MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

This wasn't quite from this morning but it was the scene just about every morning since the tree went up. That tree was decorated and REdecorated constantly! The kids found the presents and could hardly wait for dad to get out of bed to start tearing into them!Luke was probably the most excited to find out we got a Wii for Christmas. We got it used and they're pretty excited!I thought this picture was funny! Wrapping paper flying everywhere!

Maia got what she really wanted.

The Aftermath

Merry Christmas!

Thanks to all our family and friends! We are truly blessed to know so many good and wonderful people and to be related to most of them! =) We love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Surprise

The youth group in our church decided to help one of the families in our ward for Christmas. They didn't know who the family was but they all brought food and items to give to this family that was chosen by the bishop. There was a little girl in the family so I decided to run around the house and make her a play dress with what I had. And here it is. I was pretty happy about how it turned out. I'm hoping she loves it!

Maia is 3!

Maia had her birthday this month and is now 3 years old! She also finally decided to start going potty all by herself! I'm so happy!!!! We love you Maia!

Funny Story

While I'm playing catchup, I just have to add a funny story. I had to take the kids to the doctor for their yearly visit. So on one visit I took both Katie Belle and Maia at the same time. I prepared them ahead of time to let them know they'd have to get their shots. Katie Belle has been crying nearly everday since Sadie started school because she wants to go to, so I told her that if she wanted to go to school, she needed her shots. This made it okay. We went and she was telling the nurse that she wanted a hundred shots! She was all happy until the needles went in her legs. Her world ended and she was screaming. I took her off the table and stood her up and she just stood there screaming and crying not EVEN moving her legs. And then amidst the cries she stopped and said, "I don't want one hundred." She looked so pitiful that I just laughed and then picked her up and carried her to the car. She kept saying that all the way home. I reassured her that she won't get a hundred and we're good again. =) She's so cute!

Thanksgiving

We spent our Thanksgiving in Pocatello and were able to see all of our family that were in town! It was great to see everyone and the kids were so happy to be at grandma's house that they cried when we had to go home. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Mattox's, Thanksgiving at the Rawson's, we went to the light parade, went to the downtown activities and bought a VAN! WooHoo!!! Can you just feel the excitement through the computer? If not, give me a call and then you'll feel it. We can now actually ride around AND move our legs at the same time. Okay, maybe that was just new to Luke and I but we're happy about it. =) I'd have pictures if my camera wasn't kind of on the fritz but it is! Isn't that how things go? But Santa knows I want a new one and I'm sure he'll work it out. Anyway, I have so much to be grateful for and being around family makes it easier to see how much I really have. We're happy, healthy and together and for that I'm grateful. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!!

Sending Love

Casey's Grandpa was in a terrible accident this weekend. His car was hit by a SEMI! Things were scary for a little while but it looks like things are going to be alright although he still has a long way to go. So we just wanted to send him our love and send some "get well" vibes his way. We love you and are praying for you!

My Maia

Isn't she just cute?

Ahhh...Junior High

Don't you all remember those fun times of dressing up to go to school? Pajama day, school color day....50's day. Yeah, I tried to forget, too. But then Casey reminded me all over again. I'm thinking he has made that final leap into being a junior high teacher. At least he's a fun one and besides, he makes a pretty good nerd, eh? I'm so proud. =)

We're still here!

I thought I'd at least give you all an update as to what we've been up to since I can't seem to get a hold of those Halloween pictures I wanted to add.

Well, first off, we're all finally getting better from the plague that has visited us. That was nasty! Gotta love those change of seasons and the fun stuff that goes along with it! It's nice to finally have some healthy (and mostly happy) people around me. =)

Casey's car is officially a goner. Is that how "gone-er" is spelled? Either way, it's hit the end of it's days. Its transmission went out and it costs more than the car is worth to get it fix. We've been in mourning. It was a good little car that served us well. Here it is awaiting it's final destination. In the meantime, a friend let us borrow a van for a couple weeks and the kids have LOVED riding around in it. Oh, yes, I feel a van in my future...and so does Casey except he's not excited. =)

Other fun news is that Casey has been provisionally accepted into graduate school, meaning if he passes his student teaching, he's in! We're excited about that. So by this time next year he should almost be done with his Masters and hopefully be teaching Spanish AND Arabic! Hurray! Someone told Casey that he's actually designing the first Arabic curriculum in Idaho so he should expect to get calls from anyone else who wants to teach Arabic from now on! I thought that was pretty exciting. Leave it to Casey to get Idaho on the path to learning Arabic. He loves the language so he's certainly the right one to do it.

And I nearly forgot to let everyone know that two of my sisters and I are starting another blog to share our favorite recipes! It's just barely up and running so no recipes yet, but soon we hope that it'll be a great place to find some great recipes! I've added it to my blog list, You Gotta Taste This. I'm also going to add a link to a tutorial on how to make scripture stickers. My kids love them in their scriptures since they can now find where the scripture stories are in their own scriptures! They're alot of fun!

