Santa's Visit!

A visit from Santa on Christmas Eve. My sister-in-law's mother-in-law (got that!) arranged for Santa to come visit us and bring a goody bag. It was fun and the kids LOVED it. He even told my niece to pull his beard to prove it was real.

Preston playing with presents from Santa.

Kate checking out her new kitchen from Santa. And if you ask her what she got from Santa she will tell you candy. What about the kitchen??!

Kate was carrying her "heavy" present to me to open and this picture was too funny. I loved that she was wearing fairy wings- from Marci- while doing it and making such a cute face.

Jared, Marci, Sara and I did this a lot this last week. We were "laptopping" as we call it in my family. We usually were playing games, facebooking, blogging or if you were Marci playing random trivia games. ha! We were gone for a long time to the wedding and for the holidays so our suburban was packed to the top- even with the 3rd seat down- on our way home. We got home to LOTS of slush and snow in our development. It was interesting moving our Honda from our driveway to a parking spot. It got stuck and so we had to dig it out and then another neighbor was stuck so Kyle helped him too. Good thing the snow is melting.

Jeff's Wedding

Jeff and Sadie are married! COLD weather, but beautiful day with blue skies.

The family
The luncheon at Sadie's parents' sales arena/barn.

The siblings with the handsome groom at the reception.
L-R: Jared, Sara, Jeff, Heidi, Jeni and Marci (youngest to oldest)
Our eyes look weird b/c we all had red eyes and I went to fix them and they turned out even weirder!

The grandkids in matching reds. Sadie's colors were red, gold and brown. My Mom made the girls' dresses- so cute!
L-R: Carter, Paige, Aubree holding Preston and Kate

She got Jeff good with the cake! The reception was at Sadie's parents house.

Wedding over, Christmas to go

We are back (well back to my parents house). Jeff and Sadie's wedding was very nice. It was sunny and blue skies the morning of their wedding. The reception was the same night as their wedding. They both were beautiful and SO in love. :) I will post pictures of the wedding and reception when we get home. The roads were okay. The worst roads were from Bellevue to Idaho. Once we reached Idaho the roads were bare. It was so much fun to see all our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who came to the wedding. We all stayed in the same hotel and that made it even more fun. We made late night shopping trips and had fun chatting sessions. Good times.

We went tubing today behind the four-wheeler (it was tons of fun!), played games, read books and hung out at my parent's house. It was nice not to be traveling in the car. :) Now onto Christmas. We are spending Christmas eve and Christmas morning with Kyle's family. Then we'll come back to my parent's house Christmas afternoon and leave to go back home on Saturday.

A little of this and a little of that

We have been busy getting ready to leave soon for Jeff's wedding this weekend in Idaho Falls and getting everything done for Christmas since we aren't coming back here until after Christmas. This weekend should be interesting for traveling- lots of snow. We are just hoping there aren't too many road closures.

I've been making Almond Roca (yummy recipe from my co-worker, she's the dentist's wife) and lots of candy coated popcorn (coated with almond bark) for various friends and people at church.

I've been trying to convince a 3 1/2 year old that we can't leave tonight for Jeff and Sadie's wedding because Daddy has to work tomorrow before we can leave. She was NOT happy with that answer and I was tired of hearing her whine and cry about it all night tonight.

After Kyle got home from work today, he helped Kate build a snowman and an igloo- her request, random I know. We got a couple inches of snow this afternoon and tonight. We may get more so we'll see. Having a 3 yr old SO excited about the snow makes it so much more fun.

Preston is a book worm. He loves to look at books. Preston will even bring a book to you so you can read it to him. Kate loves books too so we read lots of them at our house.

Preston checking out this man called Santa. He wouldn't stop staring at him. It was hilarious! I was amazed he was fine with him. Kate screamed with her first Santa visit.

Kate not scared anymore of Santa. :) She was excited to get a candy cane and still talks about how Santa came to her Church. She thinks he is still there. I have to remind her that he flew back to the North Pole to get ready for Christmas. wink, wink.

