Hiking

Ross' mom & dad came into town that first night - before we went sledding - and were going to go with us - but mom had a bit of the sniffles, so they stayed back (we wanted to stay back to be with them, but once you tell the kids they're going sledding, and you DON'T go, you get on the bad list. Can't have that.

Next day - Ross' dad wanted to go on a hike - he dug around and found Camelback Mountain - maybe on some kind of chamber of commerce web site? And wanted to go. Well, I'm up for a good hike any day of the week - so we went.

I strapped Coby to the snuggly - and started off on the first 3/8 mile of a souped-up-nature-type stair-master climb!

It was great. Then we came to a CLIMB.
Can't do that with a baby - well, MAYBE up, but definitely not down! So I held Jolisa's baby while she went up one more level - and then we both went back down - I twisted my knee...Jolisa slammed hers into the ground.

BUT - the kids went (except for Brynn, who stayed home with Grandma and her cousin Olivia) and they all made it to the top!

Debunked New Years Resolutions:

You must have a resolution for every New Year that comes along. I don't know what over-ambitious childless moron started this traditional ridiculocity, but I'll tell you right now what some popular resolutions are - and even show the hidden meaning behind them...which will help explain why my resolution this year is to not have any resolutions!

1 - Stop yelling at the kids. Do people do this? Yes and NO, the trick to this one is that it's okay to yell, but make sure the windows are closed so the neighbors can't hear what an idiot you sound like when squealing about backpacks and cracker crumbs. Also, if you really want to stop yelling at the kids - make sure you watch a video where you are in the background yelling at one of them...when you yell, make sure the video camera is in the OFF position. The key here is *NO WITNESSES*

2 - Lose weight. A lot of people gain weight during the holiday months from Halloween on - you're not really losing it. Nothing goes away - *I* find it all, so I would appreciate you keeping it to yourself.

*****(a) A trick to losing weight is to *deliver a baby* **it should be noted, I will not ever again lose any amount of weight. That is *MY* resolution for LIFE!

*****(a) Another weight loss tip - Don't drink your calories. Instead of drinking a soda or a juicebox, FREEZE it and eat it as a Popsicle. I've read in several places that drinking calories is not good. You will lose plenty of weight by chewing your liquid refreshment. At least twenty chews before you swallow. Chewing also burns calories.

*****(b) Keep hydrated. It's important to drink plenty of liquids. Take your snickers bar and blend it up adequately - freeze it, then chew it at least 20 times before swallowing.

*****(c) Exercise. We've heard this before, and I have an excellent tip for you - most people don't STICK to exercising because they get bored. My tip is this: to keep from getting bored while exercising, eat m&m's. Get a 3 pound bag, and dump them out on the "reading tray" of your treadmill or elliptical (we all know you move too much during exercise and the tray is too far away from your aging eyes to actually SEE text - the only reasonable use for that tray is for holding m&m's). Sort them by color and then eat all of them from the most amount of one color to the least amount of a color. Surprisingly, sorting m&m's takes a lot more time than it used to (they added the blue if you remember) by the time you finish sorting and eating your tasty little treat, you will have burned enough calories to cover an entire sorted color.

3 - Keep the {enter specific room or area of the house} clean. This is done by watching TV. If you avoid all areas of the home, none of them will get dirty - just sit in one place day after day and enjoy some liquid refreshments. Also, when adding children to the equation, do not let them in or out. Let them sleep in a tent. Tents are fun. And not in the house - therefore children tent dwelling doesn't lend itself to getting particular areas of your home cluttered.

4 - Get good grades in school. This is an important one for a lot of students. The key here is to find someone who is so uptight and stressed about school work to copy from. You'll understand this when you are much older and realize that you don't remember a thing from school, so it was a waste...besides school doesn't offer real life experience. Cleaning my refrigerator does.

5 - Become more spiritual. This is not as difficult as many people make it out to be. Every time you take the Lord's name in vain - use it constructively - turn the vain phrase into a prayer and bless the pygmies in New Guinea.

nuf sed.

And we went sledding....

