catch up

thomas turned 7 last sunday. i felt kinda of bad because i didn't have his birthday all planned out and then we had the fire and had to leave for a few days. when they finally went back to school, there were only a few days left in the week and we were going to have his party on friday.
what to do, what to do? well, get a ton of legos and throw them on a tarp at the park. most awesome party ever. the boys loved just building and really didn't want to do any of the contest we had planned. i made the most amazing lego cake, but didn't get any pictures. trust me, it was perfect!!! (right)

thomas and zachary racing cars

(note the cast on zachary's arm. he tripped over his

shoelace and broke it.)

the boys and lily playing legos

janie and jill pounding cake

brooke and her ghetto wrapping paper. even jane is embarrassed.

just kidding brooke, we know you had a horrible week.

help me

Going Home

The evacuations were finally lifted last night. We decided to wait until this morning to head home. Our house is fine, along with Chris' parents, Jon and Teresa Conk, Scott and Dawn Conk, and Matt and Brooke Flake. Unfortunately as many of you have heard, Chris' Aunt Dori and Uncle Chuck lost their home. It is probably the saddest thing that has ever happened. If any of you have ever had the honor to meet these two outstanding people, you have been blessed. They are the two most generous, loving, caring people you could ever meet. Chuck is bishop in his ward. Even though he knew his house was burning he was still reaching out trying to contact people and make sure everyone was safe. He was up at 5:30 yesterday morning carrying on with his duties. What a faithful servant. Please keep them in your prayers. Thank you for your calls and concern. We are totally fine. We had plenty of time to grab some things from our house and from Chris' parents house. It is funny how little material things mean to you when it comes down to it. I am so thankful for my family and my especially my husband. I am so thankful for our gospel. I love the way that everyone pulled together. Calling and making sure that everyone was okay and had a place to stay. Thank you to Steve and Carol for opening up their beautiful ( and very dangerous home for a grabby one year old) to us. Thank you Gloria for the groceries. You don't know how much your hospitality meant to this shaken little family. Please remember the Flake Family in you prayers.

YL Update

As many of you have heard we had a monster firestorm yesterday. We are still under manditory evacuations. As far as we know our house is okay, along with Bill and Sue, Matt and Brooke, Jon and Teresa, and Dawn and Scott. We will let you know if anything changes. Right now we are staying in Dana Point. Brooke is suppose to be on her way with her kids and hopefully Dori. Keep us in your prayers.

FIRE

Just updating from our evacuation point. We are still under manditory evacuation. Our house is okay as far as we know. Guess we will enjoy the beautiful weather at the beach. Too bad we didn't think to grab our swimsuits.

Happy Birthday Kellyn

sorry about the red eyes, they bring out the roses in your shirt

Today is my sister Kellyn's birthday.

13 things I love about her (13 because her birthday is the 13th)

1- She is the best Aunt in the world.

2- One of the only people I know that would be suckered into buying a Princess Jellyfish. (still a favorite.)

3-Shares my love of Mountain Hair. Knows the danger of high humidity.

4-Appreciates the power of a Jerry Lee Lewis ring. She never tries to abuse that power.

5- Gives the best presents.(princess jellyfish)

6-She is very kind and compassionate, a lover not a fighter.

7-She can pack for a week vacation in a backpack. (never checks her luggage)

8-She is very adventurous.

9- She is very talented musician. She can play about any instrument.

10- She loves honey.

11-(thinks) She is a dog whisperer. (has the scars to prove it)

12-She offers you a choice for a baby present of either 1-something practical like shoes or 2- something awesome like an astrological chart. (always go for the chart)
13- She is my sister and I LOVE HER.

Happy Birthday Kel-Tone.

The number you have reached...

is no longer in service. We have disconnected our home phone service. If you need to reach us call us on our celluar phones. (good luck, considering we get crappy reception at home, good thing we are never there!)

Halloween

Indie, Punk (minus awesome pink mohawk), Cheerleader, Alice

can't wait for this pattern to come out. this skirt is so cute! allie did a great job modeling. the apron lady makes the cutest patterns. check her out.

allie vs. jillian

allie comes downstairs with a washcloth vigorously scrubbing her legs. "what happened?" i ask, knowing full well what happened. "jillie attacked me with a marker." really? i didn't know that jills was so proficient at making r's, and a's, and i's.

victory

(13 months today, no teeth, no signs of teeth, lots of smiles)

monday, monday or tough love

meet thomas.

likes: legos, video games, baseball, skateboarding, ice cream, cooking, the beach, wyoming. dislikes: MONDAYS.

poor thomas, just can't get going on mondays. he has always been an early riser, but not on mondays. every excuse possible for why he can't go to school. today was tough on me. he said that he couldn't go to school because he sees the other moms there and it makes him think of me and then he cries. nice try thomas, go brush your teeth and put your shoes on.

usually i'm okay with living with three seasons ( summer, more summer and even more summer) but for some reason, could be the super warm weather we have been having, i am really missing this

photo courtesy of james sanderson

apples

monday we made caramel apples for family night. the kids love unwrapping the caramels. i love for them to help because it is my least favorite job. i think that only like because they eat every other caramel they unwrap. what does jillo do while we make caramel apples? internets of course. she is obsessed with the computer. climbs up on the desk whenever you turn your back.

thomas was awarded the principal's award last week. pretty awesome. he also has been a scoring machine in soccer. scoring the only goals his team has. emily had about 20 shots but never got one in. so close. allie has been loving/hating school. loves it when she is there, hates getting there. jills had to have 4 shots yesterday. today is a fun day. so whiny.

