Family Pics!

I've been meaning to take our family pictures for a month now, but it just hasn't ever worked out! Until today! The sun was shinning and everyone was home, so I asked Lacy to come over and take some pics of us! Of course the kids never cooperate perfectly, but I put our new pic on and here are some silly pics of the kids I took. If your wondering what Zach and Elora are doing, they are saying Cheeseburger. Not the best word to say while you are trying to take a picture! But at least Danika is smiling a little!





In this pic Danika is having lots of fun with Elora's Hair! Elora is getting away as fast as she can! It was soo funny!

From the last post Amy D. asked how far we live from Chehalis. To answer we live 20 miles from Chehalis. And a little update is that there really were over 3,000 volunteers from 16 surrounding Stakes that came to help flood victims today! It's so amazing that that many people came and that they were able to organize that many people (which they did beautifully)! Our church is Amazing!

Floods of Life!

So, we've been kind of busy lately. First, Pete's parents passed the final inspection on their house that they've been building next door!! So Ken and Julie and Ben and Lacy all moved into the new house!!Yippee!! (no offense ken, Julie, Ben and lacy:)) (In case you don't know. They have been living in our house for the last 2 years) It's so nice to have our own house and I know they feel the same. he he. So we've been moving all their stuff over and rearranging all of our stuff.

In the midst of moving we had this BIG HUGE storm up here in the NW! It dumped about 6 in of rain on us within 48 hours. And that was after we had already had 2 storms that had thoroughly drenched us. You probably saw it on the news. It was so crazy though because a landslide knocked out our Internet and that's where we get all our news from because we don't get any TV stations out here without a dish and we don't have a dish. So our family had no idea that half of our stake was being flooded out of their homes. We found out about a day later when Ken (who is the Bishop of our ward) got a call from our Stake President. It's just so amazing to me that we were so close to all the damage and had no idea what was going on. So, in our little town we only had a few problems with to much water coming down the river that goes through town. But they are nothing compared to the damage in Chehalis and Centraila. Here are some good pics I found in the news. This is the I 5 FWY in Centraila. The Goodwill Thrift Store is about 5 blocks down the street. (needless to say I've gotten off this exit many times). Oh, these pics were taken on Tuesday Dec 4th.

This is also the I 5 FWY a few miles South of the last pic. In this area the water was 10 ft deep on the FWY. you can see the water goes right up to the roof of the big buildings on the Left of the picture. In the upper left of the pic it's all residential. Crazy! The latest report is that there is only a few inches of water on the fwy now so they have it opened to one lane and they are only letting supply trucks through. So crazy! Can you tell I having a hard time believing all this has really happened! The good news is that our Stake was hoping for 1,000 volunteers from other stakes to come help tomorrow (sat) . But the recent report is that over 3,000 people are coming! Amazing!

Elfed!

Tara emailed this to me and I thought it was sooooo funny so I had to do it to. Click on the link to find out what I'm talking about! It does take a minute to load, but it's worth the wait!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9611230831

The Big 6!

I just have to say that Pete is Awesome!! Pete made this cake for Zach! Since Zach has started school he has learned about Pokemon. He has never watched a Pokemon movie or show, but he loves them and he wanted a Pokemon cake for his b-day. So Pete came up with this! Zach loved it of course!

This is Zach opening a Pokemon movie from Matt and Mandy! He was quite excited!
Here is Elora, Lacy (behind the wrapping paper), Ben, Danika, Matt and Mandy enjoying the party.
When Zach opened this present Elora yelled out "You've got a new car!!!" It was a cool kit to build your own truck with wood pieces (that have pre-drilled holes) and screws! Soo perfect for Zach who is always trying to build things!
So, Zach had a good b-day party!

Elora Singning!

Elora is always singing! All day! About everything she is doing! As I am typing this, she is singing about how Danika is 'posed to go to sleep to the tune of Hi-HO the cherrio (that's how she says it). So I figured it was time to record some of her favorite songs and share them. I love to see the Temple has been one of her favorites for about 2 years now, so she actually does know both the verses and always has to help me remember which verse comes first.

More Singing Elora

This song is dedicated to Grandpa Tim (since this song is about Tiny Tim).

In case you can't understand Elora and you don't know this song, it goes like this;

I have a little turtle.

His name is Tiny Tim.

I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim.

He drank up all the water.

He ate up all the soap.

Now he's sick in bed, with bubbles is his throat.

Bubble, bubble, bubble.

Bubble, bubble, bubble.

Bubble, bubble, bubble......... POP!

