Christmas Card 2009

A new camera...

I got a camera a few years ago for my birthday. Chris surprised me with it and I loved it. I've never been real good at capturing our lives before but I really wanted to try. The problem was that it would go through batteries like crazy! I swear after only 5 pictures I'd have to replace the batteries. Needless to say I didn't use it much because it was always out of batteries. Last year for Christmas Baylee got a great camera from her grandparents that was plug-in rechargeable, AWESOME! Poor Baylee would always have to bring it along on family outings for us to capture the moment. I would rarely bother her to load the pics onto the computer for me to blog. Lazy, I know. NO MORE EXCUSES!
I got a real camera this year for Christmas. For you camera people out there it's a Nikon D3000, fancy pants! Much nicer than I need but my hub is tired of my complaints so he went all out:) They are all so sick of me taking pics that they threaten to hide my new toy. I tell you this all with hopes that by admitting it "out loud" I will start to blog. I really need to capture these memories. Here's to a New Year full of journalling via this blog :)

p.s. this is me (on Christmas morning, pardon the look) and my new camera strap 'cause Chris is using the camera to take the pic ;)

Halloween Carnival

The annual church Halloween Carnival. I know it will come as a shock to you all but Chris was out of town, gasp! We all dressed up, even though I'm not a Halloween fan. Baylee the fairy, Kaity the bee, Josh the skeleton and Mom the witch (fitting I know). Carnival games and lots of candy then off to the parking lot for trunker treating and more candy. Good times for all.

First Day of School, First Day of School...

And they are off. They all had smiles on their faces, new school clothes on their backs, new backpacks loaded and ready to meet new friends.
I am officially alone. Ok, Chris came home to walk Josh to school so he's here. That's even better :)
We are off to run errands and maybe have a late lunch together. I could get used to this "all my kids are in school" thing. Chris really wants me to get a job and I really miss my job and want to find a new one too. But until then, I will enjoy the quiet in my house for 2.5 hours each afternoon.

Is it really almost over?

Can you believe it's already August? Where has the time gone? There are still so many things I wanted to do this summer and I am now down to three weeks, all of which are quickly filling up. Mostly with back-to-school shopping, dentist/doctor appointments and those types of unfun things. We have had a fun, but different summer. We've already made the trek to UT twice (we drove both times :<) and welcomed 3 new little one's into the McDougal family. We camped a few times and have another trip planned this weekend. We've explored many new parks with great new friends. We've been lost way too many times to count. I always blame the "getting lost" on the GPS unit and now Josh always asks, is Mag (that's what we call her)getting us lost again? (Update, since origianl post we've had our beloved Mag stolen from our car.) We've unpacked countless boxes and painted many a wall. We've shopped for house stuff and returned more than we kept. We've explored the beach and hit Pike's Market. We visited the Troll and hit the locks. Chris has spent lots of time with his work buddies, hanging out on the boat, playing volleyball and golfing. He insists that all those events have been work related and don't count but, whatever. So all in all we've had a great summer and I can't believe it's over. If I could figure out how to get the slide show tool to work you'd see many a picture of these fun times. Until then, just imagine it and know that we've had fun.

Take your pet to school day...or was it?

Remember when I lived in South Weber and my dogs would always run thru the electric fence. I spent many snowy nights looking for those stupid dogs while Chris was here in WA. I hated those dogs! I was so excited to move into this house because it had a fully fenced yard. I thought I was home free. But then I should have known better, I do have two Houdini dogs. The first escape happened within the first few weeks. Winston, who can jump very high, figured that if he stood on his dog house he could jump the fence. It happened three times, the first two times Chris or I were in the front yard so we got him right away. The last time it happened Chris had to go pull the stupid dog off the the baseball field during a Little League game. Actually, a lady in the stands had caught the dog, he was in her car eating who knows what. Remember what he did to my car (ate the ceiling liner). A bit embarrassing? Yes! Chris fixed that problem. But again, the Houdini's will not be stopped.
I live in the state of Washington. As you all know it rains here. The wood on the fence must be the original (20 years old). And 20 years of rain and wet soil tends to rot the cedar planks that make up my fence. If you have a hefty dog (Hendrix) who is an escape artist, all he has to do is jump up on the fence with all of his weight a few times and the rotted wood will peel away. So that is how they now prefer to escape. Every time they do, of course Chris is at work or worse, out of town. He left town yesterday morning. They escaped 4 times yesterday. I was so done! Then this morning was the icing on the cake. I got them out of their crates and stood in the rain watching them do their business. I brought them both back inside and shut the door. I went upstairs to shower and when I went back downstairs 20 minutes later, you guessed it, they were gone. Fatty pushed the back door open (it must not have latched all the way) and they were off. We live very close to the school so I knew they headed that way, they can't resist playing with the kids. Kaitlyn was just finishing up breakfast so I sent her on her way and hopped in the car and started driving the roads. The usual spots that I found them yesterday (all 4 times). They were no where to be found. After 20 minutes I decided to go back home and check on Josh. Yes he was at home, the TV was babysitting. He was fine. I decided peaked outside just as my cell phone started ringing. I grabbed the phone and answered it as I found Winston in the front yard, looking very guilty. The phone call was Kaitlyn saying that Hendrix was in her class room. He just busted in. They were holding him there until I came to get him. Apparently Hendrix was confused, he thought it was take your pet you school day. The kids in Kaity's class thought he was awesome and even though it left them smelling of wet dog and I'm sure the class room still smells, I got the stupid dogs back. They are now currently serving time in their outside kennel. They will not be released until this evening at 9:30 pm when their father returns home to save them. I really do feel bad locking them up for the whole day but I am done! I will not spend another day looking for them. Chris promised that he would go around the entire yard and screw not nail the fence slats together. And I suppose this summer we will be putting in a new fence. Good times in the Northwest...

You'd think I'd be posting more...

It's not like I have a great social life here. I only have maybe 3 friends. But still I haven't taken the time to post.
Kaity's 10th birthday was last week. We had a great time celebrating on a small scale, the real party will be this weekend. Kaity wanted to wait for her big sister to come and she is coming today!!! Yeah :) Josh has been taking links off of his count down chain for a long time. We are all looking forward to having the whole family together.
So for Kaity's birthday we went to one of her favorite restaurants, Applebee's, and had a great meal.

Josh gave her a webkinz fish :)

Kaity joined the track team. I can't believe they have a track team at the elementary but she has fun. They have modified events for field like the ball kick and ball throw. She does the ball throw. She placed 1st yesterday in the ball throw, 2nd on the 75 where she came so close to beating a girl who's legs were as long as Kaity is tall and her relay team took second as well. Way to go Kaity!


On Tuesday Chris call from the office to say that he'd been given some tickets to the Mariner's. We had awesome seats about 30 rows up from the field just to the right of home plate. It was so much fun. Our favorite player is Griffey, his first time up to bat he hit it out of the park, WOW!


We had a fabulous time and will definitely go back again!



So we are all doing well. Keeping busy and getting familiar with our new city. Come visit, it's alot of fun up here...