Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas from the Long Family. We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Santa brought animals for Christmas. Oh what a treat, a crazy crazy treat.

The kids bought Christmas presents for GG at the Christmas store at school this year. GG got such a kick out of her present.

I must admit that this year Jeremy got me. He decided to get a little creative with my present. He sent me on a scavenger hunt. I do love a scavenger hunt. Typically, I enjoy being the planner but a hunt can be fun! I am happy to say in the end I received a new pair of shoes, a wonderful bottle of wine and an ipad. Yep, that is correct and ipad!!! Can you believe it? I can't.

I am still trying to figure out how to work it and look forward to blogging away on it because the things you can do to pictures is amazing!!

Here is Addi digging into her puppy present. Oh year, Santa did not bring it but GG sure did. Addi has walked that little dog a lot!!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out around the house, playing with our gifts and eating a nice Christmas dinner.

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas. If you did not, come on over to our place next year. We will surly entertain you and may even drive you crazy enough to love what you did before :)

Christmas at the Farm

Christmas on the Farm.....this year was much, so much, less stressful than last year. I did not realize how relaxing it was until after we opened presents and did not have that we must rush out the door feeling. It is so nice to sit back and relax. The farm can be such a relaxing place. There was a nice snow falling but nothing scary. There was a nice breeze in the air, not a blizzard rolling in. I took a nice nap in the afternoon-oh how I love a farm nap!

Here our our Christmas elves passing out presents. This is where all the kids would wear their matching pj's that Aunt Carrie buys. I was a wonderful mom and managed to leave Addi's at home this year. When we arrived back home I found them laying on my bed with the coat I was going to wear but decided to switch at the last minute. Addi did have them for Christmas morning and the official picture was the week before when Maddie was in town so at least we have that one.

I think everyone received more than they could absorb. Addi got the cutest cowgirl boots. She then opened up a cowgirl costume and told me today when I was unpacking she thought she was going to have to wear that dress and hat with her boots. Now that she knows she can wear them independently, we seem to be good to go. She also received a Dorothy outfit from the Wizard of Oz. She insisted it was Hannah Montana. After seeing a few minutes of Wizard of Oz she seems to be back on track. I think she is just willing to wear the dress so she can wear the shoes. Oh for shinny shoes.

Luke received a BB gun with targets. Thankfully, we left that at the farm so I have been able to avoid the entire discussion of when he can go shoot. He really thinks he is going to be able to bring it home and shoot into the creek. Got to love how his crazy mind woks.

The Grant man got an Iron Man mask and was able to open his presents with the mask on. Now that is Christmas bliss.

Years ago the adults gave up exchanging presents with each other in order to play a white elephant game. The most popular item this year was a box of lottery tickets. I stole it, Jeremy stole it and lucky Brian got it back in the end. Unlucky Brian only won $5 off the box full of tickets.

Here the kids are hovering over our game. I think they are getting old enough to join in or at least think they want to join in. I still wonder how it will go when their favorite thing gets stolen out of their cute little fingers.

I love this scene every year, Christmas Even, gifts are being ripped open. Parents are searching to see what their kids got and you are hoping no one throws away a present. Family is a good thing!

CHRISTMAS EVE 2010

We decided to start our Christmas Eve this year at Aunt Carrie's house. It was a bit selfish of me because I wanted Addi to see her present to badly.
Look at these Christmas angels. They were so good. We made them wait about two hours before we opened the presents. Ah, I love the torture!

This is what the first few shots looked like. I can't wait until everyone is old enough to sit still and fake smile for us. I am sure then I will miss the moments of trying to get everyone together.

Carrie made Addi Jo a dollhouse. A dollhouse that I thought was going to get a lot of screams and oh my goodness when she opened it but received more of a silent shock look. In the two days that have passed the excitement and realization have begun to sink in. She is demanding we go get it. Yeah, we are bad parents. It is still at Aunt Carrie's house. It is huge and would not fit with everything else we had in the car. We have got to go it soon. Today we ran a few errands and went down the toy isle where Addi demanded a pool for her house. We recommended she go for bedroom and living room furniture first and we were told she did not need the living room because she can put a pool in there.

Here is a special Christmas photo. Aunt Carrie thought she could plop her little self on the trampoline and it would not sink. Now that would be one special present :)

Ah, the moments we can catch on film and now the internet forever :)

Hunter loves Batman. Thank goodness we got in on the love with the Batmobile.

Christmas pickle 2010

We did the Christmas Pickle this year. Jeremy and I thought Addi might really give Luke a run for his money. She had practiced just about every night and wanted me to keep moving it.