That gets you pretty caught up! Love you all!

Halloween

We've been sick around here so I'm sorry it's taken so long to finally getting around to posting a picture of us in our halloween costumes. Somehow we didn't get a picture of Sadie so I'll have to post a few more pictures later when I get the ones my aunt took. We had alot of fun!

School Days

Luke and Sadie just got their school pictures back so I thought I'd share. They're still so cute I can't believe how big they are! (I love Luke's toothless smile.)

New Boots

I've been promising Sadie some new boots since she wore her other ones until she couldn't even squeeze her feet in anymore. I saw these and KNEW she'd love them. Purple is her favorite color! She's been wearing them everyday since! I think it's funny since I don't even think I've worn boots since she's been alive!!!

Here comes the Toothfairy!

Yes! Sadie lost her first tooth on Tuesday! This has been a great concern of hers. She did NOT want her teeth to fall out. Grandma thought that was just her vanity speaking and she may just be right! After all, she's seen Luke's toothless smile for awhile now. =) As you can see she was not very excited at first that it came out. (I pulled it out and there was a tiny amount of bleeding involved which nearly ruined her.)
But then I reminded her about the toothfairy and reassured her that all the other kids in her class would be losing teeth too and then it was okay. (You can just see her little tooth on the table.) She spent her "earnings" on a Pocahontas doll so now life is good again!

Happy 7th Birthday Luke!

Luke's birthday was the 13th. I can't believe he's seven already! It won't be long before he's taller than me and scaring me every time I turn around. As you can see he's into Batman and Kung Fu Panda right now as well as everything else "cool" and "for boys". I guess that includes girls since for as much as I tell him he's not to have girlfriends he always comes home telling me who his new one is. He certainly takes after his dad! *grin* He's a really good kid and I'm really proud of him. WE LOVE YOU, LUKE!!!!

Good Hair Day!

So I had a good hair day yesterday and since that doesn't happen very often I thought I'd take a picture of my hair while it actually looked good! I took this picture myself and didn't have Luke telling me to smile so....I forgot. And since this one turned out the best that's just what you get!

Movie Night!

So we had to borrow a digital projector for an activity at the church and since we had it for a few days, we set it up and watched our movies on the "big screen". It was great! The funnest one was probably when we watched the new Barbie movie. The girls were singing and then at the end, when the music video came on, they all started dancing. Except Luke, he started practicing his mime moves. It was a blast as you can see!

And here's a picture so you can actually see our setup with big white sheet and all. We need to get us one of these!

Goin' Swimmin'

If you go to Amy's blog you can read the story about her taking the girls to go feed the ducks. It's pretty funny! Let's just say that Maia got up close and personal with the ducks! She took a head first dive into the water after stepping a little too far into the weeds and went swimming. It was too funny! She looked so pitiful that you couldn't help but laugh. Every time you'd ask her if she went swimming with the ducks she'd just give you a sad "uh-huh". Cute! I'm pretty sure she won't get that close again the next time they go to feed the ducks!

Finally!!!

So I finally got pictures of my haircut. We can thank Luke for the great photography! They might not be the best pictures ever but you get the idea!

And it is longer in the back (for that certain someone who thinks it's too short.....yes, that's you honey!)

Great News!!!!!

It's Casey typing today. No, nothing stupid today. But then "stupid" is a perspective thing. But seriously now. Three weeks ago I had an interview to see if I could teach high school Spanish in Meridian at a school named Renaissance. The administrator was impressed with my resume and the interview and told me that she needed to interview another candidate for the position. Before the interview began she saw my Arabic credentials and was flabbergasted that I was fluent.
I asked if there was a chance to teach Arabic knowing full well that not many are interested. But this school focuses in international politics and medicine (through Idaho State University), and will soon do engineering. She said that Arabic was not an option yet and that it would take a couple of years to get this idea going. This was a typical response that I have heard. She asked if I was fluent in Chinese and I said "yes." She said, "REALLY!?" I said. "No." Then she said "oh..." (Just kidding on the whole Chinese part). Okay, I am "lame." How's that?
But she said that she would come out to observe me and see if I was really a good teacher to do the job. This school is a difficult school to get into so I was kind of nervous.
One person came and said I was great. Then she came when my students were being pulled out of class for testing. It was chaotic!!!!! She asked me if there was anything that I would do different the next time there was so much chaos and I said, "Drink a bottle of Pepto Bismol next time you show up!" She laughed. It was a good sign.
Just today I got a call from her and she said that the Spanish position was going to be filled by someone else and I was sad. But then she asked if I would be on the design team to teach Arabic!!!!! YES! ARABIC!!!! So I did what any normal person would do under the circumstances. I told her my students were taking a test and that I'd call her later, after I accepted the offer.
So everybody give me a big "Yahoo!!" The end.

