Christmas Peformances

Jaxon had 2 Christmas performances last week. The first was at school. It was only the 2nd and 3rd graders. Jaxon's group did a good job. They sang a few songs that we didn't know. One song they sang, all they needed was some robes and they would have been a Southern Baptist choir. The kids really got into it.



The second performance was at the mall on Saturday. Jaxon joined a group at school called the X Jam. He practices twice a week during lunch recess. He is enjoying it. He likes playing on the xylophones and of course, he's able to play them. The kids did good. Jaxon's favorite song of the night was Carol of the bells.

Christmas Lights Parade

A couple of Sundays ago, we went to the Christmas Lights parade for FHE here in Yakima. This is the first time we have ever been to it. We had a lot of fun and we didn't freeze. There were some cool vehicles all lit up.


This is my favorite picture I took of the night.


Can you tell Jaxon doesn't like his mother to take his picture.


Phebe looking thrilled to be there. At least she lets me take her picture.


I have to say the Coca-Cola truck had the best Christmas lights on it.

Negative Brrr!!!

Just wanted you to know that it is showing a -3 degrees outside right now. Jaxon and I will, definitely, be waiting for the school bus in the car. Hope you have a warmer morning.

Brrr...

This morning we woke up to no heat. Lucky, Brian was home to help figure out why we didn't have any heat. After talking to my Dad, we figured out that we had a frozen pipe line. We had to thaw the pipe, get anti-freeze gel and get the oil flowing again. We thawed the pipe but the furnace would not kick on. So we called our reinforcement, my Poppop. He came over and figured out our problem with in 10 minutes. By pushing the reset button. We had tried pushing a button but it was the wrong one. That's all we needed to do to get heat. So now we can be warm and cozy. If only the temperature was 68 degrees outside instead of the high of 15 like it's going to be tomorrow.

To Forks we will go

I have become a Twilight groupie. I am not as bad as Brian is with his Collective Soul. Last week for Thanksgiving, we went to my brother's house in Port Angeles. Since Forks is an hour a way, we went on a field trip. We didn't get to go on the Twilight tour but we made a few stops. It was raining. I thought Portland got a lot of rain. It doesn't compared to Forks. Forks gets about 116 inches of rain a year, where Portland gets about 25 inches and Yakima gets about 13 inches. I'll take the 13inches any day. My sister in law and I went to see the movie. I think my imagination is a lot better than the movie. I had a problem seeing the actors they picked as the characters they played. But what do I know. I still liked it.

Jaxon's New Pets

Here's Jaxon swimming with his new fish.

For Jaxon's birthday, he got a fish tank. We have been working on it all week. Tonight, we were able to get some fish. More fish to come. There are so many choices. He wants to get kissing fish, neon's, a snail and a plecostomus.

Student of the Month

Last week, Jaxon received the academic Student of the Month award for October. We are so proud of him. This is the picture I got of him. He was embarrassed by his Mom taking pictures of him. So I kissed him in front of his whole class. Now that's embarrassing. We also had his teacher conference on the same day. No problems with Jaxon. His teacher is challenging him and that's what we want. He is doing 4th grade math and reading at a 5th grade level. A story about mister smarty pants. In September, the class was working on subtraction and a girl in the class asked if you could subtract 6-12. Mr. C said you could not. Jaxon raised his hand and said yes you can. The answer is -6. Mr. C said you are right but that's for when you are in 5th grade. Jaxon is now known as Mr. Negative. Pretty soon, Brian and I will have to get a tutor for ourselves to help Jaxon with his homework.

The Scissor ghost

Phebe decided she needed to cut her bangs. I was thinking we were out of the woods with scissor happy hands. Guess, I was wrong. Phebe said she didn't cut her hair. She was under a spell and a ghost did it. A ghost always does something when Phebe thinks she is in trouble. Jaxon was quite happy about Phebe cutting her hair. That meant she got in trouble. I had to take Phebe into the hairdresser to get it fixed.


