Christmas Card 2008

A sweet blog friend, Faith, came up with an idea for us to all share our Christmas cards online. I thought this was such a neat idea! One of my favorite things about this time of year is running to the mailbox and seeing all the Christmas cards we have gotten! I love the photo cards and seeing how people have changed from year to year. And I NEVER throw them away. They even make it to our real Christmas scrapbook (even though I'm literally 4 years behind...oh well!).


This picture of Luke was taken at Animal KIngdom at Walt Disney World in May 2008. I found the cards at the Inviting Company warehouse sale this fall and I thought they would be just perfect for a Disney Christmas card. I really wanted to use a picture of all three of us in front of Cinderella's Castle, but all those pictures were vertical instead of landscape and I was in such a rush to get my cards in the mail before we left for Colorado. And this is a really sweet picture of Luke! He had soooooo much fun at WDW and Animal Kingdom was his favorite!

Join Faith's Christmas Card Carousel and let me know so I can see your card, too!

Merry Christmas!
Amy

Anniversary Trip

Eric and I are in Durango, Colorado celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary. We are having such a relaxing and fun time! If it wasn't for Luke being at home, we would NOT want to return.


We flew into Albuquerque, New Mexico and drove up to Durango. This drive took about 3 1/2 hours and there was NOTHING out there but pretty mountains and Indian reservations. It looked like something you would see in a Western movie.


YEAH! Colorado-HERE WE COME!


We finally made it!



Here's the road to our house. Eric was SOOOOOO excited that we had snow at our place!


Here's our pretty house and our rental Jeep Commander!


Friday morning we were driving into town and we saw about 15 mule deer standing on the side of the road. We pulled into this apartment complex and Eric was able to take a bunch of pictures- including this one, which is his favorite. Usually when he gets this close to a deer, he is shooting a gun and not a camera...


Riding the train from Durango to Cascade was one of the highlights of our trip. It was amazing to see! We had a little table and chairs looking out a window and it was such a neat way to see the Colorado countryside that we couldn't have seen from the car.


Here we are outside our train car. We met some neat local people along with couples from Mississippi and Wisconsin.


Here I am at the Durango Mountain Resort. We went to check out the skiiers and snowboarders.


We took a road from Durango to Silverton on Friday morning. This was one of the overlooks that we stopped at on our way. The snow was deep-up to my knees in one spot.


Eric finally saw some elk! Well, actually he saw a little bit of them on his plate last night at the Mohagany Grill when we had dinner! YUMMY! Ha!


This afternoon, we stopped at Molas Pass which was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life! It was freezing up here because of the wind.

We have had an amazing time celebrating this special time. Fifteen years is a long time to spend with one person and I'm so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Eric.

Sunshine's Giveaway!

My friend, Sunshine, is giving away FIVE Hershey's Gift Baskets this Friday, December 5th! She has 3 different ways that you can qualify to win, so run over to her blog and check it out! Although I really don't want you to, because then it's going to decrease my chance of winning one of these...did I really say that?!? Ha!

Halloween Pics!

Here's my sweet 7-year-old as Indiana Jones! Isn't he going to be so handsome with a beard some day? Although...my the time he is old enough to have a beard, my eyes will be so bad with old age I won't be able to see it! Ha! That's what I get for waiting until 30 to have him...just kidding!


He was really hamming it up for this photo op! Usually it's like pulling teeth to get him to pose. I try to remember that it is not fun for him...

Okay...are you ready for this? My sister, April, always convinces her boys to be creative with their Halloween costumes. This year they went as John McCain and Sarah Palin!!!!


Harlan was a great McCain and it was a little scary at how well Ty pulled off the whole dressing up like a girl to be Sarah Palin! Remember this is what they usually look like...


It took April more convincing to get Harlan to put on a suit than it did for Ty to put on make-up, a skirt and pantyhose! It was hysterical to follow them around church and watch people's reactions! People could NOT believe that was Ty!


Sadly, this did not help McCain and Palin pull out a victory...:)


Bryan must be so proud of his boys! He was just shaking his head all night long! April was grinning from ear to ear!


It's hard to believe that this is Luke's EIGHTH Halloween! He's growing so fast and we love this time with him.

Air Show

Last weekend, we decided to go to the Air Show at the Air Force Base close by. It's only about 10-15 minutes from our house, but we decided to go the same time 250,000 other people were going. It only took 90 minutes to get parked!!! Eric and Luke are not very patient. Ha!

My brother-in-law, Bryan, was down south setting up deer camp so April was solo today. We had a GREAT time and the weather was perfect!


Harlan and Luke were cooperative with the picture taking. Ty-NOT SO MUCH!!!!


Where are Luke's sunglasses?!? Look how tall he's getting!!!! Makes me sad!


