and GingerSnap makes 7!

Let me tell you a story. Aaron's Dad, Step Mom, and Grandma decided to send money this year for Christmas. They wanted us to decide what to do with it and let them know through pictures what our decision was. So...we had a family meeting. We decided we would all give out two ideas and then take a vote. I voted to go buy a bunch of presents and drop them off at Toys for Tot. Or, I suggested we go somewhere for the weekend and play. Aaron voted for a Home Depot card or Stereo Speakers. Preston wanted a monkey. Christopher wanted to split the money and have each of us shop for another member of the family, not ourselves. Then Jenessa brought up a puppy. That is all it took! Aaron and I quickly realized we should have put in place guidelines to this voting. Too late. We thought we could evoke Executive Power and each parent take two votes, but the kids put up a fight. The rules were not set before the voting process began. We could all vote for two things. Of course the puppy got the most votes and split the money and shop for everyone else took second. We did a secret ballot to see which of the two final ideas would win out. As you can see from the pictures, the kids won. Aaron and I voted for split the cash, but clearly were out numbered.

We tried having a dog about 10 years ago, and frankly, it was not a good experience. We didn't do our homework and we had three kids that were 9 and younger. We had no time to devote to the dog and we also picked the most hyper and hardest dog to train. We lasted about 3 months before we sent him to live on a farm. (It really was a farm...in the Midwest.) We decided that this time has to be different. This dog will actually be a part of our family. We want to make it work. We have spent the past week learning about different breeds and there has to be more to it than just picking out a cute dog. For one thing, the dog has to be easy to train or I want no part of it. Who is training this dog? Well....obviously me. As a result, my vote has to count at least 10 times. Once we decided upon a breed, we had to find a dog that would fit our budget. We went to a pound, but they only had about 6 dogs and none that would fit our lifestyle. The kids decided to chip in some of their own money and we started to look for puppies. We found one! It is an Miniature Australian Shepherd. She is about the cutest thing we have ever seen. Plus, she will be easy to train. That makes her even cuter!

We met a nice couple with three kids who live in Federal Way and went to their house to meet the puppy. The mom of the pups is named Snickers and the dad is Oreo. They had 10 girl pups in this litter and named them all after cookies. The name they chose for the puppy we fell in love with was Gingersnap because of the brown eyebrows! She has a sister with similar eyebrows and her name was Gingerbread. Gingersnap won our hearts though. We don't have to keep the name, but it's growing on us. It will help us remember that we got her for Christmas. She is only 4 weeks old right now, so she will stay with her mom and dad for a while longer. She will join our family in about 3 to 4 weeks. It will give us time to do some homework and puppy proof our house. Aaron and I have to admit that we might just like this idea of having a puppy after all.

We Tried to Go!

We were excited to get the call this morning telling us that Sacrament meeting was on today, in spite of the weather. So, we all got ready to head out the door. When we opened the garage door, there was a bit of snow that had drifted up against it. To make sure it would close, I started to shovel it away from the door. I found out that we had freezing rain during the night when I took a step out on the driveway and started to slip. I started to panic a bit wondering how this trip was going to end. Fortunately, I ended up stopping at the bottom of the drive when I hit the snow on the street. We decided that it might be best to not try to make the trip to church. :) Here is a video of my slide. (Sorry for the sidways view)


We ended up having a sort of service at home by watching a church Christmas video.


Oh well...we tried!

