Audrey Cherie!

Born: November 25th, 2011

Time: 10:30 pm

Where: Northwest Hospital, Seattle Wa

Weight: 7 pounds 7 ounces

Height: 19.5 inches

"For after much tribulation come the blessings."

This cannot be more true for David and Tiffany.

I am so happy for them and for the joy little Audrey will give to them.



First things first

We had a great Thanksgiving at our house. Not a very big crowd but it was nice to have some company and a friend to share the cooking with! (Bob does the turkey and stuffing).

We stuck with the basics but somehow even the basics take time! (We did make homemade rolls).

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful.....now for the best part.........

and so it begins....

Along with the beauty comes snowplowing/shoveling/icy roads/winter boots/slow drivers and last but not last but not least an end to my outside walking. (at least for the most part, I'm a chicken when it comes to walking on icy roads and hills, time to hit the treadmill now).

Sean is 2

Saturday Bob and I went to Sean's 2nd Birthday party!

He's 2? Already?

Notice his dirty little face :)

He enjoyed his pepperoni pizza, punch, and candy of course!

Right now Sean is a big fan of Buzzlight year so what else would he be for Halloween besides Buzz!

It was so fun to see him again!

(I already put these pics on my facebook but even I am sick of looking at my month old post!)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Decorating: Done!

I finished up my fall/Halloween decorating last night and I love it! I thought I would share:

The witch and 2 owls I found at THE BEST TJ Maxx I have been to in quite a while! It was in Everett and we stopped in after attending Bob's Aunt Mary's 85th birthday party on Saturday!

I just love the owls!

I love this owl toooooo! He's from Pier 1

And I couldn't forget this owl! Mom got this for me and as you can see with our recent fall like weather I have been using it for hot chocolate! Yum!

Happy Fall everyone!

Katie is cooking!

Yes, you did read the title correctly! Katie has not done a lot of cooking, unless you count Top Ramen, Mac and Cheese, and tuna melts as cooking. So we (Katie and I) came up with the idea that in order for her to be a little more prepared at cooking for herself and potentially others at college she would start making diner once a week! This was last night's dinner, carne asada, homemade rice and black beans, yum! The week before she made dinner for mom, dad, and Bob for his birthday (beef broccoli).

Goodbye Again!

They just get home and then they're gone again....I guess I have to get used to the fact that they were never really "mine"......

Maddy thought she wanted to go with and check out college life tooooo :)

New Shoes

 Old walking shoes

It might be hard to see how worn these shoes are, the right shoe even has a little hole where my toe is starting to escape out! These have served me well for OVER a year now....

New walking shoes!

I have been thinking and looking, looking and thinking about buying some for at least a month.

These bright colored Saucony walking shoes were finally purchased :)  It was a tough choice between the bRIghT orange and these.

I love them!

I have a family here on earth.....

they are so good to me, I want to share my

life with them through all eternity.

 Families can be together forever, in

Heavenly Father's plan.

I always want to be with my own family,



 and the Lord has shown me how I can.

 The Lord has shown me how I can.

 Families ARE Forever!

Thanks mom and dad for the wonderful week together as a family.

Memories were shared and words aren't enough to express my gratitude!

Love you....

better late than never!

Bob reminded me over the week-end that we never "officially" celebrated Brian's birthday. I thought about it, and he was right!

Don't worry, he wasn't completely forgotten. His birthday fell while he still at school, during finals week. I send him a birthday package, deposited some money into his account and I know he received cards from grandmas and grandpa!

So we decided better late than never! Of course today I ended up having to work late but when I finally got off I rushed home and made his fav.....

chicken roll ups, mashed potatoes and corn. Katie brought a cheesecake home from work. Pretty simple but now we can say we "celebrated!"

How can he really be 23??????

one more thing...

Our YW activity this last week was a sleep-over at my house!!

Bob decided on Monday evening that he would finally install tile in the upstairs bathroom. If you haven't ever put tile in I will spare you the details but if you have, you might understand that when you start Monday night and rip up the floor board, have to run to Home Depot twice the next evening because first, you discover your one tile short and then after you get home and start cutting the tile the saw blade breaks, it sets you back significantly.

Needless to say about 30 minutes before the girls were to arrive we were hooking the toilet back up and I was cleaning up dirty sinks etc...

Phew. But, it looks sooooo much better than carpet scraps which is what has been on the floor since last summer when we replaced the carpet upstairs.

Thanks hon! ;)

what we've been up too...

Maddy needed a haircut in the worst way. Every time I called to see if I could make her an appointment at Petco they were full for days....of course I never thought about it days ahead, just usually the morning I was heading to Wentachee.

So, we thought what the heck! How hard can it be? It will always grow back!

