Snow Days!!!!!!

The kids got to start Christmas Break two days early because of the snow. So they headed outside and the girls decided to take some pictures. The only bummer about the snow here is the wind that comes with it. Notice how the kids eyes are all squinted.

We even have our own skating rink in the backyard.

Getting the Christmas Tree

It's Always Fun When Grandma Comes!

Craig's mom came into town for a visit for the weekend. We tried to take a family picture, but as you can see some people caused a bit of a problem.

We covered marshmallows with chocolate and candy, they are really good in hot chocolate.


We went to the Lights of Christmas parade down town, in twas pretty cold, but

Something to share this Christmas

http://www.joytoeveryone.com/index.htm

Kyla's first pie

Kyla was not happy with the pie selection for Thanksgiving dinner, Buttermilk Pie (if you like pecan pie you'll love this one and never go back to pecan) and Raspberry Lemon Pie. So she tried her hand at Apple Pie. I made filling with the applesauce that I made this year so it made it pretty easy. It was really tasty!

Black Friday Frustrations

For as long as I can remember I have gone shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Although it's been quite a few years since I have gotten up really early to get the "good" stuff, we are not into big ticket, electronic stuff so I usually get up around 6 and go. Again this year the girls wanted to go with me. Last year I wanted to get flannel sheets for them so I got them to show me what they might want and then sent them to look at other things.

I had found out that Fred Meyer had slippers on for 1/2 price and thought that the girls would like that. So I pulled my same trick and had the girls look at the slippers and then they went to check out the clothes. I hurried back to the slippers and picked out a pair for each of them. I then went and got the other things that I needed and paid for my stuff.

I met the girls at the entrance only to have Mackenzie tell me how excited they were to find slippers for only $9.00. I didn't hold back and let them know I had just bought slippers for them for Christmas and they had spoiled my plans. Mackenzie started to apologize and kiss and hug me endlessly. I milked for all that I could.

We then headed off to Costco, were as we entered they gave of a small book of coupons, and what could be found, but a coupon for slippers. In her attempt to make up for buying their own slippers Mackenzie offered to buy some slippers for me. I gave in and said that would be fine. So we are standing in line at Costco with our things and the girls realize how much they like my slippers and the price and decided they wanted some too. So off they went for yet another 2 pairs of slippers. In the end I bought 7 pairs of slippers for 3 people.

Trip to Walla Walla

We stayed with my dad when we went to get the pigs...my mom was out of town. It's been so long that we have been there things have really changed. My parents lost 2 huge trees last winter in their yard. I remember growing up and we really couldn't see the neighbors yard but now it's completely different from just a few years ago.

Kaden tried out the cable swing, he was afraid of Craig taking him too high.

Here piggy, piggy.

We made a trip to Walla Walla last week-end to pick up our new pigs. They are a rare bread that comes from England. We were really lucky because the breeder was in Texas and she had another person that was from Walla Walla that was already coming to get 4 other pigs. He was nice enough to get ours too.
The funny thing about it was I was talking to the wife of the guy that picked up the pigs about growing up in Walla Walla. It turned out that her grandparents were our neighbors growing up and her mom was my second grade teacher. Small world when you grow-up in a small town. We are hoping to have a small brood of piglets some time in the spring.

Acadamy Awards Night

For YW in Excellence the girls had an "Oscar Night" They all got a Oscar...a gold spray painted barbie and gave an acceptance speach. Mackenzie had Divine Nature and Kyla had Faith. They even all got to walk down the red carpet when they came into the room and were introduced.



Getting all dolled up!

Pathetic Halloween

While Craig is talking politics on the phone I have kept myself from working by unpacking more stuff. Although we had to break down and do a load of laundry because Jensen stepped in yucky stuff in his brand new shoes while helping Craig. I noticed every one's Halloween pictures and can say I have nothing to really share. I was more worried about packing boxes.

Anyway I took a break and took the kids out trick or treating Friday night. Kaden was a hocky/rollerblader for about1/2 time until he got tired of wearing the roller blades and then he didn't want to wear just the helmet. Jensen had no desire to dress up, so he went as himself. Mackenzie had gone as the Cheeta Girls with Kyla and their friends Heidi and Hannah. But her costume by Friday night was packed. So Mackenzie and Heidi wore their youth conference t-shirts and went as "Twins".....they don't even look alike and they both had jackets on. In reality none of my kids really dressed up. Mackenzie said it was as bad as the year I had my appendix out just before Jensen's birthday on the 21st of October. Mind you I also had a 3 1/2 month old baby.

