December Chaos!

This month has literally been crazy! It wasn't until this week that we have done anything fun relating towards the holidays! My month has been filled with laundry and dirty rooms

Christmas decorations everywhere!Unfinished projects like installing crown molding in our bedroom/bathroom..And a dirty garage and a house that is constantly needed to be cleaned!!

But now that we are on Christmas Break and Morgan's Driver's Ed class is officially over!! WOOHOO!! we have been doing some fun things!

Maddie's Christmas Party in her Kindergarten class..

We ran into Santa at a house in our neighborhood, cool!! We didn't even have to go that far. Brinley loved it, and Maddie STILL unsure of him!

About three weeks ago Brooklyn asks me "mom do you believe in Santa Claus?" Of course I tell her yes, and then she starts to ask a few questions. A few days later my VT companion tells me that Brooklyn tells her daughter (they are friends) that SC is really your parents. As I approached Brooklyn she tells me that she didn't say that and she does believe a little bit in Santa! I know she knows but won't say it!! Another one bits the DUST! SAD!! I'm not ready for this!

We got all dressed up for church last Sunday. Both Morgan and I sang in the choir and the primary kids' sang the week before.

I love these dresses I got for the little girls'. I almost took them back but decided to add the red sash and got the red sparkly shoes (not pictured) to match. They looked so cute and got many compliments on the dresses.For Family Night we went to Portland to see some lights on Peacock Lane. If you live on this famous street you have to have some kind of Christmas light display. I can't believe we have lived here for 14 years and this was our first time there. It was fun and free.

We hope to do a few more things before and then after Christmas! Morg and Mas both commented today that they can't believe it's almost here and then it's over just like that!! I remember feeling like that as a kid and still feel that way! Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Break!
We had a relaxing and fun break. Let me tell you it was hard to get back into the swing of things yesterday!! Maddie missed school because she was supposedly sick and we ALL slept in this morning, so Morgan missed seminary! Hopefully by Friday we'll all be back to normal. I just wanted to highlight a few of our activities the past few days..

Maddie at her Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast:

Our Turkey's that were cooked on the Tragger Grill, YUM!!!
Partaking of our fabulous meal:


Continuing on with our tradition (as of last Thanksgiving) buying the 25 cent mustaches after seeing a movie...
Eating leftovers at Grandmas the day after Thanksgiving, hanging out with cousins, and squeezing into the linen closet that they used to hide in ten years ago... Sad how fast time goes. All five of these girls squeezed into the closet just to reminisce about the good old times!
Last Saturday we went with several families in our ward to go cut down a Christmas tree in the National Forest. This year there was so much snow!!! We loved it! We had a huge snowball fight, made snow angels, and got our tree. It was great, it even snowed while we were there. We were all soaking wet and tired when we got home.

Now I am surrounded by Christmas boxes, laundry, and a dirty house. Yikes!!! I got my work cut out for me this week. Hope everyone had a great and blessed holiday!!

Drivers Permit!

It's official!! We now have another driver in the house, well almost. Morgan got her drivers permit last Friday! Yikes!!! We have been driving only twice so far but it's definitely an experience. She did fine, it's me that was nervous. One hour done, only 49 more hours of practice to go! Washington State has some strict guidelines in order to get your license by the age of 16. She has to take drivers ed. She actually has to show proof of being in a drivers ed class just to get her permit. And then she has to have 50 hours of practice and have her permit for 6 months before she can get her license. Once she's 16 and passes the test she can only drive with immediate family members in her car, no friends, for 6 more months! Heck when I got my license I did none of that! Not even Drivers Ed! It will be a fun year!

Halloween!

I was so LAME at Halloween this year!!! We didn't get ANY pumpkins let alone carve any!! Actually none of my kids' even asked about pumpkins or carving except for Morgan! I didn't take too much time on my costumes, and I almost forgot to buy CANDY!!! I guess since we did it "Big" last year I kind of wanted it be low key this year. I think having it on Sunday also effected my lack of enthusiasm! We did dress up for our ward party/trick or treating but that was IT! No other parties or festivities except for that. We went trick or treating around our neighborhood with other ward families on Saturday night. I took the girls around with the Youngs, Dustins, and the Zundels. Maddie was a cat:

Brinley was Fancy Nancy:Brooklyn and her friend Elizabeth were Vampires:Mason went trick or treating with some of his friends' dressed as a BYU Fan. They had fun, it was nice weather (no rain) and loved their trading session. That's it! See what I said about LAME...Oh well there will be year's like this sometime. And the kids still had fun, heck the only thing they care about is the candy anyway!

Morgan turns 15!!!

Last weekend on October 30 Morgan turned 15! I can't believe that she is already that old! As I slowly woke up that morning of her birthday I remembered vividly the day I had her. As I was reminiscing I just started to bawl in bed! How did my sweet first born child go from this:

to this!!

I have been having a hard time adjusting this fall! So many changes with all the kids being at school all day, high school and all the demands that brings, seminary, and the fact that my kids' are gr owning up way too fast. So as I laid their crying that morning of her birthday all these emotions came flooding out. Jon was wondering what kind of bad dream I had, had??? But I quickly had to suck it up and get up to fix her birthday breakfast. We woke her up and gave her breakfast in bed and gave her our presents. She then was off to dance team for the majority of the day. She had practice for three hours, then a short break, and a team retreat from 4-10 pm. So I barely saw her the entire day!! A week earlier she had a birthday party with some of her friends. We took all of them to a corn maze. They loved it even though it was wet and muddy. We headed back to our house for a scary movie "The Ring", games, and to eat chocolate fondue. Many of those kids were SCARED of that movie and were hiding under blankets and pillows!I think everyone including Morgan had a great time!