I have to say her competative spirit is very impressive if you love the idea of winning. If you love the idea of being a good sport she may have a ton to learn yet.

We hid the pickle and called them out at the same time. I made Luke wait for a minute to start looking which caused Addi to get upset because it was no longer a race, of coarse. Silly me. It lasted a few minutes more then I would have guessed. In the end Luke found it first then Addi found it on round two. I mean you have to have two rounds, hurt feelings and Christmas spirit just don't mix well.

MERRY CHRISTMAS PICKLE!

First snow of 2010

We had our first snow of the year a couple of Sunday's ago. We headed off to church and came home in time to play for a bit before it melted. There was just enough to shovel a bit of the driveway. The biggest issue we had with the snow is the fact we have 50mph winds whe it was snowing so we had some mounds in place and bare grass in others. It did remind us of Christmas Eve last year.




Addi just loved the snow!!

Mr. Mischief!

then everything had to end with a snowball to the face.

Sadly the snow was gone the next morning. We did not have any snow for Christmas and are waiting for enough snow to make a snowman!!

Addi's Dance Show

Addi has been taking dance since September. She was promised that when Lucas started football she could start dance. That statement was made without me realizing the dance studio would not start up until after Labor Day so Addi could not start in July when Lucas started football. Oh, those were long days. Addi asked every single day if it was the day dance started. Finally, dance started and she went every Tuesday.

Sunday was her first real show. She had a practice a couple weeks before and it did not go so well so we sort of held our breath for this one. Addi did great! It was such a relief to know that Grandma's and Grandpa would get to see a real dancing Addi.

It was not easy to get picture of her, but I was able to snap a few;

Part of the dance they were to pout. You can pretty much see it is a very natural pose for Addi...

I just think this is the cutest thing ever and I love the tu-tu's.

Here is a picture of Addi's teacher Ms. Courtney. She was the lucky one to stand off to the side of the girls and do the dance while they did it. It is not her best picture but Addi really does love her and she makes their 45 minutes of dance so much fun. Addi loves to try and take over when Ms. Courtney has to talk to another girl during class Addi is very quick to jump in and try to teach the other girls. I know, who would of ever thought.

Christmas Tree 2010

The tree went up the Friday after Thanksgiving just as it should. I went to be at 9 after making a final list and one last peak at the ads. I hit Wal-Mart at midnight for the toys and then came home, did some on-line shopping and grabbed the neighbor to hit Wal-Mart again at 5am. The only trick was that was for electronics so we had to be there at 3am. We conquered Target, Gordman's, and QuikTrip for some cappuccino then came back home. My mom came over about 9am and Addi, my mom and I hit Dick's, PetSmart, and Kohl's. After that we had lunch and then back home to do the tree. By then the boys were home from a morning hunt and we started decorating. It was not until 9pm that I manged to find my bed again. I may or may not of had sugar plums dancing in my head, I have no idea, I was exhausted.

This next part is 100% for Jeremy. He loves the fact that the tree he asked me to measure before I decided I wanted it is really larger than necessary for the living room. I wanted a tall tree and we certainly have it. I moved it to a better spot this year so we can get every section up. It is now taller than the ceiling fans.
The picture is not the best because I took it the day we were decorating but it is beautiful, well I am happy with it at least, and tall, very, very, very tall. I think next year I will switch up the colors but is no ceiling fan use for a few more weeks around here. I can't have an angel that really flies!!

Addi Jo

For some reason it has really hit me lately that Addi is no longer little. It may of started during football season when there really was no rational to explain to her that she is not like the other big girls anymore.


It certainly sank in when she started to steal her own mashed potatoes and eat them with chopsticks in the kitchen. I mean there is no need to tell her that is just not a good plan because she does not want to hear one word of it.

Then there is the cute face of a little girl that made her own Christmas list. One that compares to 16 year old girls in some ways and one that made of items only a 3 year old would want. I mean the i-pod was a bit over the top but who would not want to get her a sleeping bag and pillow pet. Then there was the baby puppy and zhu zhu pets.

It is just amazing Addi Jo is so big now. She loves preschool everyday and is learning so much. She loves to say the prayer at the dinner table and give her brother a hard time. She is starting to play games and is super competitive, which means she fits in well here. She is her brother's biggest fan and worst nightmare all in the same evening.

The tangled experience

Saturday night we took the kids to see the new Disney movie Tangled. I have to get this down because one day I will be sad that she can go off and see movies without us. Addi had actually been looking forward to it for a few weeks since she found a t shirt with Rapunzel on it and then immediately after saw the movie preview. It is really her first movie attachment experience.

