Finally Some New Pictures!

I have finally posted pictures!!!! I'm sorry that I didn't have time to browse for any with more clarity. Thanks to Janessa I'm staying up later than I should to do this quickly. First, this little lady just celebrated her 3rd birthday. I haven't put the pics from her bday party on the computer yet. She's such a sweet girl! She definitely has a mind of her own (in a good way!) and has had a gigantic growth spurt. She measured 41 1/2 inches at her check up (Scarlett measured 41 3/4 inches at her 3 year check up. I didn't know Avanlee was that tall too!). We're so blessed to have her sweet spirit in our home! We hosted a mystery dinner Halloween night. We had a blast! It was set in 1928 chicago and I ended up being the culprit!

Here are my cute kids Halloween night. Avanlee is wearing one of three costumes she picked out (spur of the moment) for this season. Here she is a princess witch.

This is just prior to our neighborhood Trunk or Treat. We pulled out the old Tigger outfit after we discovered her dragon costume was too small (growth spurt!)

These are at Cochran's Produce where they have a celebration each year. Kyle made his famous Spudnuts and we nearly froze to death but had a blast! (There's the elusive dragon that I needlessly purchased!)

These are Asher's 9 month pictures that Kyle snapped in our yard and around the house. Kyle does a very good job considering we don't have the kind of camera for this sort of thing. Asher tries to eat the camera when I get close to him with it.

I took Asher and his cousin running when we watched the kids. They were so cute sleeping in the stroller!

More of Asher from his shoot with Daddy. Isn't he handsome?

Long Time No Blog

So things have been pretty crazy us. Kyle was working a ton of overtime and between Preschool, sports, choir, church and Halloween, we have been running and running! With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up we're pretty much booked through the end of the year. I'll try to post when I can, but I may be fairly absent from the blogging scene for a while. I'm hoping to post pictures this week. We had a number of Halloween celebrations we attended--for which Avanlee had a different costume each time. We had a murder mystery dinner at our house Halloween night (super fun, set in 1928). I ended up being the culprit. I held solo auditions for the upcoming elementary school holiday concert, and our preschool group had a field trip to the fire station. We attended Stacey Larsen (Ryan)'s wedding and had a good time catching up with some old friends from CA (especially the Larsens, Wallaces, Petrovitches, and Cowdens). We have regional volleyball (co-ed and women's) tournaments, Avanlee's birthday, cutting down our Christmas tree, meetings, visits, writing a choir script, and a doctor's appointment all before Thanksgiving week. We are enjoying every minute of our crazy, exciting, wonderful life together as a family. The kids are growing and learning and we love to watch them as they progress. Kyle's doing very well at work and we're grateful to be in a good position job-wise during turbulent economic times. We are blessed with faith in a God who knows us and in whom we can trust, a loving family, a beautiful home, freedom from fear, safety, transportation, sustinance, good friends and support, among many other things. we give thanks to God who supports and sustains us. We thank our family and friends for their love, support and patience. (I'll post pics soon!)

He Walks!

He're's our sweet little one walking for the first time! He had taken a step or two here and there before, but this is his first real stroll . The first video's lighting is terrible, but you'll get the idea. As you'll be able to tell, we were all quite excited!

We are still super busy with sports, music, school, work, canning, getting over flu/colds, scouts, etc. (and now Kyle's planning on making 500 doughnuts for Cochran's holiday event Monday night. Yes, he's crazy). Hopefully we'll be able to slow down a bit in November!

Where has the time gone?

