He's LEGAL!

Watch out! He's LEGAL! Too many football team photos- he forgot how to smile for the camera... and he said he couldn't see his name while signing it on the screen... oh, well- he passed!

Here they give you this printed receipt that doesn't even look legal- then send your real permit in the mail.

Good thing we live on a dirt road and he can get lots of miles going back and forth to school. I think we're all EXCITED!

Happy NEW YEAR's Eve!

I can't believe that it's New Year's Eve already! I'm so excited to play games, eat snacks and hang out tonight! It's been a relaxing bit of down time this last week which has been WONDERFUL! Our Internet has been down as well- a nice break from being on the computer actually! We've had so much happen and I have so many photos... I'll work to catch up!

Justin turned 15 on December 14th and took his permit test and passed today- YEAH! We celebrated with food, of course. He was pretty excited for his birthday as well along with his new phone! His choice for his birthday dinner- steak, shrimp and fries- of course!

Snow Day

I pretty much feel like the Duncan Donuts guy... you know the one on the old commercials- "time to make the donuts..." ? Only for me for the last month + it's been, "time to make the plaques..." I'm finally at the end of orders (even after I stopped taking new orders on December 6th) and think it might take me until February to recover enough to open back up. I'm excited for our house to smell like Christmas cookies instead of clear coat! We're having a shop built as well (on our property), hopefully it will be up and ready to go after the first of the year- Yeah!!

We actually have a little snow this week! The little guys were happy to play in it. I told Caden he needed to get some mittens on. His reply, "What are mittens?" Oh baby! He didn't want to wear a snowsuit and I haven't bought snow boots for any of them. Why? It melts the next day! LOVE THAT!!

Now that I've shut my shop down, I'll be sure to post new, fun photos that I've taken... basketball is in full swing, too! It's just been a little too crazy around here!

The BOY's Car

Saturday, I made 4 trips driving Justin to and from Mulvane (20 min each way). Starting with practice at 7 (he let them sleep in since it was Saturday... nice, huh?) picking him up, then to the Winter dance and ending up back at the school at 11pm to pick him up. TOO much driving, which is why we went ahead and bought Justin a car. It's not really his, but we'll let him think it is for now. We might have to get personalized plates with Caden's name, because Caden really thinks it's his car. Might keep Justin humble.

Jim said it was $15 to fill up the tank- crazy to us! Now, he just needs to get his permit, then his license...

Our Tree

I thought the little guys were old enough to leave the tree alone this year- wrong. They've already re-arranged all of the decorations. Enough to make me crazy. Here's what our decorated tree looks like! Don't know why I spent the time decorating it evenly... it changes daily. Maybe next year- they're not small forever!

The Christmas Tree Farm

I wanted the whole experience. This fall, I missed picking apples at the apple orchard, didn't make it to the pumpkin patch or even the corn maze. I didn't want to miss out on picking out a Christmas tree at a tree farm.

All of the above are experiences that Alaska doesn't offer. My mom says we had real trees when I was little, but I don't remember... this seemed like my first REAL Christmas tree and I LOVE it! There was a little resistance, but after our morning at the tree farm it's definitely a new tradition for us!

The farm we found is run by an older couple- the man drove us around to the field area on his old John Deere tractor, then let us off to look for "our perfect tree." Justin decided the first one he saw would work... but, we made him walk around until we found the right one. They came and cut it for us, then loaded it back on the trailer to clean it, shake it and load it!

SO MUCH FUN!!

Thanksgiving (last week!)

We decided to give a fried turkey a 2nd try and it was SO worth it! Jim and Jassen did a great job watching the temp and cooking our turkey. Actually, they cooked two so we had plenty of leftovers! Yummy stuff!

It's ALMOST December!!

Yikes! I can't believe tomorrow is December 1st! As much as I TRY each year to get my act together early, I just can't seem to get there! It was a busy weekend filled with lots of activity and fun with Jassen, Dawn and Kota. We had our Thanksgiving dinner, caught a movie or two, Justin took his first spin and decided he LOVES to drive (blog post in iteself), found a tree farm, experienced the tree farm (blog post with a zillion photos to come), decorated for Christmas, took the tractor out, played, and made a few new memories. It was fast and furious as our pace always is... I'm ready for another 4-day weekend already! Basketball games start this week in full swing. I'm trying to figure out how we're going to do it. Should be fun, I just want to enjoy the time more than being caught up in it feeling exhausted all the time. More photos to come- I took a bunch this weekend! (no surprise, I'm sure!)