Happy Birthday my Brother

It is my "little" brother Chris' birthday...the whole world celebrates as he turns 33 today. I thought it would be fun to post some old pictures of us. However, when I had this brilliant idea, Ben and Taylor were already asleep, so I did not want to start making a lot of noise. I just grabbed one old album. Above is Christmas 1993, Chris (17), Me (23) and Matt (6). Below is my brother's 18th birthday...
I remember I was driving home from work when I had the idea to take my brother to Las Vegas to surprise our half sister Melissa for Chris' 18th birthday. It's only about a 3 1/2 hour drive. Little Matt stayed home with my mom. The traffic was crazy...bumper to bumper at about 80mph. About an hour away from Vegas, it all stopped. Needless to say, we did not get to Vegas before midnight. It was fun to find Melissa (who was working as a cocktail waitress at the Rio at the time) and surprise her. The above picture was obviously taken 1-1-94, before we drove home in the morning. That's a lot of driving...things I would not do today...youth :)

Now my brother lives in Missouri and has been happily married to Rena for 12 years. They have three boys Mason (11), Jacob (10), and Ashton (4). Happy Birthday Chris!

A busy Saturday

Yep, that's snow on the deck. It is piling up a bit. We drove over and picked up my cousin "Ricky Ricky," as Taylor calls him, and went to our Uncle Doug and Aunt Susie's to visit and have lunch. Cindy and Kalyn brought over Kalyn's Land Rover for Grandpa Doug to drive to work. That would have something to do with the crazy amount of snow. We gave them a ride home after. It reminded me of high school when you would crame a bunch of people into one vehicle...good times :)
Ben, Taylor and I then went out to Brad and Melody's for prime rib dinner (yum). It warmed up quite a bit which made driving very exciting. Brad's dad came over to plow Brad's road. He had been there for awhile when Taylor said, "look mommy, it's Santa." Brad's dad has a strong resemblance to Santa. Taylor was thrilled to have dinner with Santa and then give him a ride home in her truck..."bye Santa." I wish I would have gotten her picture with him.

Day After Christmas...Enns' Family Party

We were tired the day after Christmas. It took awhile for me to get motivated to leave the house. But once I left, this is what I saw...It was a beautiful day! These gorgeous days always lift my spirits. I had to go shopping for our big Enns' Family Christmas party. Ben and I didn't know about it until the day before, but that's okay. All the girls brought a hearty appetizer and we drew numbers for the platter it was brought on. The guys brought a bottle of wine or rum, etc. and also drew for the exchange. It was a great idea! The food was wonderful and it was a great time to visit with everyone!
This is everyone. It was a very nice party! Tamira brought Lilly for Taylor to play with. Taylor loves Lilly...
Tamira also brought gifts for all the children which was very nice! Taylor loved her little umbrella!
And this is Taylor's youngest cousin, the only one she is older than...baby Christian. She held him for a long time (with my hand safely under his little head). I would ask if she was done and she would say, "nope."

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! When Taylor woke up I said Merry Christmas Taylor, today is Christmas, do you know what that means? She said, "open presents." She was so excited! However, it took a long time. She wanted to play with each toy as it was opened.
She got a little train which was lots of fun!
And June, from Little Einsteins...she talks and plays classical music. Brandon and Holly came by to visit. Brandon was wearing this hat...Taylor really liked it...My cousin Rick also spent time with usTaylor had snacks while Matt took a nap.Later we went to grandma and grandpa's house. Taylor was very happy to help hand out presents. Here she is (below) with a mouth full of chocolate she quickly got into while I was talking to grandma...
She got some Dora and Boots legos...she loved the slide...After we returned home, we had Taylor open some more presents. Matt got her this indoor soccer field. He blew up most of it. Taylor and I helped a little...We actually left three of her presents unopened. I am going to save them for Easter. She has enough to keep her busy with all the gifts she received. It was a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve, so Ben came home a little early. We headed over to shovel snow off the top of the trailer. I said we, but Ben actually did the shoveling. I sat in the truck with Taylor and took pictures. However, when we got home, I did shovel the driveway and the sidewalk in front of my house. I swear it was two feet deep on the side walk...that's a lot of work!
While I was downstairs wrapping gifts, Ben and Taylor were getting into some Doritos. Ben gave her a little chip. She walked away, then turned around and said, "hey, this is a baby one...I want a daddy one." Ben took the small chip back and give her a bigger one...much better :)