Jillian's Birthday

a week and a half late, but that is what happens to the fourth child.

one year ago today our sweet jillian was born. we love you boomba!

more pictures from the party to follow. much too tired to post now. having a one year old is hard work!

week in review

another week has passed. how does it go so fast? i feel a lot like jills does in the picture. just tired. the secon d week of school went off without a hitch, mostly. thoms was sick on monday, had to go to the doctor because of his asthma. he was worried about coughung at school. he thought that his teacher would get mad. his teacher is super nice, not that any teacher would getr mad at a kid for coughing. his soccer is down to one practice a week!!! he had a game friday against our friend's team. he played well, but they still lost. next time the spiders will be victorious. ems team ruled on saturday. she is being more aggressive and even trying to shoot some goals. one day she will score! back to school night was thursday. met their teachers. loved both of them. excited for the year. allie likes "teeny tots" now. she got in trouble because she was "too tired" to help clean up. actually the teacher said that none of the kids were helping and the parents needed to talk to them about it. jills is taking more and more steps. she will take about four steps and then just throw herself towards the intended target. doesn't matter if you are within arms reach or not. she has lots of bumps and bruises to show for it. kids are excited because grandma koral is coming for jills birthday on sunday. allie wasn't too excited at first, mostly because it was the day she got in trouble at school. i asked her why she didn't want grandma to visit. she said because she smells. awesome. what does she smell like? well not just her but her house and it smells like candy and snow. true, it does smell like candy and snow, whats not to like about that? thomas lost another tooth. it came out at church last sunday. he was mad because the tooth fairy didn't come, well he did he just put the money under the top bunk pillow. good recovery tooth fairy. works everytime.

sweet brothers

we miss you sweet boys.

it makes me laugh that this little baby with the sweetest little personality refuses to smile for pictures.

week in review

what a busy week. first off we celebrated labor day at aunt dori's house. as always a wonderful time was had by all. the best beans ever!!! (not to mention, sorry mother kendig, probably the best hamburger too). too bad we had to cut the party short because, boo hoo, school was starting in the morning. it was also ems bday.(see earlier post for photo montage through the ten years of ems life.)
em and thomas started on tuesday. em is in the 5th grade and has mrs. woinarowicz. (i call her mrs. w.) thomas has mrs. leard. both kiddos seemed very happy with their teachers.

allie started school on wednesday. she was not very happy to be going to teeny tots. she really liked her year at methodist. we did also, but love tiny tots and wanted her to have a go with mrs. shelly and the other lovely ladies there. em and thomas both had mrs. shelly and loved her. she went and really liked it. she has a little friend keely and wants to go back next week.
thomas finally lost a tooth!!! he was really nervous about starting 1st grade with all of his teeth. I guess this really didn't happen this week. we were at disneyland for a final summer hurrah, standing in line at splash mountain. i asked him to let me wiggle the tooth. it was barely hanging on, i gave it a little twist and it was out. he was so happy. wasn't too happy about the gold coin the tooth fairy left. most kids get like five dollars he tells me. i told him that gold was $800 an ounce so really it was worth more than a dollar. he bought it.

jills has been standing and taking steps. she just might be walking before she turns one. she climbs up everything. oh, right now she is stuck on the table. she loves the twenty pound bag of dog kibble (yes, i call it kibble, it sounds better saying she loves eating dog kibble rather than dog food) that daddy brought home for rex. she thinks it is her own personal bag of snacks and helps herself to it several times a day.

finishing off the week with chris' visit to the "wart dr." and him getting very angry with her because she doesn't know how to get rid of his warts and she kept calling him mr. kendig. me going to the doctor because my feet don't work so well and my doctor had no idea what is wrong with them. i can only wear flips flops.

soccer offically starts tomorrow and so no more weekend trips to p.s. too bad because we had a glorious weekend there over labor day. it even rained one day.

here's to a sucessful new school year!!!

happy birthday emily jayne

ten short years ago today our sweet, sweet girl was born. you always hear about enjoying it because it goes so fast. i can remember her being born just as if it happened today. she is the sweetest girl on earth. she is so kind and good to everyone. everyone always says they wish that they could have an emily. no way no how are we going to give her away. she is such a helper, a good big sister and friend. she can't stand to see any hurt or sad. emily is so smart, excells at the piano and soccer. she does what ever we ask her to do with hardly any complaining. she can remember the lyrics to just about any song you have ever heard and can remember the tune, who sings it , name, what commercials it is on...

happy birthday our sweet, sweet tito, we love you and are so lucky to have you in our family.