Night at the Deadwood Saloon...

Tawna & Nathan started a new tradition last year for their Christmas gift to everyone in the family... a couples dinner sometime in January each year. This was the 2nd annual couple dinner hosted by them and was fantastic! They are always fun and thinking of new ways to entertain... THANKS GUYS!!!!!!! That's the first date we've been on in over a month and we had a blast!

The Whole Gang...

My man and me, otherwise known as Gambling Jack (Professional ChampionGambler) and Anna Belle (Jack's wife and a Genteel Southern Lady of Means). I won best costume by the way!!! Everyone looked AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoying a fun dinner...

Jamie & Summer... Minnie Money (Southern Belle and Daughter of Montgomery Money) Montgomery Money (Business Tycoon and a Gentleman)...

Granny... Banker Bonnie! Love this hat and will find a reason to borrow it someday!!!

Our Hosts... Tawna & Nathan as Miss Sally Starr (Saloon Girl) and Highstakes Harry (Saloon Owner).

Jade, aka: Holly Hickock (Southern Belle who loves to gamble)

Grumpy as Marshall Dalton (Federal Marshall assigned to keep things honest at the poker tournament).

Robert as Clay Coldwell (Has been gambling great). He's so handsome!!!! I thought he looked great in his cowboy duds...

Stacie as Poker Sally (Dealer at the Deadwood Saloon)...

RB as Mitch Maverick (Stranger from back east) and doubling as Jesse Wales (Outlaw and ex-husband of Poker Sally).

And... I just really liked this one of Kevin! He's a sexy man!!!! He always tries not to really smile big in pics and I for one LOVE his genuine smile here! He was having fun obviously!

The Big ...Harmon, Mower, Goodwin, Jarvis, Armstrong Photo Shoot!!!!

Aimee Hill (see sidebar for contact info) our photographer is amazing! We are CRAZY people and she handled us just right! Thanks to her and everyone for participating since it's been about 7 years since the last big family pic and will probably another 5 before we try it again! :)

Emmy was NOT happy for the majority of picture day... big shocker!!!

Emmy's 1st Trip to Urgent Care...

She was swinging in her porch swing that hangs from the back porch ceiling and Kevin was pushing her. Roxy had chewed her left strap so that it didn't work and when Kevin looked at Lauren jumping on the tramp for a sec... Emmy bailed! I heard it from inside and knew immediately it was the hurt cry. He ran her inside and cleaned it up quick and put a butterfly bandage from our kit on it probably within 3 minutes. I ran upstairs to throw jeans and a t-shirt on and we were off to urgent care. Kevin said we should call our regular doctors office since they do stitches, but it was a Monday holiday off from school so I just assumed they were closed. We waited at Urgent care for 2 hours before they actually saw her and she was fine for the whole wait. Then they took us back to the little room to assess the damage. The butterfly bandage had done it's job well and the gash seemed to be closed, but the doctor did say that if it was indeed open before bandaging it would open again without stitches or medical glue. We opted for medical glue, so they washed it with soap and water, gave it 3 swipes of glue and gave her some motrin. They tried to charge us an arm and a leg at checkout and we (I mostly) spoke my mind about their charges very matter of factly!!! RIDICULOUS!!! Let's just say it was about 3 times more expensive than our highest guestimate going in. We paid 1/3 of the bill before leaving and the administrator and the doctor apologized profusely over the exhorbent charges for such a simple procedure and gave me a number to call. You see, they were part of the Gilbert Mercy hospital and had to charge their personal pay patients according to what that hospital would charge Medicaid, which is astronomical!!! A couple of days later the administrator

called me and said they felt so bad about the charges that she was setting up a meeting with the powers that be to get this fee schedule changed for all personal pay patients to be reasonable and more in line with all other urgent care facilities. A week after that she informed me that we owed nothing more on the invoice and that because of us voicing our concerns it would be different for everyone that walked through that door in the future!!! YAY!!!!!!

Emmy is all healed and will have a little scar and hopefully no more accidents for a very LONG time to come!

