Thanksgiving....only a month later!

Thanksgiving my wonderful family drove to Spokane to spend the weekend with us! Little did they know we would put them to work fixing sewing machines, cooking, and shopping!



Daddo catching up on some reading while not hard at work

Decorating the table...rocking the "no-makeup-because-I-was-busy-cooking" look

Mom hard at work...
Dad all ready to eat

The fixins

Nick keeping everyone entertained

Pie making the night before

taking a break on the couch!

The girls baking pies




Unfortunately Kyle was the photographer for the weekend, so we didn't end up with any pictures to document that he was there too! We had a wonderful time and were so glad we got to have our family here. Thanks for making the trip everyone!

Home Alone VII (I think there are at least that many of those movies!)

Nick went to Pasco for a day so I spent my night alone catching up on things like house cleaning and blogging! I discovered that I don't really cook for myself anymore...I spent the evening snacking on junk food and when I decided to finally eat something for real, I ended up opening a can of ravioli. Real nutritious, I know. Not only that, but I ate it straight from the can. No need to dirty another dish! Thank goodness for Nick being around on most days so I can make a decent meal! While looking through old pictures, I found this one of my lil bro, Gregory. He is on his mission in Atlanta, GA. Here's a tribute to you, Grego. What a hottie! :)

(I wish those retainers still fit!)

Saturday is a special day...

it's the day we get ready for Sunday!

And sometimes those things include cleaning guns and painting dressers! A few weeks ago we went out for breakfast with Nat and Kev, then the girls painted one of Deb's old dressers while the boys cleaned guns. It made for a fun and productive Saturday!

Nice view of our food storage in our messy garage!

Nick's sweet gun-cleaning skills in action...

!

Winterizing..... :-/

I am sure those of you who have been to our house will roll your eyes at how cheap we are, but in efforts to save some money on our heating bills this winter, we "winterized" our house. Our brilliant ideas included added weather stripping to our doors so that they are air and light tight, and covering our windows off with thick foam-board insulation. Oh and it's sealed off with the ever fashionable duct tape! As you can see, the results really add to the aesthetics of our home. Just kidding. Actually we put the blinds back up where we could, and I put up some curtains to hide the window in our room since the blinds wouldn't fit over the foam. So call us tight wads, but it is amazing how much warmer our house is without turning on the heaters. With the temperature dropping below zero this week, we have been using the heater more often. But here's to lower bills! We all could use some of those.....

Here's Nick with the finished product in our room...


He was pretty excited that he got to use one of his knives to cut the boards!


And here he is with the fabulous mess that dang foam makes ALL over the house! Those little styrofoam pieces float everywhere, and just fly away when you try to catch them with the vacuum!

Fall is here!

I put up some fall decorations to help me not be so sad that it is so cold! I'm pretty sure our garden died last week the first night it froze. Luckily I picked the last of the tomatoes and squash the day before. Instead of dreading the snow again this winter, I am focusing on enjoying the fun parts like the holidays and celebrate them to the fullest. I am not sure what I will do come January when we still have 3 feet of snow for another 4 months, but I have some time to think about it! :)

Dishman Hills Natural Area

I found this great wildlife/park area near our house. Right in the heart of spokane the city has set aside several acres of land for a "natural area". They have hiking trails etc but mostly it is meant to be kept.....well, natural! :) If you remember several months ago there were some fires in spokane and at least 13 houses were lost to it. It also claimed part of the Dishman Hills Natural Area and as we hiked along one of the trails, we got to see some of the destruction left behind. Kind of creepy but very cool to see. Make sure you put your fires out completely!! We hiked up to Eagle's Peak and had a great view of the entire city. Lots of fun, you should check it out!

Wilsons family FINALLY came to visit! ;)

The Wilson family came to visit us for a weekend. We had lots of fun shopping, eating great food, and going to Silverwood amusement/water park. Unfortunately I didn't remember to take pictures until they were leave! Here is proof that they were here!

Happy Birthday Sunshine and Christina!

Our birthdays are only a day apart...how cool is that?! We celebrated them together by going to Sho Gun for some delicious dinner. It has quickly become one of our favorite places to eat on special occasions!

Priest Lake, ID

We went camping to Priest Lake in July with the Sanders. We had a grand time swimming in the lake, roasting marshmellows and playing games!






We tried going fishing....so far none of our fishing trips have turned out successful! At least we have fun....Ryker was so cute with his little fishing pole. He really got the hang of it!



Nick and I went on a hike and found this stream. Unfortunately Nick forgot shoes so he had to hike in his flip flops!


Our model shots....








Someone made these cute little "sofas" out of fallen trees!