'Twas the season to be Jolly!

The holiday season this year was GREAT! I had no idea how much kids add to the excitement of the season. This year I wanted to get started early with presents, but the problem with buying presents for kids early is they change their minds sometimes every hour! If you asked Nick what was going to ask Santa for he would say everything, and he meant it. Andrea on the other hand couldn't decide on anything. Good thing I kept all the receipts...

Anyway, we started out the holiday season with Thanksgiving at my house with all of Mike's family. It was a blast and crazy at the same time. Since this was my first Thanksgiving I was a little stressed about it, mainly that the Turkey would not turn out. Well, I did an apple juice brine on the turkey and started it the day before, and it turned out awesome. It was so juicy that when we poked in the thermometer to check the temp it squirted juice out at us! The funny thing is that I was so focused on dinner I forgot to take a single picture :( I even did decorations on the table, I know none of you probably believe it but I really did decorate the table.

This is the only picture I have from around that day. Kyle is definately growing fast!

On the Friday after Thanksgiving Andrea and I went with Mike's Mom, Sisters and Nieces to the Rockettes concert. They were really fun to watch, and Andrea was completely enthralled with them the whole time! This was their Toy Soldier dance.

Andrea and Kate got to sit next to each other at the performance. Andrea loves her cousin Kate!

The next day we went to the Cache Nutcracker Ballet. And yes, that is Mike in the picture at the Ballet loving every minute of it. Andrea really liked this ballet especially since her friend Kristen was in it as one of the clowns.

This is Andrea, Kristen, and Kristen's sister Kate along with the Gingerbread "mom" from the Nutcracker. If you have not seen the ballet, the clowns hide under the Gingerbread mom's skirt and come running out when they get onto centerstage. This guy walks on stilts with 8 little kids under his dress across the stage, pretty amazing!

Of course we usually send out Christmas cards, but we had some issues with the pictures this year. (See below)

This is the best one I got, but Nick's face was out of focus. I will try again next year and hopefully they will cooperate a little more.

Halloween...Oops

I was just checking out my blog and realized I was just a little behind. Sorry.
For Halloween Andrea was a Sorceress and Nick was Optimus Prime. Grandpa Essig was kind enough to come down and take the kids around for us! He seemed to love it and we loved it!



Found this AMAZING (because all three kids are looking at the camera at once) of the kids and thought I would post it.

Nick's Dictionary

Right now Nick is at one of my favorite stages where he is being exposed to lots of new things and new words. He is really getting good at composing long sentances, but sometimes he gets a few of the words mixed up. These are a few of my favorites.

-The "BINGO was his name-o" song actually goes (according to nick) "B-I-Andrea"
-You actually "sloff" your teeth at not, not floss them.
-When he is really excited about something he says "that will be so citing"
-"Bralellas" are used to keep rain off of you.
-a magnefying glass is really a "telefying glass"
-Volcano's are Ball-canos
-"compellers" are what make helicopters fly not propellers.
-If you talk on your phone when you drive you will get in a rack.
-Santa Club brings us presents on Christmas, which is not to be confused with the store Santa Club (Sam's Club).
-While teaching FHE once about Jesus dying for us Nick explained that Jesus "Diapered" us.
-Don't forget that bats eat Spagitos.
-The best is his invention of the word "Wilnt." He often tells me he "wilnt" do things, leaving me to wonder if he will or won't do them. Perfect.

Man we love our Nick!

Tacoma Tales

Well, I finally have some time to finish my post of our trip to Washington. As I mentioned in the previous post we spent two days in Richland, WA then two days in Tacoma, WA then went back to Richland for the last couple of days. This post is of the whirlwind time we had in Tacoma.

We started off by going to the Pike's Place Market in downtown Seattle. The picture below was pretty telling of kids thoughts of going to the market. Nick: "Shopping...but I want to ride on a Ferry." Andrea: "Shopping...Yeah!! Will you buy me something?" Kyle: "Oh great, where are we going now? Put me back in the car please, I want to go back to sleep."

We started off to the market, and after walking a very slow quarter of a mile we realized we were totally headed in the wrong direction. Turning around was painful with the kids, they were already tired and worn out. That was when Nick caught his toe on some metal on the dock and did a chin plant. He still has a scar from it. No worries though we still got a picture off before the face plant.



