New Job

Kyle started a new job in mid-November with D.R. Horton. They are America's #1 home builder and the Seattle/Portland division is in Kirkland which is only 15 miles away. It usually takes a 1/2 hr or so with traffic. He is an Entitlements Analyst. His other job with Union Bank was good while it lasted (5 min commute!!!), but he was ready for a change. That job was a dead end job with no growth and it wasn't even a long term job, which we knew that going into it. So when this job came up and his friend/co-worker knew a guy that worked there it was a good time to switch. We were very happy he got offered the job. What a huge blessing! From his first interview to the offer it was 2 weeks so it happened quick. His boss at Union Bank was a little surprised. We are hoping he really likes this new job and can grow with the company for many years.

Thanksgiving 2012

We went back to my parents house for Thanksgiving. (We like to spend lots of money on gas. :) We have gone over 3 times in November! Good thing it's semi-close.) We drove over on Thanksgiving morning and traffic was amazing. We deal with lots of traffic over the mountain pass, but this time it was a dream drive. Kyle was in heaven. I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful table or amazing spread of food my Mom prepared. It was yummy and we had fun visiting. 

Preston trying to help Kevin with this hard puzzle. Preston is really good with puzzles but this one may have been a little advanced.

We did the cousin Christmas gift exchange on Thanksgiving because everyone was here and it's more fun to give a gift in person. The kids had lots of fun opening presents.

Preston LOVED his gift from one of Jeni's kids. It was a big Emily train. When I asked him what he wanted for Christmas he would say "big Emily" and that's it. Well, I guess I am done with him for Christmas now. When I gave Jeni the idea, I told her she'd probably have to order it online and she ended up finding it at Target! 

After dinner, presents and dessert, all us girls headed off to Tri-Cities to do some retail therapy on Thursday night (early Black Friday) since that's when most stores start their sales now. Sadie had a lot of things on her list so we all divided and conquered at Walmart and she got everything she wanted. My Mom was in line for a kitchen and there were only 8 kitchens and she was the 8th person in line so she got one! She said she felt like she won the lottery. haha! I was in charge of Barbies and I was supposed to get like 3 of each kind (that's a lot!) and when it was time to "go" there was some pushing happening all around me and it was insane! Barbies fell over...it was a mess! I was stacking Barbies up in my arms and they were falling out and it was stressful. haha! Jeni and Sadie were nearby getting other toys so they came over to help me. It was funny. Then getting out of the chaos to where Marci and Sara were, which was in a check-out line b/c they had amazing positioning at their toy pick-up spot, took forever b/c the aisles were blocked with swarms of people. I had to push my way through and finally made it to them. We were checked out by 8:15pm and the sale started at 8pm. We were successful! I've never been to Black Friday shopping and it was crazy! Then we headed to Toys R Us and my Mom, Sadie and I got dropped off. Marci, Jeni and Sara (with Zane) headed to Target. After Toys R Us, which it was calm inside there, we decided to just walk up to Target b/c Marci and Sara were standing in line for a camera so it was easier to walk. It wasn't far away, but with all our purchases we looked like Santa Clause hauling our bags over our shoulders. We had lots of laughs and good memories were made. We met up with them inside Target (they had lame sales and looonnggg lines). The camera Marci and Sara wanted sold out 2 people ahead of them so after all that wait they didn't get one. Boo. We got some popcorn and icees then headed home. We got back to my parents around 11:30pm. Not too bad!

On Friday morning, my Dad and Marci took all the kids except for Chelsea, Baylor and Zane, on a hike up in the hills/mountains. They found some caves and went down a steep hill all crammed illegally in the truck! They came back talking non-stop about their hike. They loved it. I didn't think Preston or Lindsey would make it, but they even had fun and did good. Guarantee now the kids will want to go on 'hikes' more often. We had some family drama unfold so that kind of put a damper on things. But what family doesn't have drama, right? That's when we learn to forgive and move on. We played a few games, but took it easy the rest of the day. 

