First time

I've lived here for a long time now and finally, finally had my first encounter with Voodoo Doughnuts this week.  Gotta say, I wasn't disappointed.

Now I can say I'm a true Portlander.

Bobcat

 It's official.  He has earned his Bobcat and and he's on to the next badge!

We LOVE this scout!

Haunted houses...again

Jason thought the kids should give the Haunted Houses a try.  So they got some friends and oh goodness, they tried not to die of fright.  They did a good job but they were so scared.  Ansen made it thru one and then when a guy chained to a wall charged at him, he decided to not go in the other 2.  Can't say I blame him.
Here's some of the kid crew:

 Jason and I went thru the zombie haunted house with the girlies.  If anything, I had to man-up and get thru it without freaking the freak out.  Ugh.  Let me tell you, it was not easy. But I survived and the girlies survived and Jason....he was no help.

Here's proof:

They said it was "fun." Ansen and Braley never want to go back but Kahau thinks it could be fun to go back with some friends.  I never would have guessed that.

Did anyone else go to haunted houses this year?

Kahau's season

Volleyball season is done and it seemed to fly by.  Kahau did great and once she learned to ignore a few of her more aggressive teammate and play for herself she had a lot of fun. She got to play with her fun friends (Brakelle and Jaycen-on the right) and got to play against some of her other fun friends (Claire and Mireya--on the left).

 

She has turned into quite the player and we will see if she decides to take it to high school. Secretly I hope so but it's her choice.

 

Great season Kahau!  We love you!

Running for office

 For the past two weeks the girls have each been running for student council in their grades. The election was yesterday and...neither of them got elected.  SUCH a bummer.  Kahau is taking it in stride and Braley is just sad.  THe unfortunate thing is that they actually ran and campaigned.  But, as with recent elections, people voted for who looked like them and also for those who made promises of "no more homework" and "We will be able to use our phones in school."

It's a tough little lesson for them both but a good one too.  We talked about the Obama/Romney election and how we feel the wrong person was elected but that we still have to support those who were elected. We talked about how you can still make a difference and how extremely proud Jason and I were of them as they were running and effort they put in.

We love these girls and they most definitely have our vote for anything they ever run for!

Bedtime fail

We (and by "we" I mean the kids) stayed up too late tonight. 

But the Red Sox were playing.

And it was the first game of the World Series.

And it was at Fenway.

And man they were on fi-yah.

And it's so fun to watch them win-Win-WIN.

And Ansen was in his lil' baseball pants and Red Sox shirt and his Boston hat cheering and being a couch umpire. 

And Kahau would shout things like "There's my boy!" every time Johnny Gomes was at bat and "Over the monster Big Papi".

And Braley kept saying "I feel bad for the Cardinals. They don't have a chance at winning. We are too good."

 So how could I send them to bed?

Game 2 is tomorrow night.

I wonder what my excuse for letting them stay up late then will be.

The perpetual cold

About 2 weeks after I had oral surgery I got a nasty sinus infection. It took what seemed like it took forever to get over it. After I got over it even though I was feeling better I just kept sneezing. That was 2 weeks ago and I am still sneezing.  I thought I was having fall allergies but when I was at the periodontist  last week he told me due to the surgery my sinus' are all messed up and will be for the next 3-5 months and I should have a running nose and sneezing until my sinus' recover.

Uggggggghhhhhh, it's so annoying.

Thankfully I don't feel like I have allergies or a cold I just get these weird sneezing attacks. I feel like I need to go buy the Costco pack of Kleenex to get through this.

So if you see me and I'm blowing my nose-I'm not sick or contagious, I'm just...well, blowing my nose.

The Flower Farmer

Yes, I still make my family go to the Pumpkin Patch.

Yes, I realize that they are mostly big now.

Yes, we could pick pumpkins out for much, much cheaper at Wal Mart.

Yes, I am a sucker for tradition.

We used to go here all every fall for our pumpkins and then the past few years we just didn't.  I'm glad we made it back! And boy, oh boy it was a beautiful day for it!

 

  This was us last time we went (in 2010):

 Look how little our babies were then.  You wouldn't think 3 years would turn them into such big kids but....it does.

 

This was us in '10:

This was us on Saturday:

 Gosh, we haven't aged a bit, Right?  I saiddddddd, RIGHT?

As par for the course we took the train over to the patch and the kids kept saying stuff like,

"This used to be way bigger" and "the hay tower used to be a lot higher."

And of course you can't go to the pumpkin patch with out eating kettle corn. That's a given.

 

 This is a shot we have been taking a lot lately. It's fun trying to squeeze all 5 of us in the pic.

 It was a beautiful afternoon for it and I am so thankful that my family keeps going with me to pick pumpkins!

 Happy fall friends.

Braley's season

 Just as quick as it started, it's over. Wow....this fall is flying by.

 It is amazing how much this girlie picked up in the last month and a half playing soccer. She went from timid to a little aggressive.  She learned the rules and learned to really like the sport, so much so that she wants to play for middle school next year.

 Braley was lucky because she got to play with friends and, we all know, that makes just about everything better.

 Great job this season, Braley.  You played so well!

 We had lots of fun watching you this season.  We love you!

Who woulda thought?

We've have been doing this middle school thing for like 2 years and 2 months now and things have been pretty smooth.  I always dreaded the thought of middle school because I figured middle school = drama.  But, until now, it's been mostly drama free.

Enter 2 sisters who are totally different and both attending the same school.

(I'm talking about my girls, of course.)

Really it has been great thus far but *man alive* this last week has been rough.

One is in art.

The other is in choir.

