Christmas Trees

The snow was just deep enough to cover the ground and flock the evergreens. It brought with it an almost sacred beauty. Christmas was fast approaching and once again it was time to go out onto the mountain and find the perfect Christmas tree for our home, and Grandmas home, and great grandmas home, and anybody elses home who dosen't have the time, means, or desire to brave the cold mountain. I would never miss it, myself. The beauty is well worth the cold and excitement of 5 overly excited children who can't wait until that Jolly old elf appears at the end of next month.

Oaklee spent most of the tree hunt in the warm pick-up.

Aubree and Chance braved the cold once or twice. Caib and Braden spent as much time as possible running through the trees and rolling in the snow.

Braden thought this tree looked pretty good.

And then on our ride home we saw oh, about 200 elk.(no joke)These are a few of the bull elk we saw,

mostly there were cow elk every where.

We saw deer and antelope.

Of course, after the first rabbit the rest of the rabbits stayed hidden, with Caib sporting his 22. Caibs taking hunter safety this month and he's pretty excited about learning to hunt.

All in All we had a great time and came home with some nice trees. and the beauty of it all was well worth the overcrowded conditions and the few peices of sticky butter toffee popcorn that need to be cleaned up.

Thanksgiving Soup? an inaccurate narritive with the right idea

Braden: "Mom, are we having soup for Thanksgiving?"

Mom: "Soup? of course we're not having soup for Thanksgiving we're having Turkey, Stuffing, and Potatoes."

Why in the world is he thinking we'll have soup for Thanksgiving?

An hour Later

Braden: Mom, are you sure we aren't having soup for Thanksgiving? I hate soup.

Mom: "Well good because we aren't having soup it's Thanksgiving You know Turkey, Potatoes, Yams.... "

Braden: "Good, because I hate soup."

what kind of a mom am I raising a kid that thinks we might be having soup for Thanksgiving.. Have I failed as a mom?

Next Afternoon

Grandma Brian( with Braden on the way home form school .She brings him home every day.): are you excited for Thanksgiving?

Braden: Yeah, as long as we don't have soup.

Grandma Brian: Oh, you wont have soup. It's Thanksgiving. You'll have Turkey, potatos and gravy, stuffing...."

Braden "I know but in the James family they always have soup. At least, we had Soup Last Christmas."

Ah ha, The Bottom of it. My family does soup a lot and Braden is a meat and potatoes guy through and through. In fact he would probably be happy with a nice Thanksgiving Mutton or steak As long as it's not in soup. I think he asked me a total of 5 or 6 times about what we were having for dinner on Thanksgiving. I was really starting to get irritated. Telling him, "Hello! It's Thanksgiving We're having turkey.

note: Braden has to be reassured a lot or he worries excessively.

Writers Block

Ummm......

Hmmm.....

Did you know that..........no that sounds stupid.

Man, I can't think of a thing to say. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. sigh

Things I can't find for Christmas

I asked Aubree what she wanted for Christmas this year. She wanted a lot of things but most of all:



"I really really, really want a pink alarm clock radio with princesses all over it, and I don't want it to play anything except princess songs."



umm O.K. so, I guess I can find that. I search the internet for day's. First looking for princess CD players. I figure I can get CD's of princess songs and she'll understand that radios play whatever they want. But, all the princess pink stuff I find has bad reviews and I really don't like the looks of them. so I think maybe just a pink boom box and a set of princess stickers will work but all the Pink Boom boxes are not available on line or in the store. But, they do have them. mm hmm. whatever. O.K. so I guess my next option is an MP3 player. It can be pink and it will only play princess songs. But is it just me or is that to much for a six year old.



K, here's the scary part. I'm starting to feel like my Mom.(sorry Mom) I am kinda struggling with all this high tech stuff and don't understand how it all works, just have a vague Idea. Worst of all I don't think I really want to know how it works. and how come things keep getting smaller but cost more. I have this image of Christmases in the future where kids come running excitely into the christmas tree to see what Santa brought and all there is is this tiny little pile consisting of cell phones that are the size of an earing cause thats how they work. just pin it in your ear and your good to go. same with the music contraptions. etc. O.K. focus here Pink princess Radio Pink princess radio.

