HECTIC, but FUN and sad it's already over!

We prepare and look forward to this day all year long, but in a few minutes of paper ripping and ooh's and awe's, it's ALL OVER! Well this year for Christmas we packed up the kids and headed to Eagar like we always do! I mean come on, who would miss the great "Finch Christmas Eve party" right? I said we weren't going this year, because it's just so hard to bring all our presents up there for one day of fun, (we had to come back to Mesa Christmas day to see the other side of the family) but when it came right down to it, we knew we would be sad we weren't up in the snow seeing all my family at the Finch Christmas Eve party. We always have so much fun and John was adamant that we were going. He loves it up there and he wanted to have a "snowy" Christmas. So off we went! We also said we weren't going over-board on the kids this year, but by the time you get everything out and wrap it, you can't remember what you had already bought them and so you end up spoiling them rotten again (at least that's what I do)! The kids got a Wii, and a trampoline, but I think the one that topped it all off, was this fat little fuzzy hamster my parents got for Ridge! He was the hit of Christmas! Hell, if I would have known a $29 hamster was going to be so popular I wouldn't have spent so much on a $240 Wii! LOL And the hamster also comes with a funny story: So my mom was keeping the hamster in her room before Christmas so the kids wouldn't see it. Well on Christmas eve, after the kids had fallen asleep, my mom told me to go put the hamster down stairs by the Christmas tree. Then at about 5:00 the next morning my mom jumps out of bed and yells at my dad "Ronnie, something just crawled across my legs" and my dad was like "your just having a dream, go back to sleep!", and my mom was like "no something was on me!" So she gets out of bed and the thought crosses her mind, "could it have been the hamster?" So she runs down stairs and checks the cage and the hamster is gone! So she runs back up stairs and shuts her door and told my dad "it was the hamster, you have to help me find it." So they are crawling around on the floor and my mom spies it hiding in the exact corner she had his cage in the night before! It was so funny! He came all the way up stairs to my parents room to find my mom and the familiar place he had slept the night before. I didn't know hamsters were that smart. We had a good laugh over it though!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas:




Our family at the party on Christmas eve at my Grandpa's house

My brothers, Kylee and Lance and John and I

My mom and dad

Santa Claus came to our Party.....

....the kids were in awe!......

.....Ridge was so shy, he said he wanted star wars toys, and that's exactly what Santa had for him, it was so funny.......

.....Andrew said he wanted a Wii, and he did get it...... the next morning!.....

....Sayler just walked right up to Santa and told him she wanted a Barbie, she wasn't shy at all!

Sayler helped the adults play the "Dollar game", she was so cute!

.....Dreaming of getting a Wii.....

Dreaming of Santa Claus!

....also dreaming of Santa Claus........

They opened 2 presents on Christmas eve, PJ's and sleeping bags!

Too many presents at my parents house!

Christmas morning there were Elk in my parents front yard!

Andrew got his Wii!

Ridge was so excited!

Sayler loved this doll that she can put make-up on!

It DID snow Christmas Day on our way home.

Then we did Christmas with John's family, it was so much fun, this is John's step-mom Lisa & Ridge.

and John's dad and Sayler..

Then Ridge (AKA Davie Crocket) & Sayler goofed off with Optimus Prime at home.

"Family Fun"

We had so much fun the other day! My little family and John's parents and siblings all went into the desert to ride in these utility vehicles and sandrails. John works for his dad's company called "Team Joyner USA" and what they do is they design, build and sale these utility vehicles and sandrails called "Joyners" (you might have heard of them, they're getting pretty popular) to over 200 dealers throughout the USA and in some other parts of the world. It's a really fun job because we get to benefit from weekend fun like this! These are some pictures of their cars and us goofing off!

"Life Is Too Short"

Experiences like today make me realize that life is way too short and you never know when it will be your time to go. I was doing my clinical rotations at the hospital today and I was in the E.R., which is by the way my most favorite place to be, because it's the place of "unknown" - you never know what is going to come through that door and so you always have to be on your toes! Well today was definitely one of those days. I can't talk about it too much due to the privacy laws, but we had a patient die today from a really bad car accident. It was just so sad, I just thought about it the whole way home tonight from Show Low. I know throughout my career as a nurse I am going to have to see and experience some really sad things, but it's still really hard, and I don't ever want to get used to it. I don't ever want to become a feelingless person, or to ever become numb to these sorts of things. I think if you start to become numb to the sad things then you also start to become numb to the good things in life. Life is just way to short. Your life can be gone in an instant! Live every day like it's going to be your last. Hug your kids and kiss your husbands all the time and always tell them you love them.