I simply can't believe it. It snowed last night, it got below 30 degrees, and there is a winter warning for most of the day today. I can't believe that they didn't cancel school. It is always amazing to me how they cancel school if they see one little snow flake. It doesn't even have to be covering the road or anything. We probably have 1/2 inch of snow out there. What are they thinking!!!!! My kids were so disappointed that they had to go to school.
I will mention that the biggest issue with the cold snowy weather is that we have hills everywhere, windy narrow roads with dropoffs to the side, and driveways that are hard to get out of if there are icy conditions.
I just think that it is interesting, because some places that I know of would be out of school for most of the year if they canceled school like they do here.
Yeah, I am almost finished with my first rug. My teacher told me that it would probably take me 5 months to a year to complete. It has only been around 2 months that I have been working on it. I think that it turned out pretty darn good for my first one. I still have to trim off the excess material and tack down the binding. Here are a few pictures, you can scroll down my blog and see what it looked like when I first started.
After dinner the kids decided to check out our neighborhood for trick or treating. They got a good workout since the houses are not close together and there are some nice hills and long driveways. Yes, the girls are a little old for trick or treating! Warren was going to take the kids around, but he had an emergency trip to Idaho and so I asked the girls to take them around. Kjirsten and Will were going to, but they decided to watch a movie. Breanne and TaraLyn were more than happy to step in and get a few pieces of candy. 
Kjirsten wanted to be in the picture, next to her is Amy (Will's sister), Clayton the Leprechaun, TaraLyn the Hershey Kiss, Tilley the cat, Breanne the Pirate, and Kjel the scary black thing on the floor. 
They got tons of candy. Clayton sorted all of his out. I overheard him saying that he was rich because he had so much candy.
Kjel bobbing for apples. He really got into and got all wet. 
TaraLyn the black cat
Breanne the Pirate
The costume parade
My friend Sheli tagged me and I have never done this before. I think that I am suppose to do what she did, so here it goes.
This ended up being a little complicated...........I went to the fourth file in my pictures and then to the fourth picture. It happened to be one of Breanne and I hadn't ever seen it before. She refused to let me post it and told me that her pictures are not my pictures. So, I went to the fourth file of my pictures and then to the fourth picture in that file and here it is. A silly picture of Clayton. I think this was in one of our Family Home Evenings. He enjoys entertaining us.
I am TAGGING Kim, Marta, Kailey, and Ashley
Warren is happy to have a yard to play in. He is building a treehouse (actually it is a platform) at the end of the zipline so that we have a place to get off. 
He got the wood from a scrap pile from the builder that we were renting from the first 7 months that we lived here. Tuesday we spent a couple of hours as a family carrying all the wood down to the trees. TaraLyn has been helping him today to build it. 
It is kind of hard because we really don't have a ladder that is tall enough. As you can tell in the pictures TaraLyn is having to hold onto the ladder while Warren ties it to the platform. I had to leave because I was afraid someone was going to get hurt. I did make sure that they had a phone so that they could call 911 if they needed to. 
They were lifting the boards up with a ropes. 
Warren has another four trees located to build an actual treehouse in. It won't be up as high.
Clayton is in the middle of the soccer season. His team has tied two games and won all of the rest. He enjoys playing and is learning the game a little more. (Just for the Jones family .......the assistant coach on the left is named Bryan Jones. He is a chiropracter here in town and a member of the church in the Johnson City Ward. He served a mission in Chile the same time that Warren was there.)
This year I learned something new. Rug Hooking. It is a very old craft that a nice lady in my ward has been teaching me. We hook on a linen cloth with strips of wool. The lady in my ward actually dies the wool material to make it the color that we want, then we have this nifty little cutter that cuts the material into strips. Here is a picture of my rug at the very beginning and then later when I had more done.
Kjirsten tried out for Chamber Choir this year. She has really enjoyed it. They had a performance last night. (She also had a volleyball game and the school had to have some big discussions with teachers, coaches, athletic directors, principals about whether the three starters for the varsity team should be allowed to attend the concert or if they should get a failing grade for attending the game. The game was changed to tonight) It was fun to listen to them sing. They did a great job. Kjirsten really wanted to try out for the play that they are doing this year, but their practices conflicted with volleyball practice.
TaraLyn had an orchestra concert the other day. I forgot to take my camera, but I took a picture of her dress when we got home. Every year you get to pay $50.00 for the dress rental. Last year I did that. Then this year TaraLyn said that you can buy a dress for $80.00. Since she has this year and two more years, I thought that sounded better. When I spoke to the lady about it, she was going to sell me TaraLyn's ugly dress from last year for $80.00. I asked if I could just make one. And she said that I could. I ended up spending $36.00 on a pattern and material for the dress. This is a picture of TaraLyn in her new dress. Her dress fit her so much better than the others and I made it really full at the bottom so that she could fit her legs around her cello without her dress being hiked up to her knees. (I know that the picture is sideways.............I tried turning it five times and decided that everyone could look at it this way)
The leaves are starting to change colors. They are so beautiful. This year we get to enjoy them by just stepping out our front door. Here is a picture of the trees in my yard. It was in October last year when we looked at our house for the first time and I remember driving up the drive way with the leaves changing colors. It was pretty much sold at that point and I hadn't even been in the house yet. I need to walk down to the lake and see what it looks like down there. It is raining today, so it will have to be another day.
I just can't believe it, but last night was Kjirsten's last home volleyball game. They recognized the seniors and their families. Kjirsten started playing volleyball in 6th and 7th grade at Orchard Middle School in Wenatchee. She then played 8th grade volleyball for Stephen Decatur Middle School and 9th and 10th grade for MacArthur High School in Decatur. The last two years she has played for Science Hill High School. She has always been a wonderful team player. She is constantly running around the court clapping hands with her team mates encouraging them to victory. She always has a great attitude and loves those that she plays with. She has been a setter since the beginning of her volleyball days. Last night she made 20 assists, which means that she set 20 of the kills that were made. I have enjoyed watching her play and will miss watching her bounce around the court. I Love You Kjirsten!
Here are pictures of Kjirsten and Breanne that were in the paper.Breanne isn't fond of the last picture, but she really doesn't like any of her pictues. I took some pictures at the game the other day, and they really didn't look good at all. By the time the camera took the picture the ball was on the other side of the net, and the girls were all moved to a different location of the court. So, I will let you see the picture that the newspaper photographer captured.