Brian Look-alike Meter

My Sister-in-law tried this out and it looked fun so I did all my kids. This is what I got:
Oaklee 3% more like Roger
Chance Equal 50% like Dad 50% like Mom.
Aubree looks 3% more like Roger
Caib Equal 50/50
Braden a whopping 20% more like his Mom.
So there you go. I'd have never guessed the results but it was fun.

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

Named

Caib won the naming, he suggested Theadore and Amos. We all agreed. But, thanks for the suggestions. I never can think up good names. Chance told his cousin this morning that their names were Woody and Buzz. I don't ever recall discussing that as an option but it may be that they now have two names. Oh well. I'm telling you though if you want a small easy to care for pet, or your kid does. Birds are the way to go. I've seen kids stand by my bird cage for hours talking to, cooing at, and enjoying my birds.

For the birds

Roger likes birds and I'm a sucker for any little animal. we had parakeets for years and Roger has missed our little birds for about a year now so when we went Christmas shopping yesterday we stopped to look at birds.

I'd like to introduce you to our new little Zebra Finch. they are both male and we are trying to decide what to call them. They kind of remind me of those birds on that little mini movie before Monsters inc. So far I'm really enjoying these little guys. They aren't nearly as loud as a parakeet but they definately make lots more sound.

So that makes about 50 cows, almost two hundred sheep, 4-5 horses, 5 dogs, 8 chickens, 1 goat, a cat, and 2 finches. I love it, its like our own little world. Thank heavens the only animals that are allowed in the house are the two smallest. Any name suggestions would be greatly appreciated and considered. I suggested Ludwig and Johan, Roger wondered why and Braden figured it out immediately and told him. I think Roger was impressed that a twelve year old boy knew who they were. so Bach and Bethoven are being considered but I'm not sure they fit.

I love this picture of the little guy(guys).

New Toy?

Every summer I mow three great big yards, except this last summer. My ride on mower bit the dust despite all the tender care I tried to bestow upon it. My yard is pretty good sized and then my Moms house has a big yard and my mother in laws house has a big yard. I really do enjoy mowing lawns but with a push mower, mowing those three yards would take a week to do. and since yards have to be done once a week, well you can see why I was lucky if my yard got mowed last summer.

Not only that I had Oaklee in July and My pregnancies are a little bit risky so I was told not to do things like, oh, say, mowing lawns.

Anyway. Roger was preg checking cows a couple weeks ago for a man that has a son that works at Hew Holland Equipment. This son happened to be helping with the cows and ended up selling Roger this ride on mower for half price. I ,grudgingly, (secretly relieved) agreed that it would be alright and that we could even have the boys run a yard business in the summers to pay it off. the boys agreed to that, so these two salesmen brought my new lawn mower to me. They proceeded to unload it off the truck and explained to me how to use it. Having done so they told me to go ahead and jump on and try it out. So, on I get. Now I could be lying here, but it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't just a little bit excited to have me try this mower out, and being so, smiled secretly at each other behind my back. So, as I said, on I get. I turn on the mower drive it around my drive way once pull it into the garage, and jump off as I say

"Well, that's pretty easy not much to it really."

The one salesman turns to the other and says. something like "That's not fair it took me a week to figure out how to run this thing."

The other one says, "I know I drove it in circles for half an hour before I figured it out."

The first salesman then says, "Why are women so much better at things like this? My first ride I shoved it into gear popped a wheely and sped down the driveway so fast I was scared to death."

I just shrugged a bit sealed the deal and went on in the house, breathing a huge sigh of relief that I hadn't done something that stupid.

I Can't wait till summer gets here. I love mowing. Just ask Caib.

Cowboy Poetry

Well we had fun Last saturday. We went to the cowboy poetry gathering in Heber City. The kids had about 45 minutes to fill There were 6 kids, 4 of them belonged to me. This is getting a little overwhelming, but we sure enjoy it. Chance did 2 poems, Aubree did 3 poems, Caib did 4 poems and Braden did 4 poems. I believe that this poetry experience is so good for the kids. They have learned a lot about overcoming there fears of a stage, they've learned about what it takes to prepare for a stage performance(practice, practice, practice, and more practice)no matter how ready you think you are you keep practicing. The fun thing this time was listening to them practice over and over all on their own. Even then, they had a few mind blocks on stage but they backed each other up and all went well. We've sure had fun being involved in these gatherings.

