The Wise Man Built His House...With a Math Problem??

Dad had a party for his five math students and some friends.  It was a gingerbread house making party with a twist.  If you want your candy, you have to do the five math problems.  Even the parents were being challenged with these crazy word problems, but in the end all of the problems got solved and everyone got to build their little candy house.  It was a great party Dad!!

Happy Birthday Little L

This year was a family party day for Little L.  She had everything planned out and even talked me into letting one of her friends join us for the festivities.  She had a school Christmas party that day which I was in charge of and the class sang Happy Birthday, she planned for us go to the library, planned a dinner of lasagna and blueberry muffin cake for dessert, and then watched the Smurf movie.  It was a perfect birthday for her, very unique!!  Happy Birthday cute girl!!  

First Band Concert

Mr. M had his first band concert this month.  We were so impressed with the band as all of the students have only been playing their instruments for 3-4 months.  Amazing!!!

Christmas Piano Concert

Macie's Baptism

We drove up to Seattle to attend the baptism of my niece Macie.  It was such a fun weekend.  We didn't get a ton of picts. but here are some of the big day.

Our Beautiful cousin Macie on the day of her baptism.

Some of Macie's good friends and cousins who came to share her special day.

My sister Annette, her husband Russ and their awesome family.

Mr. M, Dad and Lady K playing Mario.

Hee, hee.  We love you Macie.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my Grandpa Baughmans house.  It was such a fun time for all of us.  In the party were my Grandpa, three aunts, two uncles and five of my nine siblings with their families.  We had a blast!!! Get ready for a picture fest.  (The high quality, edited picts are thanks to my sister Jody.)

This is the whole crew after going to see the Muppets movie.  Thank you Uncle Kevin and Aunt Janet for treating everyone and Crystal and David, Katy and Russ for providing tons of snacks.  We have the best family!!!!!

Lovely Aunt Laurie.

Uncle Jay coloring with Baby R.

Mom, Uncle Russ, Aunt Katy, Baby R., J. Man and Cousin Macie on a walk.

Mr. M, Uncle Russ and J Man playing Angry Birds.  There was a lot of that happening that week.

Mom wearing Grandpa's cool hat and an awesome coat he gave me.  Love you and your style Grandpa!!

Aunt Jody with Baby R.  Aren't they so cute.

Aunt Janet brought her bead projects again.  It was so much fun for the girls.  Thanks  Janet.

Mom and Aunt Jody heading out to do our own little Turkey Trot.  I think we look like models...so beautiful.  Hahaha

The rest of the family opted to work out in the  hotel.  Here is Lady K on the treadmill.

J Man on the exercise bike.

Dad pumping iron.

Mr. M toning up his muscles.

Little L out for a leisurely ride.

Grandpa Baughman and Baby R. playing on the couch.  Sometimes I would hear her squealing and would be ready to tell her to lower her voice because she might be too loud for the adults' ears when come to find out it was Grandpa who was making her squeal.  

Uncle David and more Angry Birds with J Man.

The kids' table.

The bigger kids table. Russ, David, Spencer, Jody, Crystal, and Tori.

Aunt Janet and Uncle Kevin.  Awww, we love you guys.

Aunt Katy, Aunt Netti and Uncle Russ.

Our crew with Grandpa Baughman.

I love my Grandpa.

Six of the ten siblings.  Mom, David, Annette, Jody, Russ, Katy.

The grand event.  A great time was had by all.

Big Red

Tweety, our lovely white van.

 We bought this beautiful white van around the time our third child was a baby.  She is now almost 9 years old and for the past year our lovely white van has been sending us a loud message in the form of incessant squeaks and expensive repairs.  She wanted to go.

First of all the squeak.  She squeaked so much hence the name Tweety!  We replaced the belt four times, had them lubricated, replaced the tensioner pulley and the idler pulley.   All this and she still insisted on squeaking.  Everyone around knew it was us coming when they heard the squeak.  It was very humbling.

So then there were the repairs.  We had our alternator go, then the battery needed to be changed, then the battery cables.  The list started growing.  In the midst off all this we were one day stranded with a dead battery at the kids' school after volleyball practice.  I was so embarrassed, but a lady came to give us a jump.  A bunch of the girls' teammates were standing around the car watching us hook up the cables.  I braced myself, because I knew that the second the car started they would all be subjected to the deafening squeak.  It all played out as I predicted.  The girls and I jumped in the car and drove away quickly agreeing that that was one of the most embarrassing moments of our lives.

After everything was fixed and I had finally found a lubricant that would keep the squeaky sound down for about five miles before needing to be reapplied, I was satisfied that I could still live with this car.  I was not interested in the financial burden that would come with purchasing a new vehicle.  Well, one day as I was driving down the road I looked down and saw that the speedometer was not working.  "Ok, ok," I thought.  "I get it.  I will get a new car."

Goodbye Tweety, we love you.

 So we decided to buy something larger than a minivan because the kids are getting bigger and it was becoming increasingly squishy on long trips.  We also felt bad that we could never take other people with us.  We looked at Suburbans, but I wasn't keen on the kids having to climb over things to get to their seats.  Plus I love the under the seat storage of vans.  I grew up with a 12 passenger van and Dad had a 15 passenger.  We talked about which kind to get and we decided that we might just as well get the bigger size so we could haul the youth and scouts to all their activities.  Not to mention, on long trips the kids can all have their own bench!!

Hello Big Red

 This van was meant to be ours.  When I found her I knew she was mine.  She even has a DVD player mounted on the ceiling, which the kids think is THE BEST feature.  I like having some space to spread out. When Richard's brother came we had his family of six, our family of seven and Grandma Vance all in the van together with one seat belt to spare.  It was hilarious!!!

Saturday is Mr. M's first time going to the temple.  He is so excited to have all his friends ride in our new van.  He has already picked out the movies to show on the two hour drive.

Four benches.  We love this van!!!