Wow what a month! (and it's not even over yet!) We've had a lot of firsts this month that I've been just plain too busy to post about! Earlier in the month Scarlett had her first day of pre-school, then her first soccer game. She's also riding her two-wheeler without training wheels, though I think she started that last month. I had my first day ever teaching pre-school (a separate occassion from Scarlett's first) and had my first day (this year) of directing the elementary school choir. Next year I'll actually do the choir AND have a child going to the school! Asher cut his first tooth and took his first steps! (I've got to tell ya, that child is growing up WAY too fast, and no he's not even 9 month old yet!). We bottled pears from our own tree for the first time (along with the salsa, grape juice, peaches, etc. that we normally do). I think poor Avanlee is feeling a little left out. She's growing up so fast and is sounding so grown up, but the things she's developing don't have any visible milestones. She'll get her chance at some more 'firsts' soon. She and her sister DID participate in their first talent show this month. Avanlee did a summersault (woohoo!). Kyle has officially been made the Scout Master over the regional Special Needs Scout Troop in our area. It's been a crazy end to a fabulous summer. On top of all of our 'firsts' we've been playing church volleyball, Kyle's been working on some side jobs, and I've been put in charge of our neighborhood's collections for the Pennies by the Inch organization for Primary Children's Hospital. It's funny how busy you can get and at the same time think things will let up soon...because in reality it never really lets up at all. It's amazing how the longer someone lives and the more experience a person gains, the greater their capacity to do things becomes. With each new job accomplished comes an expansion of self. One year you think you can't possibly do one more thing and the next year you find yourself doing three times as much. I'm in awe of humankind's ability to progress and adapt and credit a loving Heavenly Father and Savior for this miracle of life.

Here are a few quick pics of some of what's been going on:

Scarlett's first day of preschool. Three other mothers, along with myself, are taking turns teaching preschool to our daughters this year and they're having a blast! Scarlett asks almost everyday when her next day of preschool will be.
Here's Scarlett (complete with pink soccer ball and pink cleats) on her first day of soccer. She was so excited.

Guess who was a TOTAL natural...?

It was amazing to watch her play for the first time. With no real prior practice or experience she got out there and scored 5 or 6 goals...even when her own teammate decided to start playing goalie!

This was just a super cute picture I had to post. They both kept making faces while I took pictures and played so well together, I just had to capture the moment. It isn't everyday that you see them playing without it ending in one of them crying.

Happy Anniversary to us!

We had a great/busy weekend and were able to sqeeze in a date for our anniversary. Here's the cute man I married 6 years ago. He and the kids are the best things that have ever happened to me and the best choices I've ever made. He's an amazing husband, father, provider, and friend. He's spiritual, a hard worker, loving, loyal, and a lot of fun. Everyday that we're married, I feel more and more blessed to be with this man.
Here I am in my happy place. My life couldn't get any better.

For those of you who don't know, Kyle has givien up quite a bit to be with us during the difficult and time consuming period of life that is having young children. He doesn't rock climb, backpack, hike, fish, golf, ski, or much of anything else quite as much as he used to because he wants to be around to help. He understands that this season of our lives and the lives of our children is short and he wants to be around for it.

Our date stared out with dinner downtown at the best Macaroni Grill in the state. Yum! Then we drove over the Ensign Peak monument. We hadn't been there since July 5, 2002...the night Kyle proposed.

We hiked to the monument at the top of the hill at almost the exact same time we did more than six years ago. The flat place next to us in this pic is where Kyle had a blanket laid out with a cooler full of fresh fruit, Martinelli's cider, and the biggest rose I'd ever seen waiting for me. He'd hidden the ring in the rose, and this is where he asked me to marry him at sunset.
This picture is dedicated to Lara Deppe who is a little obsessed with taking pictures of feet.

Here we are with a view overlooking the city.

Awwww, aren't we cute?

We hiked down just after sunset (very trecherous...I'm considerably night blind). We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dessert, picked up the kids, went home and watched 27 Dresses (a cute movie for an anniversary date). We had a great time revisiting those memories. I love you Kyle!

Survey

I'm sorry to all of you who are viewing this blog to see stuff about Kyle or the kids. This survey is being posting in response to an email (instead of replying). Please bare with this self-centered post.

1.What is your occupation right now?
Wife & Mommy (confident, counsellor, choir director, pre-school teacher, cook, maid, nurse, piano teacher, coach, patience tester, fix-it girl, lawn care pro., artisan, shall I go on...?)

