Crazy Eric's!

We gotta pay homage to Crazy Erics. Its one of the first places Rick took me to to try when I met up with him and we saw his sister Tab. There is no place like this. They use to have more but now there is only one other in belfair. But this one is always my favorite. I love the fair burger with the grilled onions and the toasted bun. And they have root beer float shakes! They even now have prawn dinners. How Pacific northwest can you get!! Ivy

Dinner at Steve and becki's

Playing would you rather. It involved pickles mayonnaise and armpit smelling.

Family home evening

We decided to teach the boys to learn how to do laundry. They already out their laundry away. Its about time they wash their OWN laundry. And with my mom having her knee surgery in January we will need to pick this job up anyway. Ivy

Dump day

Took our 2 weeks of garbage to dump. The line to pay took about an hour. I guess we weren't the only ones. There were lots of garbage trucks and about 30 regular trucks in the line waiting to get out. Oh well better than having a house full of garbage. This post is proof that my life is not very exciting sometimes.

Part two

"Look Lulu! The medic has arrived! We are saved! Dont worry all will be alright!" beamed Dove. OR WILL THEY?!

Dove 2 (It came upon a midnight clear)

We return this holiday season to visit Dove Coco and her two cousins. Sadly once again Dove has come home to share holiday cheer, only to find that the carnage of an unknown chocolate fiend has followed her even here! "Oh no! My cousins Lulu and Kerry! We were suppose to go caroling!" cried Dove. But wait! Could it be? There off to the side amid the ruins of spoiled holiday cheer was her cousin Lulu, clinging to life! "Lulu! Hold on and stay with me! I will call the Coco medics and u will be whole again!" bravely declared Dove Coco. :)

This is what could stop you on base.

Does it scare you? Not me either. Its the big brown eyes. And she is my little sister. I picked her up from base for a little while today so she can have a little Christmas break. She got to open her presents and enjoy some time away from base. Ivy

Reason #2 for a fake tree

What's missing from here? Refer to reson number one.

Reason #1 why we bought a fake tree

Fake trees don't do this even with plenty of water in the bowl of the stand. Did I fail to mention that we went to 6 stores to find a stand and eventualy borrowed this stand from our sister Tabitha? Go Tab! And it fell over 3 times cause the trunk was very skinny and didn't fit in the standard size stand. So next year its our first celebration with a fake tree. A nice 6 foot with mini clear lights from target on clearance for 50 bucks! I am so fine with that. I have paid for more than that in the last ten years for real trees. Ivy.

Hewlens igloo

We just arrived at hewlens. It is snowing hard. They have been working on this igloo for a couple of days. Its 8 feet tall at least. Proof when you grow up you just move on to bigger toys.

Rainforest cafe at seatac mall

We met up with Mel here for dinner. It was nice of him to do this for us. We don't see him too often. Cooper didn't enjoy the moving animatronics in the background. That's him in a panic. There was a big salt water tank on the other side of us that everyone else was looking at. And Rick is taking the picture. Wasn't too crowded. Ivy

Stuck at work

Just because you're at work doesn't mean you can't enjoy the snow. this is in the patio outside the back doors to the icu.

We had 6-8 inches of snow overnight.  It's still coming down.  But not as hard.  We were supposed to have dinner plans at the Hewlens but currently are too chicken to make it.  I did make a big pot of chili which is perfect for the cold weather.  

Pictures of the neighborhood

Some animals in the snow

This is how many inches we have

We got our snow, that is for dang sure! I ventured out in the middle of the road and measured it. I got an easy 6 inches. And I say that cause those streaks you see are more snow coming down to grace is with their chilly presence. It was about 1am when I took this. More weather updates tomorrow. Or should I say later this day.

Mia'a birthday party

Had dinner at red robin today. She is the one way on the end of the table.  One of her birthday presents was a locking diary.   She doesn't have to worry about hiding the key.  It has voice recognition built in.   Seriously.  I bet her brother's are practicing there Mia imitiations.  

