Mackenzie's Dolls

Mackenzie loves playing with her dolls. This Christmas we got her the American girl biddy twins. Grammy Dee and Grandpa got her the white doll furniture. She either plays dolls by herself, with Levi, or with her neighbor friend Juliana. Occasionally dad will play a little too... I'm not afraid to admit it. I will also admit that I'm not very good at it. Kenzie seems to always know what to do next with the little buggers.

Walmart Deal

Yesterday Josh had some money and we were at Walmart for the some post Christmas deals... Like wrapping paper and stuff. We were checking out the Legos and found the Exo-Force Mobile Devastator that was open with a little tape from a return and one side ripped open. On the Walmart site it says that the cost is $88.88. It's not even available to buy there. It is also stated as unavailable at the Lego site. Josh has really been interested in Exo-Force so I suggested that we bring it up to the counter and find out if they would give us a discount. I knew it was between $89.00 and $100.00 retail price. The lady at the counter said that she could discount it 10%. I asked her if she would get the manager to see if she would discount it more. When the manager came she also said 10%. I said that I was concerned that some pieces may be missing and I thought that it should be discounted for that possibility. She didn't budge. Then I suggested we ring it up and see what the price was. It came up as $49.99 on the register and then the manager said she would sell it for $25.00. Little did she know she may have had me at $50.00. Oh well Walmart... Roll back those prices. Josh got a great deal. He was all smiles.



I got a similar deal at a Walmart in Wyoming on our trip back from Colorado. It was for the Lego Basketball court and the top half of the box was ripped off. We got the whole court for under $5.00. It was over $50.00 normally and I was haggling for a percentage off and contemplating the purchase when she rang it up it was about $4.97 or something. She still took the percentage off that she promised without any prompting from me. I think we ended up paying 3 something.

I'm Dreaming of a white Christmas!

Well, Almost. The day after Christmas as we were eating breakfast Josh noticed that it was snowing. It was coming down really hard and even though the ground was very wet it still starting sticking after about 15 min. I thought it was going to stop, but it didn't. We got about 2-3 inches and had a ton of fun outside in it. It was Gabriel's first time in the snow and Levi loved the sledding.

Mom and Gabe look great out in the snow together.


I've always wanted to build an igloo, but either haven't had enough snow or it wasn't sticky enough. Today we had both. We I was little I remember my uncle pat building one at his place just outside of Sedro-Woolley. I think it was a place across the street from the river, but I'm not sure. If anyone has a picture of that igloo I'd love to see it. (Mom?)


Levi loved sledding he wanted to go over and over again. And every single time he had a huge smile on his face.

Sugar Cookies!

Here is a look at our sugar cookie frosting this year. We always make them on christmas eve and then leave some for "santa". We are doing christmas eve tonight and christmas tomorrow so we don't have to much crazyness all in one day. And I know it sounds like it, but we don't normally have them both on the same day. It's just that we are driving to Bellingham on the real Christmas morning. It looks like they are eating more than they are frosting. I think that proves they taste good.

Levi and Carmelo

Angel

Every year we let the kids take turns putting up the Angel. Josh put it up two years ago and MacKenzie was last year. This year Levi got his chance and next year will be Gabriel. What a rotation. It's like waiting for the next leap year. Not getting to do it for a few years may even make it more memorable. Anyway, it's a fun tradition.

Photoshop Fun

MacKenzie and I played around on photoshop until we found some cool pictures we liked. Here they are.

Allinson Castle

The teacher next door to me just got two large book carts for math books and I ran away with the boxes. Once we got them home, I started to find the castle in them with my box knife. I knew it was in there somewhere. Sure enough it turned into a castle and the kids have already gotten some good play time out of it. Joanna and the kids are just finishing up a unit on medieval times so it's perfect timing for a culminating project. The kids want to put on a play using the castle. We'll see if that's still on the books tomorrow. Levi only got to enjoy it for a short while before bed however he did say, "thanks, Dad." There still need to be some finishing touches. We'll have to add some strings for the drawbridge and some sort of roof for the two front bulging tower things.

Decorating our Tree

Our Little Reindeer

Here is Gabe in his Seahawks jacket from grandpa Cobb and his little Reindeer antlers from grandma Cathy. What a little dear.

Geocaching with Grandpa

Geocaching web site. We went on our first geocaching trip today. A teacher at my school let me borrow his old GPS unit. It was great. Grandpa was dropping Josh off from their trip to Chelan and so we took him along with us. We all had a great time. You can check the website above, but here's the basics. Geocaching is a 'treasure' hunting game. People hide a cache somewhere and then enter the latitude and longitude from their gps(global positioning system)online saying that there is a cache in the location. Then, someone sees that there is a cache in their area on the website, puts the coordinates into their gps and then tries to go and find it. The cache has things in it. Josh took an X-box game and Mackenzie took a little tiny stuffed animal. Josh left a stretchy frog and Mackenzie left a strawberry shortcake toy. I took a travel bug for diabetes tag that I record online that I took, and then I place it in another cache the next time I find one. It would be good fun for a college student I would think. Check out the site above and give it a try yourself.

