Simple Pleasures!

Today was a pretty dang good day I'd have to say. First off, I had a little money on my Paypal account from selling a hat yesterday so I decided to go to Ross to see if I could find Shaylee another church dress since she's running very low! Well I couldn't find a modest dress, and couldn't even find a cute long sleeved shirt for her. BUT, I ended up picking up a 16 piece set of glasses that we desparately needed, for only $10.99. From the original blue glasses we'd bought to match our plates & bowls...we were down to 3 small glasses and 2 tall ones. (I usually accidentally broke them...when I do the dishes sometimes they fling across the sink, what can I say?!) After I got home I started doing the dishes, and realized that our last two tall glasses are gone now, too!! They vanished...I've looked everywhere! It's a good thing I finally bought new ones!! I'm guessing Tyler broke them while I was in Washington, although he says he honestly has no clue where they are! :-) As my sister Stacy would say... "RIIIIIIght", haha! Since posts are always more interesting w/ pictures, here are my shiny new glasses :-) The short ones remind me of the kind that are usually in motels/hotels!



Then, I also responded to a classified ad that was selling a table and 4 chairs for $50 and it included a picture. I could already tell it was 10 times nicer than mine...and I jumped at the chance to get rid of my stained, fabric covered seats and marker-marked old wood table for that price. Tyler didn't get off work til later so a couple of Tyler's friends came with me to get it. It's now in our dining room and I can't keep my eyes off it!! It's by far the nicest thing in our dining/kitchen area now! It's still not my "dream" table because I'm sure in a year or two I'll get tired of cleaning between the little grooves of the tile, not to mention we'll need a bigger table eventually...but for now it's absolutely PERFECT and I'm SO happy! I was able to get rid of my old table set on freecycle.org easily a couple hours before picking up the new one which was perfect. That old table set was our only real piece of ghetto furniture and now it's gone!! YAY!!!! Our old table was a little smaller so my metal wire basket looks pretty small and sad now sitting there!

Oh and for kicks, here is the gingerbread house made from the kit my mom sent home with us from Thanksgiving!! I almost forgot to take a picture of it before throwing it out, until I saw my mom had posted pics of the ones Heidi's family made! (Shaylee decorated the back of the house and the right side of the roof, and I helped Cayden with the front and left side) Thanks mom!

The Holiday Craziness is OVER, so here are overdue pictures!!

Tyler and I always have a hard time sleeping on Christmas Eve, but this year was worse, so we woke the kids up at 6 a.m.! We just can't help it, we love seeing our kids' reactions when they come out Christmas morning! It was a good Christmas. It was so peaceful and we were just happy to be together. SINCE then however, there has been very little peace!! Cayden is absolutely addicted to the Wii. At first he was okay playing it by himself, but now he always wants someone playing with him, which gets tricky if it's during a school day and Tyler is at work. I end up playing one game with him, then getting ready for the day, then play one game, then do a job, play a game...etc. He's very animated when he plays, so atleast he's getting exercise, but the whining about losing has got to stop!! I love boxing with the game that came with the Wii, and Mario Kart! Someday we'll buy more controllers and wheels so we can all play at the same time...that could get interesting!! I made Tyler sell our PS2 and it's games that we bought a couple years ago, before Santa was allowed to bring us a Wii!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Although it's sad to take down the Christmas decorations, it made me happy to think that I have a new year to get busy in preparing for next Christmas!! I have a lot of projects I want to do this year and hopefully I can just do better this year than last year!

This one was taken today while the kids played the Wii they got from Santa. (Santa bought it over 3 months before Christmas and kept it in a closet just for us, in case they were hard to get ahold of around Christmas time!! Santa and Mrs. Clause MAY have gotten it out a few times...late at night when there were no witnesses.. to play it in the meantime before Christmas...just to make sure it was in working order of course!)

Tyler showing off his new Notre Dame sweatshirt he got in a family exchange.

Sadly I'd never thought to ask Santa for yarn until I read online about some people's stockings being filled with knitting needles, yarn, pattern books, etc! Man...nowadays yarn is so much more exciting (for me to get) than little knick knacks that end up lost or trashed the next day...some people are so creative!!!

Cayden got to play "Joseph" in the Nativity Play for Joy School! He was very embarrassed when he had to hold Hannah's hand as they "walked" to Bethlehem!