Life in Crazyland

I can't believe how much I wanted to write about and how I didn't get to ANY of it! It's been seriously crazy. First off, let me start by saying that last Saturday Luke's soccer game was played in the rain and with half his team. I'm guessing they didn't know that they play soccer rain or shine? Anyway, there were no breaks for those poor guys and they lost miserably. It was fun to watch though! Here we are on the sideline.Then Sadie finally got to pick the watermelon she planted and happily ate half of it. It was a small, personal size one and it was really good!

Maia is finally mostly potty trained. She still has some accidents when she can't quite make it to the potty in time but we're actually diaper-free! I still go by the diaper aisle and wonder if we need diapers before I realize we don't use them anymore. I'm not surprised after seven solid years of buying diapers! Wow. Even I can't believe it. It's no wonder we're broke.

I got a haircut. And not just any haircut...Casey didn't even recognize me when he came to pick me up! He really was standing next to me looking for me. I think it's shorter than it's ever been. I'd say it's right below my shoulders and layered. It was just soooo long that I couldn't take it anymore and had it chopped and I love it! Now don't get me wrong, I'm going to let it grow out and it probably won't be this short again but it's a nice change. I'll have to get a picture one of these days when I don't look like a tired, rundown house wife and post it. In other words, maybe tomorrow after I've been away camping! ;)

We had a cat adopt us. I don't know where it came from but it's hung around for quite awhile now and comes running everytime the kids go outside to play or we head out the front door. It's a really nice cat and even lets Maia carry it around nearly choking it to death. We don't know what to name him yet so we're open to suggestions. So far we have Prince Carlos, Snausage, Snowball, Cat and Cloud. Anyway, so if you come over expect to see it!

Other than that it's been isolated incidents of craziness. The other day I looked out my back window and saw two cows in my backyard! Okay, THAT surprised me. Not much does anymore, but that took me off guard! They ate the apples off my trees for awhile and left. Not many people can say that's happened to them so I feel kinda lucky in a weird way. Then they've changed the kids' bus routes and our bus driver seems to keep forgetting to stop here. She drove right past us Wednesday morning and then drove past us again yesterday when she was supposed to drop off Luke. Luke waved as they went by, I waved back and then called the bus place. And the list goes on and on. I needn't bore you or embarrass myself with all the rest but be assured that life is certainly crazy around here. Poor Amy...

Amy's here!

So for those of you who don't know, my sister Amy is staying with us for a little while. She plans on going to BSU and while she tries to figure everything out she'll live with us. My kids couldn't be more excited. Luke was asking me again this morning if Amy was really going to be staying with us and when I told him "yes" he did his little happy dance. It's nice to have her around. I actually have someone to talk to!!! She's already hooked up a wireless router so she can get internet on her laptop,so when Casey gets his he'll be all ready to go too. And since we had family home evening yesterday, she's been officially welcomed to the family (and put to work)! We love you Amy!!!!

Hat's off to Luke Again!

As if I couldn't be any more prouder as a dad with how impressive Luke was with his Spanish, he also amazed us all on the side lines during his soccer game Saturday. In his first game last week, he was unsure what to really do and didn't want to hurt anybody when he was trying to get the ball. He didn't score and was kind of sad he didn't. Yesterday he was the opposite.

During the whole game he gave it his all and was very impressive on the offense. He scored three goals, yep a hat trick, and took out two different kids on a dead sprint toward the goal. One of them was even a slide tackle (which I didn't know he knew how to do). Plus he ran from out of nowhere and booted two balls that were about to cross the goalline out of the area. It was amazing. It wasn't even like any of this was by accident off the back of his head or as if he didn't know where he was. He actually looked great! The assistant coach officially named him MVP of the game. Luke runs around and tells everyone he is the PTA of the game because he can't remember MVP. Here are some pictures.

Here is Luke dancing after he scored a goal.

And to keep him humble he did have to lose something.

His other front tooth is loose also. Soon he will be a hockey player more than a soccer player. But anyways great work Luke! We are proud.

Are you Smarter than an Eighth Grader?

Today I was preparing a PowerPoint lesson for my eighth grade students here at home and I decided to see if Luke could fare better then they could. Let's see how he did.

Still Learning

We had a flower arranging class at our Young Womens activity last night. (Just to clarify for those smart alecks out there, although I AM a young woman, relatively speaking, I am just a leader. OK. Now that that's out of the way....geesh.) I really needed to learn something about flower arranging so I was excited to have a lady come who's actually made alot of money making arrangments. I must be the only one clueless about flowers since I was the only leader making an arrangement but, hey, we all learn at our own pace in life. Now, mind you, this is pretty much my first arrangement EVER so I was quite proud of my novice little attempt. Sadie was proud too. I knew I could count on Sadie!

