Will it ever stop??

It seems like it has been snowing for weeks nonstop, or has it been months? This is the 5th snow day we have had in the past month. Two before Christmas break and now up to three after the break. The kids are so out of the school routine. We have spent countless hours shoveling in our yard and we still have so far to go. The warmer temperatures are supposed to be on their way, along with them comes high chances for flooding. The kids are enjoying the time off now, but I am sure they will hate the make up days in the middle or end of June. Here are some pictures of Spokane. These were taken on the 1st snow day we had. Imagine this times 4 or 5 by the last snow day.

The Last Hurrah, or so we thought :)

On what we thought would be our last free day before the kids had to go back to school we decided we would have a family day. We went out to eat at our families traditional favorites. We call it an "FFD". It is where each person can choose any drive through that they want to go to and order some things off the dollar menu. This way everyone gets what they want, and we don't have to worry about the chaos we might make in an "eat in" restaurant. After that we went to Chuck E Cheese. The kids Great Grandma and Grandpa Swift gave them money to go. (If you are wondering, we didn't eat there because we just had pizza the night before.) We had a great time. Even Jarom who thought he wouldn't want to go, somehow figured out how to spend tons of tokens. Then we had to get ice cream from the cool machine they have.










After Chuck E Cheese, we headed to the Spokane Valley Mall. Evan and Ashton had recieved Build-A-Bear gift cards from their Grandma Gina and Grandpa Steve Abel. They had a fun time picking out just what they wanted. Even James, who didn't have a gift card, found a bear he couldn't live without. Since his hands were sticky from the ice cream sandwich, we were pretty much obligated. It was well worth it because he has slept with it ever since. We thought we might go to the movies after that. But by that time it was getting pretty late and we were tired. Fun times :)

Follower

I know most of you are leaders not followers, but I just added the follow my blog thing on the side. It would be great if you can sign up. This way we know who is visiting us. :)

Back Posts

I am going to work on updating my posts from the summer. This means you will have to look backwards to find out what has been happening with us. So even if you have already seen some post you will have to go back to June to make sure you haven't missed anything. We have been having so much excitement, I haven't had time to post. You even have to go back to "older post" to see some of the new ones I just put in today. I dated them according to when they happened so they would be in chronological order. I love to read your comments.

Happy New Year!!

Maybe for the New Year I should resolve to do a better job posting to my blog.

Don't hold your breath. I have too many other things I need to resolve to do better at. I am not good about New Year resolutions anyway.

We had a fun New Years Eve and everyone except for James made it to midnight. They didn't even want to go to bed then. We are in Puyallup with my family. We ate lots of good food and played many games including Spoons, Scategories, Imagine If..., a couple of games that don't have names (but were really fun), and an old family favorite-The Candy Bar Game. If any of you aren't familiar with this game I will explain. You need a giant candy bar, gloves or oven mitts, hat, scarf, apron, knife, and a pair of dice. Everyone gets in a circle and you go around as fast as you can rolling the dice. When one person gets doubles, they immediately proceed to put on all of the articlesof clothing, open the candy bar, cut one square with the knife and eat it. When they are completely finished swallowing it, they can cut another one and eat it, etc.(it is not as easy as it sounds when you are wearing big gloves, even harder-both of ours were left hand gloves). The catch is that everyone else is still rolling the dice. As soon as another person gets doubles you have to stop and immediately take everything off and give them to the other person. Most of the time you don't even get close to getting a piece of chocolate. Everyone who played got at least one piece of the candy bar this time, except for my sister Doranda. The sad part was it was her idea to play the game, she was so excited about it. She did admit after that she bought more candy bars so she could have some after all.
I hope you all have a great 2009!!

Pacific Science Center with Grandpa Swift

My mom found out we could go to the Pacific Science Center for 94 cents each. So we took everyone who wanted to go. Our group consisted of Jim, me, our 4 youngest children and my dad. The big kids didn't want to do much of anything besides movies and video games during break. With a group our size, it takes forever just to get out the door. We were making good time with very little traffic, for Seattle, when we had a little problem. Ashton got car sick. Of course we didn't think to pack extra clothes. We didn't want to go home, we were almost there. And going home would mean not going at all. Jim took off Ashton's shirt and put his fleece pullover on him. It looked really ridiculous. As soon as we got there I thought to buy him a new shirt in the gift shop, so all was well. Of course, all the other kids thought they needed new shirts too. We had a great time. It was nice to get out of the house.

This is a little area with sea creatures that the kids can touch.



This is a little kids area only. James loved this slide, he learned how to climb up the stairs and go down all by himself. He just kept doing it over and over. We had a hard time getting him away from it. He would have stayed there all day. Notice Ashton's new shirt.

