Thanksgiving `08

Since we aren't moving this year, we decided that we would have some fun and go to my sister, Shauna's (who lives in Spokane) for Turkey day. We packed up the van and left at the crack of dawn to make the 11 hour trek with the 4 kiddos. We actually made good time, no major stopping except for gas and to relieve ourselves, that really helped. We got there in time for dinner and let the kids play for a while before bed. These pics aren't in order but I'll give ya the play by play.

Here's Uncle Scooby MAKING his 18 month give him an airplane ride. This was really funny to watch, little Ella was just cracking up every time he would "fly."

Right after we got there, the kids went crazy cuz their Aunt Bacon was there. They haven't seen her since May of 2007 (she was on a mission in Taiwan) and just got home and was able to come out for this. So she had the Taiwanian (that's a word right?) souvenirs to give the us and the kids. They had a blast.One of the gifts the kids got was chocolate in a tube, and those of you who know Shauna, know how much of a chocoholic (I mean even more than me, and that's saying a lot). Well she got caught red handed stealing her kids' tube-o-chocolate, niiiice Shaun.
Yah, can you tell we're sisters.

Turkey day means a Turkey bowl of some sort. Randy asked Jason to put together a group that could play that morning. This year I actually wanted to play. They last time I played was probably in Corvallis in the U-wards with the girls who showed up to the game. This year there wasn't a ton of guys so I figured it would be safe for me know to completely get hurt/tackled so I played. It was a lot of fun, I even caught the ball and ran a few times. (except when Randy was running up to me screaming trying to get me to drop the ball, can ya tell he loves me). So this is us minus Jason (he was the photographer) and another guy who had to leave early. It was fun even if there was frozen dog doodie all over the field.

We also decided to have a white elephant exchange, there were some great gifts, like this one Megan found at my parents house. It was a book that Shauna wrote when she was in 4th grade called "Megan" about a girl who's mom kept having babies and she was sooo embarrassed (hmmm sounds familiar, like it actually happened, Shauna). It was awesome. We all laughed till we cried. We made sure Shauna got this gift by discreetly writing all over the package best gift and Shauna wants this, etc. Amazingly enough she actually opened it.
These two were inseparable. McKenzie slept at Kyra's all weekend, and they played all day/night. I'm glad we get together often enough that they want to play together. See there is the hat again. We wanted to make sure and get a baby pic again since we all have babies the same age. We did this last year, there's a pic of it on one of my slide shows, they have grown soo much. (left to right Lauries, Cole; Lindsay's, Bradley; Mine, Malia; Shauna's, Ella).

Aunt Bacon doing what she does best, loving her nieces and nephews.
Uncle Jason #2 doing what he does best, holding babies while making goofy faces.

Three of the girls (Grace, Kyra and Mac) put on a puppet show, well Mac put it on while Kyra and Grace were the background noises, not quite sure why that happened, but funny nonetheless. It was great.
Oh and the best thing about my oldest sister marrying one of my awesome High School friends brother's, I get to see my friend at family functions. This is Danielle and her boyfriend Nishant (he's from India), he's a great guy and they are really cute together.

We did hit the store sand went shopping on Black Friday (cuz we are Schmidt's and crazy like that). This year however there wasn't really anything I was dying to get except the 1/2 price sock sale at Fred Meyer's (especially since we do not have one in Utah and we desperately need socks). So I only went to that one store oh and Walgreen's cuz they had a pancake griddle for $10-awesome price. So me and Meg hit those while my other 3 sisters went the crazy route and did the rest of the madness. Ya know standing in lines, getting mad at idiots for cutting in lines and acting like they didn't "realize" that was NOT the end of the line. . . moron. Anyway, glad I didn't have to deal with that. They survived and got everything they set out to get. Good job girls.

I however returned to Morgan sitting on the toilet with a bucket on her lap cuz it was coming out both ends. ( I know TMI). We were trying to avoid the bug that had accidentally been brought to the family gathering but we didn't get spared. It started with Morgan on Friday, (she felt better that evening) and the Malia got it on Saturday. We made it home on Sunday without any major catastrophes and then Randy and Micah got the bug but not all of it. It only came out one end. Then I got some form of it on Wednesday (but mine was weird cuz only my stomach hurt really bad, but nothing ever came out). All I know is, this had better been it for the season. I think we've had our turn, we shouldn't have to get it again . . . . right? Here's poor Morgie while we were watching the puppet show, how sad does she look?

A mess of posts put into 1.

November felt like it would never end for me. It was one thing after another and it didn't really stop till umm . . .yesterday. So my next few posts may seem random but bear with me, I will try and get through it all, in no particular order.

