Yet Another Seattle Trip continued...

A fun day with Grandma at the park. Logan loves to ride the "Quack".
Logan loves airplanes, so he was excited to get invited into the cockpit of our jet on our return flight. He wanted to go up and push some buttons, and got mad when I wouldn't let him! Flights during nap time are wonderful...for awhile anyway. Logan didn't sleep long enough, and SCREAMED and thrashed in my lap for the last half hour of the flight! I could feel the hatred silently burning from the people in front of us!
We arrived home to strong wind and freezing sideways rain. Matthew & I were completely soaked through by the time we loaded everyone into the car. Home Sweet Home!

We were on TV!

Our epspode of Deal or no Deal aired last night. Here we are in the background! There were just a few quick shots like this, but this was the best one with all 4 of us in it. We paused it and took a picture of the screen. (It looks stretched because of our TV.) It was amazing how edited the show was. When we were there, the guy was calling himself the king, which had something to do with the Burger King, and they put up a picture with him and the King, and even brought the Burger King into the audiance. On TV all of that was cut out. They told us it would be a special 90 minute show, but ended up being an hour, so I guess that's why. These were the two contestants, but I won't say which one got all the money because some people haven't watched yet. Also, Brennen has recently started enjoying rice cereal! He's such a big boy, growing up so fast! He went to the Dr. yesterday. He weighs 16lbs. 8 oz. and is 26" long!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

At Auntie Christy's house

Here's Auntie Christy recovering from surgery with her new purple cast.
We had a visit from Beth and Madeline and Owen! It was nice to see them again! She got to meet Logan and Brennen for the first time. Madeline enjoyed holding Brennen.

Deal or No Deal

Last week we got to attend a live taping of the game show Deal or no Deal! For those who maybe have never seen it, here's a picture. (Logan thought it was daddy!) The contestant chooses cases to open that contain different amounts of $ from 1 cent to $1,000,000. Each amount that is opened is eliminated. After each case opening session, the banker makes them an offer, trying to get them to leave with as little as possible. They can take the deal, or open more cases and risk eliminating the big $$. The strategy is in knowing when to get out. Most people get over-confident and greedy, and end up loosing out on a lot of money. Hopefully that was a good explanation. Anyway, it was fun to be there in the set! We had really good seats right up front, so we should be seen on TV a lot! Watching it in real life is a lot different than the show. First of all there's no music or sound effects. That's all added in later. They have the ladies walk out several times to get different shots, and do retakes throughout the show. There is a guy who is in the audience of every show, who leads us on when to clap, stand, or boo. During commercial breaks they give instructions on what's coming next, and do contests, like a spelling bee, and who's had the worst job, etc. We didn't participate in any of them.

Our show was a special episode of men vs. women "winner takes all", where two contestants play. The man played first but we had to leave before he finished. When we left, he was offered $123,000, and was deciding whether or not to take the deal. On our way out Helen and I met Tamika, one of the case models, in the bathroom of all places. Helen talked to her. That's our claim to fame. She seemed nice.

We don't know yet exactly when our show will air. We have to keep checking the website for our episode #. I think it will be around the end of February or beginning of March. We will record it for anyone who would like to see us on TV! "Oooh, how exhilarating!" -New York Times

Day trip to L.A.

I've always wanted to go somewhere (other than Seattle) for the day. Well we finally did it! Matthew & I, along with Helen & Jasen, started out early Wednesday morning, and flew to Los Angeles! We left the kids with my mom and Christy in Seattle. We went to attend a Deal or No Deal show! Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of our trip. It was our first stop in L.A. -a hardware store of course! Here we are each buying a pair of $3 sunglasses. None of us thought to bring any, and when we arrived there was something big and very bright in the sky...I believe it was called sun! Our eyes couldn't handle it. The reason we didn't take any more pictures was because we were told not to bring cameras or cell phones to the studio or they wouldn't let us in. So, being good citizens, we left them in the car. Then we headed to the studio. We all dressed fairly nice, in case they decided to pick one of us for the show. Notice Matthew in all black. He thought I had spoiled his possible chance of getting on the show because I didn't pack black socks for him. That turned out to be the least of his fashion blunders. After walking 4 blocks looking for the studio, I realized we didn't have our tickets. So Matthew ran all the way back to the car, which was parked on the 8th floor of a parking garage. When he got back to us, he was dripping in sweat! Then we discovered we had gone in the wrong direction! Finally we found the studio, but were told the morning show was running late, so we should come back in about 2 hours. To wait it out, we went to cold stone and got some ice cream, which Matthew spilled down his pants! Then we found a nice bench to sit on under a tree. And guess what...a bird pooped on Matthew's shoulder! Finally we went back to the studio to get in line. They told us the show could take up to 6 hours, and they didn't like people to leave early, which meant we would miss our flight back! We decided to go in anyway and take our chances, since that was the whole point of coming to L.A. As we stood in line we saw that everyone had cell phones and were taking pictures with them! They just told everyone to turn them off inside. So much for rules. I wish we'd known that! Then we might have had some good pictures! Oh well!

(I'll write about the show in the next post so this doesn't get too long!)

Anyway, it turned out to be perfectly fine to leave the show early. They just brought in extra people to replace us, since they don't want empty seats. We ended up back at the airport just in time to catch our flight back to Seattle. By then we were all very tired and hungry and had headaches. I felt really sick the whole way back from exhaustion. (Up all night with children the night before!) But, overall it was a fun adventure!

