Weekend update....

Well it turned out to be a fun weekend for the boys and I. We had a really great X-mas and I had planned on downloading those yesterday but there were 9000 homes in my area that had a power outage and that made it impossible.

Friday of course was Christmas and I had the boys open gifts. My dad came over first thing in the morning and we made biscuits and gravy for the family. Everyone else came over to eat and then we took the time to clean up. Carson played most of the day with his toys from Santa.

We always go to a local casino on Christmas day for dinner at the buffet but we ended up with 7 inches of snow and the roads were terrible. So then I was going to plan B and go to my Papa Clyde's house and my dad told me to stay home due to the road conditions. So Chris had Coltan and Cody and Carson and I stayed home and built train tracks.

Saturday was Cody's 14Th birthday and he also had a soccer game. Chris kept the boys for the first part of the day and since the roads were so bad, they spent the morning at Grandma Ann's for Christmas. He brought the boys back by 2 and then Cody had a game at 4. Of course he won.

After the game, we left and drove what should have been a 10 minute drive to Kobe's Steakhouse for his birthday dinner. We ended up getting another 2 inches of snow and the drive took more like 25 minutes. I think I got up to 40 once the whole way there. My parents and 2 nieces and my boys all had a really nice dinner and then for Cody's dessert.......banana pudding. Cody didn't want a birthday cake.

Sunday Cody had two soccer games at 7AM and 7PM. My parents volunteered to take him to the first game since it was so early and mom didn't want me getting Carson out that early in this weather. So my step dad got up at 5:30 Sunday morning and took Cody to the game. Thanks Paul. He brought Cody home and we all hung out and the boys played with Cody's new birthday present. I got him an X-Box 360. Just before 5PM the lights went out. Carson started crying because he could no longer see his Thomas the Train engines. It was really funny. The more Coltan, Cody, and I laughed, the more upset he got. After spending 30 minutes in the dark with Carson's Thomas the train flashlight, we decided to head to my mom's.

As we were pulling out of our neighborhood, it was just pitch black. We got up to the main road and approached our first stoplight. Seriously folks, if the power is out, treat it like a 4 way stop!! I could not believe the traffic and the idiots that didn't know what to do. The next intersection...,.same thing.

So then we ended up at mom's safe and sound...and warm. Did I mention 9 inches of snow, plows no where to be found, AND the temp is 20?

After staying at mom's, it was time to take Cody to his game. They ended up killing the other team. It was 8-0 and Cody played great. We decided to go out for dinner since I wasn't sure of the status with the power. My next door neighbor would text and say LIGHTS ON, then Off again. By the time we got home, power was on but my house was cold. It's amazing what 3 hours without your heat can cool the house off that much.

So what did we do today? We kept busy catching up on cleaning and laundry. I plan on working on Carson's room and rearranging it because he got a Thomas table from Santa and it is totally invading my living room at the moment.

So here is my question. How long do the boys relax before it is back to organizing the house, getting their Christmas stuff put up and doing some light housework (taking out trash, taking dirty clothes to laundry room, emptying dishwasher, etc...) My boys think since it is Christmas Vacation, they shouldn't have to do ANYTHING. Anyone else having this problem? If your one of those "mean" moms that make your kids do chores on X-mas break, please leave a comment so my boys know that I'm not the only one who believes in a little help.

Well I'm off to bed now. Boys are all getting haircuts and we have a lunch date with a good friend of mine. Maybe after all of that, I can find some time to download my pictures of Christmas and Cody's birthday.

Happy Birthday Cody!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY QUIN!!!!! I cannot believe that 14 years today, you can into my life. I have truly been blessed. Cody you were my easiest pregnancy and easiest delivery. You have always been (most of the time) my easy going child. You mostly just go with the flow and have made me so proud. Thanks for being such a great kid.

You have always been a great brother to Coltan. Yes you two have your moments but for the most part, you have been good friends.

You are a great big brother to Carson. You know how to change his diaper, give him baths, feed him through the tube, give him breathing treatments, and just be a good snuggler or train builder. Carson goes into your room everyday and sits in your bed waiting for you to get home from school. Thanks for being so good to Carson.