Little Dimple Boy

We got Levi's allergy results the other day. He is alergic to Egg, Dairy, Peanuts and Cashews. We are suppose to still stay away from other tree nuts. He's been really healty for the past couple weeks. :).

Elf Yourself

I got an email from my mom where my Uncle Tom and his family had elfed themselves. So the kids wanted to elf themselves as well. Here they are. Click here and you can see them live. Thanks for the email mom. The kids thought this was great.

Cookie Cutters

Grandma Dee sent us home with some cookie dough that is safe for Levi the last time we were up. The kids really enjoyed rolling out the dough and putting the cookie cutters on. Levi kept trying to grab a chunk of dough a take a bite out of it. He was successful on many occasions. I let him sit up on the table so that he could really get into the action.

Lego Maniac

Josh still had some money he had been saving from when he sold his gamecube. When we went to the sales after thanksgiving, there were some Lego sets half off at Toys R Us. Josh bought a Viking set that had this huge dragon and a double catapult to boot. He really enjoys the challenge of putting it together.

Little Brothers

Levi is such a great older brother. He's really cute with Gabe. He likes to cuddle up to him and give him hugs and kisses. Gabe is getting so much bigger. I had to move the straps on the car seat up to the highest setting today - granted there are only 2 settings.

Let's go Camping

We were rearranging the closet and out came the kids tent. I set it up and Levi loved it. It's a great time of year to camp inside. Josh and Kenzie are going to take turns sleeping in it for the next couple of nights. Levi put his sword in the key bag on the side of the tent. What a cute kid.

It's Puzzle Time

Josh and Mackenzie were thrilled to finish this puzzle. I remember doing puzzles when I was growing up with my mom and with family during thanksgiving once as well. Anyway, they are lots of fun.

Josh the Cook

Josh got a Border's gift card from grandma Cathy for his birthday. He chose a book about dragons and a kids cooking book.
Yesterday he made Caesar Salad and it was really good. I told him that all he would need to do is add some strips of chicken and it could be a dinner. He said, "Don't temp me."
This morning he wanted to make these blueberry pancakes. There were about 6 ingredients. I decided to just leave it to him and just played in the other room with Levi. He even doubled the recipe. Mackenzie was the first to try one and she told him they were disgusting and it was surprising to me that she was actually mad at him?? She got sent to her room and later got to eat some. We didn't let her eat anything else because she was so rude. Joanna as the mom felt like she needed to eat them so she smothered them with syrup. It cracks me up just thinking of it again. I ate a little bit also for Josh's sake. Josh just finished cleaning up when we were done and he sat down to have a bite. He took one bite and looked at us like we were crazy to have eaten some. I can't remember exactly what he said because I high-tailed it out of there for a good laugh in the other room.
We looked over the recipe to see what went wrong. I thought that he put in too much salt but he assured me and even showed me what measurements he used. Everything seemed fine, he actually had done everything correct. Then I asked him to show me the baking powder he put in. He opened the fridge and out came the BAKING SODA! 6 teaspoons of that will add a little sodium to your meal. I know I've meet my daily allowance for baking soda today... maybe for the whole week. Joanna's probably good for the whole month.
Side note: This picture was taken before anyone had tasted the meal.

Free Rice

Help world hunger and strengthen your vocabulary at the same time. It's a win-win proposition. Check it out at this site. Free Rice.
Please send others here too so that they can help as well.

Veteren's Day

We had a busy day today. This morning I got up and started working on all the apples that Dad sent home with us last night. Levi and I worked on the peeling. Josh was helpful during peeling as well. Mackenzie was still sleeping.

Joanna and I got some puzzles for the kids to do and last night we started one and really went to town on it. We managed to get the balloons all finished before we went to bed. Josh found it in the morning and took care of the rest. I chipped in here and there. He was really happy to get it done. Josh put in the last piece.

I was about to just make all the apples into applesauce when Joanna reminded me how nice it was when we made apple pie mix last year. Josh thought that apple pie would be an awesome idea as well. It smelled delicious.

Levi wanted to get right in there and help. After all the canning, we went to Joshua's soccer party and then to father/son Lego night. Fun day. On the way home we listened to the Seahawks game where they won 24-0.

A day at Grandpa and Grammy's farm

We went up to Bellingham today to see family. Levi was happy to see some animals as well. He thought it was great that they wanted to smell his hand. It was lucky someone hadn't fed them yet because they came running up like pigs after some slop.

Mackenzie, Skyler, and Bella were out tromping around to see the animals as well and the girls kept hugging Mackenzie. They were really excited to see her. I must admit she loved it.

Grammy Dee very happy to hold baby Gabe.

If you wonder what it would be like to have 8 kids between 1 and 10... Well Dinner looks like this. What a crew. Do you think the parents would get to eat?

Here's all the cousins on my side of the family.

