Change of Plans

Scott's parents are flying home. They were in Cambodia a whole two hours and Bob ended up in the hospital. He is having health problems and is coming back to see his heart Dr. in Spokane. He said he is hoping he is well enough, that they can be reassigned somewhere else. They should get to Spokane late tonight. ........ What does this mean for us? We will see, we are just flying by the seat of our pants. We will just worry about his Dad first and the rest will fall into place. Please keep him in your prayers.

I went to Avery and Jocelyn's Halloween parties at school! The kindergartners are the only ones that get to dress up and then they walk around the school and parade their costumes in each class. It was so cute!

Jocelyn was a little sad she didn't get to dress up like Avery did, but she wore orange and had a fun feast of sugar!

Avery at the Temple

Happy Birthday DAD!

Yesterday was my Dad's 72nd birthday!!! Holy Cow, that sounds old! :) My Dad is 40 in my mind so it is weird to say 72! It was so exciting to be so close to be able to run over before mutual and say happy birthday!

Here are some pics that make me think of growing up! This is Flash my dog, me and my Dad and Flash had some good times together working in the apple orchard.

My Dad made a huge sled that all my sister and I and the neighbors would jump on every winter. He would drive up and down the hill with the tractor or 4 wheeler.

I've always been his favorite but he has a hard time talking about it. I made that up too. :0

This is my Dad in his early fatherhood years with my older sisters. He used to play the guitar whenever friends or family would come over. He would always sing, The Streets of Laredo. In the past few years I have thought about how bad my Dad must have wanted a boy. They didn't know what any of us girls were and I wonder what he thought when they said "its ANOTHER girl!" I never once thought he might have wanted a boy, probably because Im too selfish to think of anyone but me, but Im thankful my Dad always made me feel special, or maybe my being a tom boy helped. :)

I love you Dad! Your my favorite too!

Last Week

Here is Austin on 70's day (spirit week in High School)

Austin and Nikolas ready for their choir concert. Austin and Rin are both in choir but didn't have enough time to learn the songs before the concert so I got to go to their separate hour long concerts to watch them turn the pages for the piano player. :) I clapped really loud, they were good page turners!

We headed for Utah last weekend. We went to party with all the Ashton's as we said goodbye, again, to his parents.

We invaded this poor hotel with 22 cousins all together! The kids had SO much fun! We went to Temple square, to the gateway play thing, lots of fun dinners and breakfasts!

The kids had fun at the Joseph Smith building, with all the cousins we didn't have much time to sit and look and the kids ran off with each other so I hardly got any pictures with all my kids together. We will definitely have to go do this again with just our little family.

I got to see Rochelle for a bit, Jessica rode down with Todd & Dena to stay with her for the weekend.

The kids got to see the BOM in Cambodian, they giggled at the crazy symbols! Good thing Bob and Ann don't have to learn the language.

This is Justin. This is his nice warning that he is hungry and out of food. In the next ten minutes he will tear the bag to shreds ALL over the yard! My kids have to clean up the yard EVERY SINGLE day! One gets the poop, one gets the garbage, and one gets the toys. Ruben if your looking for any of your baseballs, they are all over here in our toy bin outside. :) We would like to apologize to our neighbors for our puppy.......isn't he cute though??!!!

A couple days ago it was VERY windy, there were tumble weeds rolling across the yard, so the big dog Buddy was trying to grab them and bring them back into the yard, it was so sad watching him, he would grab one and put it back where it was and the wind would blow it again and he would chase it and try to bring it back, I went out and tried to explain it to him.....I don't think he understood?

We have dimmers on the lights here, so the kids put their rooms on dim when they are going to bed and the other night I hear Eric yell at Austin, turn off the dim light!! We all froze and then started laughing.

Avery said, you can't touch me, my skin is expensive!

Mom: What are you talking about?

Avery: Thats what you told me.

Mom: Oh, your skin is sensitive.

Farewell Week!

The weekend before Bob and Ann left for the MTC all the Ashton's got together.

