Christmas

Holy Moly! I blinked and Christmas passed me. I cannot believe how fast Christmas snuck up on me this year. I didn't really get the chance to enjoy the pre-Christmas traditions this year. We did however, have a wonderful Christmas. First we celebrated on the 22nd with Ben's family. His grandparents come from California every year and we are priveledged to have them stay with us. Then we spent Christmas Eve and most of Christmas day with my family in Inkom. All my siblings and their kids came both days as well. Ben and I had a really good time. We were planning on leaving fairly early on Christmas day to drive home to spend time with Ben's family, but we got snowed in. My folk's live in the mountains so their road was snowed in. My dad and brother worked for about 6 hours on the fourwheeler to clear the road for us all to get in and out. BUT......the interstate was closed. Eventually the interstate opened back up and we decided to chance it. It was SCARY!!!! They should not have opened the road, but we made it home safe. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful Christmas!

Twilight Madness

I am 100% guilty of being a Twilight fan! I loved all of the books in the series so naturally I couldn't wait to go see the movie last night when it came out. I have never been to a movie the night that it premiers and now I remember why. It was a madhouse! Of course I was prepared and bought my tickets a week in advance which helped a little with the chaos, but nothing could have stopped the hoards of CRAZY people. You know when you go to the fair and people appear from out of nowhere? You know like all the white trash people come out of the sticks to make an appearance and your thinking, "I have lived here for (however long) and I never knew that these kind of people lived around here!" It was a similar feeling last night. People came in all sorts of Twilight apparel sporting all sorts of creative makeup and accessories. Even the guys...that's right guys in black eyeliner! However that is probably an every day occurrence for those boys! The difference in ages was another phenomenon. There were kids the age that should have been home in bed, the normal throng of teeny bopper high schoolers, middle aged women, and surprisingly grandparents. The excitement in the air almost made it hard to breath. I have never seen anything like it. I was glad that like many other women, I drug my wonderful husband along to protect me from the maddening crowd! Now as for the movie, it definitely needed to be longer to add all of the important parts from the book. The whole movie seemed very rushed. The special effects were not the greatest. When Edward is in the sun shining and glittering he is suppose to be beautiful. However, in the movie he just looked like he had stuff all over his face. I must say that I expected that the movie would not be as good as the book, but you just can't help to fall in love with Edward and Bella no matter what so I will probably be adding this movie to my collection when it comes out. Oh one more thing, never would I have thought this movie would be "funny" but it did have some humor in it that made it easier for the men to stay awake until the all too short fight scene. I hope that they make the other books into movies and soon!!

Halloween Fun

Pictures sure are hard to take with kids. You have about .02 seconds to get a picture before they start squirming or crying. I obviously need to work on this.

ARRRG!

I know I am really late posting these but I hope you still enjoy! Ben had to go out to protect and serve the wonderful city of Twin Falls on Halloween night so I loaded Woody up an headed home to Inkom. We went to my sister Kayla's house to party. Thanks Kayla and Cody for the wonderful food and fun! Mom and I dressed up with the kids. Mom was a pirate and I was a surgeon. Braxton was a skeleton, Taya was Cinderella, Tate was a ferocious lion, and Madison was a precious pumpkin. Also in the group picture is my dad, brother (though he is hiding behind the lion) and my grandparents. My sisters and their hubby's are taking pics. Oh!!!! How could I forget my own child?!?! Woody was a Jack O' lantern.

Kids Say The Darndest Things!

I was getting ready to teach my 5th graders about time lines in their reading curriculum. In all my geniusness, I decided that I would make a timeline of my life up to now and I would bring in pictures to give a better visual. So I go through the timeline today and this is the conversation directly following my presentation.

5th grade student #1: (Pointing to a picture of me when I was in High School) "Mrs. Mittelstadt, is that picture REALLY you?"

Mrs. Mittelstadt: "Yes honey it is."

5th grade student #1: "Wow! You use to be really pretty!"

5th grade student #2: "Don't worry Mrs. Mittelstadt, you are still pretty."

Which one do you think will get the higher grade?!?!?!?!?

Our Precious "Child"

Many old friends have been asking Ben and I why we don't have any kids so I decided to post a picture of our 3 year old baby.

Hunting

Every year Ben, his dad, and some of his brother's go hunting in the Stanley area. Well the last two years they have not gotten anything, or even seen anything that was alive. The problem? Wolves and a lot of them. The wolves are killing the game off like crazy. Ben took some pictures of some wolf tracks and I can't believe how BIG they are. I was thinking they would have paws the size of dogs. Boy was I wrong!

Summer Fun

This summer was very eventful for my family. Ben and I started our summer out with a bang by heading to the most magical place on earth. That's right....Disneyland. Ben and I really enjoy taking a break from the real world and having some fun.

Also this summer concluded my dad's final year as a jockey. He had another wonderful year. The best part about it was that he won the Idaho Cup. This is quite an accomplishment for an Idaho jockey. He will add that to his list of achievement's along with his Jockey of the year in Idaho and many other awards. We are proud of you dad and I must say next year won't be as fun without you riding.

This being dad's last year Ben and I joined the fam in Elko this year for a weekend. We had great time. Every year they enter a syndicate race with Let it Ride Stables. It is kind of a big thing down there. They have a stall/barn area decorating contest. This year the horses name was Double Ply. You can see for yourself from the picture how fun that one was to decorate for. The best part about it was we won the decorating contest and the race!

Giving In

After about a year of "staulking" blogs and being pressured by my wonderful friends, I have finally given in and started a blog of my own. I must confess however, that I am a bit skeptical that I will be able to figure this all out, or that I will be able to post anything of interest. Here goes nothing!