It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas...

I'm trashed. We got all of our Christmas decorations up today, even the outside lights. But, now we get to enjoy them all season long. I love Christmas!!

Thanksgiving Day Fun

What do you do after Thanksgiving, when your parents are too stuffed to care???

You get your dad's big, thick yellow rope, and tie your smallest sibling to the end of it.Then you see if you can hoist her over the banister! All the while, denting the banister, and cutting the circulation off in your sister's legs!.And if you're in the running for Mother of the year like I am, you take pictures for your blog before you help her down, and then get mad!

Hula Hoop Quest

After school today Whitley and a friend were playing with her hula hoop. Somehow it got stuck up in the top of our tree. At first Colton and Whitley were throwing a soccer ball at it to try to knock it out. That attracted a couple of neighborhood kids.

Then Colton got out this huge rope and tied a caribiner to the end of it. He was trying to lasso it out of the tree!

That attracted a few more kids and suddenly this was a neighborhood quest.
Finally a little boy that I had never seen brought down this huge extender pole that his dad used to clean the windows to try, and they finally got it down. Kids are funny.

Thanksgiving Feast and Body Bags

The first grade had their annual Thanksgiving Feast this morning. They had rolls, fruit, muffins, popcorn, cookies, juice boxes and beef jerky! Quite the collection of food.

Kennedy , Talin, Maggie, Cassandra, Mrs. McGuire, McKenzie (all of Kennedy's best friends)

The kids made their costumes out of paper! (Kennedy and Talin)

She loved this bonnet!

During her feast, Whitley's class was doing their performances on magnets. This is Whitley in the green "body bag". They could choose between the body bags or mime masks and gloves. They really tie drama into everything here.

After they did their performance, Whitley went to the microphone to explain what they were showing about magnets. She did a great job.

This is Whitley's teacher Mr. "A" (Anderson). He is classic Northwest. He's lived her all is life, and really loves it here. He's a great teacher.

Christmas picture time

This morning when we got up, the sun was shining and it was beautiful. Kennedys face had healed for the most part, so we hurried to get a picture for Christmas before the rain came back. These are a couple of the reject pictures. I keep thinking that this will get easier as they get older, but out of about 50 shots, we only had 1 or 2 that were decent of all 3 of them.

They started doing their own goofy poses, and trying to knock each other over. That's when I knew they'd had enough!

Twilight

I went with a bunch of girls friend last night to see twilight. I enjoyed the movie because I enjoy the story. Edward just didn't do anything for me. However, I had tons of fun with my friends and the light dinner at Cheesecake factory at 11pm was great. Thanks for a great time girls!

Cancer Survivor

I had to take Landon in for some minor surgery this morning. We found out a couple weeks ago that he had skin cancer under his eye. This is the second time that he's had to have skin cancer removed! This one was much smaller, and a much easier procedure than the last time. He'll get his stitched removed next Wed. and be good as new. Now he's claiming to be a 2 time cancer survivor!

TAGGED

A friend of mine tagged me forever ago, and I'm just getting around to doing it!
Eight Greats...
Eight T.V. shows I love to watch:
1. Greys Anatomy
2. Survivor
3. The Office
4. Biggest Loser
5. Jon and Kate plus 8
6. What Not to Wear
7. Hell's Kitchen (when it's on)
8. NFL Football (I know this in not technecly a tv show, but I don't watch a ton of tv, and I LOVE football)

Eight Favorite Places to Eat:
1.Old Spaghetti Factory
2. PF Changs
3. Ruth's Chris
4. Fatburger
5.Bucca Di Beppo
6.Acapulco Fresh (local)
7.Cafe Rio (when I'm in AZ)
8.Canyons

Eight Things that happened yesterday:
1.I went to Yoga
2.Checked out bikes at Toys R Us for Christmas
3.Kids got their report cards home
4.It rained!
5.Went to enrichment and laughed my guts out
6.Fixed pancakes for breakfast
7.Ate lunch with Landon
8.Did more laundry

Eight Things I look forward to:
1. Meeting my mom and sisters in Vegas
2.Twilight tonight!!!
3.Christmas morning (I love to watch my kids)
4.My 15 year anniversary
5. Going to Disneyland for spring break
6.Watching Whitley play soccer
7.Sunday being over (I have to speak in church)
8.Meeting 2 new cousins next summer

Eight Things on my wish list:
1.More trips back home to AZ
2.A very small amount of rain this winter
3.More food storage
4.That my feet and hands would warm up (they've been cold since I moved here)
5.That my parents would come to WA to visit (hint hint)
6.That I don't screw up my Thanksgiving turkey (I've never cooked one before-wish me luck)
7.That my kids would stop growing up so fast
8.That Landon will get a job back in AZ soon!

Thanks for the tag Wendi.

John McCain

Colton had to give his biography presentation today. The kids were suppose to chose someones biography to read, do a report on the book, and then give a 5 minute oral report in costume and character! He chose to do his on John McCain. (This was obviously chosen before the election!) We sprayed his hair white, and he put on a nice suit of Landon's. When he walked on to the playground to get lined up for school, the kids went crazy! He was grinning from ear to ear and really enjoyed being the center of attention. The white hair really was a little freaky

Rigatoni WHAT

Alot of times, I feel like this blog is just a weekly update of little things that my kids are doing. Don't get me wrong, they provide for a lot of entertainment, but every now and then Landon will deliver a little gem that is worth taking note of.