We got our tickets, which was a bit shocking for Jeremy. Usually Grandma Ann takes the kids to the movies so we had a bit of sticker shock at the price to get into a movie. I can clearly understand how Netflex has become successful because we headed over to the concession stand after picking up our 3-D glasses. I was prepared for this because these prices have always been out of whack but Jeremy just about lost it. I digress.

The movie was great, really, it was. I thought Addi dozed off a couple of times until I realized that she was awake and just not blinking she was watching so intently.

Then we get to the end of the movie. If you need to be kept in suspense until you can see the movie yourself you should stop reading now......Rapunzel's boy friend came to rescue her out of the tower and the evil "witch" who stole her stabbed Eugene in the side. Addi lost it. She started balling. I mean like Jack just sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic on Titanic, like Goose just died in the plane crash, like when Hillary dies in Beaches. I had to hold in my laughter because really are you seriously breaking down. She had tears down her face and I had to consider putting my hand over her mouth she was crying so loudly. It was crazy and sad at the same time. Once I got her to focus back on the screen and what was going on the witch was pushed out of the window and died so she was good to go but those were a rough four minutes.

In the end she loved the movie and can recall clearly when the witch was mean and how Rapunzel was so happy in the end.

Holiday Cards

I have to pass this along. I know usually I share info about what is going on but this is a great deal, and easy. Shutterfly is giving away 50 free cards if you blog about this. Hey, finsih reading this blog post before you go off and post one of your own on this deal!
I have wanted to do my own photo cards for a couple years with the kids but the ones in the studio always seem so fake by the time I get them home. There are some pretty awesome themes at Shutterfly so look in your mailbox in a couple weeks to see which one we picked........

Week 8

You know the old saying that everything good must end. I can tell you it stinks having to try and explain that to an 8 year old. Today we played the team that until last week was ranked first in the division all year. They saw their first defeat lat week. This wekk they handed us our first defeat of the season.

Lucas handled it much better this year then last but it hurt. It hurt to see the boys out there not getting the plays pulled off as we should of. It hurt knowing we could of won, it just was not our day. I would love a rematch, I would take it any day of the week but it is not going to happen until next year.

The stats will all have to be calculated and figured to see where the ranking will end up. We are not a shoe in for 1st any longer but it is going to be close. I will let you know.

Well off to pack up the catcher's gear for baseball practice tomorrow.

Week 7

This was a big week of football. Our quarterback Blake suffered a bone bruise to his arm at practice on Thursday. Everyone was thankful it was not broken and Blake wanted to make sure he played Sunday. PaPa and grandma Trish were in town for the game and Luke was excited.

Things were going well through the first half. Then this play happened.

Cronk went down crying, his arm was killing him. He was sacked hard. I tried to be helpful and thrown the bag of ice from Aunt Carrie's cooler out to the coach but it slid out of my hand and I looked like the biggest fool ever, seriously it was like I had never thrown a ball in my life. I have to put this in here because I want to see how many years that story lives on.

Luke played on defense this week and did very well. He got a big push back from a kid only once. He felt really good about his game.

With this win 37-0 the Tigers are in first place all by themselves. The only undefeted game in the league now. Next week is the final game of the season, don't miss it!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

After the football game and before baseball practice we headed over to the pumpkin patch for our annual trip to find the best pumpkins. The kids love all the activities they have including the pumpkin launcher. I have to admit it is pretty darn awesome to see a pumpkin shoot out of the gun fly across the sky and land in the pond.
Our official wheelbarrow pusher himself. Every year one of the kids knock of the wheelbarrow in an attempt to help dad out. This year I was no exception except for the fact that it was not our kid or kids that did it. This little boy about four ran smack into the thing and raised up on the arm and well there it went. I had to laugh out loud because it happened on our way back to the tractor to take us up to leave. I don't know why but Jeremy did not laugh when it happened.


Everyone loved to play on the slides and mazes and toys around the farm.

Look at these cute faces

Now all we have to do is carve the pumpkins!

Football 10-17-10

Sunday football. What a beautiful day. We have had some wonderful football weather this year. I don't have very many pictures from the game because of this crazy thing on the field.


RRRR....it really was right in the way of every good play of the game.



Luke did not have his best game. He said his ankle hurt and was running weird on it, even weirded then he usually runs if you can image that. He had some good tackles but nothing fantastic.


Here is our little cheerleader. GO TIGERS!

I hope next week will be better for pictures! Final score 34-6. Another good win but I can't beleive they scored on us!