Brennen's 1st flight

Brennen took his first flight this week! He was very good! He had to wait 3 months to fly. By this age, Meadow had already gone on about 10 flights! He's a very happy, sweet little lad! (BIG lad!)

Christmas Day

Ever since Meadow saw these in a catalog several months ago, she has wanted and fully expected to get a "back hoe" for Christmas. So Grandma and Grandpa John gave them each one (a battery operated excavator and loader with levers that really work!). Meadow gives her animals rides in it.

Meadow got a fun easel set from Grandma Cooke with paints and chalk.
After presents we have our traditional breakfast of ham, egg & cheese croissants topped with hollendaise sauce, made by chef Matthew.
Matthew made Meadow a nice twin size bed. The picture doesn't show it, but there are drawers along the bottom, and there will be a shelf headboard eventually. She liked it but when I checked on her for her first few times sleeping in it, she was back in her old bed which was still in her room in the closet! I guess she doesn't like change. She's more used to it now.
Then we went to the delicious feast at the Goulds. I guess next year I'll be the preparer of the Christmas feast at our house. It will probably take many years to get up to Sheila standards! But I've learned a lot from experiencing her many Christmas dinners and Sunday lunches!
Here are the hosts..with dad in the middle.

All 8 kids! From youngest to oldest. We should re-take this photo in 10 years!

Igloo

Matthew built the kids a big igloo! He made it at night then left a candle burning in it. Meadow enjoyed playing in it in the morning, but Logan wouldn't go in.
For everyone awaiting a pansy update, I'm afraid 2 weeks of being frozen and 10 inches of snow finally did him in. Poor thing.

Wheee!

Look at the difference in Logan's face from his first time sledding to his second!

Happy Birthday Meadow!

Meadow turned 3 on December 10th. She got to have her first kid party! They played stick the tails on the donkey, and didn't even need blindfolds! The tails were everywhere!Meadow got her wish for a cake with "pink sugar frosting" just like Eeyore's party in her Winni the Pooh book. (You can sort of see the cake in the background. I took really rubbish pictures.)
We gave her a bike with training wheels. She practices riding inside the house.
Meadow and Juliet played together.

Various things...

We finally got new carpet downstairs in the hallway and kids room. The old carpet was very stinky and gross from cats. After pulling up the old carpet, we decided that indoor cats are a very bad idea! There was also tons of dust and dirt under the carpet. In the picture Matthew is saying, "it's like a beach down here!" After spraying down the floor boards with bleach, it smelled much better. Now we have very nice new carpet. The kids were excited about it, even though it's not yellow like Meadow wanted!

We also have put up our Christmas tree! Meadow the tree-hugger gave it a nice big hug of course!

Our very wonderful, cool, fuel efficient, low mileage, Jetta GLS, just refuses to sell! We can't understand why. It's a great little car for a good price! People keep looking at it and driving it, saying they like it and will get back to us....but we never hear from them again! Twice we have planned to take it in to the dealers to trade it (for much less than we owe), but just when we're about to do it someone calls to set up a test drive! The second time, Matthew specifically prayed for someone to call about it that day if we weren't supposed to take it in...and they did! So, just as we've felt all along, that's not the way to do it. God hasn't forgotten us and will provide the right buyer, and right vehicle at the right time. But it sure can get frustrating. Why does it have to take this long! I'm sure my parents would love to have their van back! And we would love to stop making payments on a car we can't really use! Anybody want to buy it? $8900! Or make an offer!

I'm No Pansy

This Pansy's no pansy!

I just wanted to make a tribute to the pansy who refuses to wilt. All my other flowers have long since passed on, but this guy just keeps on! This picture was taken just before this last freeze, so we'll see if he survives. He survived a few days of being frozen before, and perked right up again! I'll keep you updated...I'm sure everyone will be checking my blog daily to find out!

The Feast

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday because Matthew had to work Thursday night. We had 21 people including babies (8 kids total, all 6 yrs. and under) over to my parents house. It was a very nice time. This is the group we've gathered with for most Thanksgivings over the last 16 years. Now they're all leaving us. How sad.
The kid table. The kids were all very good!The Grandparents table.
The littlest turkeys, celebrating their 1st Thanksgiving!

Abby and Brennen

The Places We Go

Here's some nice pictures of some of our favorite places to get out and walk.

"The Totempoles" (Totem Bight) is one of Meadow and Logan's favorites.

Brennen likes cozy walks too!
Along the trail, Meadow found this tree "family" which she always stops to say hi to, and give each one a hug and kiss!


Ward Lake is another wonderful spot! The campgrounds, now that they're closed, are a good little kid distance to walk, although I'm sure Meadow would have no trouble running around the whole lake!

Meadow the naturalist, loves to tell us all about the signs, and the trees along the way!

Sometimes we bring Gramma and Grampa with us! A great place for the kids to have a quick run on the way home from town is Alder Park, just above the Pioneer Home. I was impressed- it was very clean!
So there's my advice if you need a nice kid safe place to go, or a nice place to walk.

At the lake

Yesterday was a lovely day for a walk around the campground at Ward Lake. Logan ran almost the whole way! Meadow enjoyed moving big sticks off the trail, and Brennen slept curled up in his sling. Then they splashed in a mud puddle. We even saw a lady dressed in a tiger suit. (I don't think the kids noticed because she had a coat on.)