Better lucky next year. The kids still got some candy. Oh well! I do have pictures of the girls before the youth dance. As soon as I find my camera I'll have to post those pictures.

You know you have too much stuff when you move!

Brendon's room...love those curtins and flowery wallpaper. He will have a chance to get in touch with his feminine side.


Yesterday was the big moving day! I thought it would be so much easier to move just across town. It some ways it was. The family that we are renting from moved out earlier this month and let us start moving things in last Saturday. So by this week we had already made a few trips over. First problem was that I started to run out of boxes. So I would empty when I came over and filled them up again. Thank goodness for the Hackwell's letting us borrow boxes. But we still were short and I got to that yucky point of stuff that was just around and that you don't quite know what box you should put it in. I would just get thrown in box with no rhyme or reason. Now everything in the house has just been put where it can fit.

I realize that when moved ourselves before we had to pack everything and move more than 300 miles. Everything had to be packed before we left. When we had movers they packed it all in one day, loaded it on the truck the next day and then were nice enough to place it back into the rooms they came from.

I'm realizing my house looks like an episode from Oprah when a person has either a problem with hording stuff or has no idea how to keep their house clean. Even Mackenzie commented how she felt like she cannot function with the mess everywhere.

Tomorrow I have to finish cleaning our previous house. I'll work on Tuesday getting the new one in to order. Thank goodness for help on Saturday, dinner invitations the last two days and help that is coming on Tuesday. I think we should have things in pretty good order by Tuesday night. By this week-end we should just have to chip away at the boxes in the garage. I will be dejunking more as I unpack.
This in the girls "Peptobismo Pink" bedroom. We found out we can take down the wall paper and paint. Lucky for us its already starting to peel.
My kitchen with more wall paper. What were they thinking in the 70's
Laundry room that will become where I cut hair.
Another picture of the kitchen dining/room.

Update on Brendon

He had his MRI last Tuesday and then an appointment with Dr. Claypool yesterday to see the results. He crushed one of the vertabre in his lower back. Dr. Claypool said he was very lucky that it didn't do any damage to his spinal cord. Brendon also has 3 bulging disks. He will have at least another 4 weeks of healing to do and then we will see what happens from there based on how he is doing. He will be going to PT for that time also.

Packing continues and I am sick of boxes all over the house. We have made two trips to the new house but it still seems like there is so much stuff still to pack. I'll be grateful when we are settled in.

Our new house and Brendon's mission call

This is a picture the house that we will be moving into at the end of this month. We are very excited about the move. It is just on the other side of town, it means only changing schools for Jensen and Kaden. We will have some redecorating to do. It is currently very 70's.
Here's pictures of Brendon mission call. The video is not great too much noise and Mackenzie didn't realize you can't turn the camera for video's like you do for pictures. But you get the gist of the call.

In case you can't hear he is going to Monterrey Mexico East. It is right below Texas.

Too many visits in too little time...

Sunday afternoon we went over to the Meckers (Brendon's girlfriends house) to watch the afternoon session of conference. While we were watching the younger boys went outside. They decided it was okay to ride bikes without asking. (It's not something we let the boys do at home on Sunday) We'll the next thing we know Nathan who is the same age as Jensen comes running in saying Jensen is hurt. I'm thinking a small bump or bruise. Boy was I wrong, when he fell off of the bike the break handle punctured his left thigh and made a hole about the size of penny. I was pretty sure we needed to head on in but made a quick phone call to Dr. Claypool just to check. Well 4 1/2 hours and 5 stitches later we were home.

The next day I tootled off to Bellingham after getting kids out the door. I was worried since I had locked the front door and was about 20 minutes late getting home. I thought the girls had to find an unlocked window and crawl in. I walked in the house and called for them and said I was sorry I was late and asked what window they had to use. Mackenzie said, "Oh, it was OK, Brendon was home. He broke his back." She didn't even seem very worried.

What had happened was just after Brendon had got to work a wall that they were getting ready to take down fell on him. Luckily it still had part of the roof on it otherwise I'm sure it would have been worse. They had to call an ambulance to take him to the ER. He was nice enough to wait and call his dad after he was done so he didn't get the joy of sitting for another 3 hours like the night before. Strangely enough the wall had be leaning(on a tree) the opposite way that it fell onto Brendon. So they have no idea how it could have happened.

