And off we went...

I am going to try and do a post everyday till I am caught up with the trip.
Day one..We left Thursday the 19th after Brian got off work and headed for Las Vegas, it was about a 6 hour drive. We didn't have any problems with that leg of the trip. We arrived at Brian's Aunt Joyce and Uncle Pat's house in Vegas around 10 p.m. Addie was way ready to get out of the car, see Pat and Joyce and play with the little puppies that were at their house.


Day two of the trip we headed to Salt lake to stay with my uncle David and his wife Lynne's house. We headed out of Vegas around 10:30- 11 a.m. We saw our first sight of snow a few hours outside of Vegas.

Everything was going well till about an hour away from SLC when we hit some really bad snow, ice, and evening traffic. It took us about 3 hours to get where we were wanting to be. At this point we were done with being in the car..



When we finally got into SLC we met up with my cousin Jen and her hubby Tyson, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Crown Burger. We were also lucky enough to be able to stop by Brian's cousin Haley's wedding reception. We looked totally getto cause we had no time to change so we we're rockin our road trip clothing.
I took this picture when we left the reception...


Day Three we were had what we thought would be a short 4 hour drive to Twin Falls Idaho. Little did we know what Mother Nature had in store for us. Before heading out of town we had lunch at a great pizza place called The pie with a bunch of the family that was in town for the wedding. We left SLC around 1ish, things didn't get nasty until Ogden when snow and really bad ice hit us and everyone else around us like a ton of bricks. Not even 1 mile after it started there is was a HUGE 30-35 car pile up right in front of us...it was the worst thing I have ever seen. It went across all 6 lines of traffic.

With snow and ice off and on it took us a good amount of time to get to Idaho, but we got there safe and that's what matters.

Its official....we're home!

After over 800 miles (each way) we are finally home!  We had some great times and created some great memories with both sides of our family this Christmas, but after 3 days of driving each way, we're glad to finally be home.  Keep posted over the next week as we begin to document our trip more via the blog, Carrie will be posting pictures for all and I plan to do a post about some of the things I really re-learned this Christmas season that I'm excited to share with everyone.  Thank you to everyone who let us crash at their place along the way, or to those who just let us drop by and say hi along our travels, you really made this trip more bearable, and of course memorable.  Now I'm off to help Carrie begin unpacking.

We are still alive...

I am wondering where this week has gone...I can't believe this trip is almost over. We are supposed  to leave on Sunday but due crazy snow storms we may be leaving on Saturday. We have been having a great time with the whole family and great friends...Here is just a few pics and I will do the big blog post after I get home from the trip.

Me and my 3 siblings...Nate, Matt, and Chris

The fam with out the kids

P.S. sorry the pics are super small I haven't uploaded my pics so I took them off my sisters facebook.

Finally in Idaho...

After 3 days of driving we're finally here...at times we barely survived the drive for a myriad of reasons.  Carrie will post soon with some of our tales of the road as well as some photos from along the way so stay tuned.

30 hours and counting...

I have a million things I should be doing right now but for some reason I have NO desire to do any of them. We are leaving tomorrow at 3p.m. to head to Idaho for Christmas. I am excited to see everyone just not excited for the LONG drive. Addie and Brian had some 24 hour flu bug or something yesterday. So I got nothing done. I am just praying that I don't get it, cause there is no time for me to get the flu.  

My house is trashed from the weekend events, I need to dig out the old computer box that is in the very back of our huge storage closet that is very full, send the computer to my parents, I need to start and finish packing for 3 people for our 8 day trip, make a blanket for a friend, clean my poor house, try and not neglect my child, and manage not to lose my mind while doing all of these things. 

I think I'll drink a nice big glass of Pepsi and get to work...

Addie's Party!

We had a little Tinker Bell theme for Addie's little birthday party. I thought it would be cute to dress Addie up as Tinker bell. She looked pretty cute, but I'm her mom I think that all the time. Before everyone showed up I tried to take a few pics of Addie but she was being a stinker. I managed to get a few good ones though.

The BIG CHEESE!!!

I was chasing her up the stairs and got her laughing pretty good.


That's my little 3 year old stinker...but I love her just the way she is!

Addie's party went really well I thought. I had a lot of help and thank you to everyone who helped, I couldn't have done with with out you. To everyone who came, thank you so much for being a part of Addie's special day. For those of you who couldn't make it near and far we missed you.

Papa Bruce and his Girlfriend Adell Came out Saturday to be here for the party, Addie loved having them around.


Glor a.k.a Mimi flew in just in time for the party, once Mimi showed up Addie wouldn't let her go. They have a special little bond that I am so grateful for.

When we started singing happy birthday she was really excited to finally be able to eat a cupcake.


Once she noticed everyone was looking at her she got super embarrassed.


Mimi ended up helping her blow out the candles...


Finally a yummy cupcake...

A few random things..

