MAMMA MIA!!

Deanna, Quinn and Anita

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Anita, Quinn, Gusti and Jamie. I just watched Mamma Mia! again and although I did have fun watching it with Todd (my kids wanted me to stop singing) it wasn't quite the same as a bunch of 30-sonething women at the movies. So here's to best girlfriends and ABBA. I love and miss you guys. You're the best Dancing Queens I know.

Oh...the weather outside is frightful....

...but since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. I highly doubt that when this song was written, they were speaking of breaking a record for the most snowfall in 24 hours and over 30 inches. That's right, over 30 inches on the ground in Spokane, in less than 48 hours. It was nuts. We were stuck!!! Luckily we have one vehicle that is 4 wheel drive so that Todd could get to work. Needless, to say, school was closed and my van was not going anywhere. It's now Saturday, the roads are still not plowed and my van is still buried. We are now experiencing sub-zero temperatures again!!! More snow is on the way for tomorrow. It's crazy nuts!! The kids have been sledding on the streets because no one is driving (unless you have a 4x4 you are not going anywhere) which is nice because we couldn't get to the sledding hill if we tried. Thank heaven I went grocery shopping the day before the storm hit, so I didn't have to worry about trying to get to the store while Todd is working 20 hour days. (He's essential personnel for the Sheriff's dept. so he goes to work as long as they need him.) They plowed my moms' street this morning, so we are hoping they will get to ours today before the next storm hits. I love winter, but I don't love it this much. We were hoping that they would cancel church. Is that too much to ask?

ElfYourself by Office Max

Go to elfyourself dot com to create your own little elf dances. It's cute and a lot of fun. Here's ours.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I love Adam Sandler

I can't help it. I love stupid humor. I firmly believe that "Billy Madison", "Happy Gilmore", "50 First Dates" and "The Wedding Singer" are movie classics. I don't love all of his movies, but his old SNL spots are great and I just laugh my head off at him. I especially appreciate his tribute to the Jewish Hannukah...The Hannukah Song. It makes me want to convert...(Hey they get 8 crazy nights!) So in tribute to those Jewish friends of mine and one of my favorite comedians, Adam Sandler, here is the live version of the Hannukah Song. Mazeltov!!

Fried Turkeys and little bugs

The one redeeming quality of Thanksgiving is fried turkey. If you have never had this delightfully Southern delicacy for your Thanksgiving main dish, you are missing out. There is nothing better than a deliciously seasoned, brown and crispy outer skin and a gorgeous white and juicy meat that just melts in your mouth. Todd would say the dark meat is more delicious, but I am partial to the white meat. I must admit, when my mom said that we were not doing a turkey this year and were opting for Prime Rib instead, I was not complaining. But when they changed their mind because Joe bought an infrared turkey fryer ( it doesn't use any oil, which can get expensive) we were all very excited and the disappointment about no prime rib was minimal.
The dinner was delicious, as many of you know, my mom is quite the cook and she never disappoints. Our family does not watch football on Thanksgiving but rather, basketball. Gonzaga Basketball to be exact. The Mormons cheering on the Catholics. Seems rather strange but we love our hometown team and John Stockton played there.
I got started with my Black Friday shopping a little early. Michaels' opened at 6pm on Thanksgiving and the cartridges for my Cricut (aka my little bug) were on sale for $30. This was a smokin' deal. At Michaels' they retail for $90, at Wal-Mart they are $70, so you can imagine my excitement. I never imagined the line. It was crazy, apparently a lot of people have nothing better to do Thanksgiving evening. I did end up getting three cartridges I wanted, for the price I would have paid for one, so I was very happy and Christmas came a little early. I bumped into quite a few people I knew and thanks to Joann Maughn I was able to get one cartridge I wanted, but didn't get in time. Luckily she was the first one in and grabbed one too many which she passed on to me. I am thankful for her!!!
And so ends another Thanksgiving, admittedly not my favorite holiday (shouldn't we be thankful all the time, not just one day?) but I survived it nonetheless.

Go Utes!!

Here it is...Todd is the greatest, Todd is the best, Todd still owes me for losing the Christmas Tree bet even though he won the bet for the Utah - BYU game. What was up with my Cougars? Max Hall threw 5 interceptions...he's killing me!!! I will have to listen to the Utah fight song for the rest of my life because of him. (Did you know you can hear it on You Tube?) MH better watch out. If I ever run into him he is a dead man!!! Well, at least one Mountain West team is going to a BCS bowl, unfortunately it probably won't be the National Championship Game. It could be interesting if Utah gets to play Florida and their former coach Urban Meyer. I'll be watching and not just because Todd is making me.

Can you have withdrawl symptoms for this?

I think I am. I am having fly for free, former airline employee withdrawl. I can't say that I had it with any of my other jobs. I certainly don't even miss the apartment manager thing, but I do miss working at the airline. This is the busiest time of year and usually the most challenging, yet at the same time it is very rewarding. Knowing you're helping people to go be with loved ones, or doing something fun for the holidays is great. The best part is that when all the hubbub of the holidays is over, you can load the whole family up and head out without worrying whether you are going to get bumped. I miss it so very, very much. Not enough to go back to work, mind you, but enough to have little worksickness pangs every now and again. I know a quick hop on a flight to Disneyland for the weekend would cure me.....