After walking around the market for a while we went over and caught the ferry over to Bremerton. The kids absolutely loved this part once they got over the fear of being on a boat. Here is Grandma (my lifesaver with the kids) and Kyle just hanging out on the ferry.

Oh, look...what a cute family. Notice the chin.

The view of Seattle as we were leaving and my favorite little girl. She was a delight the whole trip!

That evening we arrived at my Aunt Peg and Uncle Bob's house. They were great to stay with, my kids loved them...and who wouldn't! They have a clown bike for heaven's sakes! This is one of the funniest video's ever! Go Uncle Bob!

The next day was GEORGOUS! We went to a new park in Tacoma that is still in development. In September they had just opened a new walking bridge that goes over the train tracks to the beachfront on the other side. I will say that Washington (West and East) really knows how to do a park!

This is a view of the path walking into the park. It used to be an old gravel pit, but is currently being coverted to a high-end golf course.

Here are the kids on the start of the walking bridge. I have never been on anything like it!

This is the oceanfront on the other side. Kind of rocky, but this made it more fun for the kids.

Rocks...Water...the best of both worlds! There was also a lot of cool drift wood for the kids to climb on.

After playing in the water we walked back over the bridge to watch the trains. I can say I have never stood over a train as it sailed by underneith me. The kids just screamed with delight!

They actually got one of the trains to honk at us. Sorry, I was not paying attention that I recorded it sideways.



As if the park was not fun enough, after the trains we went to climb on the huge concrete pillars. Of course my strong children are trying to push it over.

On the other side of the park they had these other concrete...uhh...things. It was wierd how these old pieces of concrete actully looked pretty cool!

I know you would think we would be done at this point for the day, but really we were just getting started. After the park we went with Uncle Bob to the Point Defiance Zoo. We loved seeing the Aquarium, and the baby Tigers. The kids also really loved the playground they had. Poor Nick and his chin again.

Thanks to my Aunt and Uncle we had a GREAT time in Tacoma! We will probably be up there again soon we had so much fun!

Washington

Sadly, my favorite sister moved with her cute family to Washington this summer. I was really missing her, so my mom and I decided to be adventerous and go visit. We packed ourselves up and all three of my kids and went. It is amazing how much stuff three little kids require when going on a trip. Anyway we barely made it there (one of the three children was having a difficult time remaining calm in the car), but the important thing is we finally did! Becky (my sister) claims that the eastern part of Washington doesn't get much rain, but it poured for the first two days we were there! That didn't stop the kids though, they sure made the most of it....I knew those rain jackets would come in handy! Of course we had to take a silly picture to because that is how they were actually acting.

We first spent two days at my sisters with the kids playing in the rain. After that we drove to Tacoma and spent two days with my aunt and uncle. (more on that in a later post). Then we drove back to my sister's for two more fun packed days. One day we went down to the dam on the Snake River and watched the salmon and trout swim past. I had no idea those fish were so huge. On average the were three feet long. I am pretty sure now that I have seen what is in the river, I will never actually swim in the river. On the other hand I wouldn't mind learning how to fish in the river!

Anyway, after we saw the fish at the dam we went to a park by the river so the kids could play in it. (Notice how I am not in any of the pictures in the water.) They loved squishing their toes in the mud and pulling up "sea weed."

Nick and Ian having fun splashing and playing in the rocks.

By the end of the day the kids had made a giant nest of the seaweed they collected.

Every night grandma (my mom) would read stories for all the kids. Each kid got to pick out one book so she ended up reading for quite a while, but the kids loved it! That is definately one of my mom's talents, she can make any book sound fun. I am pretty sure she loved every minute of it too.

One of the other days there we went to a pumpkin farm with Nathan's preschool, and rode on a tracktor to pick out a pumpkin. It was really fun for the kids to see where pumpkins come from and they especially like the tractor ride.

At this same farm they had a giant pile of hay bales for the kids to climb on....and I do mean GIANT! I think their favorite part was climbing through the tunnel in the middle. They had to help each other to climb to the top. It was fun to watch the kids push one kid up then that one would pull the others up. It really was a feat for them to reach the top!

