Is it Christmas yet?

Jacob and Sacrament meeting

Unfortunately our family didn't make it to sacrament meeting today, so David and I decided to go to a later sacrament meeting after our ward. We came home and asked which kids wanted to come with us. All we got were a bunch of blank stares. I said I didn't mind if they stayed home but if someone wanted to come they could. They all chose to stay home and then out of nowhere Jacob says "But... can you save me a piece of the bread?" It was classic.

Summer Fun!

We had an incredible fun filled summer! This whole post are pictures I took with my phone while we were out and about. So they won't tell much, but I wanted to blog them for the memory's sake.

We were so lucky to have Mindy and BJ and thier kids come and visit for a week earlier in the summer. It was so much fun! These few picturs we took at Kells Pub downtown. It is always fun to try new things with people who are as adventurous as we are ;-). We miss you guys so much!!!

The first week of August we got to travel back east for a Christensen Family Reunion. This was definitaly one of the highlights of our summer. The kids had a blast with the Christensen cousins that they haven't seen in so long. Virginia was AMAZING. So beautiful, and SO much wonderful history to enjoy. And agian, so few pictures :-). I know we have more on a different camera, but at this point this is all I have, so it will have to do.

One day during the reunion Nana and Laurel planned a kids carnival in Laurel's backyard. It was a hit! The kids had a blast. I really enjoyed getting to know all these wonderful little people. I love kids!!

Another fun day was a day of bowling. Always a big hit!

You have to see this to believe this :-).

While in Virginia our baby celebrated her 5th birthday. Not such a baby anymore is she? We spent the day shopping and playing with cousins. Doesn't get better than that right?

Her aunt Tanya was awesome and offered to make her a purple cake (since that is what she wanted and I wasn't sure we could pull that off - Thank you Tanya!) Katie has somehow come up with the idea that her smile is even better if she cups her cheeks in her hands. I don't know where she comes up with this stuff :).

Inbetween her Birthday and Williamsburg we went to Bush Gardens amusement park and I got absolutey NO pictures. Weird. That was the kids favorite day of the whole trip. Katie is an adrenniline junkie :). She loved the rides. The bigger the better. Same with Joelle. I could not belive the bravery of those two girls (and a lot of the neices and nephwes to boot :-).
Though that day was a favorite of the kids and no matter how much I loved the "Escape from Pompei" ride, I think my favorite thing we did was visit Williamsburg (although Jamestown and the Battleship Wisconsin are right up in the running for second place). The history in Virginia can not be beat. It brought tears to my eyes (I know some of you are probably thinking that is not hard to do). It was absoultuly amazing to see all of these wonderful sights. I am truly grateful for this great Country! And Grateful for wonderful family members who planned a truly amazing reunion. Thank you all SO much! We miss you and love you!!

Hanging out at the airport and relaxing was actually quite nice. We all enjoyed flying this time. What a difference it makes to travel without a baby. We really had a great time and are SO looking forward to 2014.

Fun at the Coast

We decided to go spend our first week of school at Grandma and Grandpa Glemser's house this week. Every day after we finnished our lessons we spent wonderful afternoons either on the beach or at a river. We saw tons of little frogs and craw dads. It was a crazy, fun, relaxing beginning to a new school year.

Joelle found these awesome shells but since they had little creatures living in them she decided she just wanted to get some pictures and let the little guys live instead of keeping them and "killing" them. She is so thoughtful :-).

Some things about Katie

This girl can be so funny. These pictures are from a few months ago, but when I saw them I remembered that I wanted to post them. I had told her she could come to the store with me and she said we had to get her ready first. She ran and got her fancy purse, some fancy shoes and then looked at me and said "you HAVE to cuwl (curl) my haiw (hair)." I said "Really? We are just going to the store." Katie- "yes Mom, you HAVE TO.  I have to look bewtiful." I said - "you always look beautiful". She said - "I know, but this will make me more bewtiful." So what could I do, I "cuwled" her hair. And I think it turned out beautiful if I do say so myself :). 

Here are some fun things about Katie. She loves to set the dinner table. If she knows anyone is coming she will beg to set the big table super pretty. She loves the white table cloth the best. She will get big napkins and wrap the silverware in it. She LOVES to put out the wine glasses (we got them for sparkling cider on New Years Eve and she and Emma love to use them all the time) for juice. She has the best time setting the table. I think she would make a great party planner when she gets older. She loves to give (and get) gifts. Anytime she knows it is someones birthday or any kind of holiday she always wants to get people gifts. It is really sweet. When we do our family scripture study she loves to pass out all the Books of Mormon and then loves to gather them up at the end and put them nicely on the shelf.

