Snowed In!!!

 

 

This just in! Knee deep snow in Redmond! (Well, knee deep for a two-year-old, about 8 inches). The weather forecasters predicted a massive snow storm would hit us on Wednesday. So, they pre-emptively closed all the schools and everybody stayed indoors. And we waited. And waited. And nothing happened, practically no snow in Seattle or Redmond on Wednesday (very funny considering all the kids who stayed home from school). Then, unexpectedly, we woke up this morning to an amazing snow storm. I haven't seen snow like this in years, if ever. We got eight inches today and it's still falling. Our subdvision is a 2 mile drive up a road called Novelty Hill Road, so as you can imagine, the whole road is going up a hill. It's usually not a big deal, it's a wide, mostly straight road. This morning Mark tried to drive to work at 8:30am. After about 3 hours he finally made it the two miles down the hill. He spent most of that time trying to help other motorists who had gotten stuck on the road. So he got to the bottom of the hill to a Fred Meyer and then he bought some chains for his tires (and some boots in case he had to walk)and he drove back home because the road to work was closed. The weather is supposed to be clear on Saturday for our drive to Boise, hopefully the roads will be clear by then. We are really grateful that the storm didn't hit on Wednesday because BethAnne had a bad infection that wasn't responding well to oral antibiotics and we had to take her to the doctor. She got an antibiotic shot and is doing better now. I hope you all have a lovely week and a white Christmas (with well plowed roads).

Snowy Day

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the kids all bundled up in their snow suits and stuff. It's really cold here, but it's been a beautiful, sunny day. Love you all!

Christmas Portraits at Home

 

 

 

 

Hi Everyone,

I emailed most of these to you, but I thought I'd post them too. We had fun taking portraits at home today. We're doing well here and we're looking forward to going to Boise for Christmas. Have a great week!

Love,
Aubrey

Ho, Ho, Ho

Merry Christmas!! Yep, Brian hasn't shaved in a few days, little Brian has a black eye, and Adam is covered in candy cane, but this is the best we're going to get this year for our Christmas cards (if we get around to sending any that is!) Isn't he a great looking Santa?!

I mentioned how much I would love an electric train around the Christmas tree (can't get one until Adam is old enough to leave it alone), so the boys ran downstairs and brought this one up. They look a little Christmas-morningish is this pic. I think I'm going to make them get dressed and get their hair done this year so the Christmas pictures are cute. Is that vain?

Can you believe this is all the snow we have? It's December 6th!! Those mountains are usually completely covered by now. Crazy! But good crazy. We've been able to play outside almost every day the last couple months. Brian got new skis (actually used - but not 20 years old like the ones he replaced), so he's probably wishing it would snow one of these days...

Last but not least...The only picture I took over Thanksgiving break. I'll post more when Delona sends some. Can you believe how old Caitlyn is looking? You should see Tanner. He's 14 and 6'2" - no kidding!!

Well that's about it for now. Hope you are all happy and well.

Thanksgiving and Kid Comedy

Hi Family,

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Boise! We had so much fun visiting and eating. We're really looking forward to going back in a few weeks for Christmas. We came back last night (Saturday) and we had a lovely Sunday today. Melynie's family came over this evening for pink cupcakes (in honor of a cute kids book called Pinkalicious). It's so fun to have them so close by.

We have some kid comedy to report also. Tonight we called Carl to wish him a happy birthday. Mark, BethAnne and I sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Grace heard us singing and so she came downstairs and said "cake! cake! mine cake!" Then she looked around and asked "Where cake go?". Mark told her that we didn't have any cake. Disappointed, but undaunted, she asked- "Presents???" That's our Grace (she reminds me of someone...) What a cutie!

I hope you had a great Birthday, Carl. We love you and your little family. It will be great to see you at Christmas!

Have a great week, everybody!
Love, Aubrey

Santa!

We had a really great Thanksgiving break. Good food, even better company (Delona's family). On Saturday we went to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square. This was the plan anyway. We drove around for almost an hour looking for a place to park (I forgot the stroller, which limited the number of blocks/miles we were willing to walk!) The mall is closed for construction, and the pay lots were full. Just as we spotted an open spot in the Energy Solutions parking lot, Adam puked all over himself. And his carseat. And the seatbelt. And the blankets next to the seat. Needless to say, we didn't see the lights. We did, however, go to Trolley Square to find food, and ended up finding the best Santa I've ever seen instead. The kids were SOOO excited. Tyler asked for a cuckoo clock. Brian wants a Sorry Sliders game (whatever that is - it's sold out online...) And Cameron wants a scooter so he won't have to steal Brian's (Rick's old one) anymore. I told Tyler he couldn't have a cuckoo clock in his room because it would wake everyone up all night, so he spent the morning writing a letter to Santa explaining the problem, and asking for Dominos instead. Brian also wrote a letter. "Santa it's ok if I dont get a sorry sliders game. Write back soon." How cute is that??? My babies are needing me. I'll post pics when I get some from Delona...