Snow Day = Long Commute in Seattle

Today's commute was a long one. The day started with a three hour bus ride to downtown Seattle. It snowed about 4 inches and put a layer of ice on the freeway. Cars were abandoned on the interstate and people were walking. We even passed an empty bus on the freeway. It was one of those extra long buses that bends as it rounds corners. This one had jack-knifed on the freeway and was just sitting there. We moved our way around it and I thought, "Man that would be a bummer to have that happen!"
Our bus driver was great! Once we hit the first stop in downtown Seattle, the whole bus let out a cheer for her skill and ability. She felt like a hero!
So, I finally got to the office and got some stuff done. The whole while the snow kept coming down. I was starting to get worried that the bus service would be cut off, so I decided to leave at about 12:30. I jumped on the bus and started to head home. As we were moving along, there was wreckage going both directions. Cars off the road, bumps and dents everywhere. We made one stop and almost did not start moving again. The chained tires just spun for a while. Finally, we started inching along. Not long after that, one of the passengers said, "ooo that truck is across the road." Sure enough, a delivery truck was blocking the opposite lanes of traffic. Several cars and our bus were trying to stop. At this point, we were headed down hill on about an inch of ice. Needless to say, the loaded bus did not make the stop. This bus was also one of those long buses that has the back end that bends on corners. It also bends when the front of the bus stops but the back does not. There were a couple of screams and profanities and then our bus was jack-knifed. Just so you know, it is a bummer when your bus is jack-knifed.
So myself, with my 120 closest new bus friends, walked the rest of the way down the hill in a blizzard to the closest transit center. Luckily, it was only about 1.5 miles away.
Here are some pics of the spot where the bus and other cars had troubles.

It is hard to tell from this shot, but the back of the bus is at about a 90 degree angle from the front of the bus. Clearly, people were a bit surprised!



This is looking up the hill at the bus and the delivery truck across the road.




This is a look down the hill at the other cars stuck on the ice.



All in all, I spent about 6 hours traveling today. Long Commute!

Old Pics

Stacy and I have recently received some old pictures from when we were kids (Thanks Lynne and Dad!). I am amazed at the memories that come back when we receive them. Not only do Stacy and I get a kick out of seeing them and reminiscing, but it is great to see the reactions on our kid’s faces when they realize that their parents were also young/small at one time and that we actually look like them! Or is it the other way around? Either way, got to love the old clothes, haircuts, and colors of the 70's.

Stacy's on the right. Love the funky colors!

Pic with the Osmonds (Donny and Marie). I guess Donny even had purple socks on! Stacy is the one in front of Donny.


Donny's car. I thought he would have been driving something cooler like maybe a Pacer.


Nice Suits! Stacy is on the left.

I love this picture. I have no recolection of where we were but got to love the "Happy Time Orange Soda"!

My brother and I used to love running through the sprinklers! I remember one time that I cut the bottom of my foot on a metal sprinkler head. I was so bummed out because the next week I could not go in the ocean due to the cut. One other memory about that time...We saw a school of flying fish lift out of the ocean during that trip to the beach.


This was taken one Easter morning. We were so excited to have our fake lawn mowers! See the red and white post in the far upper left of the photograph? Remember when Brian pulled the neighborhood fire alarm and all the fire trucks that came to see what the problem was? I am sure that Brian does! :-)


I love this shot. It looks like I am being held by my younger brother Shawn. He and my Dad are the spitting image of eachother!