My advice to anyone who might want to try this: DON"T. Your dog might be easier and better behaved but Maddy is scared of the smallest of noises so when those clippers came on, she was out of her mind. We got through it, but it wasn't easy.

There might or might not of been a little raising of voices during the process....

 It might be hard to tell but we cut off a lot. NO, it doesn't look like a professional did it, but as I said before:

it will always grow back.  :)

Bob was kinda happy cuz he said it saved him 40 dollars. I will pay double that next time as long as I don't have to do it!

Owls

We have had some decorative plates hanging on a yellow wall at our house. Bob pretty much hated them from the start but finally decided we should take them down and find something else to hang there.

Sooooo,

we did.

Owls!

I love them. They are colorful, fun and add a lot of interest to that wall.

Bob's a lot happier now with the owls instead of the plates!

Celebrations.....

July brought some celebrations....including 4th of July!

We actually watched the fireworks a few days early in Chelan and Bob for some cool pictures...

and next....

my birthday!

Pretty sure everyone knows what I did....

yup shopped!

I spent last Friday (July 15th) in Spokane with Bob shopping until the stores closed.

These are a few of my favorite purchases...

love the color on this shirt

I could of spent every last penny at Nordstrom's just buying shoes, but I settled for this pair.

love, love, love this yellow skirt. If you looked at the Nordstrom's sale catalog you might of seen it, it does not disappoint in person. go get it.

and in case you didn't know, feathers are in!!!!

Not ready (and probably never will be) to wear them in my hair but I can wear some ear-rings with feathers! Super cute, and only 8 to 10 dollars!

My computer is having some issues right now, thus the first line of this blog is underlined, don't' know why at the moment! Plus last night for some reason javascript unloaded itself from my computer so I couldn't publish my post, Bob figured it out but by that time it was 10:45 and time to get ready for bed!

But, at least I am back in blog world again :)

it's about TIME!

I have been a lame blogger. No excuses, just didn't do it.

I am going to change that and play catch up!

Yes, Katie did graduate! Ohhh about a month and a half ago now :)

I think I have forgotten how to do this.....more to come......

It's all about Katie right now

These next few posts will be all about Katie!

And that's OK because it is her time to shine right now. Let's face it that doesn't happen very often in our lives!

Tuesday night was "Senior Night of Excellence".

They highlight each senior and recognize some of their achievements and awards as well as announce some of the scholarships.

Katie received numerous honors, unfortunately none of them were really attached to a dollar amount :)

Just to mention a few:

She received student of the year in math, social studies, and agriculture (a future farmer lol), she was awarded the "Wendy's Heisman Program Outstanding Athlete/Citizen", "Department of Air Force Outstanding Math and Science", the "2011 Agricultural Accomplishment Award, "Central Wa. B League Scholar Athlete Medal as well as some other smaller awards.

I was proud.

Tonight was Baccalaureate. It was at a local church here in Pateros. The pastor there tried to speak some words of wisdom but really, I don't think too many of them are paying much attention! :)

I got only a couple pictures. I was disappointed because when Brian and Kyle graduated we took pictures after the service of the entire class in their gowns, I found out that they took them before this year and so I missed that chance, sigh.

Here is Katie and a couple friends enjoying some cake after
me and Katie...
Phew, 2 down 1 to go!
Tomorrow is my Wenatchee day and hope I don't forget anything.
Friday is my go to the school and help set-up, clean the house, laundry, cook, and just plain "go crazy" day.
Super excited for everyone to start arriving, Mom, Dad, Brian, Chantelle, David, Tiffany, Sean, Elena, Ashleigh as well as all our family (Toolson's) and other friends who will celebrate with us Saturday.
I truly wish you all could be here.
The words to the Dixie Chicks song "Wide Open Spaces" fill my head. Have you heard that one? The words are awesome, and so appropriate right now, but kinda hard to listen too...

"She needs wide open spaces,
Room to make her big mistakes,
She needs new faces,
She knows the high stakes..."

This one's for you Shannon!

(don't miss post I did prior to this one!)
Now, back to business.
I will admit I am not very good at following through with things like "tags" like the one Shannon did the other day.
I get overwhelmed easily :)
I am going to do this one because
a. I should do one every now and then
b. I do like reading other peoples tags
c. I don't have to work tomorrow
So, I agree with Shannon that picking only 8 songs is not easy, it's a real pain in fact. Since I had been thinking about it every time I was in the car and would hear a song I liked I would think "is this one of my 8 songs?" It was driving me nuts. I finally decided that no matter what I would get tired of those 8 songs so I am just not going to over think it.
Here's my list:
1. Good Life by One Republic
This is currently one of my favorites.
2. For Good from the musical WICKED
Need I say more, I just say this show and am obsessed with it. I love the words, I just love the song.
3. One Day More from Les Miserable
Now it wouldn't be fair to leave out my favorite musical of all time would it? I have several favorites and it is hard to pick one but I think in the end I picked this song because it is so inspiring.
4. Say by John Mayer
It's just a fun, upbeat song with a pretty good message.
5. Everything by Michael Buble
I love Michael Buble, he is a great artist and most of the songs I know of his are ones that when I hear em I instantly feel happy and they make you want to sing-a-long.
6. Called to Serve
Do I really have to explain this one? :)
7. The River by Garth Brooks
Garth is one of my all time favorite artists (sorry country music haters...) Have you heard this song, it's amazing.
8. Last Pick, this was tough!! I was debating something by ColdPlay, GooGoo Dolls and Tim McGraw. I think Tim won out. You absolutely cannot listen to his song BBQ stain and not sing at the top of your lungs, well at least we do in our car!