Before Haircut


After Haircut
She wanted to get a Tinker Bell haircut. I think she looks adorable and it fits her personality. You can't even tell she cut her bangs.

Brian's new hobby

Brian has been wanting to get a greenhouse for sometime now. His wish came true this week. He was able to put it up on Saturday with Jaxon's help. There are a few more things he needs to do with it like a door, heater, fan, and much, much, more. We're pretty excited about it. Hopefully, we'll be able to grow some plants for next year.

Halloween

Jaxon had a hard time figuring out what he wanted to be this year for Halloween. First, he wanted to be an imperial guard (Star Wars). We couldn't find a costume for it. His second choice, Greedo, the green guy Han Solo talks to in the 4Th movie at the bar. Couldn't find a costume and didn't really want to make one. His third choice as you see is Indiana Jones. He was the best Indiana we saw. Phebe was easy this year, we decided to be Fancy Nancy (Fancy Nancy is a series of books). We had a good time trying to get Phebe fancy. She was just adorable. She was the only Fancy Nancy. We had a good Halloween and it was even better that Brian was home for a few days.

Getting Fancy

I just took this picture of Pheb's getting ready for the ward Halloween party tonight. Her costume is Fancy Nancy. Her hair needs to be fancy, so we attempt to do curlers again. She found my old pair of glasses. Doesn't she look like an old house Frau? Brian says she looks like a school teacher.

Brian's 8 Favorite Things

8 Favorite Restaurants

1.Macaroni Grill
2.Red Robin
3.Majors
4.Big Town Hero
5.Miners
6.Pizza Factory
7.New York Teryaki
8.Rheinlander

8 Favorite TV shows

1.Sports Center
2.Big Bang Theory
3.The Soup
4.Seinfeld
5.Dave Ramsey Show
6.The Colbert Report
7.King of the Hill
8.My Big Redneck Wedding

8 Things I did Yesterday

1.Took a shower.
2.Tire shopping for the car.
3.Went to Costco.
4.Surfed the web.
5.Watched TV.
6.Pet the dog.
7.Ate.
8.Fell asleep watching TV.

8 Things I look forward to.

1.6 Figure income.
2.Being home more.
3.Building my new greenhouse.
4.Christmas to be over.
5.All fabric stores to go bankrupt.
6.Another Collective Soul concert.
7.The next Collective Soul release.
8.The economy to turn around(so I can start making money on my investments again)

8 Things I wish for.

1.Lose weight.
2.Full head of hair.
3.A month long romantic getaway with Trin.
4.Subaru WRX.
5.A big house with 10 acres to ride ATV's.
6.Early retirement.
7.For Jaxon and Phebe to be sucessful.
8.Daily hot tub soaks and massages.
4.Subaru WRX

Tagged, again

I was just looking at Jeff and Chelsea's blog and I got tagged again. This tag is also on my sister's blog. So this can count for both of you. The tag is the 8 things. I don't remember all of the rules. Here is goes.

8 favorite TV shows
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. ER
3. Big Bang Theory
4. Private Practice
5. Brothers and Sisters
6. Dirt
7. Ace of Cakes
8. Rules of Engagement

8 Things I did yesterday
1. I sewed. I was at my quilt retreat with my Mom, Grandma and Aunt
2. I came home to a lot of dirty dishes.
3. got attacked by my kids- hugs and kisses
4. We went to FHE at my Mom and Dad's house.
5. put the kids to bed
6. Read my book
7. Brian and I ate chicken nuggets and hot coco at 11 o'clock at night
8. Slept in my bed with Brian

8 Things I look forward to
1. not having to watch the world series this year
2. getting my Christmas shopping done early this year
3. seeing my two new nieces
4. Brian being home for more than 2 days
5. not having to teach a lesson for 3 weeks in Primary
6. watching Jaxon and Phebe growing up
7. warmer weather
8. going on a family trip with all of us

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Macaroni Grill
2. Red Robin
3. Chilli's
4. El Ranchito
5. Abby's Pizza
6. Hunan Pearl
7. Big Town Hero
8. Applebee's

8 Things on my wish list
1. a Tahoe
2. a new sewing machine
3. going to Hawaii with Brian
4. for Jaxon and Phebe to be friends when they grow up.
5. to see family and friends more often
6. a TV cabinet
7. to have a maid come and clean my house
8. to be a happy family forever

That's all the 8 Things about me.