HOLIDAY GIFTS

Okay, this is my first post on here. I had to get on and let people know a little about our blog site here. If you go down on the right hand side you'll see a link to "Marys Mints", you have to visit. If you are looking for that perfect holiday gift, you can't go wrong with Marys Mints. On the site they offer homemade butter mints that are to DIE for. They are so good. There is also offered Toasted Coconut Chocolate Marshmallows, how can that be bad?? I'm here now to tell you that you can also get Holiday Chocolates shipped!! You name it, you can get it pretty much. She makes turtles, chocolate covered pretzels, nuts, etc. Caramels and the works. I believe any order made before December 20th can probably arrive by Christmas. On the Marys Mints site there is an email address to ask questions or make orders, you can also email Ally to ask questions. This business is just getting started and I'm telling you, you won't be disappointed. You'll get an original, inexpensive gift that people will talk about. This is probably what my siblings are getting for Christmas so.....surprise!! That's all I have to say, if you're having a hard time thinking of that perfect gift for in-laws, neighbors, co-workers, loved ones that live far away, visit Marys Mints, you'll be glad you did.

BYU vs. utah

For those of you who follow college football in Utah, the big game is this weekend. I am asking for predictions. Who will win? The Lord's school or those heathens on the hill? Leave me a post and let me know who you are rooting for. We'll see who wins the Devenish informal game. I got a quick joke for you...Why isn't the U having a nativity this year? Give up? Because they couldn't find three wise men and a virgin. In case you're wondering, Ally is rooting for BYU and Todd (and Ally's whole entire family) is rooting for the U. I'm a little outnumbered here. Show me some love and then pray for those BYU cougs.

Do I have anything to say?

The other night Todd was saying that I had not blogged anything for a long time. I said that I haven't done anything fun lately. He reminded me that I don't necessarily have to do anything fun to have something to say, and that I should treat it more like a daily journal. I think many of the things I do on a daily basis are terribly mundane, I do have opinions and sometimes I wonder if others share (or care) about these things. So here it goes... a couple of Ally musings:

1. Is the decorating talent something you learn or something that is inbred? I know I certainly don't have it, nor did I learn it. Am I going to HE** for that?

2. Why am I, a really not creative person, continually called to be involved on the RS enrichment committee, or in some other capacity involving the enrichment committee? Is somebody trying to tell me something...like I'm not getting it and maybe that's something I should be working on?

3. What is the infatuation with Twilight? I understand enjoying a book, but I don't understand the total obsession that tons of people have with these characters. I am really not a hater, I just don't get it.

4. I have to confess...I have a strange love/hate relationship with reality TV. I hate it because it's mindless and contrived and I love it because it's mindless and contrived. It's a dilemma that I can't solve. I have to admit that I watch the really "good" ones also like Real Housewives of Atlanta ( These women give *itchy new meaning). I watch Dog the Bounty Hunter and Repossessed and Cops. I laugh at stupid people. It's weird, but I think part of the reason is that I don't have to put any effort into watching. It just goes in and rattles around a bit. Then it goes away. Whatever.

5. Why does the school district still do late start during conference week? If it isn't bad enough that our kids go one hour later on Thursdays, you throw in conferences when they get out at 12:30 and they are in class for 2.5 hours, and yes this includes lunch and recess. You make me get them up for what? What is the point exactly?

6. Why do children think your furniture is a jungle gym? Maybe that's just my kids!!

7. Why can't I ever win anything? I enter all sorts of fun contests. People win, me...not so much. Is my luck really that bad?

So there you have it. I wish I could say I have profound and witty things that I contemplate and then post, but no!! Feel free to comment. It's always nice to get confirmation of my mental illness!!

Dancing Queens?

There is one thing I forgot to mention in my previous post and that was video night. Anthony showed us the most watched video on You Tube, which for some reason I had not seen. It has some great (classic) moves and the middle reminds me of our cruise to Mexico. (It's a long story, let's just say it involves Todd, Freddie, Robert a lawn mower and a dog) Just in case you haven't seen it, I am including it here for you. My kids love it and are trying to master all the moves as we speak!! I hope you enjoy it like we did.

ROAD TRIP

A couple of weeks ago my best friend (and former college roommate) Quinn called and said she was coming to Utah for a visit, all the way from Germany. I have not seen her since before Preston was born and I was very excited because I miss her!! As I mentioned in a previous post, my friend Anita (another one of our roommates) just moved to Seattle. I just so happened that the opportunity presented itsself for Anita and I to hop in the vanagan and take a vacay to Utah for a mini reunion.





