Christmas

Like a tornado Christmas has come and gone and left a mess in the aftermath.
We procrastinated our trip to see Santa until the day before. It was a little touch and go because Avrie wanted to ask Santa for a few things that were a surprise to me, but with a little power of suggestion Avrie was able to ask Santa for the exact thing that Santa was already planning on bringing.  We found a new to us Santa, we only had to wait about 10 minutes and he was a really great Santa. He talked to Avrie and after Avrie told Santa what she wanted he also asked her if she liked surprises and what kind of books she liked etc. and surprisingly Santa came through.

We had a fun Christmas Eve, it started out really nice with a formal dinner, and it quickly went down hill from there.  After dinner we played games, racing the dice to see who could get the candy bar first, then the white elephant game. The big activity was an indoor snowball fight. Tim's mom made our family an indoor snowball kit, there were 6 bags with 10 crocheted snowballs in each. We divided up in teams, turned our downstairs room into a war zone and wore ourselves out throwing snowballs at each other. Then it was time for Ninja attack, a game our kids made up that I can't even begin to explain.
Ryan holding our friend's baby, and she didn't even cry.

Which is surprising because most of the pictures were something like this. I didn't get any pictures of the snowball fight but I know there is some video floating around out there....

After getting the little girls all tucked into bed it was time for Santa to arrive. I love that magical moment when the house is quiet, stocking stuffed, presents wrapped and under the tree, the quiet before the storm...

 Christmas morning doesn't begin until the big kids arrive, poor Avrie was awake and playing in her room for about 2 hours before she could come out and see what Santa brought.

It was real fun to have Katie and Jeremy here for Christmas, they had to leave after opening presents and brunch. Katie had to work the day after Christmas so around noon they left and made it home safely!

 I also love the mess and mayhem, the fun of watching the kids open the gifts.

 Kelsie was impressed with the wrapping job Katie did on this gift she wanted a picture. Kate was my little wrapping elf and wrapped most of the presents for me this year.  Ryan picked out his Christmas gift and couldn't wait to try them on. Now if it would just snow, on the mountain.

We had a quiet afternoon, I spent time beating back the mess then Scott, Kelsie, Ryan and I went to the movies. It was a great Christmas I loved having my family home for the holidays, the was the best present ever.

Family Pictures

Everyone is home, and this is probably the last Christmas I will have all my kids at home for the next couple of years. Times are a changing, kids are growing up, it has been a fun and exciting time but also a little bit a sadness creeps in to see them getting so grown up.
It also gets a little harder to arrange a family photo, I really wanted a repeat of my last Christmas picture, the perfect sunset over the lake casting a yellow glow making for the perfect backdrop. But we had one day that I knew everyone would be around and the weather did not cooperate with the perfect sunset so we improvised. I think they turned out pretty good but it is no easy task to get everyone to cooperate in the 15 minute window we had to take the perfect family picture.
Here are the bloopers I bet you can guess which children are the trouble makers at picture time.

 I love having these three together hanging out I really miss the fun energy they bring to the house when they are gone.

Birthday/Christmas Celebration

We drove over to grandma and grandpa's house on Friday to celebrate Scott's birthday and Christmas while everyone was in town. Our first stop was the airport, timing was perfect we arrived at the airport just as Dan, Lynn and the kids were coming out the doors. We handed off their truck and then we drove over to Yakima.  Katie and Jeremy drove up from Utah and they arrived about 5 minutes before we did, again perfect timing.
Scott's other brother drove all night and arrived at 4:30 am, maybe not such great timing but they were up and in the kitchen at 8:00 making breakfast and getting dinner started. It really is nice to have a Chef in the house. We did a little shopping and then ate an oh so yummy dinner, prime rib, pork roast, potatoes, salads. Then it was time for birthday gifts and Christmas.
The kids had fun playing together and it was fun hanging out with Scott's family.

Grandma broke her ankle a few days earlier and was on strict orders to stay off the foot so she felt like she was in prison being confined to the wheelchair and unable to negotiate all of their stairs.  

 The chef in the kitchen working his magic on the food!

 Grandpa and Jayden hanging out where it is quiet, Ryan managed to get a nap.

 Jack was everywhere causing destruction at every turn. 

 Jayden only moved off that chair to eat and photo bombed the picture.

 The table was set and the presents were under the tree....

 The food was ready!

 These girls had fun together it has been a while since they have been together.

 The boys washed the big pots and pans, I guess Jay did get off that chair.

 So happy to see these two, and have them home for Christmas.

 And we are so happy to have Dan and Lynn a little closer, we are already planning a trip to Las Vegas to visit.

Grinch Dinner

The little girls wanted to watch the Grinch movie and have Grinch dinner. It was a fun night the little girls thought the roast beast, who-hash, who pudding and who punch was a hit. We laughed through the movie, and I love little Cindy Lou Who. She saw the good in the Grinch and the Grinch finally saw the good in himself. How many Grinch's do we come in contact with, sometimes I feel like the Grinch but I really want to be like little Cindy Lou Who, she saw the good in everyone!

