Big Bear part 2

Okay so the weekend was great, until Sunday afternoon...

We all were sledding down this long and steep drive way that was covered with snow and ice. At the bottom there was a huge heap of soft snow where the snow plow had stopped plowing, which made for a great jump. Depending on how many people were on the sled the sled generally went up and over the heap at the bottom and kept going until the soft snow stopped them.

Rachel's friend Hayden decided to go down on his snowboard, he fell a few times but ended up doing pretty well!
James thought he'd like to try being 16 again and snow board down it also. I caught him in action. He was going really fast, had great form and didn't fall at all, until...let the pictures tell the story...
This is how our weekend ended! He pretended it was just a torn muscle or something, but I knew better. After 30 minutes, using the snowboard to get him up, making a scarf sling and stopping to take some group pictures we headed back to the cabin to pack up. James sat by the heater freezing, but sweating up a storm, while we all packed up around him. I had layed out clean dry clothes for everyone,so we changed, packed all our stuff up, I loaded the car and we headed down the mountain.
My Papa met us at our house and we left the kids with him (Wesley came with us) while we went to Redlands Community ER. They got us in pretty fast. They gave him a shot for pain and took some X-rays. He nearly passed out from the pain during the X-rays, but managed to walk back to the hallway where we sat for an hour waiting to hear the results. The Nydam girls all came to relieve my Papa and keep the kids until we came home.
The nurse came and told us the Dr would be coming to talk to us "Well, it isn't dislocated, it's broken!" Just what we wanted to hear. He broke his humerus, the upper arm bone, at the top ball part where it connects to the collar bone. It is broken in 3 places!
The Dr. said he was waiting to hear from the bone Dr. to see about surgery. James little trek down the hill on the snowboard didn't seem so fun after all. Anyway, they gave him another shot of morphine, a prescription for more drugs, a shoulder immobilizer and a sling and let us come home. We have to see the Orthopedic surgeon in the morning. We're going to sleep on the couches downstairs and see if we can't get some sleep. Wish us luck!

Big Bear

The day after Christmas we packed up and headed for Big Bear to spend the weekend with the Nydams at their cabin. What would usually take 1 1/2 hours tops to get there ended up taking us 5 hours. We took the 38 up and on the long stretch towards the turn to Forest Falls, traffic was stopped. It took us over 3 hours to go 8.5 miles! I got out and walked CoCo 2 times and people were getting out of their vehicles to talk to other people. Just past Angeles Oaks there was a CHP chain check. Since we had 4 wheel drive we got through just fine. It wasn't snowing, but there was some snow and ice on the road. It was slow going from that point, but it wasn't stop and go. Everyone and their mother decided to make the best of the great weather and tons of snow. Anyway, we made it and all in all everyone (5 kids and the dog) did very well. Thank Goodness for the DVD player and snacks in the car.

We had a GREAT time! We relaxed, played games, ate, played in the snow, watched the dogs (we took CoCo & the Nydams had Duke there), chatted around the fire while the the kids (and the adults) all loved playig Wii and DS. All together there were 5 Jim Nydams, 4 Jack Nydams, 7 Oates, 2 friends, 2 dogs and 1 cat, which made for a wonderful time!

James, Jacob and Sarah all went snowboarding on Saturday and had a great time. The kids all enjoyed playing in the snow and it was nice to be able to play a bit and then come back inside and warm up before playing again. We went sledding on a near by hill and the kids had a blast.

I took a million pictures, so I made a bunch of collages! Each kiddo has their own collage.

As you can tell by Zach's cheeks it was freezing cold (California speaking) On Saturday it didn't get above 32 degrees, but that didn't stop him! He had so much fun. I'm not sure which he enjoyed more, the snow or playing Wii...made for a perfect weekend for him!

Gracie was counting down the days until she and her Dad could go snowboarding together...not quite like she had planned I guess. She woke up not wanting to go, but we convinced her and she got ready and was excited that is until she realized how cold it was outside. When they left for the slopes it was 9 degrees and they ended up standing in line for about an hour, outside in the shade. They didn't even make it to get her rentals before James called saying she was too cold! Maybe we'll try next year. Anyway, she had a blast sledding and playing in the cabin.Hoper cracks me up! We didn't have any boots for her, but there were a pair of rain boots at the cabin that were about 3 sizes too big, but they ended up fitting over her shoes, so it worked. She ended up pretty wet and cold, but she wore what she wanted and still had a good time!Grady had a blast! He was our built in entertainment. The first day he loved the snow, well until we went sledding and the second day he liked sledding until he got cold. After that he was just done!

While sledding on Sunday I took a bunch of pics of the Nydam girls, Henriette, Hannah and Lis...love these girls!

Thanks Nydams! We'll never forget our weekend!

The best stocking stuffer!

Santa came early and filled a stocking with the best present ever :)

Merry Christmas! Hope your day is filled with much joy!

Pictures from our day to follow...

Christmas light tour

Every year the Press Enterprise does a few articles about where the best Christmas lights are in the Inland Empire and then puts together a little tour with a map attached. In previous years we've gone to Highland, San Bernardino, Moreno Valley and even did our own little tour of Yucaipa and Redlands. This year there was a tour for Hemet and San Jacinto. So we all got our jammies on and stopped and got some snacks for our little light tour.

The kids look forward to this every year and it is fun to see neighborhoods completely decked out with Christmas lights, blow-ups, nativities and music.

The tour printed in the paper was such a dud! What a BUMMER! Some of the streets listed only had 1 or 2 houses with simple Christmas lights on the house :( James knows that area really well, so we ditched about half of the tour and made up our own finding some great houses.

The kids still had fun and enjoyed seeing the lights anyway. So, if you want to take a drive to see lights, don't do this tour.

