Cabin Time

A group of us went to Terance's cabin! It was great! SO MUCH SNOW!!! Makes recovery a little harder since I've been forbidden from boarding & restricted in snowmobiling. But it's still great to look at & play in!

The snow from the roof was touching the end of the roof which gave it a cave effect. It was amazing! I haven't seen that much snow in that area for YEARS (if ever)! It was AWESOME!!!

The only down side to the cabin is that the plumbing is turned off in the winter. With my sensitive back I didn't want to squat so we created a potty in the snowbank. Then duct taped (Idaho Crome) a cardboard box to make a seat we could take in so it wasn't freezing. Cool huh? The girls LOVED it! :-)

Oh the joy of the onezie!! This was at the cabin & I went outside to play in it once. I can see the benefits of it! Had to wear the hat Grandpa style. It was just fitting!

Snowmobiling on the lake was a little new for me - but a lot of fun!! Good times were had by all!!

SURGERY!!!

So...that back injury I've been milking turned out to be real! Thanksgiving 2006 I hurt my back & spent the majority of the weekend laying down. It was almost a constant pain. No fun! Well - it would come & go all year. Then the pain changed. I would get a little surge going down my right let. Not too painful. Just had to hold still a bit & it would go away. It was actually easier to deal with so I did a little more.

Oops! Turns out the change in the pain was a second herniation in the L5-S1 Joint. I went up to Terance's cabin & while walking down the hallway the sciatic nerve went cracy. I had to lay down in a contorted pretzel position. Layed there for 2 hours before I could move. After hardly any movement it would do it again! That was Saturday, Sunday I went to the ER & had an 'impressive' MRI. The double herniation looked like a snowman & it was pushing directly on the nerve. They gave me some good pain meds & I had to call a neurosurgeon the next morning. That morning the surgeon called me & told me not to eat anything because it looks like the only thing we could do was surgery to relieve the pain.

So - I checked into the hospital that afternoon & had surgery. They removed the 'impressive' herniated area & drained the fluid in the disk so it would happen again. I walked out of the hospital the next day. Crazy huh?

So - this is my nice & expensive 2" keep sake from the expensive deal. They used super-glue to keep it together. The Dr. said the super-glue has been such a great thing to use!

Now - 2 months later, I love that I've had it! Although I'm out of shape & am trying to get back into it. My back has been pain free (with the exception of the surgery twinges on occasion). As far as back surgeries go I'd say I had the easiest one with the quickest return! It's been great!

Christmas Fun!

Christmas was great! You always wonder what the perfect gift is for the folks & this year I'd have to say the Kudo's goes to BJ. He got dad a snake camera (I don't know what it's called). It has a camera at the end of a flexible tube that allows you to see around corners & behind TV's. Well - the boys had to test it out & I think dad had a great time with it!




























Look at BJ admiring his work. He knows he won the prize this year for the perfect gift!

Gobble Gobble Man!!

Turkey Weekends Rock!!

Got to go play in Utah for an extended weekend! It was great! I think I gained 5 pounds! NO JOKE!!! I'm debating starting the New Years Resolution early (always the same - right? Exercise more, eat better...it would be nice if I could actually accomplish that & not have to start over every year!)

BJ blew in from Kansas to play with us for the weekend. Want to get off work? Have your mom call & talk to the boss - then he'll fly you to your family for the weekend. Oh wait - that only works with BJ's boss because he doesn't want to make my mom sad. :-) So we had BJ here to torture err... entertain the kids! That's why mom & dad had him right?

Uncle Fiji came in pretty handy with the kids too!

As you can see - dinner was great! After a Thanksgiving feast what else do you do but find a place to 'fat dog' it (That's when you're so full you can't do anything but lay around like a fat dog). Apparently it doesn't even have to be a comfortable spot! Way to go Rita's cooking! (and others that contributed)

My roommate has changed her living room around. We are going to be posting black & white pictures & I wanted some of the kids. I think they really love the camera because for the sake of a picture I was able to get them to pose for me & to tell them how to do it. I Love these kids!! We have a few potential models I dare say!

Some didn't even know they were posing - but still put on a great show! Koba is a doll!

Of course everyone has their limits. I asked Harper to pose one more time & this is what he gave me! Ok - enough!

Since we had everyone together we thought it was time for family pictures again. After all - we've added 2 to the mix (I say we like I had anything to do with it. Hey they're Cade & Koba are cute kids! I'll take credit for them! ;-)).

This just shows the effort we go to for us to get the perfect shot. Check out Dusty on Jer's shoulders shading the sun from the pict of the folks.

Can't wait to see Kara's picts! This is one Jer took with mine. It might qualify for the black & white wall.

Well I guess that is about it for now. So I'm signing off with a big kiss from the kids!!!

My Love to all!!!

We're Never Too Old!!

There is always time to go back and be a kid! For a friend's birthday we rented out the place called 'Pump it Up'. It had LOTS of fun air toys. Ummm.. I think we may have broke all the rules there were. :-) It was a blast! Sadly - since I was one of the few that had a camera I went home & realized (while viewing the photos) that I wasn't in a single shot! Thems the breaks I guess! I had to put this one on there.

