Happy Birthday Katie!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!

I can't believe my Katie bug is 14 yrs old already. Her birthday was on Jan 4th. I have to confess, after a wild Christmas and wild weather and trying to work on two bathrooms and a last minute trip to Oregon for a truck Dave bought, we almost forgot her birthday. I really didn't forget her birthday, I just didn't realize what day it was. Oops!! So at 8 pm that night after throwing a cake together, shoving her gift in the first thing I found which was an empty Hersey's syrup container, and a few tears on Katie's part (because she thought I forgot), we had a party. When she opened up her money gift, she felt better. She also scored a totally fun board game called "Redneck Life". We played it a few nights later. In this game you roll dice for your name, grade level and occupation. You start off in debt with money from the check and scram and thru out the game you get children, lots of children. The object is to have the most teeth at the end, if you do, you win. Connor, or should I say "Cletus James" won with 16 teeth remaining and Katie, other wise known as "Dottie Jane" came in last with negative 19 teeth. She also ended up with 12 kids, 6 of them named "Daryl" and ended up totaling 5 different cars in the process. "Mary Sue", that's me, finished in the middle with negative 8 teeth. The only brite side to me was that I was able to pawn off my 7 children between CPS and leaving them at an overnighter that I never went back to. It is a totally fun game, however, some of the "situations" you get into kind of hit close to home. Like, burning your grass because it's to high to mow and having a port-a-potty outside because your bathroom doesn't work. Ouch!! We all had a great time and if anyone wants to come play it with us we would love it!! We can see how close your life is to "Redneck Life!".

I just want to take a moment and tell everyone how happy I am that Katie is my daughter. She is funny, positive, smiles all the time and is very patient with our life. She loves kids and is so good with them. I can count on her (most the time) to get her chores done and she is very dependable. She is helpful and willing to pitch in when I need her. She lives high values and I think is a great example of a teenager working on reaching her potential. I love her very much and so happy Heavenly Father blessed me with her!! Your a great kid, Katie bug!!

Rain, Rain Go Away!!

For Sale:

Lake Front Property!!

Great Bargain! Needs work. Potential is high if you like doing really hard manual labor. Comes with really old, leaking and falling down barn, old iron everywhere, and it's very own yacht tied to a docking post.

Please leave a comment if you have questions. Act quickly, seller will not be as motivated as soon as the water disperses and she can quit shoveling ditches!!

Thank your for you interest in this water front property.

The weather man said it might rain here for a few days. I told Dave the little green boat wasn't big enough for our family. By the time it finishes raining in another 12 hours, we will need an ark. At least it is not under the house yet, we're keeping our fingers crossed. However, our house is surrounded by a mote and I had to drive the kids across the street today to catch the bus. It's anywhere from a skiff to a foot deep in some places on our property. They have evacuated lots of lower towns around us. We are somewhat landlocked on the hill we live on. They closed many area's of Hwy 410 and the back roads are all flooded with overflowing creeks that are everywhere around here.

We shoveled rock and used railroad ties at our new rental to keep it dryer. Our poor renter couldn't get out either door because it was about 3 to 5 inches deep right up to the steps. After blocking the front ditch we did make some progress and got the water to go around the house.

Below are some more pictures. Sometimes, you just have to love living in Washington!! Stay Dry everyone!!

Yes, I finally have a moment to get caught up!!

Wow, Am I glad things are getting back to normal around our house! Not sure what normal is but everyone is at school today and that is a great start!! We had an exceptionally long Christmas break this year with the kids getting out almost a week early with snow days and an extra few days off for the holidays. I will admit that when it started snowing again on Sunday night I almost started to cry with thoughts that they would cancel school on Monday. Christmas break was great and I am glad to have it, but with 4 kids, two extra neighbor kids everyday, tons of snow that brought with it multiple trips in and out of the house, cloths in and out of the dryer, at least 20 extra dirty cups of Hot Chocolate a day, "I lost my gloves", "I can't find my boots", "that's my snow outfit", "I want a turn on the sled", and it goes on and on and on!!
Then add to it freezing temperatures that we had not seen in years with the realization that there is no way enough insulation nor drywall installed yet to keep out that kind of cold and with all the cracks that comes with an unfinished house, we could stand on our staircase in the middle of our house and our hair blew in the breeze!! Yikes, we were cold!! We brought in our kerosene heater and all huddled around it like homeless people around a burning trash can. We finally got the temperature up to 56 degrees. So needless to say, just prior to Christmas everything came to a stop and we spent a few days insulating, drywalling and caulking cracks. We learned that cold motivates you and apparently we needed to be motivated to get that job done. We are still working on it and I will post some pictures of the finished product soon hopefully!!