This is one of the poems Caib did
Cowboy in Rollerblades
I’m sure enough a cowboy
With my wrangler jeans and all.
I’ve been ridin’ in the saddle
Since I was pretty small.

I’d snicker at them city dudes
In their great big baggy britches
And watchin’ them with roller blades
Would have me near in stitches.

A rollin down the sidewalks
With their underwear’s in view
Come on now admit it
It’s had you a laughin, too.

Then one day I decided
Before I laugh and joke
About them silly foot wheels
That I’ve seen on city folk.

I’d have a little go at it
I’d try them wheels out
Heck! it couldn’t be that hard,
And I think I’m pretty stout.

I put the wheels on my feet
I stand and for I know it
My right foots headed skyward
And my left foots back below it.

I never knowed my body
Would stretch out in quite that way
I never could get up again
Until I put them wheels away.

Now thinkin’ back upon it
I sure am really glad
I was born a country boy
To a country lovin’ dad.

And climbin back upon my horse
Is sure a mighty treat
Cause I know that I’m plumb lucky
He aint got wheels on his feet!

-Cathy Brian-

For Grandma James

The reason I titled this one For G.J. is because she may be the only one who really, really appreciates this. Chance has taken on a new hobby. It doesn't matter what I hand him he turns it in to letters.

In the garage last night as we were getting into the car Chance picked up two sticks and held them up in the shape of a T saying

"look mom what is this?"

He pauses and then says

"It's a T"

and drops the sticks and climbs into the car.

We got home this morning from taking kids to school etc.. and he sits down on the floor with his cars and plays for a minute. Then he says to me

"Mom, what are these letters?"

a pause and then

"this ones an I this ones a T and here's an L"

I, of course, shake my head and grab the camera.

And finally here is his, self thought of, snack time activity. Making pretzel words. He informed me that he was writing his name. After using up all the pretzels he announces:

"There, see Mom, That says me."(proof that he's not a genius, just smart like most kids.) I had to help him make the R's but he insisted he needed R's in his name.

Weather forecast

This is the scene we woke up to this morning as we looked out our french doors. Chance,as usual, was the first one up. when he looked out side he began to jump around and run excitedly. I could sense this all from my bedroom. Then in excitement he hollers out "Dad! look come look."

Roger enters the room and Chancee says "See Dad, It's Christmas!", as he points out the window. He hasn't forgotten what Christmas is, Obviously.

Elections

Seems like a lost cause but I did go vote.
AGELESS WIT AND OBSERVATIONS

'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.' Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself. -Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. - George Bernard Shaw (So what we find,sadly, is that paul is the majority now.)

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -G Gordon Liddy

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. -Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! -Pericles (430 B.C.)

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -Mark Twain (1866 )

Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. -Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -Mark Twain

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.-Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress. -Mark Twain

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. -Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson

Are people, really, so uneducated that they no longer study things out for themselves? I have to tell you. I'm kind of scared about this election. And, yet we probably deserve what ever the results may be.

Anniversary

Today is my anniversary. I need some ideas about celebrating. I'm thinking about a homemade candel light dinner. with the three older kids serving us. but thats not very original. I've heard of a lot of people doing that.

I've come to the conclusion, after thirteen years that I am not a very creative person and I discourage easily if my plans seem to much. I've also discovered that Roger won't plan anything he just suggests that maybe we could do something. and if I don't take the ball and run nothing happens.. Which I've known since the day we went on our honeymoon, he told me he would plan it and didn't, so I did. I'm not complaining though. Thirteen years can grow a lot of love and understanding. I wouldn't change Roger for anything.(I'll leave the changing to him.) I just want to prove the love to him a little more creatively today, and since I'm not that creative, well, you can see my dilema.

I had to search for this picture to go along with my blog and in the process I thought a trip down "memory lane" would be fun so I started taking all kinds of pictures etc. to make a small movie. I'll see how it works.