Fall, Pain and Pictures

It's really October again?! September flew by for us. October means fall, birthdays, general conference, halloween, pumpkin baked goods, coats, football and warm clothes. Sounds good to me! We have already discussed halloween costumes; Kate a ballerina (easy, she can wear her ballet recital costume and it fits her perfectly, I wouldn't let her be a princess because she would be that every year!), Preston will either be Thomas or Buzz Lightyear (costumes I got on clearance last year) and Lindsey will be a ladybug (a new costume I just bought on sale at Fred Meyer's). That's a relief to me since coming up with costumes can be sometimes tricky and I don't want to spend too much money on them. I've seen all these cute crafts and food ideas that I want to try...pinterest and blogs are so bad! So many good ideas, now I just need to do them!

A few weeks ago, I was having some neck pain with some upper back pain (this isn't new to me), but once I tweak my neck (I think it's my trapezius muscle) I can barely move my head and it's rather annoying. I feel bad for people with chronic pain because I would not be happy and wouldn't want to do anything. Uggh! After a couple days, it usually goes away. I messed up my right side first then a couple weeks later I was doing pushups and mountain climbers (doing a HIIT workout in my garage) and messed up my left side! I went to a chiropractor for my first time (I compare it to popping your knuckles, but it's your back and neck, it didn't necessarily fix the problem, but at least I crossed that off my list to check into because I was told my neck might be out of alignment- it's not). My old massage therapist doesn't take my insurance so I had to go to a doctor to get a referral to a massage therapist. I finally got an appointment for last week (3 week process just to get a massage!). I show up for the appointment a few minutes late because I couldn't find the office and she wasn't answering her phone. I walk inside and it's a nasty hallway with doors with numbers above the doors. It stinks and is in a sketchy strip mall. This lady walks out of a room and tells me she double booked me with this guy (ewww) and so she can't see me today. Why didn't she call me so I could schedule with someone else? She was so unprofessional so I told her I would not be coming back and left. It was nasty! I called my insurance and complained about her. I was sad not to get my massage, but we went to my parent's house over Conference Weekend and Sara and Marci both gave me massages so I will be okay until I get one next week. Yes!

After 3 years, we finally got our family pictures taken this weekend (I will post them soon). Melanie took them and I think we got some good one's even with Preston not cooperating, well until Nathan entertained him with pretending to stab himself and fall to the floor. Lindsey found that funny too. Haha! Whatever it takes!

Murder Mystery

We do a dinner group with friends and we usually do it 3-4 times a year. Well this time the girls in charge planned a murder mystery game. It was a lot of fun and I think some of us might make it to Hollywood with our acting skills. :)

My character was a talkative actress from American visiting London and I had to wear sunglasses all the time because I didn't want people to recognize me. Kyle was this short guy who was always coming up with ideas for scripts so he had his notepad and would jot ideas down all night. Then he would crumple up the papers with ideas that didn't work. He also ran his fingers through his hair. Pretty funny! The other people were funny too, a dentist, an E&T (no nose), a paleontologist, a stewardess, a maid, a rich lady, a hairdresser, an angry man, a butler....and more. It was fun to see people be in character and live it up. Good times!

The setting...outdoor on a beautiful day

Beautiful decorations and place settings


We went all out on dressing up. Haha!

Do You See What I See?

Do you see what's missing?!!!

Kate has been working on getting this front tooth loose for a while. She noticed it was a little loose a few months ago and slowly but surely it has gotten looser and it was even sticking out more than the other one. So tonight I felt it and it was super loose, but she didn't want me to pull it out becaue she wanted to try first. It didn't come out. So I tried with a kleenex and it came out pretty easily. She was crying because it was bleeing and then she was crying because it looked funny with it gone. It's hard to grow up.

Checking out her new smile. She was better once I told her she could stick her tongue through the space and reminded her the tooth fairy would come.

Preston's First Day of School

Preston with his preschool teacher Mrs. Christine Buttelman. It's his 2nd year of preschool and he was excited to go on the bus to school. He's at a new school so we went last week to see his new classroom and see his teacher. He had this teacher for summer school so at least she's not new.

First day of school! Up and ready and waiting for the bus...