Once we were there, it was like we had been together just yesterday. It was like being in college again only add 15 years, husbands', children and all the other fun stuff that comes with growing up. We took the kids to the park to see Deanna (another roommate) and let the kids play while we caught up. We missed Reni though as she had the nerve to give birth an hour after she was supposed to meet us. We decided that we were going to feed our ABBA obsession and go see Mama Mia. We had so much fun. I'm sure our husbands' were relieved that they didn't have to go with us and we had a blast singing, dancing and yelling during the movie. Gusti's 15 year old Kali came with us. I'm sure she was horribly embarrassed by our antics, but if you can't embarass your friends kids, who can you embarass? When we got home, Gusti talked us into playing a video game. Not just any video game but our new obsession:

We played until 2 am. I don't think I've stayed up that late on purpose(unless it's New Year's Eve) for a really long time!! I am really not good at video games, including this one, but we sure had fun trying.

On Saturday, Kelli drove down from Boise and we decided to take a mini road trip all the way to Provo. I had not been to BYU in probably 7 years and we thought it might be fun to go down there and see how much had changed. There were lots of good changes (DT is no longer) and some that suprised us. (Our beloved white, mouse house is gone.) We did feel a little nostalgia as we drove by the former site of the White House. There was a football game that day and parking was insane. We were laughing at how we used to park cars in our field and charge for parking on game days. It helped with the rent, until Steve found out and chose to do it himself!! Landlords!! We spent some time on campus, telling stories and eating at the creamery. It was just strange to be there again. On the way home, Quinn mentioned she was thirsty so I had to introduce her to the Sonic Cherry Limeade. I know they don't have those in Germany!! After Sonic? More Rockband. I said it was an obsession.

We had so much fun while we were there. Gusti took lots of pictures and hopefully will send them to us because I was camera challenged. I also got to see my sister Amanda and my brother Rob and sister-in-law Michelle. I appreciate Manda for reminding me how good Cafe Rio really is and that there is nothing better than cheese fries from Training Table. Yes, we ate, but there are some things you can only get there. I also appreciate her letting us stay at her really cool house. The theater room is truly the best room to sleep in!! Thanks Man!!! I also have to thank Gusti. She fed us and let us stay at her house also, even though she already had a houseful. Thank You!!! We were sad when we had to leave, we had so much fun. Quinn and family will be back next year and we're making plans already. Thanks for the fun girls. I love and miss you. You are truly best friends!!

A week late and more than $1 short...Happy Birthday Robbie!!

OK. I have been very busy and I didn't forget his birthday, I just drove 10 hours on very little sleep on his actual birthday and updating the blog was the last thing on my mind. So here it is...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBBIE!!

Here's to our oldest son. The one that fills our heads with endless amounts of trivia and knows every fact there is to know about wolves, rattlesnakes and dinosaurs that no longer exist. The one that Todd is convinced will be our state champion swimmer and the one who is truly wicked smart. The one who corrects his parents on a daily basis because he is convinced that his 4th grade Central Valley education has made him more knowledgeable than his college educated parents... Rob is the most considerate, caring and helpful older brother that any younger brother or sister could possibly want. Thank you Robbie for coming to our family. We love and appreciate you very much. We hope you had a happy birthday.

Avoidance only works for so long...

It finally happened. I got tagged. Yep, I'd been avoiding but Quinn didn't get my subliminal messages!!! So the rule is I get to post a specific picture, here's mine.

This picture is Kim and Freddie in the front and Todd and Robert right behind them on California Screamin' at Disneyland last year. The reason this picture is so hilarious is that Kim absolutely hates roller coasters and this one goes 0-60 in 3 seconds up this hill, but you get to sit and wait until it launches you, which is a little nerve racking for those of us who actually enjoy roller coasters. Her smile quickly changed once she was launched. The next picture is better but unfortunately its blurry ( and not part of the game). I was not on the coaster because I was preggo. I was really sad about that, but Lillie doesn't like coasters either so she was standing with me laughing at them. So I respectfully tag Cindy, Traci and Tammy. The rule is to pick photo number 4 out of the 4th picture file on your computer. Have fun.

Utah Football and Bob Marley

As I sit here after putting the kids to bed, listening to Todd intently watch the Utes barely beat Oregon State, and try to think of a way to drown it out...it hits me....Bob Marley. How can you beat a little reggae to make everything feel alright...Jamaica mon, take me away.

The Massagli Family arrives in Spokavega

Anita and Andy and family are on the move!! They are moving from Indiana to Seattle and well, Spokane is on the way. They stopped in to say hi for a couple of hours before finishing their journey. It was so great to see them and the kids. We haven't seen each other in about 6 years so it was nice to catch up. Yes, I am a bad friend and did not have the camera with me, so unfortunately there are no pictures. Their kids are all grown up and so adorable. Camillo tried and tried to get Cassie to let him hold her during breakfast but she wasn't having any of it. By the time we were ready to go though, she was all about hanging out with him. I did ask if he could stay with me so I would have such a wonderful babysitter, but they said no (I wonder why, it's rare that you meet a 14 yr old boy that talks, let alone likes kids). I'm really glad that they are so close because this gives us an excuse to get to the coast more often. I tried to talk them into just staying here but Andy kind of needs a bigger airport (What? It is Spokane INTERNATIONAL airport!!!!) It was good to see them and we will get together soon I promise. Thanks for stopping guys.

