Ward Talent Show

My cakes for the cake decorating contest

Mummy, Pumpkin, and Bat

My cake won the most frightening looking award Anderson had fun clapping, dancing, and acting very strange...

he acted like he was on a sugar high
Ashten was a wild man and could not sit still
My scrapbooking display
Kathy A, Jeanie, Grandma, Kristin, Wes and Kathy F.
We had a lot of fun at the Ward Talent Show tonight. There are many talented people in the ward. Some of our favorites were Ali'a playing Bop-It, the disco dancers, and many great singers. The kids really liked the juggler also. The big boys got to play in the nursery for awhile, which was a nice break for me. After it was all over we got to eat the cake that everyone brought, it was a great night out with the family.

Practice Makes Perfect

"Somethings can happen to make us scared or sad""We can pray to ask for help"
"When Joseph Smith was a young boy and little he prayed and asked which church is true""Can you whisper in my ear Mom ... Heavenly Father answered his prayer"
"I know ... I can pray ... to Heavenly Father ... because He loves me"

This video is dark (darn) but you can hear how cute he is when he's singing the song to go with his talk.

Ayden gets to say the talk in Primary on Sunday. He is really excited because last time he gave a talk, I took him on a special date (we went to Dairy Queen and shared a banana split). So he got up the other day and said, "Mom, can we work on my talk?" I told him that I had it all written up and ready for him. So he ran off calling to me that I had promised we could work on it. I was planning on photocopying some pictures that fit with the talk. When I came into the kitchen where he wanted to work I found him with a stack of my scrapbook papers and a hand drawn picture of Heavenly Father and Jesus and he was already cutting out hearts. At this point I hadn't even read him the talk that I had in mind...so I changed it a little to fit with his drawings. This is Ayden practicing for Daddy. The table that is in front of him is his "podium" and that black thing in his hand is his "microphone". Ayden is growing up so much and I am SO proud of him!

A Hunting We Will Go

Ayden, Ammon, and Rachel picking berries

Ben and Ashten holding the caterpillar
Ayden, Gavin, Ben, and Ashten
The scavenger hunt list
For playgroup today I made up a sheet of items for the kids to find and we headed over to the BPA Trail at the Aquatic Center. The kids had lots of fun running around and they had an even better time exploring. I think they found about 12 of the 20 items on the list but the also saw other things. We saw a mommy and baby gardner snake, a caterpillar, a beetle, and a runaway stroller or two haha. I think the best part was that the kids could run free and there were no worries for moms. Afterwards, half of the group headed to McDonald's for lunch and a little shopping at Wal-Mart. By the end of the day I was ready to crash but the kids of course were still going!

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting!

Anderson, Ashten, Ayden, and Gavin playing DDR before the movie
Cassi invited us to go to the dollar theater to see Kung Fu Panda. Although the kids were a little wild in my opinion, the theater was mostly empty. I was probably more stressed about it than I needed to be. I brought lots of snacks to keep the kids occupied, I had no idea what to expect as this was AJ's first trip to the movies (other than when he was a nursing baby.) He isn't really interested in watching TV or anything but there was a few times when he would sit and watch and then just bust up laughing. It was SO cute. After the movie, everybody was kung fu fighting, those kids were fast as lightning, in fact it was a little bit fright'ning....HI-YA!

Guitar Hero...FHE?

"Daddy, You Rock!" Our Groupies
Anderson wasn't sure what to think about us rocking out!

This is Ayden's interpretation of "air guitar"
Our Family Home Evening tonight was basically a Guitar Hero Competition. Despite Armand's best efforts I pretty much rocked the house. The kids coming in a close second with their air guitars. Everyone's favorite song to rock out to is Barracuda!

What's a Little Sinning Among Family?

Triple X Root Beer Drive-In
Armand and the Triple X Burger
Ayden, Me, Anderson, and Ashten watching to see if Daddy could polish off the XXX Burger This is as far as he could make it. He said he could probably finish it but that there were too many people around and he thought he might puke afterwards. It ended up to be a perfect time to stop though because we had ordered this with the intention of sharing so me and AJ shared the last quarter. (Which more than enough for us)
Dad and Mom. That cone was about 10" tall including the cone.
Too bad I just missed the picture when Wes had the whole cone in his mouth!Ayden and Ashten's favorite thing was the Funny Car...this obviously isn't the one that was there but I didn't think to take a picture of the cars or anything oops. Girls should not be in charge of camera at a car show.Today, Armand needed to get some trailer orders for the upcoming week so he went to work by taking one of his trailers over to XXX Burger in Issaquah. Every weekend they have a car show. After church, the kids and I headed out there, followed by Mom, Dad, and Wes. Anyways, Mom and I set up chairs, took AJ over to a grassy area, and read while the guys took Ayden and Ashten to walk around and see the cars. We had fun although I felt especially guilty when I had this conversation with Ayden:

Ayden: "Is this church day?"

Me: "Yes"

Ayden: "Well, why are these people here?"

Oops! I guess we are going to have to be better examples to the kids.

Maritime Fest 2008

What a group!
On the train: Liliana, AJ, and Ashten
Anderson and the Betenson's

As usual someone is making a face, but it's NOT Aunt Kristin this time?!?
Ayden, Nofo Jr, and Sione

Mariah and Marisela
Mommies and Kids
Ayden and the fireman had a long talk about something...I'll have to have him fill me in later
Ashten loved the firetruck...they both want to be firemen for Halloween Ayden, Nofo Jr, Sione, and Liliana (my new adopted daughter she called me Momma the whole time, I told her she can come live with us if she will change AJ's poopy diapers)

The babies always get left out...literally This is the inside of the fish...isn't it cool? I couldn't see well in there but I was surprised when I got home and looked at the pictures how awesome it looks. Also, Ashten is holding his nose...the kids all said it smelled like fish inside. Ashten driving the Fire Boat AJ, Nofo, Ashten, (Nofo Jr hiding behind Ashty), Ayden, Sione, Liliana, Marisela, and Mariah
Today, we went to the Maritime Festival with the Ngata family. It was such a nice day. We started out over at the Tacoma Rail Open House. We played games, rode the train, toured a train and fire truck, and looked at the model trains. It was a lot of fun. Armand and Nofo met us afterwards for lunch. From there we went over to the Maritime Festival over at the waterfront. We saw pirates and got to play with their guns and cannonballs! The kids really liked this booth. We also caught and released fish, watched the Dragon Boats race, toured a police and fire boat, and had the best time walking around with our friends.

I thought this was pretty funny so I thought I'd share:

After all the fun today we went over to Wes and Kristin's house to hang out. Armand took Dad, Wes, Ayden, and Ashten over to our house to see the newest trailer that Armand had built. Armand was talking about the trailer and this is what happened next:

Ayden: Daddy, stop talking so much, you're giving me a headache.

Papa: Ayden, have you ever given anyone a headache?

Ayden: Mommy!

He is SO right!