Holiays are here!

We have been trying to make time to enjoy the busy holidays. We decorated the house last week and the girls found an old Santa suit, Tadd used for his family party years ago. They stuffed it with pillows (and anything else they could find) to make them as jolly as possible. It's amazing how long you can play with a Santa suit, they tried it on everyone else and finally retired it after 2 hours.

It was Kenya's date with Mom day on Tuesday and she wanted to take her friend Tori (who she aspires to be when she grows up.) We went to the local museum where they host "The festival of trees" They have 12-15 trees, all decorated with different themes. We got hot chocolate and toured the trees, then Kenya wanted to go next door to the furniture store and look at the large tree they had decorated in their window. Of course when we got there, we had to try out all of the recliners and beds, as well as pick our our favorite dining sets and bedroom sets. It was so much fun, we left exhaused and hair standing on end, from all the static electicity we made going from one cushy surface to the next. I hope I always remember to take time for the fun stuff, especially when it's busy.

Thankful for Thanksgiving

We were so blessed this year to spend Thanksgiving day with our dear friends, The Wheeler. We have been friends with them for over 8 years now and they never stop blessing our socks off. Our kids are like siblings (sometimes that's not a good thing) and Billy and Danielle have been such great ministry partners for both Tadd and Charity, as well as great best friends. We can't say it enough. WE LOVE YOU WHEELERS!!!!!
It has become our thanksgiving tradition that the kids (with Billy narrating) act out the Pilgrims story, complete with Pilgrim hats and Indian head dresses, all made by the kids of course. Here are a couple pictures from out reinactment. We hope you all had a blessed holiday with your family and friends, with many more to come.

We had a fun Veteran's day, we got to the school for the Veteran's Day Assembly and the kids enjoy hearing the choir and seeing them honor the veteran's as they tell where and when they served. The boys got to walk in the parade with their Boyscout and Cubscout troops. It was very cold but they didn't mind because they provided cookies and hot cocoa for the parade participants before hand.

Kenya found the play doh we keep around the house for when younger kids come over and she started baking up a storm, (figurativly speaking of course) she made a cake for Dad's birthday in December, some donuts with paper sprinkles and some brownies with paper towel frosting. No cookies cutter shapes for this girl.

The kids have an art class at a local gallery and they make fun crafts like these masks, mom loves having them do something she is not in charge of, that way thier art peices always surprise her too.

Grub and Games

We had a fun harvest party at church on the 31st. Kenya dressed up as Cleopatra, Annecy went as Tina Turner and Elijah was Bo Bo Fet (the bounty hunter in Star Wars). We had a crock pot soup pot luck and lots of booths with games and plenty of candy. The kis had lots of fun and coming down off the sugar high the next day was not quite as fun but well worth it. Hope you had a great one as well.

Feildtrips and P.E. fun

We have a group we do fun games and sports with, one of the mom's set up a scavenger hunt through a corn maze at a local nursery. The kids found the money prizes as well as a couple bags of candy. Isaiah did not want to dress up, but Kenya came up with the idea to be a garbage bag. Elijah was a frog and Annecy was a chimney sweep.

We also got to go on an all day long feildtrip to an indian reservation that showed us all of the things their tribes did 100's of years ago and some of the people still practice today. Here are some pictures of some of the stations. Below is a picture of a man who skins animals and turns it into leather, then his wife makes it into indian dresses and chaps. He is scraping the fur off a deer hide.

Below is a picture of Elijah throwing an "Alilel". The indians figured out that you can throw a spear or arrow much farther and faster if you use an Alilel to flick the arrow off the end of a stick (alilel)

Below is a picture of the kids planting some plants native to the area the indians live in.

Below is a picture of the kids racing each other at their favorite station. (I am not sure what this had to do with indians but oh well) Solar Powered race cars.

Below is a picture of the indians doing some of their native dances that explain the area around where they live.

This is a picture of the kids in a hand carved canoe.

Hand made Tee Pee out of dried reeds.

Festivals, Family and Feildtrips

Charity got a chance to get together with all 6 of her sisters this last week. They all met in Seattle and spent the night, since all of them were flying in from different areas. The next day was spent at Pike's Place in Seattle, where they posed in front of the Famous Gum Wall. They spent the rest of the weekend staying in the farmhouse at the Lavender farms in Sequim. It was so much fun and so nice to do nothing but hang and catch up.