There were those that had to patiently wait their turn before playing.

Found out my hula hooping skills aren't far gone! I can still keep it going!







After going through the obsticle course twice I was beat! Don't know how kids can do it all day! I guess this goes to show you we're not as young as we think we are. :-)

This is my friend Trever. He told me last year that he really hurt his back snowboarding. Since I take things really slow still I wondered how you could hurt it so bad. After watching him run around all night doing stuff like this I can understand how he could get pretty messed up!

Utah Trips

As you can tell from Mandy's post we visiting last weekend for Jacoba's blessing.

Man this girl is great! Jacoba is Such a snuggler! You can sit there all day an hold her! It was so fun to see all the kids & the sisters!



I even went shopping with the girls. Of course - shopping isn't what it used to be. They spent almost all their time in the kids clothes section - then we went to Costco so they could buy food & diapers. Hmm...shopping used to be more fun!! :-)








Cade is getting HUGE!! You wouldn't even know he was a tiny tike on oxygen! He has a 97% noggen! I don't think any of her kids made it that high in the overall average for babies!

Angie said he doesn't spit up anymore! Well if that's true then I still have the magic touch! My clothes are in the wash now!









WWF continues!!!



Pretty much every time we come - some kind of WWF breaks out with the kids!








Of course you can see who is the most popular!












I'd say Cade is a momma's boy - but you can see he is already starting to develop that Bumpa love!













Angie said he never snuggles - but I guess Bumpa just has the touch!










I still have 1 that gives me a little attention.





I think she just feels sorry for me.





Once Mandy was carrying something in & Grandpa Millar asked if he could help. She said "Nope - I got it." Grandpa said "Oh I forgot, you're one of Bryan's girls." I'm not really sure what that means -but I have an idea. :-) You can tell Paige is one of Bryan's girls.


The Jeep was having problems so she got out & popped the hood to see what was wrong with it. Notice the Millar tongue helping her work!





Is this what Grandpa meant?












Well - whatever it was- she got it working again.







Harper wanted to sleep downstairs with Nanna & Bumpa.



Mac says Harper is a very active sleeper! I came in twice & found him in 2 totally different positions. I liked this one more so I thought I'd throw it in. Imagine what he is like when he jumps in bed with you!








You gotta love all the work & effort it takes to get a family shot together. I think my thanks goes to Kara for capturing this moment. I have a few of these & love them!




















Here are the sybs - missing BJ. Man - we gotta get that boy out of Kansas!

I was going to try to be creative & photoshop him in, but I don't have any pictures of him in a tie that would work. Oh well. Not as good as the real thing - we all know that!








But over all - it was Koba that stole the show! She was such a quiet Angel for the blessing & didn't fuss when she was getting attacked by the kids & their parents. :-) She is a momma's girl!!





It was a bunch of fun - as usual. We go wrestle with them & then get them on a sugar high & then hit the trail while the mom's have to deal with it!




I love my job as the favorite single aunt!!

Halloween Recap

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! (Be-lated)
So - I don't usually put a ton of effort into Halloween, but lately I've been wanting to get some good costumes that can be reused. A few years ago, mom helped me with a Gypsy costume. Looked great! I decided I wanted a Jane Austin dress this year (pick which character - Elizabeth Bennett, Miss Dashwood, Emma - whatever). Since I know hardly anything about sewing (not as cool as Kara who sews her own dresses!) I recruited my mom to help. She is amazing! We would tell her what kind of dress we wanted in high school & she would have to combine 3 patterns to make it possible. They always looked great!
We started a little late - I ended up going over there quite a bit in the week before, but we did it! I help with the accessories while mom did the dress. Many late nights later we had the finished product! MOM IS AMAZING!!!!

Hilary went as a School Teacher - we needed to hit mom's jewlery to get some cool stuff, but she still looked good.
Even had a few cousins along for it! At one of the parties I had Jazz, Lex (from the Millars) and Ashley & Kaycee (from the Thompson side).
There were some pretty great costumes. Almost got attacked!

I'm not sure how I feel about Daisy Duke - but man - how would it be for a girl to have those abs??!!! He said he had been practicing on his girlish stance all day.

While looking for fabric at Joann's I found this costume almost ready to go. We had to add sleves to make it modest & we had to make the belt go all the way around - or it would sag. So of course mom did it again! I helped find the material - which normall wouldn't be hard -but I did have to go to 3 different fabric stores to find it (I know poor me!). Both costumes were great! & I had 2 different parties to go to. PERFECT!!

I Rule!!!

I found a little protection at the party. Only fitting they would be my slaves...errr bodygards.

So - I found my favorite costume at one of the parties. It's homemade! Way to go Scott! I heard Gabe went as a Dr - white lab coat and all, Heather went as a pepper. Together they were Dr. Pepper. He had Dr Pepper cans in his pockets. That is pretty clever as well!

Today we get to make that fun journey accross state lines! Mandy is blessing Jacoba & we're all headed to Utah. I don't think I would mind if they started the train line up again. I really didn't mind the ones in Europe - especially because there was room to kick back & relax or walk around.