Our November So Far

Some of you are probably wondering what we've been up to this month.
Well here it is in a nutshell:

Yep, we spent the first half of November sick. First we went through a round of strep throat. That was followed up with a delightful case of stomach flu. I have never been so grateful for my carpet cleaner. I was lucky enough to come down with my case of stomach flu while I was out of town at a blogging convention. Ah, fun times.

We actually set a new record at our house. We have never had so many people sick at the same time. Ever. Unlike most records, I am hoping that this one never gets broken.

Thankfully, everyone is now healthy just in time for Thanksgiving. Bring on the pies! :)

Halloween Happenings

Halloween festivities were extra long this year. There was no school on Friday, so Justin and Tyler had school parties on Thursday. Friday evening Wes's company had their annual Halloween party. Saturday was trick or treat night, and Sunday was actually Halloween. Whewww!

Here is Justin at the school parade.
Tyler was moving so fast that his photo didn't turn out. But I helped at his classroom party, so I got a shot of him decorating his haunted gingerbread house.

Brandon didn't come to the work party because he was on a campout. I was too busy to come up with a costume for Wes and I. At least the youngest three were dressed up. That counts for something, right? Spencer was a blind referee, Tyler was a ninja, and Justin was a ghost.

Here are Justin and Tyler just before heading out to trick or treat:

And the highly anticipated yearly tradition I like to call "The Sorting of The Candy":

At Least We're All in the Same Boat

I get to feeling really guilty that I don't post very often on our family blog. But then I look at my blogroll of friends and family, and realize that most of you don't post very often either. I guess we're just all so busy living that we don't have time to write about it. :)

Here's what we've been up to the last few weeks.

Tyler finished up his football season with Wes as the coach. They didn't win a lot of games, but Tyler played amazingly, and had a lot of fun. He can pull flags like nobody's business!
The week that football ended, Spencer's accelerated basketball league started. And Wes is coaching that one too. I'm so glad he is such an amazing dad. (Even if it does mean that our deck may never get finished.)

After leaking profusely for several weeks, our kitchen faucet suddenly stopped working. At all. We went for four days with no running water in the kitchen until the new one arrived. Man I am glad I am not a pioneer! (On a happy note, Moen replaced the faucet for free. Awesome customer service!)


Last Sunday I was released from three of my callings. I am no longer the Bear den leader, the bread specialist, or an Enrichment board member. I am relieved and sad at the same time. I loved working with Tyler, and I loved working with the women in Relief Society. But it is nice to have less on my plate so I can focus more on my family.
The ironic thing is that the calling I kept is the one that is the hardest for me. I am still over all the awards for the Boy Scouts. It nearly kills me to see how much money is spent on scouts. It's A LOT. I still struggle with it. But I feel like I am supposed to be here, even though I'm not thrilled with it. There must be something I'm supposed to learn. I'm just trusting that Heavenly Father has some kind of plan for me, even though I have no idea what it is. I sure hope I can learn quickly! ;)

What's In Your Pocket?

Wednesday was Pocket Day for the first graders. The classes have a competition to see which one has the most pockets. Justin had an old shirt I was going to get rid of, so I decided to just hot glue a bunch of pockets on it. He was thrilled!
His class didn't win the competition, but he was the one with the most pockets: 28. He had a lot of fun and was so excited that he had the most pockets. I love having a first grader!

Progress on the Deck

We are slowly but surely getting the deck done. We hired a crew to do the roofing, and they should finish up in the next two days. Hooray!

After that, we have to build the attachment that leads to the laundry room door, and build the stairs. Wes rented a post hole digger on Saturday to dig the foundation holes for the stairs.

So much faster than digging them by hand, especially in our totally rocky soil. Plus it's much more fun to use power tools! :)

Here is what it looks like so far.

I can't wait till we can use it!!!

Sorry, late notice.

Just wanted to make sure all you real life friends know about the giveaway I'm doing on my website. It's for an awesome window shade, and it's worth over $200. So if one of your windows could use a makeover, make sure you check it out. Today is the last day to enter.

