Fat Nikki

BEFORE

AFTER

This is our dog Nikki, we call her fat Nikki because she is in fact quite a chunk. She got a haircut this week. What do ya think? The lady at the groomers told me it was sad how much she needed a haircut, that's right I am a neglectful doggy parent. Nikki has been a little nervous lately with the packing and the contractor in and out of the house and the realtors coming and going. I have been catching her licking all the fabric items in our house. Her two favorites are the couch and much to Matt's dismay his pillows. It's nasty I yell at her to stop she stops for a minute waits until I look away and starts licking again. Why did I have to get a dog?

I have been tagged

I have been tagged by fabulous bro in law Joel so I hope you all enjoy this watch out you could be next.

A. The Rules are posted at the beginningB. Each player answers about themselves.C. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people, posts their names, and goes to their blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago 1. Ten years ago I had just met Matt and we were dating. 2. I was trying to finish up my schooling at BYU. 3. I was living in Prove with my dear friends Lindsay and Juliann Wheeler. 4. I was trying to decide what I would do after school. 5. I was having way too much fun.

5 Things On My To-Do List Today (for tomorrow) 1. Call Wells Fargo for home loan pre approval 2. Clean out my closet and the basement 3. Go the YW's volleyball tournament 4. Sell 3 more boxes of girl scout cookies (anybody interested?) 5. Plan my nursery lesson

5 Snacks I Enjoy 1. Chips and Salsa 2. veggies (mushrooms) and dip 3. toast 4. hot cocoa or chocolate milk 5. POP!!

5 Things I'd Do if I Were a Billionaire 1. Get a tummy tuck :) 2. Buy a kick booty house 3. get out of debt 4. go shopping 5. travel (probably in that order)

3 Bad Habits 1. biting my nails 2. burping 3. not keeping in touch with people that I love

5 Jobs I've Had 1. Rakestraw bookstore in Danville 2. Ye Olde Towne Arco in Danville 3. Nanny in Walnut Creek 4. Western Watts in Provo 5. Pet store in Orem

5 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me 1. I was in a commercial in kindergarten (public service announcement) 2. My feelings get hurt easily (even though I always declare they don't) 3. I can play the piano relatively well 4. I love to move furniture I would do it everyday if my husband would just help me:) 5. I am scared to make phone calls it doesn't matter who I am calling my heart always starts pounding and I have to talk myself into doing it.

I am tagging Sarah Kim Laura Jenni and Monica.

Taco Time Forever

Today is my sister Gretchen's birthday, you may know her as GG, Stretch, Gritch what ever you may call her I know you always call her awesome. Here are some interesting things about G.

• When I was 10 or 11 I severely burned my stomache and Gretchen was babysitting, she knew exactly what to do. And because of that there is no scar left from that 2nd degree burn. Way to go G.



• Gretchen used to like to come to church dresses like Madonna (like a virgin Madonna). We thought it was pretty cool.



• Gretchen has allowed each of her siblings to live with her at one time or another. Have you ever had a cool sister like that.



• When we have a family vacation I like to call Gretchen the "cruise director" she likes to plan activities.



• In college my friend Jenni and I tried to teach her the running man it looks something like this:

• Gretchen is a fantastic mom and has 4 of the greatest kids I have ever met, plus she is married to Cory (of the band Randy Fingers and reader of binary (sp) code), he is awesome.


• She let me be in the delivery room when her youngest Kessa was born. It was very fun.


• I asked Ryne one time where he wanted to go on his mission he said GG's house.

Happy birthday GG you are a great sister and I love you very much.

from the mouths of babes

Meet Emma, she is my middle child. I have always felt that Emma and I had a deep connection a bond if you will. We understand each other, have each other's backs. So you will understand my surprise this Sunday when I sat down in the van to drive to church and this is what I heard my Emma say, "Mom why don't you look pretty today? You're not even wearing anything pretty!" Ouch, but funny all the same, it gave me a good laugh during our 30 minute drive. You gotta love Emma.

It's Frickin' Freezing

We were driving home today after going to the pet store to get crickets (you all wish you had frogs)and we saw the temperature. It was 6 degrees (with the wind chill feels like 1). That is just wrong. So I thought I would check the temp in our future home, 50 degrees, now that is more like it.

Kate loving the cold weather

Viva Las Vegas

Well, we have some fun news. Matt has been offered and had accepted a job in Las Vegas. He begins on Feb. 1 and we will be heading out sometime after that. We are excited and also sad. We love Edgerton and we love the Ottawa ward and all of the dear friends we have made here. Kate and Ryne are excited although they are going to miss their Grandma and Grandpa, their their school/teachers and all of their friends. Emma is a little happy and a lot sad, we had much crying last night because she doesn't want to leave her best friend Izzy (and all that is listed above). We were able to appease her a little with the reminder that her cousins Aunts Uncles Gran and Papa Al will all be very close and so will DISNEYLAND. She really liked hearing that. We know that this is the right decision but that doesn't make the leaving any easier. We love you our Kansas family and friends who have become family. This is an open invite to anyone who wants to visit Vegas, please come and stay with us.

