Christmas Concert

Kallie and Jaron had their Christmas concert the week before school got out for Christmas break. They did a great job. This is the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th that sang for the concert. My pictures are backwards so it is showing the final number where all the kids are singing the closing songs. Jaron is on the second row, middle of the picture, and then Kallie is two rows behind him to the left.

Kallie did a great job. She even had a duet with another girl and a group solo with about five girls. The music teacher said that the girls asked to do it. I am so proud of Kallie going out of her comfort zone and trying new things.

Jaron right on the front when his group sang. it is such a change to have my kids in the front rows, they are usually in the back, but they were both in the front when they sang with their classes. Jaron did such a great job. I love his smile. Kyle had to ref so he wasn't able to make it, so I had the two younger ones sitting with me. Luckily where we sat was a kid from Kelsie class and they colored together. It was really cute.

Are You Scared?

What scares you? For Karlee it is getting off an elevator and having to pass over the gaping hole, between the elevator and the floor. We came to our stop and she had the hardest time trying to figure out how to get home. I had to help her off, by picking her up.

Kindergarten Stone Soup

Kelsie kindergarten class read the book Stone Soup by Marcia Brown . Kelsie told me that it is about a man who didn't have much to eat and so he decided to make soup using stones, his friends and neighbors heard what he was doing. They each brought something to add to the soup such as carrots, potatoes, turnips and so forth. With everyone sharing it made a wonderful soup for everyone to share.

Kelsie's class each student was supposed to bring something to put in the soup and then the kids invite the parents to share the soup with them. The party was supposed to be the day before Thanksgiving break, but we had a snow day on Tuesday so they were not able to make the soup (it had to cook overnight in the crock pots.) The party was push back till the following week, it was worth the wait.

Kelsie and her class performed songs that they have been learning about the letters of the alphabet. In this picture they are singing about Benny Bear.

Here is my stone soup, it was very good but very spicy.

Here is Kelsie and Karlee enjoying their stone soup, cornbread, and pumpkin bars. Every time I wanted take of Karlee she would turn away from me. As you can see the girls really enjoy the food.

After the lunch the kids went to writing on wipe boards. Karlee joined right in she loves going to school with Kelsie. I love Kelsie's teacher because she lets Karlee come in and join right in with the class, that way I am able to help in the classroom and not have to worry about finding a sitter for Karlee. And Kelsie loves to have Karlee right there with her. One of the kids in the class asked me if Karlee and Kelsie were twins- I thought that was cute.

Bilquist Bazaar and Other Stuff in November

Okay where did November just go. Turned around and it is gone. I looked at my side bar on my blog and it said the last time that I posted on my Happiness blog was 4 weeks ago. So I got busy and updated tonight so go check it out. It is hard to get to it when you don't have the internet. But I will do better. I promise, but enjoy HERE, just think five more weeks and this year will be up.

During November we came up to Portland every weekend. The first weekend I did a bazaar at my BF Heidi kids school. There wasn't much traffic, it was their first year doing it. But it was fun to hang out with Heidi, Melissa, Becka, and Hannah. Kallie had also broke her flipper and so we had to see the dentist up in Portland. Luckily we got it fixed and it looks great. And were able to have a fun lunch with Pa2 in Portland.

The kids had their conferences for school and they are doing so good in school and loving their teachers and making lots of friends. Here are their school pictures sorry they are fuzzy.

My brother Scotty and his family got a new assignment in CO. I am so happy and excited they are back in the states. They had been in Japan for the past 3 years. We headed up to Portland to visit them, and have my side of the family Thanksgiving dinner since everyone was in town except for John, we missed him. It was fun to see everybody.

My table at the Bilquist Bazaar

I came up with a bag that I wanted to sale at the Bilquist Bazaar that Heidi and I have been doing for 8 years. So for a week I worked really hard on making 10 bags. And I finished them. we headed up on Thursday so Kyle could be there to help his mom when she had surgery. It went well and she is doing much better. Saturday I did the bazaar, my cousins Lisa shared a table with me and my sister Serena was on one side of me and Heidi on the other side me with Hannah bug and Melissa next to her. We are taking over the corner, just kidding. But it was a lot fun to have everyone there. I did better then I have done in the past, but I was sad that no one wanted the bags.

The following weekend was Thanksgiving and I was able to go to the Forgotten Carols with my sister Serena up in Seattle, it was awesome. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Kenners and Dessert over at my parents. I hope that you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. I can't believe how fast the month went by. I am glad that we live closer to family that we can come up that often. I am sure grateful for all of you in my life. Thank you for all you do for me and my family. We sure do love you.

I think I am going to head to bed now it is 2 in the morning. But I just wanted to say hi and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Pumpkin Party

We went to the pumpkin patch to find pumpkins. The kids found the wagon and had fun giving each other rides.

We found some pumpkins.

We didn't know if the patch would be muddy since it had just rained earlier in the week. So we wore our never fail plastic bags. Pumpkin patches and Christmas tree farms are the only sightings of these fashionable boot bags.

We checked out some of the animals that they had at the farm. Kind of looks like my kids are the one in the cages.

Home to carve our pumpkins. Karlee really got into hers. Jaron really got into the craving part. He ended up craving his, Kelsie's and Karlee's. He did a really great job.

We made caramel apples and roasted the pumpkin seeds. YUM!!

We played the doughnut game. I think, Karlee is thinking the one in Ma 2's hand is easier to get then the one on the string.

Karlee was so excited about the whole pumpkin experience that she wanted sit on the porch with her pumpkin and eat doughnuts, I guess the pumpkin didn't like the doughnut.

All the kids with all the finished pumpkins.

Then we dressed up in our costumes so all we could go visit the grandma's. Kallie is Elphba from Wicked. Karlee is Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz. Jaron is Harry Potter, first year. Kelsie is Elousie.

Family Yard Work

We made a quick trip Micheals and got each kid a pair of work gloves for 30 cents and headed home and put our shoulder to wheel. i was very impressed in how positive the kids were being in doing the yard work. Here they are all busy working. Notice their gloves.

Jaron was the crusher of the leaves in the big can. I love his face in this picture, he was jumping and was losing his boots in the leaves. Karlee wanted to jump in the big can too- but we didn't think that was a good idea so we put her in the smaller one. She had fun with that.

Kelsie is raking up the leaves, they made piles and jumped on them. I think they will be able to do that for awhile the leaves are still falling. But they did a great job today.

Guptill Family Reunion 2010

It was a great reunion and I had a whole thing typed on this and then my computer stop working and I lost it. But here are some fun pictures from it. Thank you for everyone who help me to be able to pull this off. I loved seeing family and making memories, I can't wait till the next one.