Wow, You know it's been a WHILE...

...when they have completely redone the posting screen since the last time you posted.

Here are a few random pictures from the last few months... in no particular order...

Noah turned 8!  Happy Birthday big guy!

Noah was baptized!!!

We posed for a silly picture.

Brooklyn got ready for her first dance recital.

Nicholas ran on the track team.

Billy broke his face and had to have plastic surgery to put it back together.
Just fyi, bike riding + big dog + cat = bad idea.

Lucy celebrated her 11th birthday at the pool.

Lucy and Brooklyn looked picture perfect after the dance recital.

Brooklyn actually danced at the recital.

Brooklyn graduated from pre-school.

Lucy was in her school play.

Lucy opened some fun presents at her 11th birthday party.

I went to Young Womens' camp.  Love these YCLs!!!!!

Nicholas celebrated his 14th birthday! I can't believe I have a freshman in high school!  YIKES!!

Brooklyn played T-ball.

Ok, mostly Brooklyn played in the dirt while the other kids played T-ball.  She liked running and hitting but was pretty bored with all the other parts.

Noah said good bye to 2nd grade and Mrs. Krause.  I loved working in her class and getting to know her.
She ROCKS!!!!

Lucy said good bye to 5th grade, STEP, and Mrs. MacIntyre.  She was so sad!!!

Lucy got a lot of awards!!!

Brooklyn loves the pool, she can swim about half way across (the long way) now.  This child has no fear!

Nicholas started playing water polo.  It's a lot of work but he is liking it.

Lucy danced 4 numbers in the dance recital! This was jazz.

Lucy danced Ballet to Harry Potter music.

Lucy danced several times throughout the summer with the Virtuoso Dance group. 

Well there is a very brief recap of some of the things we have been up to for the past few months.  It's hard to believe the summer is almost over!  I'm gonna miss these kids this year, Brooklyn starts full day kindergarten so I will be home most of the day, by myself.  It seems weird to be at this point in my life but I am happy I have such wonderful, healthy kids and I know they will keep me extremely busy after school so I am looking forward to a few hours a day to get things done and gear up for the afternoons.

Happy Easter!

Just a couple pictures from Easter I thought were cute.

"Snow"pocalypse 2012

Last week the Seattle area had a snow storm.  Now for some areas of the country 8-12" of snow is not much to write home about, but around here it means the world stops for a week.  We got the first batch of snow on the weekend just a couple inches but enough to have school 2 hours late on tuesday (No school on Monday for MLK day)  Tuesday night, after several severe weather warnings from the news, we got about 10 inches.  The kids had a great day playing in the snow.

Niko looks on while Billy flings Noah down the hill.

Even Mercedes came out to play!

Noah loving the snow!

Lucy, always ready for a picture.

So, I ended up with way more pictures of Brooklyn, even though she was only outside half as long because she had slept in, but how could I resist taking pictures of that ADORABLE smile!  To say she loved the snow would be an understatement.  The first time she rode the board down the hill she squealed like a little girl (so that's where that saying comes from) and then got up and said, "That was Awesome! That was Awesome! THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED-AWESOME!!!!"  and she said that every time she she came down the hill.  Before we went in we even strapped the snowboard on and she loved that too, and she didn't even fall down!  

That night, the freezing rain and ice came and things weren't quite as fun.  We lost power for 2 days and everything had a thick layer of ice on it.  Several trees were broken or completely fell down.  Several roads were closed and there were a ton of car accidents in the Seattle area.  But we survived, Billy cooked for us on his camp stove out on the deck and we had our fireplace to help keep us warm and our hot water tank runs on gas so we could still take showers.  We played some games and read some books and the kids actually played with some toys instead of the wii or computer.  It was definitely a week to remember!

The thick layer of ice that was on our tree.  Luckily both our trees survived without losing any branches.

Even though it caused a lot of damage, the ice covered world was very pretty to look at.

This was pretty funny, Lucy practicing piano in the dark with a head lamp on. 

continued. . . and concluded!

Day 9 (Pack up and Hollywood Studios)

On Monday, we had to get everything packed up and cleaned up before we headed to the park for one last day of fun.  Before we all left we got one last picture all together.  

After we all said our good byes, we headed to Hollywood Studios to finish out our Disney World adventure.  We had a great day!  One of my favorite moments of the whole week came when I got to ride Tower of Terror with my Sister in Law, Jessica.  There had been talk all week of how fun she is to go on rides with because of the way she screams.  Lets just say, she didn't disappoint.  I was laughing so hard that I couldn't scream.  Even the complete strangers who were on the ride with us said that the best part of the ride was listening to us.  It was awesome.  Thanks Jessica!  We also had fun on the new Star Tours ride.  They have completely redone the movie and there are 3 sections that are randomized, creating over (I think) 50 different combinations.  We went on it twice and it was completely different both times.  Billy was even pointed out as the Rebel Spy.  We also enjoyed Rockin' Roller Coaster.  Brooklyn and I enjoyed the Little Mermaid Show.  We all liked the One Man's Dream attraction which takes you through the life of Walt Disney.  Billy got called up to be in the Indiana Jones Stunt show and last but not least, we watched Fantasmic, the night time show for Hollywood Studios.  It was really cool.  It was after that, that our vacation started to go down hill. . . 

I LOVE this picture of Billy and Brooklyn!

Here is a video of Billy in the Indiana Jones show.  Sorry the quality isn't that great, I only had my phone to video with.

