I can't believe how much has happened in the past year.  The biggest being we MOVED back to OREGON in July!!  Akoni took a job with Tokatee, a golf course here, and that brought us back to Oregon.  

We also had a whole adventure with our rental house flooding, causing us to move to a hotel for 2 weeks, 11 days (during christmas) at my parents and then finally into a new home (new for us)!! We had to change wards and the kids had to change schools in January, but everyone has been positive about all the change. 

During Thanksgiving the kids got to see snow for the first time! Yes, they have been very deprived! But we lived by an ocean and some people never see the ocean!

Adriann turned 10! Kenyon turned 8 and was baptized! Kamden is about to turn 4 and Monica will be 2 in a few months! But I will post all those important things when I get a chance.  

But I'm back to the blogging world and hopefully I can keep up with it!!

Too much to catch up on....Let's go to the Beach!

I have soooo much to catch up on: Birthdays, Monica walking, Teeth being lost, Talent Shows, etc,......But who wants to sit in front of a computer when it's so BEAUTIFUL OUT!? I'm rather go to the beach, sorry, updates will have to come later!!

Girl Scout Cookies!!

Adriann joined Girl Scouts this year, and just in time for cookie time! We have been walking the neighborhoods and standing outside Walmart, Savemart, Safeway and the Post Office in Pebble Beach selling cookies for a month! I am so over it! This is our last week to get all the cookies sold and I can't wait for it to be over. I have to say that I am soooo proud of Adriann. At the beginning of all of this she had presold 100 cookies all by herself. To get her Individual Selling Patch or something like that, she had to have presold 175 cookies. So we said that we would go ahead and preorder the other 75 and hopefully sell them or we would have to pay the $300 for those cookies. I was terrified! Well as of today, Adriann has sold almost 1,000 boxes!! She is 24 boxes away! How amazing is that! Her goal was 1,500 because they get an ipod touch, but for the 1,000 boxes they get a Flip Video Camera! Cool prize huh?! And she did it pretty much all by herself. We would take her to the booth sales and our own selling spots, but she had to sell the cookies. It was a fun experience, but we are all so glad it's over!

This is Adriann on our first day of walking around the neighborhood. Our friend let us borrow this basket to wheel around all the cookies. Sooo thankful for that!!

And if anyone is wanting to buy any Cookies there is only 5 days left of selling till next year!! We have plenty of cookies in our troop to get rid of, or donate to the Troops oversees. Just let me know!!

Kenyon's 7th Birthday

Kenyon's 7th Birthday was a few weeks ago. The day started off with "Grandma Julie" bringing homemade pancakes in funny shapes, whipped cream and orange juice over in the morning before school! What a treat!!

While he was at school we went and got him 7 balloons and made him a Basketball cake.

About to open presents. Kamden isn't mad, this is the only picture that at least 3 of them looked good!

The long awaited DS game he has wanted.

Seriously mom, more legos? I know, shoot me now. But he loves them and I would much rather waste the money on something he loves then on something I will throw away in a week!

A few days after his birthday he had his party. He had a bunch of boys over and we had cake, presents, played a game and then took them all to the Hockey rink to roller skate.

Hopefully you can tell that his cake is a Rollerblade.

The best gift! A tub of Licorice!

His party was a blast and the kids have been begging to go back to the skating rink. It was the perfect party for a bunch of boys to burn off all their energy. Happy Birthday Bud!!

Christmas......what a blur!

This Christmas was such a blur to me. If you read a previous post you will remember that ALL of us got sick the 22nd and 23rd. So Christmas day we were all still recovering. The kids were still super excited and had a blast opening all their gifts. I think I took about 20 pictures. Here are a few:

Kenyon's Lego Castle from Grandma and Grandpa Ekman. I spent 3 days putting this together and then as Akoni was moving it from the kitchen to the boys bedroom.....CRASH! It hasn't been put back together since!

Kamden got MAC from cars and loves to haul around all his cars.

Adriann's ne American Girl doll. It's one that she picked out to look like her. She named her Brittany and she is so cute. She has red hair and freckles just like Adriann.

Christmas morning.

This was me. I couldn't walk without crutches since it was only 4 days after my surgery, so I pretty much was like this for the whole day. and many days after!

Akoni found these Toy Story boots! The even say ANDY on the bottom!

Monica with her cell phone from Auntie Rachel! Big hit!

I say that this was a Christmas that I would rather not remember, but I know that I will never forget it.

Adriann's 9th Birthday Party

I am having to back blog because I am way behind on my blogs. We had Adriann's 9th Birthday Party a few weeks ago since I knew I would not be able to handle a bunch a girls and do a decent party while on crutches.

Adriann helped me make her cake. Her theme was "SPA", so her cake was a nail polish bottle. She wanted tie dye fondant. I think it turned out pretty good. I haven't done fondant in a while, and I have never done tie dye, but she loved it, so that's really all that matters.

Adriann chose Purple plates and cups and picked out her own balloons.

I love that she is still into Barbies!

Anything American Girl is a BIG Hit!!

All the girls! It's fun to finally put faces to the girls she talks about at school. They are such a fun bunch of girls.

They played pin the eye mask on the girl, opened presents, had cake and then everyone got a mini pedicure! It was such a fun party!

