Chan Family Photo 2009...

Julia did a great job "compiling" a current Chan Family Photo...Now, I've just got to get it printed off!!

More WA Photos (Julia)

Had fun playing lots of games, eating lots of food, and doing lots of crafts. Snowmen, penguines, and washer necklaces (well, I guess I just watched that project).

It was great when Tim was finally able to fly up and join us. We had fun exercising to P90 together over G-Chat. The nieces and nephews even joined in and did it with us...and they LOVED it!

Christmas was great...fun cousin-exchange, Christmas program put on by my nieces, and lots of gifts!

One of my favorite memories from the trip: Little Kyle sobbing in his little Jeep...hunched over, head on arm on steering wheel. After Kiera consoles him and convinces him to come inside to watch a movie, his little Jeep juts backwards. He pauses for a bit in between sobs to reach down, pull a lever to change the car into drive, then speeds forward. Still sobbing, he maneuvers his way into the garage, slightly ricocheting (sp?) off the bumper of a car sitting in the garage. Still sobbing, he parks the little jeep in the garage. Aunt Dorothy comes out to help in stand up. He then sadly says, "I can't walk!" Dorothy picks him up and takes him inside.

Oh how I wish I were a better writer to catch that moment. Better yet, I wish I had my camera! :(

Lots of great moments from this trip... maybe I'll document them later... or I'll just totally forget about it...

Chan Family Christmas (Julia)

Tim headed back to Texas while Olivia and I continued on to Washington. Did I mention that a stomach flu began to spread during Thansgiving? Yeah. So the night before flying out, Tim and I were NOT feeling well at all. We were about to cance/change our flights...but the cheapskates won. :P WE felt AWFUL!

It was a long flight for me... Olivia did not sleep again. But at least I didn't vomit on the plane like Tim did. Once we finally arrived in Washington, everyone was excited to see/hold/play with Olivia.

Here are a ton of pics... I'm not sure where the text will end up being (in relation to the images), so I'll just blab a bit. Dot had a fun time playing with my camera, and caught a ton of cute faces from Olivia.

I had fun helping my sis take some preggo pics...helped dot take a few pics of her friend's family... the nieces wanted a ton of pics taken of themselves...







I was able to drive up to Seattle with my parents to see my grandma. While there, got to hang out with Pauline and Jacob, Brenda, and Auntie Audrey and Uncle Ted. It was fun to see them all with Olivia.

My cute niece Emma was baptized while we were there! I'm glad we were there for that! It was cute to see how much the cousins (especially the boys) LOVED Olivia.

2009 Christmas Gingerbread houses...

So, I felt ambitious again and tried my hand at making my own gingerbread for our houses this year. I think they turned out GREAT!! The kiddos...all 8...enjoyed decorating without supervision...I should have made it a rule that they couldn't munch on it for at least 2 weeks. But I forgot and once I said, "Ok. You can each have one piece of candy," it was a lost cause...I don't think we even had the houses around for a week afterwards. Even in this picture, they had already begun nibbling...

My sister...

My sister and her husband Andy were able to come home for about a week at Thanksgiving time. It was so fun to have them around. She is expecting their first child...and so Julia took a few photos of her 6/7 month profile...I am so excited for this little spirit to join our family. Only he, our Heavenly parents and Christ really know and understand the journey that was taken for him to join the Sio family. I know he is a choice spirit, predestined to be a forever family with Tanya & Andy.

Mikennaism 120209

I was talking to Mikenna about how when Kaylee was 4 years old, just like her, Kaylee had 2 little sisters!! I asked Mikenna if she was sad since she didn't have any little sisters. Her reply, "No, because my little sister is Olivia!!"

Olivia!!

Here she is!! The long waited (month long) visit from their favorite cousin OLIVIA!! So sad that my sister was sick the night before she flew in...but she made it and we are oh so excited to have them here!! And how much fun is it that we are all in Grandma's house together!!

Christmas trees and Guitar Hero...

Tanya & Andy flew in right before our Thanksgiving feast up at the Gales. We had all of the yummy fixings that you would expect for Thanksgiving, right down to beloved family!

After sufficiently stuffing ourselves, we sat down to peruse the Black Friday ads (determined we weren't shopping for anything) then played some games of manacala, chatted and then dessert, then more sitting around and then home.