Happy Halloween!

Elora was a pretty princess this year! She wouldn't even think about being anything else! Aunt Lacy gave her a princess hairdo. When we were getting ready to go she started to take off her dress. She was so excited when she realized that she could wear her outfit to the party and trick or treating.

Zach was a tough cowboy with spurs and everything.
Danika was raggedy Ann of course. She is such a cute little doll!
I dressed up like Lucille Ball, (minus the red hair) I even had a cool hat! But somehow no one took my pic. Oh well! Pete went as a working dad (which means he didn't dress up)!

We all had a good time even though we are all sick with snotty colds. The weather wasn't too cold this year and tons of people showed up for trunk or treating. The cultural hall was completely full during dinner!

Carving pumpkins

On Sat. Matt & Mandy came over to carve pumpkins and frost cookies with us. It was a fun day, Zach and Elora especially had a good time. There were some really creative cookies too, but I forgot to take pics of them! So here are the pics of all the pumpkins!

Here is Miss Elora on the 60 lb pumpkin that Uncle Ben grew in our garden this year! It is huge and heavy!
Here is Miss Elora again with the pumpkin that she "carved" and painted!
Here is Zach with his pumpkin that I helped him carve and that he painted all by himself. It is pretty scary!
Here is our mess we made carving all the huge pumpkins from our garden. The big pumpkin on the table is the 60 lb one.
Here is the cute pumpkin that I "carved"!

Carved Pumpkins

Here are our carved pumpkins! There were even 2 pumpkins that didn't get carved or decorated! Almost all of them were from our garden.

Dancin'

I know what everyone is thinking! Aquabats!?

Anyway, the kids love this CD. Danika even dances to it!

Danika

So, I tried to take some "good" pics of Danika for her 1 year pics. She wasn't cooperating very well, so this is what I got. Every time she would smile she just had to wave her arms violently. So that is why I have ONE picture of her smiling (you will note her arms are blurry). She had a super-cute smile! But you all will just have to take my word on that! Maybe by her 18 month old pics she will have grown out of her happy arm swinging thing!! In the first pic she is eating a leaf, because she ALWAYS has to have something in her mouth! ALWAYS!

Danika's One!

Danika had her 1st B-day yesterday! She went right for the cards and didn't even look at the presents! And she didn't try to open the cards, she just carried them around.
Elora helped her open her presents though so, they all got opened one way or another. Her favorite was the balloon that Nana sent in the card that she was carrying around.

If you can't tell from the picture, she really is shoving cake up her nose. I'm not sure why, she doesn't normally do that with her food. Maybe it was all just so overwhelming that she forgot herself! Or maybe she was just being a one year old!
But, she did still seem to enjoy her cake!

Halloween Socks!

I just had to show off these super- cute Halloween socks they have at Target in their $1 bins!

Raggedy Danika?

This is my cute Danika! And this is what she would look like if she had hair!!! It's so funny, she loves wearing this raggedy Ann hair. She runs (since she runs everywhere she goes now) up to me and thrusts the hair at me. Which, in Danika language means "will you please put this on me?". She is quite the funny little character.

Elora's first day of School!

So, I've been meaning to post this picture all week, but between kids being sick, the laundry, Danika, taking kids to the bus stop or to school because we miss the bus, and everything else life brings, I haven't been able to post it until now!
This is Elora's first day of preschool picture!
This was Elora's first week of school. She has only been 2 out of 4 days because she got sick. But those 2 days she has loved!!
I made that silly headband for her to keep her hair out of her eyes (I'm letting her bangs grow out), and she absolutely loves it! Se will not let me fix her hair any other way!

Frist day of school!

I can't believe the day has come that I am sending
my little boy to school! Today was Zach's first day of
full day kindergarten! He is even riding the bus home!
It was harder then I thought it would be to leave him
in the care of complete strangers for the whole day.
I am totally turning into my mom! That is something
I said I would never do. I also realize, now that I have
my own children, that becoming my mom isn't such a
bad thing after all. I seemed to turn out all right, even
after all the "horrible" things my mom did to us. Like
not let us ride our bikes across town and not let us stay
up late on school nights! And if you can believe it, my
mom actually made me do my homework before I
could watch TV! Terrible, awful, horrible mom!! I'm so
glad I have my mom as an example!

Rock Star Baby!

This is my rock star baby! Danika loves this toy! She rocks out to it all day long. She hasn't figured out how to push the button to turn on the music yet, so instead she throws it on the floor and "asks" (or yells) for someone to turn it on. She is so funny!