Simple Fit Shade Giveaway

Oh, and I know the video is totally dorky. Don't laugh.

I Already Know What I Want for Christmas

Tyler and Justin just finished up soccer.

They both had a fabulous time.

They both have serious soccer skills and it is fun to watch them.

Both of them scored goals multiple times.

Both of them played goalie and blocked lots of shots.

Both of them had amazing kicks.

And I have no good pictures of any of it.
This is the best photo I got this year:

I sure hope Santa leaves me a zoom lens! :)

Family Reunion Fun

We spent Labor Day Weekend at a family reunion at Wallowa Lake, Oregon. It is a loooong drive, but it is a beautiful place, and has lots of great activities. We had a great time with Wes's family. Here are a few of the highlights:

We went miniature golfing.



Rode go-carts:

I won't mention any names, but there are quite a few crazy drivers in the family! :)

The younger kids rode the bumper boats and had a blast getting soaked.

We rented a plantoon boat for an afternoon, and Uncle Mike let Justin have a turn driving.

It was fun until he crashed into a speed boat and we had to end the trip early.

Just kidding! It was totally safe and we were only going about 5 miles an hour.

The house we stayed at had apples all over the grass. With as many boys as we have in the family, there was bound to be an apple fight.




Don't worry, no apple trees were harmed during the making of this movie reunion.

Wes's sister Teresa ended up the reunion by planning games that involved coordination and feats of skill. Tasks such as flipping your shoe off and trying to make it land on the table:


Doing the hula hoop:

And sorting skittles by color (without eating them first):

Who knew we were such a talented group?!? We should just all quit our jobs and start a traveling circus. OK, maybe not. ;)

Back to School

The boys are all officially back to school. They actually started last week, but I've been so busy I haven't even had time to upload the pictures. This was a big transition year for us. Brandon is starting his first year at the high school, Spencer is starting his first year at the junior high, and Justin is starting first grade. Tyler is the only one that is not experiencing a big change. Everyone seems to be adjusting. Brandon had some struggles getting his schedule changed, but it is all worked out now. Spencer has mastered the art of opening his locker, and Justin is getting used to the fact that first grade is "looooong".

Several friends have asked how I'm adjusting to being home alone all day. I don't know yet. My brother Jon moved in on the 22nd.. College didn't start for him till this week, so he was here every morning last week. Monday I ran errands and cleaned bathrooms for my cousin Tami, who is on bedrest. That has actually been the highlight of my week so far. Tuesday I ran more errands, finished up soccer, and went grocery shopping. Yesterday Wes worked from home. Today Jon doesn't have school. So I will have to wait till next week. I have mixed emotions; we'll see how it goes.

But for now I'm off to wash clothes and pack. Wish me luck. I get to spend two days driving for two days of reunion, one of which is a Sunday. I'm hoping I don't have a nervous breakdown in front of Wes's family. And no, I am really not joking.

What do you think?

Wes and I are having a "friendly" little disagreement. I'd like to get some outside opinions.

For several years, our little town put together sports teams with coaches. We would play a neighboring town that is larger, but still pretty small. Our children attend the same schools. A few years ago, they got a new sports director. He told us we could no longer put together our own teams. That if we wanted to play the kids there, we had to sign up down there. And of course pay a non-resident fee.

I came to terms with it, even though it is a major pain in the hiney.

Then there was a new development. This spring when Spencer played baseball, we got his schedule and discovered that he was playing teams from two other cities that are about 30 minutes away. Our children do not attend school with them. They are larger cities than ours. They got to put together their own teams, they did not have to sign up in another city and pay a non resident fee. What the?

I totally think that is discrimination. Banning all cities from putting their own teams together and joining your league? Fine. Letting some do it an others not? In my mind that is discrimination.

Wes thinks he is totally justified, that it is ethically wrong, but that just like any company, he has the right to choose who he wants to work with. He said he doesn't want me to go down and tell the sports director I think he is discriminating against us. He doesn't want me to embarrass myself.

What do you think? Be honest. If you think I'm a total idiot, I can take it.

Saving some $$$!