Halloween

Here are all the kids all dressed in their Halloween best. Gabe is a bear. Someone gave us the outfit at Joanna's shower. It's a little big, but really cute. Levi is a lion and in this picture he had just gotten up from a nap. He was pretty cranky. 5 minutes later as we were going outside to trick-or-treat he was all smiles. He thought it was great going up to people's doors. Mackenzie is a beautiful princess. Grandma Cathy made her costume during her visit last month. Josh is Zorro. We had a couple other costumes, but he insisted on Zorro and bought all the parts himself. He got most of the costume at value village and the only part that came together was the mask and hat. His favorite part is the whip.


After trick-or-treating we went to church for a ton of games. The older three played all the games and jumped in the bounce house. Josh even won some cupcakes in the cake walk. They had a cool backdrop seen here to take pictures. Mackenzie and Josh used their hats for candy because we forgot to bring bags.

Grandpa Cobb came over for trick-or-treating and walked around with the kids. He always likes to come over on Halloween and see the kids all dressed up. I remember him always going over to Juli's house too when her kids were little so he could take them around the block. Gabe is looking pretty comfortable in grandpa's arms.

Dinobrothers

You can't really tell, but Levi and Gabriel have matching dinosaur shirts on. I really liked this picture and wanted to share it.

Levi's First Haircut

Mackenzie has been growing a pumpkin since late fall early summer. Only one pumpkin grew on the vine and it never turned orange. She was still proud of it and wanted to scoop out the insides. Levi helped with the project and they were kept busy for quite a while scooping.

Levi's hair was getting a little long so we decided it was time for a trim. Aunti Juli started out and was really careful not to cut too much. She was doing a great job, but then somehow she handed me the scissors and boy did I go to work. I cut it all down to finger length. Levi was great the whole time. First he was eating chips and salsa. When he finished that we gave him a sucker. Then after his bath to wash off the excess hair I gave him a little fauxhawk. He sure does look like a cute little boy. I don't think we'll get many comments now on what a cute girl he is. Or our other favorite, how nice... you have two of each.

Uncle Ken was thrilled to stop by and visit so he could see his newest nephew. Gabe looks content. Levi really liked his cousin Rachel this time especially. He kept going over to play with her.

Gabriel is expanding.

Gabe was over 10 pounds and 23.5 inches at his 1 month check up a couple of weeks ago and I realized that some of you out there may want to know that valuable and extremely important information. But seriously, he has smiled at us a few times. It's always cute to see that when they're so little, whatever the reason. This picture was just after he took a shower with me. He liked the warm water and was really wide eyed, but not really bushy tailed. He's on our bed right now fighting to try to roll over onto his back. He can make it up onto one shoulder all kicking and squirming, but he doesn't quite have the technique down for the full roll. This is not an often occurrence, but he does like to keep his head up when he's on his belly.

Josh was trying on some hand-me-down shirts today and Levi thought that he should try one on too. He loved it and didn't want to take off the dress(shirt). Then Levi noticed us cheering for Gabe who was trying to reach for his toys above the swing.
Whenever Gabriel is in his swing Levi notices that we bend over to look at him and talk to him. Levi came right over, bent over and stared clapping for his little brother. I think it's rather obvious that he doesn't really need to do the bending.

We rented Evan Almighty last night and after watching it decided it was ok for the kids. Josh and Mackenzie thought that it was hilarious. They especially liked the part where he tried to go outside and get the mail. Levi enjoyed seeing all the animals. After watching the movie the kids were playing upstairs for awhile. When they came down they were all "haired out" with toilet paper to try and look like Evan Almighty. Joshua's beard is a little on the long side. I thought the whole thing was really funny. What creative little buggers they are. And so without further ado.... I present to you Josh and Kenzie Almighty.

Pumpkin Farm

We visited the pumpkin farm with the Elenbaas Family. We were not there long and thankfully it is only 10 minutes from our house. Gabe doesn't make it very far without wanting some yummies. Levi loved the maze and he also got to shoot a pumpkin from the cannon. He liked it, but wanted to keep the pumpkin.

Muddy Day

I barely made it to the end of Joshua's game due to the pizza party for the end of Mackenzie's season. The field Josh was playing on was ridiculously muddy as you can see in the picture. Bath's were necessary for all after the day's games.

Mackenzie was happy to get a trophy. She had a great season. There was maybe one game she didn't score some goals in.

Mackenzie and teammates getting ready for the other team to do a corner kick.

Joanna and Gabe in his new Moose outfit from Grandma Cathy.

Levi thought that it would be great to try on some of Gabriel's clothes. They don't quite fit, but hey they look great. A lot of people have that motto. Levi also went poop on his potty today. He sat on it and wouldn't get up. I kept asking him if he was done or wanted to play and he would say, "no." Then after about 5 or 10 minutes he had gone poop. It was a pretty big one for all those curious. We flushed it down the toilet and Levi said bye-bye to it. Josh and I thought that it was too bad I didn't take a picture to put on the blog for everyone to see. oh well.