One of the nights we had a grown up dinner in Moses Lake, Austin, Carsten, and Taryn got to come. Austin was THRILLED to be included in the grown up party and Rin was THRILLED that she now was the oldest Grandchild to take care of the younger ones!

Can I just say, these two boys are hilarious! It was a blast listening to them during dinner, Carten's laugh is awesome and non stop!

It's been interesting watching Scott and his siblings handle their parents leaving. They are a CLOSE family and they are all going to have a VERY hard time with their parents so far away for so long! Scott hasn't been himself for about a month, I'd like to apologize to all his family, he has been taking things out on anyone and everyone. Forgive him and just give him a hug.

It was an awesome night going into the stake center with the entire family (besides Joel, Mic & kids) to have them set apart. It was an emotional, wonderful hour and Im glad my kids got to experience it!

We are all very proud of them for serving for 18 months and thankful for all the blessings it will bring to our family! We love you Bob & Ann!

Much forgotten!

Im loving the mustard field in our backyard. The kid are mad because I keep trying to get them to take pictures in it. The girls were a little easier than the boys but they wouldn't change their clothes and they wouldn't stand for very long. They don't have time to stand while I take pics when they could be running around!

Avery has a cold sore and marker on her forehead, I was going to photoshop it but its so Avery!

Marinda had her first day of school. She loves it, her two cousins her age have introduced her to the entire school and she is very flattered that EVERYONE knows who she is. All the kids are getting used to the fact that everyone here knows everyone!

Jocelyn's new teacher, Mrs. Anderson

Avery's kinder teacher Miss Foley, who Austin and Marinda had for kinder. She has had EVERY Ashton kid in her class starting with Jacksen and she is pretty much part of the family! The kids were very excited to know that Avery would be well taken care of!

Austin spend an afternoon painting with Grandma Marty. His boards are starting to take shape! Im getting excited for this project to be finished!

Austin is lucky enough to hit homecoming week here in Othello right after homecoming week in Pasco. He gets to have dress up week again. Here he is on mis-matched day. I told him, finally a day you can get dressed on your own and I won't tell you no. He is loving the high school, once again everyone knows him, being the new kid is like being famous he says. His Aunts, Shirley and Gina work at the high school and got him all the classes he wanted at all the right times slots so it sure is nice to have an in!

I found this pepto in my in-laws fridge..........$29.00 for this tiny bottle of pepto! Where were you guys at when you bought this????!!!! Your tummy must have REALLY hurt! :)

Instead of poster parties like they used to have for homecoming week they do chalk drawings. Austin made this huge husky hovering over a wolf, its hard to see but if you look close its pretty cute. It was huge and hard to get a picture of.

Fun tid bits...................................................

The 3 elementary schools here are Scootney, Hiawatha, and Lutacaga. when we got here I told the kids they would put us wherever there was room, they said BUT we were scootney and Eric, Joc, and Av need to be at Scootney! I said it doesn't matter, where ever they get put is good. Austin said "WHAT are the other names?" Lutacaga? How bout Lady Gaga? :)

Jocelyn and I were reading instructions for her homework, when I finished she said now turn it over and read it to me in spanish. She giggles and giggles when I read spanish.

Avery ran in the door, second day of school, I said what did you learn, she said THIS is the sign language for throw up!!! So proud.

Rin's first day of school. Forgot her lunch, had to read a paragraph in front of the class in choir (not good with dyslexia) AND missed the bus after school. Thats a whole other story. To ride the bus you get on one at the school it takes you to the high school and then you get on a bus with your whole family that takes you home. So she missed the first bus and went to the office to call me and the nurse (my neighbor growing up) said I will just run you over to the high school. Marinda said I can't just get into the car with you and her and all the secretaries (that I have known from birth) giggled. She tried to call me but I didn't answer so she went and was so scared! I didn't know what to say, of course you shouldn't ever get into a car with anyone, but I do know her very well but ....... ya it was hard to know what to say!

