This is our Christmas Eve Picture.
Andrew is Coloring his Menchies Shirt Christmas Eve. He is quite the ham.

The Nelson's Crashing Seattle.

We went to Seattle to the Pacific Science Center to see the Harry Potter Exhibit, we had fun but couldn't take any pictures of the Harry Potter stuff.

We found our perfect Christmas Tree.

Brian was so tired in the car...

Wendy with one of the Twins(Beck), at Thanksgiving in Portland, OR.

Preparing Thanksgiving at Nelson's house in Oregon.

Brian's 5th Birthday Cake, yum, Trains and bugs and Fondant oh my!

Brian openning one of his gifts from Dad. Criss-Cross-Crash!!!

Eric and Bono, our Bearded Dragon.

Happy Birthday Wendy

Below are some questions that I asked the children about their mother in July 2009 and then followed up in October 2010 for comparisons. It is quit fun.

Impressions of Mom

What is something your mom always says to you?

July 2009
E-I love you
R- Rachel, Come here
A-Umm, clean up
B- Go to sleep

October 2010
E- I love you
R-Is your homework done yet?
A-Go to bed, its time for bed
B-Stay with me


What makes your mom happy?

July 2009
E-She likes suprises that are like chores
R- Doing chores without being asked
A- Cleaning up
B- Don’t break stuff

Oct. 2010
E- Lots of sleep
R-When I do my homework without being asked
A-Hug and kiss her
B-Loving


What makes your mom sad?

July 2009
E- When we don’t do chores
R- Being Wii sick
A-Hurting Brian
B-Doing something bad

Oct. 2010
E-Evil People
R-Not doing my homework
A-Me punching her in the eye (Have you done that before?) –No, but that is something
B-Hurting


How does your mom make you laugh?

July 2009
E-The problem is I don’t laugh often, (more probing) she does something silly
R- Playing Monopoly games
A-Tickling me
B- Being happy and I laugh

Oct. 2010
E-Sarcasticly funny jokes
R-By eating pie
A-Tickling Me
B-Tickle


What did your mom like to do when she was a child?

July 2009
E-Ride her bike
R- I guess I have to say wrestle with her brother John
A-Dancing with music on
B-Be happy to me

Oct. 2010
E- She played with airplanes and mermaids
R-Think about boys, you should see her journal
A-I don’t know. . . um. . . play!? With her friends
B-Loving


How old is your mom?

July 2009
E-very old -35
R- 34
A-22
B-23

Oct. 2010
E-35 years of age (asked on her Birthday)
R-35(asked on her Birthday)
A- 37, wait no I think it is 34 (this was asked two days before her 35th birthday)
B-I don’t know, I think its 31, no wait I remember, 34(also asked two days before her 35th birthday)


How tall is your mom?

July2009
E- A little taller than me and I’m tall
R- About 7 feet
A- Bigger than me
B- 16

Oct. 2010
E-She is taller than dad
R-Taller than you (speaking to dad)
A-about. . .35inches
B-this big (as he stretches his arms from the ground to as high as he could reach)


What is her favorite thing to do?

July 2009
E-She loves, I repeat loves to eat chocolate. Be with us an make us happy
R- Be with her family
A-Playing board games, she likes to clean up
B- Being happy

Oct. 2010
E-Read
R-Making me do my homework
A-Play games with me
B-Love me


What does your mom do when you're not around?

July 2009
E- She reads and she kisses Daddy
R- Go shopping
A-Play a board game, and cries when I was in kindergarten first
B- Play puzzle piece

Oct. 2010
E-She eats chocolate cake and yummy foods that I don’t ever get to eat
R-Read
A-Work
B-Find me


If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

July 2009
E-She will be famous for her scrumptious delectable pizza
R- For excellent reading
A-Good at singing
B-Mommy can be with dad

Oct. 2010
E-Her Pizza
R-Being ordinary and tallish
A-Being friendly
B-(shoulder shrug) Loving


What is your mom really good at?

July 2009
E- She is really good at making us kids happy and cleaning up
R- Helping me when I get really hurt
A-Singing
B- Uh cleaning the dishwasher

Oct. 2010
E-Making food
R-Hmm. . .She is really good at taking care of me
A-Loving me, and loving dad
B-Making pictures


What is your mom not very good at?

July 2009
E-Reading fast
R- Playing baseball
A-Let me think . . . I don’t know . . .cleaning a lot –so we have to help her
B-Playing Leapster

Oct. 2010
E-Spelling
R-Buying me silly bands
A-Running fast, I’m really fast, faster than mom
B-Painting hearts on the wall


What does your mom do for her job?

July 2009
E- She takes care of us kids
R-Take care of me and my brothers
A- Doing the laundry
B- Get to work

Oct. 2010
E- She does not have a job, she is a mommy
R-Stays home and uh takes care of me and makes me do homework
A-Work with Eric, and help me to do math stuff
B-Clean up! Clean up!


