Christmas!

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! It turned out to be very white, too - at least a foot deep! Christmas Eve started us off the right way. The boys and I made some of the food while Andy went to work for the afternoon. We made pumpkin pie, turkey, rolls and cookies for Santa. We also prepared for our Nativity play. When Andy came home, we feasted and then headed out to see some lights. There is a street here that does luminaries, but not many people participated this year. Maybe it was the snow . . . Our church also does a live Nativity with real animals which is very nice. Once we came home, we did our own Nativity play. The boys loved being the "innkeepers" and telling me and Andy that there wasn't any room. They were also shepherds and Tucker was a wise man too. Then we set out the cookies and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Amazingly, they went to sleep!

That is, everybody but Zane! He was wide awake until 11:30! Andy and I set out our gifts to the boys while he was still up. Not a good idea. We gave Zane a big red playground ball, but didn't wrap it. He saw it sitting there and started playing with it and laughing! Little stinker is supposed to wait for Christmas! He was enjoying it so much, that we just let him have it. Then, he started ripping the paper off of another present under the tree! What a twerp! After all that, I just held him until he calmed down and went to sleep.

The next morning was early, of course. The kids had fun and the first things that they played with were the gifts they got for each other.

We have enjoyed this time together as a family. I love Christmas for many reasons, but that love you feel for others at Christmas is one of the main reasons. "How silently the wondrous gift was given." The words ring true for the great gift of love we give each other - which is the gift the Savior gave to us. Through the noise of Christmas morning, the memory of being together in the spirit of love is the silent gift I will always cherish.

Zane's First Birthday!

Here is Zane a year ago! Look at the skinny legs! He has certainly put on some weight since then! (A few extra chins, a roll here, a dimple there . . .)

When you eat like this, you might tend to put on a few extra pounds! He loved the cake!

This year has flown by! He is a sweet and silly little boy! Today we were going to go swimming because he LOVES the water. However the pool was 83 degrees and I just couldn't bear it on a cold and snowy day. So we played in the tub with bubbles and had a great time until Zane "went" in the tub. That's one way to get them out of the water! Then he took a big nap while Derek and Tucker and I made his Cookie Monster Cake. He had a blast playing with his new toys (he got two trains - one from Nana and one from us - I guess we need to communicate with Nana and Grandpa about gifts better). All was well until I got a lovely thick sliver in the side of my hand. Later, Zane was walking toward me and fell flat into the bench at the kitchen table. He is sporting a nice purple bruise inbetween his eyes and I experience sharp shooting pains every now and again in my hand. Aside from that, it was a very fun day! Derek gave Zane a card that was a "coupon" to play together. He actually did it, too! Tucker also made sure to give Zane extra kisses and hugs today. Tucker calls him "Zsa Zsa" for some reason - you know, like Zsa Zsa Gabor. I think that is how you spell her name. Anyway, Zane eats it up! I am so lucky to have three healthy boys who love each other most of the time! Happy Birthday, Zane!

Merrill & Jen's wedding!

Merrill (my brother) just got married last Saturday to Jen. We are so excited for them! I got to meet her the night before at Chuck E. Cheese with Julie and Brad. All our kids were there, so it was a perfect place to play before the big day. I feel truly honored that they would spend that time with us right before their wedding. They were married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and it was SNOWING! It was perfect though because Merrill LOVES the snow! The sealing was beautiful and I cried my eyes out like an idiot! I wasn't all sappy and emotional until I had children. Now look at me. I start crying over Bob Barker on the Price is Right and have those embarrassingly loud breath intakes when you can't control the volume or the timing. Everyone in the sealing room must have thought I was a idiot! Anyway, it was nice that my whole family could be in the temple together (minus my brother-in-law Dave who couldn't get off work on the short notice). The luncheon was nice and laid back. In fact, our whole trip to Utah was sincerely one of the best trips we have had and I will always look back and smile at the memory. The snow and the roads were really quite nasty at times though. At one point we were going 5 mph on

I-15! We came home to a foot of snow in Cortez! I guess it is wintertime. Well, congratulations to Merrill and Jen and hope they can come see us in 2009!