Two hours north of here is Flagstaff. They had a major snow-dump the last week (well, the week before we went - which was December 29th) and while Ross wanted to go the Friday before, I talked him out of it - first of all, it was going to be overcast and cold - and secondly - can you imagine how many crazy Phoenix residents would be heading up at the first sign of snow?

So we went on Monday - the second sign of snow - forecast called for SUN - and upper 50's - surely NO ONE ELSE would be there? No. Clearly I wasn't the only Phenician looking at the weather forcast.

There was hardly any room at our normal sledding spots. The road into the slope was cleared so exactly two cars could fit, one lane coming in to the slope, one lane going out - well, everyone was parallel parked on the going out lane, so as we came in - and cars came in behind us, we discovered we were trapped, so we put it in park and decided that we'd stay until everyone behind us left...in order...that's pretty much what we all did - so we stayed until the sun went down...and had an ABSOLUTE blast.

It was warm enough outside - that between the sun and the exercise of going up the slope carrying the sled, the kids only wore light sweatshirts and Ross (the dad) took his long sleeve off. He felt like he was in high school again - where he used to ski short sleeved...ah, to be young again...but with 6 kids...yah - there's a reality check - aged me 20 years in 30 seconds.

Anyway - our "tradition" (3rd time going! LOL!) is to bring up firewood - and make a camp fire - well, screw that tradition - the cars were bumper to bumper. (and it was pretty warm outside - so not really needed) So we took out the camp stove, camp table, the coffee percolator (we made hot water for cocoa) and the pre-cooked beef stew, and warmed it all up - ate a quick meal and the proceeded to do some sledding. The picture above of Coby & Brynn are in our camp chairs that only THEY could sit in (or there would be some serious sinkage!) Coby loved being a big girl in a big girl chair!!

Here are some more pictures of our stay. (I left my camera card at the house, so these were taking with Kiersten's camera - a new thing - that we're still trying to get used to!)

Brynn probably had the most fun.
Howie found a wheel-less skateboard and tried using it as a snowboard.
He actually did pretty well - I almost went to a store and rented one for him - too bad I was trapped between 30 cars?
Coby was a little worried coming down the slope, but after she stopped, she was giggling up a storm!

And Kiersten was my baby-holder while I looked for the photo-ops!

Then Comes Christmas

So, the highlights - always "what did you GET?" Now...Coby didn't get anything (like she'd even care, right?) - well maybe an outfit or two - a chew toy - you know - something to keep her from gnawing on the furniture (why, YES, that *IS* a dried mixture of snot and graham crackers under her nose.)

Brynn got a coloring desk which apparently was a HUGE hit - as opposed to a last minute "filler" type gift...

Kiersten's gift was also a huge hit - we got her stickers. A bunch of them - and curtains and a window scarf - which she uses as mosquito netting around her bed, since Phoenix is infested with mosquitoes (particularly bedroom mosquitoes - but this is what she wanted)...


Grandpa Covino also got her wooden letters, which she painted - how absolutely ADORABLE, right? She did a great job!!

Rossi got a punching bag & gloves. I think he was slightly disappointed with it - but it doesn't matter, it's a good thing with which to take his frustration out. I think it was an outstanding investment!!

Kali - she likes to write us notes on a dry erase board, so what better gift than the gift of gab? And you may also notice in this picture our lovely fireplace, the plasma TV gives off some reflective heat, so it was quite appropriate for the moment. A 6 hour loop of warm fuzzies.

Howie got a few armfuls of Tech Decks. This, so he can ride around the block on finger-sized skateboards, apparently, it's the THING, I'm just glad pokemon cards are a thing of the past - what a stupid gizmo those are (as opposed to miniature skateboards?) That's what he asked for...and legos.

So there's Christmas.

Pre-Christmas

Well, I have to blog according to the pictures I took, so lets start with the Christmas party. Our ward didn't have Santa come, so we decided to invite him to our house & along with a bunch of the kids friends.

Coby freaked right out - which - I have to admit, as sick as I may be, was kind of cute. I think it's absolutely adorable when babies freak out at Santa. Yep, call me twisted.

Here's one with the kids - they were running around outside just before I hollered for them all to come in...so they're all tassled and sweaty and grass-stained knees...but all in one place.