What is your mom's favorite food?

July 2009
E- Chocolate
R- Oh my goodness that’s a tough one . . .she loves everything
A- Lasagna
B- Apples

Oct. 2010
E-Provolone cheese (really?) yeah, everyones favorite food is provolone cheese
R-Chinese Food and Pizza
A-Hamburgers? I’m guessing this
B-Everything

If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

July 2009
E-Taz . . . sometimes
R-Hmm what gets cold easily? . . . A penguin because without all the coats they would be freezing
A-Phineus
B-One that you like . . . at a baseball game

Oct. 2010
E-Thomas the Tank Engine
R-An angel
A-This is going to be way too hilarious. . . um. . .the flexigirl on mister incredibles
B-(shoulder shrug . . . question again) herself


What do you and your mom do together?

July 2009
E- We go buy bakagon. (after some probing) –Watch wipeout
R- Go to the Library and shopping
A-Play board games with Rachel, playing monopoly
B- Hug and kisses

Oct. 2010
E-Shop for cool stuff
R-We talk about stuff and things
A-Games and puzzles and oh yeah flashlight hide-and-go-seek
B-Love


How are you and your mom the same?

July 2009
E- We have brown hair, we both love chocolate and we know we have to save our money sometimes.
R- We are both girls, we both like to go shopping
A-Because we are persons
B- a’cause we can be happy

Oct. 2010
E-We both like airplanes at one time
R- We are both girls
A-We both are people
B-We love each other


How are you and your mom different?

July 2009
E-I have telekinesis power, and can read peoples mind and tell the future. (after telling him not to be silly) I am younger, she is older, I am a boy and she is a girl. She likes more foods than me
R- Mom has brown hair, I have dark blonde
A-Because I am a boy and she is a girl
B-Mommy and daddy can go shopping

Oct. 2010
E- I am fat and mommy is not
R-I have blonde hair, she doesn’t. She has brown hair
A-She’s a girl and I am a boy
B-Not being married




How do you know your mom loves you?

July 2009
E-She makes us happy and plays games with us and try to make us happy in all the ways she can
R- Because she gives me food clothing and a shelter. And she says she loves me
A-Because she kisses me
B- Because I can give momma kisses

Oct. 2010
E-Cause she says it every day and every night and I hear it a lot so I think she’s kinda got it drilled into my head
R-Cause she tells me every night
A-She’s my mom
B-That’s ‘cause I love her


What does your mom like most about your dad?

July 2009
E- Your athletic and do stuff when she needs help
R-The way he is kind and lovable
A-Big and strong
B- Give kisses to you

Oct. 2010
E-Daddy is so strong, he could probably knock down one of the walls of our house
R-That he is so handsome and cute
A-Its his husband
B-Kissing


Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

July 2009
E- The New China buffet
R-Megan’s house maybe. . . I don’t know, that would be my first guess
A-the restraunt - - the Chinese buffet
B- Grandma and Grandpa’s house (which grandma and grandpa) my grandma and grandpa

Oct 2010
E-She likes to go to Hawaii cause its pretty
R-Home
A-To the pizza place, what was it called?
B-The fair


Where is your mom’s favorite place to vacation?

July 2009
E Oooooh that one is tricky. I am going to have to go with going to her Mom and Dad’s house
R-That’s a hard one. . . to reunions
A-Go to her grandma and grandpa’s house
B- Go shopping

Oct. 2010
E-Anywhere with you dad, obviously
R-Probably anyplace warm like Hawaii or Mexico or Southern California
A-Um I think, oh, Hawaii
B-Puyallup


What makes you proud of your Mom?

July 2009
E- I can always look up to her in times of need and get answers and look to her for an example
R-For being such a good Mom
A- Being nice
B- Tickle me

Oct. 2010
E-Mommy is super nice and she does awesome stuff
R-She understands me a lot and shes a good mom
A-When I am playing baseball. (re-questioned and explained the meaning) That she is my mom and nobody else’s
B-Loving her

Rachel's Birthday Party

We had a great time in February with Rachel's birthday. Below are some of the pictures from a scavenger hunt/Amazing Race that we set up for Rachel and her two best friends. The boys of course tagged along as well.
I didn't get all the pictures in yet but thought I'd get some commentary on the photos I did get in

One 0f the clues led them to the OR (my workplace) where they had to don blue scrubs that I wear everyday at work. Here they are sitting on an OR table.


This is with their masks up. I got a hilarious response when I asked them all to "say cheese" and after doing so, they realized that it was completely unnecessary - how silly am I?

Brian kind of looked like a blue bozo the clown in this picture, had to put it up.

This was probably one of the more difficult tasks for the children. They had to each eat a fried jalepeno pepper while at the food court in the local mall.

Brian captured the moment quite well, but they were all very good about trying something for the prize at the end of the race.

