Winter Wonderland Indeed!

We are in...the snowiest month in HISTORY! What will the new year bring for January? One can only wonder! A warm-hearted thank you to my hubby who has been plowing us out each storm!!

Our family had a wonderful Christmas. Joey started out with the stomach flu Christmas Eve but was rallied by morning! (A true Keith at heart) We celebrated at my parent's home and had a wonderful snowy time. A favorite memory is the scavenger hunt Joey had to go on to find his new bow and arrow set from Grandpa! We even stayed an extra night due to snow accumulation...good grief! Also started after the holiday is Katie's nursery! Tom painted and mom and I have been starting to get things organized!

After the holiday we were thrilled with a fun-filled visit from the Cunningham's! A huge thanks to Sean, Jill, Will and baby Kate, (who is now one!!) for making the trip! Jill helped created some new visions and ideas for our nursery, greatly appreciated! We throughly enjoyed the visit! A wonderful lunch downtown, a date night at Downriver Grill and lots of pheasant hunting for the dads! Snow time in the back yard for the kids as well as lots of playing!
The next event over break was the baby shower thrown for me by Trish and Jen! Thanks ladies for the special treatment! Also, special help from my momma-and notice the beautiful bouquet of roses she did, as well as amazing snow help from my dad. Unfortunately the day of the shower was about the closest thing to a blizzard I have ever been in! My father ended up towing most of us to the top of his driveway with the back hoe! Thanks to my dear friends who braved the weather and the roads. You are appreciated! I feel so blessed with all the prayers, thoughts and gifts from family and friends for this precious little gift coming February 20th. We can't wait to meet you Katie! CLICK HERE to view a shower recap of photos!

Merry Christmas!

Breakfast with Santa...sipping hot cocoa!

Happy Holidays! We are always so excited for the season! This year we will celebrate at home but we’ll miss our visit with Tom’s family for certain! Luckily, our Noni, made a special holiday this last weekend.
I was blessed again this year with keeping my job as the tech chick, it allows my schedule to be a little more flexible and I love the new challenges of learning tech and curriculum! After finding out we were pregnant I decided to sign up to earn my Administrative credentials at WSU, not quite sure on my timing but we’re making it work. I have class each Wednesday night for 2 years! I’m privileged to work with Dr. Cooke as my mentor at Prairie View, which so far has been amazing! My greatest joy is being a mommy and a wife!

Tom still continues to fish in Alaska each summer. He enjoyed having the same crew he has had before this time. We continue to enjoy fresh salmon from the freezer and try to share it with friends when possible! He also is still active with real estate, although it's a bit dry at the moment, let us know if you need to sell your house! :-) Tom's hunting seems to be expanding to more days and weekends each year, if you're a hunter's wife this is no surprise to you, but he absolutely loves it. He added a visit to North Dakota/Montana this year, which I guess is a bird lover's paradise! (Our dog, Tucker, hasn't stopped talking about it!) And as every hunter father would probably love to hear…when visiting Santa this season Joey asked for a shotgun for Christmas! Joey of course assured me he meant a “play gun”!

Joey is 4 and a half. He is the light of our lives, full of energy, energy, energy and ALL boy! This year he has been going to preschool three mornings a week and continues to love it. His teacher is Mrs. Shelley and he keeps us up on everything he hears and learns! He then attends daycare with Grandma Nancy and Papa Glen 3 days, which has been a blessing for our family as well. He loves to be outside golfing, kicking the soccer ball, casting his fishing pole, riding his bike, painting, coloring, and spending time with his grandparents! He is very excited this year about the arrival of his new sister, “baby Katie”…coming February 20th!

We still have high hopes start building one of these days. Tom continues to work with the county and city on hooking up to the sewer. Keep your fingers crossed for us, we have water now! Kudos to Tom for keeping after it! We can't wait to start building our lil' rancher. I think I still like the house plans!