Of course when you go places like this, you have to get some good food! Eric had a philly steak sandwich, the boys had nachos and chicken and I had to get some Kettle Korn. Good thing I got a big bag, 'cuz everyone was stealin' it!


I really tried to get some good shots of the Blue Angels!


But it just wasn't happening! Ha! They were just too fast!


Got them that time...


And again! They are so cool! I think April, Eric and I were more impressed than the boys (although they loved it!). It's crazy how close the planes get to each other and I LOVE how loud they are it! I couldn't stop yelling! :)


Not quite sure what April is doing in this picture, but I had to post the only picture of the Sunglass Sistas!!!!!


Isn't April a great Mama teaching her boys to flash the loser sign at people!?! Here she is in her new FJ cruiser! SWEET!


Me and my sweetie! Fun Times!

State Fair!

The State Fair is one of my favorite things to do! It's a fun tradition for my sister, April, and I to go with our families and tonight we had PERFECT weather! Eric's not big on the rides-he just loves the fair food! Like corn dogs, fried potato chips, ice cream and a few nibbles of Funnel Cake. Luke said, "Daddy's probably gonna throw up tonight!".


Luke and I got there a little earlier than everyone else, so we had a fun time checking out the rabbits and...


...he especially loved these little baby chicks.


Time for a Family Photo-Op! The boys are getting so big! They are fearless with the rides and I'm proud to say that Luke kept up with them except for a couple of huge rides that only Ty and Bryan rode.




We can't go to the State Fair without Ty riding the mechanical bull! He's been doing this since he was two years old!


Doesn't Harlan look like he's having the best time? He's so relaxed (even though he's about to get tossed off!).


This was Luke's first year to ride. He did a great job considering this bull-riding stuff is all new to him! I'm sure Eric is hoping this is his FIRST AND LAST bull-riding event. I guess April was feeling a little envious of all the boys getting to ride, so...


...she decided to take the challenge! Only when Bryan and Ty were VERY FAR AWAY riding a ride, she decided to be brave and hop on. For all of those that know April, she isn't afraid to say what she thinks (that's an understatement-HAHAHAHA), but she is NOT comfortable at all with the limelight on her. And I'm kinda thinking that with all this yelling she was doing, the limelight was certainly on her for about...hmmm.....was it 5 or 6 seconds? I can't remember, because I was laughing so hard! She did great!


One of the newest delicacies at the State Fair this year was called Pig Lickin'! ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?!? BECAUSE I DON'T THINK YOU ARE...It was a big, fat piece of bacon deep fried AND then had chocolate syrup poured all over it! CAN YOU SAY DISGUSTING!?! Bryan liked it, but then I'm sure he would eat a bowl of sawdust if you poured chocolate on the top! EWWWWWWW!


Here's our brave boy, Harlan! He's singing karaoke all by himself. This was his second year in a row to run up on stage and to sing a Johnny Cash solo diddy! Last year was "Ring of Fire" and this year it was "Folsum Prison Blues"! He did a great job and we are always amazed at his love for entertaining!


We kept running into many friends! Here's Christi with us (we discovered last fall that she must be a sister that accidentally got separated from us-we have SO much in common! I know...that is kinda scary. You probably feel sorry for her now, don't you?). Anyway, she was there with her sweet family. (Kelly...Sorry, I didn't get a picture of you. I was too busy laughing at April giving Matt a hard time).

Thank goodness April didn't have pictures of me getting off any of the 10 spinny rides that I rode. April and Eric can't ride anything that spins, so Bryan and I get to take the kids on all the ones that go in very fast circles! I was fine until about ride #9...whew!


I think this last picture just about sums up how our night went. She is so crazy! We had a GREAT time and I'm already looking forward to the 2009 State Fair!

What is your favorite thing about the fair?

Favorite Foto Friday!

Happy Friday to Everyone! I've had a VERY busy week at work and Eric left to go out of town yesterday morning (for only one night for a marketing retreat). As a speech therapist, my days consist of wiping noses about 67 times a day, changing diapers, feeding babies, going to conferences, calling parents, etc. Oh yeah! And I do therapy (which is why I went to college for 6 LONG YEARS).

Anyway, I got paged to the front yesterday and this is what was waiting for me! YEAH! Eric sent them just to tell me he missed me! I tell you they came at just the right time. I needed some pretty flowers to brighten my day. And they are REALLY getting me in the fall mood. I told Luke that we are going to buy a pumpkin this weekend. I don't usually decorate for fall, but I'm gonna put together something for my front door at home and may get some flowers and pumpkins for the front porch. Who knows? I may even throw in a scarecrow...

Eric is such a sweet husband about doing things like this at unexpected times. He's also very wonderful at helping around the house, being patient with Luke (usually!!!) and he keeps me laughing EVERY SINGLE DAY! God certainly knew what he was doing by pairing us up. I guess I'm gonna keep him around...especially considering in December it will be our 15th wedding anniversary! Can that be possible?!?