We attempted to make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for Family Night. This is our little pathetic house. :) I needed stronger "glue". It kept collapsing, oh well.

Code Adam

This morning we went to Walmart to get some things. Kate wanted to walk so I let her only if she stayed with me. Well, we were looking at toys and Kate was at an end cap looking at books. I was just around the corner from her and I thought she knew where I was and I was fine with her looking at the books. A couple minutes later, I walked around the corner to get her and she was GONE. I called her name and started looking up and down other aisles and couldn't find her anywhere. When this has happened before I quickly find her, but this time all the aisles were empty!!! I went in panic mode. Luckily there were two Walmart people nearby (I think one was an asst. manager) and I quickly asked for their help in finding my daughter. I immediately thought the worst thinking someone had kidnapped her. I yelled Kate's name and the man told me he needed a description. I quickly gave it to him, but kept yelling Kate's name. And I mean yelling it. The man kept saying "ma'am, we will help you", but I really think he wanted me to stop yelling. :) At this point, I didn't care what he said because I was so scared she was gone! Everyone was looking at me, but I didn't care. (It's funny what you'll do in situations like these and you don't care what others think!) Anyway, I overheard on the intercom "code Adam cancelled" and then I knew she was found b/c I knew what code Adam meant (it means that a child is lost). Phew! I walked with the worker up to the front to get Kate and on the way this mom with two kids in her cart asked if that was my girl and I said "yes". She said she found her running down an aisle crying so she took her up front and she knew how I felt. I gave her a hug for helping me. When I got to Kate I gave her a hug and told her I was glad they found her. In the car on the way home Kate told me she was running trying to find me and the lady helped her. She said she was nice and gave her a small chair to sit in. On the way home, we stopped at Panda Express to get "chicken and noodles" for lunch because Kate has been wanting them and today she can have them or whatever else she wants! I'm glad she is safe.

"Bless your beautiful hide"

Us girls (my Mom and sisters) met up in Bellevue on Friday night for our Girls Night Out tradition (we try to do something every year). We spent some time shopping, eating at Z-tayas and then went to Seattle's 5th Ave Theater to watch the musical 7 Brides for 7 Brothers! It was fun and I got in trouble for taking these pictures inside the theater (oops!). We all liked it, Sara fell asleep for the last 10 minutes, but overall we thought it was funny and good. Marci LOVES this movie so she was the most excited. My Mom, Sara and Jeni drove back to Mattawa that night so they didn't get home until 2 am! For once, I had the short drive home (20 min). :)

Welcome Home Car

Our Honda is finally home safe and sound. :) It's been in the transmission shop for over 2 weeks (granted one week was half gone with the holidays) but we are so glad to have it back. For a pretty penny we got a rebuilt transmission. We went to pick it up Monday night, but on their test drive they heard a clunking noise so they kept it to find the problem. So finally last night we went to pick it up and it was done. No more waking kids up and putting them in a cold car to take Kyle to work if I wanted the car. No more being stranded at home if I really want to leave. Yipee!

We bought out christmas tree last night from Top Foods of all places. It's beautiful if I must say so myself. :) It's on the bushy side, but that's okay. Kate helped me decorate it while Kyle was at mutual. Our house is filled with the lovely pine tree scent and it's wonderful. Mmmmmm....

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend at my parents house. We ate lots of yummy food for turkey day, we helped Jeff and Sadie with wedding stuff, us girls went shopping on Black Friday, I got sick, Preston got sicker, my brother-in-law got strep throat, 8 family members ran in a 5k race on thanksgiving morning (including me- it was cold!), saw both sides of grandparents, went to a bridal shower, played the Wii (a lot) and loved hanging out with family.

Kate washing Jeff's feet :)

Grandpa Craig with Preston

Kate helping my Mom make chocolate chip cookies and they were wearing matching farm aprons (that's what Kate called them- they both had barns on the front).

Marci and Sara trying desperately to get the kids to smile while taking the grandkid picture. It was funny watching them!

The grandkids laughing at Marci and Sara.

