Are we ready???

No - but we'll get there! Busy and fun week! We made a gingerbread house, watched Kim and Abby at their final acting class, watched Eric sing with his class at a retirement home, put up our tree, put up lights outside, etc. . . .

I have a headache so this will be a short post and I hope it makes sense! Anyway, the kids are doing well in school and elsewhere. We wish we could turn on the mute button in our house sometimes, but someday the house will be too quiet I guess. Jessica is the princess - insists on wearing a princess dress at least once a day. Eric is a boy - crazy, I know. He loves to throw anything, including major fits. Abby sings and dances everywhere she goes. Kim is such a great helper, I don't even know where to start!

Reid has been called for jury duty in a couple of weeks and he's excited I think. Maybe he'll get on a high profile trial and we'll see him once a week or something! More likely, he'll sit around reading a book for three days and they'll send him home.

Thanksgiving concert

Tonight we had a Stake Thanksgiving benefit concert. Those who attended were supposed to bring some food for the local food bank. We filled the stand pretty well with choir members. It actually went rather well. Reid and I sang and the kids stayed home, so it was actually a break. I always forget how much I enjoy singing until something like this. Our choir director is amazing. He is from Holland and studied music there. He gets us to sing better every time. I'm glad it's over now and not in a month!

Potty training is on hold until after Thanksgiving. We had some good success, but then she had NO interest and a number of accidents. She wants to sit on the potty occasionally, though. Someday . . .

I think we are all looking forward to this week. Reid has the week off of work and a lot of our responsibilities are not pressing this week. yeah! We need it!

The other day I asked Jessica what her name was and she said "Jessica Allie T Morgan." Not sure what the T stands for, but it was very cute. Eric is afraid of everything right now. Closet monsters, under the bed monsters, dark places, brushing his teeth in the bathroom alone, sleeping without the light on, etc... I know it's just a phase, but we hope he grows out of it. He's sleeping in our bed every night!

Fun in the sun!

Yes, we did have some sun this weekend and we enjoyed getting a bit of yardwork done and played at the park too. We are looking forward to the end of Stake Choir - we are doing a Thanksgiving concert and food drive next week. We will have our Sunday evenings back! Kim and Abby have 2 more weeks left of acting class. It's been going well I think. I'm not sure they LOVE it and I don't think they are dying to go back in the spring, but it's been a good experience. Kim wanted to audition for Willy Wonka Jr., but we decided that the Sunday shows would be a problem at this point, and the $375 fee if she made it was a bit steep for us. She REALLY wants to get into this, so I'm hoping the middle school will have a class or club she can join that will fill this need more easily and cheaply.

Abby is Abby. She announced in Primary today that she is good at rapping. Not the kind we do at Christmas either. I don't doubt that she is good at that! She was devastated to learn that I was released as the Activity Day leader and made Primary Chorister this week. She was apparently hoping that I would be her AD leader. She was convinced that I was the only one who would do fun things and that I had all the fun ideas. It's nice to be appreciated, I guess. Kim just said it would be embarrassing to have her mom as the Primary chorister.

Jessica is working hard at potty training. We've kind of taken the weekend off, but I can see her figuring it all out soon. I can't believe I'm almost done with diapers! Eric is turning out to be a typical brother - stealing purses, dolls, etc... just to annoy the girls. He's a fun kid who loves to talk. Not at all like his father :)

Birthday

Thanks for all the birthday wishes - cards in the mail, phone calls, facebook messages, etc... I had a great day. Reid and I went to a little Italian restaurant in Seattle and then went to a play called All the King's Men. It was good. Reid and I were both tired, so I'm sure the play was actually better than I might make it sound. I got a body pillow (I think the kids love it just as much as I do), a soft robe, some books, a Sudoku book, hmmmm... I detect a theme here . ... Anyway, I also got a few new serving dishes - now I just need a place to put them since the china cabinet is still in the bathroom.