Before she left though she had to earn her mini vacation with 3 feildtrips packed into one week. First they went to the Fish Hatchery and watched how they kill the mature salmon to harvest their eggs and "fertilizer" Isaiah and Elijah's favorite part was when they hit the salmon over the head with the aluminum bat. :( The guys were so great there and really let the kids have a truly "hand on" experience. I had not picture my kids ever handling so many poped out eye balls, followed by handfuls of slippery salmon eggs. They all got to feed the babyfish and loved to watch them jump like crazy for their food. It was so much fun for the kids and they actually did learn a lot.

The next day we got to go to a beaver habitat that a college student was studying to write her thesis on. She was so great at letting the kids ask questions and bringing lots of props for them to play with. Below, Isaiah has a rubber replica of a beaver foot and he is trying to figure out why they have only one toenail on one foot that is purposly split down the middle. (it is so they can use it like a comb). Kenya is holding the skull of a beaver and learning why their 2 front teeth are orange colored. (cause they are an iron calcium mix, so they don't break as easily) Annecy is holding the outer layer of beaver fur (who knew they had 2 layers). The college student told the kids to look for clues that we were getting close to the beaver dam. The clues were; beaver tracks, beaver smells and chewed on wood. Elijah took this search very seriously and ended up collecting and saving all of the chewed on wood peices he found.

Lastly, the day after Charity got back from her Sisters weekend, we took on 4 more kids for the week as our friends "The Wheelers" were headed out of town. If Charity learned anything from her mom having 10 kids, its that the more worn out they are the less you notice they are there. So she did her best to wear them out over the weekend. Friday was quarter swim at the pool, so with 10 kids in tow, she went to swim lessons, followed by 2 more hours in the pool, home for dinner and some very tired kids to bed. The next morning was football and soccer games followed by a harvest party at a local company's farm. The kids got cupcakes at the cupcake walk followed by donuts at the "bobing for donuts" station and all wrapped up with a couple runs through the hay obstacle course. It almost seemed like having 8-10 kids at one time may not be such a challenge after all! JUST KIDDING! I think we may survive and be ready for another vacation by next week.

Desperate to Dress Up

We took a trip to goodwill the other day and they had all of their halloween stuff out, so of course Kenya and Annecy could not reisist using their hard earned money to buy some much desired wigs they saw on sale. When we got home they used their play make up and wigs to transfom themselves into a Tina Turner look alike (even though Annecy has no idea who she is) and a messed up version of snow white. Then as if that was not enough they moved on to giving Mom and Elijah a "make over" as well. We never knew how much Elijah and Kenya looked alike until we dressed up Elijah as a brunette with lots of make up. We had lots of fun, but I am not sure it is something mom wants to repeat anytime soon. I wish we could say the same for Elijah.

Rodeo'in and Racing around

Wow, I never thought I woul be eager for my kids to get driver's licenses, especially at this age. After spending now 2 Tuesday's racing them around to all of their sporting events and clubs, I have to say I am counting down the days till they can do it themselves. Our weekly Tuesday routine goes something like this. Isaiah soccer 3:30-5:00, Girls Gymnastics 5:15, Elijah Football 5:30, Isaiah home for dinner and change into scout uniform 5:45, Pick up girls from Gymnastics 6:15, drop of Isaiah at scouts 6:30, Pick up Elijah from football 7:00, home for dinner, pick up Isaiah from scouts 8:00, fill up with gas now cause were on "E" and head home to calapse before putting kids to bed and cleaning up the mess we made as we trafficed in and out all day. What a crazy evening, but the reward comes after all the kids crash out early and I get to hang with my hubby.

Here are some pictures of the boys at their games on Saturday, they both won by a long shot, which really helped boost their egos for the rest of the season. Elijah is in his practice gear by the tree and his game gear on the field. You'll have to wait for the girls pictures, somehow with my tuesday night schedule I did not find time to take pictures of them.

Grandpa treated us to the legendary Ellensburg Rodeo. It was our very first one and we had so much fun. Tadd thinks he could be a good competitor in the "Wild cow milking" competition next year. Guess we will have to wait and see. We are enjoying the last of the summer nights. One of the kids favorite things to do is sit out on the porch and roast hot dogs for dinner, followed by a desert of smores. We love being able to hang out without getting rained out. The eastside of the mountains has treated us well.