"Bye Mom!"

Getting on the bus. Kate wishes she could ride a bus! She gets to ride the bus whenever she goes to her friends house after school. Now in the morning it's me and Lindsey. She's my shopping buddy. Preston gets home at noon and my neighbor is picking up Kate from school at 2:30 so I don't have to wake up napping kids. SOOO nice of her!

Kate's in 1st Grade!

Kate's in 1st Grade!!!!

She was kind of nervous to go into 1st grade, but once she met her teacher and found out several people from her kindergarten class were in her new class she felt better about it. After school she said, "I think 1st grade is fun now". Well, that's a good thing! She also said it was a long day. She's used to half day kindergarten.

We walked to school with some neighbor friends.
L-R: Jacob, Logan, Anshu, Elsa, Dallas and Kate

Kate at her desk. She is most excited for 2 recesses and eating lunch in the cafeteria.

Kate with her 1st grade teacher Mrs. Pederson

I made this chore chart for Kate so in the mornings she knows what needs to be done before she can play the iPad or watch cartoons. Well, the first morning of school I told her to start getting ready and she said, "I know! I already made my bed!" She is on top of it. I hope this continues!

I made this school bus cake for her after school treat. I got the idea from Family Fun. It wasn't too hard to make, but the kids didn't really eat it. Hmph! Kate wants ants on a log tomorrow for her after school treat. That will be easier to make and she will probably scarf it down!

Blast to the Past

We had our family reunion over Labor Day Weekend and the theme was "blast to the past"-to my parents' past, their traditions and memories. Everyone gathered at Boulder Resort (aka my parent's house...I'll have to give the background story on that name). My mom had some fun things planned for us this weekend. And of course, she cooked up a storm and we all left 5 pounds heavier. We met up at Jared's football game in Warden on Friday night.

Our own little cheerleaders for Jared

Jared the stud muffin! He's the quarterback and when he was on defense a player from the other team clipped him in the back and the referees didn't do anything about it. You should have seen us react! My sister, my brother-in-law and me were so mad! The player was doing other dirty stuff too- he wasn't nice. We were saying we were like the mafia- hurt our brother and you mess with us! haha!

My parent's used to go to the Ellensburg parade (we did too growing up) so we went there on Saturday morning. Jeni made all the tie dye t-shirts for everyone. They turned out cute.

More spectators! Woot woot!

Hailey posing as the cute cowgirl

Kate was having a melt down over something...then 2 minutes later she was...

FINE! Hmmmm!

All the grandkids! This was taken at my Grandpa Paul and Grandma Helen Gene's house. After the parade, we went to this park where my Dad used to play baseball and it had toys for the kids to play on. My parent's brought food for a picnic and KFC chicken. Well, we whip out the food and start dishing up and a swarm of bees are suddenly upon us. It was crazy! We were walking around holding our plates trying to get the bees away. We were sitting far away from our picnic table trying to see if the bees would leave us alone...they didn't so we packed up in a rush and went to my grandparents to finish our picnic. Dumb bees!

My parent's pulled out some things from their childhood to show us and they shared some stories. I loved this picture of the kids intently listening to my Mom. Kate liked my Mom's dolls and troll she had growing up. We had a quiz later that night on the stories from my parent's past. It was fun and Jeni won that game. Then we had a "Stake Dance" and my Mom had a bunch of music from their era and we fast danced and slow danced. We also played a game where we came up with names of people or things and played guys against girls- it was like Catch Phrase where you have to describe the word. It was fun and us girls won. We also played a bunch of games of bump on the basketball court and played bocce ball. Lots of games!

On Monday, we said goodbye to Jeff, Sadie and Reagan as they made their trek back to Idaho. Then the rest of us went up to Moses Lake to their aquatic park. The kids loved it and afterwards we went to Derek and Sara's for pizza. We hung out there before we left for home. It was my first time seeing their house and Sara does a good job decorating. It was fun to see all her crafts she's made and bargains she's found from random thrift stores.

The "Blast to the Past" was fun. My Mom made us little photo books with some pictures of my parent's when they were little and they were so adorable! Hearing them talk about their memories and childhood makes you realize how fast time goes by.