I HATE Scorpions

I have several things to blog about but today I choose one. I HATE scorpions. I was stung just yesterday by one of those evil things. I was minding my own business washing my hands in the kitchen. I went to dry my hands on the dish towel hanging over the oven handle when there was a sudden stab of pain shooting through my wrist and hand. Ouch and again I say ouch. Just thinking about it makes my wrist hurt. The horrid thing was hiding on my dish towel between the two ends of the towel. I have been stung twice before but this was probably the most painful one. My hand and forearm tingled with the feeling of pins and needles. Let me just say it again. I HATE SCORPIONS. Here is a list of the reasons why.

1. It hurts when they sting!
2. They can be anywhere and I mean anywhere. We have found them in the sink, the tub, on the floor in all rooms, the wall, up in the closet, on the couch, in the laundry basket mixed in with clothes, on Kelsi's backpack and several other places I am sure I am forgetting.
3. They could be deadly (certain types) for my children especially my baby if she is stung. Shaylee was stung once and didn't have a bad reaction, thank goodness. Kelsi, Courtney and Jeremy haven't yet and it is not a fate I wish for them. I rather be stung several times over than to have my children be stung even once. I am too scared for them.
4. The are ugly.

I hope a scorpion sting is a fate none of you have to face. Kind of ironic my astrological sign is Scorpio.

Stay tuned more posts coming soon.

Shiny cars

Shaylee has a fascination with shiny cars. In particular the color red. Our neighbors have a bright red Corvette and a red Mustang. They are owned by college boys and are at least ten years old. She is often talking about wanting a car like one of those. Well, the other day we were walking to school when she saw someone drive by in a big navy blue truck. It was one that had the over sized tires. After it went by she told me she wanted to buy that truck and sell it so she could buy it again because she liked it so much. It just made me smile. The logic of a four year old.

It Was The Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Our Christmas tree

This holiday season made me think of the line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Yes we had a lot of fun with Christmas programs, parties and the general excitement that comes with the holidays, but we also had to deal with a case of the stomach flu. Yuck! I had a slight case of it the Tuesday before Christmas. Jeremy got it the day after Christmas and Shaylee the worst of all the day after that. We ended up taking Shaylee to the ER because she couldn't keep even water down and was getting dehydrated. She had to have blood drawn and an IV to pump her up with fluids. I can now say that we are grateful to be on this end of it and continue to hope that no one else gets it.

All dressed up for Church

Enough of the worst part of the holiday here are a few highlights of our best part of Christmas. Around about the middle of the month I took the girls to the school for family reading night to hear a Christmas story, sing songs, have cookies and cocoa, and of course sit on Santa's lap. We also enjoyed Kelsi's School Christmas program. All the first graders sang "Hip Hop Reindeer," "Jolly Old St. Nicolas," "Jingle Bells" and a few others. The "Hip Hop Reindeer" song was cute they had some of the students dressed like reindeer dancing hip hop moves. Kelsi was also suppose to ring a bell for the song "Silver Bells" with several other children but didn't make it on stage. When I asked her later what happened she said to went the wrong way back stage and missed it. The poor teachers had to keep track of over 400 students on stage in the Fine Arts Center at the College. They had to rotate them around, each grade level getting there turn on stage. It turned out to be a really great program. I guess technically you can't call it a Christmas program because the also included at least one Hanuka song.

Family Reading night on Santa' s lap.

Cookies

Cocoa

Shaylee's preschool program was held at the Methodist Church in Safford. It was also a very cute program as always. Here teacher does a great job with the kids. The couple of weeks before the program where spent helping Shaylee learn her part which was "P is for Presents the wise men lay before Him." She said her part perfect. Loud and clear so everyone could hear her. She also spent several of the days before had singing bits of the songs she was learning for the program. One line she kept singing was "reindeer, reindeer shake your fluffy tail." The "shake your fluffy tail" was always done with her shaking her own tail end. It makes me smile just to think of it. There were also a couple of times she yelled "mom, clap." I guess I wasn't doing it right or soon enough.

The Shirt that was made with the white shirt talked about in the last post.

Picture of all three preschool classes in program.

It is fun to see my kids learn and grow and be involved in school programs. They are growing too fast.

We also saw Santa at the ward party at which he told about the birth of the Savior and the importance of remembering the real meaning of the season. This time Courtney sat on Santa's lap. It didn't go so well. She looked up at him, then looked out and that was the end of it. She cried and cried until I got her.

Christmas Eve we made a trip to Pomerene to see my family. We had a Mexican fiesta at my grandma Barney's home for lunch which was followed by the traditional presentation of the nativity by the children and a visit from Santa. Kelsi was so excited she got to be Mary this year. This is a privilege that is reserved for the big girls. She wasn't the oldest girl there but she was the oldest that hadn't got to be Mary before. She did a great job. Shaylee got to be an angel. She also did a great job. Courtney got to be a spectator. Actually I think she was asleep for most of it. This brings back great memories. Growing up Christmas eve was always spend at Grandma Barneys in this way. This was the first year without Grandpa. I am extremely glad that we got to be there to show our love and support to Grandma. She is doing great in spite of a crazy year for her.