I did get my Christmas Snow. It has been years since we had snow on Christmas day. With all the kids busy with their new gifts, I finally got to enjoy watching it fall in peace and quite. It was so beautiful. Big, fat, fluffy flakes. Where we live, it gets so silent when it snows. I love the peace it brings.

Here are the kids anxiously waiting to come down the stairs Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. They got spoiled again this year. Kjersti finally got a new computer (only after agreeing she had to pay Santa back for half of it!) and the game "Spore". I figure I won't see her again till at least Feb, maybe March if the game is as good as she says it is. The rest of the kids got Wii games and controllers. They can all play Mario cart at the same time now! No more fighting over who's turn it is. Sometimes you just got to love Santa for making my life easier!!Smart, Smart Santa!! Dave was happy with his stash but I got the best gift of all, a self closing toilet seat lid!! You just barley touch it when your finished and it closes nice and quietly!! Ahhh!! I also got a really cool shower head for my new shower we have been working on upstairs. And I have to mention this really cool book that my sister made for me that is a story of my childhood till I got married. It is amazing and has brought back some great memories. Defiantly a gift to cherish. I was able to give a great gift this year. I had a friend come and take pictures of our family, our whole family. There was over 21 people and she did a fantastic job. Because of that I was able to give my mom a huge portrait of our family to hang over her mantel. She cried when she saw it. That is what Christmas is all about, making your mom cry!! So a big thanks to everyone who sacrificed a Saturday to be a part of that for mom. And thanks again Kim for the great pictures. Now that Christmas is over, I will post them soon and share them with everyone.

So that was our Christmas this year. Our new years was fun. Full of food, good card playing and no kids. Just the way I like it. I would have loved to beat my sister more, but some years you have to let other people win! he-he!! I am looking forward to a new year and all the wonderful things it will bring into my life!!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it Snow!! I think I might get my wish of a White Christmas. It has been snowing outside for about 3 hours so far and this is what we got. The kids are already playing in it. If you don't play as soon as it falls, you might not get to. It is so exciting. I'm going to go make some hot chocolate!!

We had a busy weekend!! Tonight was our ward Christmas Party. Guess who came? Santa!! The last picture was because he goosed me!! Naughty Santa!! Dave had fun with the kids and only had one or two cry. Katie had two little girls that followed her everywhere and Kjersti had 3 little boys that love to talk her ear off. Kazia and Connor stayed outside in the snow the whole time. It was fun to watch the kids reactions to Santa. Last night Dave took all the kids out to eat and then they went Christmas Shopping at the mall for 4 hours. I couldn't believe it! They all had a great time. All of them, including Dave, hope to make it a new tradition. Hey, a quiet night at home, I'm all for the new tradition!! It was a great start to the Holiday Season!!

One of my Favorite Days of the Year!

Well, one of my most favorite days of the year is over. What a bummer!! But I had a great time! How could I not with great food and great friends. Every year Megan Anderson, a friend from church, invites a small group of us to her family cabin on Vashon Island to spend the night. We take lots of food, friendship, and giggles and spend a night getting caught up with each others life. This year we stayed up and played "Bang" and had lots of fun. After a very short night of sleep, we got up and had a yummy breakfast of waffles and then back on the ferryboat to bring us back to reality! Yuck! But I guess it has to be done. I am so thankful my Father in Heaven has blessed me with these women in my life. They are an inspiration to me!!

I joked with them that I get invited each year because I make Peanut Butter Balls that they all love and always forget to give out the recipe, so here it is ladies! Hope you enjoy them as much as I love your frienship!!

Peanut Butter Balls or Buckeyes

1 Cube Butter

1 lb. Powdered Sugar (2 cups)

1 1/2 Cups Peanut Butter, Plain or Chunky

1 tsp. Vanilla

Melt butter and peanut butter in microwave. Add Powd. sugar and vanilla. Stir until well blended. Roll into balls or spread in a 9x13" glass dish. Press down with wax paper or it will crumble when you eat it. Let harden for 3 to 4 hours.

Melt 12 oz of Chocolate Chips and either dip the balls, or spread over the 9x13" glass dish.