2.What color are your socks right now?
I try to be bare foot as often as possible

3. What are you listening to right now?
The F-22's from the AF base and Sesame Street

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
A slice of honey oven roasted turkey from Costco

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
Yes

6.Last person you spoke to on the phone?
The mechanic who gave me the estimate for what it will take to get Kyle's car to pass its safety inspection. Sigh.

7.Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Love her

8.How old are you today?
25

9.What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
Beach Volleyball and Gymnastics

10.What is your favorite drink?
Kyle's homemade smoothies or lime rickey's

what happened to #11 ?

12.Favorite food?
Chicken Logs, a good steak, most fruit, and just about all desserts

13.What is the last movie you watched?
Beatuy and the Beast (Dan in Real Life or 27 Dresses before that)

14.Favorite day of the year?
The first warm day of spring and the first cool day of fall

15.How do you vent anger?
Lecture Kyle or the child. If my anger is due to something outside the family, I vent to Kyle about it then get over it.

16.What was your favorite toy as a child?
My Little Pony's

17.What is your favorite season?
Autumn

18.Cherries or Blueberries?
Cherries

19.Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
Sure!

20.Who is the most likely to respond?
It doesn't really matter to me

21.Who is least likely to respond?
Whoever doesn't check out the blog until after I post again =)

22.Living arrangements?
Married with three babes

23.When was the last time you cried?
...I ALMOST cried while reading part of Breaking Dawn to Kyle last week, and I cried a little after some stressful stuff wrapped up the second week in August or so

24.What is on the floor of your closet?
Lots of shoes

25.Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to?
Well, I'm hoping my mom and sister will check this out!

26.What did you do last night
We got the girls to bed, I did a little laundry,talked to the PTA pres about the school choir, and battled Asher trying to get him to sleep (a rare thing...he's always really good)

27.What are you most afraid of
Irrational = falling from a great height
Rational = Kyle dying or me dying and leaving him and the kids

28.Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers
Cheese!!!

29.Favorite dog breed?
I don't know dogs very well. Super big dogs are cool to look at

30.Favorite day of the week?
Friday

31.How many states have you lived in?
2

32.Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds

33.What is your favorite flower
Petunias in my garden and roses in my vase

Seattle!

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting on our trip to Seattle! We've been super busy with the trip, my parents moving, and getting caught back up with regular stuff that I'm just now doing these extras. We had SUCH a great time staying with my sister's family and enjoying the sights.

In these first pictures, we took a ferry to an island and went to Tillicum Village. This one is of Stace with her big boys and my girls on the boat.

When you get there you walk out onto a path of sea shells. The give you hot clams and broth (it was actually really good) then when you're done eating the clams you throw the shells down and step on them, creating more material for the pathway.

We enjoyed fire roasted salmon and yummy fire toasted bread (among other things) for lunch while watching a show with North Western Native American dancing. The kids thought it was really cool.

These are pictures we took on the pier.

Stacey and I getting home from church.
Matty Avanlee and Scarlett played really well together (most of the time) while we were there.
Baby cousins napping together in the crib.
I love when my kids love me like this!

We took a Duck Tour where you ride in a retired amphibius army vehicle on a tour through the streets of Seattle then straight into the waters of Lake Union. The kids had 'quackers' and made a lot of noise. Our driver was really funny and we all had a good time seeing the sights.


Here are the cousins and Stace & I at Ballard Locks. The kids had a blast watching the boats and checking out the salmon Ladder.

Bellevue, WA is called a 'city within a park' because there are parks EVERYWHERE. Running trails, playgrounds, beach parks, etc. It's beautiful. We had a lot of fun playing.

Stacey is holding my baby and her friend is holding hers. Cute cousins!

So here are the pics of the haircuts! If you can tell, Scarlett "layered hers on her left side, and cut part of her ponytail off. Avanlee cut her whole ponytail in half and also layered the left side. Matty just carved a big hole. Pretty funny stuff.