Weekend Wrapup

Gosh, as I sit here brainstorming what I should write, lots of things are coming to my head about what I WISH I could write.

Christmas tree isn't up yet, still have some pretty major cleaning to do before next weekend when we have company for Cadee's 1st birthday party. Lots of prep for the bday party. Owell, I work best under pressure! :)

We did get most of the goodies shopped for the party, and I do have the Christmas letter written and ready for the most part to send out.

Cadee is making some progress about pivoting and getting around on her feet, walking won't be far off.

Tonight while watching the AWESOME Bears / Broncos game (PS BEARS WON in overtime if you missed it!), I called my good friend Kaycee up during half time, she's expecting her first child with a due date this week. I'm so glad I did, she's going in to be induced tonight!! I am so excited for them and can't wait to hear from them tomorrow. Sounds like we will be able to get together during Christmas time, so I am really looking forward to that. We are making plans to see a Home Bears game hopefully next season!

Willie and Barney are really coming together. We had a rough night or two, but I think that things are falling into place now. Working on the potty training, but crate training is going really well. He's still so little to expect anything yet.

Hope everyone has a good week, will be busy here. Chris will be away training for a couple of days and I will be working on the last minute stuff for company and party planning.

Family Lunch

On Saturday we joined Grandpa Craig and Grandma Diane for lunch to visit with Paul who is in town for the holiday. Great Grandma and Grandpa H, and Uncle Sean joined us as well.

Black Friday

After we got home from Chanute Jana and Matt came over to meet Barney and to spend some time together for the holiday.

Jana and I decided that there were some bargains at Wal-Mart and Kohl's that we couldn't pass up, so we got together at 4:30 Friday morning to join the Black Friday crowds. I have to be careful not to reveal my secret bargains for whomever might be reading this.

Jana and I found the location of our hot bargain and waited along with the few dozen other people standing around. My secret plan was to "help" Jana (read: shove) haha :) into the middle of the action to make sure that we got the quantity of the item we were looking for. The customer service lady came over and unveiled the treasure and we were able to get what we were after, but in about 45 seconds flat the entire palate was gone.

We then went after our second bargain, but realized that the best plan of attack would be to station a person at each desired item, otherwise we were probably out of luck. We did walk away with some toys that we weren't necessarily after for the girls, but when everyone else is grabbing them like hotcakes, they must be a great deal! :)

It was probably only 5:45 and the adrenaline was running so off to Kohls we went. Jana found some bargain sheets and then we went off to where we stood in line as it snaked its way through the store. We stood in line roughly an hour, but it worked out well because we took turns shopping some more, and Jana was making fun of me because most of the bargains I was picking up was things people had left behind close to the line!

By the time we left there I had to take Jana home so I could make it home in time for Chris to get off to work. The girls and I spent a good day together and went in and joined Daddy for lunch. We also brought in Barney for his office friends to meet. It was a long day after getting up so early (I need my sleep) and the girls's naps didn't coordinate well enough for me to sneak one in of my own.

Jana and I always have fun on our Black Friday adventures. This year our wardrobe even coordinated in our Garth hoodies. :) Our radar isn't so great, so if you see us coming, get out of our way! :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. On actual Thanksgiving day, we traveled to Chanute to visit Chris's Grandparents, the girl's Great Grandparents. We (and my kids) are so lucky to have lots of family in our lives. The girls currently have 6 Grandparents, and 7 Great-Grandparents, but not so long ago had 8 Great-Grandparents. I thought I was lucky that I had a Great-Grandma (she was an amazing woman who lived to be 101), but I think it is great for the kids to have this opportunities.

We got to see extended family from Texas and Oklahoma. It was fun for all of Grandma Lassman's grandchildren to be together (minus Sarah), but close.

Here are some pictures from the day. Barney was a big hit. He just laid around and soaked it all in!

Who can resist more pictures?

I am so blessed with such beautiful children, and now about the cutest puppy that there ever was. :)

I am glad that it is the end of a short work week and look forward to spending the long 4 day weekend with my family.