While Laurie and her fam were here, we had to take them to BYU and let them experience the gymnastics room, cuz it's the best place on earth (according to my kids) besides Disneyland of course. Here's Billy (my lil bro.) acting like a whale trying to do a vault. We all had a good laugh.

And of course the girls enjoying the huge trampoline as they bounced into the foam pit.

Also while they were here, we found Malia in the laundry room (hence the sheets she is sitting on) chowing down on vanilla wafers, not sure how many she ate before we found her. I wish I could hear what was going on in her head when this happened, maybe "Oh crap they found me" or "Man, why'd ya have to go and look in this room" or maybe even, "Well it was fun while it lasted."

After Laurie left, Randy's parents stayed with us for a night and the next day we went to Sandy to visit his grandparents who live in Corvallis and had been in town for the baptism and had been staying with an aunt and uncle. It was great to see them again, as you may be able to tell by Malia's expression.

Right after Randy's parents left I had to finish getting ready for my ward's Super Saturday (thank heavens it is over). It was a great turn out, we did four cute (at least I thought they were cute) crafts. Some glass etching, wooden blocks with vinyl lettering, beaded bookmarks and memory boards. It was fun being able to hang with the ladies in my ward on a friend level. I was amazed with myself, me, who hates to crotchet, knit, cross-stitching, sew (pretty much anything with fabric unless I can glue it) learned how to make a hat on one of those looms. I got soo into it that I finished 2 in one weekend and 2 more in the next 2 days (these were for a humanitarian project). Then the girls got into them, McKenzie loves doing it and I helped her finish a really cute off-white one that she will not take off (pictured below). Morgan got a black one with a pom on the top. I'll probably make more in the near future, they go fast and when you need to take a break it won't get messed up and you can find your spot really easily. Hence why I like it, my ADD brain can handle a project like this.
Here's Micah just being a stud one day before church. What a cute boy.
Morgie and Malia goofing around the same day. Malia was spinning around in a hat a lot the morning of this shot, I will try and post the video.
I'll stop here for this post, cuz the next stuff will take a lot of room as well, and you probably need a break from all of this.

Malia Spinning

Just an update

So there have been a few things that have happened lately that I have neglected to post (due to the fact that I had a Super Saturday to get through), and no I am not pregnant.
1.) You may have noticed the last few pics of Morgan with a band aid on her chin. Well she split it open while trying to get in the van. It was pretty nasty and we were going to take to urgent care (yet again) to get stitches, but had to run home 1st for something and noticed our neighbor (who is also a nurse) was home and doing stuff outside. We asked her to look at it and see if we needed to really take her in and she (being the great neighbor she is) looked and decided it could be fixed with some NuSkin (I love that stuff). So we just kept an eye on it and made sure it stayed clean and closed and it worked. If she scars at all, it will be minimal, yeah.
2.) Malia started walking a about 2 weeks ago. She's been walking on and off for about a month but not consistently until about 2 weeks ago. She is so cute when she walks though. I'll try and get a video in the near future (no promises though).
3.) We are NOT moving!!!!! Randy had just turned in his grad application and was checking in with the recruiter to find out if they got everything and when to expect to find out anything, when he got an email telling him that it wasn't being made official yet but SUU was cutting their forensics program due to budget cuts. Randy was devastated. This is what he has wanted since he started college (alooooong time ago) and now this. He was told about another program down there that isn't the same but might be something he'd be interested in and found out it is offered at the Y as well. So he is applying here and there for a Masters in Public Administration. So we will be here at least until the end of summer or maybe here for another 2 years. We shall see. Even though this was a huge blow to him, I am very grateful that I do not have to pack up and move (yet again) and get to be in a place for more than 2 years. (Yeah for me).
4.) Since we are not moving and will be around for all of the holidays, we are going to enjoy them and go spend the first round of them with my family (all my sisters are getting together which has really never happened since we lived in the same house together). So I am really excited.
However, Randy is not as excited about going up because Thanksgiving lands on our anniversary this year which is a pretty big one. We are celebrating 10 years together and we will be with my family, and go see Twilight with my seesters, and enjoy black Friday together, how much better could it get, tee hee hee. I told him though that we could go out and not have to find babysitters, which kinda helped with the idea of going there.
5.) Randy's parents sold their home in Oregon this last weekend. It's been on the market since the middle of the summer and they were getting a little worried with the way the economy and the market have been going they didn't think it would sell for a while. But they accepted an offer, and as long as everything goes well, they will be down here before Christmas, which will be great for all of us. It will be bitter sweet for Randy and his siblings though, they were all pretty much born and raised in that house. It was a great house, with a big yard and lots of memories for them. Onto a new chapter though.
Alright enough with the updating and no photos. Have a great week.