Sadie modeling the t-shirts we got for running in the Finish then Feast 5k race.

Kyle and Kevin playing tennis on the Wii. My parents bought it and had all of us open it for an early christmas eve gift for everyone because christmas is with the in-laws this year so we won't be there for the christmas eve tradition which is opening a gift (which is usually a game that we can all play that night). We had so much fun playing it. We had a few injuries, ie: hitting one another with the rackets (good thing they are nerf!).

I loved this picture of everyone else taking pictures of random people in the room. Jared, Jeni and my Mom were taking pictures of different people.

Christmas Questions

My friend Sharon tagged me... So here you go.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy (not forward) this entire post and paste into a new post that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you......'Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper- I have wrapping paper that matches my decor that I got from Costco last year and I love it.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real Tree- i love the smell. I'm tempted though to buy a pre-lit artificial one. So tempting...maybe later.

3. When do you put up the tree? We usually put it up at the beginning of December. I like to wait after Thanksgiving because I want to celebrate that holiday first.

4. When do you take the tree down? A couple days after Christmas. It's usually pretty dry by then and I'm ready for it to be gone.

5. Do you like eggnog? NO! I think it's disgusting and reminds me of lugies (sp?)

6. Favorite gift received as a child? The funniest was a copy machine that I so desperately needed/wanted and then I played with it like 3 times. So bad of me. Remember that Mom?

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, several of them and I need more places to display them all.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Kyle and usually in-laws

9. Easiest person to buy for? Kate

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail them out. I like to get them in the mail. My parents get tons of them and every year I read all of them. Very fun and entertaining.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I really can't think of one.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation!!!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever there is a good sale- so always. :) No, probably before Thanksgiving.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Peanut clusters and yummy homemade cinnamon rolls with hot cocoa.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree ? Clear

17. Favorite Christmas song? O, Holy Night, The First Noel and Where are you Christmas sung by Faith Hill.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Always travel for now

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Almost all of them

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star made out of twigs and red stuff- it again matches my decor and I got it from Target.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? It's a big tradition to open a gift Christmas Eve which were pajamas and games. Then we'd play the games, which I loved since I'm a game person. Then we'd open all the presents Christmas morning after we saw what Santa brought.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The roads- since we travel we get to go over a pass and deal with snow, closed roads and such.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like my red and gold ornaments on my tree.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Stuffed pork roast.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Healthy children (unlike last Christmas)

I tag...Melanie, Heather and Kalei. You're welcome. :)

Transmission Toast

While Kate was cutting her hair and spilling water in her room (refer to previous post), Kyle called to say his car had broken down in a town 25 miles away. He called to say his car wouldn't go in drive. He called around and got it towed to a Honda dealership near us and that cost $200 (our insurance will only cover half of it). Then they did a diagnostic test on it for $100 to tell us the transmission is toast. What?!!! It is only a 2003 Honda Accord with 80,000 miles on it. That shouldn't happen. They quoted us $4,000 for a new transmission, but we called around and found somewhere else for a little bit cheaper. Stressful! Not a good time for this to happen around the holidays. Oh well, it's just money, right?! They have to order the parts and it won't be done until mid-next week. It's been a interesting only having one car. We have had to take Kyle to work one day and today my friends picked me, Kate and Preston up (in two different cars) so we could go to Jump Planet for a preschool field trip. Next week will even be more exciting with more days of juggling the car around for doctor appts, preschool, me working and kyle's work. It will be fine, but always something to keep us on our toes.