Kelsi as Mary with her cousin Payton as Joesph.

Sheppards come to see baby Jesus.

The entire cast.

Kelsi on Santa's lap Christmas Eve at Grandma Barney's home.Shaylee and Santa

Courtney and Santa (She's not to sure about the bid guy in red.)

That evening we were home for our own little Christmas traditions. We opened the traditional Christmas Eve present of pajamas and Jeremy read the nativity from Luke 2. We also followed the star. It is a tradition we started two years ago. We turn off all of the lights except for the tree and take the big star off of the Christmas tree. Jeremy takes the star and holds it up high and shines a flash light on it. We wonder through the house following the star that leads us back to the tree under which the baby Jesus is lying. It is something that we really enjoy and the girls each want to take a turn holding the star and leading the way. It helps remind us to come to Jesus.

Kelsi and Shaylee's pajamas. They came with a matching robe. They were High School Musical for Kelsi and Hannah Montana for Shaylee.

Here is Courtney in her pajamas.

We hope your Holiday's went well and we wish you the best for the New Year!

My Morning

This morning Courtney had her six month checkup. Here are the stats. She is 26 1/4 inches long and 18lbs 2 oz. Crazy how fast she is growing. She had to get three shots. Two were her regular immunizations shots and one was the flu shoot which will have to be repeated in a month. She didn't like much of her appointment at all. She smiled while she was being weighed. But when I laid her on the table for the Doctor to look at her she started fussing and reaching for me. She was fine as long as I was holding her but she didn't want anything to do with the Doctor. The shots were not so very pleasant, as I am sure you can imagine. She calmed rather quickly once I picked her up but wasn't happy when I had to put her in her car seat. She is now sleeping and we hope that she wont have any problems because of the shots.

After the Doctors office I had to run the Wal-mart real quick to pick up and white shirt for Shaylee's preschool class. They are decorating it for their Christmas program. If the do it the same way they did when Kelsi was in preschool it is very cute. I will have to post pictures later. Anyway, at Wal-mart I grabbed the shirt plus a few other things (It is a rare occasion when I get out of Wal-mart with only what I went in for.) and headed for the check out. It was a little after eleven and I needed to hurry so I could go get Shaylee at my grandma's house, feed her some lunch and walk her to preschool. I got through the line fairly quickly but realized when I was walking out the door that the white shirt, the one thing I actually needed, was sitting in Courtney's lap unpaid for. So, back in line I went. Once I had finally paid for the shirt and the cashier had given me the receipt I was in a hurry and started out the door when I heard the cashier say "Mam, you forgot your bag." Oh the irony. I guess I was in too much of a hurry. I finally did make it out of there with everything paid for and in my possession and was able to get Shaylee picked up, feed and to preschool just in time.

If I had planned better I would have gotten Shaylee's shirt yesterday, but I didn't. I guess technically I couldn't because my keys were in my diaper bag which was locked in the van. I guess it was a good thing I didn't have to go anywhere yesterday. So, now I am enjoying a few moments of quite and calm.

"My dad is soo bald"

I was told this story by our primary chorister. Two Sunday's ago in primary Shaylee went up to sit by her during closing exercises. She said down and turned to the chorister and said "I have an uncle Shane. He is my dad's bother. My dad is so00 bald." While saying "sooo bald" she moved her hands back a forth above her head. Kid's say the darnedest things.

More Halloween Pictures

Here are some more pictures of our Halloween fun.

Here is our pumpkin all carved.
This is what it looked like all lite up in the dark.

At the carnival they had these little goats for the kids to pet.
Kelsi got to dress up for her party at school but had to leave the toy guns at home. She brought her stick horse which she has affectionately named Poka Horse.

At the school they have a parade where all of the kids dress in their costumes and walk around the block while all of the parents, grandparents and any others who want can watch. It is really quite fun. There was a lot of Hannah Montanas, princesses and super heroes.

Halloween Fun

I know there are probably a million blogs showing cute kids dressed up for Halloween so here is ours among those million.

Courtney our little Pumpkin

Shaylee as Mulan

Kelsi as a cowgirl

The girls really had a fun time. We went to the carnival at the school where they had a "Trunk or Treat" and fun games and prizes for the kids. Kelsi, Shaylee and a friend of Kelsi's, Britney, all wanted to go in the haunted house so we got in the line to go in while Britney's mom watched Courtney in the Stroller. As we got closer and closer to the door the girls got more and more nervous. When we got about half way there from our starting point. Shaylee decided she was not so sure about this and she went over with Courtney. We continued on through the line and when we got to front they let the people in front of us go in and Kelsi heard someone scream and she quickly said "I'm not going" and walked over with Shaylee and Courtney. So I ended up going through with Britney. It wasn't to scary for me but it would have scared Kelsi and Shaylee both. And the last thing I was going to do was make them go in. I did get a little startled once when someone grabbed my ankle. After the carnival we went to the park for our ward party where we ate hamburgers and hot dogs and had another "trunk or treat." We didn't stay there long because Courtney was quickly letting us know that it was past her bedtime and she had enough Halloween fun. I'll post more pictures later.