Cowgirl Christy

My kids have named this doll Aunt Christy. Kate thinks they look exactly alike. What do you think, I would love to see Christy in this cowgirl get up. Yeeha!!

Here are Brynley and Wyatt

We would like to welcome little Brynley Grace and Wyatt James Hall to our family. Aren't they cute and so tiny. It reminds me of when Emma and Ryne were born. Good luck to Jenni and Josh and Parker, we are really happy and excited for you all.

Ain't no party like an Escalante party

Today is my brother Andy's birthday and he is turning the big 29. I want you all to know a little about this brother:

• He is hillarious - Andy does the funniest Helen Keller impersonation, we were laughing so hard one time my dad made the two of us leave costco.
• My kids love Andy they think he is so nice because he hugs them and tells them that they are great kids.
• Andy is the definition of persistence. If he wants you to do something he will stop at nothing until you agree.
• When Andy was little he learned about saying please, he took please to mean that no matter what he asked you for if he said please you had to give it to him. For example "Leah can I please have that cookie you are eating. No you can't. I SAID PLEASE!!"
• He is very forgiving - I was a very mean sister and he still nice to me.
• He has great taste. He married one of the coolest chicks ever - yeah for Christy!
• He has two adorable kids Wynn and Gracie again yeah for Christy!
• He is a brother I have come to love as a good friend.

Happy Birthday Andy, we wish we could be there to celebrate with you!

p.s I hope it's ok that I stole some pix off your blog :)

We love Beth and Tim

Beth and Time were here for a few days after Christmas, we were so happy to see them. We all wish they lived much closer. We love you Karpowitz-Isernhagen's!

New Years Goal, Resolutions and Predictions

So we sat around last night and we each set some goals for ourselves and I thought I would share them with you

Matt: Read the Old Testament, Exercise more regularly and fix the kids bikes. He predicts that Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States (please send nasty Hillary hate mail to Matt).

Leah: Cook dinner atleast 6x a week (I hate cooking dinner), exercise more regulary, write in my journal once a week, stop gossiping. I predict Emma and Ryne will graduate from kindergarten and Kate will read 100 books by the end of the school year. I predict that I have no idea who will be president.

Kate: Learn to dance while roller skating, learn to figure skate, stop fighting and get dad to fix the bikes. Kate predicts we will get a pool pass this summer.

Emma: Stop being naughty so that Santa will come, feed the dog whenever she gets hungry. Emma predicts that we will see the fireworks again.

Ryne: Keep the basement clean, eat dinner each night without complaining. Ryne predicts that they will go back to school.

I have many more goals and resolutions such as be nicer to my family. I have worked really hard to stop yelling at my kids, so, my poor husband gets all my pent up yelling rage. He's a good man who takes it all and is still nice to me. I also have set a goal to read the Old Testament, this is hard for me. I have started it many times and have never finished. Hopefully this is the year. I wish everyone luck with their goals and resolutions. Happy New Year!

Items of Interest

Hi everybody and Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and safe New years eve. We sure did, all the kids decided they would stay up until midnight.....Emma and Ryne were asleep by 9:30 but Kate did stay up. She had to keep waking up Matt and me. But, we had fun, it was a good time had by all. I had some items of interest to share so here goes:



Jenni and Josh Hall had their twins on Dec. 30th around 11:00 pm. Their names are Brynley Grace 5lbs. 5 oz. and Wyatt James 4 lbs. 11 oz. They are doing well and hopefully will be able to go home with Jenni and Josh in the next few days. We have all been anxiously awaiting these two and are so glad they are healthy. Congratulations Jenni, Josh and Parker. As soon as I get pictures I will post them, oh and Brynley was born first. This lead Kate to the conclusion that all girl twins are born first.



Kate got an award in school for reading 50 books. She was very pleased, especially beacause, and I quote, "Logan doesn't even know where his home reading folder is."

We went roller skating this Christmas break it was interesting. We discovered that Emma and Ryne don't like to roller skate and to prove their point they will scream the entire way around the rink until you get back out to the carpet and get them a nacho. But, the truly interesting thing was that walking into the skating rink was like walking into a time warp. I could've been in first grade walking into Paterson's North in Spokane. It was weird. I don't think I want to go back. I was reminded of the time my dad took Sarah and I skating and our cousin Connie's husband (who's name I totally forgot) came with us and we heard Air Supply, it was a good night.

One last point of interest, Matt's parent's got a Wii. We have learned that Kate's lack of form in bowling guarantees her a strike every time. It' really quite impressive and also a little infuriating.


Have a great New Year's Day and set many resolutions and goals. We will be setting ours this evening I'll post them at a later date.