My little sister

Here's my little sister, April, with her family. She's married to the nicest guy in the entire world (sorry...Eric!) named Bryan and she has two little punks. :) Ty is the oldest and he is Mr. Joe Cool. He loves sports, hunting, clothes and entertainment stuff. He has a lot of common sense, but also has a short fuse. I used to spend A LOT of time at April and Bryan's house when Ty was a baby and I pretended I was his nanny.

Harlan is so sweet. He has such a huge heart and he never wants to hurt anyone's feelings (or have his feelings hurt...which is easy to do). He's very generous, loves animals, riding horses, watching television and being the big cousin to Luke.

Luke loves Ty and Harlan so much! April and I always crack up watching Luke watch Ty and Harlan. He thinks they are so funny (really they are!!!)! He doesn't have any siblings, but Ty and Harlan are the next best thing. They sometimes fight like siblings, which is good for Luke.

April and Bryan live on 40 acres, have 5 horses of their own (and board 3 more), have a pond, couple of crazy dogs and always something going on. April is the PTO president of her kids' school, owns her own cleaning business, is my grandmother's power of attorney and TONS of other stuff. She is always up to something. It will make you tired just looking at how much she gets done before 9:00 a.m. I'm very proud of her accomplishments.

April and I have always gotten along (except for a few incidents in which scissors got thrown, hair was pulled, both of us getting scratched or slapped...those are stories for another day). Anyway, I could be mad at April, but don't let ANYONE say anything bad about her or that would send me over the edge. We have always had such a close bond. We don't take this lightly and we know what we have is VERY special. We give our God all the honor, glory and praise for placing us together in this lifetime.

Sometimes when people meet us they ask if we are twins. Other times they are shocked that we are even sisters. When we were younger, we didn't look alike at all. But the older we get, the more alike we look. Our parents thought it would be cute for us to even have the same initials-AJL. April got the cool names (April Janel) while I got the little plain Jane names (Amy Jo). When we were little, our mom would dress us alike. And then we were older we would dress similar, but I would wear red and April would always wear blue.

One of my favorite things in the world to do is just to sit and talk and talk and talk with April. We usually don't complete a full sentence (we are both a little A.D.D.) and we pretty much laugh so hard we almost pee our pants! I'm not kidding.

I love my sister so much!

Do you have a sister? Are you and your sister close (like me and April)?

My Aching Back!

This is exactly how I've been feeling for the past few days! I don't know if you have ever had any lower back pain, but IT IS NOT FUN! When I was younger, I never could understand when people would say "my back went out". Now I understand! For the past few years, I have little flareups about twice a year in which I will get a little "twinge" in my lower back that will run down into my bottom. OUCH! Not good!

Last year during one of these episodes I went to see a chiropractor. My mom swears by the "doctors" in the clinic she goes to. I went and actually enjoyed the heat/electrode treatment, but getting popped was not fun. I did not like that doctor dude being ALL UP IN MY SPACE! He was creepy. So I decided this week to go see my doctor. He did some stretching tests and 3 X-rays. Other than a little bit of scoliosis, my spine is great! Doesn't that sound like an oxymoron?!? Anyway, my discs are fine. I'm just having some muscle spasms. Sitting is the worst! And guess what I do all day long? Sit in the floor and in little bitty chairs at work while I work with kiddos!
He gave me some muscle relaxers to stop the muscle spasms! These are great if you have the luxury of staring into space all day long! :) But working while taking them is probably not the best idea.

I really, really feel sorry for people that suffer from back and neck pain all the time. I have several friends with chronic pain and I am going to start praying extra hard for them. It is really hard feeling bad physically. It affects you all over.

Have you ever had any back pain?

BAD, BAD, BAD BLOGGER!!!!!!

Oh my goodness! I have been the worst blogger! I don't know if it's just back to school scheduling, church activities, going to bed earlier or what...but I have not taken the time. Oh well...

Eric was cleaning some files off of our old Dell PC and I came across a TON of pics that I have not seen since 2005. Like this one of Luke's Easter 2005. He was almost 4 years old. I had TOTALLY forgotten about this cute little outfit. So cute! These kinda clothes were so much more fun to shop for than all the camo, hoodies and Crocs nowdays. Well, still doesn't stop me from having fun shopping for his whole fall/winter wardrobe. I hit the jackpot at Savers today! Savers is kinda like a giant Goodwill, only it's clean and organized. I was able to get him really cute windpants, fleece pullovers, long sleeve snap shirts, and jeans for like $2 apiece! I also had to get me some things too, since they were having 50% off everything in the store...

I have friends that would NOT even consider buying used clothes, but I have always had the best luck with finding Luke very cute clothes at consignment stores, garage sales, stores like Savers, etc. I'm all about the bargain shoppin'!