Patch the Pooch

Zane and Patch are buddies
Patch as the "Super Dog"

Here is our noble dog, Patch. We got her when we lived in Midland, Texas two and a half years ago. She was a furry little puppy and we got her sister Bailey, too. When we moved to Bayfield, our landlord would only let us have one dog, so Bailey stayed in Texas with a good friend and is doing well last I heard. Patch is now our pet. She is very sweet and licks and licks and licks and jumps on people when they pet her and licks and licks and . . . you get the idea. She LOVES kids! She also loves to chase prairie dogs, geese and her tail. Behind our house is not developed yet and the prairie dogs have a large existence there. Whenever we open our garage door, Patch whimpers and runs full force out to get the prairie dogs before they hide in their holes. She caught one once and didn't know what to do with it. She played with it for a while and let it go. Another time, she got so excited when the door opened that she ran into it (this happens quite frequently) and got a bloody nose. She loves to chase a frisbee and rough house with Andy and Derek. Tucker thinks it is funny to balance things on her because she sits still while he does it and then jumps up unexpectedly and knocks the stuff off her. Zane and Patch are friends too. Zane pulls her fur and plays with her face while Patch remains still. Once Zane is done, Patch licks him and won't let up easily! Another favorite game the boys play with her is "Bull Fighting." She sits under the table and they "open the gate" which is really the bench to sit at. She runs out and they try to "rope" her in with a blanket or their hands. Once Patch has had enough, she simply doesn't come out of her pen and then the boys have to take turns being the bulls themselves. Our trusty watchdog barks when someone is at the door, but is such a scaredy cat that she won't go outside in a thunderstorm, or if the garbage truck is there or any other loud noise. Someday I'd like to get her a friend, but this mama can't handle it yet!

Turkey Day

We just came home from a great trip to see Andy's parents. In seven years of marriage, it was our first Thanksgiving meal at their home. It was nice and they invited several friends that didn't have kids or company for the holidays. I was nervous about how my boys would handle it because they usually act like deer stuck in the headlights, but they were great! One guy brought a remote control truck and they drove it around after the meal. Now, this was no ordinary rc truck. This was a top-of-the-line, souped-up, all-terrain vehicle. This guy was seriously into remote control vehicles! It climbed up hills and combed through weeds like a regular four wheel drive! Of course, Derek and Tucker were in complete awe. After they came back inside, they wrote their letters to Santa asking for a "remote control monster truck." The kind they had just played with started at $300. Luckily, Andy and I found a much cheaper and sensible version at Walmart!

The next day was Black Friday. For some reason, my in-laws and I decided to get up at 4:30 am because Sports Authority was giving out gift cards for up to $300. Not one of us received $300. We each got $10. So it was over to Walmart which was so crowded, I was nauseated! We soon left and went back to bed. Andy and I hit the stores again later and decided it is NOT worth it to get up early. The sales are usually for things that are not on our list anyway, so why bother? I HATE large crowds.

My in-laws have a Wii and so we played boxing on Saturday night. My back is so sore today, I could barely lift Zane! We convinced Lyle and Jeanne (my in-laws) to play. Lyle was hilarious to watch! He was dancing and weaving and going all over the place! If you haven't tried it, it is fun to do and funny to watch other people do it! Tucker is unbeatable at golf!

We came home today through Telluride were they hadn't plowed the roads. It wasn't so bad until we came across a tree that had fallen across the side of the road. Luckily no one was coming the other way. We are glad to be safe back at home and can't wait to go out to Utah in a few weeks for my brother's wedding.

Thanksgiving Past and Present

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for what you see here above. I love my family! I love my boys (Andy counts as one of the boys)! I remember past Thanksgivings with so many great memories. I remember the first turkey I cooked without the aid (or supervision) of my mother. Pulling the neck out of the bird was just about the grossest thing I could imagine! I don't remember seeing my mother do that. My sister Julie was with me in my tiny little newlywed apartment in Springville, UT. We were screaming with laughter as the neck just kept coming out the hole! That wasn't the worst! I realized there was a bag of unmentionables in there too! That memory is classic. Because our "discoveries" took so long, we didn't eat until well after six (everyone skipped lunch, too). I had no dish washer and did six loads of dishes to clean it all up.

