CPA CPA CPA CPA

It's official. I'm now a Certified Public Accountant in 4 states. Whew. I do not intend to rack up any more. It's a relief to know all the paperwork is through, all the tests are taken, and all the applications are approved. Yay!

I'm leaving....on a jet plane

I'm off to Vegas for the weekend to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday! I'm meeting 2 sisters and 2 sisters-in-law. I'm sorry my other sister and Heidi can't come...that's a royal bummer, but we'll do our best to have a good time anyway. We're going to see the Blue Man Group tomorrow night and hopefully we'll get some TLC, too.

The real bummer is that Steve's work said he has from 6pm tonight until 8am Monday morning to do a BIG project. This is obviously not a very good weekend for that. Pray for him....

Catch you on the flip side.

Happy Birthday to my Mom and my Brother-in-law and late Happy Valentine's Day!

My mom is 60 today...60 amazing years jam-packed full of life. She is an amazing woman, and I'm blessed to have her for my mom.

My brother-in-law also is celebrating a birthday today. I don't know exactly how old he is....older than me, younger than Steve, that's all I know. He's a great man who is perfect for my sister. I'm so glad he's a part of our family. He is a great dad and a wonderful provider. He is faithful, and righteous, and sweet and kind. I'm sad he and my sister have always lived far away from us, but I'm grateful to him for allowing my sister to visit me so much when he was away in Iraq. I will always cherish the memories we made during those visits. I hope he has an amazing birthday today and a great year to come.

Now, Saturday was Valentine's Day. My kids thought it was on Thursday since that's when they had their class parties. (The kids were out of school on Friday, and they're also out today and tomorrow for "mid-winter" break.) Well, I seized the day and gave the kids my Valentines to them on Thursday. I got them each a new movie. They were pretty excited. On Friday we went to Fred Meyer and bought lilies, 4 roses, and some babies breath and we made our own arrangement to take to Dad at work. He displayed it on his desk for the rest of the afternoon, then brought them home to enjoy over the weekend. I LOVE the fragrance of oriental lilies, and I've loved walking past them and enjoying them. (See photo below) After we delivered the flowers, we all went to Circuit City (going out of business sale) and we bought a video camera. That was Steve's Valentine gift to me, but we're all enjoying it. Hopefully at some point I'll figure out how to share a few of the clips from the boys' b-ball games on Saturday. The best thing about the camera is that it records right onto a small DVD and once it's finalized, we can put it right into our DVD player and watch it. So - the boys spent Saturday afternoon watching their own basketball games. It was so fun. Saturday evening we got a babysitter and Steve and I went to dinner and to the temple. It was a lovely evening, only slightly tainted by Steve's sore throat. Well, in the middle of the night Steve woke up and his throat was on fire. So we missed church and opted for urgent care instead. He is now on a Z-Pack and feeling much better. Thank heavens for antibiotics! Anyway, the kids are doing their chores now, and I need to work....have a great day!

Update

Steve's getting after me to update our blog....that means I'm really behind.

He's in charge of the pictures, so hopefully someday we'll get around to downloading the photos from DANIEL'S FIRST BASKETBALL GAME!!! It was AWESOME!! He even made a basket. They put the kids in coordinating wrist bands so they knew who to guard, and it was hysterical. I laughed through most of the game. They are just so darned cute! They run around in a swarm around the ball...they hold the ball like a football and run across the court (they don't call traveling at this age), they are funny. It was a great time.

Kenneth's game was fantastic. They're really getting good. They won (for the first time) and it was well-deserved. They played hard...really hard. Kenneth had several steals, several good shots, and some good plays. I was very proud of him. He had an especially good first quarter when several of his other team mates were sluggish.

Other than that, life is just going forward...one day at a time.

Photo Shoot

 

We're not accustomed to seeing the sun around here.

 

 

 

It's lucky for Dad he's got a willing model so he can experiment with his new camera. Prety girl. Pretty dress - thanks, Grandma Ackerman & Sara!

Basketball-Daniel

 

 

 

 

Daniel's team won't have games until February, but here are some pictures from his last practice.

