Last night, Scottie's friend, Jesse spent the night. When I went upstairs to check on them, this is how I found them.

Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico is one of the coolest places on earth! My mom and I drove from AZ to San Antonio, TX (15 hour drive!) and stopped on our way to see the caverns. Scottie and Tyler had a great time and we talked a lot about stalagmites and stalactites and I sounded quite smart with all of my knowledge...Joelle, on the other hand, started getting scared when the elevator opened upon a dark cave. She kept asking if bats were gonna get her (courtesy of Scottie telling her to watch out for them!) So, we played a game and pretended that we were visiting a very big fairy house were hundreds of fairies lived. She got over her fear pretty quickly!

Merry Christmas!

The Sunday before Christmas we woke up with sick kids...and I didn't feel too hot either! So, these are really the Sunday after Christmas, but we were still in the right spirit!

Trampoline Fun

Yesterday, the kids got a trampoline. They jumped on it all day and slept so good last night!

Thanks to G'Pa Poulsen for setting it up with Greg!
OH!! And I got a fancy schmancy camera (thank you to Greg, parents, and in-laws!!) which is why I have pictures to go along with the blog!

2:18 AM

Karma is at it's best tonight. Earlier, my sister-in-law, Jilynn, came over with her family. She was telling me how she was up last night for a couple of hours surfing the net because she couldn't sleep and I teased her about it. I couldn't understand why she didn't just go back to bed! Well, here I am, 2:18 AM...sleepless in Arizona. If I apologize to Jilynn for my lack of sensitivity will my guilt be washed away and will I then sleep like a baby? Sorry Jilynn!!

Part of my problem was that I went to bed at 9:30- I was so exhausted. Greg came in after midnight and proceeded to brush something off the sheets on his side of the bed. The motion and noise of this woke me up and when I asked him what he was doing, he told me that there was sand in the bed. (Joelle took a nap on his side after playing at the park...with sand) As I started drifting back off, he then proceeded to tell me that Joelle had thrown up from coughing and he had also been dealing with that. So, I started listening for any coughs coming from the upstairs area, and sure enough I heard them. I started bargaining with myself that if she coughed one more time, I was going to get up and make her some warm honey, lemon juice, oil home remedy...then I kept putting off the bargain, and would make a new one that if she coughed 2 more times before I counted to 20...you get the idea.

Soooo, now here I am 2:25 AM, home remedy given to Joelle, and she is still coughing...I'm worried that she's gonna throw up and I would rather not be woken up to deal with that, so it seems easier to stay awake. And besides, my mind won't shut off (did I buy so and so a Christmas present? Should I call the family that is coming over to dine with us Sun. night and tell them I have a vomity child? Where did I hide Greg's present? Does Lysol really disinfect doorknobs?)... and to top it all off I have a toothache.

Family Picture

For Thanksgiving we went over to Greg's brother house and his wife, Mark & Maylene. His sister and family also came and his parents...we had such fun playing with the cousins! AND the food was delicious!
The next Saturday the whole clan came over to our house for steak and potatoes. More fun!

Afterwards we went down the street to the park and took some snapshots. With our camera broken, Maylene took the shots. Thanks Maylene!

PS That's the main reason I haven't blogged in a while. No camera makes blogging boring!

Happy Halloween!

Scottie was a punk with cool black hair, Tyler was Superman with cool black hair, and Joelle was the Queen of Hearts with cool black hair!