I'm selling Jessica to the highest bidder - so if you want a stubborn, independant 2 year old, let me know. Okay, so she's the cutest and smartest 2 year old as well, and we do love her. We just have to keep convincing ourselves of this. If we let her tantrums go on, she will scream herself hoarse over the horrible actions of her parents (i.e. putting toothpaste on her toothbrush or closing the lid on her sippy cup). I guess the strongest spirits were saved until the last days!

Kim is singing the national anthem with 8 other kids from her class at the veterans day assembly tomorrow. She is not sure she wants me to go watch. Becoming a teenager who is embarrassed of her mother already!

Abby and Eric are remarkably normal this time. Working hard at school and enjoying life.

Losing Brain Cells

Well, the new floors are messing with my plans of writing in the blog every Sunday, but I'll get back on track soon! We spent a couple of nights this past week at a hotel while they installed and finished our hardwood floors. We came back home on Wednesday and I walked into quite the intense chemical smell of the finish on the floors. I opened all the windows and it was livable that night. I would guess that we all were losing some brain cells that night, though. :)

We had parent-teacher conferences for Kim and Abby and they went great! Both girls are doing a great job in school - top reading and math groups - and are not causing problems, either!

Jessica has started calling people "buddy" which comes out rather hilarious sometimes. She enjoyed Halloween as a cat. Eric was Darth Vader, Abby was a go-go girl, and Kim was a dark fairy (but switched to a queen for trick or treating). A fun time was had by all!

Under Construction

Well, our house is rather torn up right now. All the carpet and vinyl flooring has been torn up from the whole house except for the bedrooms and bathrooms. Most of our furniture is in the garage or bedrooms, although the china cabinet is in the hall bathroom. We are hoping the hardwood gets delivered tomorrow and they start installing it later this week. It's been a bit crazy because no one wants to play or sit on the floor because it's the yucky floor the builders put in. Jessica has the piano in her room, so there is not much room to play. We will survive!

It will look lovely when everyone comes up for Christmas as long as we don't scratch it up putting the furniture back!

Oh, and we also painted all those areas of the house as well. I was gone last weekend at an overnighter for the RS (not an OFFICIAL event) at the cabin of a ward member. Of course Friday was the day most of the house was painted, so Reid escaped to his parents' house with the kids to avoid painted children and messed up walls. I had a grand time! I stayed up late (5:00 a.m. the first night and 2:00 a.m. the second night) playing games and chatting - eating WAY too much foom. We went shopping in Leavenworth - a German town full of shops and little restaurants. Of course we ate at the Italian place.

The girls started acting class and I think they are having fun. It takes up most of our Saturday, but it's a new experience for them and it's not outside in the pouring rain.

Conference antics

For the first time ever, with kids anyway, we attended all four sessions of conference at the church. We've watched them at home many times, and usually attend one or two at church, but this time we went to all of them! The kids were remarkably good. Eric started the Saturday morning session with a lovely whining session and Jessica can't play at all without a song or running dialogue, but otherwise, they played quietly and even listened occasionally.

We made a little scrapbook of sorts with pictures and info on all the apostles and the pictures from the Ensign of the quorums of the Seventy, Presiding Bishopric, etc... Eric and Jessica especially, enjoyed looking at the picture of whoever was speaking at the time and realizing that it was the same person as on the screen.

Kim was a tremendous help on Saturday because Reid was gone all day. She has been stepping in so much lately without being asked. I had a sitter Friday night and I suspect Kim did more of the work than the babysitter! Good practice I suppose!

We had a lovely wind/rain storm that left 2 lights out on the way home on Saturday. Luckily our power was still on. It's definitely fall!

Numbers and Running

I just had to say how much I enjoyed the General Relief Society Broadcast last night. Especially President Uchtdurf's talk. If you missed it, watch it on lds.org or tivo it. He had some great ideas on how to find peace and happiness - some things I hadn't thought about before. He started his talk with a fun discussion of how different men and women are. He talked about his wife's cooking and how wonderful it is. He says she will usually sit down and say things like, "I think I added a pinch too much ginger, or maybe next time I will add another bay leaf." He thinks her meal are amazng. When he cooks his specialty - fried eggs and toast - they usually end up greasy and burned. However, he feels like a super hero for doing it. Maybe us ladies could learn something from the men about that!