Gingerbread Houses

 

 

Tonight we made Gingerbread Houses, and we had a great time. Even Grace decorated a little tree, but then she ate it. For awhile they were wearing crowns that they decorated yesterday. They are our little princesses. We decided to make the trek to Boise for Thanksgiving, I'm getting a little homesick. So we're really looking forward to spending time with Mom, Dad, Chrissy, Jon and Rick. Everything else is going well here. We saw some good doctors at Seattle Childrens Hospital on Friday and they were very helpful (I was a little surprised after how hard it was to get an appointment with them). They were able to give us a prescription for an ointment to treat BethAnne's scar tissue around her button, an option we didn't know about before. It's painless and it seems to be working so far. In other great news, my friend Melynie's family moved to a condo in our subdivision (probably just for 6 months, but we're thrilled anyway). Melynie and I went to see Twilight on Saturday evening. It was a very funny movie, the problem is that it's not a comedy. We had a great time though. I'm grateful to have such wonderful friends and family. I'm grateful for an amazing husband and adorable children. And I'm grateful for the many blessings our family has received this year from a loving Heavenly Father. We have been truly blessed. Have a very happy Thanksgiving! Love, Aubrey

I realized I forgot to include my Halloween picture of both the kids, so you get another taste of Halloween at the Bousquet's. Also, the picture of Aiden with the goggles on was taken several days after Halloween when he insisted that I get him all dressed up in his costume again and then added his own twist. He is a sweet, funny kid. This has nothing to do with Halloween, but he insists on wearing his shoes at all times, even to bed every night! This has been going on for quite some time, since we got him new shoes a few months ago. If I forget to put his shoes on before bed, he'll wake up in the middle of the night and cry, "Shoes! Shoes" until I come in his room and put them back on him. He also likes to "play" Jingle Bells on the piano. He'll bang out the same chord over and over again and then every once in a while stop and shout, "Hey!" (as in "Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, hey!").

Eva is my big helper lately. She asks for things to do to help out, and sometimes she takes initiative all on her own. A few weeks ago while I was making dinner, she disappeared into her room for awhile, and when she came out she said, "Look, Mommy, I made my bed!" When I peeked into her room, I was amazed to see that she had, and she'd done a pretty good job of it too. The reason this is so amazing (and I'm embarrassed to admit this) is that I have never actually shown her how to make her bed before. She also set the table for me the other night without me asking.

I don't have any kid comedy stories, but I have a Suzie Comedy story. A couple weeks ago I took the kids to the park and sat on a bench to watch them play--a bench that had just been vacated by a guy who was feeding a squirrel. Once I sat down, the squirrel started poking around the diaper bag at my feet and trying to get into it. It was so close I could have reached down and touched it, and I started getting worried that it might try to bite me or something. Since I wasn't in the mood for rabies shots, I started gesturing with my arm and saying, "Shoo, go away." Well, he must have misunderstood, because all of a sudden he jumped right into my lap. I was so startled, I shrieked and stood up, and the squirrel ran a few feet away and looked annoyed. For the record, squirrels have pretty sharp claws (no skin broken, just an uncomfortable prickling on my lap). Anyway, the moral of this story is, "Don't feed the squirrels" :).

Kid Comedy

BethAnne's favorite new friend is my friend Melynie's 5-year-old girl, who is one of the sweetest kids I've ever met. This evening, BethAnne proposed a trade. She thinks we should trade our adorable, very two-year-old Grace for her new friend (they would switch families). BethAnne also said that if we missed Grace we could visit her on Christmas. :)

Snoqualmie Falls

 

 

 

 

Hi Family and Friends,

Early this evening, we went to see Snoqualmie Falls, only 30 minutes away from our house. We live in such a beautiful part of the country. We are so blessed to be here. If any of you ever want a scenic vacation you should come and visit. We hope you are all doing well. Things here are pretty good. I've been doing battle with doctor's offices all week trying to get BethAnne an appointment with a Specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital because of some issues with her cecostomy tube. Apparently, unless you're an existing patient, it's very difficult to get in to see a doctor, even if you have a fairly urgent issue. Finally, after some intervention by our amazing neighborhood pediatrician, we've been able to get an appointment to see a doctor on Friday. We've also planned a trip to go to Cincinnati for some normal tests and a laxative trial in February. It will be a longer trip (about 10 days) but it should be fine. Mark's mom, Carma, has kindly offered to come help Mark with Grace while BethAnne and I are gone. She is retiring next month, and we are very excited to see them more often (they are planning to move to Boise after their house sells, which is much closer to us than Maryland). Well, that's it for now. Have a great week!

Love,
Aubrey

More cuties...

Here they are. In a picture. Together!!!! If you ever need a great picture of mom and dad, email me and I'll send you the uncompressed version. Thanks, Aubrey, for emailing what you had awhile back. They have the right colors on in this one to match the reunion pictures in case they want to display them together...

Cuties!

Here they are.....cute huh??

Mom's Mom's Reunion!

