Happy Birthday lil bro!

Yesterday was my brother's birthday. Amy took him on a scavenger hunt during the day and the rest of the family met at my parents house last night to surprise him. We sang happy birthday, had some cake and hung out. I cant believe he is 27! It makes me feel old.
Nathan lighting his own candles??




Kaiya gave Nate a picture of him playing the piano.


Amy giving Nate his well deserved birthday spanks

Nate and Amy had chinese food for a birthday dinner. The fortune said...A Pleasant Surprise Is In Store For You.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!!!!

Baby showers are a lot of work!

My friend Kristel is pregnant with her 5th baby and she has NEVER had a baby shower! She has always moved right before she had a baby or right after. After she told me that, I HAD to throw her a baby shower. I invited all the women in the ward. Kristel was making me nervous that no one would show up :). I planned for around 25 which was perfect because there was about 22 people that came! The shower went well and everyone seemed to have fun. I am not sure if I will do that again because it was really stressful especially with me working full time...but it was definately worth it! I am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband who helped sooo much with the preparations and my mom helped me the day of the shower. Everything came together perfectly.

Election Day

Tuesday morninng when I was getting ready for work Kaiya came into my bathroom and I said, "Do you know what today is?" she said, "the day I vote for McCain!". She was so excited to vote and has been talking about it for the past few weeks. I instantly got worried since she is 6 and cant vote. I let it go and thought that I would figure something out by the end of the day.

I guess she was talking about her class at school voting?? I think I got lucky.

Kaiya walked out of her classroom on Tuesday with a sad face. Cirdan asked her what was wrong. She started tearing up and said that 18 kids in her class voted for Obama and 8 kids in the class that voted McCain. Sad...


One more thing...
Kaiya informed Cirdan yesterday that when she grows up she is going to be a detective. If that doesnt work out though she is going to work at Starbucks and if THAT doesnt work she will work at McDonalds.

I think we need to have a talk...

A Special Award

I received a letter from the school saying that Kaiya was receiving the P.R.I.D.E award. This award honors students who exemplify any of these particular character traits...

P - Positive Attitude

R - Respectability

I - Integrity

D - Dependability

E - Effort

The letter also said this is quite and honor so dont tell your child you receive this...lets keep it a secret.

Cirdan, Me, Ella, Meema, Papa, Stacey, Casey, Kaiya's dad and his co worker were all there to watch her receive her award. She ended up receiving an award for the letter P.

Now for the funny part - this award ceremony was last Friday at school. The Kindergartners and 1st graders were still in their costumes. She was sitting in the front row with all the kids in the school in the gymnasium. They called her name and she just sat there. A couple of people (including Cirdan) yelled, "Kaiya, stand up" and her teacher got up to tell her to walk up and accept her award. After the ceremony she came in the back to where we were and she had no idea what the award was for. She later said that when her name was called she was so hoping there was another Kaiya Arvayo and once she saw her teacher walking towards her she was thinking...oh great...

Trunk or Treat - Part 2

We went to our ward's Trunk or Treat last Wednesday. There was a pretty good turn out considering the small ward that we have. Kaiya had fun going from car to car with her friend Faith. Ella just enjoyed the candy wrappers.

Casey's Blessing

Last Sunday we went to my parents house for Casey's blessing. He looked so adorable in his white little suit. My dad gave a beautiful blessing and it was a nice intimate setting.

Uncle Wes, Hayden, Kendall

Nathan making some hot cider

Krista, Shirley, Debbie

Trunk or Treat - part 1

Last night we went to my parents ward for their Trunk or Treat festivities. Nate and Amy looked fabulous. Nate dressed up like a Pirate and Amy was Elizabeth Swan from the Pirates of the Caribbean. They did a wonderful job decorating their trunk and the kids loved it! They are so creative and cute.

They had a plank for the kids to walk...

Our ward has a Trunk or Treat this next Wednesday. FUN

We need the biggest pumpkin!

Yesterday turned out to be a nice sunny day so we decided it would be a perfect day to make the muddy trek to the pumpkin patch. Galade and her boys went with us. Cirdan walked us out to a far patch where the "untouched" pumpkins were. Took a while but we finally found the perfect pumpkins.

For the record...I am NOT cleaning out that big pumpkin. :)

I didnt realize that that gross pumpkin was right there! ha ha

When we were all done we HAD to get a $2.50 corn on the cob and a bag of $5.00 kettle corn. Delish!

Go Hawks

My cousin Lisa and her husband has season tickets to the Seahawks games. Last weekend Mark (her husband) went hunting which means we got the chance to go to a game! They have awesome tickets and we sat 5 rows up from the field. Everything was so close! They ended up losing but we had still had a blast!

My baby is crawling!

Ella has been getting up on her knees for a while.


Then she moves back and forth, drops to her belly and scoots around the floor.

Last night Cirdan put her down and she started crawling! I was so shocked! Even though I knew this day would come sooner rather than later I am still sad to see her grow up so fast. Not to mention the fact that she is into EVERYTHING. I walked out of the room for no more than a minute today and when I got back she was already across the room, had gotten into the candy basket (which has a lid) and was holding onto a big gummy candy turtle! My eyes have to be on her every second. Time to baby proof the house! I guess what they say is true - if your 1st is an angel the next will be wild!!

Another new cousin!

Kaiya and Ella have a new cousin!

Galade had a baby boy on Sept 22nd. They now live VERY close to us so we have been able to see the little guy a few times. He is adorable!

Family weekend!

Cirdan's parents came over to Seattle this past weekend to meet Galade's (Cirdan's sister) new little baby boy. They got here on Saturday morning and we all ate breakfast (for lunch). They make the BEST stuffed french toast. We then we hung out and visited for a few hours. The men went off to the Priesthood meeting and the women went out and did what they do best...SHOP.








Kaiya and the boys had fun finding a slug family. Ick.









Sunday morning we woke up, visited for a while and then they got on the road to make their long drive home.







We all love having Richard and Sue visit and can't wait to see them again in a few weeks!!