Christmas 2008

We had an awesome Christmas this year. Last night we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Reed's for our Christmas Eve party. We had great food and lots of fun. Corbie wasn't as interested in opening his gifts as he was climbing on everything possible and trying to mimic everything that Brycen was doing. Everyone was there including Arnauld's brother Kevin and Matt so we had a great time hanging out together. Corb's spent quite a long time just hangin out on Grandpa's lap. He sure loves his grandpa!

This morning we had everyone on my side of the family over to our house for a Christmas breakfast and gift exchange. We have had quite a few inches of snow fall over the course of the last 24 hrs, but despite it all everyone was able to make it safely. Thanks to Grandma Bateman's cooking expertise we had our traditional Ebelskievers along with a baked ham and Monkey bread. We all took turns opening gifts and I think everyone had a great time and I am grateful that everyone came. It really made Christmas special for us.

Corbs and Cierra were spoiled to death by everyone. Corbin got a cool train table and a Shake and Go track, among many other things, that entertained even the bigger boys for hours. Cierra got a little purse with a dog that she was carrying around on her arm like a little princess. It was so cute. I'm not quite sure what we are going to do with all of this stuff, but Corbs sure loves it. Layne and I got each other new IPhones and we are both acting like a bunch of little kids with our new toys. It is totally amazing the things that these little devices will do and we don't even know the half of it yet.

This evening we visited Grandma Bateman and the rest of the clan at her house for yummy homemade ice cream and candies. We were able to talk with Brian while we were there which was lots of fun. He was sunbathing on the top of his apartment in Florida today for his Christmas celebration (wouldn't that be rough?).

Afterwords, we visited Grandma and Grandpa Green. Grandpa was been sick today so they weren't able to come for breakfast this morning so we stopped by late to wish them a Merry Christmas. The snow was really coming down, but the beamer was a champ and just moved right along and we were able to get there with no problem.

Thank you to all that made this Christmas so wonderful for me and my family. It truely was one of the best Christmas's that I can remember. Merry Christmas to you all. We love you!!!

Granny's Annual Family Christmas Party

Tonight we went to Grandma B's for our annual family Christmas Party. We had our traditional soup bar that grandma works so hard to prepare for us. We are so grateful for all her efforts.

After dinner we all opened our gifts from Grandma. Traditionally Santa has been kind enough to drop in to deliver the gifts, but since most of the kids have gotten older he hasn't come the last few years....a big sigh from the adults!

Corb's got a Thomas the Train that he enjoyed, but he was more interested in Cierra's princess phone. Good thing Cierra is so patient with him!
The kids also enjooyed pounding on Grandma's piano. I think we have a couple of Liberace's on our hands!































We had lots of fun....THANKS GRANDMA!

Grandpa Reed Back in the Hospital

We got a call in the middle of the night last night that they took Grandpa Reed back to the hospital. He hasn't been feeling good for a few days and they thought that he had a sinus infection, but last night he just wasn't acting right so they decided to take him in to get looked at. They initially thought that he was having another head bleed, but when they did another CT scan today with contrast they found just what none of us expected.....a tumor. It has been very devastating news to all of us and we are just waiting and praying for some good news. They are doing some further scans of his body to see if there are any other tumors and we are just waiting the result of that to determine what the next step will be. The doctor said that if everything else comes back clear they will plan to do surgery to remove the tumor in his brain on Monday. It has been a very emotional day for everyone, but Grandpa is really keeping a good attitude about the whole thing. He has really been giving the doctors and nurses something to smile about. Pray for Grandpa Jerry and for good news!

Thanksgiving

I had to work today so some of our day was spent apart. Layne and Corbin went to Grandma and Grandpa Reed's for a while to visit. Fortunately for me, Layne was kind enough to bring Scooter to the hospital to eat a turkey lunch with me. It was was lots of fun and I am very grateful that they came. Once I got off work we went to Grandma Bateman's for dinner. She worked very hard and made a fantastic Thanksgiving meal as always. It was kind of a smaller group than we normally have a Grandma's, but we still had a good time. Of course it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without some of Grandma's amazing homemade ice cream. Afterwards, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa Green's house for a visit. It was really nice to see everyone and appreciate all the great food. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Halloween

It's Halloween....one of my favorite holidays. I know this may come as a surprise to many of you haha, but today we decided to go back to my favorite era....the '70's (....I mean really where would we be without the Bee Gee's?).This morning we took Scooter over to the hospital for the annual Halloween daycare parade. There were tons of kid and lots of admirer's at the parade and everyone just loved Corbie's costume. Layne and I were absolutely amazed that he kept his wig and glasses on the entire time without a fight. He got lots of candy and I think that he had a good time.

Once I got off work, Layne and I decided to join in on the fun and like a big bunch of dorks dressed up as well.

We spent the night trick or treating at all our friend and families houses. Along the way we met up with Ironman (Brycen) and the most adorable little stinker....Cierra! I'm not sure any of them really knew what was going on or why their crazy parents had them dressed in these funny outfits but they were really good sports about it. Happy Halloween everyone!!!!