Tonight was spent preparing casseroles, deserts and getting ready for our day trip to Chanute. We also tried on some Christmas dresses for Nana and took a couple of pictures.

(Barney was helping Dad give the girls a bath)

Hope all is well! Happy Thanksgiving eve.

So I'm not a cat person.....

Through a friend at work, we had an offer we just couldn't pass up! Meet Barney the Bulldog!

He was 7 weeks old yesterday, the last of his liter, and sweet as can be! Willie is doing well, Barney doesn't move around as much and doesn't catch as much attention yet.

(Willie and Barney getting acquainted!)

We just picked him up tonight and are totally in love.

Happy pre-Thanksgiving everyone.

(especially from Barney the Bulldog, and Willie the Pug)

(Zoey was making sure he was tucked in before she went to bed)

P.S. Chris is thrilled, he is finally owning both breeds of dogs he has always wanted too (same goes for me, I just haven't known it as long, haha!) :)

Weekend Wrapup

So I know I have at least one loyal reader out there who made a comment from the peanut gallery about how I hadn't updated my blog in a whole week (you know who you are) :) I do appreciate my readers!

Pretty quiet and uneventful weekend, although those are nice too. Friday evening we had dinner with Nana and Papa Dave. Nana and Zoey spent some time at ChuckECheese and the Toy store.

Saturday was really quiet, went grocery shopping, although I should have spent it much more productively.... (preparing for Cadee's Birthday, the holidays, cleaning the house) but I did enjoy my nap that I caught up on.

Sunday Chris and Matt tried to go out Turkey hunting again. They saw one, but there was too much brush in the way for a good shot. Maybe again next Sunday.

The weather was so unusually warm, Chris got up and hung Christmas lights around the house it looks really nice. Not that on a dead end street we'll have much drive by traffic, but it makes us feel more festive and I think that Zoey really gets a kick out of it.

Zoey found out at Sunday School that she is going to be a shepherd for the Church Christmas Program. She choose that from a Shepherd, Sheep, or Angel. She is pretty excited about it and enjoys practicing her songs.

Finished up the weekend watching the Chiefs play a close game with Indianapolis. Take care!

I love you Garth!

I finally got to see Garth Brooks in concert!!! Garth Brooks has been my number one artist forever, and I have always wanted to see him in concert but after he announced his retirement, I never thought that I was going to be able to go. I couldn't believe it when I heard about it on the radio.

When Ticketmaster announced its armband policy, I was at Dillon's at 6 am waiting 2nd in line, where Chris took over for me because I had to leave town for work. Despite our best efforts with the wristband efforts, I was able to get tickets online quicker than Chris could with the wristband.

$25 / ticket!!! Who would have thought it could ever be? I was prepared to pay a much higher prices, but that was great news. We bought 6 tickets (our per customer limit) and brought our friends Wayne and Kelly and Connie and Guy from Chris's work.

Monday couldn't have come soon enough, I counted down the days and finally the hours as Monday at work crawled by. Chris, Wayne, Kelly, picked me up at 3:00 and we were off to KC!

We had lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise at Legends (great eats there!) and I had the best drink I have ever had in my life. The Signature Pina Colada is SO good there. Pina Colada with a little pineapple, strawberry, and blackberry on top. Fantastic!

Then we headed off to the Sprint center which was a sight to see. Gorgeous disco ball looking venue. Waited in line till we could enter the building at 6. Once we got in through security it was off to the Souvenir stands for me. T-shirts, Sweatshirts, magnet, hat, key chain, CD, I got it all and then some. :)

Trisha came out and sang 4 songs to open the show despite her throat ailments. She was so beautiful! I was disappointed that she didn't come back out to do some duets with Garth later on, but I am sure that her health kept her from doing so.

Garth's show was just fantastic!! My words can't describe it, I cried like a baby. I have always wanted to see him perform, and he exceeded all my expectations. Everyone stood, shouted, and sang so loudly to EVERY one of his songs. He came out for 2 encores. I will never forget that show for as long as I live.