Halloween...Hatch Style

I have these visions of how I would like life to be. Especially during the holidays. I would love to have a family outing where we go to a pumpkin patch, have a hayride, pick out the perfect pumpkin, then go home and carve with smiles and pictures galore. I would love to plan my kids' costumes months in advance and have them made to fit perfectly and set out the night before. I would love to go trick or treating as a family, hand in hand with Aaron at my side with the kids skipping along. So not so when it comes to Hatch reality! Life is crazy right now, so Halloween was last minute-lets see what we can throw together. It started with Aaron and Christopher carving a pumpkin last minute on a Monday night right before Pack Meeting. I forgot to unpack the carving tools when I got out the Fall decorations, so Aaron had to be inventive with finding new carving tools. Somehow we screwed up on the date and carved the pumpkin a week early. It rotted and we had to throw it out. Next Monday night, Aaron got a new pumpkin on the way home from work and they last minute started again. This time Preston got involved. I think they turned out great! Jaycee got a pumpkin too, but she had so much homework she didn't have time to carve it. I have never really been a fan of this holiday. Even as a kid. I would always dress up as a fat coach. I just wore big sweats, filled with pillows and wore my dads hat and whistle. It kept me warm and I was dressed up enough to at least get some treats from the neighbors. Now that I am older, I have to really force myself to be excited for my kids on this holiday. I get the candy part, but the dress up and scare people is just not my thing. Ironically enough, that is exactly what Christopher wanted to do this year. Just scare people. I'm not sure what he is, but he came up with his own costume. I found it scary. Preston decided to go as Harry Potter, and I talked Jaycee into wearing a poodle skirt I made years ago for Jenessa. This all came about 2 days before Halloween. Phew, just in time! The day was somewhat crazy, keeping with true Hatch form. Jenessa had a swim meet tonight at Rogers High School. It was district prelims. She was not thrilled this was taking place on Halloween. Aaron took her and she did AMAZING! Out of 4 events, she got personal bests on 3. Way to go Ness! YOU ROCK! She qualified for district finals in two events that will take place today. If she swims well, she will go to State in two weeks. It's looking pretty positive right now. So, while Aaron was at this swim meet, I took Jaycee to a Halloween Party, dropped Christopher off at the Fullers, took Preston around the block with my neighbor and tried to be home enough to hand out all the candy we bought. Right when Ness got home, she headed to the football game and off to a friends until Midnight. Poor Aaron had to wait up until then to go pick up both girls. We both are going to be exhausted today. Jaycee has a soccer game in Sammamish and Ness has District finals. It will be a long day, but yet rewarding at the same time. I love to watch my kids compete and share in their excitement.

So...my fantasy about Halloween didn't come to pass. Thank goodness. How cheesey was that?! Life is what it is and we will roll with it!

****Update*****
Jaycee won her soccer game 2-0. She even had a shot on goal. That is not an easy task at her level of play. Way to go Jaycee! Her team is undefeated this year and are in 1st place in their league. She plays left midfielder.

Ness had another personal best on the 200 Free Relay by dropping another second. What an amazing two day meet for her. She was dropping time right and left. Sadly, only the top 7 teams can go to state and that particular relay took 9th even though she dropped a second. On the 400 Free Relay, she swam up to par, but the relay team took 10th. We couldn't be more thrilled with her performance though. She kicked butt and went further this season than last.

Preston's Playin'

It is time for soccer and we want to talk about how good Preston is doing but first a bit of a flash back...
When Preston first started to play I don't think he understood that you actually get touched and sometimes even pushed. All he had done prior to playing on his first team was kick the ball back and forth in the back yard with his siblings or mom and dad. Non contact fun for all. So soccer would be a blast right? Here is the picture before we hit the field.

Although it is a bit blurry you can see he was excited and ready to go play a game.


Here is the on the field picture just a few minutes later.

What the heck are these other kids doing?!
I think someone touched me!!




Well we are happy to say that those days are behind him and he loves playing. I think the past few years seeing Christopher and Jaycee bump, fall, get bruised and bloodied during their games has helped him understand you might get "touched" during a game.


Even though we are not supposed keep track at this age level...his team is undefeated. They are starting to learn how to stay in a position and pass the ball to another player rather than just kicking it.


This last picture captures him kicking his first goal. I was lucky enough to catch the shot. Way to go Preston!

Soooooooo CLOSE!

Breast stroke leg of the 200IM

Ness is in her 2nd year swimming for the High School and is doing amazing! She has already beaten ALL of her best times from last year. She had a great meet today! She had personal bests in three out of four events. Her and three other teammates timed a 3:51.81 in the 400 Freestyle relay. They needed a 3:51.00 to qualify for State. SO CLOSE!!!! It is the third best time in school history. They timed a 2:00.00 in the 200 medley relay and needed 01:57.4 to qualify for State. SO CLOSE! This is the fourth best time in school history. She also had a personal best in 100 Yard Backstroke of 1:09.20. That qualifies her for Districts. She has also qualified for 5 other events for League. Way to go NESS!

The relay team: Alena, Jenessa, Michelle, Rachel

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Suggestions Anyone??