Scooter at the Movie

Tonight we took Corbie to see Madagascar II. We had taken him to see National Treasure II when he was a small baby, but that time our intention was for him to sleep through the movie.....which he did. So this was really his "first" movie going experience and he did great. He absolutely loved the movie. He sat on either me or Layne's lap the entire time and watched very intently (until the little girl in front of us got up and started flirting with him towards the end of the show and of course....suddenly we weren't good enough for him). We had a great time and he did very good for his first motion picture outing. We haven't stopped singing.....I like to Move It Move It....since!

Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we took Corbin to Cochran's Produce to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. He didn't really get the jist of what was going on and the pumpkins certainly weren't all that interesting to him, but in his mind there sure was a lot of space to run around. We actually had to either put him in the big metal wagon or trap him down in a middle of a big stack of pumpkins to get him to cooperate with any picture taking.The Hassell family had the same idea in mind and they met up with us there which was a lot of fun. Corb's had fun with the kids and enjoyed climbing up the haystacks. We all had a really good time and I don't think we could have planned it any better if we had tried.
Afterwards, we had a nice dinner at a new restaraunt in town called Zucca's. The waiter was very nice and really had a good time with Corbin. It was a really nice family night out.

UEA Weekend--Sand Dunes Again???

Well lucky for me we decided to go to the Sand Dunes again. I was able to get off work on Friday so we were able to get down there a little earlier that we had planned. Thankfully the weather was much nicer than it was a few weeks ago and Layne was able to get in a little riding Friday evening.






Scooter finally got used to riding around on "Big Red" and as you can see found it to be a bit relaxing :)


Unfortunately, in the middle of the night Friday Corbin woke us up with a temperature of 105. It scared us half to death. We stripped him down and gave him medicine (surprise....I had some medicine with me) and started getting some cold fluids in him to get the temp down. We could get it down around 101 to 102 but never much lower than that. Needless to say...nobody got much sleep. Corbin seemed to be doing okay other than the fever so we decided to stay and let the boys ride. They had a great time and Kyle was SO excited...he finally went up the face of Sand Mountain. After that there was no stopping him. He must have gone up it a hundred times in the few days we were there.

On Saturday night....I thought things were going to be okay and we were all going to get some much needed rest. Oh how I was wrong! It started with Layne waking up and running outside the motor home to throw up. Then Corbin woke up and I gave him some medicine to get his fever down. The sugar in the medicine made him soooo hyper and he literally bounced around the bed like a little maniac the rest of the night.

Despite being extemely tired and a few of us a little sick. I think everyone had a good time!

Sand Dunes

Well Corbin just experienced his first trip to the Sand Dunes. We went down on Friday night and most of Saturday rained so we didn't do much of anything but sit around play games and eat lots of fattening food. Luckily on Sunday it cleared up and we were able to get out and have some fun. Scooter had a great time cruising around on his little 4-wheeler.





He wasn't really fond of the big one's at first, but after watching all the people he decided that it was safe and finally decided to hop on for a little ride.All the boys were glad that the weather cleared up and that they had a chance to ride their motorcycles up Sand Mountain.

Thanks Dad and Sonja for inviting us to come with you. We had a great time!

Yellowstone

We just got home from a great trip to Yellowstone with Dad, Sonja, Kyle, Grandma & Grandpa Green, LuAnn, Jennifer, Melanie, Kelsey, Brook, Pat and Curt. On the way there we stopped to see the animals at Bear World. We had tons of fun there. We were able to go on the curator tour where we got to feed lots of different animals including the dumb-dumb turkeys, the elk, and all the cute bears. One of the big bears had even learned that if he clapped for the people that he would get more food. Corbin wasn't quite sure that he wanted anything to do with the animals, but after much coercing he feed the baby deer and pet the snorting pig. It was all over with, however, when the two geese came and tried to eat his shoelaces while he wasn't looking. You would have thought that they had come to eat him!

It was a bit rainy and quite cold in the Park but we still had a blast. We stayed at Al's Westward Ho (which we re-named "The Crazy Ho" cuz the lady that ran the place was quite a charm. I guess you can't expect too much with a name like that. We spent two full days driving around the park looking for animals and listening to the elk bugling. We had several picnics in the park thanks to good planning from Sonja and Grandma....and we can't forget all the traditional frosty chocolate malts! I think that Grandpa had all but turned into one by the time we left.

Dad and Sonja brought several two-way radio's so we were able to converse back and forth between each car which made it lots of fun. On occasion, Grandpa Green would tell us a funny story like about how he and the Mammoth Judge had developed such a close friendship when they used stay in the park for weeks at a time.

We also got lucky and on our way out of the park on the final day we got to see a big grizzly bear. They had only spotted two bears in the park in the previous week so we were extra lucky to be able to see one of them. We are so glad that we were able to go and grateful that everyone was able to come as well. We look forward to doing it again next year!

Yellowstone Pics