Bubbles with Dad

It isn't very often that Brandon and I are both home on the nights that the kids have Boy Scouts and Activity Night at church. This week it worked out for our neighbor to take our kids...Brandon didn't have any meetings...I was able to move my meeting to another day...it was almost like a date night at home with him and only five children! :)

The kids found some little bottles of bubbles and we started blowing bubbles on the kitchen table.



Joseph must have popped 100 bubbles...



...then he decided that he wanted to blow bubbles like everyone else!



His patient daddy helped him...



...he tried and tried...



...and finally blew little bubbles!!



Meredi enjoyed the bubbles too! You'll have to excuse her hair and face - dinner time is a whole body experience for her!

Family Night

Last night we met up with the Lee aunts, uncles & cousins for Family Night. It was a short, but fun visit! We had enchiladas for dinner and then we spent time visiting and catching up.



Joseph loved this funny toy that blew plastic balls out of the top...



Emma was fearless jumping to her mom...



We're scheduled to do another Family Night together in April at our house. The kids came home last night anxious to plan a menu and some activities. We sure are glad that we made the decision to live near family so many years ago - it has been such a blessing!

Math Team III

This is our third year rooting Jacob on through Math Team competitions! Last night was the first of the season. His team got off to a rocky start this year when we learned that the middle school wasn't going to provide a coach/teacher - the only way the kids were going to be able to go was if they found someone. Jacob asked all of the teachers and none of them would do it. We realized that if the kids were going to go, Brandon was going to have to coach...so coach he did.

The teams (3 teams of 4) crammed as many practices as they could into the three weeks before the competition. Last night was their big night! They knew they were going up against some tough schools - everyone went in to it with a great attitude and a desire to have a good time!!

Ribbons and a plaque are given to the schools that placed 1st - 5th. We knew it was a stretch to hope for a plaque, but when you compete you always hope to win something! 5th place was announced and it wasn't us. That was really all we dared hope for...and it was a long shot at that! Some of us held out itsy bitsy amounts of hope for 4th place...you know, just in case by some fluke we made it...we didn't. I shut off the camera and started to bag it back up. 3rd Place is announced and I'll be darned if our little Bad News Bears didn't pull it off!!!

This was the best I could do after scrambling to get the camera back out of the bag and turned back on!



Here they are, minus Walter Matthau.




Jacob had another great year in the individual competitions. Jacob wanted to add video because Grandma Janet wasn't able to be there this year (grandpa was sick and she stayed home with him). She has been a Math Team fan since day one!! He did make a call to her as soon as the awards presentation was over though...which was almost as good as having her there!

Jacob was awarded a t-shirt for Best in School by scoring the highest on the individual test out of all his own school/teammates.



Then he received a trophy for 5th Place Over All (128 competitors) for his score on the individual test!



(Jacob is away at a Boy Scout Merit Badge Clinic this morning, but when he gets home I'll add a picture of him with his trophy & t-shirt!)

Do Overs!

Last weekend we had a Christmas Eve Do-Over at Grandma & Grandpa's house. The weather was so bad on the real Christmas Eve that we only stayed at Grandma & Grandpa's about an hour before we decided we needed to get back on the road and get home before the storm got worse. It was the right thing to do, but man it was disappointing not being with our family for Christmas Eve.

So for fun, we had everyone get together again and we exchanged Dollar Store gifts and the potluck ... just like the real thing! It was a lot of fun and we were happy to get to spend the time with family.

Auntie Lindsay & Joseph



Mom & Meredi



Lindsay, Rex, Kayla & Daniel



Melanie, Malorie & Kayla (Yes, we dragged the antlers out again, lol)



Joseph showing off his new gloves!



Later in the week, Jared had a Cub Scout Pack Meeting. They held a family game night that was a lot of fun.



Malorie, Melanie, Megan and their friend Jovee playing tug-of-war.



