Dinner

I should have taken pictures at the chef's house. It was a lot of fun. We had a fancy salad with pears and dried cranberries. Now if I made that it would taste horrible. Since I wasn't making it it tasted wonderful!
The main coarse was Shepard's pie. It was very good. Again I could not make it this fancy at all. So it was a true treat. She then sent us home with a full 9x13 Shepard's pie, it's in the freezer. She had also made us 2 batches of home made spaghetti sauce and noodles. We ate one of the batches of noodles the next night. It was very yummy too. It had homemade meatballs in it.
She is actually a personal chef. She has her own business you can check out her web site here whats4dinner . She is tempting us to become a client.:)

Winter Day

We are enjoying being snowed in today. We have a foot of snow here. No school today too. So we have enjoyed making forts and sledding behind our house on some really neat hills. They are just the right size for our kids. Tegan has loved sledding down them as well.

It's really cold so we stay out short times and then go back out again after we have dethawed.:) I've been through one can of hot chocolate as well. Tonight we are going to eat at our neighbors house. I'm really looking forward to it. She is a chef.:)

A Special Visit

Uncle Ryan, Aunt Tricia and kaden are visiting. They are here in Indiana to help take care of Trista. I will have more on Trista at a later time when the family knows more. Please contiunue to pray for her!
Aunt Tricia is not feeling well so she could not make the meeting place. We decieded to meet half way so they did not have to drive so far. By the way Tricia and Ryan have a new baby girl on the way check out her blog! We missed seeing you Tricia!
So this afternoon we got to see Uncle Ryan, Kaden and Grandpa Oren. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to see us!

Tiffany Lost Her First Tooth

She lost her tooth as she walking out of school to the car. Thank goodness she did not panic! She had it in her hand and was excited! I asked her if she had wiggled it or moved it and she said no it just fell out. I wish all my teeth had come out that easy.
She wanted to first call Aunt Tammy and Shelby. Not sure what state you guys are in. I told her I would put it on the blog so that Tammy and Shelby would know about it that way. So, hope you are browsing the net and see this.:)

Update On Trista

Here is some news on Trista. This is an e-mail I recieved from Carolyn, Trista's grandma.
The tumor was removed intact and did not rupture. This type of tumor is rare at any age. They do not know exactly what type of tumor it is and it is being sent to different research universities to try to determine what type of tumor it is. They did take some lymph nodes to be tested.
A pediatric oncologist will see Trista tomorrow. He will determine the best type of treatment to be given. We are looking at chemotherapy and/or radiation. Trista will be at St. Vincent's until Thursday or Friday.
Once again thank you for your thoughts, prayers and encouragement.

Pray for Trista

Trista our neice is having surgery today to remove a tumor. Please pray for her and her family.
Thank you!

Leo's Sick Too

Here is Leo's new favorite spot. We had to take him to the Dr on Thursday night. He had a huge open wound on his leg. We almost have the whole family on medicine. Tiffany , Molly and Reese are the only healthy ones right now. :) This guy has some major pain medicine too. We'll Leo has been turned into a house cat until his leg is better. He misses being outside, even if it's only for 10 minutes. Yeah, you can tell he's suffering from being inside.:)
Yeah, this may gross you out. He had such a big whole in his leg they had to put a drain in. This comes out on Tuesday.
It's official! We have a cat we are keeping! This guy has cost us lots of money.:)

I took this picture earlier in the week and couldn't resist had to put it on too. Reese is very good around the kids. Here is her story.

Reese's mommy had left her when she was born. I found Ree in the shed corner with her umbilical cord rapped around it's foot. She was very cold and dirty. I cut the umbilical cord warmed her up and made the mommy feed her. The mommy kept feeding her and her sister I also found. Tegan and the kids visited Ree all the time. The kitten would let Tegan carry it around by the neck. So she has always been a good kitten. She does not scratch or bite the kids. She likes the torment they put her through.:) The holding, chasing her around to be the first to hold her. She even let's Tiffany give her stroller rides.
We where going to bring Reese and her sister with us when we moved. Only when we went back to the farm house the other kitten was gone. So Leo is the lucky one who came along.