Walking!

Danika is now 10 months old and she started walking last week. I'm not really surprised since she started standing up, by herself, in the middle of the room when she was 7 months old. She didn't seem to realize that she could use the furniture to stand up. So, here she is walking!

New Mayor?

So, the vote is in! Ken Smith made it past the preliminary vote with the most votes! Now, on to the final vote for Mayor! For all of you who aren't family and have no idea what I'm talking about. My father-in-law is running for mayor in our town and the preliminary vote results just came out tonight. It's an exciting thing for our small town that needs some new management.

Summer Fun

Elora and Danika Wearing the swimsuits that Grandma Laurie made for them.
Bonnie and Makella came to visit us for a week. The Girls had fun playing in the pool together.
We had fun taking Bonnie around our area. We went to the beach with just the girls(and Zach). We went to some shops, had lunch and then just sat on the beach and relaxed.
We also took Bonnie to the SW WA Fair. We saw all the animals and exibits and Zach and Elora went on this boat swing ride. Elora LOVED it! Zach wasn't too sure about it at first. He's so silly! We had lots of fun! Thanks for coming Bonnie and Makella!

Danika's Silly Face

Danika is so funny! She has been making this silly "snorty face" . It's so funny when she does it! She had the people sitting behind us at church laughing out loud in the middle of sacrament because of her "snorty face". Soooo Funny! Oh, she also loves to growl as you can tell from this video.

Beauty all Around

I just had to share this beautiful sunset we had on Monday! We have had rain for a week straight. So it was perfect that this sunset signaled the end of the rain! It has been sunny since! (This is the view from our front porch! I love our porch!)

More Vacation!

So, I know that I already uploaded this picture! But it's not there and I don't want Nick and Rachel to feel left out, so here are Codee, Nick and Rachel! (and Grandma Lowe in the background! Silly girl!)

I just have to say that we had tons of fun in CA! (Thanks again Mom & Dad for letting us take over your house for a week) Every day since we've been home Zach has asked "I really liked it at CA. When can we go again?" I also need to send a special thanks to Aunt Wendy, who spent the time and had the patience to get Zach used to the water! This was a major accomplishment! Thank You Wendy!! Zach has been telling everyone that he can swim now! He is quite proud of himself!

Vacation Time!

We headed for CA for a week long vacation. The kids did really well on the two day drive.


















We were able to visit with my family. It was the first time in a few years that all of us siblings were together, so of course we had to take pictures.

Here is Joe and Lindsey.

We got a pic of all the kids (Amy is still a kid because she isn't married! hehe).

L to R is Codee, Elora, Zachary, Amy holding Danika.

Amy and Josh Brice

Here are all of Tim and Laurie's kids and grandkids! Our family is getting bigger!

Here is everyone that was at my parents houe that day, including my grandma and pa Gilsen, Grandma Lowe and Aunt Sheryl along with all the rest of us. We had a lot of fun this trip. We were able to go to the beach and go swimming (I will post those pics latter, I took them with my film camera). We also were able to spend time with Pete's sister Wendy and her husband Ben. The kids had tons of fun. The night before we left Zach told me he was crying a little because he was so sad to leave. Funny kids!

Pete, Danika, Zachary, Leah and Elora (and my mom in the background).

Happy 4th of July!!

WE had a 3rd of July party with Matt, Mandy and Jacquie, with fireworks and a BBQ and 3 deserts to choose from. Way, way too much food! Jacquie (Mandy's mom) even made a flag cake.


The kids had fun (I think?) he he. Every year Zach has to wear grandpa's ear thingies. But this year was even more exciting than just the loud fireworks because one of them actually fell in our laps (burning a few small holes in grandma's quilt). After that Zach watched from inside and Elora wouldn't come out from under her blanket. All this time Danika was sound asleep upstairs. She can sleep through almost anything! By the way, you might think it was cold because of the blankets, it was actually about 70 degrees. I was quite comfortable in my Capri's and t-shirt. Silly kids! Pete, Ben and Matt were practicing their archery skills.

Last year we built a fire pit in our yard. So this year I made benches with little flower beds next to them around the fire pit. They turned out nice and sturdy, they don't even wobble when you jump on them. And I didn't spend any money on them! The legs are from an old cherry tree we cut down and the seat is just some old wood that was laying around! The daisy's next to Elora are some wild daisy's I transplanted. Our yard is really turning into the yard I envisioned when we moved in. I need to post some pics of our yard. We are really enjoying it this year (instead of fighting with it like we were in the past)!