We are having family come visit December 27 thru January 2nd. As mentioned in the previous post, I'm an organizational freak. I would love to have some sort of idea of what activities we could do. This particular family was here last year in September and we did the usual Snoqualmie Falls, Pikes Place, Space Needle and even the Underground Tour (wouldn't recommend). I was wondering what people do here in the winter. Do any of you have any fun family traditions or places you visit at this time of year? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I've been Tagged, dang it!

Not only have I been tagged, but I've been tagged twice. I ignored it the first time (sorry Lynne), but I don't think I can ignore it now. Debi lives too close to me. So here it goes...6 random things about me.

1. I LOVE my husband. We very rarely double date or go on vacation with other couples. It's not that I don't enjoy spending time with other people, I would just rather spend time with him. The last few years we have been able to go to fun places like Germany and Amsterdam and a few places in the states. But, some of our funnest dates are ones like grocery shopping or picking up the kids from their various activities. Now that the kids are older, schedules are tight and we squeeze our dates in when we can. I kinda like the guy.

2. I LOVE my pillow. One of the best inventions. Ever since I was a kid and teachers would have you make a list of what you would grab in case of a fire, my pillow was ALWAYS at the top of the list (after family of course). How can one go through a crises, such as a fire, without a good pillow to get some sleep? I normally travel with my pillow. I've learned it CAN fit in a suitcase. You wouldn't believe the looks I get when they check my luggage in security because my pillow is big. I just explain I can't enjoy my vacation unless I have a good nights sleep. Aaron is glad I don't pack all 3 of my pillows.

3. I went through a Backstreet Boy phase about 8 years ago. Yes, I just said the Backstreet Boys. Met other ladies online and we traveled to Vegas, Seattle, and Texas to meet and go to their concerts. I even managed to sneak up front and shake Howies hand at one concert before a security guard pushed me back. Ah..good times. I owned all their videos and knew their voices by heart. Still can tell their voices apart if any of you are curious. The phase ended several years ago, but I still keep in contact with the ladies I met.

4. I am a organizational freak. I love to be organized. I clean things on certain days, my food is categorized, my closet is aligned in like colors and styles, my kids' toys have certain spots. I could go on and on...! I remember weird things as well. My siblings will bring up a story from the past and I could tell you exactly what I was wearing. Someone should have told me that yellow stretch pants with an overgrown green sweater with bright yellow stars was not a good outfit to wear for my drivers test!

5. I am a huge Green Bay Packer fan. When I say huge, I mean huge. I read the Packer websites everyday to find out the latest. My husband gets me the NFL Sunday ticket every year for my Birthday so I can watch my beloved Packers. My home teachers even know not to come during game time. (Yes, I watch on Sundays) I even know what's going on with other teams and what the standings are.

6. I also love my beloved UTES! I have been watching Ute basketball since I was a kid. My dad used to take me to work and I would go through the escape tunnel at the Huntsman Center and watch them practice. His office was always up front, so I would stand at the door and get the basketball players autograph when they passed. I can remember starting lineups from back in the 80's. It's been hard since we moved here because we don't get Ute games televised. Well, I changed that on Saturday. I called the cable company and told them my sad tale and convinced the gal to give me the MTN channel. She felt for my cause and even gave me a discount. I only pay $2 a month to watch my Utes play football and basketball. Kudos to that nice lady!

Church....the new lost and found

We have learned in the last year that our church is a great lost and found. Let me tell you two very cool stories about my son Christopher.

First: Last year my son played soccer and was given a soccer ball to bring to each practice. We, of course, put his name on it so it could be easily identified. He accidentally left his ball at Ravensdale Park one practice and we could not locate it. He was extremely upset about this. A few months later we went to a primary activity at the church and his soccer ball, with his name on it, was sitting in the church foyer. How did it get there from being lost at the park? We have no idea. It pays to go to church.