We love our "puppy"

My friend Gusti recently posted on her blog that she was looking at getting a boston terrier puppy. Since our BT "puppy" turns 9 in a couple of days, I thought I would write a quick note to say Happy Birthday. I know...he's a dog and can't read, but if he could I know he would be happy. As it is, I get cuddles and licks just for petting him, I don't even have to say anything. Don't you wish your kids were as easy to appease?

Painting this week

Even though Spokane is enjoying a wonderful indian summer, I will be in my house painting this week. Yes, I finally broke down and convinced myself that it needed to be done and by dang (you like that?) I am going to do it. Todd is off for 6 days straight and he is going to help me, although he doesn't know it yet. I'm not painting any crazy colors this week though, mostly covering up the crayon, pencil and the other ugly colors I have chosen to paint in the past, with primer. I am thinking though, we might paint our basement an antique white with a denim treatment under the wainscoat. We'll see how ambitious I get.

A Crafting Fool

In between all the other things I have been doing (Enrichment, Family Fun Night...Nothing) I've been feeling kind of crafty. It's not really my strength and I can copy anything, but I enjoy it and it's kind of a creative outlet. I used to do floral arranging, but I prefer fresh flowers and they are expensive and hard to find.

Last Thanksgiving/Christmas, I got a Cricut from Provo Craft (www.cricut.com). In case you are not familiar, they are a personal die cutting machine. Basically, I plug a cartridge in and it will cut shapes and letters up to 5 1/2 inches. Trust me, it's really fun. I would imagine that if you are a frequent scrapbooker/papercrafter/crafty person you would appreciate this little gem. Anyway, I found this great craft idea on pccrafter.com that uses Martha Stewart Crafts Halloween Test Tube Pen Sets. These are so cool. You can put candy in the test tubes and then use the little pens to embellish the fun stuff you make to go with them. As soon as I get mine finished I will post pictures. I love them and think they are perfect for visiting teaching!! The best thing about the Cricut...it also cuts vinyl. That's right. For a fraction of the price, I can hop on the "I decorate everything in my house with cute vinyl sayings" bandwagon. I apologize for the sarcasm there, but some people just go way overboard with a good idea.

I also am making some cute wood signs for Halloween, Fall Harvest and Christmas. Super Saturday is coming up and I am all ready for 8 straight hours of crafting and chatting...mostly chatting...I don't really have much more crafting to do.

It's Raining

It's raining here!!! I know I am weird but I get sad when it doesn't rain for awhile. Maybe because I grew up here and got used to it, I don't know. Fall is on the way. I can live without the winters but I love, love, love the Fall!!! It's time to get out the jackets and head up to Green Bluff for apple cider, pumpkin patches and corn mazes. Fall is Fun!!!

Bums in the Park and Hearts of Gold

Yesterday Kim, Traci and I decided that would take the kids for an afternoon picnic at Balfour Park. It's the perfect size for the smaller kids, plus there is the sand volleyball court which doubles as a sandbox. Usually this little out-of-the-way park is quiet and pleasant. When we get there and see the homeless men sleeping along the west fence, we are a little shocked. We chalk it up to not having been there for awhile and go about our business, keeping our distance and a close eye on the kids. Pretty soon though, as we're enjoying our conversation, this guy runs full speed out of the bushes, yelling at the top of his lungs. This of course gets our attention. Following right behind him is a sheriff's deputy. Apparently they came from across the field and into the park. This guy was putting up quite a fight so the deputy whipped out the pepper spray and totally doused this guy in the face. It slowed him down a little, and increased the volume of his screaming. At this point, they are totally fighting. We decide it's probably time to call it a day, even though all of the other homeless men have gotten the heck out of dodge when the cops showed up. Fun at the park!!
Kim and I, the gluttons for punishment we are, also decided to take our kids to the Valleyfest Hearts of Gold parade. The guys were out of town and at work, so we packed up our 6 kids and headed down to Sprague and Bowdish to stake out our seats. This parade is pretty close to small town as you get. The elementary schools all get their kids to march, the shriners are there, there are fire trucks and cop cars and hot rods and I swear just random people walking down the street for the exercise. The best part about this parade...they throw candy. Everyone does. Our kids had so much candy by the end of the night that they could barely carry it home. They have almost as much candy as when they trick or treat. I don't know if I'll ever be able to take them to a parade again where they don't throw candy. They'll be so disappointed. It was a great distraction though. Only 1 hour and it only took about 5 minutes to get out of the parking lot to a clear street to get home. How can you beat it? I complained when they moved the parade from McDonald and the Valleyfest from Terrace View, but this wasn't so bad and I think we might do the parade every year, it was fun!! We're still skipping Valleyfest though...too many people in a little itty bitty space.

