Count your many blessings!

On a sad note - My friend Christine's little girl passed away yesterday. I am so sad for their family, but I admire them so much for their strength. We have so much to be grateful for. Treasure every moment you have with your loved ones. You never know when they will leave this life. I am so grateful for my little family and for my extended family. I have wonderful friends and I am grateful for all of our moves and the people we have met along the way. I pray that Christine and her family will have extra blessings at this time and know how much they are loved!

Have they been good or bad?

Mikaela has been pretty good, Koby decided to tell Mikaela what she was getting for Christmas, Kai likes to bite....lets see we should just get them all coal - just to be fair. :)

Finding the perfect Christmas Tree

There are a lot of trees up here!!! We took a drive and drove up a moutain in search for our perfect Christmas tree this year. The kids had all their snow gear on just incase there was snow. We didn't find snow, only rain. Their boots still came in handy.




Koby found the Clark Griswold Tree. (A little too high.)




Kai loved walking around. He only fell twice.






Matt cut the tree down with Mikaela's help and Koby observing.

























This would have been a great Christmas picture for us to send out this year. Maybe I should have send it anyway... who needs mom in the picture.

Birthday Cake

I didn't plan anything big for Kai's b-day so when it came time to sing to him I had a great idea to put his two most favorite toys on each cup cake. One was lightning McQueen and the other was Thomas the train. It only took one look and he was in tears. The thought of these precious toys sitting in sticky stuff was too much for him. So much for no tears during cake time and my great idea. :)

Kai with Kaela, Koby and Brian Sampson

Our Big Two Year Old.

Makai turned two. He almost immediately started with the biting, hitting and saying no with a crusty face. But we still love him no matter how many times he does this to us. :) I have started to put him on time out. It is so hard because he actually sits against the wall so cute and just jabbers. Once I was trying to talk with him explaining that he can't hit or bite. I was really close to his face. He then started to point to my nose and eyes with a great big tilted head smile. He is just too cute - even on time out.

So here are some pictures with his little b-day party and playing with his new toy. I was so proud because he wore his party hat and he didn't cry when we sang to him.

My sweet Angel

So I just loved this picture of Kai.. But the cute story is really about Mikaela.
On Thursday one of the girls in her class asked what she was going to be for Halloween. She said a power ranger. The girl said "isn't that kind of young?" and then laughed. When Mikaela came home and told me this story I got defensive and said "well what did the girl say she was going to be?" Mikaela said a Tiger. And I said "you should of told her and a Tiger isn't young?" Then with the sweetest face of angel Mikaela said, "But mom that wouldn't be very Christ Like. That is not what Jesus would say."

Wow - I learned a big lesson from my 9 year old. I just hugged her and told her I was a bad mommy and not to ever listen to my advise because she is on the right track! I hope she always stays this inocent!!

(I guess growing up with 5 brothers and being a red head with freckles, I had to learn to always have a comback. Usually it was not a nice one.)

Happy Halloween

We had two fun nights. Thursday the youth put on a very fun night for the kids. They had a lot of activities. Makai LOVED his costume. I was worried, but he didn't want to take it off. He loves dogs. He went around saying woo woo. :)



Makai's cute friend Brian Sampson.



Yes - I am still wearing my same costume that I have worn for 5 years. But hey this is a new place. They have never seen me in it. Also I started wearing my glasses and hats lot more. It helps when I don't want to wear makeup or do my hair. Note on the pumpkins...the kids did them pretty much by themselves. Cute but we will not be winning any contest this year. :)



Koby's friend Nathan was also a power ranger. The three went trick or treating together. They had a lot of fun.



Friday night was also a lot of fun. The rain cleared up and it was actually pretty warm. We had some friends come over for chili and hang out. We also a few others stop in so it was a fun night. This picture is with Jesse Brower and Katy Sampson.

Carving Pumpkins

Mikaela and Koby love to carve pumpkins. Mikaela just loved to keep squishing the seeds. Koby used a spoon more then his hands. :)



Makai looked inside...then reached his hand in....



