Christmas Tree

Here is our Christmas tree we decorated today. Zeke wasn't in the picture taking mood. Toni and I had a blast getting things out and setting them up. We also cleaned the house today. What a great day. We miss you Dad. Really wish you could have been here. Come home soon!

Zeke wanted to salute.

Wrestling a girl

First, I would like to let you know that Zeke is back to Zeke and no longer Sicko, Hanno or Robbie. I told him Santa wouldn't know who to give his presents to if he changed his name.

Moving on, tonight Zac had his JV Wrestling Tournament. He wrestled 3 separate times to take 1st place in his weight class. He is so excited because this means he gets to go to the district tournament next weekend. But, tonight he had to wrestle a girl. I felt so bad for him. Before the match he was just staring at me in the stands with a concerned look on his face. I didn't know what was bothering him until he got to the ring. Throughout the match I could tell that he was not being as aggressive as he usually is and I noticed he kept looking toward his coach through the whole match which is very unusual for him. He eventually won and when I talked with him afterwards the first thing he said was, "That was interesting". I mentioned what I had noticed and he said he felt like he couldn't do all the moves he normally does when he wrestles guys. I asked him why and he said, "what am I supposed to do"? I told him that this was probably the only time that I would tell him that it was OK to go in there and kick her butt! He looked at me funny and I told him that she new exactly what she was signing up for when she decided to wrestle. I still don't think he will feel comfortable having to that ever again. In my opinion, I think it is very unfair to boys to have girls wrestling against them, I think it makes it more of a mind game and it goes against what is nature to most males. What do you think?
Anyway, we are so proud of Zac. He did a GREAT JOB today. He really feels like he has found his sport. I will post his video tomorrow. Be sure to take a look and comment, Zac loves to read what you have to say.

I don't want to be called Zeke, I want to be called...

Tonight Zeke decided he didn't want to be called Zeke when he gets older so he was thinking of new names. This is was he came up with: "Hanno" and "Ole Sicko Nick". He was really trying to say Old Saint Nick but couldn't quite pronounce it. After telling him I was going to call him "Sicko" he decided that he wanted to be called "Robbie" instead, short for Robert of course. Now he is getting mad at us if we call him Zeke. I hope he has forgotten all of this by the morning.

Cookies

Last night I went to a Christmas Ornament Exchange Party at a friends house. It was a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. We had to bring a ornament to exchange as well as our favorite holiday cookies. This is what I made. I thought Ciria would be proud.









I going to bed now. I am really tired and Dan told me he is not coming home until next weekend, so I am going to need all the rest I can get to keep what is left of my sanity of which I am barely holding on to. I feel it slipping through my fingers as we speak because Zeke and Zac are fighting again and I have already threatened to pull out my own hair! GOOD NIGHT!

That's A Big Football

This is Zac posting a blog about a Big Paper Football.My mom went to a party and I was bored so I taped allot of paper to together and made a giant Paper Football. I don't know all the dimensions but I do know that one of the sides is as big as me. I'm 5'4.

Bad Weather

(btw not my kids in picture)

We have had a terrible storm come through over the last couple of days. There is flooding everywhere. They have even had to shut down I-5 going north to Seattle for up to 3 days because a river has flooded the freeway. There have been hurricane force wind gust up to 129 mph by the coast and as of 8am this morning we have gotten over 6 in. of rain in the previous 18 hours. They said the worst has not even hit yet we are still waiting for the front to hit us.

The saddest thing is that Oregon State is home to the largest Sitka Spruce tree. "The 204-foot, 750-year-old tree, is part of Northwest lore. Using all measurements, it has been co-crowned, along with a Sitka spruce in Lake Quinault, Washington, as the largest in the country. The tree measures 56 feet in circumference and has a crown that spreads 93 feet. The Sitka spruce is the largest species of spruce, typically growing 165 to 180 feet tall and lives as long as 700 to 800 years." This is one of our families favorite spot to visit when we travel to and from the coast. Well, the winds successfully knocked the "giant" over. Huge Bummer!