Second: Christopher has a favorite zip up jacket that he loves to wear, but continually leaves places. He left this one at the school last year before summer break. He realized what he had done while we were school shopping this year. He was so upset and was hoping the school still had his jacket. First day of school he learned that they give all the lost and found items to charity and therefore his jacket was gone. He was so devastated. Not only because he lost his favorite jacket, but because I refused to buy him a new one. Need to teach him responsibility. Well strange enough, Christopher found that jacket hanging up at the church today. Wow! I didn't even believe it until he showed me the tag with his name written on it in my handwriting. So how did this jacket that was left at school months ago end up at the church today? I have no idea. Again....it pays to go to church.

Have any of you lost any items lately? My advice....go to church!

First Day of School

Jenessa started High School this morning. Yikes, I can't believe I have a child that old. As you can see, she starts the day quite early. She leaves for Seminary at 5:40 a.m. and then after school heads to swim team practice and doesn't get home until 6:00 p.m. She will have this schedule until December. Then we start Drivers Ed. She is a busy girl.

Jaycee is a 7th grader at the Middle School. She is still playing competitive soccer and has a busy schedule after school as well.

Christopher is a 5th grader. His big excitement this year was that he gets to ride at the back of the bus.

Preston is in 2nd grade and is lucky enough to have the same teacher as last year. This lady is amazing and is exactly what Preston needs.

Utah Trip

August 15th thru the 24th, we took our trip to Utah to visit family and friends. Aaron drives us down there, stays two days, and then catches a flight back to Washington for the week to work. At the end of the week, he takes a flight back to Utah, stays a couple of days, and then drives us home. Those two weekends we just pack in the activities. The first weekend, we met Adams daughter Tessa for the first time. We spent the day in Bountiful swimming. My sister Christy took the kids for two nights in a row, then my brother Scott took them on Monday night. The kids enjoyed movies and food while spending time with their Aunt and Uncle. Plus, Aunt Nicole loaded the girls up with clothes. Yeah! Monday thru Thursday we have no pictures because I don't dare touch Aarons camera. It's not that he won't let me, I just don't want to screw anything up. During those days, we spent time with friends and family. I went to lunch with my friends, Kim Olsen, Stacy Abbott, and Brooke Bone. Good to catch up. The kids spent time in Syracuse with old friends. Hard to say goodbye again. We did lots of school shopping and also went to Layton Surf n Swim with the Hatch cousins. It's always fun until someone poops in the pool and they have to close it down. The next weekend, we spent an afternoon at Layton Park with the Hatch Family feeding the ducks and visiting with each other. Then, Renee was kind enough to take us all back to her house for ice cream. Then we headed off to my parents cabin near Park City. It is one of my most favorite places to go! There is nothing like sitting on the back deck, curled up in a blanket, and watch the Provo river. I was so exhausted by the time we got to the cabin that I did this for about 6 hours on Saturday. Very relaxing. We were also able to get in some four wheeling. The kids were thrilled because we actually let the older three ride by themselves this year. Thanks to my parents who let us stay for the 10 days and fed and entertained us. Call us crazy, but we do the 13 hour marathon when we travel to and from Utah in one day. We just don't like the extra hotel costs to split it into two days. The kids did much better this year, but were thrilled when we finally pulled into the driveway. Thank goodness for modern technology with the DVD player, ipods, Nintendo DS and gameboys. How did my parents ever survive when we were younger???

Mariners Game

Since moving to Washington, we have tried to explore all we can. That includes going to see the Mariners play. We thought this would be fun for Preston since he started playing baseball this year. Well....I can say that I did it. I never really have been a baseball fan. The game just moves way to slow for my taste. After sitting through hours of this game, I decided I didn't want to do another unless one of my children was actually playing. Aaron has been to 3 major league games now and I asked him if they were funner if the teams who played were actually good. He just kind of nodded no. Sorry to all baseball fans out there, I just would rather watch football. On a positive note, we did enjoy spending time together as a family. They gave out Mariner baseball cards and Preston loved to go through his pile and find the one that was up to bat. He really did enjoy it, so it made the trip worthwhile. Funnest part of the night was watching the guy sitting next to Aaron. He was as excited about the game as I was. He couldn't stay awake and kept leaning in toward Aaron. Aaron posed next to him and has a weird face because he was trying so hard not to laugh. Ahh..good times.