YEAR IN REVIEW

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Hey GOODWINS we had fun WHOOPING your butts at Guitar Hero.

We had some good friends 'The Goodwins' come and visit us after Christmas. Guitar Hero face offs were played, the girls dressed up, movies watched, The boys cooked good food, hot cocoa drank, haircuts given, and just plain old fun was shared. Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Jon brought over their Snowmobile and took everyone for rides on the sledding tube behind it. Everyone played outside all day and were completely frozen before they decided to come in. We all had a blast and we really enjoyed spending time with our friends!
Come again when you can't stay so long :)

A CAROLING WE GO!

This week has been filled with lots of fun shared with family and friends. We all made a few goodies for our neighbors and we all went around caroling. I remember as a kid the Hopson's family would carol to us every year, it was fun to watch and the kids thought it would be fun to do and they were so excited. It was nice to see some of our neighbors and see their faces light up with surprise and joy when we sang to them.

Christmas day came and the kids were so excited. They ran into our room telling us that Santa had come. How fun it was to see their joy and anticipation over what he brought them. They all piled up on the stairs to see what treasures awaited. Then they ran down and started tearing presents open right and left. It was so much fun watching their reactions and listening to their "cool", "sweet", "awesome", "what is this?" and so on.

We spent the morning together and then visited with Brian's family. It was really nice to spend time together and also share this holiday with close family members. The memories will be cherished!

AND THE WINNER IS.....

If you read my previous blogs you would know that I am a fan of the TV show The Next Great American Band. Last night was the finale and it was a good one. Each of the different bands were there, christmas medley's were sung, Goo Goo dolls performed and the winner was chosen. Take a look at the two final bands performances.

THE CLARK BROTHERS


SIXWIRE


AND THE WINNER IS......


What a great show. I am looking forward to next year to see which bands make it on the show!

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

We all got together and had a really fun snowball fight. Take a look to see who got hit!

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My new favortie show is The Next Great American Band. It's been on for awhile but I just got into it. I am rooting for the Clarke Brothers to win. I finally figured out how to load youtube videos, so here are the last two weeks of performances. The show is on tonight and I can't wait to see if the Clark Brothers make it through.

Time Flys By

Time has gotten away from me. Brian went to Alaska for work in November and the kids have just been sick one after the other. Poor Euan has gotten the brunt of it all.
Time is again passing by quickly as it is the holiday season. Winter started early for us this year w/ a downfall of snow. We had almost 14 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. It never stopped snowing, I felt so trapped and useless. The cars, driveway, and everything else was totally covered!

Our wonderful neighbor plowed out the driveway for us. He was still plowing @ 10 o clock in the evening. Bless his heart, if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have been able to get out for a few days. The snow has now melted and frozen and become a gross, wet, crunchy, and slippery mess. I can not wait for summer again. Give me 90 degree weather any day of the week over cold yucky snow!

Brian has been busy building his new love...his shop! After living here for 3 years, Brian is finally getting to build his dream shop on our land. It will be really nice having him walk out the back door to go to work. He has had some wonderful help from his friends and family working on this. He could not have done any of this with out them. Thank you to all who have taken time away from your work and families to help Brian on this project. It means a lot to both of us!

I am making it a goal to update our blog more often.
We hope all of you and your families are enjoying this holiday season!

Was that a Skunk?

Missoula Children's Theater came into town last week. They are a theater company that travels from town to town putting on a play for the city. They came to Manson and helped put on Robin Hood. The cast was made up of children from Kindergarten on up to 8th grade from our school district. Euan tried out and was given the part of a Skunk. He was so excited and told us he had a special power to spray stinky farts on people. It was amazing the kids practiced for 5 days and then the entire production was on Saturday for everyone to see. It was great, all the kids did an amazing job and Euan did great. He has since told us that he wants to be on TV. Oh my, what has been started!