I got tagged

Last week, my friend Julie tagged me. So here are my answers. The tag was on 6 things that are quirky about me.
1. I critique Dairy Queens. I worked at 2 DQ's in high school and college. I have a high standard for them. I can't stand dirty tables or doors and the swirl not being right on the ice cream cone. My dad thinks I need to own one, so I can do it the right way which is my way of course.
2. I never forget. I am like my Grandma. It takes a lot to upset me. But when I do get upset, I never forget.
3. I have to have peanut butter on my pancakes and french toast. It is a must.
4. I can't stand it when Brian scrapes his fork when he eats. It's almost like the sounds from the dentist.
5. Brian and I are starting to finish each others sentences. I know this isn't really a quirk. I just thinks it's funny that we can do this. Next on the old married list is wearing matching shirts and jackets.
6. I have inherited one of me father's traits. An obsessive researcher. I will research something to death. Brian can't stand this. I get something in my head and I am checking everything I can before I get it.

I have a few more quirks but Jaxon didn't want me to tell anyone. I am suppose to have 6 other people be tagged but I don't know that many.

My new quilt

This is my quilt I just finished for the quilt shop I use to work for. It was suppose to be done a month ago. It took me longer then I expected. I really like it. It's going to be our winter quilt for our bed. Phebe took the picture for me. She did a good job.

Fair fun

We went to the fair last weekend with Brian's parents. We got to see a little bit of the rodeo, a few barns of animals, the vendors in the sundome, the ag building and rides. The rides were the kids is favorite part. This year Jaxon discovered the big kid rides. He rode a ride called the cliff hanger. He's laying down in a hang glider going around in real fast. He loved it. Phebe just loved everything. She got to go on the ferris wheel wiht Jaxon and me. I remembered why I don't like the ferris wheel. To high and a lot of wind. We had fun and plenty of fair food.

Apple Picking Time

Tis the season to pick apples. It is a family tradition to go pick apples with my grandparents and parents. This year my parents were not able to come. Poppop likes to load us up on apples. We usually get three to four boxes full. We never seem to get them all eaten before they go bad. We decided to go small this year. We tried. Poppop kept giving us more. Lucky, Brian's parents were with us and they got some and so did Brian's work. You can see Phebe's curls. Jaxon loved picking the apples from the ladder.

Girly Do's

Phebe let me and her grandma play with her hair. She looks so cute. She wanted to keep her curls, so she could look like me. We are trying to talk her into putting rollers in again. She doesn't want to. I don't think she wants to sleep with them.

Wolf

Jaxon received his Wolf last week. He also got a gold and two silver arrows. He needs four more electives in the next month to get another arrow. Hopefully, we can do this.

Things that go BANG in the night!!

No, Todd it's not what you're thinking.
This is what went BANG in the night. Our mailbox got into a little accident with a car. The car took out our mailbox, the post that it was on with the cement, a rail road tie, and the telephone box. We have no phone. So I tried calling Qwest, using the right procedure, but couldn't get a live person. So I called my own Qwest man, my Dad. He is coming out to replace the box. Now we have to replace the mailbox this weekend. I liked our mailbox. This is the second accident with the mailbox since we put it up this year. The first one, the mail lady hit the mailbox with her mirrors.

This is where our mailbox use to be. You can see the hole where the post was and you can see the tire tracks of the car heading for our mailbox.

Here is the shredded mailbox. I don't think we can use it.