The kids were able to crawl through a giant caterpillar they went in the mouth and came out the other end.

In the butterfly exhibit. If you look closely you might be able to see some cool butterflies.


Most everyone thought the '80's laser show was the best part of the day. When we entered they told us the best seats in the room were laying on the floor.

Amery volleyball

Amery is on the volleyball team at her school. She has played since 5th grade and really enjoys it. She is also having a few private lessons and is improving her game lots this year.

Family Picture Day

Time again for the Abel's annual picture day. It is always a delight, or is that just in my dreams? Reality is so crazy and stressful. We usually just have a friend take pictures of us. This year we decided to hire a professional, so I was extra stressed. When we are paying so much money for a picture, and who knows when we might hire one again, they have to be great!! Of course, the whining begins as soon as they find out we are getting pictures (I didn't give much notice because I didn't want to hear about it for days). Many of them are threatening they aren't coming, they don't want to wear the clothes I bought them, they are hungry, she is looking at me, etc, etc. After we get to the location, we realize at least one of them has no socks and most of them have filthy hands and faces. I guess this is the real Abel family. As soon as we get out of the car Jim proceeds to tell the kids it will only be a couple of pictures, so that is all they want to take- 2. I proceed to tell them we will be taking tons of pictures and bribe them with rewards after, "the better you cooperate, the quicker it will be over". After many attempts with bunny ears behind the heads and many silly faces, our skilled photographer managed to actually get a few good ones. After all this - I aged 10 years and put on at least 10 lbs, imagine how good I looked before this.

If you want to get a better view you can click on any of the pictures.

Leaf Raking

The very first week we moved to Spokane we participated in the annual leaf raking service day with the Catholic Charities. We always bring our whole family, even the babies. The first time we did, I think some people were surprised. Now, after seven seasons, they know us there and even use pictures of our kids on their web site and fliers. Others have started bringing their kids too. It is a neat experience to help out older people who are not able to do it themselves and don't have the means to hire someone. There are several people we have gotten familiar with when we have been sent to their homes many times over the years. Our children are big helpers most of the time. They also love it when they can have a few minutes to play in the leaves. Their favorite part of the whole thing is the chili lunch we are served afterward at Gonzaga. Here are some of the fun pictures we took this year.

Gold Mine

Funny how I can transfer video from my regular camera to my computer but not my digital video camera. Anyway, I just found this video on my computer. One of my kids must have taken it of Dallen. If you know Dallen this may surprise you. I couldn't stop giggling. I had never seen this before. I am sure he would die if he new I was sharing this, but I couldn't resist. It is pretty dark, but his best moves are in the beginning.


This is what happened in the next video:

James Walks

James started walking today. There was a time when we were worried he would never walk. He didn't ever want us to put him down. So he was very late rolling over. Once he started rolling there was no stopping him. He loved getting around where he wanted. He was much happier after that. I would post a video of him walking, but I can't figure out how to get the videos off my camera to save them. Apparently my VIDEO camera only comes with cords and software to transfer still photos, not video. I have to purchase all of that separately. I find this strange since I bought a VIDEO camera, not a regular one.

Don't give up on me yet!

I know, I know, it has been forever since I have updated my blog. What can I say I am a busy woman!! It was fine when all my friends blogs linked to my blog, but now they also list how long it has been since our blog was updated. So I feel extra embarrassed. This is just a note to let you know I am thinking about it and will get to it soon. Don't give up on me yet. More to come, hopefully soon, but no promises.

Jarom's 16, I can't believe it!!!

I can't believe I am old enough to have a 16 year old. I am lucky to have Jarom. He is a great kid and a good example to all of us. He is top of his class with a 4.0. He always gets up for early morning seminary, without being told and gets ready early. He is ready to leave for church an hour before it starts.

For his special birthday, we arranged several things. The one I think he was most excited about was his special birthday call from a famous rock star (one of the perks of parents who used to be in the music industry). I also made him a book with dating and driving advice from so many of you, thanks, it was great. I made him a slide show with music and pictures of his life (I think I liked it more than he did). We had a special presentation with a couple of scriptures and a watch, which I still need to get engraved with this scripture reference on it Matt 26:41 "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak"

Happy Birthday Jarom, We Love You!!

James had his first haircut today. Like many of his siblings he was lucky enough to have the best hair dresser in the world do it, his Aunt Talitha. James has more hair than any of our other kids with the possible exception of Evan. Amery just realized the other day that she was practically bald as a baby. I don't know why she didn't realize that before. Maybe the cute hairbands I put on her head gave her the illusion of having hair.