Midnight Air Hockey. Bring it!

So, "Santa" brought the family an air-hockey table. What a dang blast! We spent the day having tournaments... There are rules, though. One rule is that the kids are allowed to use 2 hitty-things (What are they called anyway?!) while Tony & I could only use 1. The other rule is that adults have to close their eyes & play blind in 10 second increments. The 3rd rules is that having the lights on is optional. They are dumb rules... That's why I lost... I mean, how can I compete with the kids in those odds? I'm totally not playing with them anymore... I'm tired of losing!

Ha Ha! Everyone thinks I'm shy... whatever! Now take THAT!

Dang, Brielle is better than I thought...

Come on, Brielle! Don't let a BOY beat you!

The midnight air-hockey bash... the tournament to name "King Ruud" of the Air Hockey Table... The favorite gift that Santa brought... Wanna come & challenge? New Years is open for visitors!

Rub-a-Dub-Dub... My 3 Men in a Tub

"uh-mon, Dad!" He says as he takes Tony's hand & leads him to the bathroom. "Let's pay! Baff!" That's "Brigham-ese" for, "Come on, Dad, lets play in the bath!" Tony's a sucker for Brig's big eyes. So, what does he do even though it's after 9 pm on a school night? Tony fills that tub up while Brig hoots in delight! Tony added bubbles, then turned on the jets & suddenly the tub was now Bubble-land! You could hear Brig giggling as he covered daddy's face & head in bubbles. Bridger was feeling left out, so the next thing we know, he comes & jumps in, too! Maybe next time we'll add swimsuits & get us girls in there as well! No fair! We want to "pay in the baff!"

Help! Santa's Got Me!

Santa stopped by our house tonight. Aren't you all jealous? You'd think we would have heard happy squeals of delight... You'd think we'd hear excited laughing.... You'd think we'd hear whoops of joy... No, apparently not. All we heard was ear-piercing screaming coming from 19 month old Brig. He kept calling out "Mom! Dad!" & saying, "No, Santa!" Of course his camera-happy mother (aren't I great?) just HAD to take advantage of a kodak moment & force him to sit there, anyway. I'll get him therapy later. Someday he'll realize this is one guy you DON'T want to be mean to! How hilarious!

Shopping Malls & Mean Drivers...

So, Brooklyn, Brikenna, & I went shopping yesterday in the "big city"... LOGAN! (Hey, it's huge to us!) This was just the "big girl's" trip... where we could try on clothes & shoes to our heart's content... with no men standing there tapping their toes & scowling at us to hurry up! No one was there to make us look at dumb boy-things like bench-press bars & 400 pound weights that can squish your foot right off if you accidentally drop them on you. (Can you tell we are still bitter from the last shopping trip that the boys came on?!?) We also got to actually sit down at Sizzler to a meal with real metal forks & glass plates instead of unwrapping anything & using a plastic "spork" for a utensil... again, bitterness is sneaking thru... but hey, a girl gets tired of meals that her men just wolf down without even tasting! So, anywhoo~ we had a nice, lazy day in Logan! The girls are growing up too fast! It used to be the toy aisle they spent all day in. This time it was the cell-phone aisle in middle of the mall! Did you know you could buy bling for your DOG'S cell phone if you wanted to? Dang, there are lots of fun stuff out there for a couple of 6th graders to beg for! We had a great day! The day would've been perfect, except for the big jerk that backed into us as we were just getting ready to go home. HIs name is Ryan Dee Busenbar from Preston Idaho, if any of you care... :) He backed into us at a red-light, then jumped out of his truck screaming & swearing that I should've got out of his way since the nose of his truck was too far out in the intersection & he was going to get hit! Hello? Do I sense mental problems?!? Good thing the witnesses & cops didn't see it as my fault... Just a stupid, mean man who needs to attend anger management classes, as well as driving school! I guess we got our fill of a "big" town for the week! That's enough shopping malls & mean drivers... hoping the roads are clear & the canyons are open so we can do it again next weekend!