Oma & Opa

We got a phone call from Aunt Heidi on a Saturday night a couple of weeks ago about Oma & Opa being in a kitchen accident and being burned pretty badly. She and Bryce happened to be there for dinner and they were making crab. Somehow the steam burned both of them pretty good and I think hot water burns as well. Heidi had Oma get into the shower and get her clothes off of her and wrapped her in a sheet as she got the most of it all. She was burned on her neck, chest, stomach, arms, and legs I believe. Opa was also burned on his chest, stomach, hands, thighs and a knee I think. When Heidi called Oma was being air lifted to the Maricopa Medical Center in downtown phoenix and Opa was in an ambulence on his way as well. It is supposed to be the best burn unit around I guess. Kevin didn't go to the hospital that night as it was late and he was a little sick and needed to stick close to home. He went the next morning and spent most of the morning and into the afternoon there. Oma has second and third degree burns and Opa has first and second??? I know that they were pretty much out of it for a couple of days to a week by being kept on pain medication since burns are so painful. They were on different floors which makes me so sad because I know that would be hard to be going through and feel like your sweetie wasn't able to be close by. Kevin has been in and out of town this month due to business and hasn't gotten to visit as much as he'd like, but calls to check in with Heidi or me or calls Oma on her phone. She has days where she can talk and days not. Opa got to go home last week and Heidi and Bryce are taking excellent care of him. Thank goodness they live close by! I know the ward has been good to bring in dinners for them and doing what they can as well. Kevin and I got to go by on a Friday after I picked him up at the airport and see Oma for about an hour, but she was sooooo sleepy. We told her we'd be back as soon as possible with pictures to decorate her room with! She has had 2 skin graft surgeries so far and having a 3rd this Wednesday the 10th. We all talked on the phone yesterday with her and she sounded the best I've heard her so far. That was nice to hear!!! Kids 12 and older are allowed in, but that leaves most of ours out. So, Kaitlin and I will go visit on Thursday hopefully and Kevin and I will go back Friday and Sunday and spend some time. We MISS them so much and I know that Lauren especially misses her Oma and doesn't understand.

Please keep them in your prayers that they can recover from this and move forward. I think Oma will be in the hospital for another few weeks??? And, even after she's released she'll have lots of doctors around for awhile and physical therapy... at the least.

We love you guys and know we think of you SO much everyday. I just wish there were more we could do...

Let's Go To The Movies...

Drive in style.... SO MUCH FUN!!! Took the kids a couple of Friday nights ago and saw Toothfairy and Chipmunks Squeekwal. Had In&Out burgers, fries, LOTS of popcorn (popped ahead of time at home of course cuz that's how us moms roll!) and licorice! It was fun and everyone voted it a yes for another time soon. Maddie was gone for the weekend so we'll make sure it's a weekend she can come for sure!!! We left Emmy at home on purpose, but I think she'd even like it next time????

What's Up...

The kids on the way to outdoor family pics... Oh, and my couch went too!

Family Game...

Kaitlin, looking good!

Lauren made this cute chef hat at Miss Tawna's class!!! She loves school...

Papa came for dinner a couple of weeks ago and the kids kept him and Granny & Grumpy entertained by playing Guesstures while I finished the cooking... it was great fun to watch!

Lauren danced with Pop in the kitchen...

Granny and Emmy making faces at eachother and playing games...

MaGoo face!!! That was a ROUGH day outside of Laurens dance class, but she sure looked cute before all hell broke loose! A tantrum like she threw right after this pic... I hope I never see again!!!

All the kids with their gadgets on the way to the airport one night... Emmy complete with gut hanging out!!!


It's been such a busy January!!!

In other news... Daron graduated to the intermediate band!!!! He is doing SUCH a great job on his sax, he's awesome! I ran into his band teacher and she says he is such a great player and she's very impressed!!! Congrats Daron!!!

Maddie is doing SOOOOOOO good in this current soccer season also... I love to watch her play! She just runs and runs and runs her little heart out! I don't get to every game, but really enjoy going when I do get the chance. She says she's going to play soccer forever! She also says she never gets to score the goals just get the ball down the field... and I tell her that it takes every player to score those goals and her help to get it down the field is every bit as important. To which she says, "Mom, I still WANT to score the goal!" I can understand that I guess!!! Keep up the good work Maddie girl, you're an awesome soccer player!!!!!!

Kaitlin is doing great as usual! She finished up her volleyball season and they even made it to the playoffs! They were eliminated in round 1, but we were soooo proud of her playing on the school team this year. It was always a treat to get to go watch. Kevin went to all of her games except one and was sad to miss the last game since he was out of town on business. He's her biggest fan!!! I know she'll continue to do great things in volleyball and definity picked a great sport to utilize her height!!! She is working hard in all her classes and even pulled off an A in science (which is not a favorite subject!) and was soooo happy about that, as were we! She is such a good girl... :)

Lauren is loving preschool and dance and friends and playing and beating up Emmy who dares to think she can touch ANY of the family toys!!!!!

Emmy is loving everything usually, unless it's a Sunday and she needs to be happy for nursery!!!

A Quick Trip...

I got to drive with my sweetie to CA about a month ago for a weekend trip! We stayed at his Aunt Kathy's house and had a great time with her and her husband Kevin and daughter & son-in-law, Kyra & Brad. Kevin had to do some recon work there for business and thought it would be fun for me to come along and it really was a good time together! We don't get a lot of that in this phase of life! We did A lot of driving all up and down the coastline and it was beautiful!!! Can't wait to go again...

Dancing Queen...

Lauren started dance with her friend Brianna about 6 weeks ago. It was a 6 week class in fact... she really loves going and loves her teacher Miss Andrea!