I tried...

This was what I asked for for Christmas from my children.
A photo session with no complaining.
In the snow.
No-I did not ask my husband.
That would have been a Christmas miracle.

My kids were good sports about my wish.
All except the tall one, with the 1/2 smile.
He has taken over his Dad's role as
"I-will-never-be-happy-while-being-photographed" person.
He was very annoyed, but with gentle reminders from his
kind and patient mother that he was ruining my Christmas, he almost smiled..like 3 times!


So despite the Arctic chill in the air, we proceeded with our my plans.
It was a fun 10 minutes and I got a few fun shots (2 out of 342 pictures, is that bad?).

It was worth all of the drama and "Tanner, so help me, I am going to beat you!"
I love these precious souls with all of my heart,
and really they have already given me the best life--let alone Christmas--
that anyone could ever have.

Probably my favorite of the 2 girls.

Sadie and her snow buck teeth..

Sweet little Lukifer

Sweet little family

Luke giving me his heart...

These hearts caused much confusion and laughter..

Lots of "What do we do with these?"

And, "I dropped mine in the snow!"

and, "Sophie is trying to eat my heart!"

and "This is dumb.." (Tanner)

Notice Sophie's gigantic rear end.

We laughed and laughed because we couldn't get her to turn around.

After several moments of frustration, I gave up

like I so often do, recognizing that..

THIS IS MY LIFE...

4 PERFECTLY IMPERFECT CHILDREN

AND AN OVERWEIGHT DOG WHO LIKES TO POINT

HER BUTT AT WHOEVER WILL LOOK.

QUICKLY LOOK!

IT'S SOPHIE'S FACE!

or is it her bum...?

We love you, Sophie.

Your fat bum and stinky breath make us happy.

Then, I said the most awful words heard to Maddie.. Snowball fight! Boys against the girls!!

Cute little college girl

2 Marvelous Pictures

Santa and 2 cute kidlets..

AND

2 cute toes with 2 bamboo sticks coming out of the nail beds.

FUN WITH INGROWN TOENAILS!

I love the flourescent color of my toes with their tourniquets.

It really is not as bad as it looks.

Almost, but not quite.

Adios you ingrown toenails!

I will not miss you!

Elf on our Shelf (or not)

Do not kid yourself!!

Best. Tradition. Ever.

There are 2 enormous children that live in the Ashby house
that can't wait to see what the crazy Elf will do next.

The 2 smaller children named him "Fred McBread" (don't ask, I don't understand it..).
He is an elf from the North Pole that spies on the kids for Santa.
Each day, he watches from a spot in the house to see how we are all behaving.
Each night, he leaves Barbie's clutches and reports to Santa.
Our elf must have been dropped on his little noggin when he was a wee elf,
because he is a bit strange.

He does not want to sit on a shelf. Ever.
He likes to cavort with Barbies and workout ( sounds a bit like my husband.. hmm)
He enjoys trying new and dangerous activities, like Cirque de Soleil type moves.
He seems to be addicted to Halo 4 and enjoys eating on my couch (sounds like Tanner.. hmm)

It seems appropriate that our family would get the weird elf.
Despite his moderate amount of creepiness and naughtiness,
we love our elf, Fred.

I don't know that Barbie feels the same.
She has been traumatized since being held captive in her guest twin bed for a night.

Holiday Fun

Random pictures in no particular order.
That is what my life has become--

No order.

Random.




We had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving at our home for the Ashby Family. It was a wonderfully busy day.  We ate a PERFECT meal and had a great time talking, laughing, playing football outside, and watching old family movies.  We hadn't had enough of each other yet, so we went to "Life of Pi", which I thought was very entertaining.  We came home and feasted on Pumpkin Cheesecake and Apple and Pumpkin pie, accompanied by real whipped cream.  So yummy!

Then next day, Todd had to work and so the kids and I packed up and headed to the Rasmussen Ranch.  Nienie has a ranch and so do I!  Luke found the nearest weapon (a sling shot) and Sadie found the nearest kitty and everyone was happy.  We enjoyed the ranch and the good company on Friday and then on Saturday we prepared for our Christmas Extravaganza, courtesy of Doyle Glenn Rasmussen (with just a tad bit of help and imput from his lovely partner, Diana Lynn).

Our Christmas Extravaganza went as follows:

Waffles at Grandma's after a memorable sleepover with a lot of little cousins.

Traveling in a caravan to Vernal to the Rec Center.

(Which is, by far, the coolest thing to do in Vernal)

Grandma and Grandpa had rented a party room and we entered to smells of Cafe Rio.

Nothing says "Good Times" like tomatillo dressing and chips & salsa.

After making ourselves entirely too full of yummy pork burritos, 

we got down to the business of enjoying all that the Vernal Rec Center has to offer.

Swimming, ping-pong, slides, a rock wall.

We definitely got Grannie's money worth!

After the Rec Center shenanigans, Grannie and Grampie decided to feed us more.

Because, it had been 25 minutes since we had last eaten.

We stopped at a self-serve ice cream parlor,

where the grandkids proceeded to eat approximately $200 worth of ice cream.

Actually, I don't know for sure--it could have been more.

It is a scary thing, those self-serve businesses.

Especially when the kids can reach the toppings-

I think Luke had about 2 pounds of swedish fish on his 2 ounces of ice cream.

Such good times!

Good thing you brought your Black American Express, Grannie! 

It wouldn't be a blog post if there wasn't a story and picture about an Ashby injury.

And it has become a tradition for Todd to be injured around the Christmas season.

Here is just a few pictures of my poor husbands knee-

completely jacked up.

He fell on it when playing football with Luke on Thanksgiving Day,

and it proceeded to swell and bruise and become quite a painful nuisance.

 Isn't Todd's knee a 

glorious sight to behold. It has nearly

every color in the rainbow.  We are now 

going on almost 2 weeks since the injury and there is still not a lot of improvement.  The surgeon wants to wait a few more weeks to see if his tendon that was partial detached will reattach itself.  Stupid tendons and stupid surgeons.

And finally,

Sadie and I are grateful that NO SHAVE NOVEMBER has come to a close.

This is how Sadie would give her Dad a kiss every night.

Hands over face and beard and she would kiss her hands.

Mama no likey the itchy scratchy beard.