Mandi "Warren Miller" Etheridge

I have the best bunch of girlfriends- who are cool and talented, and who do really cool things for MY kids!  Check out this rockin' ski video from last weekend. 

http://hampandsam.blogspot.com/

Thanks Mandi- I'm so glad you always have a camera at the ready!!!

1000 words

A picture is worth a 1000 words.... in this case though, my heart is full and my mind (in this case fingers...) are speechless.  My Dad sent me these photographs this morning, and I have been grinning since.  Good thing my chubby cheeks were invented to withstand the pressure.



Mama Bruce (looking kind of fly I must say) Me, Gary, Suzi, Jim & Mike  (youngest to oldest)

 

Suzi (loving the do-rag), Aunt Charlene & Me, Mike & Jim, and Gary standing with a super cool T-shirt




Mom (wowza), Gary, Mike, Suzi (ahem, pants=awesome!) Jim, and Me



Me & Suzi and some nuclear power plant in the backgound


 

Jim, Me, Mike, Gary & Suzi



Me, Jim, Gary, Mike & Suzi (again with the sweet pants! jealous!)

I have got to work on dressing my kids so that they can either be competely embarrassed by their pictures, or loving them.  Right now I'm wishing all these clothes were still in circulation. 

We have been blessed.  period.

Home

Thank you Mandi for these wonderful shots that I think epitomize our boys at this age-- totally into their friends and the experiences they have with them.  This past weekend Elijah and Liam spent every moment with their peeps.  Basketball games on Friday night, Broncos watching with friends on Saturday night, skiing on Sunday, and birthday partying with John Hampton on Monday.  I love that this little town has produced what will become my children's memories. 

When we moved here, Obie and I (and a sugar sweet blonde 6 month old Elijah & a sugar sweet blondish Otis) made a promise to stay in one place for at least 3 years, and really, really give Meeker a shot.  We would attend spaghetti feeds, HS games, garage sales, rodeos, bingo nights, church functions, any community event that would allow us to really get to know this town and the people that lived here.  To give Meeker a little slice of us.

That was 9 1/2 years ago, and we still attend almost every function we can (Obie is usually solo on the garage sale front though- he's a shopper)  And I look back at Obie and I's desire to make this place home.  Our feeling that we could ingrain ourselves to this town- while in truth this town ingrained itself to us.  We have become Meeker.  Our pace, our opinion, our priorities.  When I watch the boys with their friends I am convinced that by living here we are providing them with the most comforting and secure childhood possible.  We (but even moreso this town) have provided them with what they will forever reference as "home". 

Multiplication

The Bruce Clan:  top row: Papa Bruce, biggest brother Mike and Obie (sucker!- married in...)  Middle row: sister Suzi and baby Owen (4), next biggest brother Jim, me and Finley (4), brother Gary and wife Tanya- and their daughter in front of them Ashley (14), Mike's wife Marie, Suzi's husband Ken, Mama Bruce.  Next row (on floor) Suzi's oldest Jakey (14), Mike's oldest Amanda (12), Mike's daughter Kayla (10), Suzi's daughter Mackenzie (11), Mike's girls Kimberly and Nicole (both 7), Jim's wife Trinity, and front and center, Liam (7) and Elijah (10)

Here's what having 5 kids will do to you!!  This is just a start (of the holiday pics, not of the Grandkids....) more to come.

Rootin Tootin'

Liam's Christmas play was short, sweet, and southern.  He was so excited to be a part of it, and was a singing fool.  As soon as we got home, he took off his cowboy getup, FOLDED it! and put in the pile so he could show his Grammy how fancy he looked (he must gotten a few compliments from someone besides his mama)-- but sorry Grammy, we can only pack so many pairs of boots...

rustlin' up the 'reds

Slow and Steady

Last Saturday (12/3/2011)

Step 1

step 2:  Up the Lift
Step 3:  

Step 4: 

 

What you can't hear is the crying that he managed to sustain the whole time.  But, he did great, was exhausted, and then ready to go in for some treats, and some Karate (his sport of choice)

Perspective (an Ode to Thankful-ish-ness)

I am not a creative mom.  (maybe creative in thought but not in deed)

That being said, holidays are somewhat threatening to me.  I wish to provide a warm, cozy, tradition-filled time for my children, full of laughter and memories.  The perfect Norman Rockwell-esque scene, right down to the rosy cheeks and fleck of shine off our beautiful pearly whites, the boys dressed in their Sunday finest- shirts tucked and hair coiffed (sp?) just so...

 And so with those goals in mind, may I present to you Thanksgiving Dinner 2011.....

No ill words towards Arby's (the roast beef truly is buttery-delicious) but this wasn't exactly the scene I envisioned in my head.  Although Finley seems quite pleased, and Liam did ask if we could take some sandwiches home for leftovers in his school lunch.  I think perhaps its Elijah's expression that sort of sums up the weekend.



I definitely slacked in Thanksgiving preparations.  Around Tuesday, I realized I hadn't bought a turkey yet (and in our grocery store, you buy a whole turkey-- there's no Turkey burger, or Turkey breast) so thaw time was not on my side.  So then I got it in my head "hey, we eat a meal together every night, who needs a traditional Thanksgiving dinner anyway?"  Turns out, I do.

Turns out also, (as my friend reminded me a few days later) Thanksgiving is actually "kind of a major holiday".  The plan of just cruising out of Meeker to find some restaurant in the next big city, where we can eat to our button-busting delight is not as easy as one would imagine.  Our original thought was to go to Fruita, do a little biking since the weather was pretty mild, have a little eats and then skip the light fandango in the big city.  Didn't happen- hence, Arby's.  And not just Arby's mind you- the drive thru as the lobby was "Enjoy your Holiday"-closed.  Even City Market, which was my turkey-cold-cut-sandwich-Plan-B was closed.  (to reopen promptly at midnight for grocery store black Friday madness...)

But, the weekend was not a total loss.  In true holiday spirit, we watched "Pussss           IN BOOTS!"  (its funnier when you say it that way) and had popcorn instead of pumpkin pie, sour patch kids instead of stuffing, and swam at the hotel instead of stringing lights for the next holiday.

And so, here are some more images (less depressing than the first of the rest of the weekend)- as we were bound and determined to do something spiritual and meaningful. 

This Thanksgiving maybe will provide just as many memories (aka hindsight), and might have even encouraged a few traditions of its own.

 

Colorado National Monument- Grand Junction, CO.  A truly glorious place if you can get over the fact that there are absolutely no guardrails on the very winding road through the canyon  (and I wasn't especially confident of the cliff-edge fencing or my kids footing either, but I tried really really hard to keep my mouth shut)  Then on Friday, we did (as is tradition) skip the Black Friday madness and head to a Mesa State basketball game and some well-deserved Thai Chicken pizza. 

And so, again in Deming tradition (see we really are imparting some memory making events here), I'll leave you with my good, bad and awesome of the Thanksgiving Holiday:

My Good: Making Lemonade out of Lemons, not what we had planned but we lived to tell the tale

My Bad: PPP (piss poor planning)

My Awesome:  heading to the grocery store a couple days later and buying a turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie filling-- and loving the fact that I can have a do-over!