Basketball - Kenneth

 

 

 

 

Kenneth had his first BB game yesterday...Steve is helping with the coaching this season.

Pacific Science Center

 

 

 

 

We went to the Pacific Science Center over the holidays and we especially enjoyed the butterfly exhibit.

Holiday Glasses anyone?

Well, if you haven't checked out zennioptical lately (see link on my sidebar), I hightly recommend perusing through the "New Arrivals" section to view their many holiday/winter frames...what a HOOT!

Life is busy

Well, life goes on and on and on doesn't it? Our dryer broke and our car died. Those 2 things are now repaired, and I feel a renewed appreciation for modern conveniences. The kids are back in school and it's January (which means I'm busy). Every year I swear I won't procrastinate my CPE (continuing professional education) and yet, somehow, I've prograstinated again. On top of that I'm working on getting my CPA in the states of Washington and Utah which is expensive and time consuming (more exams). Well, life is good, and we are busy. The boys are both playing basketball regularly now and they're both enjoying it. Caitlin is very glad to be back in pre-school and Steve is not so glad to be back to work. Such is life.

Merry Christmas

 

Even BIGGER snowman!

 

Caitlin loves her new Polly Pockets

 

Daniel's new PowerRanger camera

 

I think Kenneth was pleased with his digital camera - what do you think?

So Happy!

 

 

We had a Great Christmas! I hope each of you did, too!!!

ID Cards

The Saturday before Christmas we went to the DMV to apply for "Enhanced ID Cards" which will enable us to visit Canada. The kids each signed their own names and I think they turned out so cute.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you're all having a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!!!! Merry Christmas.

I'm a blue crayon - how 'bout you?

You Are a Blue Crayon

Your world is colored in calm, understated, deep colors. You are a loyal person, and the truest friend anyone could hope to find. On the inside, you tend to be emotional and even a bit moody. However, you know that people depend on you. So you put on a strong front. Your color wheel opposite is orange. Orange people may be opinionated, but you feel they lack the depth to truly understand what they're saying.

What Color Crayon Are You?

More snow = bigger snowman

 

 

 

 

Snow, beautiful snow

 

 

 

 

Report

My biopsy went well...I'm starting to "un-numb" and that's not too pleasant, but I'll be fine. It appears I may need a skin graft afterall, because the growth was so big she had to remove a lot of skin. We'll see how it heals and go from there. I have a followup on Jan. 12th. She did a great job with my gum line, however. I'm pleased overall.

Snow Day!

Who gets a snow day from church? We did! That's right... yesterday, church was cancelled due to the snow. The problem here is that they're not equiped for the snow, so the streets don't get plowed (except the freeways), so the roads are icy and dangerous. Aparently we have more than they normally get here...it is absolutely beautiful! All the evergreens are flocked with snow and it's just breathtaking. We stayed home all day yesterday. The kids went out and played in the snow in the morning for a while. On Friday (Kenneth's 3rd snow day of the week), I broke out the snow clothes that were a Christmas Present, and gave them to the kids early so they could get some use out of them. It's made a huge difference in how long they play in the snow. Kenneth slept with his new gloves on his hands the first 2 nights after he got them. Today I'll have Steve take a few more photos to post. When we went to bed last night it was still snowing. I'll tell you what...it's been a LONG TIME since I've seen this much snow. We easily have a foot...but we'll take a tape measure out and measure when we take pictures.

Today I'm having the pesky growth in my mouth removed (again....for the 3rd time). Yeesh. Wish me luck! Our family who were going to come for Christmas have postponed their trip until a time when the passes in N. California and Oregon are not covered in snow and ice. So - we'll have a simple, low-key Christmas here. Steve's brother and his nephew are coming (via air plane) the day after Christmas to stay for a few days, so we'll still have SOME fun! :) Well...stay tuned for more photos.....

Thanksgiving

 

Isn't this the sweetest picture? Kenneth loves snuggling with his little sister, because she's a little heater just like her Dad.

 

 

I was terrible about taking pictures while mom & dad & Ben were here, but here are a couple of us on the ferry...it was VERY cold.