Happy New Year

Our New Years eve was a quiet one. We continued our tradition of going bowling and having dinner at the bowling alley. We were down one bowler, Natalie was invited to a birthday, slumber party for one of her friends. Her friends parents rented a room at the Lakeway Best Western, so she staying at a hotel tonight. She was pretty excited, swimming, pizza and fun with her girlfriends. So I had a great evening bowling and enjoying burgers and fries with my man and "near" man. We had hoped that our practice on the Wii would have improved our games but it didn't. Neither Wade or I bowled nearly as well as we do on the Wii. We decided we will stick with the Wii.

I am very grateful to have had a wonderful 2008. I have a wonderful husband, two awesome kids, a testimony of the gospel, a good job, a warm home and an overall blessed life. I am looking forward to a great 2009, of course there are things I want to accomplish that didn't get done in 2008. Hopefully in 2009 I will take one at a time and check them off my list.

With only 11 minutes to go before 2009 officially starts I better log off. Time for Andrew's favorite part of the evening, watching the Space Needle fireworks show on tv.

Wishing all our family and friends a happy, healthy 2009!

Christmas Eve 2008

Family of 4 Tale of Desperaux movie tickets, $27.50, homemade seafood fetuccini dinner, $30.00, Wade power sliding our Tribute into the garage door PRICELESS!

This is what happens when all four wheels lock up and our driveway is covered with ice. I guess a new garage door will be on next years Christmas list and Wade will be added to the naught list.

Merry Christmas to us!

Happy 40th Birthday!!!

This is a special posting to my wonderful husband of 18 years on his 40th birthday. I have been thinking over the past weeks what I could do to let him know how much he means to me. I came up with a complilation of 40 characteristics I love about him. They are in no paticular order because it would be impossible for me to put any more importance on one than another. I guess it is also a way for those who read our blog to see what a truely wonderful man I am married to.

40 Things I Love About You

1. Your unconditional love for me.

2. You are my best friend.

3. You are an awesome father.

4. You honor your priesthood authority.

5. Your wonderful sense of humor.

6. Your patience with me.

7. Your creativity, the Harley Davidson logo on my laundry room wall.

8. Your ability to fix almost anything I have broken (i.e. the recent house alarm incident)

9. Your membership in the church because without that you would have never sent me a Book of Mormon.

10. The wonderful family you come from; without them I wouldn't have some of my favorite memories.

11. Your enthusiasm to learn, all the Discovery, TLC and Speed channel shows you TIVO.

12. Your worthiness to serve a mission and take me to the temple to be sealed forever.

13. Your patience and understanding of my family.

14. Your tender heart.

15. Your love of dogs.

16. Your sense of adventure.

17. Your dislike of spiders.

18. Your ability to work in a profession that provides a good lifestyle for your family, even though at times it can be frustrating.

19. Your trust in me.

20. Your love of diverse music, Beastie Boys, ELO, Butthole Surfers, ABBA and the list goes on.

21. Your dislike of country music.

22. Your ear for listening to me when I have to purge all the crazy thoughts in my head.

23. Your testimony of the gospel.

24. The example you set for our kids.

25. Your ability to constantly dream and dream big, such as winning LOTTO.

26. Your willingness to fulfill some of my crazy dreams like riding a Harley for my 30th birthday.

27. Your desire to give me the very best.

28. Your support when it comes to our kids; we are a united force not to be rekoned with.

29. Your acceptance of who I am and not trying to change the way I am.

30. Your interest you take in our kids lives; taking Andrew to the movies he wants to see, listening to Natalie talk about American Girls and Webkinz.

31. Your love and patience with our kids and trying not to change who they are.

32. Your grey hair.

33. Your hands, because I love to hold them.

34. Your ability to come up with great nicknames for just about anyone.

35. Your quick wit, you have taught me how to hold my own in just about any conversation.

36. Your wealth of knowledge on just about any subject.

37. Your willingness to help anyone.

38. Your love of landscaping.

39. Your love of cars.

40. Most of all I love the fact that you are my best friend and my husband for eternity.

Happy 40th Birthday!

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2008

I know I am a little late getting these pictures posted but better late than never. Andrew was Optimus Prime from the Transformers movie and Natalie was the ever so popular Hannah Montana. Wade made Andrew's costume out of poster board and foam board. It was very impressive (like it wouldn't have been) and Andrew got lots of compliments on it. I think he was more proud telling people that his dad made it for him. Natalie, oh Natalie. She loved the blonde wig. She would wear it around the house before Halloween, shaking her head, putting clippies and headbands in it. It was too funny.

