Christmas Fun

Santa arrived and brought lots of fun gifts for the kids... Garret is sure he stopped at Cabela's on his way to our house!

Christmas baking

On Christmas, Marc made a ham... I managed to bake a few things... Lemon Meringue pie, Pecan pie and Grandma's Sour Cream Sugar Cookies... yummy!

Our 2009 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas 2009

Our house is busy...as always! We must have a big calendar on the refrigerator to keep track of everyone and their activities!

Katie is 8 years old and in the 2nd grade. She enjoys ballet and was a beautiful dancing flower at her recital in June. She also played soccer again with Dad as her coach. Katie is always happy and has placed a charm on all of the boys in the house!

Garret is 10 and in the 5th grade. He played soccer and basketball again this year. He braved swimming lessons with Katie and did great! He passed the WASL in all areas: math, reading and writing, we are very proud of him. He is our comic relief and question asker.

Conner is 14 and in the 9th grade. We have a high school student and so far it hasn't been too painful. He continues to play trumpet in the band. He enjoyed more hunting with Dad this year. Conner is a great helper and is a truly pleasant teen.

We took a couple fun trips this year... We headed to Vegas in May to celebrate my 40th birthday! We also took our annual camping trip in July. In August we had a fun family vacation in Hawaii. We visited the island of Maui and the kids enjoyed the beach and learning to snorkel. We would all like to return again soon.

Marc continues working at Midway Sewer, had a couple work accidents this year and had promised to be more careful in 2010. He is still seeing a doctor about his eye and we hope to have closure on that soon. He went both deer and elk hunting but only brought home laundry.

I am working still at Foothills. I let go of some of my extra jobs this year in order to have fewer meetings and spend more time with the kids. I have 1st grade again this year with 26 students. They keep me busy and I enjoy the daily challenges that teaching brings me.

Please feel free to browse through our blog and see what we did in 2009.

The Montieths

HOT TUB

The kids are enjoying the new hot tub! They were a little disappointed the snow did not last longer last weekend.

Our Christmas Tree 2009

Off to the tree farm to get our tree... we had already picked it out a couple weeks ago and tagged it with our name. Garret cut it down, he was determined that he could do it this year!

Hockey

We went with the Miracles to a Thunderbird Hockey game...

Jay, Tyler, Conner, Garret and Katie (she is totally thrilled!)

We had planned to go out to dinner before the game, but the local restaurants were all full because of a Holiday parade we did not know about, so... Hockey junk food it is! Our seats look like they are 'nosebleed' but that is the great part about the new arena... there is not a bad seat in the house!

A tribute to the Lakewood police officers... Amazing Grace on the bagpipes will bring anyone to tears... RIP

Re-arranging

We did some re-arranging in the house last weekend. Moved our computer out to the family room and put a futon in the 'play' room. The kids don't know yet that we got them a new tv for Christmas... it will go on the wall so they have more room!

Thanksgiving on Bainbridge

We spent Thanksgiving this year with our friends the Vandleurs... a good time was had by all and the food was GREAT! We spent some time playing ping-pong and the kids think that now we should get a table for our garage...

Disney On Ice

Katie and I had a Girl's Night Out! We enjoyed going to Disney on Ice with my friend Denise and her daughter Olivia. Katie got a $12 snowcone! (yikes stuff was expensive) Her favorite part was the Little Mermaid.

Katie's Soccer Season

Katie had a fun soccer season... she enjoyed playing goalie when coach "Dad" let her. She also had fun because her friend Sarah was on her team too! Looking forward to next year...

Happy 8th Birthday Katie

Katie had a bowling birthday this year. She invited 8 friends and they all came to bowl with us! We had brownies and ice-cream...

Go Fish

Katie and Garret were members of a drama class at our school for the last 6 weeks. They had a fun time and all did a good job in the play for the school and that night for the parents. Garret was the 7 legged-octopus and Katie was a clown fish.

Halloween 2009

Soccer Stars

Soccer picture day today! I got to use the backdrop when the photographer was done...

Garret gets GOLD!

Garret passed all 3 sections of the 4th grade WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) last year. Tonight we went to the celebration where he got a GOLD medal! Way to go Garret... math, reading and writing! We love you buddy!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

Lost the first one last week and the other tooth came out on Friday night! She wasn't too thrilled to have her picture taken, but decided it would be okay if she had company... so one with Tiger (the most expensive cat we own!) and one with Cotton... he slept through the excitement.

Puyallup Fair

Today we "did the Puyallup"... not sure if we did the trot or the gallop?

We don't always go to the fair, but this year we braved it. Last time we went, I think Katie was a baby and we left the boys with a sitter... I did notice today, it was so much easier without a stroller, a diaper bag, and a screaming toddler??

It was such a fun day, we might do it again next year! Kids in our area always get free fair tickets and so do the teachers, so we all got in for free... there was still: parking, lunch, cotton candy, rides... ok, so not free all the way around.

We had to stop by the photography section, where our good friend (former daycare lady) Arlynn had entered a photo she took of Katie.

I wasn't supposed to take pictures in the pavillion, but I snuck one anyway... Her picture did not win in its category, but it did win a "Judge's Choice" award.

Labor Day Weekend

Weekend at the Cowlitz... fun was had by all!

Marc caught the only steelhead of the day!

These pictures actually make it look like the weather was nice, but in reality it poured down rain almost the whole time... I guess we know after all this time... the weather doesn't always cooperate!