McKeznie's Baptism

McKenzie was baptized last Saturday (Nov. 1) and it was an absolutely wonderful day. My sister and her family drove from Vancouver to be here for it, Randy's parents were already down for a conference they had to be at, and also Randy's grandparents were able to come down for it. We had lots of family and friends to help share in her special day. I was able to get my baptism dress from my mom a while ago and it fit perfectly on McKenzie. She was really excited to wear it. Here she is with Randy right before it started.


This is McKenzie's teacher this year. (Ms Braun). Only in Utah could you ask your child's school teacher to come to your 8-year-old's baptism and not be looked at like a psychopath (there is good things about living in Utah.) She was really excited that she came.Wanna know what's even cooler than having your current teacher come to your baptism, having your Kindergarten teacher come as well. This is Mrs. Headman and she was McKenzie's teacher when we first moved to Utah. She is now Morgan's teacher which she totally loves. McKenzie would have invited her 1st grade teacher too, if she hadn't moved after the end of the year.Here are the girls just being cute. Yes the dreaded family pic. We got one done of all of us but it didn't turn out as well, (so Julie if you have any on your camera I'd love if you could pass them along, hint hint). Her grandma Tucker found this dress up in Oregon and it was just perfect for her. It is beautiful and it just looks like her. McKenzie with grandma and grandpa Tucker.
With aunt Julie and the kids. Julie gave the Baptism talk in the beginning. I forgot to mention that there were no other kids in our stake getting baptize that day. So we had it all to ourselves. So I took it upon myself to do the whole program. It was a little crazy but it made it really special for her day.

Her with aunt Dee Da.

Her uncle, Jason, gave the Holy Ghost talk and then the girls sang a really cute version of "I am a Child of God," that me and my sisters use to sing when we were little. So this next little video is for my family, sorry that it's kinda soft, but the girls would not sing loud, no matter how hard I poked my ear to remind them. It brought back a lot of fond memories of my own mother fighting with us to get us to sing together in somewhat unison. Ahhh good times, Ma enjoy. It was an amazing day, I never thought that I would be at this stage in my life. My 1st is now baptized and now accountable for her actions and that scares me. I hope I have taught her and will be able to continue to teach her all she needs to know to live with our Father in Heaven someday. She is such a good girl and we are sooo proud of her. Way to go McKenzie we love you. And thank you to all who came and supported her, she is soo grateful to all who came.

The song the girls sang for McKenzie's Baptism

Slacking on Halloween (or not)

Ya I know I've taken forever to post these, but I've had good excuses this time. We just have so many fun things to do for Halloween (on top of the fact that I got all the girls' pictures taken at Penney's on 3 different days, and McKenzie's baptism was the day after Halloween oh and ya, family coming in for that baptism, it's just been a whirlwind of fun).

So to start we went to pumpkin land and had a fun afternoon. We went in the corn maze, played on their play ground, saw some animals, and got to jump on some bounce houses. We carved those pumpkins the weekend before Halloween, and this is is the finished product. We got an email last month showing this pic of a carved pumpkin that had beer bottles around it and it looked like it was vomiting. The funny thing was this guys had carved his other pumpkins to look at the puking pumpkin in disgust. It was hysterical. So this is our attempt at Pumpkin Ralph. Pretty funny I think. McKenzie wanted her's to be a vampire, Morgan (the one below, is a pretty basic one (but she came up with the design herself), Micah's is the multi colored red one (he likes to paint) and the other's are one's that the girls got from going on pumpkin field trips. Halloween evening, my sister from Washington was able to come down for the baptism, and made sure they got here early enough to go trick-or-treating with us. They made it just in time to enjoy our annual tradition of eating Pumpkin Bob (this year was Pumpkin Bobbie, I made a girly face this time on it). It's actually pretty tasty, it's dinner in a pumpkin, you puts lots of different things in and cook in a pumpkin, when it's done cooking, you scoop the dinner along with a little of the pumpkin onto the plate. In the beginning of Pumpkin Bob the kids weren't thrilled about it, but as years have come and gone, they get a little more and more excited to see for this tradition. Unfortunately I was unable to get a pic of it cuz we ate it soo fast. Next year maybe. This is Ellen's little man (Spud) who is a month younger than Malia.

Here's the rest of the crew minus Elvis who was much too busy running around with his dad to sit still for a quick shot.

Earlier that day I was pretty much at the school all day. Each of the kids had parties that I helped with and their annual Halloween Parade through the school that I didn't want to miss. McKenzie is a Asian chickadee. (pretty much a Geisha without all the accessories that go along with that costume).

Morgan was a cheerleader who apparently does not have pom poms. She forgot them and then i forgot to bring them with me when I went back. Oh well, she's still cute.

All in all it was a fun day/week. The kids were counting down the days and just really enjoyed themselves.