Her: "You should really be in art, you know.  It's wayyyyy better."

The other her: "That's what you think. You are wrong."

One likes to dress comfy. Every. Day.

The other dresses less comfy.

Her: "You could get ready for school in like 5 minutes if you just wore sweats like me."

The other her: "But then I'd look like a slob."

The 1st her: " Yaaaaaa, a comfy slob."

One is running is for student government.

So is the other.

Her: "I'm really excited to be in student government."

The other her: "You can't be more excited than me. Because I get more excited about things."

The 1st her: "I don't think you are exciting."

The 2nd her: "What were you saying? I got bored listening to you."

So it hasn't been a banner week for them.

Here's to next week.

Wicked awesome news guys!

World. Series. Baby!

Man, I have a feeling bedtime is going to be all messed up the next few weeks.

Go Sox!

YW in Excellence

Each fall we have Young Women in Excellence for our girls at church.  At the beginning of the the year our theme was "Stand in Holy Places" for New Beginnings so, for YWIE we finished the thought and our theme was "And Be Not Mooooooved."
The girls received an invite for themselves and their families that was so stinking cute with it's cow print.
At the end of the night they recieve the tag on the left attached to a Cookies 'n' Cream candy bar (cause ya know, they are black and white).....

 and a pair of sassy socks with a poem that said:

 As you place these socks upon your feet,
please remember, they are for more than heat.
They will remind you of where you should stand.
In Holy Places the scriptures command.

The Temple, the church and your home too...
These places should be very sacred to you.

Also remember, no matter where you are,
Your values will keep you from wandering far.
Hold tight to the rod as you embrace,
The admonition to "Stand in a Holy Place."

 Usually the Young Women are supposed to display what they have done for Personal Progress the past year but this year we asked the girls to do it a little different.  We asked the girls to talk about how Personal Progress helped them to Stand in Holy Places and where those Holy Places were that they stood.

Can I just tell you how impressed I was with those Young Women?!  They talked about being an example at school, volunteering in our community, participating in Girls Camp and dance festival and temple trips.  They are awesome!

Then, of course, we had to have a treat.  We did a cookies and milk bar and I think it was a pretty big hit.
We did 3 kinds of cookies: Sugar, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip and 3 kinds of milk, 1%, strawberry and chocolate.

(I don't know about you but my favorite part of the picture above it the pretty church garbage can in the background.  Talk about a photo bomb.)

By far the sugar cookies and the strawberry milk were the most popular items.  I would have thought different.  I'm just glad almost everything got eaten.

I love that I get to work with the Young Women in our ward and I love those who work along side me. Most of I have have loved this years encouragement to Stand in Holy Places and to make where you stand a Holy Place.

Haunted houses, year 7

That's right folks, it's haunted house time again. Last Saturday was our night.  We had dinner at Olive Garden with a bunch of friends (Falepapalangi's, Lulich's, Te's, Stimpson's, Ross', Tucketts, and Grimmetts) and then headed to a haunted house in Portland that I found on GroupOn.  A word of advice: never go to a haunted house on GroupOn. It's cheap for a reason. While we did have fun talking and visiting friend--the haunted house was pretty lame.

After we're done we usually go to Pieshakes but Jason was so disappointed in the first place he decided that we had to go to anther place to make up for it.  The Stimpson's and Grimmett's came too.  We went to a local place that we have never been to and it was SO fun (and scary). I'm so glad we went to another place.

There were 3 haunted houses. 

One was almost completely dark and ended with a man chained to the wall lunging at you.

Two was a Manor that just was creepy and so, so wrong.

Three was a forest that you walked through that had Zombie roaming around. I hated it. I hate zombies.  Thankfully Emily and Tab both held my hands.

 We didn't know to begin with but... in each haunted house we were being photographed and recorded.  Some of these pics are too awesome. The bottomn series is my favorite. Just look at Tab and her amazing reach.  The lights had gone out and when they came back on there he was standing in her face.

Let's look at it again...but bigger.

She isn't playin.

We all lived and that's all that matter!

Happy Haunting.

Dana Point, CA

I went on a lil' vaca last week to Dana Point, CA last week with Jason for 2 days.  I mean, if he's going to go somewhere called DANA Point I think it's implied that I come along.  It was a cute town in Southern California that was really too expensive for me but I did my best to look like I belonged while Jason....worked. Bummer. But we did get to hang out a bit and enjoy the sunshine, some awesome deserts and "the point" with some seals.

 All over town is an art exhibit called Elephant Parade. It is Elephant Parade's mission to be the world's largest support organization for the Asian elephant, threatened with extinction. The open-air art exhibitions generate worldwide attention, public awareness and support for the cause of elephant conservation.  These elephants were so cool to see outside shops, on the beach, inside resorts. And they all had such different personalities.

On our way out of town we ate at a local hotspot called chronic tacos.  They are all over SoCal and it was pretty good. It was no dollar taco but it satisfied my need for a taco every 36-48 hours so I give it 2 thumbs up.

And (of couse) I spent some time here:

Quick trip.  Very relaxing. Got a whole book read.  Went running on a compete sugar high (should do that all the time).  Got to spend time with the big Kahuna.  Excellent few days.

Hikin'

After General Conference we needed out of the house. It was sunny-ish and not freezing and, as great as Conference was, we needed outside for some fresh air!

Warning:  We look rough. Like didn't shower, spent the whole day in our pj's, didn't even bother to brush our hair-rough.

 I'm not concerned about it so don't worry your pretty little head either.

We went to Butte Creek Falls and it was really pretty. It was a new place for us so we hope to go back up when we have a whole day to explore.  Who wants to come?