A Day in the Life: 2008

Monday, December 15, 2008

Traditions

I love traditions and I love my neighbors. But better than that is I love traditions with neighbors! For about the past 8 or 9 years we have gotten together with our neighbors to decorate gingerbread houses. We started out making our own gingerbread and icing, but since we have graduated to having a really great friend make the gingerbread and icing we we get to enjoy the decorating. Over the years we have had some different families, Martells, Grahams, Buzillinos, Doelmans and Ipsens, but there are always 3 constants--Moss, Johnson & Kartchner. The group has grown over the years, but this year we noticed a bit of a decline-- Danielle, Michelle and Nathan have all moved from home and weren't able to be with us for this fun tradition. We missed you guys.

The gingerbread "Parade of Homes"!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Kelsi...The Novelist

At the end of October Kelsi came home and said that November was National Novelist month and that there was a writing club that she wanted to join so she could write a novel. I said "Great, sign up!" So she did. The goal for 6th graders is to write a 6,000 word novel. I knew it would be a big challenge, they couldn't start writing before November 1 and had to stop writing by midnight November 30. Kelsi & I figured she would have to write 200 words a day to complete her goal. She started out on fire, writing every day. By the last week of November (Thanksgiving week) the excitement had sort of worn off and she was slowing down. But we kept encouraging her. On Saturday at Grandma's she said she had 1,400 words to go and didn't think she could get it done. I told her if she really wanted it to just keep at it and she could do it. Then she asked if she did get it finished by Sunday night, if I would buy her a Build-A-Bear Penguin (her story was about penguins). How could I refuse? As you can see by the picture she finished her novel, got her certificate and her Build-A-Bear penguin. Her novel along with the others who finished will be published and put in her school library. WAY TO GO KESLI!!!

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving, and it isn't just because of all of the yummy food. Although that doesn't hurt! Thanksgiving at my own home is usually pretty quiet with just my immediate family. But the Saturday after Thanksgiving is when all of the fun happens. We all, my sisters their families and my mom, get together in Bancroft, Idaho to have a wondeful post Thanksgiving Dinner. It is really the only time all year we all are together, mom, sisters, husbands, kids, grandkids, neices and nephews. It is amazing to be a part of this wonderful family. There were 48 of us there this year and that wasn't everyone! We missed those who were not able to be there, I especially missed Kevin and Steven. They both had to work. Lava Hot Springs was just not the same without you!

Getting ready at Grandma's before packing it all up to take to the church.

Luke, I love your eyes!

Russ, how is Kelsi supposed to hit the pinata?

Hallie and Kelsi

Sisters

Aiden (I hope the spelling is right) and Teresa

Cindy and Mia

The only picture I could get of Matt.

Thanks Mom for putting up with all of us!

We LOVE you!!!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Carving Pumpkin...

Yes you read that right, pumpkin, uno, one. That is all we (Kelsi) did. And if it wouldn't have been for Kelsi we wouldn't have even carved one.

So Kelsi, this post is for you!

Great job!!!

ps...who needs to go to New England to see the fall colors? I have this right next door!

New England Cruise

So this year is our 25th wedding anniversary (not until December) and we wanted to do something really fun for that occasion. Since traveling in December is kind of difficult, we decided to do a cruise out of New York. And we like to have others with us when we vacation, so we thought it would be fun to invite Kevin's parents to go with us. So this is a long picture post of our very fun cruise. We arrived in New York on Saturday afternoon to beautiful weather, considering when we left Boise it was a balmy 30 something degrees. New York was about 75. When we got there we took a cab to our hotel; taking a cab in New York is an experience in and of itself! I should have taken a picture of the stairway that led into our hotel, let me just say that it was pretty steep, and not only that, there were no elevators and we were on the third floor, Sorry Margaret & Gene:( . It was a bit of a work out, but we all survived.

We went to the play "A Tale of Two Cities". We weren't quite sure how it would be because it is a brand new play that just opened in September. The critics didn't like it so much, but the people's reviews were good. So we took our chances and we LOVED IT!

This is Kevin in the middle of a street market just off of Broadway. There were a ton of vendors.

On Sunday morning we had a while before we got on the boat, so Kevin and I ventured out and took a short walk to Central Park. It was such a beautiful morning and the park was so peaceful.

This was the first clock we saw when we got on the ship, and pretty much for the next 5 days that was how we felt!

Gene & Margaret ready for any 'mis' adventure!

The New York City skyline.

The beautiful Statue of Liberty. When we went by this the band started play "Proud to be an American" and it just gave me chills.

We were "freestyle" cruising so we didn't have to dress up. But we wanted to!

The harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Margaret & Gene up on the top of the double decker bus.

Kevin

Sandra with the guard in front of the Haifax Citadel. We saw him after the guard changed and he can smile.

Kevin on the grounds of the Citadel

We went to a glass blowing company and watched them blow some glass for a while then we went into the store. It was all beautiful crystal.

Sandra in front of the Maritime Museum. We found out about the great Halifax Explosion and I think we found some of my ancestors who were killed in that explosion. I'll have to have Teresa check on that.

St. John, New Brunswick, Canada

Me by the Reversing Rapids. Actually the rapids are to my left, and behind a rock!

If you look real close you can see me, Margaret & Gene up on our balcony on the 11th deck.

Boston, Mass. Mike's Pastry. What more do I need to say?

Margaret & Gene in front of Fanuiel Hall in Boston

Gene, with "Old Ironsides" aka The USS Constitution, in the back ground

We took a harbor curise in Boston and this was the boat we went on.

Our last stop of our cruise was Martha's Vineyard. In the city of Oaks Bluff is this little "village" of these gingerbread house cottages. I think there was about 300 of them. Cindy would love this!

Margaret & Gene

Just thought this was cute.

Love this picture.

The tree on Martha's Vineyard that had fall colors!

Thanks Kevin for a wonderful anniversary trip and thanks Margaret & Gene for going and putting up with us!!!

Also, Thanks to my mom for coming to Boise and staying with Matt and Kesli so we could go.

love ya!

IT"S WAY PAST TIME FOR AN UPDATE! #2

So, I had a little technical difficulty finishing this on my last post. That is why this is #2.

Danielle, Steve & Michelle came for conference weekend. I love having all of my kids home. We decided that it would be a good time to take some pictures. So below is a sampling of our family picture taking time.