Happy Birthday Rik!!

41 years ago this cute little guy was born:



We celebrated Rik's birthday this week. It was kind of low key this year though, because we've had a bug slowly going through the house. I think it has now hit everyone, and the younger you were, the harder it hit (Anaya missed 3 days of school). All that were well went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner on Wednesday, and we had cake, pickled okra and blueberries on Thursday (the cake was more for me than Rik though, because I refused to put candles in the pickled okra...)

Anaya took care of the decorating for Rik's birthday (Bendaroos), and she did such a good job, I think she should do all the birthdays! We still have it up on the wall.... I love it!

Yippee for Snowboarding Nights!!!

Rik and the kids went snowboarding the other night. Anaya and I LOVE LOVE LOVE snowboarding nights! While they were out in the cold (which they all love too....weirdos), Anaya and I went out for dinner, did a little shopping, went and saw Tangled (so good!), and then headed home. We had picked up a box of Florence chocolates for dessert. When Anaya bit into her caramel, her "kind of" loose tooth, became a "REALLY" loose tooth. It didn't take much to pull it out. She was soooooo excited!! This was her first, long-awaited, visit from the tooth fairy! Perfect night!!

New Years Resolutions 2011

So I thought I would share my resolutions for 2011. I have also taken the liberty of writing some for the kids and Rik. They will thank me I'm sure!

1. I resolve to stop licking my fingers when I get something on them. Recently I was doing laundry and got some liquid fabric softener on one of my fingers, so I inadvertently licked it off.... and EWWW it was SO gross! I could NOT get that taste out of my mouth! Then, our doorknobs were not working well, so we called the company and they sent us new ones, and when I was taking them out of the box, I got some of the grease that was on the parts on my finger, so I licked it off! I'll tell you what, the grease tasted even worse than the fabric softener!! I don't even think about what I'm doing, until I'm dry heaving and gagging. In my attempt to get the fabric softener taste out of my mouth, I ate a handful of almonds... only too bad, one of them was rotten!! EWW!! NOT a good time in my mouth that day.

2. McKay resolves to listen to more Christmas music. McKay has a hard time falling asleep, but has an easier time if the radio is on. All through December he listened to the radio station that played Christmas music 24/7. He now thinks he can't fall asleep without Christmas music! So we put about 55 Christmas songs on his mp3 player and every night, we have Christmas music playing for hours. (I can hear Rudolph playing right now!)

3. Anaya resolves to laugh a little louder... more freely and openly. If you know Anaya, you know that her emotions are right in your face. There is no doubt how she is feeling. For Christmas the family got Despicable Me. I was listening to Anaya watching it, and apparently she thought it was pretty funny. It reminded me of my dad when I was younger. My room was next to the family room, and every night I fell asleep (or tried) to my dad laughing until he had tears in his eyes while watching "Night Court" and "M.A.S.H." Anaya has one of the most healthy laughs I have ever heard. She would also like to resolve to not say that her school teacher is a little nice, but mostly rude. Like I said... no doubt how she feels.....

4. Kayden has resolved to tell me when he has planned a big, huge party at my house (especially if he'd like to live over the age of 17...) Over the Christmas break he planned a party with about 20 friends at our house.... only he forgot to tell me. On the bright side, this was a perfect way to get rid of the remaining Christmas junk food.

5. Rik has resolved to never, ever retire. He took off a week and a half at Christmas, but then also got a bonus day off on Monday, because that's when his office took their New Year's Day holiday... the rest of us had to go back to school and work. When I got home from work on Monday, Rik had the Home Shopping Network blaring from the TV and was busy browsing Amazon, Ebay and Craigslist. Yep... I might go broke if he ever retires.

6. Taisha resolved to lose her last 2 baby teeth (which are both close.) We have our first braces consultation in 2 months!

7. Malia has apparently resolved to help us all gain 10 pounds, by making lots and lots of cupcakes and cakes! She is LOVING cake decorating right now.

8. Rik has also resolved to be the all-time biggest collector of Coke Reward Points. He has been collecting (collecting = digging through garbage sometimes) to get as many Coke Reward Points as he possibly can. I was pretty sure that my Christmas presents were all going to be Coke things from the web site. (Rik would like me to mention that if you drink coke products... text him or email him the code under the cap or the box.....*sigh* Not kidding.)

Well, there you have it. I can tell already that we are going to be way better people by the end of this year!