This is the telephone box. Between the mailbox and the telephone box is about 30 feet. They kept on driving.

Snores anyone

We promised the kids we would make smores with our new fire pit. Phebe was so excited. She kept saying, 'We're having Snores!' We had a good laugh at this. So does anyone want a Snore?

Jaxon's Plane Ride

Jaxon was able to go flying in a Cessna 172 plane this past Saturday. He took part in a group called the Young Eagles progam. They were having free rides for kids 8-17years old. Jaxon liked it so much that now he wants to go every year. He wasn't to sure on flying in a little plane. He didn't tell us much about it. He was trying to be cool. I got more info when Jaxon was telling Poppop about it. He told him they flew aroung the valley and he was able to see the SunDome and the mountains. Jaxon's flight was about a half an hour long. He went up 3,ooo feet in the air. I think now he wants to fly planes. He's always wanted to be an Blue Angel pilot.

Brian's Home

Brian is finally home for the week. YA!!!! Since sales are slow, he will be working at the nursery in Scappoose. This was our first full week with him gone. I think we did alright. I sure did miss him. I don't like being alone at night time. I've spent a lot of nights sleeping on the couch. The kids kept asking for him to come home. Sugee even said she missed him. Time will tell on how they will handle this new arrangement. Especially Jaxon. He doesn't do well with change.
Update on Jaxon in school. He's loving it. He now thinks his teacher is awesome. Let me tell you why. Mr. C loves Star Wars and Legos. Two of Jaxon's favorite things. Mr. C even has a Lego that Jaxon has been wanting forever. The only thing is that the Lego is $100. Jaxon keeps scheming on how he can get that Lego. He thinks he can get a $1 for every time he feeds the animals. He wants to feed them twice a day now. I don't think so. We wanted to have more homework this year and we got it. Last week, Jaxon worked on his homework and it took him 2 hours to complete it. He was rewarded for it. He turn in his homework on Friday. He was the only kid who finished his homework in class and he got 5 gummy bears for it. He thought this was cool.

Funeral and Lincoln City, Again

Last week my great grandma past away. The funeral was on Monday and Tuesday of this week in Oregon and in Washington. We can no longer say that we have 5 generations. I am so glad that were able to go. It was a very nice funeral with lots of relatives that I didn't know. My brother was able to come down for the services in Sunnyside. Before the funeral, we decided to go a couple of days early and go to the beach. It was our last mini vacation. We meet up with Brian's parents for lunch and Renee said it's just like your honeymoon. We went to Lincoln City for our honeymoon and went to my Grandpa Webster's funeral in the same week. I had forgotten about that. We even took the kids to the Portland Temple. Jaxon and Phebe are still bummed that they can't go into the temple. Only 10 more years for Jaxon and he will be going on a mission. I can't believe that. It seems like we just brought the kids home from the hospital. Time is going by to fast. I wish I could slow it down. Back to our trip. We had fun at the beach. We stayed in a brand new hotel. It was awesome. Nice soft beds and pillows which Phebe would not sleep in a bed with her brother. She choose the hard floor. Flat screen TV(Jaxon's idea of pure fun) and most in important an indoor pool. The kids loved the pool. Jaxon was practicing his swimming. He's getting better. Phebe had Brian to tug her around. We had breakfast at Pig-n-Pancake which is an Oregon thing. I even think we ate their on our honeymoon. I made them take me to the outlet mall before we went to the beach. Jaxon didn't like this until we found some dress shirts for him for 99 cents at the Children's Place. We finally went to the beach. Jaxon was in heaven. He loves the beach and the water. Brian and the kids built a sandcastle. Phebe thought this was cool. It was a gorgeous day. The kids want to go back this weekend. I don't think so.

Jaxon's first day of school

Doesn't he look all grown up? He'll definetly have the girls chasing him.


