We are still alive, but barely. This has been a fast and busy semester. Alisha has done a masterful job thought staying on top of things while I have been away.
Well, lets get to business. I'll fill you in on the happenings around here.

The kids figured out how to climb up the wall. Both of them were doing it. Forget about driving us up the wall, they go up it themselves.

Fall Fun

We went to the pumpkin patch and purchased some pumpkins.

We drove past a farm that had hundreds of people at it. Fifty feet away we pulled into another farm

and we were the only ones in the pumpkin patch. WHAT FUN!

Anson loved the pumpkins. He had to walk around.

We went to another farm that had some other fun things to do like look 

at pigs, a TP, a straw maze, and these.

These are the actual outfits we wore that day

Birthday Fun

Mason turned 5 this year. I can't believe how fast he is growing up, all of them. He wanted a tie-dyed cake, then Alisha made it into a die as well. She is so clever. We had a blast eating it and celebrating. He told everyone for months that he was going to be 5.

Halloween Fun

The kids enjoyed Halloween this year. They went actual trick-or-treating. I wasn't able to go to the trunk-or-treat because I was at an externship in Utah (Thanks Eileen for letting me stay with you). On Halloween Day though we all went out together at a neighborhood nearby. The kids loved all of the candy.

Snow Fun

The second snow of the season was a good one. The kids and Alisha built a four-snowball snowman. They were quite proud. The next day it was melted though. :(

Haircut Fun

This is Anson's first haircut. He got it a week ago. He did a great job holding still. He looks so handsome!

Santa Fun

We had our Ward Christmas Party last night. The kids were sure excited to see the guy in red.

However, Kinbree didn't tell him what she wants for Christmas, "It's a secret", she said.  

Anson even had a great time as  you can see.

Other Fun

Alisha recently put a slip cover on our couch. It looks fabulous. She did it all by hand! I am amazed at her sewing superbness. If I had a pic I'd show ya, but I don't. 

I, Chance, have had a stressful semester, and we have successfully submitted applications to doctoral programs. We are almost done. Who know what the future holds.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 The First Presidency Christmas Devotional was wonderful this year, as well as the new Bible videos put out by the Church. 

Here is a link to watch them if you desire.

Christmas Devotional

Bible Videos - Nativity

Easter

Wowza! Where have we been? Lets just say it's been a LONG semester, but it is finally over.

Easter was beautiful. I love Easter. It is my favorite holiday. We tried to focus even more on our Savoir this year. We did a lesson each night following Christs last week, and then on Sunday the Easter Bunny did not disapoint. He (maybe it's a she) brought us our treats to celebrate the Resurrection. We ate to much candy, had a lovely meal with the Bradfords and enjoyed the beautiful weather, while thinking about our Savior. What a blessing to know that He Lives!!

Happy Birthday!

This little girl turned 3!!! We didn't know drama was going to be born 3 years ago, but boy has it made life fun! She is such a good sister to her brothers, and a good little helper to her mama and papa. She acts like a 16 year old and we have to remind her occasionally that she is really just 3! But we are glad she is ours!!
Happy Birthday Kinbree!
We Love You

Read on. It's a good one!

What do you call poop that's in the toilet?
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"Turd-les"





What do you call a dad helping his kid go poop?
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A Poopa!

Yep that's our life! We have to keep ourselves entertained during our long visits with Mason to the bathroom :). Hope you laughed.

October in Review

Wow, October flew. Here are some of the things we enjoyed!

Pocahontas- After watching Pochahontas Mason asks, "What is that on her temple body?" So I replied that sometimes the Indians drew on themselves. After my shower I come to find this! I couldn't really be mad about it.

Pumpkin Patch- We went to the Green Bluff, which is a community of farmers about 20 minutes away, that have all different sorts of stuff. Most of the farms are come and pick your own produce. It was a beautiful day so we headed out with the Bradfords. Apparently no one told us that the whole city of Spokane was going to the pumpkin patch the same day! It took us a whoopin 2 Hours!!! to get there. Ridiculous. You may ask why we didn't turn around. Well that is a mighty fine question.
We stuck through it studying words for the GRE and finally arrived and picked out our perfect pumpkins.

Pumpkin Carving- We had our annual pumpkin carving FHE Monday before Halloween.

Lucky Boy! He apparently got his fingernails painted.

It turns out that Mason's and Kinbree's pumpkins were WAY to hard to even get a knife in, so we just did the big one. They insisted on scary so this is what they got. Kinbree then was freaked out the rest of the night because of it and the shadow is cast on the wall.

"Trick or Trunking"- The kids were so excited ALL week to go "Trick-or-Trunking", as Mason liked to call it :). We went to our wards trunk or treat on Saturday night and got the goods. Since Halloween was on Sunday we just pretended it was on Saturday, because the kids would never know!

With our friend Allie!

Cute coat Eh? 5 Buckaroos!

Since we didn't have a party this year, we didn't come up with costumes for ourselves. But we still wanted to be festive, so we went to the dress up drawer and found these fun hats. Thanks for makin em' for us Richelle! Great go to Halloween Costumes. Oh and Mason is just behind everyone. He didn't want a picture. He only wanted to go get candy!