Our year was filled with many blessings and memories. We are looking forward to a wondrous 2009 and thrilled about adding to our family! We are so blessed by the support of our family and friends and appreciate and love each of you. Enjoy the magic of the season!

Merry Christmas and God bless.

Love, Tom, Kim, & Joey

Bring on the Season!

As tradition we had the tree up on Thanksgiving Weekend! Tom and Joey surprised me today by having the lights up on the house as well. We are ready! I absolutely love the holiday season. The music is one of my favorite things followed by the festive decorations along with what the season means...the birth of the Lord! Joey helped put up our new Nativity scene and of course did many of the ornaments on our tree. He was also in charge of picking out a star for our tree at Target this year, choosing the biggest one! Daddy had to make a few minor adjustments to our tree to make it fit, but boy does it sparkle!

Some memories of the holiday...when sharing what we are thankful for Joey shared, "I'm thankful for animals to shoot, Grandma and Grandpa, the earth and my family." Joey threw his first snowball with Emma then had a bit of snowball fight with daddy! Enjoy the season with those you cherish and love, it really is magical!

Party!

The Three Amigas!

Friday night was our end of the season bash at the Country Club. What fun! We gabbed, ate a delicious dinner and yes this pregnant (week 26!) mama even did a little dancing! Thanks for being my date Laura! And to all of my Tri-Fusion friends who organized the event, it was perfect!

So You Think You Can Air Guitar...

You might think differently as you see this young budding rocker in action! Music courtesy of Shark Tales, our current FAVORITE movie!

National Anthem...Texas Style

Many of you may not know that I love the National Anthem. I love to sing it and did so with my classroom every Friday of which I let it rip. :-) This was just shown to me by my husband which of course put me right into tears. I think they have been around for a couple years and they can be found several times on You Tube, they are the Cactus Cuties!! They are I might add, much better than my class could ever sound!! They are ages 6-11...enjoy!
National Anthem - Sung By 4 Girls From Cactus JH

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Tom celebrated the big 38 on Saturday. Joey and I went all out with red and blue balloons everywhere! Joey blew each of these balloons up himself! He then insisted we make daddy a train cake to boot! My folks joined us for a yummy steak dinner (unless your pregnancy has you despising beef!) and cake!

Joey picked out golf balls and a golf glove at Wandermere and daddy received some new work clothes too. Happy Birthday, we love you!

Sometimes...you just have to ride

On Halloween night Joey prepared for his trick or treating with a little warm-up on Trigger. Who says the party favor at your 2nd birthday can't be a hit for years to come?

Following the ride Joey suited up in his T-Rex costume and informed us that he would need the wagon for trick or treating. Grama then of course asked why the wagon was needed. Joey announced he would need it for all the candy. Well sure enough as he, Grampa and daddy went to leave Joey grabbed not only his pumpkin container but also the large bowl of candy for OUR trick or treaters. This would in fact call for a wagon~he thought he would be giving the treats out while trick or treating! Too cute!

Pumpkin FUN!

Tonight we carved our pumpkins! It's lit and on our porch. We are ready for Halloween.

Happy Haunting to you and yours.

Make those Seeds!

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin seeds
• Cooking spray, olive oil, or butter
• Optional: Salt, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, or other seasoning of choice

Preparation:

Rinse pumpkin seeds. Use your fingers to remove all the pulp. Drain pumpkin seeds and discard pulp. Spread out on a cookie sheet to dry overnight.

Preheat oven to 250 F. Line a baking sheet with non-stick foil.

Toss pumpkin seeds in olive oil, butter, or spray with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, cayenne pepper, or your choice of seasonings. Toss to coat.

Bake about 1 hour, tossing every 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool pumpkin seeds before eating. Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 months or refrigerate up to 1 year.

Our New Favorite Place...

Pine Acres~for hitting golf balls!
Here is Joey in action!

Off to the Pumpkin Patch

On Friday Joey's preschool class went to Greenbluff. Tom was on duty for chaperone as I was in California this past week for a PowerSchool Conference.

