A White Christmas

...and with the Price family, it's as white as you can get...

100 Days!

100 days of cello practice! More of a triumph for me structuring things so we would actually teach/practice for 100 days. That is a LOT of work, a lot of coercing, a lot of patience, and a lot of sticker bribery. Best of all, he is proud of himself for doing something that is pretty hard, every day. I'm proud of him and think we're very lucky to have a Grandma who supported the idea, encouraged him over the phone, encouraged ME over the phone, and even ordered the special trophy to mark the special day. Thanks for showing us it can be done, Mom!































As a side note, this practice stuff is pretty hard, so I needed backup to keep this kid occupied. He is on an indoor soccer team. He loves it, he gets a lot of exercise, and that kind of "practice" is a LOT less work for me! It's like a one hour vacation on the sidelines. Seriously. Music stuff goes more smoothly after he's worn out. Wait, EVERYTHING goes more smoothly after he's worn out! Ha ha!

~Kathryn

Washington Halloween!

We revisited an oldie-but-goodie family costume, the 3 Musketeers. Jared is 5 now, so he had is own idea, to be a "Skeleton Soldier". He looked good and loved carrying a sword and shield. He didn't believe me that Whoppers were the most disgusting candy, and loved my expression of horror as he ate his first one. So he now is very proud of the fact that he "likes the disgusting ones".

I think he just likes to gross me out.

Here we are at the Trunk-or-Treat night. What were you guys for Halloween (well, besides Krystle's family who had a cross-country move this weekend)?

Fishing!

Kirk and two friends took Tom fishing to this awesome spot on the Cowlitz last weekend. They left very early in the morning and did some good bank fishing. Thought Dad and Grandpa Price would be proud of the NW boys. Looks like we're on the market for some hip waders. Any tips?

Hope baby Elise is doing well! She is very cute by all accounts. We're thinking of you, Krystle & Nathan! :)











~Kathryn

Introducing Elise Kaitlyn Thiel!

As promised here are some photos of the new baby.

Claire and Daryn love their new baby sister. They get so excited just to hold her, and are always concerned when she cries. Auntie Kendra has been a big help this week (especially with taking pictures) she made it just in time on Saturday night to come and visit in the hospital.

Ok, some baby stats:

Born 5:40 pm on Saturday Oct. 9, 2010.

20 3/4 inches long

7.0 lbs

10 fingers, 10 toes

dark brown hair

she has Nathan's nose and Krystle's squinty eye

Oh, and a very round head since labor didn't take long.

She looks a lot like Claire as a baby, except her feet/toes aren't quite as long... she can still intertwine her toes.

And now for some gratuitous pictures of our little family of FIVE!!! How crazy is that? I still call her baby Daryn sometimes. But I've also been calling Claire Kendra and Kendra Claire and Daryn Claire. Poor Nathan, there are just a lot of girls around here right now.

Haha, Kenneth Update

I was checking out Kenneth's pictures online and figured I'd take it upon myself to give the family who only checks this blog an update on what he's doing in Spain. Kenneth -- fill us in on the details. :)

~Kathryn
PS Also awaiting pictures of precious baby Elise...(Kendra help?)

With a group of classmates at la Plaza del Cid.
Where was this taken?Mustaches are not allowed, lil' bro.

Washington October

Let the Octoberfest begin! Here are the latest from the Price/Pearson clan up in the Northwest.

Friday, we went to the Pumpkin Patch and had a great time launching pumpkins, taking a hayride, petting farm animals and choosing our honorary pumpkins for the year. Sunday night we had FHE with Kirk's family and took some cute pictures of the kids together. Fun!

Cousins on the Block

None of us have posted since JULY? It must have been a busy August and an even busier September. Our move went really well and we are happily settled in our new place. Here are our latest photos!

One of the best things about our new house in Washington is our proximity to cousins on both sides of the family. Jared and Sam are peas in a pod. They are in the same class in school. They will do anything to have playtime together. Their teacher has learned that reminding them that they cannot play together after school if they take home a "yellow card" does the trick to keep them in line (for the most part). And their bus driver learned that they have to be seated more than 2 rows away from each other so they don't get overly excited about things and fall out of their seats.

Sam is teaching Jared all about videogames (something he had never done before, being in our technology-challenged home and all) and Jared is teaching Sam all about imaginative play (something Sam had not done much of before, being the youngest boy and all).

I wish we had pictures of yesterday's adventure. Kirk's two children over playing with our two children, and having a GRAND time. :) Emily and Dallin are very, very cute. The best part of my morning was when I had 3 babies napping at the SAME TIME. Yesss! Laura, cousin Annie, and cousin Dallin. It was a glorious moment, though upstairs was off-limits to the older kids for a while since there was a sleeping baby in almost every room. We're looking forward to General Conference this next weekend and doing some Price family things together.

