Hello All! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we spent the rest of the weekend packing and moving. We are now in our new house. YEAH! The kids are still sleeping on mattresses, but we are so excited to finally be in. Pictures to come. Hope everyone had a great holiday!

A decade together

HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY! Nov. 14, 1998 WoW! A decade together!

Who would have believed that we would make it! I am sure glad we did. You're still the one! I love you more now than I even thought possible. You are the greatest Dad, the hardest worker, and the most humble when it come time to apologize. I still can't get over how lucky we are to have 4 beautiful, happy, healthy kids. When did we grow up?( I hope we will never really grow up, only mature a bit). I hope to be by your side for many, many more glorious years. Thankyou for the last deacde together. Come with me the best is yet to be!

This is one of the out takes from our engagement pics. Jeff is still cute as ever!

Jeff allowing the girls to put their hands in the wet concrete. taken at the Chestnut house 1.5 yrs ago. Jeff, showing Mason how to do one of Dad's favorite things, fishing!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We had a really great Halloween this year. The kids got to go to three parties and got way more candy than they need. Thursday they got to wear their costumes to school. That evening the school had a "Trunk or Treat" party which seems to be becoming more popular. This is the kids before school. Em, is a Renisance girl, Lacey a Flapper girl.

Mason is a pirate. This is about all of the ARGGG! I gould get him to muster. His Grandma Julie made the costume. (She is so wonderful at sewing.) Mason loved it. Lilly is a bug tonight. Cutest little Lilly-bug.

This is Mason, and Lacey's teacher. She is great, all dressed up and trunk all decked out.

This is the actual Halloween night. With our friends we went to their church for a grand carnival complete with jump houses and games. Then we went to our church and did the "trunk-or treat" thing there. The kids were not quite finished after all of that so we went trick-or-treating in our old neighborhood, said hello to some neighbors, and even got to see inside our old house. The BOYS! My Mason is still not a very scary pirate, but if you look closely he is motioning arggg! Lacey and Aliya. All decked out, A princess and a Flapper girl. Libby, myself and Lilly. Lilly got to be a 50's dancer girl tonight.

This is the after math. As soon as we walked in the door all six kids dumped their bags on the floor and bagan organizing and counting the candy. Emery was way serious about it and counted all 314 pieces of her candy.

This is Lilly amongst the after math. She made her way throught everyone's pile and took a few for herself.

Aquarium

While in Utah we got to have some fun with our cousin McKella! Julie ( the best mother-in-law around) so graciously drove with me and four crazy children to Ut. so that we could be at my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary party. While I was there Julie went to spend some time with Bonnie (Jeffs lil sis) who lives in Orem. I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to see Bonnie and McKella so we went to the Life Aquarium in Sandy Ut. The kids had a great time petting among others, the sting rays, star fish, and sea urchins in the "petting zoo."

Cutie McKella she is pretty shy, but she is kindof smiling at me.

Lilly Bug doing her climbing.

The kids petting the sting rays. The sting rays were used to being touched and one of them swam around the edges and put up his wing? so that the kid could feel the smooth skin.

The whole group we had a great time. Thanks Bonnie and Mckella for joining us. We love you!

50th Wedding Anniversary!

The beginning of the month I got to go Home for my parents

50th Wedding Anniversary. After a year of planning with my siblings we pulled it off. I can't say that I had much to do with it. My sisters, and sis-in-laws did all of the work and I got to come home help set up, claen up and be a part of the big day. On their real anniversay date all of us sent Mom and Dad to Park City for the weekend to relax and be entertained. They got to go see a funny play (moms' fav), and a great steak restraunt (Dad's Fav). The next weekend we had an Open House for them at the Church. Some of the people that came were in my mom's line at her wedding. Wow! 50 years ago.50 years later. They still look the same just a few more character lines.

Cutting the cake 50 years ago

cutting the cake 50 years later.

My Mom was only 80 pounds when she got married. We had a hard time getting the dress on the form. Even after we got it on the form, we pinned it to the back of the form because it would not go small enough to get the dress at all zipped.

The line.

The posterity

Sarah and Jaron looking at family pics. that were on display.

My sisters Suzanne and Val working in the kitchen. They are so wonderful! Lilly bug and Jackson only a couple of months apart. Lilly loves giving hugs.

My Grandma with my cousins.

Centeral Washington State Fair

Who doesn't LOVE the fair. We had a great time this year. The kids really got into all of the animals and the activities that they had set up. I only let them choose one ride to go on while they were there. I know we are so mean, not mean just poor. Each ride was about $4, what is the world coming to, I remember when I was a kid we could go on all of the rides for $4. Anyway, enough I am showing my age. They did have some things that were FREE too so that was nice. The kids got to do a tractor pull (which is what the first pic is of) the kids were eliminated when they could not pull the weight in the tractor behind them. Mason did not win, however he pulled 225 pounds, and that was more than most of the 10 yr. olds could pull. He is so cute and shy. He did not want to even participate, but Lacey did not give him a chance. She pushed him out from the crowd. ( I am so glad that they came together). We even got to see a SEA LION show. The kids got a big kick out of that, we waited for 30 minutes to get front row seats, (that's a long time with 3 kids and a Lilly) We ate a bucket of fries while we waited, it helped a little. Lilly really likes Ketchup, she drank a couple of packets worth. YUCK! The kids asked if they could pet this cow, the girl was really cute and Emery was excted to listen to it's heart. (She is going to be a VET you know.) Holding a real aligator. Notice that Mason is not in the pic. He was not going anywhere near that "real live thing." Corn pit! Gotta love it! Lacey, chose the pony ride as her one and only, suprise! suprise! This was part of the show. It was worth the 30 minute wait. They did a really cute (FREE) show and it was very educational. Do you know the difference between sealion's and seals. Emery can tell you.

House Update!

The house is painted! I really like it. I am so glad that it turned out the way I imagined. That hardly ever happens. The top is a nice choclate brown and the bottom is called "warm stone." The rock is going up. It is still in progress, but is looking good. Jeff is amazing. He has not ever done rock and mortor stuff before but he is doing a great job. We are going to wrap the posts and stain them a dark brown. We- Ha Ha it's all Jeff. This is the inside now sheet rocked! Yeah! It is really starting to feel like a home. We had a wonderful crew come and do the work. They did an impeccable job. It was worth every penny not to have to have Jeff do it. It took a crew of five guys, 8 days to get it done. It would have taken Jeff 8 weeks- no kidding. This is a pic. of the kitchen and the soon to be bar. This is Lilly climbing. She is so quick. This pic was taken one minute after the last. She is such a climber. Up ladders, up on the kitchen table, on the toilet. What a monkey.

Jeff's Birthday!

OVER THE HILL!!! Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you! Jeff turned 35 this year. Wow! Time flies! Somethings that you might not know about Jeff: 1. He really hates anyone to make a big deal over him. (He has a hard time with birthday's) 2. Most of you know Jeff is good with his hands, but Jeff is also really good at magic. He can find quarters in the kids ears. 3. Jeff like a good "chick flick" just as much as I do. (That one is going to get me into trouble). 4. Jeff loves Chinese food. If you need something done, bribes ending with Chinese food usually work. 5. Jeff makes awesome scrambled eggs. For Jeff's cake this year I made him a gingerbread cake. He loves gingerbread. We put vanilla pudding over the top instead of frosting it was pretty good. The kids have really gotten into birthday's this year. They spent a long time making the banner "just perfect." Emery made this card. She is really starting read and also wants to write all of the time. I love the phonetic spelling. I had to take a pic. and share. It is so much fun to watch them pick up on things.