We discovered this week that Jessica knows quite a few of her numbers by sight. As I was quizzing her to see which ones she knows, I held up a 5 for Eric first and asked him if he knew what it was. He said his classic, "I don't know." Jessica pipes up with a, "It's 5, Eric!" YIKES! We have created a smart monster!

Abby ran in a 1/2 mile district wide race for elementary kids. Anyone can enter and she was excited when the flyer came home from school. They gave a ribbon to everyone who participated and then the top 6 were recognized. Her friend got 5th place and I think Abby must have been 8th or so. I think she was a little disappointed, but it was a good experience for all of us. Maybe I can get Kim and Eric to participate next year!

I have been working on a humanitarian project our ward is doing. We are making remembrance quilts for parents whose children die at the hospital at or soon after birth and never come home. They are tiny quilts - 18x18 - and we are piecing the tops. They come with a matching bag for the parents to put small momentos of the child - a lock of hair, hospital tags, etc... It's been a learning experience for me and a bit sobering to think about their uses.

Eric has been drawing lots of people lately, so I'll have to learn how to scan them and add them to the blog. They are very cute. Kim is doing well in school. It's been a good experience for her to have more tests. She will be in middle school next year. Of course, I have had 4 or 5 people ask me lately when she will turn 12 and go into Young Womens. I have to tell them she still has TWO MORE YEARS! She'll be ready.

Getaway

Stuffy noses, coughs, and headaches - that's been our week! We have all caught the cold everyone else has since school started. Not fun, but predictable, I suppose.

Reid and I went away for a day without the kids while Emily stayed with them. Thanks Emily! We had a blast. We went to dinner at a restaurant called El Gaucho - very nice and classy. I think we'll have to pay off the house before we can afford to go back :) They do lots of the food tableside - caesar salad, cutting the meat, making bananas foster, etc... They had a cool meal we saw at a table nearby where the chef has a huge sword with meat and veggies on it like a kabob. She then spooned flaming alcohol over it to cook it. That was cool! Then we went to a comedy show called Jet City Improv. It was mostly college students, but there were a few old fogies there like us. It was hilarious and the best part of it was their policy of keeping things appropriate for all ages - kids and grandmas alike.

The next morning we slept in late and went to brunch at the Space Needle. The restaurant turns a full circle in 47 minutes, so we got to see the view of the clouds and drizzle very well.

Then we got home to the reality of life again. I think we need to go away for longer next time! While I was trying to get Jessica and Eric to follow me upstairs to take a bath, Jessica told me,"Go away, Mommy. I love my Daddy!" It's nice to be loved. She will say, " I love you soooo much" occasionally.

Fun, fun, fun!

Eric started preschool this week. I think he's enjoying it and I haven't heard about any major problems (or any problems for that matter!). He loves to talk about what the snack was and what he learned about. He has school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday he go to go to Chuck E. Cheese with Reid. He was getting a nasty cold, so he wasn't feeling 100%, but he did get 345 tickets!

Abby got to go there with Reid on Friday and she came out of it with over 700 tickets! I think Reid found a game that gave out LOTS of tickets if you figured out how to win it. Kim went bowling with Reid on Thursday and had a good time. They were supposed to go mini-golfing, but for some odd reason the place was closed.

On Saturday we went to "Touch a Truck". You get to sit in various city vehicles, fire trucks, police cars, etc... and pretend you are driving and even honk the horn. They have a bouncy house and lots of other little booths for water conservation, wearing helmets, car seat safety, etc... I think Eric really had a good time.

We also cleaned the garage on Saturday. Amazing what a little moving and organizing can do! Now to clean out the freezer . . .

Back to School!