Late 9/11 Musings

I watched this great documentary on the history channel last night after the kids went to bed and Todd went to work. It was the story of 9/11 as told by regular people who just happened to have their cameras and were filming the whole thing. At the time, those of us here could just watch in awe, shocked that it was happening. We did not even comprehend the reality of what was occuring there. As I watched this documentary and listened to the people comment on what was happening (23 people on the ground were killed from people falling out of the building and landing on them) the true magnitude of the devastation, destruction and loss of life really hit... 7 years later. It was a tragedy that I hope this country never forgets.

Monkey Cheeks are eatin my nuts

For years, I have watched this awesome tree grow in my backyard, it produced a "fruit" or something but we (meaning I because Todd doesn't care) had no idea what it was. I couldn't figure out what these strange green things resembling an unripe kiwi were that were growing on this tree. I knew there was no way that kiwi would grow in Spokane and they didn't ever change color. Every year they would fall off the tree and then just disappear. I really didn't have time to figure it out before, but this year it became an obsession. The easiest method would have been to take a branch of this tree to Northwest Seed and Pet and ask. They always know. Again, that would have been the easiest and not my style. What do I do? I dig through some Western Gardening book that my mom has (Similar to a medical dictionary only for plants if you get my drift) and hope that I stumble on some picture that looks like what's growing in the backyard. Scary thing is, I do. I convince myself that it is a Walnut tree. Why? I cut one of those "fruits" open while it was still soft enough to cut and saw what could have been something in the shape of half a walnut. It also hit me that all those walnut shells I was finding in my lawn were from my tree and there was a force of nature at work.

Preston and I decided to test the Walnut tree theory. We removed a couple of the green "fruits" and placed them on a large lava rock we have in the backyard. I knew my theory was correct when Preston ran in the next day and proudly exclaimed.."Mom, come look. The squirrels are eatin' my nuts!!" Oh yeah, we went there.... and laughed until our sides hurt. There you have it...true science at work in the Devenish household. My niece Piper calls the Squirrels "Monkey Cheeks", like chipmunks only not. Now if you want a good laugh at our house, just come in and say the Monkey Cheeks are eatin' your nuts.

First Day of School

Wow!! I can't believe it's finally here. I am really excited and believe me, they are too. It's the first year that I get to send 3 (count 'em 3) children off to school every day. Robbie is in 4th grade this year in Mr. Dobney's class. He is really excited and ready to be working again.

Preston is in 1st grade with Mrs. Winkler. he and Landon Rehkow are in class together so that works well for him. We kind of feel bad for Mrs. Winkler. Preston is so easy going though that he doesn't really care what happens, he's just excited to ride his bike to school.

Riley is in Kindergarten. She is really excited and luckily she knew Mrs. Hillstrom from last year. She was not wanting mom to help her get to class. She knew where she was going and didn't need my help.

She then found her seat, which was on the side by the cubbies. She sat down and started to "read" her book. There was a little boy who had a broken arm and who was crying and didn't want to leave his mommy. Mrs. Hillstrom suggested that Riley move to sit by him because she had big brothers and wasn't afraid of boys. She said she had 2 brothers and she would sit by him and be his friend. Todd and I were taking bets on how long it would be before he was her "boyfriend."

Now it's just Cassie and I at home (at least for a couple of hours a day). I think I'm going to appreciate only lugging one to the grocery store, appointments, quilt class, etc. Cassie also takes naps in the morning, so Todd and I get to pretend it's like we don't have kids!! So hooray for school and all the joy it brings to our family!!!

Doesn't it make you want to sing?

Don't you love Geeks??

We sat down for dinner the other night and Riley was telling me about the story Sister Jaussi told her in primary. She was saying that the little boy wanted to go out and play with the little geeks, but his grandma told him no. The grandma said the big geeks were mean so not to go out there and play with the little geeks. Now I know this sounds mean, but I am thinking, Geeks? seriously? Could we not come up with a better story for the 5 year olds? Then she told me that the little boy went out to play with the little geeks and then the big geeks came over and bit him on the hand. He ran in to grandma and she said that he shouldn't play with the little geeks because the big geeks are mean. The little boy went out again and played with the little geeks. He then got bit on the hand by the big geeks.
Then it dawned on me. She was talking about Geese.

Newly Wed and Nearly Dead

Apparently today in EQ there was a discussion about the advancement of technology in this decade. The lesson was being taught by one of the young, soon to be lawyers in the ward. He was explaining that the advancements in the computers and the ways that we get information is so much different than the 80's, but someone should correct him if he has any 80's info wrong because he wasn't even born then. I asked my hubby if he was offended by that comment and he said no, he is older and wiser. Todd D and Todd S (Billy T and Todd) were sitting together and the next comment he made was in regards to clothes and then 80's music. Billy T and Todd then let him know in no uncertain terms that there were many things about the 80's were goofy but you can't touch the music. Go guys. Way to defend against the haters.

Happy Birthday Riley

Happy 5th Birthday Riley!!!

Today is Riley's 5th birthday and she got to celebrate with all of her cousins at the lake cabin. The one thing she asked for was a "peeata". We let her pick that out and she picked the traditional burro. She thought it was a cute horsey. We didn't argue with her. She wanted a princess theme so we got Cinderella and Prince charming for her cake.