You may recall that at our earlier visit to Greenbluff Joey really wanted a huge pumpkin. I quickly responded with, "you'll have to wait for your dad". So as the field trip date approached Joey decided to "map" out what his pumpkin would look like. He took a butcher size piece of paper for this task...

On the field trip day I tried to prep Tom as to the size of the "free" pumpkin received on the field trip. During one of the rotating centers Joey quickly eyed where the big pumpkins could be located. As Joey stated, "First I got the little pumpkin, then I got the big pumpkin." And the big pumpkin he did choose, weighing in at 36 pounds, almost too heavy for him to really lift...I show you the PUMPKIN!

Kate is 9 Months!

Blessed indeed...this is my lil' Kate or as Joey says, "baby Kate". This is a picture taken at her 9 month check up. Are those legs not the cutest things? This is my dear friend's little one who had heart surgery...miracles do happen!

She continues to thrive and is now crawling and pulling herself up. And as you can see in this picture, pulling herself up to the mirror. Now, that's my girl!

To her momma, Jill, you are an amazing friend, wife and mommy. I am so impressed daily with your can do attitude. You truly inspire me. Take care of you.

XOXO

20 Weeks and Counting!

Introducing...Kathryn Grace, or at least that's the name we have all agreed to at the moment. We had an ultrasound last week and the doctor again confirmed it's a GIRL! Our due date is still Feb. 27th and Joey has even drawn a picture of his new sister. So far he's very excited about her. Tom is a bit concerned on how Joey will take it as so far it's just been him and the dog to share our time with.

I have had a few out of town girlfriends ask if I'm showing, and the answer is a definite YES. Here's the proof:


The family seems to be hanging in there. Tom misses beef since the only thing I'll eat is taco meat or meat sauce for spaghetti, otherwise I can't do the smell! My lower back is talking to me and my socks at the end of the day seem to be imprinted! Katie loves to press really hard against my tummy and try to make more space. I thought at first it was really sweet but now I'm not so sure! In her ultrasound pics she is doing the pike in yoga, legs over her head and then in the next shot she is curled in a ball, then feet out, then feet in....okay you get the idea, she doesn't stay very still. Hmm, maybe she's just like her mama!

Watch Out Tiger Woods!

Here comes....Joey! Daddy surprised us with a new set of left handed golf clubs just Joey's size, a bag and his very own golf glove to boot!

Joey is quite amazing if you haven't seen him in action. His little swing is something else! We are constantly retrieving his practice golf balls from the neighbor's yard! He can't wait to play at the real golf course. So far he has hit real "balls" at Pine Acres.

He's ready to go!

The first night he got them he set his golf bag in his room. Tom tucked him in and Joey was soon asleep. When I got home around 9 from class I peeked in his room and this is what I saw...

Sweet dreams Lil' Golfer!

Yes! Greenbluff!

Every fall our family loves to visit Greenbluff. In fact we even made a visit late summer to pick strawberries.

But this visit being our first for fall is always special. Joey and I joined Grandma at the Harvest House. First item...fresh pumpkin donuts. Then a little listen time to the band and off to the pumpkin area. Today our visit focused around picking apples which was a little hard on Joe, he couldn't figure out why we weren't getting pumpkins today too!

After picking up a few boxes we ventured out into the orchard. Our target-the honeycrisp apple. Much to our dismay they were very picked over and due to an unfortunate hail storm the remaining apples seemed weirdly bruised. Joey loved doing a little climbing to get a few good ones. Then we head to the Fuji isle which was much more successful. I think Joey has already had 3 apples!

We ended the visit with a ride on the ponies. There were also wagon rides pulled by Belgium horses but sadly momma chose for us to save that for next time. We love Greenbluff! Thanks for inviting us Grammie!

Poor Daddy!

Tom was taken to the hospital Tuesday night by my father. I was stretching and working away at Prego Pilates unaware of what exactly was going on.