Sarah and Brad were so wonderful to watch the girls, despite the fact that we didn't get home till after 1 AM. Poor Chris got a migraine after the show, thank goodness he felt better this morning.

Chris was so wonderful to me for helping me make this happen and what a wonderful evening it was. I've only posted a few pictures here, but there is a link at the bottom to many more pictures if you are interested. Chris took such great pictures!!! Also I have put in the link for the article from the KC Star regarding last night's show.

When I was at the souvenir stand, I asked for 2 of the smallest T-shirts that they had, and this is what I got. I figure Zoey will probably be in the 4th grade, but I may not have that chance again.... we can always use more nightshirts! :)

To see more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20555&l=a6b9b&id=719761904

KC Star article about last night's show:
http://www.kansascity.com/620/story/358510.html

Turkey Hunting!

4 am came pretty early this morning, but at least it was only a momentary interruption of sleep for me! :) Chris on the other hand was up bright and early and with some enthusiasm. He and Jana's bf Matt went out turkey hunting. Chris has been looking for a place to go turkey hunting all fall, so he was thrilled with Matt offered to take him on some of his family's ground.

They didn't get one, they did see a couple that were too far away, and then they did see some that were close enough, but Chris wanted to get a bigger one, so he was being picky, but sounds like they had a great time.

P.S. TOMORROW IS GARTH! (I can almost start counting the hours outloud!)

Zoey's New Hobby

Lately Zoey's new hobby has been taking pictures, and she is really getting the hang of it. It makes me nervous with our camera, but I think that Grandma Becky was along the right track when she thought of getting her a kids digital camera for Christmas this year, I think it is going to be a phenomonal hit! Some of her masterpieces! :)

What can I say, she just wanted to take "One more piskcture!" (if you've heard her say picture you can pronounce this, otherwise even I can't re-pronounce it) :) before going to bed....

Feeling Better

The girls really seem to be feeling better which is so nice. They both still have the tail end of the cough and what not, but I am just glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Bummer for me that I seem to be feeling a tickle in my throat, but I hope to get some rest this weekend and kick it before it sets in.

P.s. 2.5 days till Garth!!!!

Willie goes to the vet!

So today was the big day. Back in our "Max" days Max needed to have his second set of vaccinations in November, so when I made that appointment (which I later had to cancel) I went ahead and made an appointment for Willie to come and be checked in as well.

(not Willie's best photo, but in the other 2 I took, Zoey wasn't smiling and Chris wasn't looking!)

We were all going to go, but Cadee got tired and ready for a nap, so she and I stayed home.

Its been almost 4 years since Willie has seen a Vet. What can I say, he's inside 98% of his life, he doesn't get out much. He's been really healthy thus far (knock on wood). :) So I figured we better get him in and checked out.

We really liked our experience with Max and the Auburn Animal clinic, so I think that we'll be changing Willie to them as well. We did go to Lifelong Pet Care at 29th and Kansas, but due to availability and prices, I think we'll be making the switch.

The vet had good things to say about Willie. He's 30.5 pounds, lighter than we had thought, those stairs are good for him! :) Although she's like to see him drop another 5 pounds, we'll see what we can do! Looks good, his heart sounds good, yea! Probably won't let it get another 4 years before the next time.

Yea Willie! We love you.

Get Well Soon!

Poor Chris, yesterday was such a long day for him. I think that he was tired from the weekend, but yesterday didn't help. We gave the kids some medicine before taking them to Bobbies, but by 9:30 Bobbie had called saying that they weren't doing so well. Chris was the hero and took the rest of the day to go home and be with them.

Cadee is still struggling with her teeth and she seems to have a big of a cold / fever to go along with it.

Zoey has her cough but has quickly decided that she would use "I don't feel good" as a catch phrase to see what attention she can get. She has really been testing the limits as well as far as not listening. The combination of the above made for a long day.

Several weeks ago when Cadee had been sick for like 6 weeks we took her in and got prescirbed some albuteral medicine for her cough to give as needed. The pharmasist and bottle said to give her 1.5 tsp as needed, it seemed like a lot for little Cadee, even Grandma Becky and Bobbie thoguht twice about it, but we went with what was on the bottle.

