Super bowl party and Valentine/Birthday parties

Last Sunday Jen and Ryan hosted a super bowl party. Here's Chad and Tanner watching the big game
Calley had gone to her parents house to get some dental work done so Tyson came by himself

Lee and Nellie on the love sack - as you can see Nellie was REALLY into the game :)

At Ryan's work they're having a Tom Selleck (sp) look alike contest, hence the reason for the long flowing locks and facial hair

After all the commotion, Tanner was bushed!!

This Sunday is Valentines Day of course AND the Sunday between Tyson's and Lee's birthday, so we took advantage of that and had a combination Valentines/Birthday party

Here's Lee enjoying his heart shaped strawberry pancake for breakfast this morning . . .

. . . along with his Valentine cookie of course :)

This actually looked better than it does here, but we had heart shaped hamburgers/chicken burgers for dinner with delicious festive salads and a fruit tray with scrumptious dip

The pile of burgers on the end were the "well done" pile ") . . . not sure how that happened, but you never know when someone will ask for one - ha ha!

The cheese was cut into hearts but I decided not to try the tomatoes - too messy!

Calley brought the fruit tray with dip, Jen brought the "bleeding heart" salad, and Em brought the pretzel strawberry salad - YUM!

Emilee had done Bailee and Paige's hair in heart designs so I had to get a picture of it. Addison's hair was done as well but I missed out on that one - maybe you can see it in the next picture with the chocolate mouthAbby trying to escape

Birthday boys

Nellie made/designed this shirt for Tyson in one of her classes at school

Birthday spankings for Grandpa

And Tyson got spankings as well - just not as many :)

The dessert of choice for the birthday boys; homemade extreme chocolate ice cream for Tyson, and pumpkin pie for Lee - 80 candles between the 2 of them - YIKES!

Tyson had just blown out his candles and Lee was getting ready to.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to 2 very special boys in my life, and happy Valentines Day to all!

My Mother, the Pirate - Aarrrgh Matey!!

So my Mom had cataract surgery Wednesday (looks like I need to correct the date on my camera). Here she is all hooked up and ready to go. Notice the mark on her right eye to make sure they did the correct one :)
Here's our good little patient after returning home a few hours later

Mom wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous the rest of that day, so I asked her if she'd like to watch a movie . . . this is what she looked like for @ 1/3 of the movie, but hey, I enjoyed it ")

Today we went back to see the Dr. and she was able to remove her "pirate-ness" - she was very happy about this. She can already see MUCH better so she's very encouraged. PS. . . don't you love Grandpa's long locks (he's growing them out)?

My wonderful parents, which I feel very blessed to have.

My "Baby" Is Growing Up

Sooo, my baby is growing up. . . .

Little Miss Nellie had her first official "date" Saturday night. Eli Gremmert (green shirt on the R) gave Nellie a 1st date certificate for her 13th birthday, to be cashed in November of 2009, when they would both turn 16 (their birthdays are 10 days apart). Well, it was a little late much to Nellie's frustration, but FINALLY at the end of January 2010, it actually happened - I guess "good things come to those who wait" :). You see Nellie and Eli have been friends since before they were born (if that's possible). Rosie (Eli's Mom) and I used to swap babysitting, even before these kids were born, so they've been playing together ever since then :). This is a fun group of kids 5/6 from our own Carnation ward - the other girl is the bishop's daughter from the Big Rock ward. They made their own personal pan size pizza's and then went bowling. Good times.

Fun in Oak Harbor

Nellie had a basketball game Friday with Coupeville so we spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa afterwards. It was fun. Nellie got to have her hair done by, Aunt Connie, our favorite beautician!
While Nellie was "processing" we convinced Jeremy to try a new "do". Doesn't he look (thrilled?) handsome?

It took several trys to get a shot of Jeremy showing his teeth - doesn't he look handsome?

A tummy contest; Lee and Jeremy were laying there being goofy - showing off their stomachs and such, when Grandma asked Jeremy what the scratches on his stomach were from. He quickly replied "they're STRETCH MARKS Grandma!" They both ended up being a little embarrassed ")
It's all okay though because Grandma reminded Jeremy that when he was little he asked Grandpa what all the "cracks" (wrinkles) were on his face - when Grandma laughed hysterically, he said "you have them too!!"

They're sooooo weird!

A walk with Scott and his "kids" (dogs)

Scott and I enjoyed some Mother/Son time today on the trail with his 2 kids :). It was nice to catch up a bit and enjoy the great outdoors at the same time. He got a new 2 dog collar system for Christmas - too bad I wasn't aware of those when we were trying to raise OUR kids :) Ha ha! Good times.

Our (physical and spiritual) "Safety" Family Home Evening

We had a Family Home Evening on "safety" tonight. Lee brought in his turnouts for part of my lesson. We talked about what each piece of clothing protected and how. Lee was demonstrating here how the newer turnout coats have a strap that is sewn to the inside of the coat (under the arms and all) so that if a firefighter is "down" it's easier for another one to pull him out of danger.
Here's Lee putting all of the firefighting safety equipment ON Nellie.

Here she is all decked out. After this we had her try to run up and down the stairs like this. It was difficult for her to do with all this protective gear on, but if she were in a burning building she would be glad that she had this on. Sometimes our safety measures seem restrictive (like abiding by the standards in "For The Strength of Youth"), like these turnouts - and we want to "take them off" , but we need to hold to them so that when we need them we've got them to protect us. Nellie wanted to try to get all her gear on in 45 seconds like the firefighters @ Eastside Fire and Rescue. The first time she tried she didn't do so well, but with a few pointers from Lee, she was able to accomplish it the second time. Soooo if we'll LISTEN and follow the instructions of those who know, we'll be safe. AMEN :)

Lee taking everything OFF.

Then we gave her this picture for her room so she'll always remember that Heavenly Father and Jesus love her (us) very much, want us to be safe, and follow THEIR direction so we can SAFELY return to them. Hopefully something sunk in - if not Nellie had fun playing firefighter :)

Happy 2010 Everybody!

For New Years Eve we went up to Emilee and Paul's house - here's a little snippet of what we did; ate, played guitar hero, DJ hero, (Wii) skiing, soccer, tennis, and frisbee. Here's Em on the guitar and Bailee and Summer singing.

Emilee and Paul on DJ Hero

Tyson was the life of the party!

Grandpa and Bailee. I asked Lee after taking this picture why he can't ever just smile normal when I take a picture. He says he looks like a dork when he does that, so he tried for me . . see what YOU think in the picture below :)

We all brought our "crafty" stuff and the girls made hats. They turned out quite cute.

Notice the party animal in the background!

NEXT - New Years Day Lee and I took off for a long walk. We ended up going up the evacuation hill and found some "TREASURES" that (Lee) we just couldn't resist!

Here we are with the goods; a ragged old camo shirt/coat, and a rocking lawn chair - yep we carried them all the way down the VERY steep hill.

A closer shot of the chair - it really IS a rocking chair. All I have to do is snip off a few ragged strings and we're good to go - it will be nice to take camping this Summer, and it will always remind me of our New Years Day walk.

We went through some pretty rough terrain on the way back.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!