All 6 of us got sick......

Friday was probably the worst day/night of our entire lives. I got super sick in the afternoon and could not stop throwing up. At first we thought that I had gotten a little over zealous with my pain medication, but then Kamden started throwing up. So I was basically done for and crawled into bed, because I was so weak and couldn't use my crutches. Then Kenyon woke up screaming in the middle of the night because he had puked all over Kamden and their whole bed. So Akoni had to bathe the kids, did about 4 loads of laundry and didn't get to bed till 4am! Then Saturday comes and Adriann starts throwing up, Akoni gets sick and Monica keeps blowing out her diapers every hour! What a mess. Then last night Akoni had to stay up and put together some presents for the kids. The poor guy, I feel so bad for him. He feels aweful and I am unable to carry anything, so he has to keep getting me things and taking care of all the puking kids.

I am finding it hard to get in the Christmas Spirit with all of this going on. Such bad timing to get surgery, but who knew that we would all be sick at the same time?

We were very lucky to have my good friend Lisa run to the store for us and get us Apple Juice, Apple sauce, crackers, chicken noodle soup, and Gatorade. Such a life savor. At lease everyone was able to keep that down yesterday. And we had some friends drop off cookies so we had to use those for our Santa cookies. None of us felt well enough to bake cookies for Santa. How sad is that?

I am hoping that today, Christmas, will go a lot smoother and that no one will be sick.

Like my Mom and Mother-in-Law said, this will definitely be a Christmas that we will remember forever!

My foot surgery

I have been having foot problems for years. I have Plantar Fasciitis and a bone spur in both feet. A few years ago I walked down some stairs and ripped the Plantar Fascia ligament in my left foot. Luckily it was if I had surgery without the surgery and I have never had a problem with that foot since. Well over then past 3 years, my right foot has gotten worse and worse. I have basically exhausted all my options for trying to fix it without surgery. Multiple cortisone shots, a night splint, and shoe inserts. It was so bad that I would walk the kids to school and the next few days I could hardly walk on my foot. So since we had maxed out our insurance this year having Monica, it seemed like the perfect time to go ahead and get the surgery. The kids have 3 weeks off for Christmas Break, so it's good that we can all just relax and home and not have to worry about having to take them to school and whatnot for a while.

Here is my before X-Ray.

And here is my foot after. I had the surgery on the 21st and I have to be on crutches for the next 6 weeks. Let's just say that the past 3 days have been a huge eye opener as to how much I am not going to be able to do. I am kind of a control freak in my own home, so it's going to take a lot to let other people help and hope that the kids don't destroy the house. But I have faith and the house is still standing today! Already I have had some great help from friends. I must brag that I have the best friends ever. I could seriously not ask for better friends. You would think that with this being my second surgery this year they would be sick of helping me, but I am so lucky to have these amazing women in my life. And I have to give major props to Akoni. He has been the greatest Dad and Husband. I could not have done this without his support. The kids and I have had a few minor breakdowns while we are figuring this all out, but I think we are going to make it thru!!

So wish me luck for the next few weeks and if anyone wants to come and vacuum, do laundry or just talk, my door is open!

Seeing Santa

After Thanksgiving we always take the kids to see Santa at the mall. Well Kamden would have nothing to do with Santa. He wouldn't even go into the house that he was in. So I got a quick photo of the other kids.

Then I tried to get a picture of them together outside at the mall. This was the best I could get.

Thanksgiving!!

We started a new tradition this year. It's an "I am Thankful for" jar. We set it on the counter with little pieces of paper and all month long whenever you were thankful for something you wrote it down and put it in the jar. At dinner on Thanksgiving we read all the papers. It was so much fun.

These are two of Kenyon's, Gumballs and a DS. At least he was giving thanks for them!

This was our little gift that we gave to our friends for Thanksgiving. It is attached to a bag of microwave popcorn. "Corny", but it was fun!

I must say that I redeemed myself with the Turkey this year. Last year was a disaster because the Turkey hadn't thawed out all the way, so the whole middle of the turkey wasn't cooked. So this year I made sure to thaw it out good and it turned out amazing!

I finally got to use my gravy boat that I got for Christmas last year. Had to wait a whole year to use it.

I decided to use my China for dinner this year. We have never used all of it, so after 10 years I thought it might be time to start using it. I only have 5 place settings, and we had 3 friends come over, so it was perfect.

The kids table. Sorry no china for them...

Delicious Costco Pumpkin pie! Thanksgiving was amazing. I cooked all day, everyone got a nap, and Turkey sandwiches for days!

This Thanksgiving was great. I am so thankful to be blessed with such an amazing family. I have the best husband who I love to pieces and that works so hard to support us and give us all that we have. I have the best kids and even though I want to pull my hair out sometimes, they are truly gifts that I am so thankful to have. I couldn't ask for a better life.

Lost Teeth!

Kenyon's tooth had been hanging on by practically nothing, so at church a few weeks ago, I pulled it out! He was so excited, now we just have to get the other one out before Christmas! "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

The next day at school Adriann pulled her tooth out! Breaking the tooth fairy's bank kids!

Random happenings

Movie night with our favorite neighbor boys!

The kids lemonade stand box. I love how they have a sponser!

The boys and their mustaches.....