Next:
luxury item
hmmmmmm, I think it would be my TV with DVR hahahahahaha
my second choice would be a big jetted tub!

Book:
I thought it was a series so I was all set to pick Harry Potter because I think I am the only person on the planet earth that has NOT read them. Yes, you heard me I haven't!
If I could only pick one book, jeez probably some church book that would inspire me to want to keep living given the fact that I was stuck on an island.
There, I'm done!

it's been a longggg time!

Yes indeed it has been a long time since I blogged!

You would think I would have tons to blog about and a bunch of cool pictures to post, but I don't. It seems like I have been busy but I don't have a lot of proof :)

Soooo,

I will share 2 recent events:

First is Katie's Senior Presentation.

This is a requirement for graduation at PHS. The kids each have to put together a power point presentation as well as bring props, a portfolio they have kept of some of their work 9th-12th grade and any other visual aids. They basically talk about what they did for their senior project (a volunteer experience that has to be a minimum of 45 hours) and how they feel they have grown over their HS years.

Katie's senior project was hosting a softball camp for 1-6th graders. She did the camp last February and it was quite involved as far as organizing, planning, advertising, teaching the camp and making t-shirts for the girls that participated.

Here she is during her senior presentation demonstrating with some of the girls on her softball team the cheer that was taught during that camp.
I am sorry I think this is the ugliest picture of me, but it's not about me right! I also look super short (well I pretty much am super short) because Katie not only is about 4 or 5 inches taller than me but she is wearing 2 inch heels.
Anyway, back to Katie. She did a great job. I had Kleenex on hand just in case but did not need them. Neither did she which surprised me!
Each senior signed up for a time for their presentation, they were allowed to invite a few students and any adults they wished. They had 3 judges who were evaluating them during the presentation.
Not to brag (OK I am) but one of the judges told me after (she had evaluated quite a few over the years) that Katie's was the best one she had seen.
She got 200/200 from each of her evaluators, which is 100%!
That felt really good for Katie to get that out of the way.

The next morning after her presentation her softball team headed to Wenatchee for district play-offs.
We just had to win ONE little game in order to go to state.
ONE.
We played a team we had best EASILY during the season.
The score was 5-4.
We lost.
Katie lost her last chance to go to state in high school. It was a bit of a sad day. She missed going with her volleyball team earlier in the year because of her broken leg. (She got to go with the team as the manager but not a player...not the same!)
Life goes on....
So now we are onto the last week of high school Really last Friday was her "real" last day. She had her finals and papers due. This next week will be a week of commencement practicing and really I don't know what else.
Katie will be practicing her speech a lot as well.
Well that about sums it up.

where do I begin....

Actually I should just direct you all over to my FB....but here I go...

We had Chantelle come visit a couple weeks ago, it was great to see her again and we all hope that she can hold out while Kyle is gone....time will tell!
at Lakeview Drive enjoying lunch and being together



Once again pictures loaded out of order, this was just last Sunday at Kyle's farewell...

I have this picture posted on FB but it is soooo darn cute I had to blog it as well!

cute little family...

These picture are at the Seattle Temple on a very rainy day! What a wonderful blessing to have Mom, Dad, Brian, and Shannon join Kyle and I!

Brian left for school Monday morning...he made it safely and started classes today.

And last but not least Kyle was set apart this morning as a full-time missionary and boarded the plane a short time later. He will spend tonight at Kristie and Dave's and then enter the MTC tomorrow around noon...so the journey begins!

I think I was about to cry in this picture... :/

I think Kyle was about to cry in this one...

and there he goes....

phew.

That is enough for one month!

Just want to take a moment and THANK every single person who has helped Kyle (and our family) in helping him reach this point in his life. There is no possible way to thank each and every person and words can't even begin to express my personal appreciation and gratitude. I do not think that the statement "it takes a village to raise a child" can be anymore true in this situation.

Thanks!

Now, I am going to take off my make-up and climb into bed and watch something insignificant on TV and hope I can sleep!!!

Day one starts tomorrow...but who's counting???