She starts Kindergarten this year and it's hard to believe that she joined our family 5 years ago. I think I was still in shock because she came so quickly after Preston, but we were excited to have our first girl and we spoiled her rotten. We are paying for it now. :) It was soon evident that she was "large and in charge" and very much the boss of her older brothers, who dote on her and are very protective. The best thing about she and Preston being so close in age is that they are best friends. She is happy and beautiful and has many "boyfriends", all of whom she will be marrying as soon as she gets permission from her parents. We thought there would be issues when Cassie came along, but she has taken on the mothering role and is very protective and helpful with her sister. We love you Ri, you bring joy and happiness into our lives every day. We are thankful you chose our family.

Reunion....

So, I am going to date myself again with this post, but this month is my 20 year High School Reunion. No...I am not going, I don't really see any point. Most of the people I hung out with, I still see occasionally and I don't really want to spend a bunch of money to see people I don't care about so much.
The great thing about reunions though, is it brings people together who still see each other occasionally and gives them an excuse to have a party. I have to give credit to Brad Haines and Tammy Henderson for getting the old group together. We're kind of spread all over the West and using the upcoming U-High and CV class of '88 reunions as our cover, we all came together to have a great time and remember the fun we had in high school (what we can still remember!!). It was great to see the whole gang. Kriste, Dave, and Carol and Adam all came up from Utah and Brad came from Arizona. The rest of us are mostly spread throughout the Spokane Area. It was a great night to catch up with everyone and realize that we probably should have all been arrested at least once when we were younger. I believe the term we use these days is "malicious mischief". We did come to the conclusion though that Mike Conrad seemed to be in the middle of all the mischievous activities. I think fun was had by all tonight. I know it was great to see everyone and remember the friendship that we all share. It was almost like old times...just add in spouses and kids...well, and no running from the cops in Matt's VW Bug! ! So here's to reunions, and Teen Wolf Urban Surfing, stealing county property and then gently reconstructing construction zones in Haines' driveway, and ski jogging in Sherwood Forest. Do you think we should apologize for the endless TPing of the Guinns'? It was great to be together again!!!

Riding the Bus and Accident at Mobius

Robbie has been attending Forensics camp at Mobius Kids for the whole week. So the wonderful mother I am, I let the other kids and Izzy tag along and just let them play while he is in class from 2-4. The week has been virtually uneventful, except that the kids got to ride the STA bus for the first time. Just to clarify, it picks up at the Mirabeau Parkway Park and Ride and then is an express straight downtown. It drops us off just on the corner one block up from Mobius. It's a quick walk and the kids think the bus is the coolest thing.
Well today, the kids are playing and I'm getting bored (it's day 5...the museum is only so big) so I'm trying to convince them that there are cool things to see out in the mall, namely a great sale at Williams-Sonoma and the Anniversary Sale at Nordstrom, but they are not listening and want to play at the water table. Riley finally decides she has had enough of the water and steps off the stool she is standing on...right into a puddle of water which she proceeds to slip on and conks her head on the stool. She is relatively unfazed but is wimpering and coming over to tell me she bumped her head. Meanwhile, this crazy lady who was standing by her at the water table comes running over saying that she saw her fall and she didn't even lose conciousness. OK... I'm thinking "this kid is barely crying I certainly hope she didn't lose conciousness over a simple bump on the head." Then I see it...massive amounts of blood gushing out of her head, in her hair, down her back and all over my hands and clothes. Now I don't get crazy, because this is child No. 3 and head wounds always bleed the worst. This lady is freaking out..."I'm a nurse and I need something to put on it. I think you should take her to the emergency room!!" I calmly walk the crazy nurse and Riley(who is no longer crying and is wondering why she can't see any blood) to the front desk where I know they have a first aid kit and explain what happened...hoping that the staff will calm down crazy nurse. Thank heaven, one of the people in charge walked her away to help her clean up and fill out the incident report. They then proceeded to clean up most of the blood, put some pressure on the wound and then discover that the culprit is a tiny little 1/2 inch cut that is not very deep. Not even worth a trip to the emergency room and barely bad enough to get me to go to Phil's (Dr. Woolf) if I were at home. They clean it up some more, give Riley some toys ( she's now in 7th heaven and asking when she can go and play) and had me fill out an incident report.
It may seem like we were filling out a lot of reports, but as a former Apartment Manager, you never know who is going to sue and for what so it all falls under Risk Management. I didn't want to tell them that my brother works for "One call that's all" Craig Swapp... I didn't want them to get all defensive. Meanwhile, crazy nurse comes back ranting the whole time about not letting her go to sleep and watching her eyes so they don't go all crazy. (What exactly is the definition of crazy eyes anyway?) She also made me promise I wouldn't sign anything in case something happened and I needed to call the "One call that's all" guy. No joke. I certainly thought it was funny, but I think she would have been highly offended if I'd laughed out loud. I really did want to tell her about Preston falling out of the tree and asking if his eyes were still crazy. It's the devil in me...
Anyway, Riley is perfectly fine and I still did make it to Williams-Sonoma. I couldn't deal with the kids in Nordy's. It had been a long week. I didn't have the camera with me this time...I'll take some pictures and post later. What can I say? It was Friday fun for everyone!!!

