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!