Enjoying our winter day

We did finished almost all of our christmas shopping today.  This was taken as we headed out.  The side roads were still pretty icy but the main roads were mostly clear.  The last time we had snow it mostly missed us.  This time it's supposed to mainly hit us.  They just said on the news that the kitsap peninsula could get up to 24 inches.  Is that even possible?  We are set for food and transportation but hopefully our power doesn't go out.  We could cope but it would suck.   We would have to go hand out at mom and dads.  They have a wood stove.  UPDATE-we now are the proud owners of a kerosene heater.  Apparently safe to use indoors.  I've been reviewing the symptoms of CO poisoning just in case.  

-Rick

For several days we've been warned of impending snow.  Night before last it hit most of the puget sound except for around us.  I spent all night watching the weather radar online.  It was a little hole with no snow around us and everyone else got snow.  the news said we were in the doughnut hole.   This morning the hole filled in.  As Tab said we got sprinkles in the doughnut hole now.  Slideshow with a few more photos. 

How could you not love this state?

I love Washington!

When you are inside your house all day..

.... You bake weird shaped snow men. Bring on the Christmas spirit baby!

Zoo lights

went with th cub scouts to the zoo lights.  Was about 32C and it started to snow when we left.  This is inside the aquirium.  Keeping track of cub scouts is made harder in the dark.  Fortunately they make constant noice so you can find them.  -rick

Snowing in BREMERTON

It snowed for a little bit today. Just some delicate flakes of ice floating down from heaven to tickle our noses and turn them red. Let's see If its enough to build a snow man.

-Ivy

Guess who Asher saw tonight?

Mason finaly gave in.

Silvercity

Ivy had her last final of the quarter today so we went out to celebrate. Everyone except mason picked silvercity. He wanted red lobster but he would have ordered Mac and cheese.

VID 00002

Watching dirty jobs

They finished homework, chores, and basketball practice and are winding down for bed. Well mason didn't do all that.

some pics of our broken tv?  Not a big deal but since it's not very old I figured we should investigate.  Vizio wanted us to email photos to them.  Welcome to 2008.  

Here's the link (click here)

Little artists

The boys painted one of our windows last night. I know the picture isn't that good. Ivy painted the front window. They both look great.

Cub scouts

We made luminaries for cub scouts. No one ate the glue.

My volunteer project

The church does a nativity display each year. Its a beautiful thing to see. I came to help set up while Rick took boys to basketball practice. This 10 or 12 foot tree was my endevor with the lady that owns it. It took us 90 minutes to put it together! And they still want it on top of a table as the grand decorated center piece. I wonder how they will get it up there.

My three boys

Watching a little modern marvels.

Date night

Dinner at whiskey creek. My favorite cordon bleu. It's one of my favorite restaurant. I usually don't go there because they didn't take reservations so it was annoying to go there and try to make it on time to a movie. They now take reservations on the weekend. Their chicken cordon bleu is my favorite. The guy behind Ivy is a upright bass player and they had a piano. Kind of nice.

Eve and monroe's birthday party

They had it at the YMCA child watch annex. Apparently you can rent the place for a nominal fee. The pinata was a big hit. Get it? A hit! Ha!

Thanksgiving at Shoups

Turkey day at the Schmidt home.

Getting the feast ready

We are all busy helping put this together. It will be a feast fit for a king!

On our way to the Schmidt home

We are spending Thanksgiving at my sister Jana's home. Its a different way this year than the years before. Usualy we are all happily shoved into our home. But since we discovered we have Jana this past year its nice to spend this one with her and my niece and nephew and brother in law, Greg.

Christmas shopping assignments

In years past as the family has gotten larger we began to do a who to shop for list so we each bought for one person instead of all 25(approx.) cousins and sibling etc.   This year the Hansen side of the family joined in.  Here's the lists if you're like me and can't remember or lost the original email months ago. 

