My first video!

I got a Flip video camera for Christmas so here is my first video of me scaring the kids and playing monster with them (they love that!).

Merry Christmas!

Larry doesn't get Spongebob, but I think it's hilarious. This short 40 second clip came from the Christmas special and I couldn't stop laughing.


The boys were up early and they feasted on the treats in their stockings. They were so eager to open gifts, their manic smiles are obvious in the picture. This is before the gift massacre....


They had 2 Christmas's, one here and one at Grandma and Papa's house. These pictures are of the one there. Mom-in-law was super surprised to get her gift. I organized the siblings on Larry's side to go in on a really nice gift, a Nintendo DS with the Brain Age game.




David has this funny Santa hat, he got it from his teacher at church and loves it (he loves her too and thinks she's fun).

Gingerbread houses & more elves

Today the kids made gingerbread houses. They had a blast making it and eating the fruits of their labor. Boy are they hyper!



The elves sure are sneaky! One night the boys got their toenails painted while they were asleep and another night the elves had fun with a marker.

Elves visit and a BAD kitty!

For the past couple of days, an elf has been visiting our house at night while everyone sleeps. These elves are quite mischievous! So far, they pulled all of the paper cups out of a box to make a pyramid, stacked all of our DVD's up in the front living room, and put toilet paper all over the Christmas tree. They usually leave a note encouraging the kids to be good and a piece of candy.



Last night, Panda peed on the bean bag downstairs. It feels like a litter box to her and it's not the first time she's done that. She was punished and put outside for it. This morning, I hadn't quite forgiven her so I let her into the laundry room to eat, but wouldn't let her into the house to roam. She threw a kitty tantrum, meowed and let us see her agony from under the door. I almost felt sorry for her....... almost.


It did end up being a happy ending for Panda, she got to roam the house like the little princess she is.

Just Because

Larry and I rarely get pictures where it's just the two of us so I had my mom take them.

A visit with Santa

We took the kids to the mall to see Santa. The line wasn't long at the time we got in, but we were glad we did because it got really long within 30 minutes of our visit. The boys were excited to sit on Santa's lap (despite the face David pulled for the picture). I brought my own camera which turned out to be the exact model the studio was using. They didn't complain about me taking pictures, but I'm sure they were annoyed. I didn't want to spend $20 on 2 digital print-outs when I could do my own.

David told Santa he wanted a dancing Santa Clause with a red button for Christmas. Jared was like that kid on the movie 'A Christmas Story' and sort of froze, I think he wanted to say much much more than he did - which was about 2 words.

The Nutcracker

We went to see the Nutcracker today. The kids enjoyed most of it, they were a bit restless during the long ballads near the end, but overall they were pretty good. It was my 2nd time seeing the Nutcracker. I went last night with Larry for our date night (my first time seeing it) and knew the boys would enjoy it. Since Larry is in Bellevue for school, my mom and I took the boys. It was also her first time.

We Elfed Ourselves!

This is hilarious! Click here to see us all elfed up.

Christmas Tree

Last night we went shopping for a Christmas tree. We found a tree lot in Richland which only sold Nobles and that is what we were looking for. They are a little more expensive, but they don't shed so much, they're suppose to last much longer before drying out and they smell great! The boys helped decorate it this morning before church. If they didn't have my help, only the bottom of the tree would have ornaments. It was a lot of fun deciding where everything should go, they change their minds and like to move the ornaments around.

Here are some pictures I took, they were in a good 'picture mood' so I took advantage of that. You don't want to know what I had to do to get them to laugh like that :D

Hallway Football

Larry and the boys played football in the hallway. It was quite entertaining! I wish I had a digital camcorder to record how David wiggles his little bottom in anticipation of catching the ball! When I get one, there will be short videos on this blog. Until then, I have action slides. Jared got tackled here, that was his favorite part.





David loved tackling his daddy!

Thanksgiving in Ashton, Idaho

We went to Ashton, Idaho for Thanksgiving. My grandparents live there and Tara is going to school in Rexburg so she was there too. It was nice to see my grandma, I really missed her! It's always nice to be in Ashton, there is a lot of neat history there. My dad's family has been in that area for several generations and my brother is buried there. We get a great view of the Tetons from their house and this weekend was a full moon so I snapped a few pictures while it was still light out, the effect was nice.


Jared and David enjoyed the farm, they pretended to ride all of the different tractors they could find and played with the dog, Roscow. Grandpa said, "That thing is a sorry excuse for a dog." Of course, Roscow could be a good dog if Grandpa would take the time to train him. Grandpa's solution for a dog who chases cars is to attach a 3 foot long chain to it's collar and let it drag. Well, Grandpa is always entertaining in his grumpy old age.

We had a close call last night. We were all sitting around in the living room and Jared came running in with a terrified look on his face. He said he had an emergency so I ran into the bedroom and saw a large black burn around the electrical outlet, a burned night light, and a burned/melted penny. I was shocked, horrified and nearly in tears. I scared the crud out of him with the "what could have happened" scenarios. I am confident that he won't do it again.