The next morning Tanya, Andy, and my parents took off to do the shopping for things that we weren't going to get shopping that always seems to happen :)

I spent the day making gingerbread :)
Saturday we dragged the Christmas tree out to put up. It's always nice to have extra helping hands...my mom once again asked if we had to, and I said yes. Especially since it will be Olivia's first Christmas! And you can't cancel the tree, even with your house overflowing with family!!
Afterwards, we rocked out on Guitar Hero...Andy loved each part you could play, it was memorable with the kids singing...my kids had never been exposed to Rock Band or GH, so they mostly watched their cousins belt out the Beatles and Eye of the Tiger...Even Andy was brave enough to sing...

Here Kyle wants his daddy to stop...he tried putting his hands on the "drums" but that didn't stop my brother from "rocking out"!!

Denial...

Kiera is in denial...I asked her about these new expressions that I am finding in the latest photos we've taken...she said she didn't do anything...I asked her how her eyes could BOTH be looking at her nose without concentrated effort...she said she didn't know....I told her I had some pictures to show her...I will up date with her answer tomorrow...

Great Grandma Chan

Here is a 4 generation pic from our weekend in Seattle.

Tell, me...why is Kiera making that face!!!???

Mr.Linn....

Kaylee is a super hardworking student. She is meticulous about getting her stuff done, and done correctly. She has us double check her work every night. She LOVES Mr. Linn. His word is scripture. (Or more like her interpretation of his words...) I can't even begin to tell you the "discussions" we've had over, "But Mr. Linn said...." I'm glad she enjoys school and I'm glad she loves her teacher. Mr. Linn's goal is to get them ready for middle school...he has high expectations of these kids...he has quite the system down to help his students be responsible and accountable for their work. I do like him, but his word shouldn't be law...

Anyhow, Kaylee made the honor roll, which to me shouldn't be too difficult especially with how the class is set up. She was 1 of 2 students in her class with a "4.0". They had an assembly to recognize the kids and some parents had flowers or balloons to give to their kiddos. I just thought, "is this really such a big deal?" I am pleased that Kaylee works hard and is responsible enough to get her stuff done, and done well. So, perhaps I should be a bit more, "WAHOO!! Way to GO!!" I'll just make sure to give her more hugs and say more often, "Great Job!!"

Happy ...pre...Thanksgiving...

We had a fun creative preschool day :) My nephew Kyle even got to join us :)

SOLD SOLD SOLD!!

We signed the closing documents this morning and now our home is OFFICIALLY SOLD!!

October 22: we got an offer on our house...and after counters back and forth, we finally settled on a price and a date...November 23!! We waited anxiously for inspections to go through, then final loan underwriting, packed our things, readied rooms at my parents' home to move into...and now we are out and I can't seem to say it enough...SOLD!!

After having our home on the market for so long...and having our home supposedly sold for "years" now, it is both sad and happy to have it over.

Good bye home...

Cousin Jacob!!

The girls loved playing with their cousin Jacob. He is so cute and happy!! Each of them wanted to hold him, but most of the time he wanted on the ground or was too wiggly, and he is a bit of a handful when wiggling.

Poor Tom, I think he was a bit overwhelmed with the noise that the girls can create. Although, Sat. morning they all worked out together on the WII fit for 30 min or so. I think my girls are really too into Biggest Loser. If you watch the show, the trainers can be pretty forceful/in your face...well, while Tom was Hula Hooping, Kiera shouted out, "Uncle Tom is working his a** off!!" Which, Tom calmly responded with, "I don't think you should say that." Which then Kassi laughing repeated the offensive sentence. UHHGG!! My girls are so....they were giggling as they belched and cackled--thinking they were oh so funny....popping off...I am raising a bunch of hoodlems...

Big thanks to Pauline for her yummy cooking and cute son!! And THANK YOU for getting the girls breakfast in the morning. Wish we could do it again soon!!

Pacific Science Center

We took a short trip to Seattle this past weekend. The pass wasn't bad, my cousin Pauline and her family hadn't moved to Wash D.C. yet, and the girls had Wed. off. So, off we went. We spent Thursday at the Science Center.
The girls loved the Butterfly Pavilion, well, actually Kaylee and Kiera LOVED it...the younger ones thought it was ok, but both were pretty paranoid that the butterflies would land on them.
We saw an IMAX movie about dolphins. I only felt a bit dizzy a few times, but mostly it was fun to feel like you were swimming with the animals.