Greene family

Grown-ups limit is $20

Rick & Ivy shop for Theresa & Josh

Tab & Richard shop for Amanda & Jerel

Amanda & Jerel shop for Rick & Ivy

Theresa & Josh shop for Tab & Richard

 

Kids limit is $10

Elise shops for Monroe

Daniel shops for Cooper

Asher shops for Elise

Mason shops for Daniel

Eve shops for Mason

Monroe shops for Asher

Cooper shops for Eve

 

Hansen Family

Kids limit $15

Asher shops for Zach

Mason shops for Cassell

Zach shops for Katie

Anthony shops for Cameron

Cassell shops for Asher

Cameron shops for Anthony

Katie shops for Mason

Adult limit is $25

Melody shops for April

Leahia shops for Melody

April shops for Ivy

Claire shops for Leahia

Ivy shops for Claire

Rick ships for Getty

Getty shops for Rick

Kare kare

Had kare kare at anni's a couple of weeks ago. I've been craving it so I tried to make it. I used potatoes instead of eggplant which came out a little soggy. It was still good. Watching walle. I need more dialogue in a movie.

thanksgiving basket

So today we got a thanksgiving basket from the ward. Caused some mixed reactions at our house. At first I was thinking I know I let Asher wear some pants that are a little too short.  And I guess I need to do a littler work around the house. But were we really assessed as one of the top needy families in the ward? Then we thought well that's ok we just pass it on to someone we know that could use it a little more than us. Part of us thought that we should just keep it because people had been so gracious in donating it. Finally Ivy couldn't handle it any more and called someone from the Relief Society. I guess they had a change of rationale this season and didn't just give it to those who needed it but those that would appreciate it. It's certainly highlights the difficulty of trying to be independent and self reliant and be able to accept help from others.  Ivy is ok with it now and thinks we'll use the turkey for Christmas since she is going out of town for thanksgiving.  I suppose if I took a basket of food over to my sisters and said just thinking of you she would say thanks and appreciate the thought.  I guess that's what our church family just did for us.  

-Rick

Asher's first basketball practice

He does real good in sports. He likes the team effort and seeing his buddies. Him and mason are on seperate teams. They can develope a little on their own. Its so fun to watch.

Movie

We saw madagascar 2. Pretty funny. Boys liked it. They didn't sit with us since they are so old now.

Cubs getting food

took the cubscout out to collect food for the st vincent de paul food bank. We were able to collect a good bunch of food from the generous members of the ward and some friends.

Mason's first b ball practice

Its that time of year again. Yes, basketball! Asher and mason both. This season they are on seperate teams. A little more chaos on the schedule but more fun.

Brownies goes on wrong

Ivy was making brownies from a mix but we were out of eggs. Anni said we could use Mayo instead. They were greasy. You squeeze them and oil would drip out. They smelled good but no one was brave enough to actually eat one. A for effort.

Sock puppets

Ivy and Cooper playing sock puppets. We were at azteca with tab. He ate green onions. His sock puppet only says hi and drools.

Genetic predisposition

Additional proof of the Greene families predisposition for the men to marry taller women.  There are several possible reason.

1.  us Greene tend to be short so we are actually only marrying average height women that look tall in photos?

2.  we have an innate understanding of genetics and are attempting to manipulate the gene pool?

3.  it makes dancing more fun?(according to my grandpa)

4.  we like em tall?

which then makes me wonder why eventually we aren't becoming taller.  So are we marrying taller women that have a dominant short gene?  Lots of questions.  

The photo is off Charlie and Esther Greene 

taken 7/31/1955

My great grandparents

-Rick

Mason salute to bowling

Mason and Elise and Asher went bowling tonight. The boys have their new bowling balls. Mason is the new master bowler now. Yeah, master bowler of cheese!

Cub scouts

Took the cubs to the veterans day event at the fairgrounds. Had a good time. They had some old military vehicles and displays.

Kung fu panda night

Melody came over to hang for the night. Tomorrow is veterans day anyway. Thank your veteran! We are just hanging out and watching the movie. Its all cool here.

Trans siberian orchestra

We took Asher and Mason to TSO. It was loud and bright. Had a good time. Went with Greg, jana, and their daughter Brei. GrandMa themlma graciously watched cooper for us to be able to do this. It is a defenite do over!

Norman's doctor visit

Norman gets a visit to the doctor. He had boo boos on his face. Hope it goes ok. Two minutes in here and he was ready to leave.