Day 9.75-10 (Traveling Home)

So, as I said after Fantasmic our vacation took a turn down hill.  As soon as the lights came up, Lucy just started puking. . . A LOT!  Luckily we were pretty much done.  She seemed ok once she stopped throwing up, so Niko and I decided to hit Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster one last time as the park was closing.  I guess she wasn't ok because she threw up a few more times while we were in line. (Sorry, Billy)  We made it out of the park and headed to the air port, out flight left at 6am so we had decided we would just head straight there instead of getting a hotel for 4 hours.  All the kids fell asleep on the drive there.  Once we got there we tried to get a little rest before we checked into our flight.  Luckily Lucy was able to sleep a little.  Once we got up though, the puking started up again, the poor girl could barely walk, if we stopped for even a second she would sit down on the floor.  I will forever remember her crawling on her knees through security while puking into a ziplock bag. (oh yeah, good times!)  She has a hard time on flights anyway so the entire trip home she was pretty miserable.  She did manage to sleep for most of the longer flight, unfortunately she was using my arm as a pillow so I didn't get to move my arm for about 3 hrs.  We did make it home safe and sound.  Lucy stayed home for a few extra days.  Noah, who was still sick from the start of the trip, stayed home the whole week and only made it about half days of the next week.  I am happy to say that as of right now, (2 weeks since we've been home) everyone seems to be healthy.  Now if I can just get back into a routine that would be good.  

Overall, it was an amazing trip!  I am so thankful to the people who made it possible to go, especially my parents, for everything they did for us, and my sister Annie who let us borrow their van, while they squished their three kids into their little car, so we wouldn't have to rent a car for the week.  I'm so grateful I was blessed with such a fun, amazing family, and I can't wait for us all to be together again, even if it isn't in Disney World or anywhere "cool."  Its magical no matter where we are!

continued. . . a little more

Day 7 (Cocoa Beach and New Years Eve)

On Saturday, we headed to Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic Ocean.  Many of us had never been to the Atlantic Ocean before so it was really fun.  We rented some boogie boards and a surf board and had a great time playing in the waves and sand or just relaxing in the nice warm sun.  We headed back to Orlando at about 5:00 p.m so we could ring in the new year playing games and just hanging out.

Happy New Year!!!

Day 8 (Epcot again)

On Sunday, we decided to go back to Epcot so we could see the rest of the world show case.  While Billy, Niko, and Noah visited the countries and looked through the shops, Lucy, Brooklyn, and I tried to save the world from dastardly villains in the Kim Possible Adventure Missions.  You get a cell phone and it sends you messages to go to certain places in the different countries and do the given task.  If you complete the task, then something cool happens like smoke coming out of a chimney or a statue rising out of a pond.  It was pretty fun and the girls liked using the cell phone.  We ended our world tour at about 4:00 and headed back to the houses for dinner and to start packing up for the trip home.

continued. . . again

Day 6 (EPCOT)

On Friday, EVERYBODY went to Epcot.  We wanted to get a big group shot at one of the parks and it just worked out that it was Epcot.  My family spent the morning at "The Seas" with Nemo.  There is a Nemo ride and then a fun little aquarium where we saw dolphins, sea turtles and all kinds of other fish.  We also did "Turtle Talk with Crush" which was really fun, Noah actually got to talk to crush and ask him a question, he asked Crush how he swims so fast.  It was a really fun interactive show.  Then we went and met up with everyone for a picture.  Disney does this thing called a Photo Pass and they have photographers, all over, at all the parks.  They take pictures and then save them to a card which you can then enter onto their website and view all the pictures.  It's a great system, especially when you want a picture of the WHOLE family.  After the family picture we went and did a few more rides.  My family really enjoyed Epcot because there is a lot of things to interact with.  By 5:00 we really hadn't even made it past the front third of the park.  My sister offered to take Brooklyn and Noah home so the rest of us tried to make it around the rest of the park by the time it closed at 9.  The back half of the park is a World Show Case with 11 different countries to walk through and visit.  We only made it to 3 before it was time for "Illuminations" the night time fireworks show.  So we wondered through the other countries in the dark but everything was closed.  I'm sure Billy could spend a whole week at Epcot, he loves that kind of thing.  Anyways, enough words, here are some pictures.

Lot's of fun at Epcot

On a side note, we got several comments on our t-shirts, Billy was wishing we had cards to pass out since we, well mostly me, designed and printed them.  

One Big Crazy Family!

continued. . . some more

Day 5 (Universal Studios - Islands of Adventure/Harry Potter World)

The kids were super excited to go see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Apparently they weren't the only ones, the crowds were unbelievable.  At one point, you literally could not walk because there were so many people.  And lets just say that Universal is not quite up to par with Disney as far as managing large crowds.  For one, they don't have fast passes (unless you want to pay an extra $100 per person) and the walkways are smaller, and there is really only one way to get from one area to another.  We were still able to have a good time, it just took a little longer.  We rode the Hulk roller coaster (after a 2 hr. wait) which was awesome, then we headed to Harry Potter.  It was really fun to feel like you were in the world of Harry Potter.  I wish that there hadn't been so many people so we could've actually looked in all the shops and stuff.  The good news was that the "Dueling Dragons" roller coasters had no line, and they were totally fun.  We also rode "Flight of the Hippogriff" and then waited 100 minutes or so to go on "Forbidden Journey."  Once we were done with that we headed back out into the rest of the park and rode "Jurassic Park" a couple of times (no line) and then another log flume ride (also no line).  We got to see a cool X-games type stunt show on the way out and that was Brooklyn's favorite thing.  Overall it was another fun day.