Food Obsessed

You know how each anniversary has its designation:  gold, paper etc.

This birthday, clearly is the food birthday.

Don't believe me?

Let's see, I started the morning off with Reese surprising us all with

homemade Blueberry Pancakes.

She had forgotten that two of my girlfriends were taking me out for

breakfast.

 The afternoon was gobbled up (like that food reference?)

with taking the pups to the vet for follow-ups, a

shopping spree at the grocery store (more food)

and then dinner out with my 98-year-old grandmother...

 my sweet mother-in-law...

 and my wonderful parents.

Byron and the kids came too.

I don't know how we missed getting pictures of them.

But trust me, I need to be rolled up the stairs and into bed.

I'm stuffed.

Oh, and feeling well loved.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.

I have the best group of friends.

Life and Death

Huge thank yous for all of the birthday wishes.

This was a big one for me-- we had great plans to head up

to the cabin so I could hide from the world and avoid any celebrating.

My dear friend, Elly Moomey had planned to cook a birthday feast

for me up at the cabin-- but at the last minute we cancelled the trip

(don't dare leave with those cows all so close to having babies)!!

So she cooked up a storm at my house and invited my dad, Byron's mom

and our neighbors- the Bodily's.

 The way I see it is why not celebrate getting old with the

best examples of elderly coolness I know!

  Dinner was magnificent (eat your hearts out-- Elly is an incredible cook).

And it was the perfect way to chalk up another year around the sun.

 Elly may be a terrific cook but she is a horrific influence on the girls- ha!

They have this horrid tradition of eating whipped cream right out of the bottle.

And they love it!

 That was Wednesday.

Thursday, I spent the afternoon at a grave site service for

a 9 year old boy who died of cancer.

Rashid wanted to be a police officer when he grew up-

even though we all knew he never would.

A few months back, the Boise Police Department made his dreams come true.

They put him through training, had him graduate as an officer

and then immediately solve a crime involving the Boise State Football team.

It was a beautiful story -- on every level.

If you have a few minutes, here's a link to their video:

https://vimeo.com/139258962

The funeral was heartbreaking.

Rashid's mother is only 25 and she wailed loudly throughout the entire service.

I know I wasn't the only one who wanted to go to her and just hold her.

I've never been to a Muslim funeral-- it was very interesting

but the sweetest part came at the end when all of the men

went over and shook hands with the long line of police officers

(including the Chief of Police)

who were in attendance.

It was the only picture I felt comfortable enough to take.

 Minutes before I got home, we had another calf born.

If you are keeping track-- this little boy makes 3

with 5 more cows still to deliver.

Um, they would, of course, choose the freak cold snap

we are having as the time to give birth.

This one seems to be fine.

The mama did what she was supposed to.

The other two babies are looking good too.

 This has been one stressful vacation.

I keep telling the other girls to keep their legs crossed

and hold off delivering until the temperatures go up in a few more days!

Meanwhile, we went to a fun New Year's Eve party last night

(Kean fell asleep by 8 so Byron took him home)...

and we had our traditional Bingo Fest (with dollar store prizes)

all afternoon today.

Happy 2016.

I'm praying for a dull and boring year

even though I know that's a pipe dream.

Three Words

Whether we wanted it to come or not, Holland is now 14.

I'm sure she's anxious to grow up-- me?  Not so much.

She moves to a new age group in church and her leaders

came by to spoil her...

 with the cutest candy letter all about her.

 I just wanted to kiss her when she asked for donuts 

instead of me making her a cake.

I did go all out on her dinner though...

 We had the Bodily's up (our neighbors and honorary

Grandparents).  Hopefully, Holland wasn't too 

disappointed that her wish didn't come true and she still didn't get a cell phone.

(She is trying to convince us she is the last 14 year old

on the earth who still doesn't have one).

I had to throw this picture in--

Kean was for once digging on the sweets.

Usually, he's all about the salty (can we say bacon?).

I was almost tempted to leave that little mustache on.

