Dork Alert!

I grew up in a very small town in Idaho. I love my home town, Rockland was a great place to be raised and I am very proud of where I come from. However, whenever I tell people where I am from I get "Where?" Always! If I ever meet someone who knows where it is I'm shocked but they are my instant friend. Along with nobody ever knowing where it is you don't usually see it on a map. So when McKay and I were flying home from Vegas we had the seats that had the cute little screens on the seats in front of us. Well when we were getting ready to land I flipped the screen to the map and guess what was on there? ROCKLAND! I know I'm a dork but I was so excited. So I made McKay take a picture, he had a little trouble as you can see but we finally got it. The girl sitting in the seat next to us probably thought I had lost my ever lovin' mind. I actually think McKay thought this too, but he was too kind to tell his big sister. (This is also for my Albion girls - Andi and Mind - you know what I'm talkin' about! Your on the map too.)

Hot Wheels

Jeff has gotten Landry into Hot Wheels. They build ramps and little cities and have a great time together. Landry was getting quite a collection of cars. Then last week Jeff found among his stuff in the garage all these boxes of Hot Wheels from when he was a kid. Yes, my husband is a pack rat and usually it annoys the heck out me. However, this time it was hilarious to watch him and Landry play with them and listen to him talk about each one. I can't believe that he remembers who gave them to him or where he was when his mom bought them for him. There were seriously over 100 cars and they each had a place in their container. There were cars, airplanes, buses, ambulances, police cars. the whole bit. So when I say they build little cities I'm not kidding - the Army base, the Hospital, the Police Station, the Airport, etc. Landry loves it. Jeff is such a great dad. He is just like a kid himself and he always plays with Landry. She LOVES her dad!

Holiday Break

It was so fun to have Landry home for 2 weeks during the Christmas/New Year break from school. Warning: This is more of a journal entry and could be quite boring. I just wanted to write down some of the fun things we did.

We made a snowman family. Dad is a baseball player - of course. Landry is a princess - of course. Mom is a baker - WHAT? I knew I wasn't fooling anyone. Landry wanted me to be a witch and that actually would have been more believable. But we had all of the stuff for the baker so that is what we went with. By the time we got done it was dark and by the time we took the picture the next day the faces were somewhat deformed - missing eyes and teeth!

We went Ice Skating. Landry had never been before and I hadn't been in ages. Unfortunately Jeff couldn't go with us because he was sick. We went with some friends and had a great time. We rented the little walker so she could have something to hold onto other than mom. It didn't take long for her to get the hang of it and we can't wait to go again.
We played 'Salon' Landry loves to do this. I get to paint her toes and fingernails and then she gets to do mine. She got some very bright pink nail polish from Santa. I think he underestimated the brightness! She is getting the hang of it on the toes but had a little trouble with the nails - Aren't they fabulous?

Christmas

I love Christmas - I always have. But since we've had Landry Christmas is so much better. It is so great to see how excited she gets and how her eyes light up when she talks about Santa coming. We were able to see both Grandparents before Christmas day. Landry loves this because this means that she gets to open presents early. We went to see Grandma and Grandpa Hunter first and then to Grandma and Grandpa Ralphs the next day. It was a wild ride on the way back, it was snowing and blowing like crazy. We were glad to get back home so Santa could come that night. As usual we all got spoiled. Landry got her Mrs. Goodbee talking dollhouse from Santa and her Princess table and chairs she has been asking for forever. She also got this giant doll from Jeff's aunt that is seriously taller than her and a Dora the Explorer headphones and radio from her cousins. One of the songs says to say hello in Spanish. So every couple of minutes on the way home we would hear 'Hola' coming from the backseat. It was cracking us up. On Christmas day we had some friends over for dinner. I was quite a Betty Crocker if I do say so myself. We had a Turkey and the whole spread. We also got to talk to my brother, Marshal who is on his mission in Ohio. It was so great to hear his voice. It was a great Christmas and I'm so grateful for a wonderful family to share it with.

Christmas Baking

This Christmas we had many different nights of cooking and creating. I love doing this stuff with Landry because she gets so excited. We did a Gingerbread Train this year. After the debacle of trying to get our house to stay put together last year I decided to whip out the handy glue gun to assist us. After all the pieces were glued together it made the project go much smoother! Landry had so much fun. It was a good thing it was glued together so it wouldn't collapse under the candy weight.

This year we took buckets of carmel corn and Rudolph cupcakes to the neighbors. Landry informed me that carmel corn was boring and that none of the kids would like it - thus the addition of the cupcakes! When I was popping the popcorn I realized that Landry had never seen me do that. Popcorn to her comes out of a bag from the microwave! She was so entertained by that. The cupcakes were fun to do to. I got the idea off of a cooking show and they did turn out really cute.

Of course there is always the delicious sugar cookies that must be made for Santa. Again, the more candy the better. I'm pretty sure at one point Landry was just picking up handfuls of M&M's and mini Kisses and dumping them on top of the cookies and then finishing them off with sprinkles! Santa LOVED them!

Vegas

I took an unexpected trip to Las Vegas this month. My brother got married. I've been to Vegas two times before, once in the airport and once for a friends wedding. Both times were very short visits. This one wasn't much longer but I did get to see and do some really fun things. My two younger brothers, Ashley, and my parents were there. I was sad that Jeff and Landry weren't there with me but after seeing all of the ummmm, interesting signs and billboards I was glad Landry wasn't there. I didn't want to have to explain all that to her!

A few fun things we did were the roller coaster at New York New York - that was fabulous! It was so cold when we were there, right after they had their snow storm - go figure! So the roller coaster ride was quite chilly. I loved the water show in front of the Bellagio. The best though was the light show on Fremont street. The lights were amazing but I could have people watched all night! It was seriously so hysterical - people are just nuts. It's no wonder that the slogan for Vegas is "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!" We also went into the most seedy, crusty place I have ever been - seriously my shoes were sticking to the floor - to try deep fried Twinkies and deep fried Oreos. I had heard of them but never tried it and we were taking our lives into our own hands by eating them after they were cooked in that fine establishment! I wasn't a fan of the Twinkies but the Oreo was pretty darn good!

It was a quick unexpected trip but as always, so fun to spend time with my family. I am so happy for my brother and his new wife. She is great and I'm thrilled to have a new sister-in-law, a new niece, and two new nephews!

Deep Fried Oreos and Twinkies. It's a wonder none of us had a heart attack after eating these.

These are my brothers - This should help many of you now understand why I behave the way I do. I was raised with idiots - seriously! Oh who am I kidding, I'm an idiot too! It's no wonder we always have a great time together!