ADORABLE!!- I just can't get enough of this sweet boy. We are attached! I can't leave for too long because he just loves his mama so much, and her milk! But I don't mind because he is growing up way too fast! He started rolling over the middle of October at 3 1/2 Months. Crazy! He weighs 15 1/2 lbs, and is so content. So easy going and laid back. And that Smile! It gets me every time!! It makes my job all worth it!!

Now we're ready for Christmas!!!

Alisha

This is a tribute to my sweet wife!

I love Alisha so much! She is an amazing wife and mother! Each day she spends hours with our 3 little children. Taking care of them and making sure they are okay. She does diaper duty and she even helps little boys who decide to flush an entire roll of toilet paper. She feeds them, all one of them more often than others. There is an endless supply of things to clean up. She doesn't let it ruin her day when the house, which was clean five minutes ago, looks like a tornado (Mason and Kinbree) swept through the area.

I know many of you may be thinking, "What did Chance do that he has to try and sweeten up his wife?" Well, let me tell you...there are to many and I don't have the time to write them all down. Fortunately, my sweetheart is so understanding, forgiving, loving, and supportive.

Thanks for being the most wonderful wife ever!

I love, love, love, love, love you Alisha!

A-Amazing
L-Lovely
I-Incredible
S-Sweet
H-Hot!
A-Amazing (she gets that twice because she is so amazing.)

That was fun! I haven't made one of those in years.

I could go on and on about my dear wife, and I think I will.

She makes dinner for us every night, she makes "puffer" pancakes in the morning, she feeds the little guy in the middle of the night, she washes the clothes, she plays house, builds ships, gives hugs and kisses, and on and on...

okay I'm done for now! Love you Hun-E!

Mmm-Bye!

The BIG 4!

Mason turned the BIG 4 this week and couldn't be happier! He woke up every morning for a week saying, "It's Wundsday?! It's my birthday!" He has grown up so much and acts older every day. It is pretty easy to please a 4 year old. He requested a spider cake and would have been happy with just that. He was so excited when the "present man" (FedEx man) showed up with his present. I too was happy that it finally arrived on his birthday. We celebrated with a puffy pancake breakfast, pizza for dinner, and our friends the Bradfords over for cake and ice cream! Crazy its been 4 years. Thanks for always making us laugh and being our BIG boy!! We love you!!

What did we do?

So I came across this today...

Notice the name?

Yes, that is the family name Anson is named after...

Notice the spelling?

Well, we named our little man Anson Jacques...

Hmmmmm.......

Oh, well. I am not going through the hassel to change it now. (Unless Chance wants to do it.)
Although it's different we still know where it comes from. Right?

It just feels a little embarrassing. And it will probably weigh on my mind for a while. Grrrr.

Apparently no other family members have noticed either.

.......

On another note, Anson is growing so fast. He is such a cute happy baby and I can't get enough of him and his chubbiness! He is all smiles and I love this stage now that he has started making those little talking noises. He is definitly a mama's boy right now, and I love it! Oh, I just love him!!

She Did IT!!!!

YES, it is True! Kinbree potty trained HERSELF!!!! Oh, how I love it!! I have been waiting for this day. She has been aprehensive to go poop poop because Mason has issues, but she successfully did that today too. And wouldn't you know, Mason decided to take his sisters lead and go poop IN THE POTTY. BY. HIMSELF. This is HUGE! Oh the JOY!!

And this little guy sleeps through the night!!! He is our first baby to ever do this!!


One more thing, since were on a roll, Kinbree has started sleeping through the night!!! Ah!!! We have been having issues with her waking up 2-3 times a night for a LONG time. Like ever since we took her out of a crib, which was probably about a year ago.

There must be something in the air. Actually it all started after Kinbree decided to stick a key in the electrical outlet! I Don't know how she didn't get hurt because everyone else felt it, but aparently it did some good!
OK, All joking aside it is a miracle that she isn't hurt. IT was a BIG Expolsion. It welded the key to the key ring. Her guardian angel was with her once again! And since were on that topic now, said angel must have been with her again on Sunday when she ran out in front of a car after church! Oh Kinbree! the Joy and heart attacks you can bring in ONE week! We LOVE YOU, and Mason and Anson.

GREAT JOB on all of your acomplishments sweet children of mine!!

1st Day of School

Chance had his first day of school on Tuesday! He is super excited. We know he will do great and make a great Counselor. We love You Papa Bear!!

We decided we must celebrate the next two years of our life. What better was than to make a cake! Cheers to the next two years! I hope we all make it.

Nothing fancy, just some lemon cake and "whopped" cream.

Thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate!!

Who knew...

...A pair of pants could be so versatile?

1.Fat Pants
Have I ever shared my weight loss story?
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(I love how it looks so real, well almost)

(Oh the good old days!!)
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2. Pants made for 2!

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3. Hot Darn PJ's

(Yes, He really wore them to bed.
Just some little slits in the pockets and they fit perfectly!)
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4. Saucy Lingere!
(Who knows how to spell that)

I'd Love to see Chance in those!! Huba Huba!
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5. Cute Mini Pajamas
And One Happy Little Boy!