Matt came over and brought his gifts...Taylor was excited to help him put his gifts under the tree. We did not put gifts under the tree until my mom sent her gifts up from Texas. Taylor kept wanting to hand them out. She would say, "Merry Christmas." We would tell her we cannot open them until Christmas day. She said, "oh, I just can't wait to open them."She did get to help daddy open one gift, we thought we needed for dinner. She liked pretending the box was a train... Ben made another fabulous prime rib dinner...Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Waiting for Fed Ex

Since Ben does not read my blog, I can say I am waiting for his gift to arrive via Fed Ex again today. It is one of those you sign for, so I must wait. It's too close to Christmas to try to find it if I miss the Fed Ex guy. As we wait, it continues to snow. And the weather guesser (that's what Ben calls him) said we would not get new snow today. Silly. It is very light. When I went out to shovel it was like fake snow, it was so light and fluffy. While we were waiting, I curled Taylor's hair and she colored. Now we are off to shop some more...

Ice Cream Cone

Taylor has learned that she really enjoys ice cream cones...this is how we pass the time when we are unable to leave our house due to too much snow.
It was another snowy day here at my house. The snow plow went by the same time Ben was leaving for work. So, although he shoveled the driveway, he was unable to clear the huge burm at the bottom of the driveway. No problem. I like to shovel. Later that morning, I left the front door open so I could listen for Taylor and started shoveling. By this time, there was another foot of snow. I got all the way down to the sidewalk before Taylor decided I had been out long enough. I wanted to make sure all was clear for the Fed Ex guy. Later some nice child with a snow blower came by and took care of the rest of my snow, for a small fee. After waiting all day, turns out Fed Ex lost my package. Now I get to stay home all day tomorrow too.

I love the sunny snow days...

It was another sunny snow day. The above picture is the view of the golf course from our back deck. I love it when it is all covered in snow. After we had lunch with Matt, we went for a drive to look for deer. It was a gorgeous drive!
The above is on the way back home, a picture of lake Coeur d'Alene near the resort.

Lunch with Matt

We finally got to visit Matt in his new house. He is still unpacking and putting things away, but he is enjoying his new house! Someone gave him an extra bed for is guest room. Taylor loved exploring his house...
I wish I would have gotten pictures of the basement. It is so bright with the slider and all the windows. I really like the layout.

Afterwards, we all went out for Mexican food...yumm. Taylor liked the music. She squints her eyes and moves her head from side to side as she sways to the music. I love to see her enjoying the music...she's so cute!

Grandma and Grandpa's House for Dinner

Taylor was so excited to go to grandma and grandpa's house for dinner. She says grandma and grandpa when she talks about them individually, but when she says it together it's grandpa and grandpa. She said, "I like grandpa and grandpa, they are so sweet...they love me." She was so excited she said, "my tummy is tickling me." It is always fun to see grandma's decorations. Taylor loves to play with them all. And this is her favorite little mouse...
Taylor was thrilled that Kimberly was there too. She loves to play with Kimberly...
We went for a little walk. It was like 10 degrees...very cold! But, Taylor and Kimberly loved playing in the snow. Kimberly has snow on her little eye lashes...
I took picture after picture before I finally got Taylor to look at me....that's my girl and her happy little face!
Again, with all the snow, they cannot get far...only where it has been shoveled out. They played in the walk way...Taylor eating snow...for a long time. They had so much fun!