We packed up and left my parents Saturday morning and headed back into Tri-Cities to see Kyle's family. We picked up Dee Ann and went and saw Grandma Great (Arlene). Here's a cute picture of Chelsea with her. Lindsey was wanting to play with all her breakable trinkets and tea sets. ahhh! 

I thought this was cute of all the kids with Grandma Dee Ann.

We went back to Dee Ann's house, ate lunch then put Chelsea down for a nap. Then we set up her Christmas tree and decorated with her. The kids had fun helping. It's not a clear picture of Dee Ann, but I liked Kate in the back putting the ornament on the tree. We stopped by to see Melanie and the kids before heading home. And of course, we had to stop by Miner's in Yakima for dinner on our way home too. Yum! Now onto Christmas...can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone!

Brazil gets Jared

Jared gave his mission farewell talk last Sunday. He spoke on this talk about standing alone from Pres. Monson. He did a good job and related experiences he had "standing alone" in the locker room when he told his friends to now swear. They respected him and would try not to swear around him. My uncles Larry and Monty and their families came along with some people from the ward and some of his friends from school came.

My Mom made him a thanksgiving dinner since he is leaving Tuesday and will miss Thanksgiving.  

We watched home videos. Jared was just a baby in them. It was fun to reminisce and make fun of our clothes/hair and behavior. Good times. 

Jared and me, ahhh! I'll miss him for 2 years, but of course I wouldn't want him anywhere else except on a mission right now. He'll be an amazing missionary!

Jared with my kids. While on the trampoline, the cousins were all talking about how old they were going to be when Jared gets back. It's crazy how time flies.

Jared arrive at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Sao Paulo, Brazil!!! He had such a long day, almost 24 hours of travel with layovers and such. He'll be in the MTC for 7-8 weeks and then go up to his mission in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. They better take good care of my little brother! :)

Preston's Green Tractor

My Mom gave Preston this John Deere Tractor kit and it came with paint and decals. Preston was at Walmart with my Mom and he picked it out saying he wanted to paint it green. So my Mom bought it and saved it until his birthday. He loved doing this little craft project. I helped him by telling him what color to paint where. I wanted to smooth out the brush strokes so bad and I did on one side, but then stopped because I figured it's his tractor and it looks cute how he paints it. I'm glad I didn't "fix" it all. 

Kiddos and Sickos

The kids all in the pj's one morning. Too cute. 

Chicken noodle soup has been a common thing around here lately. Partly because it's amazingly yummy and easy to make AND because we had the stomach flu go through our house this week. It started with Lindsey, then Preston, then Kyle, then me and so far no one else. Kate and Chelsea were lucky ones. 

My Mom made us chicken noodle soup a couple months ago when we were at their house and we were all raving about how good it was. I make it the easy way though (6 c. water, 6 bouillon cubes, add diced onion, celery and carrots, cook til tender, then add chicken and noodles- boil noodles and chicken separately. I use the Country Pasta homemade noodles from Costco or you can use egg noodles. Then season with salt and pepper as needed.)

Baby Zane

Derek and Sara blessed Zane a couple weeks ago in Moses Lake. Derek did a great job with the baby blessing and his parent's hosted an amazing dinner afterwards at their house. There was so much food! It was fun to visit with Derek's family and hang out with my family. 

Baby Zane all looking studly in his bow tie. And of course my Mom made the outfit, tie and booties. Too cute. Zane was born October 4th at 3:58 pm and weighed 9 lbs 8 oz. He has lots of light blonde/reddish hair and he is a big boy! 

Our family that went to the blessing.

All of my siblings were there except for my brother Jeff and his wife Sadie and their two kids Reagan and Baylor. We missed them!

Oh, Chelsea

Chelsea's already 5 months old and trying all sorts of new things like...

the activity center- the older kids fight over the music buttons (annoying) and the...

johnny jumper- more like Lindsey and Preston swing her around and "help" her bounce and...

she's exploring the floor- she's rolling around, scooting and sitting up and...

this was her 2nd time trying food. It was rice cereal and carrots. I'll let the pictures tell you how it went.