Boat Trip

This last week we finally dragged out the boat and had fun at the lake. Tuesday we went with John and Shawna and Kids and the Thursday we went with Grandma and Grandpa Nowels and Rob and Michelle. It was Cassie's first time on the boat and she loves it (She was too little last year.) Preston is our fish and jumped right off the back of the boat into the somewhat chilly water. Of course, when it is close to 90 degrees outside, the water doesn't seem so cold. Rob decided to christen the tube and spent all of 10 minutes begging Uncle John not to throw him off. Cassie decided that eating the rocks on the beach was just as much fun as riding on the boat so she was perfectly happy there. We're looking forward to spending most of the month of August at the cabin, so we can play every day!!!

Cassie's 1st Birthday

Our youngest is one and we can hardly believe it. Although we didn't have time to post on her actual birthday, we're giving her a shout out anyway. Our camera broke before the cake pictures, so those are on grandma's camera and we haven't gotten them yet. So here's to our last 1st birthday and to many more years for our sweet Cass!!

Happy Birthday Cassie!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Today Todd and I are celebrating our 11th Anniversary. No vacation this year, just a trip down memory lane.

11 happy years together

10 years ago we moved from Salt Lake

9 Robert Todd Devenish

8 years ago, Todd began his job at the Sheriff's Office

7 vacations to Disney

6 Preston Rowe Devenish

5 Riley Paige Devenish

4 beautiful children later

3 hour drives to Kalispell...alone!!!

2 strangers meet at work and fall in love

1 Cassie Allyson Devenish

2 people + lots of memories = 1 Happy Family

Todd, I Love You.

You are my lover, my friend and companion. You mean everything to me and I appreciate you and everything you do. Happy Anniversary.

Happy Birthday Todd!!

It's been said that old age is he** but we've decided that it's the best time of our lives so far!! Happy 38th Birthday to our daddy and my awesome husband. We appreciate and love everything that you do for us!! We hope you have the best birthday ever!!

Summer is Here!!

I was very thankful that this week, summer decided to officially make an appearance, just in time for the end of school. We had all sorts of fun adventures this week including a couple of trips to Terrace View Pool, Kindergarten play days, a trip to Pavilion Park to enjoy the water with some ward families, our cousin Sarah's 6th Birthday party and arts and crafts with the Spokane Valley Parks Department. There were lots of fun things to do to keep everyone occupied. Here are some pictures from our various adventures.

Preston, Izzy and Riley cheesing it up for the camera at Terrace View

Rob showing us how happy he is to be hanging out with the little kids

Izzy, Preston and Jordan playing with the squirt guns at Pavilion Park

All the kids had a great time. Cassie went over to Grandma's this week and had some spaghetti

She loves spaghetti, can you tell? Luckily we took her clothes off before we fed it to her. On Thursday we got to call Michelle Nowels for her birthday. I think the kids told her she looked like a gorilla and smelled like one too. Hopefully she understands that they only say that to people they really love!!

Happy Fathers Day

Just a quick post to tell all the wonderful men in our lives how much we love and appreciate them. Todd is the best daddy and an even better husband. I couldn't ask for more. He sure works hard and we just like to tell him Thank You Daddy!!!

To Ally's dad Bob and Todd's dad Ron, thanks for being there for us when we need you and hanging out with the grandkids. They love you tons!

Summer and Tower of Terror

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring..... This is ridiculous. We get a week of great weather in early May and now we have this. With T minus 4 days of school left, the weather had better shape up quickly or parents all over Spokane will go insane. My kids are so desperate for outdoor activity that they were jumping on the trampoline in the pouring rain today. It's usually a really fun thing to do, but not when it is only 45 degrees. I would have pictures, but I decided that I wasn't going to go stand in the cold rain to get a few pictures. It just wasn't worth it. Play Day is on Wednesday. I am in charge of the water balloon toss. Sure. It better get warmer very quickly.

Preston told me today he was wearing his "I survived the Tower of Terror" T-shirt because he wanted to be back at Disneyland. He said "Hey mom. can't we just go get on the plane and fly there?" I explained that since I don't work for the airline anymore, we can't just go. He then proceeded to tell me that I needed to go back to work "...because Tower of Terror is more fun than riding my bike." Well, I couldn't really argue. ToT really is more fun than riding a bike, although I am not going back to work. I'd really like to go ride Big Thunder, but that's a whole other story!! So this picture is for Preston. We'll go soon buddy!!