I remember other Thanksgivings that included more than just our family. I love being able to share Thanksgiving Dinner with family AND friends. Thanks to our friends the Shaw family in Texas who had us over two years ago. We were moving the following week and literally had no table to sit at! We had sold most of our furniture in order to fit everything in the moving truck. It would have been cheese and crackers on the floor! This year we are heading to Montrose, CO to be with Andy's parents. I am thankful for them and their ability to make each visit a memory filled with laughs! Can't wait to see what memory this year will hold!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE BASS FAMILY!!!!!

Random Moments

Zane's latest discovery is the piano. He knows how to play the bottom notes and thinks it is the coolest thing ever - with the exception of his thumb, of course. He has already taken one step. He'll be walking just in time to destroy the Christmas tree . . .


Here are Derek and Tucker catching "air" into our giant beanbag. Our wonderful neighbor gave it to us and it has provided our boys with hours of pleasure - who knew? Their favorite game is to run and jump into it. I was very sick this day and could only sit in the corner and click a picture while they ran circles around me - or maybe my head was spinning and they were really sitting still. The world may never know.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Of Scarecrows and Soccerballs . . .

This year I got to be Derek's soccer coach. They must have been completely desperate to have someone like me do it, because I know so little about soccer. Luckily, Andy was there to guide me and over the course of the season, our little team improved quite a bit! Derek was the soccer maniac and LOVED to score goals. He scored five goals in one game! The difference between a four-year-old soccer player and a five-year-old soccer player is amazing. Still, we got in some good laughs and had fun doing it. Tucker was our official "Junior Member." We were the Panthers and everybody's favorite part was snack time and when we did our team cheer. Octopus tag was a hit as well.

After soccer was done, we all battled with different illnesses. Tucker was sick for almost the entire month of October. He is well now and hopefully will not miss any more school or church! We made some scarecrows that the boys were immensely proud of.

Here is the finished product. In nice weather, we like to sit outside on our extremely large front porch and read stories, so the boys wanted the scarecrows to sit there in memory of warmer days. We had fun and hope for more fun tomorrow trick-or-treating!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fall Time

Andy, Me & Zane at a football game in Montrose - Zane's first one!

Tucker loved being way up high and seeing the pretty leaves.

Derek in the Gondola at Telluride. It was raining pretty hard!

This is Telluride in the fall

Here is Dallas Divide right by Ralph Lauren's ranch (just outside of Ridgway)

We had a beautiful drive up to Montrose a few weeks ago. Andy had just been at a conference in Vail and we met at his parent's house in Montrose. We enjoyed the colors - the boys looked for purple leaves and found quite a few! We feel so lucky to live near such beautiful country. I love the San Juan Skyway and travel it often to see my in-laws. When you see the changing colors, you know that God must love us to send us one last perk before winter!

A Year Ago Today . . .

A year ago today, Andy started his job in Cortez as the Parks and Recreation Director for the City of Cortez. We were living in Bayfield at the time and only had one car, the '93 Toyota Camry. Bayfield is almost a two hour drive from Cortez, so he had a very long commute. I was left without a car with two little boys in a small town. This went on for two months while we waited for our house to be finished. The first two weeks were tough, but after that it was great! We walked everywhere we went: the library, bank, park, friends houses, etc. I was six months pregnant with Zane and living in a sea of moving boxes. Luckily, we had friends who would visit or take us hiking or to doctor appointments. One year later, we have a beautiful new home, a chubby happy baby, a preschooler, a kindergartener, a mini-van (I know!) and Andy in his MBA program. Unfortunately, the Camry took the brunt of all this and is currently under repair with Andy trying to figure out how to put in water pumps and timing belts - eek! Wish him luck. We both agree it has been a very fast year. Here's to longevity!

First Day of School

Zane enjoyed the first day of school because he could take a nap uninterrupted!

This is the second day of school - Derek actually smiled that day!

Here is the dilapidated school bus cake. Give me a break! I only had a few hours to make it from start to finish!

Tucker loved it!

Our first day of school was a mixed bag. Derek, our kindergartener, cried and put up a big fight. The picture is rather sad, so I will leave it out! Tucker, our three-year-old- preschooler, just happily skipped out the door. Of course, everyone came home happy and said how great it was! I made them a school bus cake that turned out rather sloppy, but they loved it! Now that two of them are in school, I thought I would have more time. That is a joke! Amongst other things, I am Derek's soccer coach! They must be desperate if they ask me. Good luck, Panthers!