Its CHRISTmas time!!

Anyone that knows me well, knows that it bothers me to see "X-mas" in the place of Christmas. This is more than just a shortcut. Its another way our society has attempted to take Christ out of Christmas. It is true, however, that the Roman letter X, since the mid 16th century, has been used as an abbreviation for Christ. But it still bugs me! I'm one of the laziest people I know, and I will still take the time to write out Christ's name for a day that we celebrate his birth!
It also bothers me that all the people that don't believe in "my God", celebrate Christmas. What do they really think Christmas is all about? Where do they believe it originated?
Saying "Happy Holidays" or "winter vacation" is just plane denying Christ!! I hope I never forget to stop and ponder on the reason for the season. I also hope that my children will continue to celebrate Christ's birth on this day.
I will post some pictures after we exchange gifts. Of course, I'm working again on Christmas, so we will celebrate on Christmas eve. Until then...... Merry CHRISTmas!!

So thankful!

As the holiday season creeps up on us, I can't help but stop and thank God for all He has blessed me with. I was challenged the other day to list 100 things that I'm thankful for. I started to think of a few things in my head, and I stopped after a minute or two. I could definitely list 100, and I don't think it would take too long! The first thing I thought of was my family. I stopped there to ponder on this first thing on my list. Just this first "list item" transformed into so many more. God has truly blessed me over the years. Even though I far from deserve any of it, he has been very gracious in my life.
Someone also asked me if I was going to celebrate Thanksgiving or Thanksgetting. This simple play on words has been on my heart all week! I've been praying that God will smack me around a little and teach me to desire to be a giver rather than a getter....
Thank you Lord for all you have done in my life. I long to be a man after your own heart. Even though I sometimes stumble, you're always there to pick me up and send me in the right direction. Bless my family and friends this holiday season and show them that you are there for them. Not only when times are tough, but always! Amen!
I hope this blog finds all of you doing well and trusting in Jesus. Thank you all for being there for me and my family when we need a little pick-me-up.
We love you all!! Happy Thankgiving!

Viva Laughlin

This is the first trip away that I actually wanted to get home! Heather and I went on our 2nd annual poker tournament trip in Laughlin, Nevada this last weekend. We went alone this year, being that nobody else could make the trip. This new found tradition started in May of 2007. (Just happens to also be Canon's conception date! ) We were traveling home from a family reunion in Durango, Colorado. Being that Heather and I still had another couple of days off, (and money burning holes in our pockets) we decided to stop in Laughlin, play some cards, stay the night and head home the next day. My parents were gracious enough to take Shani the rest of the way home and keep her for the night. While playing at the Aquarius, we both hit big hands playing Crazy 4 poker, giving us both free entries into the Fall, Crazy 4 poker tournament. This included a 3 night stay, an entry into the tournament, and a catered dinner for two after the tournament. This meant we had two rooms and 4 dinner tickets! Cool!! We decided to bring Heathers parents with us. They enjoy playing the slots and are fun to be around. We don't get the chance to spend a lot of time with them so we thought this would be fun...AND IT WAS!! We had a great time! We traveled over on Thursday, played for a while that night and went to our separate rooms. We met for breakfast every morning and sort of went our separate ways during the day. Heather and I turn into a fun-loving, newlywed couple while there. We discovered this little secret while on a trip to Vegas. There's just something about being away from the kids that lets us relax and have fun. Believe it or not, we actually like each other! We always have a great time! Heather and I attended the tournament for about an hour on Friday and Saturday and then resumed our running around.

(This is my 2nd plate of legs!)

Last year we found an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet at the Edgewater on Friday night. WOW!! It is here that I began to wonder why gluttony is a sin!! I think the name of the buffet should be "All the crab legs your stomach can handle." I go crazy when I'm there!! Pushing over little old ladies (which there are a lot of in Laughlin) just to get to my best friend in the world.....the crab leg guy!! You hand him an empty plate and he gives it back to you LOADED with hot, steamy, delicious crab legs. It's all in slow motion. The noise around you is silenced. There is one light in the room, shining down on your plate full of yumminess. Who cares about the other hundreds of choices of food! That would just take up more crab leg space in my stomach! Anyway, where was I? Well, we didn't win the tournament, but we did hit big hands again which entered us into the tournament again this year!

We were planning to bring Heathers parents with us again, but they were unable to come, so we started asking around to see who would be interested in going this year. Unfortunately, I think it was too short of notice for anyone to go. So, we went by ourselves. We headed over on Thursday again, played in the tournament Friday, but we went shopping at the outlets after this time. Little did I know, we were embarking on a journey. We shopped for hours and somehow managed to make it back to the hotel, both loaded with huge bags of winter clothes for the kids. It was then that I started to miss my little buddy. It had only been one day away and we both wanted to see him. We already couldn't wait to get home. We again went to the Edgewater seafood buffet Friday night and totally stuffed ourselves and played in the tournament again on Saturday. If I had bet more on the last hand, I would have made it into the semi-finals...but I didn't. So we went to the catered dinner and played some more before heading off to bed, knowing that we were leaving the next morning.

