Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year that I've spent with my Dad at Thanksgiving, as long as I can remember, we would go around the table and list things that we were thankful for, the only rule was that you couldn't say what someone else already said. It really ould make us think about all the blessings we had and helped me to take a little less for granted how much I really HAVE been blessed with throughout my life.
So in honor of Thanksgiving, I thought it would only be fitting to dedicate this blog to a few of things that I am thankful for (Even though I won't be there this year, Dad, it totally counts!)
These are no particular order...

1. I am thankful for my husband, Michael. Thank you for being all of my motivation in my life. You put up with me, even on my not so nice days, and I love the way you will try and make me smile when I am feeling down. You are always so positive and help me feel calm when I get stressed out! Thank you for being my constant everything! I love you!
2. I am thankful for my family. All of them and their craziness too! They make me laugh and I will love them no matter what!
3. I am thankful for my Savior.
4. I am thankful for music.
5. I am thankful for the internet.
6. I am thankful for doctors and modern medicine.
7. I am thankful for forks.
8. I am thankful for chocolate.
9. I am thankful for clean sheets (they're the best!).
10. I am thankful for that smell after it rains.
11. I am thankful for freshly cut grass.
12. I am thankful for the colors of leaves in the fall.
13. I am thankful for cell phones.
14. I am thankful for microwaves.
15. I am thankful for electricity.
16. I am thankful for mail (even though I usually only get bills!)
17. I am thankful for contacts.
18. I am thankful for my calling and the opportunity to serve.
19. I am thankful for Christmas.
20. I am thankful for toothbrushes.
21. And toothpaste.
22. And deodorant.
23. And hygiene products in general!
24. I am thankful for running water.
25. I am thankful for cars.
26. I am thankful for food and that we have enough.
27. I am thankful for weekends.
28. I am thankful for feather pillows.
29. I am thankful for fuzzy socks.
30. I am thankful for hugs.
31. I am thankful for Sunny days.
32. I am thankful for lilacs.
33. I am thankful for gardens.
34. I am thankful for prayer.
35. I am thankful for washing machines, both for dishes and clothes.
36. I am thankful for clear nights when you can see all the stars.
37. I am thankful for lightning storms.
38. I am thankful for this country that I live in.
39. I am thankful for the temple.
40. I am thankful for my testimony.

Whew! I know that this could go on and on, but I think that putting this all down in writing will hopefully keep me from taking so many things in my life for granted. I hope we will all remember what we are thankful for, no matter what season or holiday it is.

"I put a monkey on a pedestal!"

So last week we and our friends, the Brooks, went out on the town in Seattle. We tried a Moroccan restaurant, called "Marrakesh" and the food and experience was fabulous! It was beautiful inside and and we got to sit a comfy cushions on the floor. They washed our hands because we ate with our hands! It was a lot of fun!
We also went to a newer musical called "The Drowsy Chaperone" and it was hilarious. We weren't really sure what to expect, just that it was funny and that it won quite a few Tony's.
The whole musical was a satire and making fun of a lot of the elements of musical theater - It starts with a narrator who is in love with the musical "The Drowsy Chaperone" (which of course no one has heard of!) The whole production basically takes place in his loft.

The Narrator

This is from my favorite song - "Bride's Lament" It was so funny, I almost peed my pants - Almost. Here are some of the lyrics so you can see why!

Janet: [sung]I put a monkey on a pedestal

And tried to make that monkey stay

And he did for a time

But he needed to climb

And with other monkeys play

Far away

He left his jacket on the pedestal

Beside his tiny rusty cup

And I haven’t got the strength

To pick them up

Oh monkey, monkey, monkey

You broke my heart in two

But I’ll always save that pedestal

For you

Come my little monkey

Come my little monkey, do

He knows the musical so well, he starts to sing along with Janet!

Here comes the Bride!

So I am happy to announce that my little sis, Ashley is ENGAGED! Wow, I can't believe how much she has matured and grown in these past years - don't get me wrong, she's still a little goof, but she has found someone who she can be goofy with!

She was proposed to by Kyle Fickenwirth on 11/05/08. He is a very sweet guy and they are adorable together. If you don't believe me, check out the picture below.

Aww, don't they look happy together?!

Check out the rockin' ring he designed for her!

