lost it again...Not the end of the world by any means but we would have to have a talk with her and explain responsibility a little bit better.

At the teacher conference everything went great. She got all A's and one B (which was a 89.8%) what in the heck happened to rounding up! Her teacher is very pleased with her and claimed that she is only one of the few in her class that got all excellents in the behavior category! Good job Kadee Bug!

Oh Toothfairy, It is Time to Visit the Neilson Residence...

About a year ago after one of Kadence's dentist appointments she insisted that her tooth was loose. All of the kids in her kindergarten class were loosing their teeth and for about a year Kadee insisted her tooth was loose and any day it was going to fall out! Well it never did...Finally, this morning she was wiggling it around and just like that out it came! She was so excited!

We put it in her toothfairy pillow and she put it under her pillow when she went to bed! The next morning she woke up to find a five dollar bill in place of her tooth. I explained to her that the tooth fairy usually only leaves a dollar so this must have been a very special "first tooth" to get five buckaroos. I don't think she cared as much about the money as she did about the footprints the toothfairy left in glitter on the table by her bed ;)

Floor Buddies

Chance is constantly on the floor now. No crawling yet, instead he just gets high centered on his belly. But he does enjoy rolling around and playing with Brew dog who is his constant floor buddy!

Family Game Night

The PTA hosted a "Family Game Night" at school for the students and their families. It was a really cute event. The GATE teacher set up about 20 games in the cafeteria and then about another 12 more challenging games in her classroom. My sister watched the boys so Charlie could come and enjoy the night with Kadence. I of course being the volunteer coordinator had volunteered to help with the games. I was so glad Charlie got to come because Kadence wasn't stuck staying "where I could see her" all night.

This was not a highly attended event like the Soc Hop or Carnival but it was actually nice because everyone got an opportunity to play the games they wanted without having to wait to long for a turn. Upon arrival every student received a raffle ticket and at the end of the evening all of the games were raffled off. I was keeping my fingers crossed for Kadee to win one of the games and sure enough her ticket was the second to the last one picked. She chose the checkers game. It was a fun night and reminded me just how fun it is to sit down and play a good board game once in a while!