Girl on a Rampage

Last night, for family night we had a cookie party in Kate's room. She was so excited for all of us to be in her room and play. She taught us letters and then we played with dolls. Well, for our cookie party I had brought up some water in a water bottle to put in our tea cups. So this morning she wanted more water in her water bottle. She stayed in the kitchen for 2 seconds and then left to go upstairs. I was doing dishes and feeding Preston a snack. A few minutes later I could tell Kate was in the bathroom and could only assume she was doing something with water so I told her to get out of the bathroom. A few minutes later I venture on upstairs to find big water droplets from her bathroom to her bedroom and a HUGE spot in her bedroom that was drenched with water!!! What a mess!!! Kate said she was sorry and went downstairs. After cleaning up that mess I quickly put some makeup on and did my hair along with making the bed. By the time I got back downstairs I noticed clumps of hair on the kitchen floor. Kate had cut her hair!!!!!!! I was so not happy. I had her come show me her hair and then took a picture. I told her that was naughty and only Melanie cuts your hair. Kate said it was terrible that she cut her hair. She was crying, as you can see in the picture. Now she's going to have annoying bangs that will be in her face, great. Good thing she only cut the front part- it could have been worse, I guess. It's not even lunchtime yet so I'm nervous what more she'll think of doing today.

Welcome Race Fans!

The young men put on a pinewood derby for their combined mutual activity. The young women were invited as well as any ward members that wanted to come. Kyle was in charge of doing decorations and the prizes. With limited time (yes, they are men!) Kyle and I brainstormed for decoration ideas. I looked in a few stores to try to find black and white checkered flags, but couldn't find any. As I was driving around I noticed this truck dealership with multiple black and white flags on the trucks' antennas. I decided to go there and as them if I could borrow a few of their flags for our activity. I did and they said yes! I was excited. So notice the black and white flags in the pictures- I was excited to get them. Kyle gets the car and driver magazine so he cut out pictures from that and put them up. The refreshments were the pit stop (nachos, chocolate donettes- to look like tires- chocolate/cream cheese cupcakes, sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies). I think everyone had a good time.

These are cars made out of mini snickers and kissables stuck into them with frosting to hold them in. I found this idea online and loved it.

The decorations. Love the shop towels and quarts of car oil as the centerpiece. There was a white balloon with the red and black, but Kate popped it at home. I wasn't happy about that. Oh well. For the napkins we used shop towels. ha!

Kyle with Preston and the other folks. The prizes were: the overall winner got the "100 grand" purse (candybar), the overall youth winner got starburst candy for being the "star", the winner following the scout rules got trail mix for his next big hike (that was Kyle's idea and I thought it was clever) and the most creative got some Cars chalk and holder to be creative at home. :) All the winners also got a small cup trophy as well.

Cousin Time!

Kyle's mom, Dee Ann, and his sister, Melanie, and her family were able to come this weekend. Kate and Preston were feeling better, phew, except Kate ended up throwing up Saturday night so I hope Melanie's kids don't get sick! We ended up going to the Children's Museum in the morning. All the kids LOVED it and it wore them out, which is always nice. Then Dee Ann, Melanie and I had a fun shopping spree (books, clothes and more books!) while the kids napped and the men watched an exciting football game. Then, we ventured to Old Spaghetti Factory which is usually kid friendly, but after waiting for almost an hour we wanted to scream! It wasn't a pleasant experience so we were all wondering why we chose to go out for dinner. :) After tucking all the kids in various rooms throughout our house Melanie did my hair, Dee Ann did her homework (ha!) and the men watched a movie.

Melanie and I at the musuem in the "glow room". I was scared by how my blonde hair looked and our teeth were horrific looking.

Kathryn and Kate "acting" in the theater. You all missed the performance, maybe next time. It was sold out. :)

The kids driving a metro bus- scary!

Preston backing up the good ol' tractor (it's not green, I know!)

Kate doing a funny cross-eyed face

Preston was about to fall asleep during lunch after the museum. It was cute how he rested his head on his tray, but kept eating his lunch.

I thought Kate liked pickles, but I saw Melanie drinking this tinted water and found out it was pickle juice!!! I have never seen anyone DRINK pickle juice so I had to take a picture. Ewwww! Melanie was surprised I had never seen anyone drink it before and so we had a good laugh about it.