HALLOWEEN 2007

Another fun filled Halloween has come and gone. I'm a little behind on updating this blog but later than never works for me!
The kids entered a pumpkin carving contest at Allisons (a local furnishing store) and they won!
This is a picture of them but Euan is not there because he had play practice that evening (a later blog entry). They were so excited and cute. The owner let them choose one of the stuffed animals that they carry as a prize.
From there we picked up Euan and went to downtown Chelan for trick or treating. Trick or treating is done a little different here. The local store owners open up their store and the kids trick or treat from store to store down the main drag. We stoped about mid way through at the Eagles club where they were serving hamburgers or hotdogs, soda, and chips for $3.00 for Halloween. Best deal in town!:) We then drove over to the Whaley Mansion. This is a mansion, as you can guess, that goes all out for Halloween and Christmas each year. They had over a hundred carved pumpkin, toys, treats, homemade truffles, and pictures. Here is the picture that they took.
If you can't guess, Euan chose to be He-man, Monroe was princess Belle, Deasel was Spiderman, and Aadan was a cowboy. Poor Euan kind of looks like a girl in this shot w/ his wig. I don't have a good picture of him in his costume. It was a great costume and a lot of people (mainly adults) knew who he was, I was surprised.
After Whaley Mansion we drove over to the church for a ward halloween party and trick or treating. Needless to say we ended up w/ way too much candy when the night was over! Surprisingly the kids went to bed good that night but the days following were crazy w/ all the candy eating!

40 years and going strong

I can't believe that Brian is now the big 4-0! Yes he is officially an old man and now qualifies for the senior citizen discount!

A few fun facts about the 60's when Brian was born:

What year did the FDA approve the birth control pill?
1962 (Thank goodness- or else I would have 20 kids by now)

Who lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane?
The Munsters

What year were zipcodes introduced?
1964

Things cost a lot less in the sixties:
Movie ($3.00)
McDonalds Hamburger ($0.50)
Gallon of gas ($0.30)
Postage Stamp ($0.05)

And my favorite, What year were the touchtone phone and cassette player introduced?
The year Brian was born - 1967 (now that really ages someone)!

We had a lot of fun and I enjoyed looking back on some of Brians fun times in his life! Here is a picture of Brian in his teens w/ his beloved hearse. Yes he is the one w/ the long crazy red hair on the left!!!

GOOD TIMES!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear DEASEL...
Happy Birthday to you!

As you can guess it was Deasel's birthday this week. He turned four on Tuesday and is quite excited by the whole thing. We started making his cake in the afternoon which he loved doing, hung up Dinosaur decorations for the party, and frosted the cake. The frosting had to be blue and he covered the entire cake w/ plastic bug, snakes, & spider toys to make a scary cake. He really had a lot of fun and it was nice for him and I to spend some fun time together. He was surprised to see that all the presents were all for him and that he wasn't getting something that was already Euans (as hand me downs). He is really into Legos and Puzzles right now. He builds Bionocle Lego type things by himself and LOVES doing puzzles. He is just a whiz with them!
All in all, it was a fun day that I enjoyed spending w/ Deasel talking about the day he was born, getting ready for the party, and just hanging out!!

VEGAS BABY

Brian just came home from a much deserved vacation to Vegas! He went with two of his buddies, Mark in Utah and Michael in Seattle. The Fourth Annual and final 'Rockabilly Rod Reunion' was in Vegas last weekend, which is a hot rod show. To make the weekend even more perfect the 'Bugorama' show was also in town. He was in heaven with being in Vegas and being able to go to two large car shows during the same weekend! I have included some pictures from his vacation, a VW pop'n a wheely, a great burn out, and my favorite and funniest one is of him and Michael at the hot rod show with Brian's hair done up in a Pompadore.

Euan's Soccer Game

This is Euan's third year playing soccer here in Manson. Although, this is the first year that they are playing in games against other teams. Most of the teams they play against are in Chelan. So far they have won both of their games, as they have a good ringer on the team that always makes the goals. As I tell Euan though, it is the team who works together to help this kid shoot the goals. Euan is a good player. He is always chasing that ball up and down the field, which is no easy task, and TRYING to kick the ball for his team mates. I say trying because he is having some difficulty w/ his timing. He always seems to miss the ball, but he tries real hard and has fun. I am posting our favorite photo of Euan trying to kick the ball. Take a close look at what he ended up connecting with. It is pretty funny!