We had a refill so I had Chris call that in for me. The pharmist called and said that the dosage should have only been .5 tsp, not 1.5!!! That is so scary with all of the recalls lately for the chance of overdose. thank goodness everything is okay, and it probably just made her a little more wired than normal, but being as the pharmasist said this could be a side effect, we didn't think a lot about it.

They both slept well and seemed to be doing a little better this morning so they are off to Bobbies again. I'm crossing my fingers for a better day today. LOVE TO ALL!

P.S. 6 days till Garth!!

Zoey & Mommy's weekend

Since Zoey woke up with "croup" on Friday, she stayed home with Chris on Friday morning (where she went into the doctor's and got diagnosed and got some medicine). And then on Friday afternoon I came home and stayed with her so the hunters could get on the road. (Zoey on Friday)

(Willie stayed home with us, what can I say, he's not quite a hunting dog!) :)

Friday afternoon was pretty quiet, she took a nap (as did I) :) and we had some Mac and Cheese for supper and went to bed really early. I was so thankful that she slept through the night and kind of slept in. So good for both of us. Saturday I could tell she was feeling quite a bit better so after a relaxing morning and nap, we went in for the matinee of Ratatioulle at the dollar theater. She was so excited and it was fun to go out and do that with her.

After the movie, I wanted to go and check out Burlington Coat Factory, the new store at the mall, I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't find much, I wasn't much impressed. Then we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries. Of all the things for me to forget, I forgot milk! (Our house goes through like 4-6 gallons of milk a week, I am always buying milk).

It was time for supper so we went to one of my favorite resturants, Carlos O'Kelly's. The wait staff was less than impressive, Zoey did a good job, but I was adventerous in what I ordered and should have known better! :) When you find the best you should really just stick with it! Unfortuantely the second our food was delivered, Zoey had to use the potty, so that was a bummer to come back to cool food, and then when we went back to the car, someone had left me a visible door job, so that was a bummer! Such a busy afternoon we came home and went to bed, after a quick detour to Applemarket where I picked up the milk I forgot.

This morning we went in and Zoey wore a dress to Sunday school, she loved it and got all kinds of compliments. We joined Papa Craig, Grandma Diane, Gma H, Gpa H, and Sean for lunch before coming home and taking our nap. She wasn't on her best behaviour at lunch, but it had been a long weekend.

It was so great to have Cadee and Chris home again this evening. I think we all had a good time, but it was so fun to be all together again, even if it was just for a few minutes before bed.

I'm sending up a quick prayer for the girls health, that Cadee gets to feeling better and Zoey kicks this cough.

Have a great week! P.S. (Only 8 days till Garth!!!)

Opening Weekend - Pheasant Season!

Chris, Wayne, Cadee, Craig, and 2 of Craig's friends went west to St. Francis this weekend for opening weekend of Pheasant Season. (Here is Wayne with some of the trophies, I wish Chris would have gotten a picture too!)

Oh what a delima it was for me to decide whether or not I was going to go. I decided that I was going to stay home and enjoy a weekend to myself or with friends, but then Friday morning Zoey woke up pretty sick. We took her into the doctor and found out that she had "croup" so I stayed home with her.

Sounds like all the boys had a great time hunting. I can't spout all the statistics, but I do know that Chris shot 2 birds, one was a hen, and the other they couldn't find, but either way it was the thrill of the chase, and they saw many birds.

Chris and Wayne stayed an extra day and got to do some more hunting than Craig and his friends who left Saturday afternoon.

(Daddy and daughter trying to catch up from such a busy weekend!)

A good time was had by all, except poor Cadee who was really fighting some teeth and a little bit of a cold which made traveling a bit rough for her. Although I know that she and Grandma Becky had some great bondign time despite her being a little under the weather.

More Halloween Pictures!

A friend of mine from work had taken some pictures while we were here, so I wanted to post those as well, they turned out great!