More snow in Moses Lake

Christmas in Moses Lake

After spending an early Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa we headed to Moses Lake (luckily ahead of the snow storm) for Christmas with Pop-Pop, Grandma, Uncle, Uncle's Debbie, Jenny & Kyle. Somehow, most of them avoided being in any pictures. Watch out, I'll get you next visit :)
The boys kept us safe from bears with their new cap guns. Zachary's life is now complete upon receiving a pirate ship for Christmas. Kelsey is learning how to be a Mommy by multitasking.

Merry Christmas

SNOW !!!!!

What fun Kelsey is one!

Happy Birthday Kelsey! Kelsey wasn't too thrilled with her pretty pink princess crown, she thought the crown was much more suited as a teether. Notice that Grandpa is holding down her hands for the picture :) Kelsey also wasn't too sure about "smashing" her cake........but as you can see it didn't take long for her to warm up to the idea. My first attempt at a princess cake didn't turn out like I wanted it to, but I figure I will have lots of opportunity to practice in the years to come.

Silly Zachary

Earlier this week I was making a HUGE batch of cookies (chocolate crinkles) to take to a cookie exchange, Zachary was "supervising" the whole process. When I finished I gave Zac a spoonful of the dough. As he tasted the dough he said in amazment, "Mommy this isn't poop, it's chocolate!" Oh my. So the reason he was watching me so intently make the cookies is because Zac thought I was stiring poop?! And worse yet, when Zac thought that it was poop, he willingly took a bite!!!!

Teeffph

All Thomas wants for Christmas is his front tooffph. First lost tooth for Thomas. It had been loose for some time but only slightly. Yesterday he bit down on a pretzel stick and said, "Ow, I have a sore tooth." The physics involved in biting down on that pretzel somehow loosened the tooth almost to the point of self-extraction. Today, he wiggled the tooth all day long until this evening when it finally gave way. Pretty excited boy.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thomas' school is such a blessing. Here are pictures of "Pilgrim day". The kindergarten students were the Pilgrims, while their 4th grade friends were the Indians. The kids went to stations and learned different aspects of Pilgrim or Indian life. Among other things they ate Pilgrim food, shot "turkeys" with a bow & arrow, sawed a log and used an auger to make a candle holder, and they had a chapel service (boys on one side girls on the other like the Pilgrims) to learn about how the Pilgrims worshiped and relied on God.

2 pirates and a bunny

Better late than never. Here are pictures of the kiddos from Halloween. The boys were pirates and Kelsey was a bunny. Zac insisted on wearing his eye patch in the middle of his forehead so he could see. Funny kid :) The picture of Thomas and Kelsey looks horrible, but the look on Kelsey's face is because she wants to hold the sword. Contrary to potential appearance, Thomas is not hurting her.

Observation

I've been noticing lately how very noisy Kelsey is in the evenings. Then I realized that it's not that she is particularly noisy, its that her brothers are in bed and I can finally hear her! Poor Kelsey, such is life with two big brothers :)

Riley Joanne Gibson

Welcome to our world, Riley Joanne. Angela's sister, Emily and Husband Dan, are proud new parents of a 6 pound 1 ounce baby girl. She was born Friday 11/07 and was 19" long. Riley already has more hair than Kelsey.

June 1997 - Nov 5, 2008

Today we say goodbye to an old friend. Those of you who aren't feline friendly, too bad, read on. Bob Wiley came to us as a precocious kitten, and bullied Smokey (another of our late cats) from day one even though she was 4 years his senior. Bob Wiley was Angela's first kitten but Bob claimed Jerry.
Bob Wiley was a typical hunter, ridding the homestead of moles, shrews, mice, unsuspecting birds, gophers, and an occasional brush bunny. To our embarrassment, he bullied neighbor cats in their own yards as well. Bob was so sure of himself, he even protected his domain from the raccoons in the neighborhood. One night Angela let out a shriek having seen Bob tumbling in the backyard with a raccoon. He returned later without a scratch yet had a large tuft of raccoon fur in his mouth.
Zachary was not gentle with Bob Wiley. Zac laid on Bob, chased him, and used the jackhammer on him, but Bob Wiley was always gentle with our children.
Goodbye old friend...

Zac's pirate party

Zac loves pirates!
Kelsey does not. She cried when she saw all of us in our pirate masks so we did not wear them for long.
I was unable to find a small pirate ship for the cake so the pirate figurines had to make do with a graham cracker raft . Zac thought it was cool, and thats what counts. He also has finally decided that it is OK to be three.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACHARY !!!!!!!!

Zac is reluctantly three today. He told me this morning in a sad voice, "mommy my two all gone, I three now." I told him I feel the same way about my birthday :) I'm pretty sure though, that Zac will be a bit more excited about his birthday once we do cake and presents tonight.

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Our annual visit to the Pumpkin Patch. We had a great time, I suspect the boys liked the tractors more than picking out pumpkins.
Zac insisted on pulling the wagon, Thomas didn't complain about the arangement.

Storytime

When mom starts reading, the crowd gathers.

Train Ride

Centralia/Chehalis steam train is always a favorite. Most of the tracks were damaged from the flood Dec 07 leaving only 1.5 miles of track. The tracks are currently being restored.

Soccer

Thomas is enjoying soccer this fall. All the kids swarm the ball but now and then someone gets a fast break. Zac either wants to run out on the field, or sit away from the action and eat his crackers.

Backyard antics

Adventure is always afoot in our back yard. From playing in the "jungle" and jousting on the "motorcycle" and "rocket" to hiding in the blue fortress.

Don't leave Zac out!

Zac enjoys life to the fullest but his parents often fail to take photos of him alone. The curse of the middle child.

Never mind my dad

Kindergarten!

Thomas was pretty excited to start school.
The cupcakes are a tradition that we have started, notice the "K" for kindergarten. It's hard to see in the picture but there is a tic-tack on the cupcake to represent chalk, and the round red is an M&M with a dab of green frosting to look like an apple.