The Architect....

Jack - our Architect in training, received a giant bucket of Legos for Christmas (Thanks Brian!). Since then he has been building many different creations. We take pictures of them and then we have battles :) He asked me to post some so he could show people some of the things he has done. Here are a few that I was able to capture before they were put away.

This is a park. You will notice the police station where someone is sleeping on the job. He also created a fountain in the middle that rotates, and a mail box with actual mail inside. He has a story that goes with every piece of the park.

This is a pizza place - with delivery man heading out the door. The yellow diving board looking thing in the back is the oven where the pizza comes out on a conveyor belt.

This is a a public park...I can't remember all the details.

We build a lot of ships. Mostly they are pirate type ships and then we battle using a dice so no ones creations actually get destroyed. These planes are some that Dad and Jack created together.

Jack is a pretty creative kid. I hope he sticks to the Architect idea - he definitely has the mind for it.

Christmas Catchup

Christmas 2011 was awesome at the Sampson household. Renton city has a lights display called "Clam Lights" down by Lake Washington. It's a little weird, but pretty fun. We ended the night with some hot chocolate and marshmallows...yummm....

In preparation for the day we made some gingerbread houses and sugar cookies. Olivia came over and helped make the sugar cookies - it was a big mess, but a lot of fun.

On Christmas Eve the Battys and the Sampsons joined us for our Christmas Eve party which included a Penguin Piniata....


Here they are Christmas Morning:

The day after Christmas we went over to Sampsons for a party. It was so much fun. The adults played a game called "Hedbanz" which I would totally recommend.

We will miss you Aunt Sheila....

This is a picture of my incredible Aunt Sheila and my Dad. Sheila passed away last week totally unexpectedly and I will miss her so much. She had amazing music ability and I am sure she has already set up a new choir and is arranging music as we speak with Grandma by her side.

Growing up, having the Cope’s come visit was always a special treat. Sheila would bring energy with her. No matter what we were doing and where she was, she brought life and laughter in to it. Of course there are all the fun stories she told us about our Dad growing up. But it was more than just the stories. I think from those I learned more than the fact that my Dad was a pest growing up, but how much they loved each other in that family. There wasn’t a lot of outward showing of emotion, but there was always a sense of love and companionship in every story. It was good to know that brothers can be your friends, even when they melt and deface your favorite doll.

When I was sealed to my husband, Sheila was there. She came over from Colorado to be part of my wedding which was a big deal to begin with and I was so glad to see her there. During the ceremony Sheila got up and fixed my dress so it lay with the back spread and pretty while I was kneeling on the alter. The sealer called her “my little bridesmaid”. She wanted to make sure I was as beautiful as I could be for that special moment. It was such a loving and unexpected thing for her to do - it is one of my most powerful memories of that day.

I got the opportunity a couple months ago to take Sheila and a couple of the judges she was working with to see Seattle and the view from the building I work. Her time was very limited outside the performances she was judging, but she made the time to see me and see where I worked. It was great to connect with her and spend some time just chatting and catching up. Now, I am even more grateful that I had that chance and that my kids got to spend a few minutes with her as well.

I will miss my bridesmaid and really can’t believe that I won’t see her again in this life. I am grateful that Sheila was part of my life and that I have great memories of her. Most of all I am grateful that we are an eternal family and that even though she is gone now, it is not for forever.

The perfect pie....

Okay - I am going to brag a little bit. This is the most perfect pie I have ever made. The crust was perfect, it baked perfectly, and looked so beautiful. I made 8 pies for Thanksgiving (crazy I know - blame my Mom). I made a peach pie for myself because it is my favorite. Then it turned out so perfectly, we didn't end up cutting in to it until last night (two days after Thanksgiving). It tasted pretty perfect too :)

We had a turkey at home on Sunday and let Jack have his first drumstick....

He really enjoyed it :)

On Friday we took some family pictures with the Sampson family. Here is one I took from my cell phone. We will post others in a couple weeks.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!!

Visit to the Great North....

We went to visit Nate and Kathy in Grande Prairie Alberta Canada. It was my first trip very far in to Canada. Here we are crossing the border:

The reason for the trip was that the Canadian Buckleys had a new addition to their family - Leah Mae Buckley was blessed while we were there. Here is a picture of Jack and Leah:

Grande Prairie is significantly far away and in the middle of the tundra. Here are pictures of the view from Nate's back porch. We took the kids to the park and check out the view there :)

While we were visiting we had a true Canadian experience. We went Curling! It was SO much fun! All the kids got to curl as well and it was a awesome. The first picture is Kathy and Cooper.


We also went 5 pin bowling. It was a very interesting experience. The balls are really small and you have no control of where it ends up. We had a great time.


Some Celebrating after the few strikes we had:

Thanks for letting us come play Canadian Buckleys!!! We had a great time!

Buzz, a Queen and a Giant Mustache

We had a great Halloween this year.

Jack was a Giant Mustache (His idea - and making the costume was pretty interesting)

Mackenzie was a Queen. She has upgraded past Princess :)

Jaron was Buzz Lightyear (To one-finiti and beyond!!!)

Sorensen's came over and we went to the Pumpkin Patch. It was so much fun.

A year in Wenatchee has made Mauvia weak :) She was cold the entire time



Later - we carved Pumpkins

Jack made sure his pumpkin had a giant mustache. Kenzie was a girl and even had a bow and eye lashes. Jaron's was....well....Jaron's :)