Eat slowly and savor the flavor and dissolving of the powd. sugar in your mouth!! Yummmm!!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

I hope I am the first to wish you a Merry Christmas!! I love this time of year. Above is a complete family picture. Amazing that everyone found time to get together for 2 hours so we could have family pictures taken. My mom and dad, in the center, have quite the posterity. You should have been around for Thanksgiving when we all sat down to eat together. We are loud!! But we sure like getting together. Only one miss-hap this year, Dave fell down our stairs and broke his tailbone and bruised his rib. So he sat all Thanksgiving day on an ice pack trying to get pity for his sore bum. Didn't stop him from eating turkey though!! My mom, sister, niece and I spent all day Friday from 4:30 am to 7:30 pm shopping all the great deals and boy did I get some good ones. My two favorite, a new 40 inch TV (which we haven't stopped watching!) and a new Samsung, 19 inch computer monitor for $99.00. What a deal!! It was at Best Buy but Office Depot matched the price plus gave me the $30.00 rebate that they were offering on top of that!! It was really cool, I love getting good deals. Everything else I bought was for Christmas and can't say because to many people read this. Even though it was tiring, it was fun. One of my favorite days of the year.

Anyhow, I will soon have some more family pictures to post as soon as the photographer is done editing them. Thanks so much to Kim Robinson for coming and taking pictures of my crazy family. I think she was even surprised I could get more than 20 people to cooperate together. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We are decorating the tree tonight, see ya!!

I'm Blogging!!

I can't believe I finally made time to become a blogger!! Making this blog has been a lot of fun. I so enjoy keeping in touch with other people thru blogging that I just had to do my own.

There is so much to catch everyone up on I will just get started!!

We had an addition to our family just recently!! Dave and I finished building our rental house next door and we now have renters. The house was an experience to build. From the very beginning when we started the project on Nov. 1st, 2007 to when we finished Sept. 30th, 2008 everything went so smoothly. We knew we were suppose to build this house. It's 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, an adorable kitchen with a pantry in the corner and a living room.

We love our renter. Her name is Rosa and she has a beautiful baby girl. She loves to bake and we love to eat her baking!! It works great for all of us.

We also updated our house and put a wrap around porch on it. It really changed the look of it. We went from this:

to this

I love the extra room for my porch swing. Connor loves riding his bike around it and roller skating on it. But my favorite part of my porch was all the hanging baskets I added to it this summer. Along with my star and a sign my sister gave me for my birthday.

I also recently spent some time taking some really cool pictures of Kjersti and Katie in my garden and around out place. They turned out really cute and we had a great time spending time together. As you can tell, sometimes it is really hard for them to focus and stay serious for the pictures. Leave it to Katie to spice things up!! Anyhow, here's my garden this year. It did really well and we are still eating out of it!! Last year we built a green house. The tomatoes grow 15 feet tall in there and produce enough tomatoes to feed everyone!!

The two cute kids are my great niece and nephew, Brooke and Trevor. They had a great time cleaning out my garden, finding hidden treasures to throw, and getting all muddy. It might not look like it but the pumpkins by Trevor weigh around 100 lbs and took two guys to lift them. I had some fun this year!!

We had a bit of a scare with Katie. She started getting a migraine about 12 weeks ago and we have not been able to get it to go away. After several trips to the chiropractor, several doctors and a hospital stay (pictured at the right), a CT scan, an MRI, and a lengthy drug cocktail we might be getting on top of it. Her hospital stay was traumatic with an IV, her head packed in ice, an oxygen tube, and lots of throwing up, needless to say, it was a long night. Her MRI showed swelling on her brain so the drugs are aimed at getting that done. Last week it started easing off and now she is at a 2 or 3 on her pain scale. She has missed about a month of school, but last week she finally stayed the whole week. Her drug cocktail ends in a couple of days, we will have to wait and see if her head ache comes back. We are praying that it doesn't. By the way, she picked the picture, I think she wants pity!! Along with her head rubbed!!

On a better note, Kjersti came home from school all excited, she made the Principals Honor Roll list. He only picks the top 50 and Kjersti was finally one of them. In blue is what is listed on the High school web site for everyone to see. We are very proud of her, she has worked very hard to get straight A's. Great Job Kjersti!!!

Principal's List 3.90-4.00 GPA
HONOR ROLL BASED ON Term 1 GPA
GRADING PERIOD: Term 1
STUDENT NAME: Kjersti Smith

Kazia and Connor are doing great. They both just had a birthday. Connor turned 9 and Kazia is 11. They are excited for the holidays and already are making their Christmas list's. Both of them received medals at school already. They both were awarded "Great School Work". Three kids a month in their grade level get picked and Kazia and Connor were one of the first ones. I would have had pictures but missed the ceremony because I was dealing with Katie. Oh well, that is life. Great Job you two, keep it up!!

I will finish with our Halloween picture. We scored lots of candy again, just what we needed!! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It's the day I get to truly be myself!! Can you figure out who I am in the picture? Here is a hint, it's not Glenda the Good Witch!!

Thanks for taking time to read my blog. The next post won't be so lengthy!! Love Tina