Tonight during family scripture study she had a funny moment. I was reading Alma 12:27. There is a part in the verse that says "But it was appointed unto MEN that they must die." She very seriously looked up and said "What!? So the BOYS are going to die?" We all started laughing (which she didn't understand and wasn't too happy about). It was great.

FUNNY MOMENT FOR JACOB:
We were just reading a story about Robert E Lee (David wants us to be ready for our trip back east when and get to see all the history there). The book was explaining what a good boy and student he was and how much his mother loved him and how he took care of her, their home and family. It stated that in 1825 he was leaving home to begin his career as a soldier. His mother was quoted to say "How can I live without Robert? He is both son and daughter to me." At this point we all kind of looked at David like ..."What?"
Then Jacob said "So... he has girl hair... but he's a boy." We all just laughed again. It was a pretty funny night. I don't know if these things will sound funny to anyone else, but those of us that were lucky enough to be here to hear it will read this and laugh later. I love the funny things kids come up with.

Inheritance

David took the kids to piano today and the subject of inheritances came up (Jacob was home with me). Ben said "Dad, when you die I want the XBOX." Emma said "I want your $2 bill." Joelle said "I want the latest piece of technology you got before you died." And then came the kicker.... Katie. She said "Dad, I want your iPhone, and when Mom dies, I want her makeup." :-) Need I say more?

Mentos Geyser

Latourell and Multnomah Falls

Here is some video from our recent trip to Latourell and Multnomah Falls.

Birthdays! Birthdays!

Wohoo Birthdays! I love birthdays! We had some very fun times this month (sorry about the glare, we had a lot of sun that day and my camera doesn't do well with the sun :=).

Emma decided she wanted a red velvet cake from Costco. That's her favorite. We did her presents and cake in the morning, then we went to the park for a couple of hours since the weather was so beautiful. We have all been learning to play basketball and spent most of our time on the court there.

Then we went to lunch at our Burger King that has a play ground and hung out there until it was time to head out to the roller skating rink for their public skate from 3 - 5. She has been begging to go roller skating since Joelle got to go with the Youth. We had so much fun!!!! Though we had a camera for all of this, we never took a picture. We filmed a lot though and David is going to work on posting some of that.

It was HILARIOUS to watch Ben, Jake and Katie learn to skate. Katie was brave and thought she had it all figured out and didn't need help, though she totally did. Jake fell once and then spent of the rest of the time mostly sitting and eating cotton candy and popcorn or being EXTREMELY careful. Ben did a great job. He totally figured out the skating thing though he fell plenty of times. During the last song he fell hard on his head and wasn't sure how he felt about skating anymore (even though he was telling me it was the best birthday ever about 5 mins. before that). I wish we could have skipped that last song :=). He still says it was super fun and is ready to try again next time.
I can't believe she is 11 years old.





I love this picture. Jake spent a lot of time looking for the perfect present for her. He is a great gift giver. He settled on a beautiful ring that she loves. He love it because "it sparkles no matter where you walk with it :)". He loved shopping for her and I admit it was fun for me too.
This little guy turned 9 this year. CRAZY!! He is such a sweet, handsome little man. He decided he wanted to try Laser Tag for his birthday. He loves Nerf guns and couldn't wait to get a chance to shoot Dad with something that would keep track of it :). - As a side note, he has started falling in love with fancy cars too, which is really fun when we go out. He is always spotting the flashiest cars.
So after his morning cake of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and presents we were off to play Laser tag. It was AWESOME (albeit, very expensive)! We were the only ones there since it was the middle of a school day (the best perk of homeschooling). We played for an hour sneaking around and shooting each other in the dimly lit, foggy room. I don't think I have had that much fun since we went roller skating (wink, wink).

For anyone interested, Joelle had the top score followed closely by David. I came in second to last. Just above Katie who didn't even play in the second round. She just ran around with me. I guess that means I actually lost. How humiliating :).

We went to Burger King again for lunch and then came home and watched Narnia which he had gotten that day (we already had the last 2 movies, but had never bought the first - who knows why - Ben has been asking for it forever). It was a wonderfully fun couple of weeks.