Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year with some of our favorite people!  

We missed those who were not able to join us too!  

Happy 2017!

Silly pictures...

Poppin' corks ...

Best buddies, something that will stay the same in 2017 and hopefully many more years to come.

Suncadia 2016

The Chui/Foley family graciously invited us to stay with them in Suncadia after Christmas (we had so much fun last year!)  Thank you!!!  This year was fun as well, we enjoyed the snow, cooking meals and having all the kids together.  *I have to give credit to Corey, who took most of these pictures, thank you for capturing our trip to a winter wonder land!*

Kenzi loves snow!

Last year Kenzi was pulling Kasen, this year it's time for Kenzi to get a ride!

Emi and Nathan

They are starting to get silly!

Enjoying the snow together!

Here are all the kids hanging out after sledding and baths.

Buddies

The big kids ...                                      The little kids...

The house had the perfect bunk room for all the kids!


See the turkeys?  They were just roaming around like last year.

Christmas Day

The girls woke up Christmas morning to find some gifts from Santa 

and they were excited to unwrap them after breakfast.  

Emi asked for a Simon Air and Kenzi asked for the Crayola Crayon Factory.

The night before they each opened one gift when Grandpa came over.

They chose to open up their gifts from Nathan and Kasen...

Auntie Corey and Uncle Marc

they loved what they unwrapped, Nerf guns...then they had fun playing shooting practice.

Gas Works Park

Our friends Mike, Amy, and Gabriella invited us to have dinner, hangout and check out the Christmas boats at Gas Works.  We had a fun night together, thanks guys!

Here are all the kiddos!

The boats were so pretty all lit up at night.

Kindergarten Kafe

It was the grand opening of the Kindergarten Kafe in Kenzi's class today.  I stopped by to have a special lunch with my littlest.  Mrs. Osotio does such a great job with making learning so fun, she was even wearing her conductor suit for Polar Express!

Cousins by the tree

It is nearly impossible to get a picture of all 5 of the girls looking AND smiling nicely these days.

Here is the best they could do!

The Old Spaghetti

One last family meal at the Seattle 

Thank you Christine and Eric for hosting this fun holiday get together!

All the couples

Checking out the telephone booth and caboose...

We have share many meals here as one big family, families on their own, as couples, as boyfriend and girlfriend...lots of good memories, we will miss this historic venue!

Christmas Cookies

If my kids have even mentioned our friend Alyssa, they would say, Alyssa is the best baker!  She really is and such a kind friend to invite us to decorate cookies this afternoon.  

The kids had fun being creative cookie decorators and played afterwards while Alyssa and I sat down to decorate a few cookies too.  

Kenzi and Nathan ready to decorate cookies!

They were all so focused...and quietly crunching on sprinkles...

Just some of their creations from today!

Thank you Alyssa!

Kenzi's Drawing

I was cleaning off my desk after the weekend and found this drawing by Kenzi.

First Family Ski Trip to Crystal Mountain

We had a great day at Crystal Mountain together, the conditioners were great and we were able to ski runs together!  We didn't get any pictures of Erich, he snowboarded today but is going to try skiing sometime this year.  I love that we were able to go on one chair together and make it down together too!  Kenzi just picked up from where she left off last year and was able to keep up.  Emi and I would check out a new run before we took Kenzi along to make sure it wasn't anything too crazy.  Compared to Snoqualmie, Crystal had better snow, longer runs, shorter lines, and lifts that were easier for kids to get on, tickets are less too...I think all the pros make the slightly long trek to get there worth it!  Can't wait for our next ski day.

New Shirts

Auntie Margie made the girls some new t-shirts with her Uncle Charlie Brown's team name Hajime Mizuno.  Thanks for the cool shirts!

Trimming the Tree

Emi and Kenzi decorated our tree together.  They loved putting on the ornaments and it was sweet hearing them talk about the memories they had to some of the ornaments.

