We're Movin' On!

...and hopefully up! About two weeks ago Klave accepted a job as Assistant Livestock Manager on a ranch in California! Oh yeah! Well I always thought it would be cool to live in Cali, it's just that I was imagining more like San Diego or Sacramento. Instead we are headed to the Mt. Shasta Valley. I believe that is the place. I haven't really been there yet, which seems kind of crazy. The other thing that is more crazy is that I just got off the phone with Klave and he is sleeping in his car tonight down near the ranch, but he is loving life! He has been itching to get back to working with livestock so this was our chance and here we go. We packed up all our stuff and left our home praying that it sells really soon! I'm staying with Dan and Grace in Sammamish, WA with the girls until a)we sell our house, b) the ranch gives us a house to live in on the ranch, c)we get a raise. We are having fun so far but you can only go so long without your own space.

So I know I have been away from the blogosphere for a really long time, there are about a trillion things I want to post about but I thought at least I should let my friends know where we are....and if they are moving to Moses Lake, there is a really great house for sale right now.

Happy Birthday Nadine and Naomi!!

I can't believe we've had these girls for four years now!!! They are really growing fast and they are so much fun.

We were talking about which friends they would invite to their party and they said, Lanie, Rachel, Ashlynn, Brynlee and Melissa. I'm like, "Who's Melissa?" They were talking about their Aunt Melissa in Utah. Well it worked out really great because David and Melissa had vouchers for Delta that they had to use before December so they flew up for their birthday. David and Melissa are such fun visitors to have. If you want to laugh and have an awesome party, invite David and Melissa. Friday they woke up to all their cousins and David and Melissa to play with. Melissa and I decorated the cakes. We made a princess and a castle one made of cupcakes.
They got a bunch of princess "action figures" and a witch and princes. (They were actually Anakin Skywalker and Obi One Konobi because, Where in the world do you find Prince action figures?) Then they also got a new bike helmet and a ton of princess dress up stuff. Here's Nadine admiring herself in her new heels and jewelry.
Nora also really loved the cakes, here is a video of my little snitch.



We went to the water park on friday with David and Melissa and Dan and Grace and their family. Dan and Adelaide
Uncle David, can you read the secret message in his chest hair?
Aunt Melissa and Lucy

These video's are Klave on the flow rider, he makes it look so easy!
David and Lucy taking a nap

The day after the water park we went fishing at the hatchery. Actually the kids are the only ones aloud to fish but we all had a good time. Last year we caught about 13 fish but realized once we got home that that is way too many fish to eat. This year we left with just 3.

Nadine with the worms

David and Naomi

Dad and Nadine

Nora and "the big one"

Do you think this post is long enough?

Adventures in Sammammish

We are so lucky to have family in Seattle. We love to go over there each month and hang out with our family and go to the temple. This last time Klave went on to Bellingham for training while the girls and I stayed in Sammammish with the Stevenson's. The coolest thing that happened while we were there is that at the temple I sat next to a friend of mine from girls camp, like 12 or 15 years ago. It was so crazy to see her. Julie Pack was her name then now it's Bown. Her and her husband and 2 kids moved there about a month ago. Jen and Amy, do you guys remember her? She is so funny and energetic. Hopefully we can meet up again or maybe she'll start a blog?
Another cool thing we did was go to the Pacific Science Center. There is so much to do there we could have spent a few days but only had a few hours. The kids really loved the bugs!! Here are a few pics of them with the gargantuan cockroach! Nadine is not afraid of anything!

Naomi was trying to be brave but she must have too much of her mom in her to allow her to touch something that nasty.

I totally saw that coming!

We went through the butterfly pavillion, which was really cool if you like butterfly's. They are so pretty but I just don't like anything crawling on me. I did it for the kids though and prayed that one wouldn't land on me because I really didn't want to freak out in front of all those people. On the other hand Nadine couldn't keep her hands off of them.

There were some really bright ones and ones that were just huge! It was hard to get a real good picture of them though. But here are some cute kids and a fairy.
Outside we had a picnic and they had all sorts of high powered water sprayers you could play with.
Here's Lucy on her second day with pig tails. I love it! Since then I trimmed her hair because it was all bald on the sides and uneven on top. I cut about an inch off. Her hair is pretty thick now, just too short for pig tails.