Another stop was the local "taco bus" as we call it. Of course the girls are not big mexican food fans so at first they didn't want to have to eat lunch here, but they eventually warmed up to it. We got them quesidillas that they loved and a drink call or horchata which is like a cinnamon/almond milk that the kids couldn't get enough of

This is inside the bus. The last third of the bus is the kitchen and the first two-thirds is the dining area that is lined with the thin counter that the kids are sitting at below.

Our final destination was Menchies. It is a frozen yogurt shop that has a do it yourself area where you mix whatever yogurt you want, put whatever toppings you want and then pay by weight.

Hopefully I can get some more photos up later, but this week is looking bad for blogging. I still have Eric's birthday as well . . . I can't believe I actually have a bona fide teenager now !

Master Bathroom Remodel

Before and After Pictures of the Bathroom Model.

We remodeled our master bathroom this last year. I've loaded the before and after pictures. If you click on the pictures you can see them as larger photos. This is mostly for Dad and Mom since they are about to remodel their bathroom.

Before

This shows that we had carpet in our bathroom, can you believe it?

Nice lighting behind you when you are looking in the mirror

Notice that there are no drawers only the under sink cupoboard. It was awful, the only place we could put things was in the medicine cabinet on the right side of this picture

The shower needed help too, since it had leaked again and we had replace the ceiling underneath for the fourth time.

After

Our new shower with tile from floor to ceiling.

A cute boy and a tile (instead of carpet floor)

Notice all the cupboards and drawers now. We love it. This is also a granite counter which probably what Dad and Mom really wanted to see.

More of the granite.

Hope this helps. We love it.

Boy Scouts Aviation Outing

Aviation with the Boy Scouts

As most of you may or may not know, I am the assistant Scout Master/Deacons Quorum Advisor. Today we were treated to go to McChord AFB and Thun Field to help the boys complete their aviation merit badge. We started in the AFB control tower which was a lot of fun. We learned how they control planes coming in and out and how landing/departing runways are named. I didn't have a memory card at the time so there are no pictures of that.

Below is some of the pictures from Thun Field, the airstrip in Puyallup. We did a pre-flight inspection on the Cessna below. That is Eric in the pilot's seat, Matthew is co-pilot and Duncan is the passenger.

Part of the pre-flight instruction with Bro. Vance the merit badge counselor.

This was at McChord where we got to go out on the tarmac and check out a C-17. It was huge but apparently compared to the C-5 it is tiny.

This is inside the fuselage looking forward. Again the size was just big.

We also got to get into the cockpit of the C-17. More switches and dials than it seems one could learn. After talking with Captain Vance of the Air Force, it sounds like they have made it very pilot friendly as technology is replacing a lot of the crew that it use to take to fly these big birds.

We had a fabulous time thanks to father and son both Captain Vance, the Air Force, and of course the Boy Scouts (which often gets us permission to do things we otherwise would not have been able to do.)

Piano Concert

Rachel and Eric had their first concert with their new piano teacher. They both did awesome. I got a bit scolded from Wendy because I took this picture of Rachel while playing. Eric's picture is posed after the concert was over.

Chocolate Truffle Layered Cheesecake

For Christmas Wendy got me a Hershey's Dessert Cookbook so every Monday we find an awesome dessert from it and make it for an after FHE treat.

2010 Winter Olympics

So we headed up to Vancouver, BC for this extended weekend to take in the Olympics. Although we were never able to get a hold of tickets to get in because they were either too expensive or sold out, we still had a lot of fun. We stayed at a "host family" that were so hospitable. Their daughter is one of the nurses that I work with in the OR. It made for a very fun trip.

We of course went and saw the Torch, but I was surprised how far away they put up the beautiful chain link fence to keep everyone out.

We went to the Royal Canadian Mint where they make the Olympic medals. There was a huge line to wait in, but it was worth it.

They gave us special gloves to handle the medals. No one was to touch them as they would be awarded later to the athletes. Of course Brian was able to sneak in a couple of bear handed grabs.

Here is the Gold

Andrew's got the silver

Rachel's got the bronze

Oddly enough, the silver metal, if melted down, would be worth about $250. The Gold medal is also silver with a little gold plating so it's not worth much more. Why the cant just make a pure gold medal was beyond me. The bronze, if melted down, is only worth about $3.50

Here are the children with their favorite Olympic Mascot

A pose next to the torch. Can't go to Canada without curling. . . still not sure its a sport, but apparently they have programs in their schools to introduce it at an early age.

We went sledding without snow. Very clever those Canadians.We also went ice skating without ice. It was the first time for R, A, and B on skates and it was hilarious. This is one of the only times Andrew wasn't either on his rump or in the act of falling.They didn't have any skates Brian's size so he ran around an looked cute. . .but when Andrew was done, we put his skates on Brian, and as you can see below, it was a family affair getting him to skate.
We also went to see the Vancouver, BC temple. It was beautiful.

I'm so glad that families can be together forever. We had a blast!