Dear Santa.....

Dear Santa,
This year for Christmas i would like a new microwave (because my kids don't know how to cook without one. I would like a new hair dryer (so I don't have to use my girls anymore) And a new iron (that won't leak water the whole time I iron)And I will use Ashley's line from her Santa letter. I would also like anything else you would like to bring me. Thanks and Merry Christmas!!!
Loretta

Really??? So after all the snow that has so blessedly come our way. We have an awesome neighbor who has a road grader. He has plowed our road quite a few times. Over the last 2 days enough has broken up on the road that it made it hard for the bus to come down and get the kids, they were started to talk like they would no longer come down till it was clean. So after some phone calls the county grader come down our road. Leaving about a 3 foot snow bank down all the sides of the road. I told Brian that he would not be able to get in the drive way with out moving the snow. So when he reached Sugar City, he called and told me to start the tractor. By the time he got home, another awesome neighbor had come along with his tractor and made it so we could get in and out of the drive way. Brian come home and turned the tractor off. Which didn't make me happy... how can I get in to feed the cows with all the snow by the gate??? So what does he do? He hops in the pickup and pulls right over it and in the pasture. I figure if he can do it so can I, right? Wrong, I went out to feed the cows this morning and of course, I got stuck. So as I am shoveling snow to get out,and doing some cussing... I am just waiting for someone to come a long and offer help so that I can say "If I can't get out on my own then Brian can find his pickup here good and stuck, and get it out himself. Well no one came a long and after about 30 minutes of shoveling,I got it out. So guess what this stubborn and a little perturbed girl is doing today? I am teaching myself how to move snow with a tractor.Enough is enough right??? Bwaahahahaha!!!! So I hope the tractor stays on all 4 tires I wouldn't want to see what would happen if Brian came home to find his tractor looking like the picture above.HAHAHAHA!!

Who calls the shots???

Boone had preschool today. I got him ready and decided since he was ready I was getting in the shower.I told him his ride would be here in about 5 min and to watch for her. I gave him a kiss and told him to have a good time at school, see you when you get home. I hopped in the shower...took my time since I was home with out any kids,took my time getting dressed and walked out of the bathroom. There sits Boone on the floor by my bed with his coat on. "What are you doing?" (In my angry voice)..."I told Bridgette I didn't want to go to school today." I said "Boone why would you do that?" He shrugged his shoulders and gave me his sideways look. I said,"fine, if you don't want to go to school today you can sit right there on the couch with no T.V., no Nintendo DS, and No WII. Or you can go to school,You make the choice" (In my angry voice again)" He said "fine I will go to school".
It amazes me that he thinks he can answer the door and tell the adult who is taking him to school " I don't want to go today" and thinks he can get away with it. Whose kid is this anyway?..... wait I know....Brian's.

One year older and wiser too!!!

I woke up yesterday to my kids homemade birthday cards, and their own message written in them. Does it get any better than that? I just had to share a little of Mikayla's message to me. "I love you so much. No one could ever replace you, for sure. I mean how many moms do you think have 3 jobs? I think not very much. So I'm glad well Happy B~day #1 MOM." I had to smile inside at this. I only have 2 jobs unless she was counting being a mom. But it still made me feel good. I love how our kids look at us and see us so different than we see ourselves. This is something that I am learning as my kids get older and can express their love and feelings in a simple little card with a hand drawn,4 level birthday cake,with a big 36 on top.I am also learning as I get older,why my mom saved all the quirky notes that were written to her. I think maybe she learned it from her mother? Things like this can never be replaced. As i have had the opportunity (I will call it) to deliver mail this last year, I have noticed the dieing art of a card to a friend and neighbor. I pick up cards from someone one day and the next day I deliver it to the neighbor. It would be so much quicker and cheaper to walk it over and hand deliver it. We all like to get cards in the mail. I am going to try harder in my old age to become a little more "old school" and send more cards. I am so thankful for my family and look forward to getting more cards with cute messages in them.

