Ten On Tuesday

1. It has been a busy few days!

2. We got a puppy! Hartley is the newest member of the family. She's an 11 week old bassett hound and she's adorable! She is already crate trained and last night she slept all night without a peep! The biggest challenge is potty training. She goes mostly outside and sometimes inside on the potty pads but still has some accidents. We've only had her two days so I think she's doing great.

3. Hartley is the perfect dog for our little family. She's a puppy, but not super wild. By the time 9pm comes along she's beat! Tyler has been great with putting her on a schedule, too.

4. There are a couple of birthday parties coming up. Am I prepared? Absolutely not.

5. More work hours come with a nicer looking paycheck :)

6. We're selling Valentine's See's Candy for Cole's school. If anyone would like to order some please let me know. The order will come to the school but I could mail it to any of you who want a See's fix but don't have a store nearby! And it would support Kid's Corner!

7. Cole likes Michael Jackson. It's hilarious to watch him dance to his music.

8. I coughed so hard I pulled a muscle in front of one of my ribs. I equate the feeling to when I was pregnant and Cole would stick his foot under one of my ribs.

9. I'm done. I can't get to ten today. I give myself a pat on the back for actually posting this on Tuesday. Pat, pat.

I know I already shared that I had my review and I was given a raise yesterday. What I forgot to mention was that I also became a full time employee and am now eligible for benefits, including vacation time, sick time, paid holidays, health insurance, dental and vision!

I think I'm the most excited about being able to take time off when I'm sick or to work in the kids' classrooms at school and not lose money because of it.

I'm feeling blessed today!

Ten On Tuesday Wednesday

1. Monday was a really busy day. Yesterday and today, not so much.

2. My one year review was today. It went really well! I got an unexpected raise!

3. Plans for the kids' birthday parties are underway. We are having two parties on the same day at the same place but a half hour apart. It will be a busy day!

4. Tyler was gone all weekend and the kids were super wound up.

5. I do believe that this is the fourth week I've had this darn cold. Now I'm coughing a lot and it hurts. I saw the doctor yesterday and now I'm taking antibiotics.

6. We are coming to the end of season one of Glee. And when I say we I mean the person who watches it with me who is obviously not Tyler.

7. I think we're getting a dog. One of these, I think.

8. I'm excited to get our tax return!

9. Yesterday, a very rude lady turned around to see who was coming in the front door. A nice looking man walked in and she said to him:

"you're wearing shorts? What are you, twelve?"

This would have been acceptable if she were talking to her brother or a friend but she had never met the man in her life. It's a good thing the man had an easy going personality or there might have been some problems up in here.

10. Mr. Cole decided to climb a tree and almost gave me a heart attack. Can you spot him in the first picture? That's him heading down. He was much higher up!

Snow Day!

The kids have wanted to go to the snow for a while now so we thought we would take a little trip. We all bundled up and headed to Frazier Park. Cole kept saying "I can't put my arms down!" from A Christmas Story. It was hilarious!

We arrived around 1:30 and spent a couple of hours playing. The temp was around 35 and there was almost a foot of fresh, powdery snow!

I'm annoyed with the pictures that came out kind of blue but at least we got some!

Excited to go sledding!

We went up the road a bit and went down super fast!

The videos are short!

We had a great family day! It was the perfect way to end winter break!

Ten On Tuesday

1. It's a beautiful day! I'm back to work and excited for the year to come!

2. We rang in the new year with some fun times with friends and there was only just a little banging on the ceiling because we were playing Rock Band too loud.

3. There's enough weirdness around the office lately to make a reality show that people would watch. Seriously.

4. We had a nice time in Corona for my mom's family gathering. I always have a grand time talking to my cousin Jeanetta about kids and life. I love how Tyler just hops right in there and talks with the family. We also met up with Joanna, Tommy and Catie for lunch that day since it was Joanna's birthday. Panera Bread is a tasty and satisfying place to eat.

5. Kayley lost her third tooth!

6. These are my goals for 2011:

*Reach my goal weight (this seems to be a never ending goal!)

*Make it through tax season without quitting the gym or going overboard with fast food

*Read at least three books (don't even compare your goal with mine, Krista)

*Get a facial

*Have a girls night out with all my far away friends

*Read my Bible every day

I have others but I'm not going to list them here.

7. We took the kids to the snow yesterday. Look for the pictures and videos in a separate post.

8. It turns out Taryn is pregnant too. I guess we'll be having two new Batten kids toward the middle of next year!

9. Tim leaves for boot camp a week from today. I'm excited for him!

10. Last year on this day I started working at HDP. Hooray for one year!

Ten On Tuesday, Holiday Edition

1. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a very busy but fun weekend.

2. Christmas Eve was filled with house cleaning, visiting with Hillary and Joanna and dinner with my family at my parents house. We concluded the evening with Christmas carols. Our family would make a fabulous choir!

3. Christmas day started around 6am. Cole was the first up, of course. The kids were so excited that Santa had come! We made breakfast burritos for the family that were delicious! Everyone stayed for a few hours and sat around, played games with the kids and watched Christmas movies.

4. Tyler bought me white strips for my teephers (my Christmas list has changed over the years!) and I got him some more of his nice smelling cologne. We both got money and other tidbits, too. The kids got lots of stuff from us this year. Among the gifts were legos, books, silly bands, m&m's, clothes, baseballs and bats, a t-ball stand, cars and gum. They were very blessed with gifts from my parents, Auntie JoJo, Krista, Grandma Jackie and Pop, Grandma Pat, Aunt Kathleen and the Powell family, too. Kayley and Cole have lots of new toys and books now!

5. A couple of weeks ago our laptop screen broke. Josh is going to replace it for us as our Christmas present! It sure is nice to have people in our lives that know how to do stuff like that. It was really great to have Josh home for Christmas, too.

6. Christmas evening Tyler and I took the kids to see Tangled. I was a little apprehensive because I really dislike the recent Disney movies that aren't Pixar but it wasn't bad at all. I quite enjoyed it.

6. We got this for our room:

7. Cole got a helicopter for Christmas. It was the perfect gift because Kayley is learning how to fly them, too!

8. Sunday we drove down to my Grandma Pat's house for our family Christmas. We got a lot more pictures but Joanna has them on her camera. Tyler took this with his phone. I'm not sure what Tim and I were thinking because our pose did not make for a good picture!

9. Christmas continues tomorrow when we drive up to Tyler's Aunt Lisa's. We'll stay the night and drive home on Friday for our slammin' New Years partay! Sunday we'll be gone again for the last of the family gatherings. We will go down to Corona for my mom's side of the family. I'm worn out just thinking about it but I guess I can just count myself blessed for having so much family!

10. This Christmas has been a very joyful one. Only God could bring about the joy that surrounds us! I'm excited for what the new year will bring!

Good morning friends! Today is sure to be a fabulous day. I'm up early, laying on the couch watching White Christmas. We're excited to see Hillary and Joanna and Josh today! Church should be awesome and my mom's home cookin' will not dissapoint.

All in all today will be absolutely wonderful!