Although planning a wedding can be stressful, especially while they are both in school...man that scenario sounds familiar...I know it will be one of the happiest days that they will treasure as they start their new life together.

Sissy, I love you! I hope you two will be truly happy and wish you both all of my love and support as you take these steps towards eternity!

Fight! Fight! I mean...go team!

So my Dad called me up on Election day to see if I wanted to go to an Ice Hockey Game. I had to admit I was a little surprised, my Dad is very into politics and I thought that he would want to stay home glued to the TV to watch results come in...Needless to say, I think that he didn't want to get depressed about the results coming in. But I was happy to go! I don't think I had ever been to a Thunderbird's game (let alone a real Ice Hockey Game!) so I was excited! Despite getting a little lost trying to find the right parking garage (as well as driving the wrong way on a one way street, oops!) we finally made it to our seats on Center Ice - It was a lot of fun and we killed em! 8-2! I did feel a little redneck to be honest, but in a good way... hmmm.

It was a little crazy and all the guys around us would encourage the players to fight like every time the referees would make a call. And, what a surprise, they fought.

2 players from opposing teams whipped off their masks and gloves and started to circle each other.

The funniest thing though, the ref's just kind of stood there and watched them punch each other in the face for a good 1 to 2 minutes before they even moved towards the players!

Ah...what a good time we had!Go Thunderbirds!

The pretty sweet in-between-periods show...Yes that is the mascot riding a trike on the ice.

Happy Halloween!!! So what if I'm a little late...

We had lots going this Halloween but it was a lot of fun! Sadly, we live in a apartment complex so we don't get many, excuse me.. ANY trick-or-treaters so I have to get my cute-little-kids-fix at our church party. There of course are about a bajillion kids in our ward and they all looked adorable in their constumes! There were chickens, elephants, ladybugs, puppies, princesses, toy story characters, and witches just to name a few...my personal favorite was the peacock! (It wins on creativity!) I wish I had brought my camera with me! darn, maybe next year.

Mike and I carved the pumpkin we brought home from the patch.

"Hey, I have to clean all this gunk out?!"

Yep, sorry Mike!

My beautiful artwork on the pumpkin

The Master piece!

I was also on the Halloween committee at work, though it was a lot of fun, it was also very tiring. I can pretty much say that I will never do that again!!!

The Halloween Committee getting the rest of the decor up just in time for the party! - Go Adrienne, go!

C'mon, Marta, get back to work!

My Department - AKA Gotham City (- Robin)

Robin joined us later!

Overall, I thought we did a good job on the decorations!

Our Witch's Brew!

Lisa the Gnome, and winner of the costume contest - I mean really, how could you beat that!?

Although I did find Stephanie's costume pretty amusing as well!

The Mummy wrap game



Jade was "Best Dressed" (Sorry! I couldn't help it!!!)



Ah, the good ol' donut on a string game...



Next came the halloween party with our friends. It was a lot of fun, well until everyone bullied us into watching "The Grudge", that was a movie I could have gone my whole life without seeing and stayed happy. Not the biggest horror movie fan...Anyways, everyone's costumes were great and it was fun to hang out!



Mike the Orkin Man and Bri the Bug - Please don't squish me!
The gals...



And the guys...

Little miss Katie was a clown..until she rubber her makeup off!

Pumpkin Patch and A-Maze-ing Corn!

Mike and I visited the corn maze and Pumpkin patch in kent on Saturday. We had so much fun, despite being quite crowded (it IS the last Saturday before Halloween!) the mazes were a lot of fun. We took turns finding the little stations as you guide yourself through the mazes. Then we picked out a huge pumpkin to carve and some yummy sugar pumpkins for pie!
There were adorable little kids everywhere getting their pictures taken in their Halloween constumes, we saw a little lion, dragon, and puppy! Too cute!

"The Corn is as high as an Elephant's Eye!"

Will we ever get out of here!?

We Made it! Yea!

So many choices, so little time!

Found the perfect one!

