A Busy Week

(oh - this didn't really happen during the "busy" week, but it's better late than never - Kimber and Sam got their hair cut a couple weeks ago - Alli is next....Katie when can you cut her hair??? :))
Two of Konrad's 3 brothers came up for Thanksgiving this year. His oldest brother, Todd, and his family stayed with us. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins for a full week - or actually 6 days, which Alli reminded me of often "They are staying for 6 days mom!" They have 4 kids, ages almost 7, almost 6, 4, and 1. The last time they stayed with us was two years ago - that trip the Christmas tree got pushed over, the laptop written on, the fridge written on as well. This year wasn't nearly as exciting. :) They were the perfect house guests and we wished they could have stayed longer.

We spent last week hopping back and forth between my parents and Konrad's parents, as well as enjoying UW volleyball (we are addicted - we went to 2 games in 5 days), 2 movies, a Liberty High football game at the Tacoma Dome - Go Patriots!, many meals out, football on TV, shopping, and a few games played in between.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Crabtree's this year. Earlier in the day we went over to my parents to visit with my parents and see my cousin and her family as well as my Grandpa who came into town. (I am totally ticked - I carried my camera with me everywhere I went and still didn't take a picture of my girls with my grandpa!)

Kimber and Sam with Erica and Robby:

After visiting for awhile we headed over to the Crabtree's.

Sam, Kimber, and Quinton put on a little Thanksgiving play for us:

Grandpa had a lesson planned out:

Sam and Uncle Todd being silly:

It was also Great Grandma's birthday - she turned 84 a few days before Thanksgiving.

We also celebrated Jaden's 5th birthday - but I didn't get a picture of him opening his cool Bat Cave that kept 10 kids entertained for the rest of the week. Thanks for sharing Jaden!

Grandpa, Ellie, and Allison

All the Dad's and their kids....the house was pretty full! :) We missed Doug and Britt and their family---we really wished they could have joined us!

We had a great week, spent with tons of family, and full of fun. We were all so exhausted we slept in today - the girls and I didn't wake up until 8:30 - not a great idea on a school day! Luckily the girls still made the bus!

What's Going On With Us

Not much is going on right now. Kimber finished her soccer season - and may I add that we made it through an entire season without sitting in the rain - not even at practice! There was one game canceled due to lightening and we were leaving the field as it started to rain. Other than that, we stayed dry. That doesn't happen often in Washington!


Kimber is now playing volleyball and LOVES it. She has two really good friends on the team and our Bishop is her assistant coach. She is doing so much better than the first time around (2 years ago). In her first game she was the "Star Player" - I think she had 4 or 5 aces! :) We missed her last game, but heard there was actually a small volley - it was served, returned, and returned again. :) You don't see that very often at this stage.


Samantha just finished up 3 sessions of swimming lessons. She has now passed the Youth 3 class and will move into the deep end of the pool. We are taking a break for now (what will I do for the extra hour I have to entertain my kids on Monday and Wednesday's now?). She wants to take gymnastics or jazz next. Samantha is also reading like crazy now. Well she could read like crazy if she wanted to - unfortunately she hasn't caught the same reading bug as Kimber yet. She will read her 20 minutes a day so that she can be eligible for a Wii party at school, but not just b/c she loves to read. It's amazing to see how quickly she is picking up her school work - she loves math and grasps the concepts pretty quickly if you ask me. She is also a lot more outgoing this year than last year. It took her a good 4 or 5 months to really even think about speaking up during class, now she is often the first to raise her hand. She is still crazy Sam - always moving, always making us smile, and always moving.

Allison is pretty much the same. She is loving preschool and all her friends. She looks forward to the days she gets to have playdates with her two best girl friends - Ali and Leah. She is starting to catch the Webkinz bug, but can't quite do it on her own. One of her favorite parts of the day is when she hears the bus in the afternoon - she loves her sisters and misses them while they are at school. She thinks she is ready for swim lessons - so we may start that up in a little while.

Konrad and I had our dating class. It went okay. Nothing wonderful, but the kids participated and hopefully they learned something. We told them about our first date. We went to Theater Sports in Seattle to see an improv show. On the way there Konrad told me that if he got pulled over we had to switch seats so I would get the ticket not him. I was like, whatever. Anyways we were driving across the 90 bridge and about to enter a tunnel. Konrad decides to play the tunnel game (either holding your breath or saying the word tunnel through the ENTIRE tunnel). This was one of the longer tunnels, so as he starts to run out of breath he decides he should drive faster. Needless to say - he said tunnel the entire time, but as we exited the tunnel we were being followed by flashing lights. He got a $396 ticket. It was an expensive date! He was able to get it reduced to $100 by explaining to the judge that he was only playing the tunnel game. The judge made him promise never to play it again (which as far as I know he hasn't) and reduced his ticket. Memorable, right?