Going to register the kids for school and having Rin's meeting every person at the table was someone I have known most my life. It feels a little strange but good.

Eric was going over all the schedule differences here, wed. are one hour release every other wed. unlike Pasco's 2 hours out EVERY wed. and he said "is Friday their last day of the week?" "Do they get Sat. and Sun. off like Pasco?"

Our Home!

So here we are in Othello! I still have NO internet, NO house phone and am going crazy! Scott plugged his phone into my computer so I could put these pictures on. I have a million pics to put on but its super slow and won't let me! Hopefully soon I will be back online! We had a bunch of awesome people come and help us move and got here late Monday night. Scott had to leave early the next morning for Seattle for the week so me and the kids were working on the house solo. Thank heavens I have boys who have muscles! We spend a couple days at the schools, the little three got to start Thurs., Austin started Thurs. afternoon and Marinda will start Tues. We have a meeting to go over her schedule Monday after school. The kids are having fun getting their rooms set up and playing with the cousins. Justin (the puppy) loves it here, he has the farm dog Buddy (a big girl dog) to show him around and teach him the rules. Cool Whip on the other hand is missing, she was pretty ticked about the puppy thing and the big move didn't help! Hopefully she will come back!!!!!?

Here is our awesome backyard. Scott's brother Todd lives behind us, a football field or two away and his sister Tiff lives to the right of us. Eric has had the hardest time adjusting.........yeah right. I haven't seen him much since we got here. He comes in to eat and sleep.

Puppy Heaven!

Eric has been told for years, that as soon as we move somewhere with more outside room we would get him a puppy. He was thrilled when we decided to move to Othello and had it all planned out to go get one of Megan's puppies the day after we moved. But Scott surprised us all with this dog yesterday! It is such a great time, with moving and running back and forth to Othello for family get togethers before his parents leave, to add a puppy into the mix! YEAH Scott and his brilliant ideas! Actually one look into this puppies eyes and all my anger melted away! He is sooo cute! And Eric hasn't stopped smiling! Puppy eyes & Eric's dimples..........dangerous combination!

Nicki invited girley's over for an awesome lunch ending with the naughty chocolate cake from Costco! We all had so much fun gabbing and then they all cried because Im leaving! :) I made that last part up! :)

Austin has had some great people coming over to help with his Eagle Project! Brandon, Brad, Tanner, Kirsten, Jory, Br. Cazier, Anderson, & Cayden! It has been fun!

October

Some convo's with the ladies.

Avery: (looking over my shoulder as I watch a preview for the Micheal Jackson movie coming out.) "Is that Micheal Jackson?"

Mom: yep

Avery: Is it a boy?

Mom: yep

Avery: hmmm I didn't know.........that must be why his name is Micheal. They named him that so they knew he was a boy.

Mom: yep

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Jocelyn: Mom we can't go anywhere tonight, I have to get to sleep.

Mom: Okay

Jocelyn: This week, Im door holder

Mom: Wow that IS exciting! you need your sleep, gotta be ready to hold that door!

Jocelyn: I know, I hold it all the time, when we go to recess, when we go to lunch, and EVEN when we go to specials.

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I love hot chocolate and hot apple cider and I LOVE that Costco sells BIG boxes of both!

Monday I felt very accomplished.

Finish scrapbook...........check

Sell the house.................check

Eat a pie..........................check

Scott and Brother Iverson took the scouts and Austin to Utah for General Conference.

Scrapbooking maniac!

I have started the cabin book from our family reunion. I went through 1569 pictures, ONE by ONE and took out all the copies and ended up with 674 pictures Im going to try to scrapbook before my in laws leave for Cambodia. Im also doing digital pages, as the header pages for each section of pics and a family pic for each family. Here are my 2 favorites so far. Taryn on top, Paisly on bottom.

The pictures from the ward fair. Amazing Amy whipped this up in a night! Too cute!

Well here I am on my blog, after Austin made me feel bad for not spending enough time doing what is BEST, taking care of him. (stated in his talk Sunday) I thought this was funny!