Wade doesn't like to dress up for Halloween but he really enjoys dressing up our house. He goes all out. Last year we even made concrete headstones (1 advantage of having a curbing company) that we put in the front yard. We had tiki torches burning, scary music playing and the oh so popular dancing skelton projected on one of the tall evergreen trees in our back yard. I tried to take a picture of it but it didn't show up. The kids are popular at school around Halloween because all their friends now our house because of the dancing skelton.

We had our traditional chili for dinner (Natalie always has mac & cheese because she doesn't like chili) and pumpkin bars for desert. Overall it was a great Halloween!

Wade Joins Facebook

To the suprise of many Wade joined Facebook. He has always cautioned his family about these "social networking" sites. Here is what he wrote on his page as to why he joined Facebook.

One would think that since I am in the technology industry I would be all over this this social networking craze. Last month I had one of our recently college graduate employees call me old and I don't understand how the youth of today communicate. (He said this because I blocked his Internet access).

His comment got me thinking; no, I'm not old but I will be 40 very soon, but I have avoided blogging and sites like facebook. I have always figured less information out there about me, the better. I say enough stupid stuff, the last thing I need to do is type so people have hard proof that I actually said it!Well to prove the kids wrong and to show that I can be as cool as the next guy, Whaalllaaa, I am now on Facebook. I even started a blog! (Don't get excited, the blog is more technical. It is a place to purge my brain once in a while.)

Hope to hear from everyone soon.

I think I speak for many when I say Facebook is a better place because Wade has joined. If nothing else at least I have someone to "chat" with when I am sitting on the couch.

Facebook Junkie

After much contenplating I joined Facebook. I owe this all to my good friend Kathleen. Now I am an addict, hopefully there is a 10 step program to help those of us who are addicted.

I have the same excitement with Facebook as I did when I first started emailing. The excitement of logging on an seeing who had emailed me. Now it is the excitement of logging on to see what "notifications" I have or who is my "friend" now and who has posted on my "wall". I am doing pretty good with the lingo too. I enjoy being able to communicate with people who I have not spoken with in years. I was able to do a search a find my best friend from high school. We had lost touch a quite a few years ago but it was such a thrill to find her.

I love keeping in touch with my family. I chat often with my niece in Idaho who is getting married in December. We talk about the plans, what she is enjoying and what is driving her crazy. I check in on my niece and nephew in Alaska. I get a kick out of seeing what my nephew is a "fan" of now and chatting with my niece about life in Alaska. I guess the funniest of all is sitting on the couch with Wade, me on his laptop and him on his blackberry chatting. We just laugh at ourselves.

Technology is cool.

July 2008 Moses Lake, WA

We were looking to get away for a weekend so I got online to find a place we could go where it would be more like summer. I found Suncrest Resort RV Park in Moses Lake. We had never been to Moses Lake so we were excited to see what it had to offer. The campground was great, it had a pool and we spent the majority of our time at the pool. It definately felt like summer over there and we enjoyed the warm weather. We had a great relaxing weekend and enjoyed it so much we are spending our first night of our Big Vacation there. The picture of Andrew & Natalie was at the sand dunes in Moses Lake. I can't remember how we found out about them but we checked them out one afternoon. They were really cool looking, not so cool on the feet. There were motorcross bikes jumping and ATV's going everywhere. We were all a little puzzled as to why Shaggy kept laying down in the sand. He would walk a little ways and then lay down. Then it dawned on us that the sand was too hot on his paws. That is when we decided we better head back to our campground.

The pool at the camground had two small slides. Andrew & Nat spent hours going up and down the slides. Wade and I didn't get to try them out because the sign so NO Adults!

Natalie coming down the slide.

Countdown to Our VACATION

We have about 4 days until we leave for our big vacation. We have been planning this for a few months now and are excited to get going. We will be camping in our travel trailer for 10 days. We were originally going to Flaming Gorge for a family reunion but then found out many of the extended family members weren't going to be there. We then went to plan B or maybe this is plan C by now. Anyway, we are heading out at the end of the week. We plan to visit Moses Lake, WA, Missoula, MT, Idaho Falls, ID, Twin Falls, ID and West Yellowstone, MT. We are spending about 2 days in Yellowstone. Both kids are looking forward to seeing buffalo, bears and Old Faithful. We also plan to meet up with Grandma & Grandpa Draper in Yellowstone. The kids ar really excited and have been counting days until we leave. Now, the big thing is getting ready!

Finally in the world of blogging

After lurking around and reading our friends and family blogs I decided it was time that I got on the blog wagon. I really enjoy reading what everyone is up to and it is such an easy way to keep in touch. Hopefully this will give our friends and family an opportunity to keep up with our crazy lives. Enjoy!