One thing I thought was great was how there were bike trails all along the sides of the rivers in Washington. We had brought the kids bikes up so we could go on a ride so one day we decided to try out the trails. We took all the seats out of Becky's van and loaded all 7 bikes in and a bike trailor. Becky and I thought this would be great fun as we rode in a little train down the nicely paved trails. The real thing ended up to be a totally different story. It started off great with only a few arguments of who could be the leader. Within 100 yards Nick and Ian had just stopped riding because they were tired. I decided to take them back to grandma who had Kyle at the park. Of course the two boys were too tired to ride their bikes back so I had to push them along with my bike. I left them with grandma then headed back to Becky and the older kids. We rode along again with the older kids now at a much faster pace, but within five more minutes of riding the kids were dragging and tired. After talking a little Becky and I reluctantly decided to turn around and head back to the park. While in the process of turning her bike around, Andrea crashed on her bike and skinned her knee good. The tears did not stop until we made it back to the park and grandma could heal it. About a minute after Andrea crashed, the chain on Daniel's bike came off and got caught so Becky had to spend some time fixing it. When we finally got back to the park I found out what happened with Nick, Ian and Grandma after I left. Apparently Nick got very upset when I rode off and tried to follow me. Fortunately grandma was able to catch him and haul him back. However, they were not quite at the park yet and had to walk a little ways to get back. Nick was not cooperating so grandma put Kyle (who was also crying), in the stroller, hooked Nick's bike to the back of the stroller. She pushed the stroller with one hand while holding Nick kicking and screaming with the other. All this while coaxing Ian along on his bike to follow her! Needless to say, the bike adventure did not turn out as we had planned, and it will be a few years before we try again!

On the flip side though, the park was awesome! They had a zip line for the kids to play in, two huge jungle gyms and two rock walls for the kids to climb on. This is a picture of the rock wall the kids had a blast on. Pretty cool huh!

We had a great time in Washington and it was really fun to visit! Thanks Becky for letting us stay and being ok with the total chaos we brought to your home!

Yard Work

Other then having a baby, knee surgery, starting school, and work we really haven't done much but work on putting our grass in. We first did the sprinkler system earlier in the summer then took a couple of week break after having Kyle. Then in September we got the bug again to finish putting in the grass. We filled in trenches, had the yard leveled, raked, put in the cement edging, put on the sprinkler heads, adjusted the heads, and raked some more. The kids helped with the yard occasionally. This is Nick one morning helping dad put in a sprinkler head.




This is Nick helping dad put down the fertilizer after all the raking and before the seed. Yes we believe in child labor. All in the name of teaching a good work ethic...right?





We planted the grass on conference weekend. This is a picture about 2 weeks later...GREEN!!!

Of course the kids best "helping" came when they played with the neighborhood kids for hours on end. Here is Andrea in one of those joyous moments with our cute neighbor. Andrea really wanted to play in some mud and she asked very nicely so I couldn't say no. I put her in her old swimming suit and asked her to not get too muddy.

I took this picture after about 5 minutes in the mud.

I came back after a few more minutes to check on them and this is what I found. They were "painting" their bodies.

Oh well...so much for not getting too muddy! Guess I should not have expected anything less! At least she can't say I never let her do anything fun.

Kyle's Blessing

I thought I should finally post some pictures from Kyle's blessing. We blessed him on Sept 5, and his dad did a great job with the blessing. We were lucky to have many family members there. After church we had dinner at our house and suprisingly we fit everyone in! At his last Dr. appointment at 2 months he weighed 11lbs 12oz which is average for his age. He is just learning to smile and Andrea has gotten him to laugh a couple of times. We really love having Kyle in our family.






Our first family picture, and the only one without the kids looking away.


Grandpa Monte with Kyle, we love this picture. You can tell Kyle already admires him.




Our kids loved having all the family around, they especially liked beating everyone with pillows.




Now here is a rare picture so I had to post it. All five of the Moser women looking at the camera, with smiles, and not trying to hide! (The whole family has a history of severe camera shyness)

The bachelors corner.

The young married's couch. Or should I say the couch for the crazy people and the women who tolerate them.

I love my family!