I dropped off Joey with Tom at 4:50pm at the Wandermere golf course. Tom was finishing up a golf tourney. Then on the 18th hole his tummy started feeling a little weird. His first thought was "bad choice on the sausage dog for lunch!" He and Joey then went to the grocery store for some pepto before heading to the El Sombrero for the after golf dinner. Once arriving there Tom continued to go down hill until the point that he called my mom and said, "Can you come get Joey so I can home, I'm sick." Then Tom decided he shouldn't be alone so called mom back and told her he would just come on out.

He laid down on the couch once arriving to my folk's place and was now having severe stomach cramps with emphasis of ouch on the right lower abdomen area. My mom thought it might be an appendix issue. My dad got home and pulled up his shirt to reveal his appendix scar and said, "Is this where it hurts?" And Tom of course replied yes, so off to the hospital they went!!

After blood, urine and a scan surgery was scheduled for 7:30am the next morning (Wednesday). I met up with Tom before surgery for a few good luck kisses. He had a rough night of trying to get the pain under control. I really felt for the guy!

My mom came up for the surgery as well and we waited to hear from the doctor. Surgery was just scheduled to last one hour, all laproscopic. Luckily there was a sale going on in one of the gift shops which help the time pass! Report from the surgeon was good and the appendix had not burst during the night.

Joey and my parents came up yesterday afternoon to visit. Joey was very upset when we had to go home, he didn't want to leave his daddy! We had to purchase a special puppy, named "Fluffy" from the gift shop on the way out.

This morning Joey and I picked up Tom and delivered him on home. We made a brief stop for soup and pain meds and now we have him all set up on the couch.

So if you're having severe cramps and they are in the lower right...head to the hospital! Tom received kudos from the doctor for coming right in!

GO COUGS!

This Lil' Cougar is ready for the game!

Each and every Cougar season we get pumped up for football! There have even been songs about it...."It's Cougar football Saturday, so come on down and watch the home team play!", posters, magnets, keychains and ringtones. My parents were unable to attend this game so Tom and Joey were able to join me for our first game against the Cal Bears.
Each and every person in that stadium was decked out in their Cougar gear...with the odds stacked against us; new coach, no quarterback, few returning starting seniors-we were still pumped. That is until the Bears ran in the first touchdown followed by intercepting our first pass. It was 14-0 before two minutes had passed! But still we were hopeful. Joey kept yelling, "Go Cougars, touchdown!" He was an avid fan right up until halftime with a score of 35-3 we sadly told Joey it was time to go home and the game was over. And really in a sense it was. The Cougs went on to lose 66-3, the worst loss in history, in fact a new record for the team. I guess you could say we did at least set a new record on our first home game.

So will I return to the 5 remaining home games? Well friends, that is the true meaning of a Coug. We keep going down to see if maybe the next time they'll pull it out. And there have been years of the team famous for "cougin' it" and years where they have taken us to the Rose Bowl. It's the roller coaster team of highs and lows, a little like life I suppose. There's really no way I'm about to become a USC fan so a Cougar I shall remain. So if you need a lift to the next home game, I'll still be going. Proud crimson blood runs through me! Oh, and did I mention I could sing the fight song at age 3?

River Cabin with Cousins!

As tradition, we ventured to our cabin in late July to celebrate Tom's homecoming and then at the end of our visit my cousins arrived with their families. It wasn't all fun and games either...new steps were built to the river, trees were timbered, and... a new outhouse was built! It's quite fancy if I do say so myself. Even better is the pictures of Tom up on the roof of the outhouse building it! We had such a nice time and loved every minute.
We celebrated with a salmon bbq, thanks to my husband, campfires, yummy breakfast each morning, and spending time on the beach. Joey had an absolute ball playing with all of his "big" cousins!

Click here to see our cabin movie!

Seattle Danskin

Last weekend I was able to sneak away to Seattle to support Rhonda and Laura at the Danskin Triathlon. We had a fabulous trip. Although as you know the weekend trips turn into a whirlwind in no time at all!

