"Hooked" on Fishing

It took a week of begging, to get me to cave and let Conner go fishing at Wellsville Dam "by himself". He had worked hard all week getting some missing assignments in to get a better grade in one of his classes. This boy lives for fishing!! Fly fishing, ice fishing, it doesn't matter as long as it involves fishing he is a happy camper. He studies everything that has to do with it. I love that when he finds something that interests him, he digs in and consumes himself with it. Now if I could get him to do the same with his school work, the kid would be a genius!!! LOL Anyway, not quite an hour after he had got there he called to say "somehow he had got a fly (I think he specifically named the fly) stuck in his finger and it was going to need attention". YIKES!!! Luckily, he had met a guy there that was a Youth Fly Fishing Coach and was bringing him to my mom's so I could take him to the doctor. Super, super nice guy!!! Conner was so excited to have met this man and considers him his new friend. :) Needless to say, we spent our Friday night at Instacare and unfortunately having to wait nearly 2 hours to see the doctor was the worst part.

Getting his vitals...

Waiting for the doctor to come in the room...Ouchie!!!!!The doc deadened his finger and then used some sort of string and pulled the hook right out. It took about a half a second. I didn't watch cause I have a weak stomach for stuff like this. Conner was a trooper and relieved to have it out!After this adventure, Conner had to suffer through a haircut... another part of the deal!

Love you bud!! ;)

Christmas Day

I love this picture!! The glow of the lights on the Christmas Tree in the corner the evidence that Santa stopped by in the night to deliver treasures for the kiddos. Kinda like the calm before the storm so to speak. I love that this moment is frozen and you can almost taste the anticipation!

You have been and always will be my Clark W. Griswold. Sparky even sported the appropriate shirt for the celebration!Every one getting spoiled at Grandma & Grandpa's...Waders!!!!??? No way!!!!And back home to see the goods Santa brought...

Ice fishing rod.... AWESOME!!Her prized possession!! A NINTENDO DS!!Their gifts to each other! Happy kids!From what I've been told, this was Lilly's favorite thing she got this year and has played with it quite a bit! I knew she would love it!I gave Clay a Keurig and it's been very much enjoyed! :)Merry Christmas everyone!!

Christmas Eve

I love spending time together as a family around the holidays. Even though Christmas is a crazy, stressful time of year it's so nice to continue the same traditions that I had as a little girl and start new ones with my kids. Unfortunately, my kids' Christmas traditions are split between Clay and I and their dad. And this year I only had them for an hour on Christmas Eve and for 6 hours in the afternoon on Christmas. We have to make the most of the time we get together. I hope my kids will always look back on their Christmas' with happy memories just like I did. I can't even imagine how hard it is for them to have divorced parents. :( Now that it's almost March I will try and get caught up and post about Christmas! :)

Books from Clay & I

PJ's from Grandma & Grandpa NielsenReading to Hadley... so stinking sweet!Continuing the PJ tradition...And a rare hug.... this is what it's all about.Happy Christmas Eve!

Teacher & Friend Gifts

Wanted to share these cute SIMPLE Christmas gifts that we made for Courtney's teacher and all the kids in her class. The wood apple was for her teacher, which I bought at Wood Creations.

For her classmates, I bought small notebooks at Staples and we covered the spines with scrapbook paper tied jute around them and attached a pen. Then we put all the gifts in brown lunch sacks that I had used a border punch along the top to cute them up. Added a label and tied on a tulle bow. Easy and perfect! I'm not a fan of singling out individual friends to give gifts to and I feel if you give to one, you give to all! We went with a fairly inexpensive gift that I hope everyone loved!

Christmas Eve Morning/Afternoon

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we got up pretty early and took the kids to breakfast at IHOP and then stopped real quick at Inkley's to see why my camera wouldn't take a decent picture. Yea, found out that I had accidentally switched the lens to manual focus, ugh!!! We are all good now! I'm just relieved that's all it was. Then we stopped and visited with Clay's dad at the nursing home and wished him a Merry Christmas!

The kids were then off to their dads and Ashley brought Lilly over to see us for a while, so we let her open a present. She was so happy and excited!! It was the cutest thing!!The proof is in the pictures! Happy little girl with her new cow doll. :)