Feeling younger instead of older!!!

So, Blake asked me what I wanted for my birthday (which I thought was pretty brave considering the fact that I made him go to a Shakespeare play the last time he asked what I wanted to do), and I told him I would like to go skiing. And being the wonderful husband that he is, he found a way to make it happen. With a little help from Aunt Becky, who watched the kids for us, we spent the night in Albion, and went skiing at Pommerelle the next day. Neither one of us had been there before, but had always wanted to go. I was nervous the first run because it had been a while. So I told Blake we had to find a green or a blue run to start with. But it didn't take long to find out that even the trails marked black diamond were pretty mellow. It also helped that we had rented our equipment. I have to say that skis have come a long way since my "Rad Dog" days at Targhee. They made me look like a much better skier than I really am. It was a gorgeous day! And I ended up feeling alittle youthful, instead of older. We also found THE BEST place for scones in Albion. With the most delicous honey butter and raspberry butter to slather them with. YUM! It's just a really good thing that you have to go all the way to Albion to get them!!!!

The one Spring skiing tip we forgot was Sunscreen. We both went to church the next day with red faces and outlines were our sunglasses and headbands had been. LOL! (by the way that is the first time I have used LOL ever! What a dork I am!)

I will start with the excuses first, and move on to the actual reason for the post. I know I have been absent from blogging for a while, and the last post wasn't even written by me. But the above picture and following explanation are an attempt at deriving understanding, if not pity (ok maybe not pity). Anyway, it was 5 weeks ago that I took my favorite pair of shoes to the repair shop to get some stitching repaired (did I mention these are my all time favorite shoes). As usual, I was in a rush and told the boys to sit tight while I dropped them off. But as I was rounding the corner I tripped over what I later found to be an uneven sidewalk, and was on the ground before I even knew what had happened. All I knew was that my fingers hurt like crazy. Then I looked at them....you guessed it....dislocated.....not a pretty site!! Now, I can handle alot of medical emergencies, and gross stuff, but orthopedics is the one thing I CANNOT HANDLE. For what ever reason I am not equiped to deal well with broken bones and dislocated joints! Especially when they are mine! Needless to say I was left with 2 options: 1. Drive myself to a hospital and let someone else fix it (knowing that I would have to look at it the whole way), or 2. Pop it back in myself. I quickly picked 2 and thankfully it was fixed in a split second. But it has been the sorest, and most swollen injury I have ever encountered. The above picture was taken 5 weeks after the "incident" and they are still sausages!! (middle and ring fingers on the right). Not a great excuse, but it's what I've got. It was 2 weeks before I had the courage to return to the "scene of the accident and retrieve my shoes (did I mention they are my favorite). The thing that really had me miffed was that I had just chopped my hair off short that same day, and I couldn't "do it up cute" until just recently. (sorry no photo, I am sick with a head cold today, and not feeling photogenic). At this point they still don't bend very well, and are pretty crooked, but I am still hopeful of a full recovery. If not I will definitely need to come up with a better story than "I tripped" to go along with my crooked fingers.

Now for the reall reason for my post. It is a rare thing that I have anything crafty to share, but I was just so darn proud of how Emily's school valentines turned out that I had to share. I got the idea from Family Fun website (so who knows, there may be a million of these passed out on Friday) and I thought they were both adorable and easy peasy to make. You just wrap a candy heart box (4 for a $1) in colored paper cut to size, and add the ipod cut out that you down load from the site. Genius!

Blake even had me take a picture in a docking station to show how "realistic" they look.

Elmer Fudd Hunting Journal

Dear Diary,
I do not know where to start. Above is a blind used in goose hunting. Can you see me? Neither did the geese. So here is the basic plan. You lay down hidden in the blind and make goose calls. Once the geese fly over head someone yells take'em then you pop up like a Jack in the Box with a loaded 12 gage shotgun and let the sky have it.
Here is the aftermath.
Next was the Elk hunt. Last time I went elk hunting the thing I learned was that I could not out run an Elk. So this time I decided to use the truck to out run them and get in position for the ambush.
Things I learned this year elk hunting.
1) Go for the head shot.
2) When you are gutting the elk do not I say again do not puncture the stomach with your knife.
3) Bring lots of water and rags to wash up with.
4) Elk meat is pretty dang good. I even have Josie and the kids convinced.

Jack turns 6!

This was the first year Jack got to have a "friend birthday party". They went to an indoor bounce house gym here in Twin Falls called "Hop2It" So of course we had to make "hopping" frog cupcakes to take to school.

These guys had so much fun running from one thing to the next. It was fun to sit back a watch, and be glad the chaos and maheim was going on here and not at my house! It wore them out quicker than I thought though.

I love this "David and Goliath" match up. Sam could hold his own though.