Stake Dance

Wow. This weekend, Mike and I had a blast to our pasts. We got asked to chaperone the Youth Stake Dance at church (Mike is in the Young Men's so he is kind of obligated!) I thought, hmm, how bad could it be, get some free cookies, top 40's, actually get to dance with my husband, and maybe pull a few kids off of each other...well was I wrong! They actually had little assignments for each of us - they are WAY stricter now then they were when I used to go to dances! There were about 8 couples plus a few others who were chapperoning, they had a map of the building and we all had little patrol rotations every 15 minutes. We were very busy all night as we had to partol the parking lot, hallways, classrooms, and gym.
It was more work than we thought, but pretty fun to see these kids in their Halloween costumes mustering up the courage to ask each other to dance. Ahh to be 14 again! (Just kidding - it wasn't THAT fun!)
I think Mike and I danced for half a song. The night was fairly uneventful (more funny than anything, watching the kids do the 2 Deacon shuffle was great!) We did have a little incident where some kids got a little crazy moshing and had to be broken up.
I think Mike and I are getting old or something! The dance ended at 11, but we had to wait until all the teens dispursed and made sure they all had rides. We were tired and just sacked out when we got home! Pathetic, I know!

Cooper loves Thomas!

Cheeseball!

Cooper trying to squish me out of the shot!

I love my little brother Cooper. Even though he is the baby and oftentimes gets away with a lot more than I think I ever did, he is a lot of fun.

Last weekend Mike had a scouting trip to Othello for a shotgun shooting merrit badge so I decided to visit the fam in Moses Lake. It would be nice to spend a little time with my Mom alone and to see Coop.

On Saturday, Cooper and I got a little quality time together as he wanted to go with my to pick up Mike in Vantage. And I thought he loved ME! He was so excited to go see "Mikey" he was willing to go for a drive (it's about 30 minutes 1 way!) So we packed up his portable DVD player loaded with Thomas the Train, his all time fav, grabbed a Happy Meal on our way out of town and hit the road. It was fun talking with Cooper, I swear he says the funniest things. Plus he now thought I am the coolest sister ever (thank you Happy Meal!).

However, once we got to the pickup place, Mike was nowhere to be found. They hadn't left when they were suppossed to. But Cooper was very good, he just played a chatted and watched his movie. It was so cute, he is now singing in front of people (it usually embarrasses him) and sang along to his Thomas movie, which I have recorded for your viewing pleasure (you're welcome Mom!) I love that he just makes up his own words until he knows the actual words :)

(Sorry the video is kind of grainy, this was from my cell phone!)

Baker Family Reunion

Ok, so I have definately been slacking on my blog! I realized I still haven't posted on some more things that we did this summer! We were pretty busy, but had a great time jumping from place to place and getting to spend lots of time together and with family and friends.

In the middle of August (I told you I am slacking...what is it, October now!?!), we met up with the Baker clan for some fun on Good Ol' Moses Lake. It has been a really long time since everyone has been together at the same time and it was great to see everyone. However we were missing Christopher who is still on his mission, but at the same time we were plus one as Ashley had her boyfriend Kyle with her.

We had a barbeque, boated, went tubing and wakeboarding and just had a good time!

Here are some pics from that day...

Kyle, Ashley's boyfriend getting some air over the wake

Kelly, making sure nobody does anything stupid on his watch!

Mike and I chillin in the boat (it was nice and warm, perfect for boating) and yes, I did get burnt

We finally convinced Cooper to try a ride in the Tube for the first time! see the video below...

Our crazy Baker family, plus Kyle

Cooper's 1st Tube ride!

Last Month we went to Westport, WA on the Pacific Ocean to catch crab. Weird weather all day, sun would be out for a little while, then it would downpour rain. We had a sucessful trip anyway, as you can see from the pictures.

Here's a gull checking out our ropes

Us With the marina behind

Our first keepers

Pulling up the crab ring

A good haul

Beautiful waterfront

Almost Caught our limit!

Freshly cooked crab, yum!

The Ferry Ride

I forgot to post about the Ferry ride we took when my mom, Kelly, and Cooper came to the West side to visit! It was fun, ferry rides seem to alwasy be fun, Cooper loved it! Plus it was a beautiful day!

I thought this was a really cute picture of Cooper with Dad. They are so much alike in so many ways!

Here they are again!

Mom joined us outside for about 1 minute to take this picture...

Mike and I enjoying the sunshine!

This was actually from the day before at the zoo, but I didn't have space in my previous blog. Aren't the flamingos extraordinary! I think they are very beautiful!