Happy Birthday McKenzie

I am a few days late, but McKenzie turned 24, we celebrated her birthday the other night with her choice of dinner and dessert.  I love having adult children, she is one of my favorite people and I love spending time with her.

 Kelsie came home early Monday morning, McKenzie picked her up from the airport and took her to help pack up their house. When I got home from work that day Kelsie was sound asleep with her head on the kitchen table. She moved over to the sofa, woke up to eat dinner then went to bed. The next morning I had to go to work early and finally saw her that afternoon and I was so happy to have her help in the kitchen for McKenzie's dinner, I have missed that girl. She could not wait to get her hands on this little cutie and has been asking about her for the last 2 months. 

 The next morning we helped Tim and McKenzie move into their new house. They are really excited to own their first home. They have a cute 3 bedroom house about 10 minutes south of us instead of north of us.

I am so excited for them, I know they will love their new house!

My Obsessed Husband

I am married to someone who gets obsessed with something and then cannot let it go. We live by a lake and we used to have a boat, we sold that boat back in 2009 when everything was crashing in our world. Since then Scott has wanted a boat, the last year he has been obsessing about a boat and how to get a boat. Scott is pretty opinionated and since we could not go out and buy a nice new boat he wanted to find the perfect boat and restore it. He loves a project. So all summer he obsessed about this boat.

 This is now the boat of his dreams, it is an older boat that has been restored. So Scott set out looking for the perfect boat on a budget. Finally in October he found the perfect boat, the price was right, but the only problem was that this boat was in South Carolina, and would cost more to get it home then Scott paid for the boat. Scott was determined to figure out a way. Lucky for Scott his brother who lives in Maryland was/is moving this month out to Las Vagas and his brother happens to have a big truck they use to pull horses around and that truck needed to get to at least Las Vagas but his brother is flying into Seattle then they are driving their truck to Las Vagas after Christmas. The plan was hatched and Scott figured out a way to get his boat home, and his brother did not have to drive the truck across the country. Scott flew out to Maryland, picked up the truck, that was loaded down with all kinds of stuff in the back, drove to South Carolina, picked up the boat and made the long 3,400 plus mile trip back home. It took him 6 1/2 days, the weather was perfect the whole way and other than drinking too much Pepsi everything went well on the trip. Scott even managed to spend his last night with Katie and Jeremy. Now we have this parked in our driveway.

 Hopefully he will have some time and money to get it looking good enough and running good enough to take out on the lake this summer. I forgot to mention that he also needed a new SUV to pull the new boat, another obsession he has had since wrecking our Ford Expedition back in February  He has been looking for a older Toyota Land Cruiser, yep we now have one parked in our driveway.  I need to figure out how to get him obsessed with things that I want! 

Christmas Spirit

Scott and I were driving to the airport earlier this week, we stopped to get gas at Costco on the way. He tried swiping his Costco card but it is old and needs replaced so it did not work. He called out the to attendant that was just a row over and said, "Help I need gas and my card won't work!" As she was walking over the lady on the opposite side of the pump from us offered to buy our gas, thinking that Scott's debit card did not work. When Scott explained that it was just his Costco card and said thanks to the nice lady she replied, "It's Christmas after all and I wanted to help."  Scott of course came back with a reply something along the lines of ok then let me go get my big truck and you can fill that up.  Meanwhile the Costco attendant gave Scott a hard time about not getting his Costco card replaced and by the time they were all done pumping gas the three of them were all great friends.  It is nice to know that there are still people out there willing to give, I hope that if I were in the same circumstance I would be willing to give as well.

Thanksgiving 2014

For Thanksgiving this year we drove to Vancouver WA to my sister's house. Ryan didn't go because he didn't want to ride in the car with his shoulder hurting, Jayden got sick on Tuesday night and he stayed in bed for the next 48 hours, with Ryan watching over him after we left. Destina drove down with my niece and her family on Tuesday so that just left Me, Scott and Avrie. I started getting sick on Monday, different than what Jayden had, I had a deep chest congestion but it really affected my asthma and I spent the next 5 days trying to breath. We arrived at my sisters house in time for dinner Wednesday night and hung out with them for a while. Scott, Avrie and I rented a hotel, my sister's house was bursting with her family. The next morning Scott took Avrie swimming, the highlight of the trip for her.  Once at my sister's house I helped a little in the kitchen and then I watched football all while trying to breath.  We had a good time it was fun to see my sister's kids and their cute families and the cousins had a great time all playing together.

We made it home around 11:30 pm. The only traffic we hit on the way home was at all the shopping centers every parking lot was packed. I spent the next two days sleeping and resting trying to get better and I finally feel almost back to normal. I am very grateful that I did not have to cook and organize and clean up this Thanksgiving, I would not have made it. I am grateful to my sister she always has my back.  I am grateful that Tim's mom fed Ryan and Jayden for Thanksgiving. It was different having my family scattered about but I knew everyone was taken care of. Kelsie had Thanksgiving on the beach with her ward, Kate hosted most of Jeremy's family at her apartment with her sister-in-law doing most of the cooking. It was a fun Thanksgiving, I loved watching the kids play and get along so well, I am thankful they have each other.