Sick Kids

Well it turned out that Tristan has Strep throat. I took him to the Dr on Monday since he still had a fever. It didn't even cross my mind that he could have strep. He is doing better now with medicine.
Tegan is sick as well. The Dr gave him an antibiotic as well. Only he has the worst tasting medicine ever and will barely take it. Meaning he spits it out as soon as he gets it in there. I don't blame him, if I knew it tasted that bad I would of asked for it in pill form and added it to food.
Tristan is well enough to go to school tomorrow. Tegan is still pretty sick. I'm just waiting for Tiffany to get sick next.
With all the sleep loss I have had, I am feeling pretty miserable too. My throat is feeling a little scratchy and my head is hurting.
Tristan has some school projects due as he returns to school tomorrow so I am off to help him. Hope everyone has a great day! Thanks for stopping bye!!

While Tristan was at school the younger two got to play outside in the snow on Wednesday. I was hoping to see more snow today as the forecast called for more snow. Only we had more rain.
Here is Tiffany throwing snow balls at me. I wasn't fast enough to get a snowball in flight with the camera.
Tegan loves being outside. He loved making snowballs and toddling about. He has gotten his outside clothes on all by himself so he can go outside more. I ran out of gloves for him that day. He kept getting them to wet to wear. At the end of the day though he would only stay outside a minute and come back in informing me that it is "COLD". Our outside cats kept finding themselves in with our revolving door. I was a little late at getting the cat and Tegan playing together. It was really cute!

To think Leo all his life has been a barn cat. He would sleep on the wood pile inside the barn. I think he likes his new living conditions. He was very content to look at the snow from inside the house. I am always amazed at how close he stays to the house and garage. He is a really good cat.

Tristan had gotten really sick last night. He had a really rough night. He seems like he is doing better this morning.

Future Rock Star

Tiffany is so excited to finally get a guitar, not just a guitar an electric guitar. It was a daddy, daughter outing. They went out to supper and guitar shopping. Tiffany has been begging for a guitar for at least a year if not more. You can tell how excited she is in the picture. Tiffany also has a loose tooth that she discovered on this trip so it was double excitement. Everyone had to try out her cool guitar.
Thanks Tiff for sharing your guitar. You Go Girl! Future Rock Star!!

Tristan's Friend Party

Tristan had his friend party on Sunday. We had an awesome turn out. The kids behaved and enjoyed themselves. It was a really good group of kids.

The kids sang Happy Birthday to Tristan. Here is the second volcano cake I made. I really liked making this cake.
Here is Jessie, one of our helpers at the party. I think Ronn is being threatened.:)

The volcano was a hit. Each child got to take a turn putting in the active ingredients.

The kids all enjoyed the party. They played all the games I had, but would have enjoyed just playing the whole time in Tristan's room. :)

Happy New Year & Happy Birthday Tristan

Tristan is 8!! I can't believe my baby is 8 already. He is a New Years baby and was the first born at the hospital that day. We did not receive anything for being the first born at the hospital. Tristan an hour after he was born started to bleed in his lungs. Tristan was rushed to St Vincent NICU. St Vincent got to the little hospital just in time. They told us if 15 min more had gone by he would not be with us. We where told that Tristan would be in the hospital 6 months to a year. Tristan went home 23 days later!! God had healed him. We serve an AWESOME God!!! Tristan has such a sweet spirit about him. He is one in a million.
Tristan had a Dinosaur themed party. This is his family party and the friend party is to come on Sunday. I made a volcano birthday cake with dinosaurs placed around the cake. This cake tasted sooo good!

Show me the MONEY!!!Our homemade volcano was a blast!!

We had a great New Year's day! I am so thankful to be a celebrating this Birthday with Tristan. Each Birthday is so special with each of our kids. We are so blessed!

Have a great New Year!!