Also, Mom & Dad, I am really good at edging the lawn! I did it myself for the first time this week and it looks awesome!

~ Kathryn

Laura with Kenneth

Isn't this just the cutest? Laura (1 1/2) with Kenneth during his visit to California the first week of July.

A Price pose for sure...

Kara laughed when she saw this. "Only mom would have such a tiny violin!"

When baby Laura saw it, she said, "Weh-woah!" (translation: cello!)


Thanks for finding this gem, Mom & Dad. It made my day.
~Kathryn

Half birthday!

The joy of having children born close to Christmas is that they will forevermore have TWO birthdays. The first, is a small family-only shindig with cake, ice cream and pictures. The second, is "The Friend Party". Jared has been planning his 5 1/2 birthday party for weeks and weeks -- and it was lots of fun. Here are our pictures to share with the family!
Can you tell what our "theme" was for this party?
We made 48 cupcakes with homemade icing -- not one made it home. The "brickmaster" area was a big hit. Huge box of Legos on a table in the shade = happy distraction.
Kara and Kenneth returning to pre-grown-up sibling pestering. :)
Our sweet neighbor, Ella. Jared's friend since she was 2 weeks old and lived next door to us.

Michelle & Rachel who were visiting this weekend drew these chalk directions through the park.

Waterballoon attack! This was one of the highlights. Tom was the favorite target because he's so fast he could dodge almost all of the balloons, even with a whole group attacking! Uncle Kenneth and his friend Geoff blew up dozens and dozens of water balloons for us -- thanks guys!
Jared and Clark holding the awesome Ice Planet Hoth rebel base. Rachel & Michelle were lifesavers with baby during the party. It was so nice to have hands-free to set up!

Kenneth, Kara and little Laura.

Pacific Northwest is Calling to Us...

Announcement: Tom & Kathryn are moving up to the Portland area this August (in 5 weeks! Yes, we are in shock, too, but all is well and we'll have a grand adventure! It is a simple switch of office for Tom - same job, same company, just in a place where he can do all he does - and have us in a house (with a big backyard!). We don't have an address yet, but there are things in the works. We are really looking forward to living near Kirk & Lindsay's family but are very sad to be leaving Kara & Chuck's family here in California.

Tom will do a quick trip up to Portland soon to put finishing touches on housing and work details. We'll update everyone soon.

Bananagrams

Jared experimenting with Bananagrams tiles. It is fun to see what words he is thinking of in his mind. He loves figuring out "the grown ups' secret language"! If something is phonetic, he can figure it out - it's just too bad our language has so many exceptions and variations to rules. Try explaining why "phone" is not "fon" and "one" is not "wun"...

Party Time!

Kayden's 4th birthday party was a smash! Chuck made her guinea pig out of real cake and shredded coconut, which earn him lots of cool-dad points. Delicious! Here are some of the photos from her party. We posted almost all the rest on FaceBook (there were over 100 photos!). Great job, Kara & Chuck! Kayden looked like she had such a great time and we hope she enjoys her great gifts and her new year!

Happy birthday, Kendra!

Ah, the awesomeness continues into another year!

Kayden is turning 4!

This is Kayden's super-cute invitation to her birthday party this coming weekend. Doesn't it just make you think, "weep-weep!"

On the other hand, our family will always have the mother of all guinea pig stories with Tucker. Poor, poor little Tucker, who died of a broken heart when Krystle went off to college. And the young housesitters (bless their hearts!) who didn't know what to do, so they put Tucker's body in the freezer.

Weep-weep!

Baxter Time!

Cousins meeting for the 1st time. 11 months and 15 months.
Another cute shot of Dallin and Laura.
Time to go visit the Baxter's house. Jared calls this, "The Invention House," as in, "Mom, are we going back to the Invention house today?" He loved it there. We ALL loved it there!

Emily peeking into the cockpit.
Jared peeking into the cockpit as Lindsay's dad explaining all about how they put the plane together and how it's going to look when it's finished.
Emily next to the tail.
Tom and Laura enjoyed the hanger visit. When most of us returned to the house, Tom stayed back with Lindsay's dad to learn how to do rivets. He loved that.
Jared next to the Baxter's plane.
And riding the lawnmower. He also asked us if we could build a barn with a loft so he could throw hay down to his horses, too.
Back at Kirk & Lindsay's house: Lindsay holding Laura while we played on the deck. You can see her raised beds and raspberry bushes in the back, too. The blue shed used to be completely covered and surrounded by overgrown trees. Kirk and Lindsay pretty much ROCK at home improvement and gardening. Their home and yard were beautiful.