First off... I have no idea why it says I did her birthday post on Thursday, cause I did it this morning at 10 something...weird!
Moving right along, Addie has been crazy about cameras for a long time now so we decided to get for one of her own for her birthday. I had looked at a few different ones and read way to many reviews and the one that looked good to me was the Vteach Kidizoom. She opened it this morning and said "oh wow, a camera!" She played around with it a lot this morning. I thought it would be cute to do like a slide show of the pics she takes, to kind of see the world through her eyes. I will warn you now some of these pictures are from no shower, no make-up, just woke up me. Look at your own risk..
Here is just a few and I will soon try and do a weekly slideshow...



Addie has been on a mac and cheese kick lately and we were freshly out unfortunatly. So we thought she could get her fix and we took her to Red Robin for the best mac and cheese in town( or so she thinks) for her birthday dinner. We even let her get a milk shake, and boy did she love that. I took some pictures and I will post them early in the week after her party.

As I sit here thinking about where the last 3 years have gone. My sweet but sometimes crazy little girl is turning 3 today. She has brought so much joy and meaning to my life. I just hope and pray that I can be a great mother and friend as she continues to grow and learn throughout her life.

Happy Birthday Addie Kay! I love you so much!

I am a nut!

As I am sitting her looking at updated blogs, Addie is watching The Doodlebops and I sadly found myself singing along with them...I stopped and started laughing. You know you have a almost 3 year old when you with out thinking sing along to all the crazy kid shows. Oh the joys!

Elf Yourself...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

grrrrrr....

Okay so now I just feel like a fool. Brian and I were sitting and skyping with his mom over the computer, we were talking about our lovely afternoon. Glor was asking Addie about the nail, and Brian says what kind of nail was it? A hard nail that mommy was using for the lights or what? She says "NO a finger nail"....Me thinking WHAT??? This never once crossed my mind yesterday. Addie is a nail biter (it's nasty, I know. I can't get her to stop) Brian at this time says "Wow Carrie that was the $75 questions". Yeah I feel like a totally fool now....I guess you live and learn.

She never surprises me...

The afternoon begins like this...Addie and I were outside as I was hanging Christmas lights along the window. I had 5 little nails about an inch or so long sitting on the chair I was standing on while hanging the lights. I had used 4 of the 5 nails, I turned around to grab the last one and saw Addie was chewing on something weird. I asked her what do you have in your mouth? Spit it out NOW? As I see her swallow she looks at me and says "me swallow nail". I thought you have got to be kidding me child, not now, not today, not this month. I asked her a few different times in different ways about if she really swallowed it. She never changed her story at all. I looked around outside to see if I could find the nail. It was nowhere to be found. My first thought was I need to call someone that would know if I need to take her to the hospital or not. As I went through a few people in my cell, no one answered. I called the hospital and the lady said she wouldn't connect me to the ER  I just needed to bring her in ASAP. At this time Adell called me back and said take her in NOW and don't let her eat or drink anything. In my head I think great she is starving and lunch was almost done. I call Brian tell him he needs to come get us so we can go to the ER. We headed in to the ER and they got us in pretty quick. Brian took Addie back to do the x-ray, they did one from her ears to her belly button. They didn't see anything. They came back in and wanted to do another one from her chest to about her knees. Once again they saw nothing. The P.A. that saw her looked over them and also had a few other docs look at them also. All of them said nope we see nothing. 75 dollars later they sent us home with some papers and copies of the x-rays. I don't understand why or how she would think up something like that? I am a bit confused with it all really. This was our very interesting afternoon.

Addie chillin watching cartoons



The x-rays



FINALLY able to eat after they gave us the green light


The whole deal pooped her out..

Christmas Cards..

I am sending out Christmas cards. I would love to send you one...Please give me your address so I can, unless you know that I for sure have it. Thanks bunches

Thanksgiving Trip!

We took off to San Diego for a LONG weekend (weds-mon).  We did a bunch of fun stuff. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with Brian's dad, his girlfriend Adell, her daughters and family, and Kevin bri's bother. Friday Glor flew back into town, while Bri and Addie went to get her I headed out to catch a few sales. I got a ton of fabric for the blankets I make for $1.48 a yard. On Saturday we went and played at the park, took some family pictures, and took Addie to her first movie in the theater. She did really well, and loved Madagascar 2.

                                                                    

           Our little family
        Addie and Mimi at the coolest park ever

 Sunday Brian went to the Charger football game with his dad. Addie, Gloria, Adell, and her grand daughter Mikayla, and myself went to the beautiful San Diego Zoo. The weather was amazing and all the animals were out and about, we had a great time and saw some really cool things. 

                Mimi and Addie in front of the elephants

          Mikayla and Addie being scary spiders

                The "baby" panda bear

                   The gorilla was right up to the glass, 

        Addie looked at his toes and say he needs a band-aid.

         The momma and little tiny baby Koala