The next day we decided to take all the kids on a hike. I love hiking and I forgot how much I love it. In Moses Lake there really isn't anywhere to hike, so this was really exciting. I guess I expected that the kids would think it was really cool too. Here's the group, Nora 2, Nadine and Naomi 4, Jacob 5, Sam 3, David 7 and then Grace is holding Adelaide who's 1 and I'm holding Lucy 5 mo. I think we do some crazy things sometimes but we always have a lot of fun.

This hike was so beautiful, it felt like we were walking through the rainforest. Trees everywhere and about halfway through it really started to rain. The hike was about a mile and parts of it were pretty steep but the kids did really well. They haven't really been hiking before so some of them complained but we'll definitly do it again.
We hiked down to the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls, amazing isn't it? I was so glad that crazy guy was out there fishing so you can see how huge the falls are.

Here are the falls again from the top. It kind of terrifies me to look over the railing. I always stand back a few feet. Can you imagine the terror I felt seeing my kids hanging on the railing and swinging their feet over the edge? There are bars close enough they can't fall through but I just about had a cardiac. And Naomi kicked Jake's flip flop over the edge, I think she was disappointed it landed in the grass on the side instead of in the water.

Always room for one more!

A week ago we got to have alot of my family come and visit. I love it because we never just have one person or family come visit. As many people as can get school and work off and as many people as can squeeze in the car will come too. We had Liz and her three kids come (we missed Brayden, who had football) my mom, Annie, Michelle and then the last part of the week Grace and her kids came too. All of the kids played together so well and were really excited to see eachother. It was a blast!
The first day we walked down to the park by the lake and had a picnic and practiced our baby drops. I don't remember it hurting so badly when I was in 3rd grade. Liz had a pretty sweet bruise behind her knee all week. That night we went to the movie in the park. We saw Enchanted, I can't believe with all my girls I hadn't seen it before. I loved it.
Elizabeth has turned into a maniacal, rock hard, workout machine, so we "got" to workout with her a few times. It was great except that I couldn't straighten my legs for a week, they were so sore. We also spent a day at the water park. We all took a turn on the flo-rider. You can see on the slide show a great wipe-out picture of Klave. He actually did the standing up one where the rest of us did the body board side. It's great fun just make sure you have your swim bottoms on good. It's dangerous that way, just ask Annie.
In the outrageously hot weather we also conquered the Wild Horse Monument hike and a cookout at the sand dunes. The hike is actually only about a quarter of a mile, if that. But it's steep and we had a lot of kids. The cookout at the sand dunes we all agreed was something we would definitley remember. It's not like the sand dunes in Rexburg that you can play on and slide down. It was more like your worst nightmare. Building a fire to roast hot dogs when it's 100 degree weather and smores where the chocolate is melted before you open the package. Sand in all of your food. I guess I was getting desperate for exciting things to do in Moses Lake. I only wish we took some pictures.
One of my favorite things is girls night out with my sisters and mom. This year it was Klave and 11 kids so we put them to bed before we left. We went to dinner at El Rodeo(good food) and had so much fun talking. We have so much fun together, I laugh so hard with them and my cheeks always hurt by the end of the night from smiling so much. It's too bad we live so far from each other, but it just makes the reunions that much sweeter.

And you will be bless!

On my mission the Africans would always say that. I love it! Anyway I have so much to blog about which I will get to someday, but right now I just have to say how blessed we have been. I'm amazed! I have really wanted to get serious about getting our food storage this year and have been working on it as much as I can. You just have to know that when you want to do something the prophet asks you to do, Heavenly Father is going to help you do it. Soooooooo, on with the list. Twice now someone has called us that is moving and decides to just give us their food storage and emergency preparedness stuff, hundreds of dollars worth of food and supplies!!!! A free deep freezer, free flats of strawberries for jam, a great inside deal on some heavy duty storage shelves. I know there is more that I'm forgetting at this moment but basically our storage room is overflowing. I see how the Lord blesses us way more than we deserve, it makes me want to be so much better!

Cirque du Chandler

Do you see a resemblance?

This morning at breakfast there was a live fly on the window near Nora. She reached over with her pointer finger and smashed him, just like that. She's got skills!