They had a fun animation exhibit where we learned all sorts of info about how cartoons were made in the past as well as present day. Found an interesting display showing a cartoon from the early 70s called "Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan." As we were leaving Mikenna exclaimed, "MOM!! It's Tom & Jerry!!" She and Kassi have been watching Tom & Jerry, they LOVE IT!!

There was also an exhibit on digital art by Chris Jordan. It was very interesting. If you look at the photo above, I inserted a pic of a close up of the pic behind the girls. Also, I got in trouble taking pictures because I didn't notice the sign that said, "No photography." It was right there too...I put an arrow above where the sign was. Oops!!

Anyhow, we had a lot of fun.

When we went to leave, the battery on the van didn't work...I think, when we first got to Pauline's, I must have left the headlights on...draining the battery, but was able to get a jump start and it drove fine Wed. evening, and we were able to get to the Seattle Center w/o event, but maybe sitting there in the cold killed it? Luckily, there were a few ladies leaving and they were able to give us another jump. (I'm glad I didn't have to approach any guys, although I'm sure they would have been helpful.)

kid memories...

The other day, the girls were sitting there, eating candy...and remembering...

Kassi: "Remember when we went swimming, and Kaylee said, 'I'll sacrifice and jump in first!."

Kiera: "Yeah, then I said, I'll jump in 2nd!!"

Kassi: "And then I said, I'll jump in 3rd!!"

Mikenna: "And I said, I'll take the stairs!!"

They laughed and laughed, and then said it again! Funny what they remember.

Veteren's Day Assembly

Kaylee has been excited for this special Veteren's Day assembly that the 4th graders put on. She has been practicing the songs for weeks now. She and Kiera sing them together when they are supposed to be going to bed. I know she was happy to see her Great Grandpa Gale there to be recognized for his service. Grandma Gale submitted names of family who have been in the service...I didn't realize there were so many to be remembered.

Hunting...

Mike doesn't have much time for hunting, especially when hunting season begins it's usually sprinkler time. Luckily, Andrew was still excited to go with Mike (and his brothers and his dad.) Since sprinklers were done, Mike has been researching places to go and getting his gear together. The night they left, he was literally pacing the floor waiting for Andrew to show up...which we all heard him pull up front...another plus...Andrew has access to a camper...perfect hunting/camping arrangements...now if only they'll see something that they can shoot at...

Scout Master...

Have I mentioned that Mike is the new Scout Master? Well, he had the deacons come over this past Wed. night and they talked about building fires. I think the boys had too much fun.

Happy Halloween!!

On our second night of trunk-or-treating, we had our ward festivities (which took all of 13 minutes to circle about) and then off to my parent's. Went up the street and then back again. Between two nights, we have GOBS of candy!! Anyhow, the kiddos then enjoyed counting up their loot, then dancing/dueliing around as the musketeers. Have you seen the new Barbie movie? Well that's what the 4 younger girls were, fortunately they each chose a different color! Kaylee wanted to be a cowgirl. Here they are. The kids also enjoyed answering the doorbell and passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. I can't believe the number of people who came by!! It was crazy!! Especially to see the number of cars parked on Union and 19th. Why?? It's not like this neighborhood's candy is any better than another. In fact, the houses are much further apart! Anyhow...Happy Halloween!!

Fall Cleanup!!

Now that Michael was finished with sprinklers (as of 11:30 am today!!) and after Kaylee's soccer game...we came home and decided to take care of some yard business...YES...even though our house may possibly be sold (we are waiting for the appraiser to come and the loan to come through) we still are doing the work of fall clean-up. Anyhow...Mike did most of the work...I got to work the archaic bush trimmer...he used David's leaf blower, and blew all the leaves together!! It was fun to see how "easy" the work could be...afterwards, we let the girls have some fun...then used GOBS of kitchen bags (because I was too lazy to go to Walmart for bigger bags...). The girls worked on bagging the leaves, and I helped Mike bag the branches and trimmings...The yard looks beautiful now!!