Yesterday Jaxon started 3rd grade. He was excited when I dropped him off in the morning. By the time he got home, he wasn't excited anymore. He would not tell us anything when he got home. His Maaka called him and he wouldn't even talked to her. Which is not like him. If he doesn't talk to us, usually, he will talk to his Maaka. We think his new teacher is not what he expected. A lot of rules and too much information for Jaxon on the first day of school. He just got stressed out. We told him it's only the 3rd grade. Breathe, relax and have fun. His new teacher is Mr. C. I actually went to school with him. He is Jaxon's first male teacher. We will see how the second day of school went for him.

The Sinking Duo

The Sinking Duo. You can tell Pheb's sure loves her Jaxy.
Future Olympic swimmer? Maybe, maybe not.
Phebe concentrating on arms and kicking. I love her tongue sticking out.


This past week has been a busy one for us. I should be getting use to it. They tell me it's only going to get worse as the kids get older. Good thing there's only two of them. On to the Sinking Duo. The kids had their first swimming lessons this past week. On the first day, the Vocana kids tried drowning and scaring their teacher. Jaxon was the first one up to the challenge. He tried swimming up and down the pool. On the way back to the swallow end, he got tired and started going down. He was then put close to the edge in case he got tired again. Next was Phebe's turn in her class. The kids were learning how to jump into the water. They were doing one at a time. Phebe was waiting for her turn sitting on the steps into the pool. She slipped of the step and started sinking. Only my children. After the first day and we had no more problems. The kids became swimming fools. Jaxon learn how to dive and is loving that. Phebe has figured out that the noodle is cool to swim with and to practice kicking and using her arms. Next year, we will be definitely doing swimming lessons earlier in the summer. On a side note, the rest of our week was filled with unpacking our camping gear from our camping trip with my family last weekend, finishing up school shopping, missing Brian (he was in Portland all week for a Nursery Expo- getting us some cool free stuff), our stray dog getting hit by an orchard truck (only scrapping his mouth), and finding a dead muskrat in our basement that came in from the dryer vent.

Pics from our trip

These are some of the highlights of our trip. Hope you enjoyed them. We sure enjoyed taking them.

Mama Mia

Today I saw Mama Mia with my Mom and Grandma. To contrary belief, I didn't corrupt my elders with sexual innuendos. It had as much talk about it as a Rock Hudson and Doris Day movie. Those movies probably had more in them. We all liked it. My Mom kept smiling at me because I was singing to the music. She said it was because I was raised on ABBA music when we lived in Germany when I was little. We walked out of the movie uncringed. I'm going to go get the soundtrack. There's a few songs on it that we don't have. Especially the one about daughters. That's for Phebe.

There's no Place like Home!!!

After driving 2987 miles and seeing 39 license plates, WE ARE HOME!!!! The kids and I had a great vacation. We sure did miss having Daddy around. Hopefully, next year he can come with us. Jaxon has decided that we should make it a summer tradition. We will have to see about that. We went to all kinds of places. Jaxon's top favorite 5 things were the Copper Mine, the Zip Line and Alpine slide at Snowbird, Jump on It in Pleasant Grove, Going to the Twin Falls Temple Open House, and staying in hotels with swimming pools. Phebe's top things were Jump on it, the hotels, playing with Maya, Sophie, Hannah, Katie, and Abby, and the Twin Falls Temple. My top things were seeing Julie and Todd, visiting with family, the Zip line, the Material Girls quilt shop (a lot), seeing Ricks College (aka BYU-Idaho), seeing Karlee and Spencer (almost makes me want to have one), and taking my kids to the Twin Falls Temple. I could keep going. It was great to spend time with Kyle, Robby and the girls. It was good to get some cousin time in since we don't get to see them very often. Karlee's blessing was awesome. She is a cutie pie. We survived the Vegas heat. We even took the kids to the playground in 110 degree weather. Being with Julie and Todd was what I needed, (mostly, Julie). Wish we lived closer to them like we did in Oregon. I loved the girl talk in the car. As you can tell we all loved the Twin Falls temple. It was a very spiritual experience. We all felt the spirit especially in the celestial room. Jaxon liked the sealing room with the mirrors that go til eternity. Phebe was excited about everything. I am glad we saved it for last. On the way home, we went through a thunderstorm that felt like we were in a tornado. Very cool and scary at the same time. Pics will come later. We have too many to choose from. I have to say one more thing. My kids are the greatest. I did not have one problem traveling with them. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. We are very lucky parents to have them in our lives.

