Our Christmas Card 2008

Thanksgiving

The cooks... pretty scary huh? We had a small deep fried turkey and also a small turkey on the grill. We hadn't tried a deep fried turkey before so I was a little nervous about it being dangerous to cook. The cooks were prepared though... notice Papa Joe in the back of one of the pictures with his fire extinguisher... pretty funny!
The kids... being hams as usual. Notice Caden dancing on the table...
I guess he gets that from his dad.

The family... We feel so blessed to have such a fun, loving family

and to live close enough to each other to spend some of the holidays together!

Thanks Ahma, Papa Joe, Adrianne, Kale and Jackson for the visit!

The many faces of Halloween

Since there was a couple of opportunities for our kids to dress up this year for Halloween, they changed their minds on costumes between events. We went to a Harvest Festival at Ellyx's school where Ellyx was a Jack-o-lantern (which fit her smile perfectly), Mikey was Woody and Caden was Woody also (of course). They had fun playing games and decorating pumpkins with Mr. Potato Head pieces. Mikey loves Mr Potato Head so this was a fun activity for him.

Mikey had originally wanted to be a rocket for Halloween and after searching for one with no luck, I had talked him into being an astronaut. Well, we found an astronaut costume but it was really too small so Michael set his mind on making a rocket.... So, for trick-or-treating we had Ellyx as a witch (same as last year, but she makes a pretty cute one), Caden as Woody (once again, of course), and Mikey as a rocket. It was quite the humorous experience.... Mikey had a hard time walking in the rocket so we had to have him "blast off" after each house for him to run to the next house where he would then suit up again at each driveway. All in all we had a pretty eventful Halloween and look forward to next year... we will see if Caden is still a die hard Toy Story fan!

Ellyx and Mikey School pictures

Why do my babies look so old??????

Dyer's and Drucille come to visit!

A fun weekend with our family

Our baby girl is 7!!!

Ellyx is 7 and it seemed like we celebrated her birthday for a month! She celebrated her birthday at our gym with one of her best friends who also turned 7. They had a luau themed party and went swimming. Grandma came to town for her actual birthday and took us all out to dinner at Red Robin and Ellyx brought her new best buddy, Leah. They were the cutest giggling girls I have ever seen. I can't believe how fast time flies! This past weekend Adrianne, Kale, Jackson and Drucille made a trip over from Seattle to celebrate all the birthdays that we have missed since not seeing each other for a few months. We had one big cake for Caden, Jackson, Ellyx and Adrianne.

Camping!

We enjoyed a gorgeous weekend of camping at Lake Wenatchee. The weather is starting to turn chilly so we feel lucky to have fit one more camping trip into our year!

Off to school!

Mikey is in Kindergarten!

Ellyx the 1st grader!

Caden is 2!!

August 2008

Mikey lost his first tooth!

Mikey lost his first tooth! He put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy brought him $5.00! He is saving for a Wii game.... he's got a few more teeth to lose before he has enough money.

Cowboy Caden

Caden loves dressing up and wearing a cowboy hat! He even has the yeee haw down perfectly.

Jackson's Visit

Jackson came to visit us for a little over a week.

We kept the kids busy with movies, swimming, bounce house and golf!

They put on a play for us and entertained us with their wacky imaginations and games.

While Jackson was here we had a few visitors... Ahma, Amber and Drucille.

It was great seeing everybody!

Father's Day

We enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day! We ate a yummy breakfast outside and spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun and swimming in the pool. Bring on summer! Happy Father's Day Dad!!!

Kiddos!

Caden and Mom

Idaho Visit

We went to Idaho Falls for Memorial weekend.

It rained quite a bit but was so beautiful. The last day we were there the weather was perfect! We enjoyed sitting out on the deck, eating my dad's amazing cooking, riding the 4-wheeler and watching the kids run and play in the fields.
We also celebrated both Mom's birthday and mine with a giant cake and

ice cream every night we were there. Idaho is great!

T-Ball

Ellyx and Mikey are on the same Tball team. At first I thought that it would be a lot of work to keep Ellyx interested and to help Mikey with understanding the game but they both love it! Ellyx is a go-getter and Mikey loves the game and wants to see all the action!

They both do a great job!

Camping April 2008

We went camping this last weekend at Tucannon. Our campsite was perfect with a little creek running through it. We went fishing and enjoyed the beautiful outdoors. It was a little chilly at night but our heater in our camper trailer worked perfect. Ellyx caught her first fish and Mikey and Caden stayed busy throwing rocks in the lake. We hope on our next trip the boys are able to reel in a big one too! We look forward to more camping trips this summer.

Bring on some sunshine!!

Ellyx's new haircut

Ellyx was so excited to have her hair cut.

She wasn't happy with the length and asked the stylist to go shorter.

She knows what she wants!

Of course she was pleased with the sparkles they added too!

Caden's new haircut

Okay, they cut off the curls and I wasn't happy about that but he wasn't exactly a peach while they were cutting it and I was just ready to get out of there! He looks like an old kid now. Ahhh! I hope the curls come back but I still think he's pretty darn cute!

Mikey as Mr. Potato Head

Gotta love this kid!

Dad is going to give him a good buzz cut here in the next couple of days.

I'll send pictures of his new cut once he gets one!

Easter

Adrianne, Kale and Jackson made a trip over from Seattle to celebrate Easter with us. We colored Easter eggs, had an egg hunt, danced some, and played the wii. We all had a great time!

April

Can you believe spring is already here? The kids have been keeping us busy and have enjoyed the sunshine and playing outside.

We've had visits from Grandma, the Dyer's and Ahma and Papa Joe. It has been nice to hang out with family!

Mikey and Ellyx are on spring break this next week and then they will start T-ball the week after that. Before we know it, summer will be here!

Our latest pictures