The Wax Museum

Every year at the grade school, the fifth grade classes do a wax museum. The kids have to study someone in history, write a report, then dress up like that person and pose (as though made of wax). They all have a "button" on their desk and when you press it, they are supposed to say something that person would have said.

Kelsey was Christa McAuliffe. She was to be the first teacher to go up into space but the space shuttle exploded on take off killing all on board.

Here is a picture of Kelsey and her Grandpa Don and Grandma Sara. Kelsey is doing a great job of being wax.

Next we have President Obama....

I think these two were Powell and McArthur (something like that). I took their picture while they were "wax." When they realized I was taking their picture, they said, "take another one" and did this pose. What a couple of goofballs.

I thought he might be Jimmy Hendrix, but no. Apparently, Muhammad Ali had a fro at some point in his career.

Davy Crocket and Jose something. I can't remember who the girl was.

Well, it was a lot of fun. Every school should do this.

Molly Gets up Close and Personal

Molly decided to stand on the arm of the couch and sniff Tyler's elk. I'm not sure what she was thinking, but it is a cute picture.

Natural Hairstylists

So, after Christmas, Kelsey decided she really wanted to cut someone's hair. She decided to cut the hair of half of her Bratz dolls. Well, Katie joined in and they ended up actually cutting the dolls' hair into "styles" and then rated them. They had fun doing it, but I didn't get pictures, so when Kelsey decided to cut the hair of her Bratz hairstyle head, I got pictures of the whole process. She had fun doing it and she actually did a pretty good job. Oh, the things we do to entertain ourselves. In the end, the head went in the garbage. It's haircut went from short to bald in a matter of minutes.

Then it was Christmas!

I love Christmas. It's just such a feel good time of year. We put up our decorations the weekend of Thanksgiving. Kelsey made an extremely cool snowflake at school. Nothing like I've ever seen. I think we'll make them every year. She made a couple more at home and we hung them from the ceiling....

The kids set their alarm for 5:30 am Christmas morning, but they were so tired that they snoozed for another hour. So, we got up about 6:30 to unwrap gifts.

Our beautiful Christmas tree.

Kelsey gets her first ipod. It's very cool. She can watch movies on it and play music. Katie got a touch ipod which is way cool. I wanted one after she showed me all the stuff it did. No picture to show though. All Katie pictures on this blog have to be pre-approved by her. :0)

Kelsey and Katie opening the gifts they gave to each other.

Kelsey took Dan his monster Christmas bone.

Dan liked the bone, but after a day it was no where to be seen. In the spring I'm sure we'll find it buried under something.

Just a few more pictures that are too cute not to post. The first is Tyler with his little brother, Mason. Ahhhhhh. The second is Ken (Tyler's dad) and Linda (Tyler's bonus mom). Aren't they cute.

Burnett Christmas Party

The Burnett family Christmas party was fun as always. Rob and Lori were nice enough to host it, and there were a lot of us there. Almost as many as at Thanksgiving. The white elephant gift exchange was the highlight.




Crystal (dating Donny), Donny, Tom, Ellie, Kelsey and Rob. All so excited to see what Ellie got.

Aunt Kim's excellent white elephant, or brown gingerbread boy - whatever you prefer to call it.

Ellie and Tom in front. Steve, David, Joanne, Kim, and Gary with Greta in back.

Kelsey is trying to make the right gift choice. Actually, she couldn't go wrong because all the gifts were pretty good.

Joanne and Kaela

As unattractive as this picture may be, I wanted to post it anyway because I am never in any pictures since I am always the one taking the pictures. This is of me and Tyler at the party.

Finally It Was Twilight!

Was all the anticipation worth it? Well, of course. I loved the book and the movie did not disappoint. Katie and I got to the theater at 7pm for the 12:01 am showing. Her friend, Ashley, got there about the same time, then the cousins arrived about 8pm. It was pretty cold, but the kids stayed entertained. I actually thought the time went by really fast.

They let us into the theater about 10:30 pm. We got good seats and were all excited until a young theater worker came in and told us that if we got up to go to the bathroom or get concessions, we might lose our seats. Well, that got everyone all excited...."What do you mean we can't go to the bathroom?" "Don't you want us to buy popcorn?" "I've been waiting in line for 5 hours and now that I have a seat it isn't mine to keep?" The obviously out-of-her-mind theater worker said we could all get up during the movie to buy popcorn. Say What!?
Anyway, we all decided that no one was going to take our seats because everyone around us would not allow it. So, Katie got up to go to the bathroom and while she was gone, the manager came in and said, "I have an announcement. I want to apologize for what you were told. You, of course, can get up to use the restroom, get popcorn and candy or whatever else and no one will take your seat." We all clapped and could tell he was exasperated.
When Katie came back she said she heard him telling the out-of-her-mind girl, "You told them what!?"
Tyler thought we were crazy and I don't think he was wrong. I was so tired, but it was an experience I'll always remember.

Finger Update

We've decided to document Tyler's finger healing progress, since we posted his graphic surgery pictures. Sorry to those of you who really aren't interested in seeing the gory details, but we are preserving this for posterity. Ha.

Here is his finger after his last appointment.

The nurse took out all 16 stitches, then the doctor came in and removed a 2" piece of gauze from inside his finger!!!!!!! Holy cow. We did not know they left that in there, but they did it on purpose. After the Doctor pulled the gauze out, then pulled Tyler off from the ceiling, we checked out the wreckage. It looks like a fake finger to me. Like a scarecrow finger. Weird. Hopefully, it will heal the way it's supposed to. Lesson learned here is....don't let an infection go on for months and months and months and months before doing something about it.