I just can't get it off my mind

Yesterday during sacrament, there was this young family sitting in front of us. The deacons were passing the bread around and these little kids in the pew in front of us were kneeling down coloring their papers on the bench. When the bread came to them I watched as they each took a piece. Then it happened! The middle little girl sneezed all over the bread! YUCK!! Her mom just took it and passed it along. It was then I had to decide whether or not I was going to take the sacrement as the young deacon was trying to see if it was me he needed to pass to next. Thankfully, I looked down the row to see that a different tray was coming down the row toward us. Whew! But, I felt bad for those behind us.

Skyridge vs. Cascade

Again, another tough team but better results. Zac had to really wrestle hard for this one.

Zac's Friday Wrestling Match against Covington

So, you win some you lose some. This was a really tough team. They were strong and well coached. Well played...well played.

Zeke just can't stand it

Dan and Zac went shopping for gifts on Saturday. They got one for Zeke, Toni and myself. When they got home they wrapped them all and put them under our temporary 4.5ft tree we got last year. Zeke came home from playing at his friends house and saw that there were presents. He has had 1,000,000 questions and has been asking every 5 minutes of his waking hours since Saturday, if he can open his presents. This may be a spanking on Christmas Eve moment in Zeke's life, then he and Aunt Cathy can swap stories. Actually, after trying every way imaginable to deter him from opening them (Zac even made him a Christmas count down chain) and also to keep him from going crazy, I think I will just have to hide them all until Christmas Eve. Thank goodness he is now asleep.

I found me a new man!

Calixta's last post reminded me of this.
As many of you might know, about 3 years ago Dan was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. During that talk he told how we met; this was his account: "Kristy picked me out of the gutter, brushed me off and married me". Delightful, right?! I told him NEVER to do that again because it made me sound like a street walker standing on the corner when I just happened to stumble upon this drunk and said to myself "looky here, I found me a man. Yup, he has all his teeth, I'm takin' him home and showin' him to mama!" It has now become a joke between us, well us and the rest of the ward that heard his talk. Fast forward to last month....

Just before Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to work at the share house where me and other women in the ward cooked and served lunch to the homeless. That morning, as I got dresses as usual (jeans and a t-shirt), Dan said, "you look beautiful this morning. going anywhere in particular?" Thinking quickly I said, "yup, I goin' to find me a new man". I then told him where I was going and we both had a good laugh.
As I was serving the rice and gravy I had a couple men say things to me like, you have a nice smile and etc. But towards the very end of the line there was this man who kept staring at me and when he got up to the food line he leaned across the counter, winking at me, said "boy you are a sight for sore eyes! You sure are beautiful" then he proceeded to stare at me for the next 20 minutes. I was quite uncomfortable and the other women I was there with were laughing at me.
As I was driving home, I called Dan and he asked me right off the bat, "How did it go". I replied, "Well I found me a new man!"

Utah or Washington?

When we moved back here, we knew Dan was going to be traveling back and forth. AT the time we decided to move back we thought Dan would most likely be here in Wa. more than in Utah. Not so much...Dan has been traveling to Utah every week. So this has been his schedule for awhile: Sunday afternoon to Thursday evening he is in Utah so that leaves the remaining almost 3 days of the week that he is here. HUGE BUMMER. He left again this morning at 5am. Hopefully we won't have to do this for too long, we are hoping we aren't in for yet another relocation back to Utah. By now I am thinking that getting one of those huge bus RV's might be a nice option. I am sure that the kids aren't into moving again...Toni & Zac have already both said that they would stay and live with Grandma if we were to have to move again. I don't blame them, I might have to do the same also. I wonder what Mom & Dad would think about that?

Let it Snow or Rain

Last night the kids were so excited because it snowed and it was actually sticking! Zeke went out to play in it with his friend Brian and came in later soaking wet and crying because his hands and feet were so cold. It was really heavy and wet snow. When we went to bed last night there was about a 1/4 inch of snow on the ground. The kids were hoping so bad to have it be there this morning. No such luck! But we do have a nice rain going!

One of my favorite holiday recipes

I absolutely love this recipe. It is so easy to make and it makes great gifts to the people you visit teach or home teacher or even school teachers (do mini loafs). So, I thought I would share it with you.


Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
3 c. flour
1 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 c. sugar
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
4 large eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. orange juice
1 c. sweetened dried, fresh or frozen cranberries

Heat oven to 350*F. Grease and flour two 9x5 loaf pans. Or 6 mini loaf pans. Combine flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil in a large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into loaf pans. Bake for 60-65 minutes (for mini loafs usually around 50-55 min.) or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 mins.; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

New wrestling video

Here is new wrestling video from Zac's 3rd wrestling match. He has another match this Friday...hopefully he feels better and can go. I will get video of that also and post it later. He loves to read your comments. This one is quite a bit shorter. Enjoy!

Soup!

Zac and Toni are both really sick today so I made some soup for dinner. As I was making dinner tonight, I remembered this story and it made me laugh, so I thought I would share it with you. Zeke's best friend Brian lives just 2 doors down. These two boys are “2 peas in a pod”. They are constantly together riding bikes playing in the dirt and just being boys. One night Zeke walked in the house and asked me what we were having for dinner. I told him I was planning on making soup. He flipped his lid and told me he hated soup. Then he informed me that he was going to Brian’s house for dinner. He left with Brian for about 30 minutes. When he came back home, I told him dinner was ready if he was interested in eating. He told me he wasn’t hungry because he ate dinner already at Brian’s house. I asked him what Brian’s mom made and he said, “Soup”! What a goofy kid….or maybe her soup is better than mine, who knows.

Needless to say when he saw I was making soup for dinner tonight he was not happy. He came home later with a grilled ham and cheese sandwich from Brian's house. At least someone is feeding him!

I am going to miss you....

Last night Zeke came to me as I was making dinner and had tears in his eyes. I asked him what was wrong and he said "When I grow up and am a daddy with my own wife and my own house, I am going to miss you". Then he started to cry so hard. I told him that I would see him all the time just like I visit my mom & dad. He responded "but you not know where my house is...and I am going to miss you". Then he cried even harder. Then I told him that he was probably going to work with daddy in the company and that he would live close by and that I will always see him. This seemed to do the trick. He gave me a hug and went upstairs to play. I love my kids and I am glad they want to stay close to their parents.

In the dog house

As you all know, these are our 2 dogs Sam & Eco. We love them so much but I swear we are always getting in trouble with them. So, I walk outside today to get the mail and the dogs went with me. No big deal right? Well, as I was getting the mail out of the box, my dogs went to the front of my (mean) neighbors yard when I hear their dog barking at the front window inside the house. I call my dogs to me but they both just started peeing on the lawn. Next thing I know I hear someone pounding on the window. I look around and don't see anybody. The dogs finish peeing and I call them to me to go back inside. Just then the door flew open and Rayleen flies out of her house looking really mad. I called out "hi, rayleen". She mumbled something under her breath (I heard the word "dog") and stormed back into the house and slammed the door. I know she would have yelled if it had been one of my kids like she always does but changed her mind when she saw it was me. My dogs didn't poop on her lawn just pee'd...I don't know but I think this was a bit of an over reaction, don't you? Considering this comes from the same woman who openly told me that for years she didn't have a fence and let her dog out every morning knowing it was going to the bathroom in other peoples yard. She told me that she never once cleaned it up. We are constantly doing "poop patrols" in her yard and cleaning up the mess if it was our dogs or not. Why are people so mean and grumpy?

Copying Kiora

I copied this from Kiki's blog...not literally but we did turn out to be the same color.

You Are a Blue Crayon

Your world is colored in calm, understated, deep colors.You are a loyal person, and the truest friend anyone could hope to find.On the inside, you tend to be emotional and even a bit moody.However, you know that people depend on you. So you put on a strong front.

Your color wheel opposite is orange. Orange people may be opinionated, but you feel they lack the depth to truly understand what they're saying.

What Color Crayon Are You?

This was fun...

Zac's Second Wrestling Meet and First Pin

So, I finally am able to download video from my video camera. So, the first one I will share with you is Zac's first wrestling pin. Enjoy!