Pioneer Trek & Slip-N-Slide

This past weekend, we crashed Brian's parents stake pioneer trek at Ensign Ranch. We were able to camp with Grandma Loghouse at base camp. On Saturday, we waited for the pioneers to come into the Salt Lake Valley. It was quite awesome to see the pioneers come into the valley. They were singing Come, Come ye saints and were so excited to see their families and to finally stop walking. We found Grandpa. He did the trek. Phebe would not go near him. It was a cool experience and we didn't even do the trek.





While we were waiting for lunch, we went slip-n-sliding. Mormon style. Jaxon had no problem getting in and sliding. Phebe on the other hand was not to sure about it. So Mom to the rescue. I went sliding in my street clothes. Jeans and all. We had fun. Now, we want one in our backyard or my parents big hill.

Busy Week

We have been busy around here.
1. Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Loghouse on the Fourth of July. Jaxon had fun with Grandpa cutting wood. Phebe enjoyed feeding Dexter the donkey. We had fun letting off actual fireworks. Phebe is scary with a sparkler.
2. I got older on the sixth. I caught up to Brian.
3. Kids enjoying the slip and slide only once before it got broken. Jaxon was really upset about that. I think the old stand by will be next. Big Black piece of plastic for the slip and slide like we had growing up.
4. Brian went on a Man Date with my brother, Ben. They went to see a Collective Soul concert with Blues Traveler and Live. They enjoyed each others company. This is Brian's third CS concert this year. He's become a groupie.
5. Having a girls weekend with my Mom, Grandma, sister, sister in-law and great aunt. We went to Sisters, Oregon to see all the pretty quilts. It was fun to spend time with just the girls. Too bad it only lasted two days.
7. Brian and the kids went to a Bears game, our local baseball team, with my Dad, my brother and his kids and my brother in-law and his kids. Brian had to become Mr. Mom while at the game. Phebe had an accident. She wasn't feeling to good. So they had to come home and miss the fireworks.
8. Family pics and a BBQ. Since everyone was here this weekend. We took our family pictures. I have to say it is a lot more difficult with 15 people in the family then when there was only five of us. We got some good pictures. Good thing we only have two kids. It is hard to have seven kids look at a camera and get them all to smile.
9. Glad to be home this evening. Relaxing with Bri and Pheb's. Jaxon is with his cousins destroying my grandparents evening. It's quiet here which is what we need. Phebe is quiet which is a miracle.

Can't wait to see what our next adventure brings us this week.

My New Purse

I wanted to show off my new purse that I just made.

Mt Rainier

Family in Old Growth Forest

Phebe with the snow

Jaxon on Suspension Bridge

Jaxon & Phebe Mt. Rainier

We took our second adventure today. Since it was hot in Yakima, we decided to head to the mountains to keep cool. We found a hike in the Mt Rainier National Park. It was an area of Old Growth Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, and Western Hemlock. There were trees that were a thousand years old. It was interesting to learn that these trees have survived winter storms, fires, and volcanic activity. There was also a suspension bridge that we crossed to see the giant trees. Since they charged us $15.00 to get in; we decided to drive through the south end of the park. It was very beautiful up there. We were so close to the mountain that we could of reached out and touched it. We went up there to escape the heat, but I think it followed us because it was in the 90's. The kids acted like they have never seen snow before. Every chance they got they were playing in it. We had a good time. Too bad we had to come home to warm house.