I should have shared this with all of you months ago, but I totally forgot. I know that most of you are thrifty like I am, so I wanted to share a great website I found.
They are a sponsor on my Creations by Kara website. They are called CityDeals. You can find their button on the right side:

They seriously do have some amazing deals! You just click on the button and you can buy all kinds of gift certificates for up to 70% off. We've bought them for Taco Time, Gloria's Little Italy, and a few golf courses. They ship fast and you use the gift certificates just like cash. (Make sure you check the expiration date though.) They have both local and national deals, just type in your zipcode for your area.

If you click on their button from my website, I will also earn a little money. So if you do decide to buy some gift certificates, will you pretty please use the button on my website? Don't feel at all like you need to buy anything, all I'm asking is that if you do, you will do it through me. Since you're all my friends and family and stuff. :)

Where we are spending all our time and money

We are finally replacing our deck! Woohoo! It wasn't built right, and two winters ago it started leaking into our house and ruined our wood floor. We wanted to replace it last summer, but instead we spent the money on Little Angels, our adoption agency in California. We decided we shouldn't go another winter with water leaking into the house, so we're biting the bullet.

Here is a picture of the totally ugly and dysfunctional deck. Not only was it leaking, but without a cover, it was so hot back there we could never enjoy it anyway.

Here it is after being torn down.
Notice the lack of tar paper? Yep, that would be why it was leaking into our kitchen under the wood floor.

Wes and the boys have been hard at work.

With additional help from great friends and family, this is the progress we have made so far:

Not too shabby for a couple days worth of work, huh?

Someone Please Tell Me I'm Dreaming and it's Not Really August

Wowser, summer has flown by! I can't believe the boys start school in a week and a half. I am totally not ready for them to go back. I know a lot of mom's can't wait for the first day of school, but I am never ready. Every year it seems like summer vacation gets shorter and shorter. This one was no exception danggit all. :(

Here is a few highlights from our pathetic, um I mean relaxing, summer.

In July, Spencer's little league team took second place in the state tournament. Woohoo! They were a great group of boys and it was a fun experience. He didn't pitch this season for the first time ever, which was a bummer for him, but made the games much less stressful for me. The last game was a really tough loss, but I was so proud of him for showing excellent sportsmanship anyway. Here are a few of my favorite action shots:



We went to the city carnival, which has become an annual family tradition. I think the boys' favorite part this year (except for the snow cones of course) was the helicopter ping pong drop. Here are Justin and Tyler anxiously waiting for the helicopter to take off so they can race onto the field with a hundred other kids and risk life and limb to fight over ping pong balls:

And here they are with the prizes they won. Ah to be a kid again and be totally motivated by sugar. Oh wait, I guess I still am. Especially if said sugar contains chocolate. ;)

Justin played T-ball for the first time. And in case you can't tell by the huge grin on his face, he totally loved it!

We discovered that our stop and waste was leaking and needed to be replaced because it was causing our foundation to settle because thestupidexcavatorputitrightundertheporchfootings. Oh, and just in case you were wondering why our grass is such a lovely shade of yellow; that is actually on purpose. Turns out that hours of backbreaking labor tearing up sod and replacing it doesn't actually get rid of orchard grass. It will grow up through the new sod. We have to kill every last blade, then tear it out and start over. Fun times.


Then there was the trampoline that after 7 years of use finally took it's last breath. It is a kid magnet for the entire neighborhood and is used on a daily basis, so it had to be replaced.

We all got together for my dad's 60th birthday. (or maybe 59th? Sorry dad, I'm really bad with numbers) All of us were there except my brother Aaron, who got the time wrong and was at a church meeting. My sister was going to photoshop him into that gap on the right, but she hasn't yet, so you'll all just have to pretend.

As soon as pictures were done, Spencer found a snake in the grass. He showed it to all the little cousins. I thought this picture was cute:

The boys took swimming lessons and made huge strides this year. Their teacher was amazing!




That is pretty much our summer in a nutshell. I know you are all dying of jealousy wishing your lives were as exciting as ours. :)