Blogger is being weird and won't let me move my photos or text around, so that's why the pictures are on the top and the text follows. Sorry

We made it!

Through the vomit, I mean :) Thankfully, no one else seems to have gotten the "bug." No one has thrown up since Friday midday, so I am just praying that it isn't delayed, resulting in the other 3 or James or I getting it. Being sick is no fun and keeping up with 5 kids is hard enough, let alone when there are sick ones too.

I know a nasty bug has been going around, so I hope you and yours are all well.

Vomit and snow

Okay, so I know the 2 of those things don't go hand in hand, but at my house they just so happened on the same day. Driving to get the kids from Gems and Cadets the streets were covered in snow! The kids were so excited when I picked them up, but it was freezing and late so I told them they could play in the morning before school. But, not everyone got to play.
I hate sick kids! It is so sad to see them not feeling well.
Hoper came home from Gems last night complaining of a bad tummy ache. She went to bed and I thought she'd be fine. Not the case. I got up about 3am and I walked down the hall and stepped in...you guessed it, vomit! Hope had gotten up and obviously didn't make it to the bathroom. I got her situated and got ready to clean up the carpet, when I heard Grady coughing and then...He was covered in puke :( Poor guy was sitting there whining and not sure what to do. James took got him cleaned up while I changed his sheets and then started the carpet cleaner on the puke mess down my hallway. :(
We've been laying low all day and both Hoper and Grady have fevers and aren't feeling themselves. It's nearly bedtime and Grady is still throwing up. Poor guy! I'm hoping that this bug won't make to the rest of the kiddos.
Hoper hasn't thrown in awhile and kept her toast down for dinner, but still says her tummy is hurting her.
As for the snow. I feel bad for Hope she wanted so badly to go and play in it, but didn't feel well enough to. I told her there'd be another time.
So, seeing that I've been up to my elbows in throw-up all day and washed more towels than I usually do in 2 weeks I didn't get any pictures of the snow or my kids playing in it. Another time.
Hope your kids are well and don't end up with this nasty bug!

our own nativity

In case I didn't send a Christmas card your way, here is our own little nativity! I had this crazy idea considering we had a part for everyone to do a living nativity. We borrowed costumes from church and the manger and I started snapping away! I will cherish these pictures forever!


Grady's costume was a little big, but he really played the part and started saying "ba-ba" it was too cute.
I was pleasantly surprised at how into the entire nativity all the kids got. They thought it was great fun and noone ended up crying! A complete sucess :)

Rain, rain go away

Well actually we are loving the rain! After a few days of rain I decided I best go get my kids their own umbrellas. They thought it was great! They wanted to play out in the rain with their umbrellas and ended up staying outside for about 30 minutes. Oh the the little things that make the smile :) If only it were that easy to appease us adults.

Christmas program

Sunday night the 3 big kids all participated in our church's Christmas program. They all did really well and Gracie even had a little solo. Zach decided half way through he wasn't going to sing anymore, but he still did the motions the picture below was his face after he decided not to sing anymore, hehe! Hoper was right in the front, but another little girl kept getting up in her space, it was kinda' funny. I forgot my zoom lense so the pictures suck and for some reason I only took Hope's individual picture...

Anyway, it was a fun night and the program was really nice. Enjoy!

Sunday pics

Wesley was all smiley this afternoon and I finally caught him smiling on camera! :)
Gracie decided to take some pictures as we were waiting to go church, she loves taking pictures just like her Momma. Not too bad for a 7 year old!

Baby Jesus...I mean Wesley

On Sunday, Wesley was baby Jesus in the morning service. Sheila played Mary and walked with him and placed him in the manger up on stage. He did amazingly well. He was all wrapped up and didn't make a peep. I guess that's what a full tummy and a binky will do for you. Too cute! I guess being baby Jesus runs in the family. I was baby Jesus when I was 3 weeks old and Hope was baby Jesus when she was 3 weeks old at our friends church, so there you have it 3 of us Oates have gotten to play the part :)

Neglecful

Okay, so I've been a little neglectful with my blogging. I've started a million posts, but only get half way and then end up tending to a screaming child or needing to make dinner, change the wash, etc...so I had a bunch of posts half written sitting as drafts, so tonight after putting everyone to bed I decided to bust a move and blog to finish them and catch up at least until this past Friday.
So following is a million posts from the last 2 weeks. I added the original post date so I'd know for future reference ;)
Hapy blogging!

Brotherly love

Original post...Dec 12
There is something about seeing your first love on your other kiddos...This melted my heart!

Love these boys! :)

G-ma LaLa turns 50!!!

Original post...Dec 5
My sisters and I put together a suprise birthday party for my mom who turned 50 yesterday. We invited her friends and had Acupulco cater dinner! She was totally suprised!

We thought the smoke alarm was going to go off :)

Here's some random pics from the night too...

JP holding Wesley & Logan

Hoper and Hailey with Logan

Happy Birthday mom, we love you!

Mauma goes home :(

Original post...Dec 4
We had such a great time having my Mauma here! She was here nearly 3 weeks, but it went waaayyy too fast! I got everyone's picture with her the day she left. I got her with the big kids and Jamesy before they left for the day.

Her flight didn't leave LAX until 2:44, I was looking forward to an extra morning with her, but it wasn't as fun as I thought...all I could think about was dropping her off and having to say good-bye :( Before we headed out we met my folks for coffee at Starbucksand then got Hoper from school.

We cried when we took her to the airport and then on the way home the babies cried for nearly an hour as I sat in bumper to bumper traffic on the way home from LAX :( I guess they were sad too.

We all will miss her and can't wait to see her for the kids Spring break!

Thanks for coming to visit us Mauma! We love you!