AGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!! (breathe) AGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

I like the snow and all but if it doesn't stop soon I'm going to LOSE MY MIND!!!!! It all started last Sunday (not the one we had yesterday but the one OVER A WEEK AGO!) It has not stopped since. No church for two weeks in a row, no school or work for all of last week, no Christmas parties, no caroling, no YW activities or presidency meetings, no Christmas shopping, date nights, play dates - even the trash pick up has been cancelled until after Christmas! We are all going crazy. So crazy in fact that Steve left in the van this morning to go run around town and the neighbor next door was driving around and around the block this morning just so he could feel like he got out of his house. No chains or anything and 8" of snow on the roads. I'm honestly praying. Everyone in the neighborhood is out and about in their rain boots (why would anyone in Washington even own snow pants or boots?) and 3 layers of jeans and sweaters walking in circles and staring at the sky! Soon you'll find us all on the porches rocking back and forth while banging our heads on the side of the house. I know, this is nothing to what people in North Dakota or Michigan or somewhere deal with all the time but here you just don't expect to see snow for more than a day or two each year and even then it's an inch or two and it melts by lunch time. The novelty has worn off. And on top of that, it's SO cold that the snow won't stick together so we can't even make a snowman!!!!!!!!! Anyone within walking distance of my house - and you all know who you are - is in danger of having me land on your doorstep just for a change of scenery (or maybe I'll just send the rest of the family and I'll stay behind and hopefully get something cleaned up around here!) - especially since they just changed the weather forecast to extend this insanity at least through Christmas. So there you go. Just had to get that off my chest and now I feel better. I'll post pictures later.

Hello again!!

Ok - so we've been AWOL from blogging for some time now. It seems like it's been something non-stop for weeks now. Anyway, you will now be treated to almost 2 months of our lives in one sitting! Beginning with these random pictures of life with Kaden. Enjoy!

Kaden does not enjoy being told he can't do something! (regardless of how deadly it might be)

A little eye shadow never hurt anyone!

And now, since it's 1am I'm off to bed.

Happy Halloween!!!

So this year we had an angel, a bumble-bee and a tiny spurs player. (That jersey of Kaden's didn't turn out half bad if I do say so myself!) We always go down to trick or treat on main street first and then back to our neighorhood. Hope you all got loads and loads of candy!

Halloween ASL style

The ASL class we started for our home school group and friends in our ward has really exploded! We were thinking we'd get a couple of families and that would be that. We now have 35 people attending each week and another family planning to start next week! I've enjoyed it more than I ever thought I would. It's been really fun to get a chance to watch Steve teaching. I see him sign all the time but I've never seen him in a teaching situation (wierd since that is what he does for a living!) and I was amazed the first week!! By word of mouth alone the class has almost doubled in size since our first meeting. Everyone seems to be loving it - the girls and I definitely are - and I get comments every Sunday from people who have heard how much fun everyone is having. So - snaps for Steve! (and the other 4 of us because, lets face it, we are also awesome!!) Here are some pictures from our silent Halloween party.

More pumpkins anyone?

What's Halloween without a trip to the pumpkin patch? This one is a local favorite and we've gone with someone's preschool class every year since we've been here. Our kids especially love the animals. Kaden, ever fearless, was not to be stopped by heights, darkness, being lost, stuck, too small, not allowed, snipped at, brayed at, or sniffed at. I tried several times to get a cute family shot but, obviously, he had other things on his mind that day!

Jack - O - Lanterns

I think we ended up with about 9 pumpkins this year! We elected to carve the two big ones for FHE and then we enlisted the help of the YW at our pumpkin carving activity to take care of the rest. (I didn't get any pictures of the entire bunch unfortunately!) Anyway, here are the first two. Emily was NOT impressed with the idea of cutting hers up so she elected to draw on it. Kaden also discovered a new use for washable markers.

"They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!"

Our back yard is now even cooler! (The yard has always been my favorite part of this house!) We just added a trampoline and it is a hit! Matt and Andrea brought the kids (and Andrea's parents too!) up to play on it a few days later. I also love that we have cousins near by! Kegan even taught us all some cool tricks he's learned in his trampoline class. Kaden is absolutely in heaven now! He stands at the patio door signing "please" while pointing at it and calling "Bounce!"

WAVA friends annual Halloween party!

We have so much fun playing with all our other ward WAVA friends! So much fun in fact that I didn't get hardly any pictures. So, here are a couple that I took in between all the fun we were having at our halloween party a few weeks ago. This is such a fun group - all the kids are friends, all the moms are friends and nobody is psycho (technically :) ) We can't wait for the Christmas party!

Here everyone is working on their candy bar mad-libs


Bailey and Emily presenting their finished product



We made ghost suckers, haunted houses, monster hands and goody boxes.




Kaden had fun too!

Preschool goes to the fire station

Fun thing about home school is that everyone gets to tag along on all the pre school field trips! This time we went to the local fire station.

Cat bowling anyone?

Yes, these are my children and they are ALL enthralled with the art of Halloween Cat Bowling! If you haven't been emailed the link in one of the bazillion forwards that come around, you should search for it. It's oddly addicting.

Fun day at the zoo.

Andrea and I took the kids to the zoo on a field trip. We learned that the best time to go to the zoo is in the fall, in the morning, in the middle of the week. It was great! We had loads of fun and saw animals that have, so far, never been awake when we've gone before.