It's great to be 6!!!!

So, here I am once again, catching up. The end of November thru Christmas were crazy busy! I have been enjoying the simple things yesterday and today; Such as mopping my floor and cleaning my fridge! And I am thoroughly enjoying it!!!! Think back, if you will, to Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving weekend at my sister Sara's in Murray, Utah. Since Sara is a super duper party planner, our weekend was jam pack with fun things to do! First off we ran a 6k "turkey trot" in SLC. We started up by the Capital Bldg, and ran a beautiful course along a creek. The fall colors were still hanging on many of the bushes and trees, and we ended up in a beautiful park (immigration park???? I'm not sure if the name is right). It was a great run (forgetting by the end that the first half was all up hill).

After the race all the cousins were dying to see where HSM was filmed. So we went to the infamous East High in SL after the race. You would have thought everyone of those girls expected Troy or Gabrielle to poke their head out the door at any moment! Here is a picture out front that matched their excitement. Talk about cheap way to win brownie points with the kids!

After we took picture we went around back, and peaked thru the windows of the lunch room. Sooooo exciting! Here is Emily's best Shrapey pose!

Later that day, while the turkey was cooking, Sara set up horse rides on my Grandpa Kern's horses with my uncle Paul. The kids not getting a horse ride rode around in the tractor trailer while everyone got a turn. Again, lots of fun!

After a wonderful dinner, Sara brought out these great "animal tails" that clip around the waste, and everyone had fun playing tag while we cleaned up. I do have some really great video/pics of the late night Wii fit, Rockband marathon, but will file those under blackmail for now. Over all a very fun time. We also had family pictures taken this weekend which you can see on our side bar.

This one's for you, Jay and Sara!!!

Our Bishop and his wife are die-hard BYU fans. So much so that they have a bronze Cougar in their front yard. So, I dared myself a couple of months ago to put a red Utah shirt on it the weekend of the BYU/Utah game in support of my sister Sara and her husband Jay who is an assistant coach for the Utes. So Friday night rolled around and I had the shirt, but we were incharge of a ward dinner that night and didn't get home until late. So I almost said "forget it" and went to bed. But Blake wouldn't let me chicken out. So this is the end result. What a rebel!!

The funny part was that our Bishop didn't even suspect us. They thought it was another couple in the ward that had actually traveled to Utah to watch the game. So they put a big sign in their yard that said "We love the Cougars". I had to confess on Sunday though. Go Utes!!! Congratulations on the Big win. Just glad I could do my part in insuring the victory.

So, it's been alittle while since my last post. And even my last post was left with no explanation. If you are curious, The last post was of a very quick, and very last minute trip we took to go on a hike with my dad and sister Sara to Dananda Falls in the farthest Southwestern corner of Yellowstone Park. And it was worth every bit of effort to do so. One of those rare opportunities you just have to drop everything and do. Thank you to everyone who made it possible (Mainly cousin babysitters!). Anyway, as for the lack of blogging, it is mostly do to the fact that I went back to work in September. I am working in the Cancer Infusion Center at MSTI here in Twin Falls, and am loving every minute of it. I am just "flex", so after a very busy Fall getting oriented to the unit, I will now only be working 8 to 12 hours a week. It has been a crazy couple of months, but thanks to Blake's support, and N.C.'s willingness to watch the kids when I needed her, we made it through the orientation stage that is so time consuming. Anyway, now that we are back on a somewhat managable schedule I will try and keep up. As for the pictures...Emily celebrated her 9th birthday in October. She had a small birthday party with family, and then took friends to the HSM3 movie later in the month when it came out. She was very specific about what she wanted this year. She wanted a pink vest and an Easy Bake Oven. I think it is so interesting that with all her eating issues she had the first few years of her life she enjoys cooking and trying new food so much! Go figure! There was literally a time when I would be in tears trying to get that girl to eat ANYTHING, and thinking: " I am going to have to go to school with this child and feed her lunch everyday!!!! Thank goodness that is not the case. She is actually quite the chef!
We also had the big "apple pressing" party at our house in October. Blake's sister Becky and her family came to help in the fun. We estimated pressing about 500lbs of apples and got 47 gallons of juice! It was quite the production. But boy does it taste good!!!!Especially around February!
I got to go with Jack on his first Kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch (which was actually in the back parking lot of the Kimberly Nursery, but whatever). It was fun to see him interact with his friends at school.
Then there was Halloween. I ended up going out of town at the last minute for my Grandfather's funeral in Colorado. I got to send them to school in the morning, but Blake was brave enough and nice enough to take them to the ward party that night by himself. What a great dad! I thought Sam made the cutest clown, Emily had a ball as a BSU cheerleader (sorry Sara, it was a steal at DI), and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle was right up Jacks alley!