Today, he was definitely a donut man.

 Kean, by the way, practiced saying "Happy Birthday Hottie"

all day.

We got it on video-- it wasn't his best rendition-- but we got it.

Can't get my head around the fact our little princess has bigger

feet than me now!

Happy Birthday dear Hottie!

Birthday Blessings

Yawn.

A lot has happened since I wrote last night.

Kean was up-- quite miserable -- from 1:30 to 6 a.m.

Which means I was up with him.

Poor little guy was still feverish but not high enough to earn a trip to the hospital.

He did earn a bath and mom and dad getting to wash bedding and his clothes

in the middle of the night (ick) but by morning he was starving

(good sign) and the fever was all but gone.

The way I look at it is what a gift.

We didn't end up in the Emergency Room-- so that gives

us much to be thankful for.

Especially Reese.  When he started throwing up last night,

she burst into tears, ran and hid in her room.

My sensitive girl lives in fear of us leaving her for the hospital again.

Even though Kean is not feeling great, I had a wonderful day.

My friend, Calene kidnapped me for lunch where we joined

8 of our friends for a long, leisurely lunch.

Three of us were celebrating birthdays.

Then this evening, the Bodily's offered to watch Kean

and Byron's mom took all of us out for dinner.

Yum-- ribs! 

 Byron's mom leaves us tomorrow to head back to Montana.

What a treat it has been to have her here for the holidays.

Thank you for all of your prayers for Kean

and birthday wishes for me.

It means so much.

Dang!!!

So much for a happy, happy birthday

to our little guy.

He was up half the night...

okay, just nine times

with a fever.

We have to go to the E.R. if it hits

over 101.  

He's been running 100.9 all morning.

What a tease, eh?

For now we are spending this Sunday morning

snuggling on the couch watching Frozen.

Oh, and taking his temp every few minutes.

Cross your fingers we dodge the hospital bullet

and that I can get that motorcycle birthday cake frosted

at some point!!!!

Girl World

Crazy Us.

We let Holland invite a few friends over for a casual birthday celebration tonight.

 Holland planned the whole shebang-- pizza...

 cake, ice cream.

 and lots of laughter and boy talk.

Actually, all the girls are out in the barn doing nails, make-up,

hair and watching movies.

Kean is asleep and Byron and I are enjoying the quiet and watching our own movie.

Yep, crazy.

Crazy like a fox.

Super Sunday

Today was Kean's best Sunday in a long time.

The weather was near perfect so we all went for bike rides--

except for Byron and Kean-- they were on the hallowed motorcycle.

 Too bad we didn't have an audience.

Kean giggled, sang and smiled much of the way.

 We all went over to my parents house for the evening.

Time to celebrate my mom's birthday on Wednesday

and my niece, Morgan's birthday last week.

I think Kean must have been invigorated from his ride in the great outdoors

because he was on one tonight---

kissing his cousins, motoring around, and even showing a willingness

to practice his walking over and over again.

Clearly, I had nothing to worry about.

Indoor Snowflakes.

This is really stretching it out since my birthday was a few weeks ago,

but last night the girls got together for dinner and games at one of my

dearest friend's-- Mary K's house.

 The food was out of this world and we all had so much fun

just hanging out and talking.  I-- of course -- forgot to take any pictures

until the very end.  Go figure.

 We also got a special delivery in the mail today-- the perfect

thing to brighten up these dreary winter (inversion) days in Idaho...

 My brother Marc, his wife, Rachel and their kids

sent us a big envelope full of gorgeous homemade snowflakes.

I don't know if you remember but a few weeks ago, Rachel

sent us the coolest box-- a box full of monthly challenges 

to keep the cousins in Idaho in contact with their cousins in Texas.

We sent off our snowflakes last week 

and got theirs today.

Can't wait to see what we both do for February.

Stretch

Byron thinks it is ridiculous that even though my birthday was

a few weeks ago, we are still celebrating.

Since Ron and Elly Moomey were out of town, they had us over for dinner tonight.