After the games we had some snacks. Just like at home, Joseph found a chair and dragged it to the kitchen counter and began to help himself. No mistaken which end of the family he's from...the "if I want it I'd better do whatever it takes to get it" end! lol



Joseph has several "older women" in his life! A lot of the older kids at church love Joe...and he eats it up!!



We found this funky icicle when we came home from church Sunday. It had fallen form the garage eves and landed standing up and froze into the slushy ice on the ground. I almost had to hog-tie Malorie to keep her from kicking it over before I got a picture...she's not our most dainty child.

Jack Frost

We have had some heavy fog the past week or so - this morning was no exception. We have also had FREEZING temperatures - this morning was no exception! I stopped and took these pictures as I was driving home from the dentist (threw that tid-bit of info in for sympathy).




I don't think I've ever seen frost so thick - it looks like snow!





It truly is breath-taking. I just wish it wasn't cold enough to be this beautiful!

Camera Dump

I guess it's a good thing when a couple of quiet weeks can pass by. Nothing much has been happening around here. The kids are finally back at school. 3 snow days made us all cranky! Things seem to be getting back to normal now - routines are great and we're happy to be slipping back into ours!

Here's what I found on the camera from the last week:

Joseph got a bike for Christmas and it has been the BEST GIFT EVER! He rides around and around and around the kitchen island/table. He constantly instructs us to "Wook out!" The little bucket on the back flips down to dump stuff out...he will leave that flipped down and ride around sometimes. When he first did that we asked him what he was doing and he said it was his plow! Smart kid! lol (Oh, and the attire is all his own doing!)



Meredi - Where EVER does she get her love for guns?



Megan helps Meredi ride the plow.



After the plow picture, the kids caught me with the camera and posed...





I bought Blues Clues videos for Jason and Maddie YEARS ago. Back when Nick Jr still had FACE (sorry, some of you will know what that means, some won't...don't feel bad!)...anyway, when Joseph put this tape in the older kids were thrilled to see that it was Steve and not Joe! (I kind of was too, I don't like Joe so much!)



Patty cake!

Happy Birthday Malorie! 6 Years Old

Wow - just like that, six years have come and gone and it hardly seems that I've even blinked yet!

Today we celebrated Malorie's birthday! She has painfully been counting down the days since...well, probably since school started! And finally, today is the day! She started her day with her daddy making her pancakes for breakfast!



I guess even before pancakes, we started the day with a surprise, early morning visit from Grandpa! He was on his way to the gun-show in Spokane so stopped on his way to drop off gifts from Grandma and Grandpa - and $20 from her Great-Grandmother.



Peek-a-Boo Barbie's!! Grandma Janet always knows the PERFECT gifts!!



Following gifts we went outside to shovel snow (What day would be complete without at least an hour of that?). Malorie and Melanie Polly-Pocket'ed and Peek-a-Boo'ed the rest of the day away. Then the day wound down with an hour long phone call with her cousin Maddi - I have no idea what two six year olds can talk about for 60 minutes, but I think they could have kept going if we hadn't made them hang up for dinner! Now we're lighting the candles on her popcorn cake!! What a wonderful day!





Happy Birthday Malorie! We sure do love you!

(And look, not a single..."Six years ago, right now..." in the whole entry!)

New Year's Eve 2008

We had another wonderful Mexican Buffet at our home this year! Almost all of Brandon's local extended family attended. We had 41 people for dinner - and it was great!

Everyone grabbed a seat for the blessing and then started making tacos...tacos...and more tacos!






After dinner, the younger kids all gravitated to Uncle Courtney...he's "that" uncle in our family. He's the winder-upper and the kids all love him to death!



The tweens and teens boys all headed downstairs for trampoline football. Guess I'm getting old - jumping on the trampoline is the LAST thing I would have considered doing after eating tacos! Blech!



Those of us who opted to keep our tacos to ourselves broke out board games to pass the night away!





We had a great time - and so much more happened than just these few pictures can share! We can't wait to do it again next year!