Then cried!

Happy Birthday Mikaela !!

Mikaela turned 9. I can't believe I have a 9 year old. It makes me feel so old. But on the positive side, we only have a couple more years until she can officially babysit. :) Mikaela had a wonderful b-day. It seemed never ending. It started with Grandma Jules coming to visit. She made all of our lives easier. Mikaela loves breakfast in bed. So we made her crepes and sausage. Two of her favorites. Then it was time for Koby's soccer game and then Mikaela's soccer game. After we told her we were going to Target to buy her a toy, but instead we ended up surprising her at the movies to see High School Musical 3. She was very excited! After we ate dinner at Olive Garden to have her favorite - PASTA. The waiters sang to her which always makes her embarrassed. Then we came home and opened a few gifts. The next day grandma made her a great chocolate cake. She had a fun weekend! We love you Mikaela!

I love you Grandpa!

After almost 93 years my cute Grandpa Skousen decided it was time to go live with his daughter in Arizona. He had some bad falls this past summer and some other health problems. I went back home to say goodbye to him. Hopefully I will get to see him again. I love you Grandpa!

Kai's 1st plane ride!!

I got to go back to Utah in September with just Kai. He had never flown on a plane before. He loved every minute of it and did really well. The flight back wasn't as good for mom. I had to throw up on the plane.
That was a fun experience. :)

Yes this makes it four and final!

To justify my slacking of not posting anything on my blog for a while I have a very good excuse! We are expecting our fourth baby. We are very excited!! It came a lot quicker than we were expecting. The sickness also came fast and worse then I remember. It has been pretty rough. On Conference weekend I ended up in the ER and had 4 liters of fluid put in. Still after that they were hesitant to let me go. Let's just say my heart beat was close to a dead person. It was a scary experience, but things are better now. Not great, but better. All I can say is that I have a wonderful husband who has been amazing. I know this has not been easy on him. I am so grateful to have an almost 9 year old daughter who has also been amazing. Mikaela has helped so much. Koby gives my tummy kisses and prays very hard for me. Thankfully Kai has been an easy child. He doesn't understand why mom is always in bed, but loves mommy and Kai time on the bed. :)

Our Cute Kai

We love our baby boy and he knows it. After our big earthquake, all the stuffed animals fell on the ground in his room, so we decided to take pictures. I am also adding a video of him in the car. He wont say many words but he loves to sing and babble in his own language. Once in a while he throws in a word that we all know. :)

We made our big move to Vancouver. It all worked out good. We had a few minor problems, but we got moved in and feel pretty settled. The kids started school today and loved it. They had a special meeting place for recess incase they didn't have other friends to play with. (That made me feel so sad as a mom moving them.) But they did great and made friends. :)

Matt and I got to go for a walk with Kai this morning. Weird to only have one kid. But it is great. Koby did great going for 6 hours and Mikaela can't wait to go back tomorrow. So it all went well. We love our house and have already had one family visit from Reno - the Arnolds. :) We would love more to come anytime.







The weather has been beautiful. We got to go hiking on Labor day. The two older kids did amazing. We went on a 2 mile hike. Koby was determined to be the first one up the mountain and he was. Then of course it was a race to see if Mikaela could be the first one down. (And she was.) I took Kai on my back and he sang the whole way. It was very cute!

I had my 32nd b-day two days after we moved here - Good timing. :) My best gift was that my mom surprised me and flew out the day before. It made the move so much easier to have her here. I worked her pretty hard, but we got the house unpacked and even managed to go shopping, to dinner and to the show.

Some of the pictures you will see...Our good friends the Demordaunts gave us a goodbye party. The Coonradts dressed up in black to show they were in morning. We will miss Reno very much and all of our good friends. Also are pictures of us going to the Zoo with our good friends the Cochran's who live out here and our hike to Multnomah falls.

So now life gets back to normal with school and soccer schedules. The kids started soccer practice in August. Matt had them registered before we even moved. They both practice two times a week. We stay busy!

Love to you all!