Yep, we need to work on the food department. She's growing up fast and such a good baby though. She was teasing me and sleeping through the night for several nights, then started waking up once a night again. I don't want to sleep train her like I had to with Lindsey, but she has until she's 6 months and then I'll do it! I'm not really looking forward to doing that so I hope she learns on her own. :) 

Trick-or-Treat

Happy Halloween!

Where to begin?! Lots of pictures with this post. 

We carved pumpkins for FHE, had a ward Chili and Cornbread cook-off with carnival games followed with trunk-or-treating and then went trick-or-treating with friends on Halloween. I think we have plenty of candy and wore our costumes enough.

I made brain and skeleton face cupcakes for the cupcake walk. The Young Women ran that activity so I got to search pinterest for cupcake ideas. I wanted to do something that I haven't done before. The brain ones were super easy. I even googled how to make flesh colored frosting for them. Love google!

Preston was Buzz Lightyear- to infinity and beyond!!! He was this by default. I had gotten this costume on clearance a couple years ago and so I brought it out and told him he was going to be Buzz. He was fine with it and actually was really excited (even though before whenever I asked him if he wanted to be Buzz he would say no he wanted to be an elephant or Mario or Spiderman, haha). My friend had some Buzz wings that we borrowed and they completed the costume, thanks Kati! Preston would say, "check out my wings" and then spin around to show you. 

Kate was a perfect Clown. She was hilarious in her costume. Every time I looked at her I would laugh. She didn't like me laughing at her because she thought I was making fun of her so I had to convince her that I wasn't making fun of her I was laughing because she was funny. She is wearing a vintage clown costume that my Grandma Joyce made for my Uncle Tom!

Chelsea was a Chicken. She was puffy and so warm in it. Her double chin and chubby cheeks were darling in it. Kate, Lindsey and now Chelsea have all worn this costume. Chelsea was very tired at the Trunk-or-treat activity and fell asleep on Kyle. Then she was screaming in the car while Kyle was handing out candy and I was taking the younger kids around. I had the diaper bag and it had her bottle in it. oops! It was kind of stressful that night. You have the dinner (this year we all ate before and it was WAYYY better, plus the gym is so tiny and was packed), the activities and then the trunk-or-treat and all the kids want/need to do everything. It was tiring! Oh and I needed to help clean up the YW activity afterwards.

Lindsey was a Black Kitty Cat. She looked cute with her tail sticking out and her headband- except she kept taking the headband off. She is at a fun age where she wants to do everything and follow the bigger kids. She had fun this Halloween doing the trick-or-treating and all the games. 

Mummy Bowling

Candyland Cupcake Walk 

Donut Eating

We had to get a picture of these 3 boys because they were all newborns at the Ward activity 5 years ago! The Grossarth's moved back into the area after being gone for a few years so we thought it was awesome how these boys were back together again for Halloween.

This picture is from 5 years ago! L-R: Jeanne Grossarth with Jackson, Kati Owens with Dallin and me with Preston

I had to take a picture of these cute witch shoes that Linda Watson made for EVERY table at the ward activity.

  

Linda also brought all her decorations from home and made the front entrance festive. There's even more than this picture shows. She went through a lot of work! It looked great!

Getting ready to go Trick-or-treating on Halloween! We ate monster brains (spaghetti), monster guts (cottage cheese), witch nails (corn) and twisted witch fingers (twisted breadsticks) for our candlelit Halloween dinner.

We went trick-or-treating with Alyssa, Dallin and Ashlynn Owens in their new neighborhood. We had a Halloween Miracle...it didn't rain while we were trick-or-treating!!! It was raining at first so we pulled out our umbrellas, but after the 2nd house it stopped and it didn't rain again. We could see stars in the sky, it wasn't cold and no rain. It was a perfect night! This really is amazing considering it was torrential downpour raining ALL DAY LONG! The kids had fun. Preston lasted longer than 2 houses (that's how long he lasted last year), but then was asking to go home constantly after a little while. Kate could have kept going, but we stopped her so we could go home. Lindsey and Preston were scared of the boys with scary masks so we had to stay away from those groups.