Mobius Kids and The Spokane Falls

We recently received a membership to Mobius Kids, which is the Children's museum here in Spokane. My kids have been driving me crazy to go, it's Preston's favorite and we had some time on Saturday. They happened to be having a safety fair that day, with lots of interactive displays' for the kids to play with. When they got there, they received a safety passport which if they got stamped at every booth, they received a prize at the end of the day. Their prize turned out to be a free dinner at Red Robin. I thought that was a great deal, since my kids were so excited to go to the booths'. McGruff the crime dog was there, the EWU police were there and the Spokane Police were there. With that many cops in one place, Preston was in seventh heaven. He Loves the cops. He wants to be one when he grows up so any interaction is "super cool". As you can see from the pictures, he heads straight for the police dress up when he gets there. He then went to visit all the cops, so he could look like them. Riley was having fun on the stage playing in all the costumes. She tried Barney and then Barney with a hat.



The Barney costume was too little so it didn't really fit and it was kind of funny. The hat was cute though. She looked like she should be shopping or something. There are lots of great things for the kids to do like painting, a ball pit, puzzles, dress up and a whole Phillipine village replica. They can buy Phillipine goods with real money and then take it to the Phillipine hut that is there. They can row in the canoe and go "fishing" for fake fish. They love it. There is a little section for Cassie that is all padded and has toys for babies so this was her first experience getting to play there. She was kind of unsure at first but she got into it pretty quickly.

Robbie was at the water table for most of the time. There are plastic pieces that you can change the position of and then send boats and ducks down through the maze you create in the running water. He spent a ton of time figuring out different ways to send the ducks hurling through the endless maze.

Lucky for us, Mobius is downtown. It had been a long time since the kids had been to Riverfront Park and my family decided that we were all going to meet there to look at the record breaking runoff swelling the Spokane Falls. The kids and I packed a lunch and headed over to the Park, stopping to get our picture taken with the Bloomsday Runners Statue.

We wanted to feed the ducks, but the river is so high that they have the stairs by the carousel all taped off and the lower 4 sets of stairs are completely covered in water. We wandered around and then went to the goat. We went to meet the cousins at the blue bridge in between the YMCA and the Pavilion so that we could see the upper falls. The river is moving really fast and they closed down the south suspension bridge because the spray was so strong. These pictures don't do it justice but it's really cool. We then hiked down by the WWP building so that we could really experience the falls. We got the coolest pictures!! I hope my kids will remember this for a long time. When we got down to the bottom, my mom told all the grandkids to get by the wall for a picture. She told us to stand back to take the picture. All of a sudden, this huge wall of water came over the wall and completely drenched the kids. They were so suprised, but they loved it and I don't think the adults have laughed so hard in weeks. It was classic. We did tell my mother that she was an evil grandma because she set her grandkids up. Oh well, they thought it was cool.

The kids on the way down to the falls

These pictures are all of the kids after they were soaked by the giant wave. It was really fun and an amazing display of nature. Sometimes we forget how beautiful Spokane can be. This was a great reminder of our beautiful city and a fun day for the family.

We love the weather and Crazy Hair

We finally got good weather this weekend. It was mid-80's all weekend and it was sooo nice. I went and got the kids a pool on Friday so they would have something to entertain themselves with on Saturday. They invited Ryan and Landon over and spent their time alternating between the pool and the trampoline. The trampoline had the sprinkler under it so it was just like a minature water park (certainly pathetic) and they were having a great time. At least it kept them entertained and out of my hair. Yes, the water is brown, because they had just thrown a handful of the pea gravel in and I made them take a picture before I made them drain it and start over with freezing cold water from the hose!!!

On Sunday we went to Grandma Nowels house to roast marshmallows and hot dogs over the fire pit. It's a family tradition, once it gets warm, and everyone was very excited to start it again. This is Riley and Liam getting their hot dogs ready to roast. It was mass hysteria. I think Preston even had marshmallow in his hair by the time they started roasting the hot dogs. We ate dessert (smores!) first.

After the really long winter, we were all really glad for the gorgeous weather and a chance to hang out and play outside. Cassie and Izzy were headed for the swings. She didn't end up going on the swings, but she was glad to be with Izzy.

We decided to enter Cassie in Family Fun's Baby's Crazy Hair contest. The winner gets a $5000 scholarship. We're not sure we're going to win, but we really like this picture and think she's cute. This is the one we entered.

We're watching the season finale of Dancing with the Stars!! Go Kristi!! Girl Power!!

Sunny Days Grads 2008

Congratulations to Riley!!! She graduated from Teacher Barbara's on Saturday. We were finally at a preschool graduation where we didn't get snowed on, hailed on, or rained on. It was actually hot. I heard one of the mothers' complaining (who apparently had not been to a multiple weather event preschool graduation) that it was too hot. I truly wanted to slap her, but I restrained myself. The theme was pirates, and I thought our pirate was the most adorable, but I am a little biased.

She also got to celebrate her un-birthday this week because she has a summer birthday. I told her I was going to take her picture in her birthday hat. She must have thought I said birthday suit because the first attempt at getting her picture, she was wearing nothing but the crown. Needless to say, she didn't get to say "cheese" until her clothes were back on. Then she wanted to have her picture taken in her swimsuit. It's only 60 degrees here today. They didn't get to have their water party because of the rain, so she was a little upset. This is how the picture ended up.