Look what my daughter made me!

So every year I have been able to get my kids Santa picture done. Most years it was at the same Santa setup. Jennie took all of the pictures and made a quilt out of them. This picture doesn't do the quilt justice so you will have to come to my house to see it :)

Thank you Jennie! You rock!

Disneyworld 2009

The pictures say it all!

Thanksgiving

This year was a bit different for us. We got to go up to Sequim with Donna & Laif. It was fun that much of the family was able to be there. Donna & Janet set a beautiful table!

Good food and lots of company! The only sad part was that Rachael got really sick and wasn't able to come over for Thanksgiving dinner. Lucky for her she was at her parents house so she had some good company. Michael did a great job with the kids though.

The "Kids table" It is fun to see the next group of kids growing up.

How cute is Hazel!!!

Anna loved playing with Hazel. Anna is such a polite young lady. I love her smile and the happiness she brings!

In our family of men it is rarely the "Thanksgiving Day football game" but rather the Thanksgiving Day video game

This is such a great shot. The kids are looking at the video game but they are standing in front of this beautiful quilt that Donna made.

Cousins, Cousins, Cousins

Scout Rocket Blasts

Our Scout troops have been working on their Space Exploration merit badge and as part of that they went to Flaming Geyer Park to launch them off. The only problem was that someone forgot to open the gates to the park!

After being stranded for over 1/2 hour the Scoutmaster walked into the park and found someone who came and unlocked that gate. (I think someone over slept..............)

So the boys got right to setting up for the launch and really seemed to have a good time.

Erik & Eric off to launch their rockets together

The "Erik(c)'s rockets set to go. On the first launch it went really well. On the 2nd launch Erik's disappeared and he could find it for a long time. Everone was watching Eric's because it went so high and then nobody saw were Erik's went. Finally after we were eating lunch then Erik found his closer to the river.

There were so many people here. The weather was chilly but great for the launch.

Of course nothing like some food to finish it off. The Jacobsens brought Hotdogs, chips & hot chocolate! Way to go Jacobsens!

Christmas? You have to been kidding

So I have been in traveling a lot this week to Dallas, Atlanta & Detroit. While in Detroit I found a radio station that is playing nothing but Christmas music!! I thought, oh, it couldn't be here already could it. I want my 2 weeks before Thanksgiving first!. So I was looking at old pictures of last year. I thought about how much had changed in my house and the first thing is that I have a new kitchen! So goodbye to these countertops and canisters, I can't wait to do my Christmas baking in the new kitchen :)

One thing I hope does change from last year is the weather. Oh what a long, cold, snowy, blizzardy winter we had. I don't mind a little snow but that was ridiculous..........

So here's to happy baking, fun holidays and NO SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So bad about bloggin...

I never seem to take the time to put up anything on the blog anymore! We really goofed off all summer and did very little on the house. Today we were taking out a couple of old stumps. One might think this log that Kent was carrying was heavy but it was so light weight you wouldn't believe it. This stump has been decomposing for years and it is like a sponge. We are just trying to do a few projects around the house. Painting the front porch, nailing up the molding, installing the water line for the fridge and moving the gas stove back in place. The last item cost us a bit of money... We moved it last weekend on a dolly and didn't realize that some of the logs in the stove were loose and very very heavy. We broke the glass door and so that was a $120 move... Such is life.

On the way to Eagle

Start by creating a plan..........

Gather a few dozen donuts

Sit and ponder a while...........




Gather 25 of your great friends...........

Find an overgrown park..........

With too many bushes and plants...........

find a beautiful summer day, put in some serious work.........

Use lots of tools, drink water and donated soda and.........

Yyou have a work of art and the major portion of an Eagle project done! Way to go Erik!

Weekend in Utah

So over Labor Day weekend we went to SLC to visit with Mike, Jennie & Sophie. We to South East Utah to do some hiking and visit a museum. We hiked in Moab and saw such beautiful sites. It's hard to imagine just how diverse the earth is. It was a great weekend as Scott also came down to join us. We had so much fun having all of our kids together for the weekend!

This is Delicate Arch in the Arches National Park. It was 1 1/2 miles up to this point. That was a bit hard for us older chubby folks but the rest of the gang did fine. There really was only one steep part but it was pretty hot so that made it more challenging.

Scott held the place together for us.

This is a shot of "windows" it is an area that has 2 different windows through the rocks. This one was a lot closer to the parking lot :)

County Fair Fun

We often like to find a small county fair and hang out. This time we went to one in Lacy Washington (near Olympia) It was a nice little fair but it got way too hot by 3 PM.

There was a group of girls doing a gymnastics show. It was fun to watch and reminded me of Jennie.

We also like to watch the kids race their horses.

What fair would be complete without the mama pig and her hungry babies!

A bit of traveling

We did a bit of weekend running around. We went up to Mt. Rainer just because. We always forget how long it takes to get up there. It's about 2 1/2 hours to get to Paradise but it was really nice up ther. At 10 A.M. it was already about 80 degrees though

We took a very short walk up the hill, there were so many wild flowers out it was just beautiful.

This is the new visitors center. We really weren't that impressed compared to the old one. It was kind of a disappointment.

Tragedy at a friends house

A good friend of mine's home caught on fire today! The house is a total loss but everyone including all the pets got out safe.

There is very little that I can do to help other than lend a listening ear. The family has good insurance so that is good news for them also. Please keep the Hillestad family in your prayers!