Sickly

The kids and I stayed home today. I cleaned bathrooms, which is my least favorite housecleaning job ever. Preston and Kate are sick with colds, well we all have colds, but of course Preston has it the worst. He coughs and throws up his food so yesterday he hardly kept anything down. This morning he woke up SO thirsty it was sad to see him gulping the milk down and then shaking and crying when I tried taking it away. He ate saltines and applesauce for breakfast and then took a long nap (he didn't sleep good at all the night before). But during lunch he threw everything up again. Lovely. He finally kept a snack down this afternoon and his little dinner he ate. I don't know if it's a stomach bug or just that he coughs and it's so "natural" for him to throw up. He's lost weight and he doesn't have much to spare! We have Kyle's mom, sister and her family coming into town this weekend (quick and sudden plans- we're excited) so I hope that we are all better so they can come. The last time Kyle's mom saw Preston he was sick and was not himself so I really hope he gets better so she can see what he's really like.

P.S. Don't forget to vote!

Happy Halloween!

On Halloween night, we went with our friends, Mat and Darbi and their kids, to an outdoor shopping area to go trick-or-treating. It was fun and Kate loved finding other Dorothy's like her (she became instant friends with them). She also liked seeing all the other people dressed up and when she would go up to get candy she would ask them what they were and then proceed to tell them "I'm a Dorothy doll" and then tell them what each of her friends were too. It was funny. I had to keep pushing her along to keep her going. She also wasn't shy about going up and getting candy from them. It was fun to see her having fun. We came home and then had some trick-or-treaters come to our house. Kate liked answering the door and seeing what the costumes were. The night was rough though... Kate and Preston both threw up in the night. Kate came to us at 3:30 am saying she had thrown up, but I couldn't understand what she was saying and finally she said " I. THREW. UP!" Then I understood. :) I'm not sure if it was too much candy or what. Today, they seem fine.

It was ironic because both times I had to get Kate dressed as Dorothy (last week for our ward halloween party and then last night) she loved getting into her costume and wig. However, Preston cried the entire time and would gag and throw up while getting him ready. It was crazy that he acted the same way both times. The minute I started getting Kate ready he would start to cry. What's with that?!

Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa Paul!

My Grandpa Paul (my Dad's Dad) turned 80 today and to celebrate such a milestone his kids put together a surprise birthday party for him in Ellensburg. He was really surprised and LOVED every minute of it. He's a friendly guy so he had lots of friends come to visit and eat all the yummy desserts. My grandpa farmed with my Dad so I grew up with him around. I drove his truck (I even wrecked it!), played at his house, watched picture slides with him, drank his cold pop and loved having him come to my sporting events. Happy Birthday!

My family with Grandpa and Grandma

Random picture- my Mom with Preston :)

We're Not in Kansas Anymore!

Here are the kiddos in their Halloween costumes. Let's just say it was crazy on Saturday. Kyle left around 3:30 to go set up the Spook House at the Church and wouldn't be back home (the ward halloween party started at 5 pm) and so I had to get both kids ready on my own. I had no idea how I would do Preston as a scarecrow so I made it up as I went. He screamed the entire time I was stapling raffia to his clothes. Then he coughed, gagged and threw up on his overalls. Totally stressful for me. Then I forgot about the cornbread cooking in the oven and raced downstairs to pull it out, luckily it wasn't too overdone. I loaded the kids up, the food, the candy, the hula hoops (for a game) and the prizes. We made it and Preston was super good the rest of the night and didn't even pull at the raffia until right before we were leaving. He even left his hat on- miracle!

Kate and her friend Alyssa. There was black wig hair wrapped around that carmel apple sucker of Kate's. DISGUSTING!

Jackson (munchkin), Preston (scarecrow) and Dallin (monkey)- the three boys born last October.

I love this picture of them checking each other out. My friend, Jeanne, handmade those munchkin shoes!!! Impressive. (Jeanne was Dorothy too!)

Our latest

Tonight is our ward Halloween Party (it's called Boogly Nights) with food, games and trunk-or-treating. I will probably put on my awesome bowling outfit complete with shoes (not sure if Kyle will again) for the party tonight. Kate is "Dorothy" and I'm going to try and make Preston a scarecrow.