Canning, Canning and more Canning

Whew! It must be fall because I don't see an end to the canning! I've already done some peaches and two batches of salsa but the peaches just keep coming! We went and worked in the orchard again to help pick peaches and I guess if the peaches fall to the ground they don't want them so I gathered a bunch up and brought them home. They are my project for the day. The peaches on our tree are ready too so today we'll be picking them and then I'll be canning those tomorrow or Wednesday. We have a tree full of plums as well and some apples that are good enough for applesauce so there seems to be no end to my options! That and since Casey has had some of my homemade strawberry jam and loved it, he's afraid that it will run out too fast so I need to make more of that too! Goodness! We'll see if I get to it all! On a side note, anyone have some good recipes for plums? This would be a great time for me to try a few!

The Jaguars

Yes, we've FINALLY signed Luke up for soccer. His team is the Jaguars but since they got their jerseys and they're fire-orange I think the kids were changing it to the Fire Jaguars or something like that. He's had a couple practices and his first game was Saturday. He did pretty well considering it was his first game and they won so that was fun too! It's funny for me to watch him because he's left footed so I'm always expecting his right foot to get in there to the ball and it never does. It throws me off every time! He really liked it but got tired from the running. Here he is with the little "star" of the team. This kid is really good! I guess most of the kids have already been playing for a couple years. Crazy!

Yup, he's #10. Casey and my mom, who know something about soccer, were really excited for that number. I guess it's a good one!

Nicknames

This was a piece of the conversation in the bathroom today.

Casey: Hi Curves!

Katie Belle: NO! I'm Katie Belle!

Casey: Hi Maia!

Maia: NO! I'm Pants on Fiya (fire)!

Just for those who don't know, Katie Belle's nickname is Curvy since she always wanted to be Kirby (the pink pacman looking cartoon character) but she pronounced it "curvy". She happens to be the least curvy of the girls so Casey thought it suited her. It has since evolved into Curves. And Maia has always heard "Maia, Maia pants on fiya" from her dad. I guess she likes it!

Let it be made clear...

Let it be made clear that the following blogs are scewed facts of reality. To the torture question I would rebuttle with why must I be tortured with such long stretches? I become a widower for a month every two years. (Hey! It's only 16 days, not a month.-Coralie) (Women! They don't give up, EVER!-Loser)

Also for the "Shoshone" blog, FYI I have been places. Or can you tell me that Blackfoot doesn't count? That's right, if you have been to one place in Idaho, you've been to 'em all. Also, I was the one who wanted to go to Shoshone falls so as to avoid any negative advertising for the best husband spot on the ballot. It was my dad who was told that there was no water. I actually was for it. My opponent mixes her facts every now and then. But hey, she feeds me (except during the olympics) so I can't complain too much.

A Moment of Silence

Yes...the Olympics are over. Gosh I like the Olympics. Why must I be tortured with such long stretches without them? I'm sure Casey would gladly answer: so I can actually get things done and go to bed at a decent hour, so I can let the kids get to the TV occasionally, so I can update my blog somewhat regularly, so I can remember what it's like to go outside, so I can do something besides live and breathe to watch the Olympics. I personally blame my mother. =) And it won't be long before my kids are trained to do the same! Luke was my faithful Olympics watching companion. He loved learning about the different sports and cheering on OUR team and I love it too! A moment of silence for the end of the Olympics.

Okay, back to life as usual!!! And, as usual, the kids have been up to no good. We cleaned up the back porch and now the kids go outside all the time to ride their bikes and destroy my garden. Ok, that's mostly just Maia in my garden. We also had cousins come over and join us in the fun.

And, yes, that's Maia with all those muscles! Maia found Luke's Wolverine costume and thought she looked pretty good with that physique! That gave me a good laugh!

The First Day of School...The Sadie Saga

By now many of you have heard how Sadie had a hard time with the fact that she had to go to school. Now, she won't admit it but she cried when I left her. Here I present the facts. That morning I woke everyone up to get ready. I've been taking them to school so we all had to be ready. Sadie was excited to put on her new school clothes, put all her supplies in her backpack and get her hair done. Here they all are, as you can see, all is well.

Then we went to school and Sadie realized I wasn't going to stay with her.

I should have taken a picture of Katie Belle screaming too. She DID want to stay and was mad she couldn't! I hope that lasts until next year!

But when Sadie finally came home, she had loved her teacher, made a new friend and told me that she hadn't even cried once! Yeah, AFTER I left maybe! =)

But either way, she likes school now. We have the occasional relapse (like when I told her today she is going to start riding the bus to school...more tears) but mostly she likes it. Luke, on the other hand, almost didn't even say goodbye to me as he ran off to play with his friends! I'm thinking he's good.