Jared should know better than to play with electrical outlets, but his curiosity got the better of him this time..... just like that time he played with fire and burned 1/2 an acre of land in the backyard - see the November 2nd post.

The ride home was uneventful. While my mom and I drove, we noticed all of the boys were asleep with their mouths open, I had to get a picture.

The end.

We went bowling yesterday

Jared gets graded by colors each day at school. A green means he was good, yellow = has been a bit naughty, red means "focus time" and blue means we get a phone call about it. Jared usually gets 1-2 yellow marks each week. We decided to start a reward system for him. If he gets a green mark every day for a whole week, then we will do something fun on Saturday - and let Jared pick from the options we give him. We told him he could go rollerskating or bowling. He has never been bowling (neither of the boys have) so he decided to try it. We had a blast!

Jared ran into the bowling lane and slipped the first time - he went straight down on his butt. It didn't stop him from doing it again, but he was more careful. David would roll the ball and as he'd watch it slowly roll toward the pins, he would jump up and down while watching the ball. It was fun to watch. He slipped once too, but had no lasting injuries beyond a bruised ego.

In this picture, Jared threw the ball so that it immediately hit the gutter guard and it zig-zaged back and forth all the way down the lane.

Notice Jared's hands over his mouth when he thinks he might get a strike, the ball is right in the center (after zig zagging)

Sonja's Day

Tuesday, I drove to Tacoma for an appointment in small claims court. I am suing a painter named Jeffrey Wallace for taking our deposit and never starting work on our house this summer. I had an appointment in court yesterday and he didn't show up. By default, my case goes to a judge and he will decide the outcome. The judge will only see my evidence and I'm sure he will see who is clearly wrong. All I need to do is get the process server to send a receipt for their services and a better description of the person they served. Once I get that, I will send it to the courthouse and the case can go forward. When I get a judgment, I will submit it to Jeffrey's bond company and collect the funds. I've never had to sue anyone before :(

Random picture of the month: My breakfast - same thing I have every day for more than 4 years (Shaklee soy protein shake and a huge handful of vitamins).

Pile of Leaves + Boys = Fun

We had loads of fun in the leaves today. Larry got a huge pile together and the boys massacred it in a matter of minutes. We turned it into a big leaf fight and Jared tried to throw leaves at me, but I was upwind and could gather more leaves in my hands. I definitely had an unfair advantage.





It's interesting how the kids are less gentle with their dad. With me, they just threw leaves. With Larry, they charged him and started to wrestle.


I got some good calm shots of the kids before the leaf fight broke out. They often let me play with my camera and use them as models, I think they enjoy the attention and watching me play with colors on my photo shop programs.

Larry's Back!

Larry went on a business trip on Monday and came back late last night. He visited Charlotte, North Carolina for company training. He thinks he may go again sometime after the new year. The boys had a countdown every day, they asked how many days left and I would tell them. Sometimes they asked several times in one day. I guess they needed a reminder that their daddy wasn't leaving forever. He was only gone 5 days and Larry came home with a couple of coloring/activity books which the boys have been attached to all morning. I think it helps to bring something home for them, they seem to forgive us immediately when we buy them off.

I took a picture 2 nights ago of a beautiful sunset. I call it "fire in the sky." I submitted it to the local news since they like to show off weather pictures every so often. One of my lightning pictures made it to the news once, I worked particularly hard to get it too.

UPDATE: Nov 28th - Larry said his HR Manager noticed this picture on the news so they must have liked it.

Jared and Panda

Our cat, Panda, is the family pet. I joke with Larry that she is the "other woman" because she is so attached to him and she often likes to sit between us. She is more like a dog than a cat. She follows him around, waits for him to get home from work, will come out of her hiding place when she hears his voice and is on his lap as soon as he sits down. Panda is very patient with the boys, she doesn't run away from them unless she has been mistreated once already. I think she must play the "3 strikes and you're out" game. She will allow them to pick her up and play with her, but if they test her patience too many times, then she will take off and hide. She does enjoy David more than Jared because David is more mellow and he will sit with her and take the time to pet her. Jared gets restless too quickly and starts 'experimenting.' So I caught one sweet moment between Jared and Panda - a very rare moment!

Doesn't she look like the "other woman?" Those eyes! She seemed annoyed that I caught their little moment. The little skank! :)

Summer Vacations

We took a couple of trips this summer. The kids got to fly on an airplane for the first time and that was exciting for them. We went to Toronto for 2 weeks at the beginning of July. While we were there, we visited Niagara Falls (saw fireworks over the falls on the 4th of July) at both the Canada side and New York side. We went to Palmyra, NY for a little church history. We went to the Toronto Zoo, visited the CN Tower, walked around the downtown Toronto area and had a lot of fun.


We met the "rat man" downtown (ewwwwww rats!)





CN Tower - view from our hotel room















Our 2nd trip was a family reunion at the beginning of August. Larry's family likes to get together at the Oregon coast (Cape Lookout) and camp for a few days by the beach. This happens every other year and I always look forward to it. We all had a blast! We also visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was during this trip that Larry got a call on his cell phone from a company with a job offer. He accepted it right there (I was listening in on the details and gave him the thumbs up).