Kim and Abby went back to school on Wednesday. Kim went back and forth between a few teachers, but finally ended up where she started with the teacher she had last year. I think they are having a good year so far. They don't share a whole lot, but it always come out :)

We went to the BYU game Saturday - yes, they were up here playing the University of Washington. If you don't already know, we won! It was a lot of fun to be there and it was not a boring game at all. LOTS of controversy over the win actually. We really only get the Washington opinions here, though. It probably isn't such a big deal everywhere else.

Eric and Jessica stayed at Reid's parents' house and did not want to leave when we got there, so I guess they weren't traumatized by it. While we were driving down there to drop them off, Eric declared to us that we are different from Chinese people. A rather random, but true, statement.

Jessica has been singing "Happy birthday Jee - caa - caa" for days now. Too bad her birthday isn't until the end of February! I was picking up a babysitter this week (her name is Samantha, but it comes out sounding like Santa when the little ones say it) and Eric told us that there were two Samanthas. One brings you presents, and one is a babysitter. He's rather full of observations lately!

Getting ready for school

Well, school starts on Wednesday for Kim and Abby, and Eric starts next Monday. We've done all the school shopping (we think!), and the kids are excited. We re-arranged the beds a bit this week. Kim and I moved her loft bed up to Eric's room, although he will still sleep in his old bed under the loft bed. Kim now has a regular bed that she can flop down on. We loved some of Eric's toys and furniture into Jessica's room and finally moved the bed and closet doors that have been stored in Jessica's room.

My muscles were NOT used to all that, but their rooms look good and it went faster than I thought it would!

Yesterday we helped Emily move to her new place. It's a few miles down the road from her old place and will hopefully have less mold, etc... for her to get sick from. Abby enjoyed bugging Nate the whole time (sorry, Nate :( ) and we had a few sad moments fighting over the tv (hmmm.....), but overall, they were helpful or at least stayed out of the way!

Tonight we met Logan's girlfriend (visiting from Utah). She is very fun and we had a good time. Abby kept tickling her, so we told Abby to play hide and seek with us, she would hide, of course. She came up wondering why we weren't looking for her! What a crazy girl!

Summer's over!

Rain, rain, rain!

It has rained a TON this week. I guess it saves on the water bill, but the kids wish they could enjoy the last couple of weeks before school starts. We went to a baseball game on Wednesday (the Everett Aquasox). It had been raining all day, but we decided to head out anyway. It was not raining at the ball field, so we went for it. The game was supposed to start at 7:05 pm, but at 7:10 they announced a new start time of 8:05. It didn't actually start until closer to 8:20.

There weren't too many people there, and Abby was enjoying the view from the top of the stands instead of at the bottom where we were. A foul ball was hit right by her and she was able to pick it up off the ground before anyone else got close. She's the luckiest one in the family! Jessica enjoyed cheering for the "Applesox".

We went school clothes shopping and spent lots, but they have enough (for now)!

Eric gave a talk in Primary today and did a great job. He held the picture in front of his face while he repeated the words I whispered to him.

Birthday Week

We just finished birthday week. We had Reid's birthday on Wednesday and Kim's birthday on Friday. For Kim's birthday we had 4 10-year old girls over for a sleepover party. They went to Libby Lu and got their hair and nails done and then went to dinner at the mall. Then they came back to the house and made some videos of them singing Jonas Brothers songs. It was a lot of fun to have older kids here who can entertain themselves. They claimed to have stayed up until 4:00 a.m., but they certainly weren't so loud they kept anyone awake.

Kim got Guitar Hero for her birthday and we've all enjoyed playing it. Jessica even gets Abby's guitar to play along. She even sings :)

Tonight we had a birthday party with the family. We had 18 people here, mostly adults. I think that's the most we've had here. Again, it was fun to have family here we haven't seen for a while.

First Blog

This is my first blog. I don't know if I will have anything interesting to put in here, but we'll give it a shot. I hope to make Sundays my family history day, so maybe we'll get something once a week or so. :)