Here is a rare moment that we stop and take the time to grab a picture together. I have always enjoyed watching you play soccer.

We have really been all over this year.

• Jan your Grandma and Grandpa Hoffman took you and Coltan to Lincoln NE for a soccer tournament.
• Jan, Feb, and Mar you were in Columbia for ODP
• April we went to Springfield IL to only come home early due to a snow storm. That is where we got stuck in the mud hole parking lot. LOL
• April, the very next weekend, we left Sat morning for Des Moines IA. Your first game wasn't until noon so we headed up that morning. You played the first game, went to lunch came back and played your second game. Then the blizzard warnings took place and we left and headed back to Kansas City in the sleet. What a long day that turned out to be.
• May we went to Springfield MO for State Cup and you WON
• June we headed to South Dakota for regionals. We didn't do as well as we wanted but it was a fun experience. Then we made our family vacation out of it and headed to Mt Rushmore.
• July we laid low and just went to the Lake of the Ozarks and hung out for a weekend.
• July you got on the bus and headed to Rock Falls IL for your ODP soccer tournament.
• Aug was another slow (but needed) month. We had a couple of local tournaments.
• Sept we were off to St Louis for a tournament
• Oct we went back to St Louis for a tournament.
• Oct we had another tournament in St Louis and they ended up with tons of rain. The whole tournament was flooded and we were notified on Fri at 2PM...same day we were leaving. By 2:45 we were told to head to Wichita for a different tournament and we kicked butt. We had 1 goal against us the whole tournament.
• Nov we headed to Memphis for another tournament
• Dec you had Grandma Ann take you to St Louis for a game and it was one of your best. You ended up scoring SEVEN goals.

Cody, we have had a great year with lots of fun. You have gotten the opportunity to travel to a lot of neat places. I'm looking forward to another fun filled year with you.

So now I hope everyone understands why my vehicle that is barely two years old, already has 68,000 miles on my car. Cody, I can't wait til you get a part time job and start helping out with the gas. LOL

With all of that said, I hope you have a wonderful birthday.

Cody is with Chris right now celebrating and then he has a soccer game at 4 so he is coming back here for his game and then my family is taking him to Kobe's. His favorite restaurant. Pictures later!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to all. I'm in the middle of boys, toys, eating, and family.

I will hopefully post some pictures later tonight. Hope everyone has a safe and blessed day. If your in the midwest like I am, please travel safely. We have been in blizzard warnings and it actually just lifted about 30 minutes ago. So with that said, we had a white Christmas.

See you all soon!!!

Oh Christmas Tree......

We finally decided to decorate the Christmas tree. Coltan and Cody did most of the work and Carson tried to rearrange them. Oh wait, he is still doing that. LOL Here are a few of our favorites. Coltan made this in 1st grade

This is one that Coltan picked out when we at Disney in 05
Coltan's first X-mas

This one is the oldest on the tree. It's from 1978

The boys picked these out. Our tree at last.

Pumpkin Patch day 2

Here is day 2 at the pumpkin patch. Since Halloween fell on a Sat, the patch stayed open on Sun Nov 1. Buddy gave us some passes for the train and after Cody played soccer (and won!) we ran back to Caroline's Pumpkin patch for one last day of fun there.

Look at that love! Carson really loves Cody. He is always trying to take care of him for me. I love the bond that these two boys have.I love this picture because Carson is wanting to hold his brothers hand.

This was the LAST train ride for the pumpkin patch in 2009 and we were on it....actually, we were the only ones on this ride.

Another visit to see the turkin. Carson really thought he was cool.

A quick spin around the track.This was our last picture on the way out the door. Carson can't wait to go back next year.

Pumpkin Patch in Black and White

For some reason, I really love the black and white feature. Here are a few more from the pumpkin patch in B&W.

Pumkin Patch.....a little late

I know, more older pictures that I'm just getting around to posting. I'm trying to put these pictures on here because when I get around to catching up on my scrap booking, I will use these as a reference.