Sorry, I got side tracked.

Konrad's volleyball team is playing in regionals tonight - much to the chagrin of many wives in our ward who are supposed to be attending a New Moon party. It will be interesting to see who wins out of all the couples....personally I hope the guys do - it would stink for them to go this far and then end up losing or forfeiting!

Preschool is great. We had pajama day today. The kids thought it was hilarious and loved every minute of it. Who doesn't love wearing their jammies?

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving - we have family from both sides coming into town, so it will be a week full of visiting. Can't wait!

Okay - I am off to the New Moon party. No worries though, I will be home at 7:45 so Konrad can go to his game....

I Need Some Help

Konrad and I have to teach a dating class to some 16/17/18 year old youth and I need some great date ideas. Things that you guys did/do that we can add to a list of date ideas. Creative ideas - or even those you may not think are so creative (remember - sometimes your "not so creative" idea is "super" creative to someone else) - all suggestions will help!

I know everyone has to have at least one idea, right? That means I will get a TON of comments....right????

Help me out please!

Need a Marshmallow. . . ..

Call this farmer - he obviously has plenty!

My friend Heather posted a similar picture on facebook - I had to stop and take my own the other day. It just makes me smile! Think of the s'more(s) you could make with one of these!

Halloween Night

We had dinner at our neighbors - yummy warm soup and homemade bread, then headed out for some candy.

Here are the pictures from our Halloween photo shoot....

Kimber the vampire dancer with her pumpkin
Sam the witch with her pumpkins

Alli the angel with her pumpkin - I mean jack-o-lantern - don't tell her I called it a pumpkin!

All three of them

the lit up pumpkins

And the candy......

Kimber is definitely my child - she has it all sorted :) - my sisters and I used to do this every year, more so at Easter, but I'm sure we did Halloween as well

Happy Halloween!!!

A Trip to the Farm

Halloween morning we took the girls to a nearby farm to play. Alli and I had been there earlier in the week for preschool and I decided we should take everyone back to do it as a family.

Alli roping a cow

The girls Sam the moo-cow hopefully this never really happens

playing in the giant corn box

Sam is under there somewhere

Alli and Konrad

in the hay maze

family shot

3 cute girls

can you see the rain that hit while we were there

we'll have to see if they grow taller for next year

The girls had a great time. We've been there for many field trips (Sam in preschool, Kimber in 2nd grade, Alli two years for preschool) but never as a family. The girls loved it and had a great time playing together.

(on a side note - I ran into a guy from highschool while I was there. Had a conversation with him for a 5+ minutes - all the time thinking he was one of my pretty close friends from highschool. This morning I'm laying in bed and realize it was a totally different guy, that I hadn't seen since middle school - they look kinda similar, but still----am I going crazy??? Thank goodness Konrad walked away right as I was going to introduce him - I would have said the wrong name!!! Talk about embarrassing!!!!!! I still can't believe I did that.)

Trunk-or-Treat

This is what the girls wore to school on the day before Halloween. Check out Kimber's outfit! Don't you love the orange, pink, black skirt, the orange shirt, the striped Halloween socks, and the black tennis shoes top it off! I told her only on Halloween! :)
Our ward had a Halloween Party the night before Halloween. It was pretty crazy - TONS of people there. The kids had a blast (all of them besides Alli she wouldn't even take candy from people - such a grouch at times)!

Sam has been working on the splits - she is getting really really close....

Our witch, vampire dancer, and angel

Alli and Konrad

Everyone checking out their candy (Sam, Emily, Jordan, Aleigha, Kimber, Alli, Steph and Mackenzie, and Jack). . .

We also had a dessert/chili cook off. I got 3rd place for dessert. :) My first cooking award! I made a Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle.

In Response to My Last Post

Just wanted to let everyone know that my children now listen to EVERYTHING I say and do it right away! :)

Just kidding.

Really, I had just had a bad morning - I should've taken a deep breath and things would have been fine.

I had asked Kimber to do something - told her it needed to be done in about 10 minutes - the time it would take me to do my hair. Once I was done I walked into her room and found her sitting there reading - actually not true she was in the middle of jumping up b/c she realized I was done and she hadn't started. I burst into tears (don't ask....) - we had a long chat - I thought we were good. Not 5 minutes later she is ignoring me again.

Thus - the last post was written! :)

Thanks for the advice though. What I really need is a book on how to not stress out, not micro-manage, and learn how to let your children be children - any suggestions for that???? :)