We are so blessed to have Morgan in our family! She is a very hard working and dedicated young women! She's striving to do her best in everything she does; school work, dance, and living the gospel. She has never missed seminary yet this year, she makes sure she's reading her scriptures daily, and is keeping up on her Personal Progress. Just yesterday she says to me "Mom, you need to make me practice my piano every day, OK?" What kids says that?? She is extremely busy this year and we are very proud of her and how she is handling it. We have had some rough late nights, I'm not going to lie but she is doing great in school. I'm glad that we have such a good relationship. We love to shop and talk together frequently. I'm very happy to have her as our first child and I think she is setting a great example for her younger siblings! As I was crying that morning of her birthday I thought to myself, "What am I going to be like on her wedding day??" A wreck!!

Conference

Several months ago Jon decided that he wanted to try and take Mason to his first Priesthood session in Utah at the Conference Center. He scored some tickets and also asked his dad if he would want to join them. I tried to convince him to fly but they decided to drive Larry's car and make it a fun road trip. Mason missed school on Friday and they left Vancouver about 8:00 am.

That evening they stayed in Boise, ID which is just over half way to Salt Lake. Mas was excited to stay in a hotel, go swimming and out to dinner! The next day they finished their drive with not much time to spare. Jon had forgotten his tie so they had to make a quick purchase and get some lunch before they headed off to the Conference Center.

They had a great time attending the Priesthood Session here. Jon said it was huge and couldn't see very well but they loved the experience.I love these pictures with the Salt Lake City Temple in the background! After Priesthood the three of them headed to Ogden to spent the night at his Aunt Linda's house. They had a great time visiting, eating and laughing together. Sunday morning early they left her house to head home. They had been in Utah for less than 24 hours. They only made a few stops for lunch and gas.But they drove all the way home that day and were at our house by 7:30 pm. I was amazed that they made it so fast. It was a whirlwind of a trip for them but all three of them had a fabulous time.

Brooklyn's Birthday!

I know that it has been like six weeks since her birthday but I must did document this occasion! Brooklyn decided to have a combined party with one of her good friends' Elizabeth Zundel. They are only 12 days apart in age and have most of the same friends. Since Karen and I are friends we came up with the idea to combine the parties. We had an outdoor movie party on August 21,2010. We first fed all the girls a barbecue dinner. They enjoyed playing outside together, playing our Just Dance Wii game, and eating! Karen made this amazing cake/cupcake display of a movie ticket and popcorn cupcakes!

This was a hit with everyone and the birthday girls' enjoyed blowing out the candles together. All the girls then got their goody bags filled up and ready for the movie outside! We had a wide variety of movie candy and of course popcorn!! They loved snuggling up with blankets and watching a good show!

I think everyone had a great time and were very full of junk by the end of the evening!!

Here are all their friends! Cambree Morgan, Cassidy Dustin, Lilly Grismore, Rachel Zundel, Brooklyn, Elizabeth, Callie Mills, Brinley Jackson, Emily Young, Lauren Kartchner, Sage McKague, Faith Skinner, and McKenna Sork.

Some Facts about Brooklyn at age 10 (I'm mostly doing this for my own journaling purposes)

She is very independent and a go-getter. I rarely have to ask her more than once to do a job. She is a big helper and is already babysitting occasionally for short periods of time. She loves to read and do math. She is very on-top of her studies and diligent with them. She loves to give the FHE lessons. She plans them from scratch, makes assignments, and delivers them with ease. She loves to play soccer and the piano. She won't quit at something until she has mastered it! She enjoys her friends and everyone seems to love Brooklyn! She likes to play ball with Mason but also enjoys playing Barbies, Pollies, or School with the little girls'. When we were watching our neighbor boy he had a messy diaper. I wasn't at home and I told her that I would change it when I got home in about 10 minutes. She told me "no mom I can change a diaper." And she did it all by herself for her very first time. She still loves the color Blue and really doesn't like the color Pink. She has been very responsible with her dog Charlie and she adores him! She also loves another birthday present that she received, getting her ears pierced. She love to shop for new earrings and wear Morgan's old ones. She is such a joy to have in our family. We love the spirit she brings to our home and cherish her deeply!

Seminary!

We are officially into our school schedule since Seminary started last week! Let me tell you it has been a little rough! I've always done fine getting up early since I myself had early morning seminary as a youth, and I had a paper route before my seminary days! But something about not having to be up early EVERY day has thrown me for a loop this week. Morgan's alarm now goes off at 5:00 AM

Sadly she only got up two of the days by herself, the other three I had to wake her up because she turned off her alarm! I even told her to set TWO alarms and she turned both of them off! She'll get better! This is what I look like in the early AM. I feel about as bad as I look here!

I then make her breakfast, help her with her lunch and anything else she needs. I get up with her on MWF and Jon on T TH. The best part of this whole Seminary thing is that I DON'T have to drive her! For the past few months I had been talking to some of our dear friends' daughter, Alyssa. She lives in the neighborhood and drives right by the house on the way to the church. She agreed to pick up Morgan every day which is FABULOUS! It has been working out great! She picks her up at 6:10 am and then they get the Bishop's son Jarin and head to the church!

Even though it's early and hard sometimes she is really liking seminary. She enjoys her teacher and class. I am proud of her for making the effort every morning to go. I know that it's the right way for her to start out her High School Day! Since we'll probably always have early morning seminary here and I don't see us moving in the future I figured out I have several more years of this! Twelve to be exact with no breaks! Twelve years from now Maddie will be a senior in High School and we'll still be going strong with Seminary!!!