Brendon is now home on his back for a week and is not to return to work for 3 weeks. It's only day 3 and I think he's bored out of his mind. We are just grateful his okay. He has a small chip on one of his vertebrae and is in a lot of pain.

So I wonder what is the record for the most family members in an ER in the shortest amount of time with different injuries? We can say just 12 hours from when we left with Jensen until about when Brendon arrived. Not bad!

I quit.......

my job yesterday! I'm so relieved. I'm not sure that Dr. Claypool felt the same. He has been the greatest boss and has blessed our family so much.

Working for me is a love/hate relationship. I have loved my boss and enjoyed most of my co-workers. But I hate working, cranky patients and long hours. I remember when I got pregnant with Brendon I cried for 3 reasons.

1. I couldn't believe what we had done.
2. The timing was horrible, we were going to move across the country during my pregnancy.
3. I was going to be able to quit working. Although after almost nineteen years later of not officially cutting hair I'm going to start again but in my house this time. More details later.

I went to what I'd call 3/4 time last winter and then part time last spring when I got my new calling. Now with Craig working at WWU I can stay home again. YEAH for me!

Socks, socks and more socks

Why does it seems that socks produce like rabbits? Now minded some of this my own fault when I made a choice to have 5 children....but hello, it's not even that cold and 3 of the 5 kids are still wearing flip flops more the 50% of the time.

The real problem is all my kids hate to fold socks! They do a little, never bother to go get the sock basket to find the left overs and match them. This week I counted and I folded 87 pairs of socks. That is ridiculous! This was along with about 7 loads of laundry. I think we are moving to Hawaii and wearing sandals for the rest of our lives!

Ok, hopefully Brendon will just get his mission call to Hawaii and I'll get my wish for a week!

It's Official

Brendon's mission papers are in! We received confirmation from President Hoyt that they had been accepted from Salt Lake. So now the bets are on. We had a joke that we should take $5.00 for every guess and the winner would get half. The other half would go towards Brendon's mission. Not a bad way to earn a little extra money for the mission. Pres. Hackwell even offered to make an announcement at church for us. Just kidding :o) We really are not the gambling type and would not ever encourage others to do so also.

Although we are welcoming guesses. Maybe I can even come up with a fun prize who ever comes close or even gets it right. We'll take a family poll tomorrow.

We were told that we should know in about 2 to 4 weeks.

Kyla and Mackenzie Celebrate

Mackenzie and Kyla had their friends Heidi and Hannah Hoyt over to celebrate their birthdays. They made their new favorite treat that we had at Craig's parents house in Idaho. I have no name for the recipe but it's good!



1 package of Jo Jo's... these are not the potato kind that you pick-up at your local truck stop. They come from Trader Joe's and are similar to Oreo's but much better.
Ice cream- we used chocolate this time, about 1 gallon
Whipping cream

Crush the Jo Jo's and add just enough melter butter to have them clump together. Put in a 9x13 pan. Cover with ice cream. Whip the whipping cream and top with that. Freeze over night and top with your favorite chocolate sauce.



We plan on making it at Christmas time with peppermint Jo Jo's and peppermint ice cream.




The girls also made their own
individual pizza's and then watched
Becoming Jane.

And they all lived happily ever after....Not

The girls watched Becoming Jane for their birthday with friends. Craig and I had took the boys to a friend house for a barbecue. (Nothing is worse then watching a chick flick with little or big brothers around.)

When we got home the girls were pouting about how they did not like the ending of the movie. Since I wanted to watch it myself I asked them not to spoil it. Well I could see their disappointment because it was not the "fairy tail" ending like her books.

To add to the disappointment Kyla googled Jane Austin and they fabricated the story a bit. She thought if they are going to change the story in the first place why not give it a happy ending.

The next night I took a carload of girls down to Mt Vernon for a best of EFY. The girls started to talk about the movie and how once again they did not like how the story ended. Finally one of the girls, Amanda, said "Well if they are going to change the movie they might as well make it a happy ending and just turn it into a Disney movie!"

I still liked the movie and found it fun to see how the people in her life mirrored the characters in books. Especially "Pride and Prejudiced."

Brendon's mission pictures

So we needed to take Brendon's pictures to send in with his mission papers.

It's pretty cool everything is done on line. We now just have one more paper to sign and next Sunday he has an interview with our Branch President. Once he updates on the church web site it will send an email to the Stake President that he is ready for the next interview. He sould offically have his papers in by the end of September.

He was being pretty silly and his 2 sisters didn't help.









This is the final picture we sent in.