Grandma Park

I remember one day atGrandma Parks house....Amy KayeLynn and I were making cookies. Grandma told us that after every batch of cookies we had to scrape the baked cookie crumbs off the cookie sheet I thought this was a teedious step so I had skipped it. Grandma came in the Kitchen and got after us for not cleaning the cookie sheet before we put the new dough on. Today as I stood at my sink and scrapped the baked cookie crumbs off my cookie sheet, this memory came back to me. Grandma has taught me many things over the years. I am so proud to call her my Grandma!!!! Thanks for all the memories, and the knowledge and memories that you continue to share with me!!! Happy 80th Birthday grandma!!! Even though you don't look it, you are the youngest 80 year old I know!!! I Love you !!!!

Yesterday I was making pajama pants for my gilrs. The boys found some left over strips of fleece and asked me to tie them around their heads. They were running around saying "I'm a ninjer" and doing karate chopping moves and sounds. HAHAHA What is a Ninjer? They were just outside playing and Boone came in crying. I heard Braxton say "sit down....squeeze my hand...quit crying!!...are you a ninjer or not?" HAHAHAHAHA!! So Funny!!!

How do you tell a chicken whisperer her chicken is dead?

When I think about all the things this sweet girl does....it makes my heart smile!!!

There are so many stories to tell about my sweet Mikayla, but I will only share a few!!

The spring Mikayla turned 8 I was doing dishes in the when she ran to the back door and yelled "Mom look at all those wishes" I was a little confused till I looked out and my whole back yard was full of dandelion's that had gone to seed. How many of us, like me look at those as such a nuisance? I love that Mikayla see things different!!

Which leads me to my next story, At the beginning of Hwy 33 in Sugar City it used to be an open field till someone decided to start developing the area. We watched a "lone" Antelope there for a few years. She lived some when in the trees and would come out in the open and hang out in the field. One evening when I was driving home from Sugar City, that Antelope was going bizerk!! She was running all around and you could tell that someone was destroying her home. I didn't see her again for about a year. I noticed her one day on my way into Rexburg. She now lives in the field right off the exit of Hwy 20. About 2 months ago.... I pointed to the field and said."Mikayla, look what's over there." She burst out...." It's the Cantaloupe" we all laughed so hard and she was so confused. So now we tease her every time we pass the field. " Look what's that?" She called it a Cantaloupe for a while but now calls her a Antelope.

Last summer we decided to get chickens. All the kids got to pick out their own. Mikayla carried her chicken around all summer like a puppy. That chicken sat on Mikayla's lap in the swing. Every time Mikayla walked outside her chicken would follow her like a puppy. We dubbed her as the " Chicken Wisperer".Last night she went to close the door on the chicken coop, and came inside very concerned that he chicken was not in there.I said it's OK just go to bed maybe she is sleeping in the weeds somewhere. But that was not good enough for her. She grabbed the chore light at 10:00 last night and when searching for her chicken. She looked for about 30 min. and never found her. Mikayla went to bed worried and when I left the house this morning, laying in the front yard was her chicken barely breathing. I picked it up and carried it to the house and told her that she was alive but probably wouldn't make it. Poor girl called me and hour later crying cause her chicken had died. Heavenly Father has blessed Mikayla with such a soft heart and a great concern for everything and everyone around her. Mikayla sees when people need help when no one else sees it. I am so blessed to be Mikayla's Mom!!!

My mom gathered all the old aprons from Sam's club. Saturday when we were there she decided to give one to all of my kids. We decided that it would be fun to decorate them and make them their own. I thought we would use paint to put names on and have fun. I got to sleep in on Sunday and when I woke up.....

Braxton had decorated his own apron. Using his Spiderman coloring book and tape. I'm pretty sure it won't last long. But He was so darn excited!!!

One of these eggs is not like the other.... I have never seen and egg this big. My kids call the big eggs we get monster eggs. But this egg seems to have stretch marks. Poor mamma chicken!!! We still have 12 chickens, so she lived through the whole thing but man that's got to be compared to giving birth to a 20 pound baby.