Addy had Bronchiolitis (and an ear infection that usually comes along with that sickness) so she had to use a nebulizer for breathing treatments for a few days. She was pretty good about it considering she is very active, and had to sit still for about 9 minutes at a time, several times a day!!

The kids with "Santa Caudle" (Tyler's Dad) at their Ward Christmas Party. We missed our own ward party because the kids were too sick!!

Shaylee's Baptism

Shaylee was baptized on November 15th, at 3 p.m. at the San Angelo, Texas

Sunset Drive Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

This post is really late, but Shaylee I want you to know how proud Daddy and I are to be your parents, and how proud we are that you want to always Choose the Right. Always follow the Spirit and you will never go astray. You are a very important part of the church, as well as in our family, and I hope that we will be together forever. You have such a good heart and are always willing to help. Thank you and I love you! Love, Mom

Warren (holding Addy) & Julie (Tyler's Parents), Tyler, me, Stacey (Tyler's sister), Cayden, and Shaylee (and Shaylee looks like she's holding ATTITUDE!!) Oh and Grandma Caudle made the white dress for her, as well as a purple dress for her to wear after the baptism!

Our little family!

Our cute kids! Addy DID have socks on but she never keeps them on for long!

Tyler was ecstatic to get to baptize our oldest child, but it did make him a little sad that he's getting so old, and our kids are too!!!

~Our Thanksgiving~

Me and Ashlyn (Stacy's toddler) rocking

Well the kids and I had the BEST time visiting with my big family during Thanksgiving!!! Well, it started off bad...our car broke down after only driving 2 and 1/2 hours...but after we got a rental the next day, it was smooth sailing! I was so excited to see my two baby nieces that I'd never met, as well as seeing how tall all the rest of the kids have become!! We ate TONS of good food, went ice skating, did a little hairbow making and crocheting, but mainly got lots of good talking time in!! We even saw a little snow for a few minutes!! Mom bought all the grandkids an early Christmas present...Shaylee played with her singing Hannah Montana barbie the whole way home (much to my annoyance, haha!), Cayden loves his fire truck, and Addy has been having lots of fun with her singing toy!! My mom spend some one on one time with Shaylee which was so great. Shaylee also spent a few nights at her Aunt Jennifer's! Cayden was addicted to the Mario Kart game on the Wii and loved rough-housing with the other boys, although they are all quite a bit older than Cayden so he got hurt (mainly in the mouth, poor kid) a lot but had lots of fun. Nicole's birthday was on Thanksgiving and I think she got quite a few things that she loved...probably mainly the Twilight items Mom bought!!! I'm still deciding if I want to jump into the Twilight craze...I'll probably go to the movie soon and then decide if I want to read the books. I'm really bad sometimes...I'm usually crocheting so I don't read much even though I used to LOVE reading. I think I need to get books on Cd or something that I can listen to while I crochet! But at the same time, that's just not the same thing as curling up with a good book and blocking everything else out!!

My dad managed and organized the building of my grandpa's building out on Highway 17, the C&V Auto. Now my mom has picked up where he left off, and is doing the building that is going up right next to it!! I think my dad was amazing for daring to give up farming and learn all about building, the permits, etc. Now I think it's incredible that my mom was willing to help grandpa by learning everything in such a short amount of time and continue with the work. I think I have pretty amazing and talented parents.

Mom combined all of our photos from the trip onto a CD for each of us, and since there are SOOOO many great pictures, I had to narrow it down to some of my absolute favorites!! More pictures to come soon but right now my internet is having issues!!

Cayden opening his firetruck from Grandma McConkie

My sister-in-law Sara holding Addy...the dress Addy is wearing was from my mom, and it has poodles on it, SOOOO cute!!

Shaylee bought Grandma a present, it was a precious moment!

Pregnant Stacy holding my little Addy!