I often wonder what would happen to him and my kids if I died. Ya know like who would do my girls hair, and what in the world would they eat! Landon does make a mean pot of Mac and Cheese, but well that's about it! I know he is prone to eat very odd and interesting combinations of food. For instance, when I go out of town. I never worry about stocking the cupboards, or even making sure there's stuff to eat. He loves to see how much of the "old stuff in the pantry" he can eat and get rid of.

After Whitley's soccer game, we were all tired and hungry and it was late. It was kind of a fend for yourself kind of dinner. Some of us had cereal, some of us had mac and cheese. And then there's Lan. He opened up a can of some kind of rigatoni soup he had bought for himself when he moved here last November. He heated it up on the stove top, stuffed it into a tortilla and covered it in cheese. This things was oozin' and goozin' all over the place and he couldn't have been more pleased. It made me think. If he was truly that happy with that, why do I even TRY to make good things to eat for dinner. Pretty much anything covered in cheese would be acceptable.

Whitley's Weekend

It was a Whitley Weekend. It started off Thursday morning. Whitley is in the choir at school and the choir was singing in the school play. She was on stage the whole time, and they sang about 10 songs. She did a great job, and really loved it. I think after having just a small part in the play, that she might try out for a role in the next play. They had performances Thursday morning and night, and then again on Friday night. It was ALOT of school play.

On Saturday night she played in her first indoor soccer game. Of course she love it. She scored 3 goals in the first half, and played goalie the entire second half. Have I mentioned how much I hate it when she's goalie. It's very stressful! She did a great job, and she loves it.

Her team won 6 to 5.

Thats Gotta Hurt

Kennedy got into a fight yesterday with the pavement. The pavement won! Poor Kennedy was walking on some rocks today on her way home from school, and tripped. Apparently she used her face to catch her fall. Not a scratch on her hands! Luckily Colton and Whitley were right there to help her, and they brought her home cut up and bloody. She was pretty shaken up, but we cleaned her up and put some ice on it. It actually looks much worse now than it did at first.

Right after she got home

Icing her wounds

School Pictures

Colton 6th Grade
Whitley 4th Grade

Kennedy 1st Grade

I don't usually buy school pictures, because they never turn out cute. But I decided to give it another try. I think they turned out okay. Not bad for "school" pics!

Veteran's Day Party

Today Colton's class put together a Veteran's Day party. He's been talking about this party for weeks now, but I didn't realize how huge it was going to be. He told me he had volunteered to bring a Caesar salad, and that it needed to feed 12. He made posters and flyer's that went up all over the school. They did such a great job decorating the school. There were American flags everywhere.

They had about 75 veterans come, some even in uniform. There were 3 banquet tables full of food.
Several tables with military paraphernalia.

The kids put on an hour long program after lunch. Colton was one of 4 speakers. Whitley's class had written letters to the veterans which were displayed on a wall. Her teacher picked 3 kids in her class to read their letters at the party, and she was one of them. They both did a great job.

During the program we repeated the pledge of allegiance, had a moment of silence, and had taps played by a trumpet among other things. Very moving.

At the very end of the program, they asked if any of the veterans wanted to say something, and several of them stood up and thanked the kids and teachers, and expressed how awesome it was that the kids were learning about patriotism in school. Some of them even told short stories about serving in the military. It was really touching. We are so proud of Colton, and so grateful for his teacher. He inspires Colton to be the best person he can be. We feel so blessed that the kids are at this school. They are having some really amazing EXPERIENCES!

Mr. Brekke (Colton's teacher) and Mr. Newport (the principal)

Obama/Biden 2009-2012

It is fair to say that I'm not hugely political. I listen and try to learn as much as I can about where the canidates stand, and then vote-always. It's been no different this time around. But for some reason, it feels different. Maybe it's because I haven't "lost" for a while. Whatever it is, I woke up this morning feeling a little bit uneasy with the results. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'll be surprised, or even impressed. For our country's sake, I sure hope so!

Colton's Community Service

Mr. Newport is the principal at my kids school. He is very involved in their education. More so than any other principal I've been around. We get homework and little assignments home from him-due back to him. Mostly just the 6th graders. Anyway, he has assigned the 6th graders to do 10 hours of community service before Christmas. They have to have it documented and signed. A few weeks ago, Colton was telling me about his day at school, and mentioned that he and a friend had been playing with and taking care of a little autistic boy during lunch recess. I asked him why? He said that his teacher had asked if anyone wanted to do this special project and he had volunteered. I told him that it would count for his community service project, since he didn't have anything else. All he needed to do was spend 1 lunch recess a week helping out, and he'd have his 10 hours.

Since then, he has really gotten involved with these special kids. He knows their names, what each child likes, and how to help them be safe. He has started helping out with them several recesses a week. He's already well over his 10 hours, and now is doing it just because. I'm so proud of him, and his tender heart. What a great example-not only to our family-but to the kids he goes to school with. Way to go Colton!