Fish Eyeballs & Manly Men...

Bridger idolizes his Uncle Brian. It has been an on-going story in our family ever since my brother, Keith, had his wedding dinner, so I guess the story actually starts about 9 years ago... So here goes... At Keith's wedding dinner, we went to a wonderful Vietnamese Restaurant for dinner. My brother-in-law, Brian, had served his mission to Hawaii & was in heaven with all these seafood delicacies. One of the courses that was brought out had a big old fish on it, head & all! Well, Brian decides to show off to everyone & SUCKS THE EYEBALL RIGHT OUT OF THE FISH HEAD! You should have seen all the dry-heaving & laughing! Absolutely disgusting, absolutely hilarious, absolutely a cool story for a 9 year old boy!
Well the day before Thanksgiving, 2007, Bridger, his daddy, & his sister, Brikenna, went fishing & caught some fish. That night, Brian & his family got to our house & Bridger thought it was the perfect opportunity for Brian to PROVE once & for all he actually DID suck an eyeball out of a fish! Tony grabbed the video camera, Brian grabs hold of a dead RAW fish, & sucks that eyeball right out! You should've heard all the gagging in the background! My sisters, Jen & Karmen both ran straight for the bathroom because they were seriously gonna barf! Since it was a bit crowded in there, I just stood with my fingers in my ears, eyes closed, mumbling over & over again, "Oh, my heck! Oh, my heck!" Sure enough, Brian proved his manliness - even swallowed it - then had to begin taunting Bridger & his cousin, Justin, for them to prove their manliness! Are you a "Manly- Man? Huh Huh?!!?" I tried to download the video to both this site & to YouTube to make a link, but both of them said the file was too big, dang it all! Anywhoo~ thru-out the video, you can see Bridger laughing, sucking, laughing, gagging, sucking, & trying his dangest to get an eyeball out! Uncle Brian even decides he should scoop the eyeball out first to make it easier on Bridger, but that just made the gagging worse! Justin got his nerve up, did a huge suck, & then proceeds to stick out his tongue & SHOW us the eyeball sitting on his tongue! Oh, freak! I was gagging like no other, & Jen & Karmen both ran upstairs so they couldn't hear the noises anymore. Finally after 10 disgusting minutes of hilarious video, Bridger gets the stupid eyeball sucked out! While everyone is cheering on his "Manly-Man"-ness, he runs to the sink & throws it up! Oh, welcome to the Ruuds house for Thanksgiving!

Lazy Sunday...

Lazy day in the Ruud's household... Church went great. I had my first Sunday teaching the Relief Society lesson (I'm 2nd counselor) and the Stake Relief Society Presidency had to drop in without notice! Yikes! But the lesson went real well, so it's all good! Tony & Bridger are LOUDLY watching the Patriots play in the family room. Tom Brady is Bridger's current hero and I think he'll continue idolizing him as long as the Patriots keep winning! Brooklyn is freezing, so she is curled up in Brig's "nuggle nuggle" (his camouflage fleece blanket) next to me. I think she wishes I'd hurry and get off the computer so she can e-mail her cousins and friends! Brielle wants cold lunch to take to school tomorrow, so she is irritating us to no end by continually asking "where's the peanut butter?" "where's the bread?" "where's the treats?" Oh, my heck, where's the earplugs?!? Kenna is unusually quiet, which is odd. I wonder where she is and what she's doing... Maybe I should take a minute and check to see that she isn't off lighting matches or eating my candy stash that is hidden next to my bed... Brig is wandering around waving a flyswatter! Just a sec... I have to grab it before he either hits me with it or sucks on it! Okay. I'm back. It's cold and snowy outside, so I think I'll just go curl up with Brooklyn and turn on the fireplace & bribe one of my kids to brush my hair! Aww! Now that's a great Sabbath day!