Carson actually went to the pumpkin patch two days in a row. Caroline has a son Charlie who plays with Cody in soccer and I have gotten the privilege of getting to know this wonderful family. Carson has really taking a liking to Buddy as well. They were kind enough to give me some passes for Carson and this really is one of Carson's favorite things to do. He went last year and remembered all the fun things to do before we even got there this year.

We didn't do this last year because we showed up late and missed the last tractor. This year we had a lot of rain and I was surprised to see some of the small ponds that the tractor pulled us through without getting stuck. It was a little bumpy which was perfect for Carson. He loved the tractor ride. One quick picture of Carson with mommy before the tractor took us to the pumpkin patch.

Carson carefully checking out the pumpkins for the right one.

He was trying to pick up the heavy pumpkin. Last year Carson couldn't feed the animals without them tickling him. He did better this year and really had fun.

One quick picture.

This creature is called a turkin. Part turkey, part chicken.I have had more pictures of Carson and I lately. Now I need to work on Coltan and Cody. Haha

I wanted to get a picture of him in this wagon. I took some last year and thought it would be a neat place to take one every year and then compare the pics to see how much bigger he gets. So far, only in inches. LOL

Graceland

Sunday after our last game, we headed to Graceland. I couldn't imagine being 15-20 minutes from there and just not going. I thought it was a little pricey. I had to pay $33.00 and Cody was $20.00. Carson of course was free. My mom and dad got a senior discount but I don't remember how much that discount was.

It was interesting to see. I have some fond memories of my Grandma and I watching all of the Elvis movies when I was little. My Grandma loved Elvis and years ago they would have a Elvis marathon on one of the cable channels when it was getting closer to his birthday.

Here is one of his two planes. This one is the smaller plane. You could walk in and look through it. It had a couple tables and then a couple of seats away from the table. Just like trains, Carson loves planes as well.

I didn't take any pictures of the larger plane but it was unreal! When you walk in, there is a sitting area. The next section was a large dining room table with chairs. The next section was his bedroom. Had the bed, and a nice size bathroom. Everything was done in blue.

This was outside by the car gallery. Elvis had tons of cars over the years and it was neat to see them all. What I found fascinating was that some of the cars had been sold over the years and they relocated them to put in the showroom.

Here is a picture for Carson. He also loves tractors....all boy huh? This tractor was actually used on one of Elvis' farms.

This one is for Cody. He LOVES the color pink. I think he wants this car for his birthday. LOL

Since I hunt and love to go shooting, I had to take a picture of Elvis' shooting range.

The house was really nice. I was a little disappointed that you could only tour the downstairs.

One last picture while we waited for the bus to take us back to the parking lot. Next stop, back to Kansas City.....arriving after midnight.

Beale Street

I have had so many pictures from my camera that I wanted to share and here were some more from Memphis. After playing soccer Saturday, the whole team got together and went to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe on Beale Street. It reminded me of a smaller version of New Orleans. If I didn't have my kids with me, I could have really hit the town. LOL

This was a view from the end of the street. They have tons of police and fire on every intersection. We were told that they put more public safety in this district because it is a big tourist attraction and they want the tourist to be able to have fun and feel safe. I thought that was pretty cool since I was walking around with Cody and Carson by myself for most of the evening. Here is where we ate with the team. We had a huge section upstairs and it was very spacious, unlike some restaurants where they crammed us all in.

This was Elvis' costume in Jail House Rock. The upstairs where we ate had a really big Elvis section which was kind of cool.

Here was the table for all the boys. The parents had two other long tables to sit at.

Carson was showing me his "I'm mad" expression.

Hamming it up as usual.

Carson actually took this picture. Not bad huh?

One of the intersections we came along had this small vehicle. Carson went over and told the fireman he wanted to drive. They were super nice and let him play in there for a long time.

I had to laugh because he told the fireman that he wanted to be a fireman AND carry a gun. I guess if he finds the right Public Safety to work for he can have it all.

The famous B B Kings. I walked in there for a brief moment and they had some good blues players live on the stage.

We ended the night catching up with my parents and riding a carriage ride through the town. I was going to take a picture of Carson with the horse when we finished and to my surprise, he crashed making it a very long walk back to our vehicle. :-)