We arose Sunday morning and ate one last buffet breakfast(on the house...again) and headed home. When we were just blocks from the house, Heather started getting butterflies in her stomach, excited to see the baby. (I think it was the crab legs!) We picked him up and went home. Poor baby was sick!! What is it about leaving your kids for a couple of days and them getting sick?? I took him to the doctor Monday morning and he has an ear infection. Poor little guy barely has a voice and has a cough. In no way am I blaming this on the people that were watching him, because he started to have a runny nose before we left. To see him, you would never know that he's sick. He stills crawls all over the place and is as happy as a clam!

Well, what do you know, while there we both hit big hands again, earning us both entries into next years tournament. We are hoping to bring along with us more people next year. Please let us know if you're interested. We would like to make this an annual tradition. And if you hit a big hand, thats just more people we could bring the following year!

Oh yeah, one more thing. If you never figured it out, we were ceiling fans for Halloween! Get it?

Halloween '08

What a long day! Halloween just isn't as much fun as it was when we were kids! I remember running home from school, changing into my costume and harrassing all the neighbors for candy, running home again, and stuffing my mouth with all the candy in my bag before my parents came home, then doing it again! I guess its still exciting for the kids, but for us, it was alot of running around. We attended the church's annual Harvest party where the kids played games, rode a horse around the block, and redeemed their tickets for prizes and junk food. After that we headed over to Heather's friends house where she was hosting a kids Halloween party. We mingled for a while with Heather's ex co-workers from the Palace while the kids played more games and beat the heck out of a pinata 'til candy and glitter littered the yard. It always cracks me up to see 20 kids dive head first into a 2 foot circle screaming like a bunch of psychos grabbing candy and stuffing it away like its gold.













Shani decided to be a cheetah this year. She ditched the mask after about 10 minutes and got whiskers painted on her face at the Harvest party. While scrambling for candy at the halloween party, her hair got stuck in the zipper on the back of her costume. Evidently she thought I was pulling her hair. (Why on earth she would ever think this is beyond me!) She threw her head back yelling and after doing a no hands back-bend, fell to the ground. Now I have to tell you, seeing this from a distance with nobody around her was hilarious....to me! She was crying saying, "Dad! Stop!" So Heather untangled her hair from her zipper and helped her pick up the candy that she had dropped. I, on the other hand couldn't stop laughing. What?? You would have laughed too!




Canon was a Monkey. Heather saw this costume at Old Navy and thought with his Ooo-Ooo sound that he always makes, it would be perfect. And it was! We had pictures taken at Wal-mart earlier in the day. I'll post those pics when we get them.

Let's see if anyone can guess what Heather and I were for Halloween. I'll give you a hint. It has nothing to do with the numbers. The words say "Ceiling."


Until next time, hope you all had a happy halloween!

Here we go...

Well, I thought I needed to start a blog to catch up with the rest of the world. Now that I'm here, I'm struggling with the thought of just who will be peering into our life and the random thoughts that I decide need to be drug out of my constantly wondering mind. I hope you continue to read our blog, encourage us when we need it, leave comments if you desire, and enjoy my random blabbing about family adventures, my views on political issues (I promise to try to avoid this one), and updates on what's new in our neck of the woods. I'll post pictures up when I get a chance. I'll probably do most of my writing at work since I'm usually pretty busy at home between working on the house addition or playing with Canon and Shani.

Let me open my first blog with what's been happening around our house. Heather seems to be working more than usual, juggling her regular shifts, picking up some much needed overtime days, and polishing up her resume with extra classes. It seems that lately, everyday she has off, I'm at work and vise-versa. This puts quite a strain on our relationship. I miss her terribly when she's gone. And I have to add that the kids are more work than I thought they were gonna be. I try to spend as much time with the baby as I can because Shani is growing up so fast and I know now that I wont ever get this time back. And we are for sure not having anymore kids! I long for the day, or should I say night, that all is quiet again. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids! They're just wearing me out. Canon's crawling all over the place. I find myself constantly following him around saying " no no baby" or "where are you going buddy?" The other day, I left him alone playing in the wide open livingroom while I used the restroom and came out to find an empty floor. If you're a parent, you know the feeling of your heart skipping a beat. I looked around and said, "Canon? Where are you buddy?" I heard a giggle coming from behind me and found him two steps from the TOP of the stairs!! I quickly and gently ran up the stairs to grab him. I thought, Oh my God!! When did he learn to climb stairs? So I loaded him in the truck(and all the other crap you have to take while traveling with a baby) and headed off to the store to get a gate. Of course I had to tell Heather. Her reaction was a look of disgust with me and she said "HE COULD HAVE DIED!!" So anyway, I'll spare you the gruesome pictures that flashed through my mind and just tell you that I watch him like a hawk now. We've pretty much "baby-proofed" our house but we can't get him to stop eating carpet! The little booger goes around the edges of the carpet and pulls strands out and eats them! We've found a few that we didn't catch him eating in his diaper! Yeah, gross! I know!
Shani on the other hand is loving her little brother. We didn't know how she was going to react to having another kid around the house. I have to say, she has adjusted very well. She's just an all around good kid! We're sometimes a little hard on her, and have realized that she just needs to be a kid. Go get dirty, have fun! We are still going through the adoption process and hope it is soon finalized. She's excited about being a Parreira. Who wouldn't be?? (No need to leave a comment on that!)
I'll write more later. Thanks for reading...