Laura and I departed around 1:30pm and found ourselves at the Ritzville Starbucks (priorities!). After we were back on the road our next stop was Ellensburg with a stop at my favorite store, WindRiver. I made a spatula purchase for Tom to be used on the bbq--he loved it. This is also a great restroom stop if you haven't been. It's right behind the 1st gas station at the Canyon Road exit. We also found Rhonda and her family here as well! Back on the road with a stop at the Outlet Mall in Northbend. Here Laura and I had to EAT, so Subway it was, as well as make a jammie purchase at the Gap. We found the outlet mall to be fun but not necessarily a bargain!

I drove the final leg to our hotel, the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue. After arriving we felt a little snacky so went to the hotel bar for a light snack. The menu was a little sketchy for appetizers so we settled for ceasar salads. There was even a live band...quite the happening place! I might mention the Seattle Seahawk players were staying at the hotel as well. They were nice eye candy on the elevators!

Next morning we headed to the Bellevue Center for race day registration. Originally I was to run the triathlon as well but since I'm PREGNANT I decided to just be a supporter! But who says I couldn't still get my numbers on my arms and look like a racer!! We went around the expo and gathered our free goodies, registered and received our tanks, were marked with our numbers and then had to drive to the race site at Genesse Park on Lake Washington. Bikes had to be turned in the day before along with your helmet. For those of you that don't know, this race has 5000 women competiting, the largest in the nation! The ladies are in the house!

We returned to the hotel at 3:30, showered, I snuck a little power nap in, and we were off to meet Jill and Vanessa for dinner and a movie! We had a scrumptious dinner on the deck right on the water. You just gotta love Seattle for that! It was so nice to see my west side sistas! After dinner Jill, Laura and I saw Mamma Mia. It is quite a hoot!

Okay, now it's all business...Laura heads right to bed when the movie is over while Jill and I figure out my driving plan for the morning. Rhonda would be in our car and we would drive to Safeco field, shuttle to race area, and be up by 5:30am. Next, I stopped by the front office and scheduled our wake up calls, followed by a quick stop at the bar to see what fruit I could round up for breakfast.

5:30 came fast! We were up and off, the plan was executed without a flaw. After arriving at Safeco we boarded the bus...we all three went in the athlete line which filled the bus first over the spectators. We then made our way into the transition area, which I might say...the numbers on my arms did come in handy! I really was right in the action and grabbed some great pics! We were said to miss our Tri fusion babe, Jamie as she was racing in a different level and boy was it hard to find people! A little shout out to my Mead girls who raced as well...Mary, Sabrina, June, Melissa,Melva and Amanda...nice work!Next the ladies went to the line up...it was quite the scene of swim caps! Rhonda and Laura were in second heat of the mixed level...originally we had all wanted to be able to start together! The race started at 6:45am and the girls started at 8:05am. Next the ladies went to the line up...it was quite the scene of swim caps! Rhonda and Laura were in second heat of the mixed level...originally we had all wanted to be able to start together! The race started at 6:45am and the girls started at 8:05am.

This is the girls just before their departure! It was a hard race to be a spectator, lots of purple hats! I missed both of them getting out of water, right around 18 minutes so went to the bike finish to cheer them on there. I had predicted 45 minutes at about 9:10am and Laura passed me at 9:05. I had to yell at her right as she was passing, I almost missed her! Then Rhonda came by not too far after. I snapped a pic and then trekked off for the finish. Lots of walking for miss prego here as well. 13 weeks today...oh and it's a girl~!!

Okay back to the race. I was trying to find a good spot to snap pics and cheer. The place was packed and the running trail was narrow. I spotted Laura and was so thrilled. I had started to get a little emotional as to not missing the girls go by so this was a relief. Rhonda again was not too far behind. My girls had great times for a new course and a new experience. I'm so proud of them!! And a fun road trip to boot! Thanks ladies for the great time, laughs and memories. Love ya!