Thanksgiving

We gathered at our house for Thanksgiving.  Erich smoked a turkey and I baked one, everyone brought dishes to share.  We filled out bellies and enjoyed a family day together.  So thankful for a house full of family.

We also celebrated Auntie Sonia's birthday today

Justin had to work on Thanksgiving and came a little late.  After everyone left we discovered some sashimi that my Dad brought, so we enjoyed it together in a quiet house (the girls went home with my parents for an impromptu sleepover!)

Husky Basketball

The Emiley's joined us for the Husky basketball game tonight, the Huskies won!  Yay!

The girls didn't want to take a picture so they took this one of the grown ups instead.

Kenni's Bookstore

Emi and Kenzi got the idea to open a bookstore since Kenzi has been really into writing her own stories lately.  I had bought this book holder from Ikea and just put it together (to keep their school library books in each week) well they decided it was the perfect stand for their bookstore.  They also made some rules and guidelines for shopping in the bookstore using power point.  Erich and I were impressed and we were happy to be the first customers at Kenni's Books.

Po Po's Birthday

We celebrated Po Po's birthday today!

Happy Birthday Mom (Po Po) we love you!


We were just hanging out at Po Po's and I snapped this picture of Melanie, Olivia and Kenzi

Painting

These girls are still into painting!  I love their creativity and desire to paint, craft and make things with their own hands.

Chelan

Whenever we are with the Emiley's we are bound to have good times!

We love you guys!

We stayed at the Lookout in Chelan.  

The house we stayed at was cozy and had a beautiful view of the lake!  

We had lunch at Karma.  The guys had a wine flight and Emily and I could not pass up the champagne flight.  The food and ambiance was amazing!

It's was fun to cook a meal in this well stocked kitchen.

Here are some more pictures of the house...

we also enjoyed the humor that popped up around the house.

WSASCD

It's official!  I am now working with the Washington State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, as their executive coordinator.  I am thrilled to be a part of this organization that believes in serving the Whole Child.  

I am excited that this position will allow me to work from home so I can still be involved with activities at the girls' school.  There will be some travel involved too, which I am also excited about. 

Halloween

Here are our sweet trick or treaters!  

Emi the baker and Kenzi the doughnut fairy.

Abby's 3rd Birthday

Abby had a dance party for her THIRD birthday!

The girls had fun celebrating their cousin and dancing!

Halloween Party

My friend and neighbor Alyssa decided to throw a Halloween party this year...it was a lot of fun!  The Dads made a tunnel of terror, the kids loved it!

Kenzi's teacher that lives up the street stopped by too, it was so neat!

Alyssa and I had fun being crafty and making games and snacks for the kids.

Fall Photos

We feel very blessed to have these two healthy girls.  

They are sure growing and keeping us on our toes.  

Play Date

Kenzi had her two buddies over for a fun afternoon.  Kasen and Claire are such sweet friends to Kenzi.  All 3 play so nicely together!

School Pictures

Emi's SECOND grade picture and Kenzi's KINDERGARTEN picture.

I didn't realize they were both wearing pink stripes!
They sure do look grown up in their pictures.

Play

This evening Emi and Kenzi were playing together and it was just nice to capture some sweet moments these sisters have...they were playing and Kenzi decided she wanted to be a doughnut fairy, Emi was pretending to be a baker and they were just having fun!

Mondays

Monday is our family day at Po Po and Gung Gung's.  The girls always enjoy spending time at my parent's house and they love having all of us over too!

Kenzi

Kenzi and I were just playing around today, talking about feelings and I asked her to show me what different feelings might look like on her face...

she was very expressive and we had some good laughs!

Pumpkin Carving

Uncle George came over to carve pumpkins with the girls (last year Kenzi said it was the BEST DAY of her life!)  So of course we had to have Uncle George over this year

for a delicious dinner and pumpkin carving.

Erich grilled the steak and prawns in the green egg.

Everything turned out amazing!

After stuffing ourselves we began carving pumpkins.

Team work!

Silly faces!

Family pumpkin photo

Their pumpkins turned out great!