We had such a wonderful time at the Wolthuis Reunion last night! We met at the Ogden train station, where 80 years ago Grandma Shurtliff's family arrived from Holland. There were about 400 people in attendance, wonderful food, displays, a reenactment of the family coming into the train station (this first picture - notice that Aunt Diane is playing Great-great-grandma Hillechiena, and Rielle is Great-aunt Jane, and Scott and Kerry's baby is Grandma Dena! It was feally touching. I feel so blessed to have had grandparents who gave up so much so that we could be born and live in America. They gave up what they knew and loved, so that their children could have a better life.


Here's Heidi and Brandon, Grandma and Kim - Brandon in his real sailor suit! Heidi and Brandon are going to Guam for three years with the Navy - and Heidi just found out that #2 is on the way! Fun!










Here's some people I love! You gotta love me for the red eye! One of these days I'll remember to push the lil' button that's supposed to help.....Love to all of you! I have one more of Chrissy and Jon that didn't publish - so stay tuned :)

crazy boy

So here's a funny story...(or a little foreboding - is that the right word?)...
Brian gets off the bus the other day with a mob of 20 neighbor kids. Three kindergarten girly girls, along with their concerned siblings, all come running up to me, "Brian twisted her arm. Yeah, and he he hit me on the head. He messed up my hair! Well he tried to kiss me! Me too, me too!" They all just stood there looking at me, wondering what I was going to do to him. I was wondering what I was going to do, too.
Brian can't lie worth a darn (he gets this funny look on his face and I bust him every time). So when he looked at me straight in the face and said "I did not try to kiss them!!!" without flinching, I wanted to believe him. But how could I when there were 20 witnesses staring me in the face? After he spent an hour (maybe more) in his room so I could think, I finally dragged the story out of him. The three girls were sitting in the seat behind him. They decided it would be fun to tease him, so they started patting him on the head and kicking his feet over and over and over again. The twisted arm makes sense now, huh? And the kissing part? Well, after I asked him why he lied, he said, "I didn't lie, Mom. I wasn't TRYING to kiss them. I was PRETENDING to kiss them so they would leave me alone."

What am I going to do with that boy?

Kid Comedy

Hi Family,

Our old family friend, Christmas, has a great blog at http://www.thedayafterchristmas.blogspot.com/
She does this great thing where she has posts called "Kid Comedy" and she tells great, funny stories about her kids (like funny things they do and say). I thought it would be a fun thing to do on our blog, because we could always use a funny story, and we have a lot of little kids in our family. So, when your kids do or say funny things, let us know (no pictures needed). You'll find you don't have to think too hard to find good material. I'll start.

BethAnne got in trouble today and had to go to her room for time-out. She was mad so she threw all the hanging clothes from her closet on her floor, dumped most of the books in her bookcase on the floor, and took out all of the clothes out of her dresser and threw them all over the room. As part of her punishment for the mess, she had to clean it all up before she could do anything fun or have any snacks. Somewhat surprisingly, she did a great job cleaning up the mess, under my supervision. When Mark got home, I was still pretty upset by the events of the day, so I asked BethAnne to tell Daddy what happened today. Her answer was classic. She said- "I did a great job cleaning my room today." :)

Your turn.

Love,
Aubrey

Halloween and stuff

Hi! I've been neglecting the blog, but I've loved seeing everyone else's updates. Your kids are adorable and it looks like everyone had fun with Halloween. We got just enough candy, but not too much because we went to a neighborhood party for most of the night. I need to get my kids to bed, but love you all!

Happy Halloween Time!

What a fun Halloween!. For FHE last Monday we carved a big pumpkin. Eva drew the face (a dragon - she looooves dragons!), and Jeff did his best to carve it out. On Thursday Eva had a costume parade at her school. Their preschool meets in a church building and the parade was held in the sanctuary, so the parents could sit in the pews and watch. Each class filed in along the front and then lined up on the steps and sang a couple Halloween songs they had learned. When Eva's class came in, Aiden rushed to the steps and plopped himself right down in front of Eva. Everyone thought that was pretty cute, which is good because he refused to budge until Eva's class left. On Halloween night we went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, which the kids loved of course. I think Eva's favorite thing (possibly even better than eating the candy) was answering the door and handing out candy to the kids who came to our house.

Along with the Halloween pictures I've included one of Aiden dressed up in a crown that Eva made (check out his hair poking out :) ) and of Hopper the cat entangled in a Frankenstein paper crafty thingy that Eva made at preschool.

Gracie, Gracie quite contrary

From November 2nd, 2008

Our sweet Grace likes to disagree with everything. Click on the picture to see a video. Enjoy!

Trunk or Treat Day!

Hi Everyone,
Guess who came to trunk or treat day? Grandma! Mom drove up today, just spur of the moment, and we've had a wonderful time! We've missed Grandma a lot since we moved. We went to our ward's trunk or treat this evening and it was tons of fun. BethAnne decided she wanted to be a witch again this year and Grace looked beautiful in a hand-me-down Cinderella costume. Grace wanted to wear BethAnne's hat, but we decided it wouldn't go very well with her outfit. We look forward to more Halloween festivities next week. We hope you are all well. Make sure you all post your Halloween pictures.
Love,
Aubrey