Yesterday was busy, but fun. We went to a friend's house for lunch, made roll-out sugar cookies shaped liked pumpkins, bats and moons then, frosted and decorated them with Darbi and her kids in the afternoon. I also watched a friend's kid in the afternoon (he slept for 3 hours! Where can I get a kid like that?!). That was the easiest babysitting I've ever done. :)

On Wednesday, my parents and sister, Sara, came over to trade in a car and buy a car in Bellevue so they swung up here after buying the car and I had yummy taco salads ready for them. I made the taco shells homemade- so easy and so good. Then my ultra kid friendly Dad (for real- he is so patient!) stayed home with Kate and Preston while my Mom, Sara and I hit the mall. We found lots of great shirts for my Mom and Sara found plenty of things to buy too, of course. After Kyle got off work, we all headed down to Southcenter to meet Marci at Cheesecake Factory to have dinner. My Mom had made these cute pumpkins out of a paper bag and filled them with candy. When she gave Kate one, Kate said, "ohhh" all tenderly and went and showed my Dad and said, "it's so cute!" We thought that was pretty funny how she reacted to it. I'm glad she appreciated it so much. It was a fun day.

To Bowl or Not to Bowl...

We are so not the type of people to dress up for Halloween, but we were invited to a couples Halloween party and decided to be brave and dress up- gasp! Kyle's work has put on two bowling tournaments in the past couple of years and has made bowling shirts for each team. He has 2 lovely bowling shirts now in his closet and we decided to put them to good use again and be bowlers for the party. I really wanted to find bowling shoes to complete the ensemble so I thought of asking bowling alleys if they had any old shoes they were going to throw away or are needing to get rid of. After calling three different bowling alleys, the last one I called I talked to a lady who was SO nice and said "oh yeah, we can definitely find you some. What sizes did you need?" She was so giving and super friendly about it while the other places were "no we don't have any old shoes" and "I'll have to see, we are getting new shoes in and will be throwing out some old one's, but I don't know..." Needless to say I was excited with this lady who was so willing to help me out! She didn't even charge me. Our costume was complete now! We put a fake mustache on Kyle and slicked his hair down. He looked so funny and I couldn't stop laughing and if he rubbed or itched his nose he would smear the black eyeliner. We were both cracking up. I put my hair in pigtails and put my wrist brace on that I have for when I get tendonitis. People at the party were like "what did you do to your wrist?" And I said, "oh, I'm protecting my bowling hand." I'm such a good actor. (HA!) It was fun to go to the party to see everyone else that dressed up. Some people are so creative with their costumes. It was a good night out with good food and good friends.

Quirks

Wandering Nana tagged me to post some of my quirks. But hey, I think these are all normal things. :)

1. I have to have the perfect bite when eating. I have to carefully put a little of each food on my fork before taking a bite. My sister, Marci, tells me I enjoy my food a lot.

2. I can't stand when people smack. It is really annoying and very obvious to me. When Kyle and I were dating he was smacking his gum and we were on a long car drive. It took me several hours to build up the courage to tell him to stop smacking his gum. It was either that or I was going to jump out of the car!!! Very extreme, I know.

3. I write lots of lists. I'll write a list to tell me to write a list (not really...) I don't like to forget to do something and it's much better when I write it down before I forget it.

4. I have a loud distinct laugh and I can thank my Mom for that one. :)

5. It really bothers me when people don't even drive the speed limit. Come on... they can legally go faster and they don't?!?!

6. Before I curl my eyelashes, I get the eyelash curler hot with the blow dryer. I think it helps curl my lashes better.

There you go. I dare Marci, Jeni, Melanie and Dee Ann to do this.

Happy 1st Birthday Preston!

Happy Birthday Preston! You are such a big boy turning 1!!!

(Only a couple of days old- so little)

Even though he's probably had enough cake this weekend, I wanted him to have cake on his real birthday. So I made some and after dinner we had him open our presents- one from Kate and one from us. Then, we had cake and ice cream. I think he liked it. :)