Elly made my favorite-- Mexican food and an incredibly

delicious carrot cake.

Trust me, this girl can cook!

 We all got the giggles tonight.  Elly is turning the big five-oh-no

in a little over a month and we were plotting her birthday celebration

and looking at the few pictures from her childhood (she was

the 6th of 7th children-- enough said).

This was our favorite-- just after she got over the chicken pox.

 Dear Elly grew up to be a classic beauty.

That makes us all love this picture even more.

Don't Blame Him...

Poor Kean.

He's just shy of miserable.

Nausea, constipation, Steroids and a constant metallic taste in the mouth--

he's got a pretty wicked combination going.

I had to run to the dentist today-- which

meant leaving him with Miss Responsible (Holland)

for a bit.

I called to check in... and when I asked Holland

how Kean was doing, she said, "well, let's just say

he's not as whiny as he was".

Good news, I guess.

This evening, we had a girls night out

for my birthday and another friend's birthday.

It was lovely to get out of the house for some

great company, good food, adult conversation

and lots of laughs.

Bummer... I got so caught up in the fun, I forgot to take a picture.

Yikes, I hope this doesn't mean Alzheimer's is setting in.

Living on the Edge

We decided to play it a bit fast and loose tonight and went

out to dinner as an entire family.

That means, we took Keanut out on the town.

Call it a birthday present to his mom.

 We went to Joe's Crab Shack and ended up sitting in the cavernous

bar-- away from the crowded (kid filled) restaurant.

And yes, we over-sanitized the table and the high chair.

I'm quite certain I came across as one of those neurotic mothers.
At least our girls thought we were cool-- well, actually naughty-- letting them not only sit 

but eat dinner in a bar!

 The best part was when a couple of the waitresses came over

to sing Happy Birthday and got the girls to join in.

 They decided to sing the "short version"-- so all squatted down on the floor

while they belted out the tune.

It was pretty entertaining.

Thanks everyone for the avalanche of emails, messages, phone calls and cards.

Shucks, y'all sure know how to make a girl feel loved!

The Soiree'

Geez, I was almost too tired to post this tonight... but here goes.

Today was Holland's birthday and somehow going rock climbing got changed

into having 11 of her friends over for a party.

Since we can't have that many kids in the house, we used my parent's home.

But before we went, Pam Brown and her daughter Mary came over bearing

balloons, gifts and helping hands. (Elly Moomey met us at my mom's house to help there)!

 The girls all arrived and started off with a little dinner,

 then headed outside to pose for the camera...

 play our favorite games:  Shipwreck,

 Poison Stump and European Twister.

 Then it was inside for presents, more games, a movie and cake and ice cream.

Please take notice of the cake I made-- it took me darn near all day to make

and probably cost me a year of my life in stress.

(Had a slight disaster with cake number one and had to make a second)!

Thank heavens Kean is off steroids for now and took a normal nap.

Holland's friends are darling-- as are mine.

Thanks Pam and Elly for all the extra hands.

I needed them.

Oh, and Byron and Kean stayed home.

But don't worry, we left them food and saved a piece of cake.

Birthday Buildup

It rained most of the day... which kinda matched Kean's mood (and mine too).

He finally slept through the night, his cough seems a bit better

but he still wanted to be held most of the day.

I think we read at least 18 books today and watched, yup, you guessed it:  Cars (when I wasn't

watching all the crazy news in Boston-- I swear you'd think it was an episode from 24)!

Thankfully, the rain stopped for a while this evening and the girls took him (quite happily)

out on the trampoline.

 Holland's big 12th birthday is tomorrow... and a few of her friends

surprised her with treats and a decorated locker at school.

Then our neighbors, Grandpa and Grandma Bodily brought up cake

and ice cream this evening after dinner.

 I know we are quite spoiled to have such good friends and neighbors.

And I love how Kean and Grandpa Bodily have this "thing".

Wish you were here to see how cute they are with each other.

Happy Friday everyone.  We made it to another weekend.