My crazy Beehives!

Best calling EVER! YW is the greatest place to be. Just a couple of pictures of "my girls" (well, half of them) at our party a couple weeks ago. I actually just got released and put back in as YW Secretary so -- PHEW!

"My One True Life's Wish!"

Bailey has been obcessed with horses ever since starting the American Girls club. She wants nothing more than to build a shed in our back yard and turn a horse loose in it! We've tried all kinds of things to get her into riding lessons but until we are independantly wealthy that is not going to happen. So we were very excited to learn that a local stable was going to have a fall celebration which included free pony rides. Bailey's reaction? "Really??!! It's my one true life's wish and it's coming true!!" Needless to say, it was a great day.

Cutest Preschool!

So, Emily's preschool teacher is one of the craftiest people in the world but even that didn't prepare me to see the entire class coming out one day with their very own scarecrows! They made them! Anyway, thought it was cute.

AND.... Kaden with a bowl on his head --because I think it's funny.

Happy 5th Birthday Emily!!

Biggest Loser Home Edition

It seems everyone had a hard 2nd month, here's what we have: Remember, it's what you did during OCTOBER that counts for this month, not overall. We look at it month by month and then the winner is the overall weight loss.

Name-Starting-Sept.-Current-Oct. Loss-%-Total Loss-% Total

Rachel---------------------------------------2.4%---------6.75%

Ned------209.6---199.4--196.2----(-3.2)---1.60%--13.4--6.39%

Daniel----224.0----212.6--210.4----(-2.2)--1.03%---11.4--6.07%

Steve----197.0---189.0---190.0---(+1.0)--(+.01%)---7.0--3.55%

Jessica---------------------------------------0%-----------1.98%

Current Pot: $40

Steve $10
Jessica $10
Ned $10
Rachel $5
Daniel $5

Clearly I decided to punt this month (with the anniversary and Emily's birthday and all) in order to come back with a monster Nov. Load up on that turkey and mashed potatoes people, because Steve's about to go anorexic on you all. (and for those of you that really are Anorexic *cough*Lori*cough* clearly I'm just joking, so calm down!)

Happy Anniversary - Again - FINALLY!

So, Steve and I finally got to go on our anniversary trip that we've been planning for quite awhile now. It kept getting postponed for weddings and car crashes and re-weddings and things like that. :) After dropping the kids off with Nani and Grandpa (THANK YOU!!!!) we went up to Seattle on Friday afternoon and spent the day wandering through Pikes Place Market and the surrounding shops. We ate a lot of different types of food, saw some really interesting people and just had a great time worrying about nothing and talking about anything other than work, school, bills, kids (love them dearly though)and all those real life things.




(We thought this was cool out in the bay - and later we were on the boat to the island with all the veterans from this ship who were having some kind of a reunion.)
Several different shots of the views of the pier, Seattle skyline and surrounding area from our boat.







Approaching Blake Island and Tillicum Village




Steve enjoying an appetizer of Oysters in Nectar - we voted them to be "interesting".
Jess in the Totem Pole Garden (the pictures of the dinner and show didn't turn out so I'm not posting them!)
On Saturday we went back down town and took the Underground Tour of old Seattle. It was SO cool! I had no idea you could build a city right over the top of an already standing city. There are actually sidewalks, buildings and other remnants underneath the streets of old Seattle. Some of the modern day shops have basements with windows looking out into what is now a dark and run down tunnel but what used to be the sidewalk of the main downtown area of Seattle.


The vault of this old bank is said to be haunted. They tell you it gets cooler when you enter - and it definitely does - but then at the end there is a fan blowing into it. Hmmm....

This was an old pharmacy or something. You could still see the wall paper and painted decorations on the walls. Steve is standing inside the building, behind him, through the windows is what would have been outside on the sidewalk but is now the tunnel we were walking in.


This is one of the walls - a painted frame where a mirror used to hang over 100 years ago.
This toilet is up on a platform - they used to have problems with the plumbing when Seattle first started and these platforms were meant to prevent you from being shot off the toilet by a geyser of sewage when the tide came in and jammed up the pipes several times a day. Yummy!


After the tour we went up into the real streets and had lunch and shopped around a bit before heading home. During our self guided tour of Pioneer Square (looks cute but don't be fooled apparently) we were sure we were going to die while were accompanied literally 4 blocks by a homeless guy who was writing "French poetry" for Steve, another homeless lady tried to hug him in the middle of an intersection and I, according to Steve, was oogled by guy who looked like he'd dipped his head in a bowl of acid while he and Steve had some kind of mental war over the top of my head (I was mostly trying not to look at ANYONE while silently praying we wouldn't die and looking for a door to go into - how come there are NO open doors on this street?!). Amazing what you will find one block away from the normal bustle of life. (and guys, if you want your wife to think you're REALLY hot - plant yourself between her and a bunch of really creepy homeless guys even though there's more of them and they're bigger, very definitely high on something and they have many large pockets possibly holding weapons and disease ridden needles. ) So, after that we decided it was time to find the shuttle back to the hotel and then we came home. We decided that we want to have a Japanese Hydrotherapy Tub installed in our house ASAP (there was one in our room and it was so awesome!) and that we need to find some one who wants to trade kids once or twice a year so we can do this more often (minus the wierd clams and the near death experiences.) Matt and Andrea?.......................