Lucky

After sitting down and getting ready to write this post, I realized I don't have a lot of good pictures of our beautiful, er, HANDSOME dog Lucky. I have a cute video of him and Addy but the file is big and won't download so I'll have to figure that out. We've had some dogs and a cat in our past...mainly pets we were taking off people's hands to do them a favor. Our last dog Missy I found in a Moses Lake pet store and had to take it back to San Angelo, TX with me. Shortly after I was pregnant with Addy so I ended up not having time to get him his much needed training, so we found him a new home. ANYWAY, Tyler and I decided no more pets until we buy a house (instead of rent)...and we wanted to possibly find an adult dog that was already trained...a big dog since we like them the best. So...a few weeks ago I came home from the store, checked my email, and there was an email from freecycle.org. Someone was trying to find a new home for an adult yellow lab. It said he was neutered, house-trained, and very good with kids...how could I resist? I called the person just so I could come LOOK at the dog and try to make a rational decision this time instead of just falling in love with it. On my way home with our new dog, I called Tyler and asked him how much he loves me. He knew something was up. He was skeptical about the dog. Lucky is absolutely the sweetest WHITE Lab. He is 2 years old so he's still a big puppy at times, but even my baby likes being licked by him. Just now he easily scooped up my 5 lb weight in his mouth (for exercising although it rarely gets used...until I used it this morning!) and carried it off! Sometimes he tries to chew toys up but is good about stopping when told. Tyler and I are already in love with that dog and feel "Lucky" to have found him!! He's had atleast 2 previous owners and the first ones purposely had him fighting some violent rottweilers..the second owners gave him his name because he was "Lucky" to be alive. Call me pathetic, but I'm really going to miss him while he stays at one of my friend's houses while we're in Washington!!

Well there you go...more than you ever wanted to know about someone's pet!!!

Addy getting lick attacked!!

Lucky wearing Shaylee's Hannah Montana Halloween wig

The New President

This took place this morning:

Me: CAYDEN, Obama won. I can't believe he won.

Cayden: OH, I LOVE that guy!

Me: NO! We wanted MCCAIN to win! Obama scares me!

Cayden: Ya, he scares me too.

Me: I just can't believe Obama won. What are we going to do??

Cayden: Well, someday when I grow up I can be the Hulk and SMASH the city and SMASH Obama!!

Tyler walked into the room next.

Cayden: Do you know who won Daddy? The evil Obama!!

Hmmm! Interesting answer...I think my 4 year old has been watching a few too many superhero cartoons. Tyler and I definitely believe that the outcome of this election is a sign of the times. The part that was the most disturbing was seeing clips on the news of how African Americans/Blacks, all they cared about was getting an African American/Black man in as President. The fact that Obama won't say the Pledge of Allegiance or wear a tiny flag lapel pin on his jacket....which means he doesn't respect our flag therefore doesn't respect our country...doesn't matter to them in the least, and it obviously doesn't matter to the young kids who got out and voted...who are being raised to be extremely liberal...wanting an extreme change in government which is not exactly what this country needs. The truth is...the world is getting scary...and it's going to keep getting scary and no President can really stop it at this point...but Obama will be able to help it get scary much quicker. I think it's sad but I guess it was expected that this election would turn more into a racial contest than actually about this country's issues and what it needs.

I am going to try not to get too negative because I don't want to become one of those people that always talks bad about our President, but I can tell you that mine and Tyler's family will be beefing up our food supply along with all the other supplies we could need in an emergency. We are also going to be working on getting much more Spiritually ready...because the 2nd Coming is not too far off now.

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My next post really will be about our new dog Lucky!!

Thanksgiving in Moses!!!

YAY I'M SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!! So just in the last couple of days things have fallen into place for me and the kids to drive to Moses Lake for Thanksgiving!! I can't even express how excited I am! Earlier I started dancing around the room like a maniac (moves I haven't busted out for quite awhile!) and singing at the top of my lungs the old 80s song "I'm so EXCITED, that I just can't HIDE it, I"m about to lose control and I think I like it!". Well my 4 year old son was trying to watch a Spiderman documentary so he was smiling but kept laughing while telling me to stop because he thought I was being weird and he was trying to watch the tv. Addy on the other hand thought I was HILLARIOUS and laughed the whole time. I KNEW there was a reason I love babies so much...they think I'm funny!! All my siblings and their families will be there at my mom's too so it's going to be the biggest house party that neighborhood has ever seen!!!! YAY for HUGE families and the Holidays!!! It's been like 15 months since I last visited my family so I'm STOKED! I know "stoked" is probably way outdated but that's only word to describe it!!!
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In other news, we got a dog named "Lucky" a few weeks ago...I'll be writing about him in my next post!