Reformation Party Fall 2010

I made Corbin's cloak. He LOVES it. His sword and shield set are from great grandma and great grandpa. Lindy's dress is borrowed from a friend at church. Also the "greats" made the cool bookshelf dollhouse behind Lindy.

Whirlwind Fall: Beginnings, Endings and Family

Lindy starts full day kindergarten, Corbin starts 4th grade. After one week back to school we head to Colorado to be with the family. The decision has been made to bring Kent's dad Andy home from the hospital and bring in hospice care. Several friends and family were around and it was sweet fellowship. Several of Andy's brothers and sisters even drove out from Illinois. After a week Corbin and Kent need to get back to school so they drove back home, but Lindy and I stay with Grandma Faith in Colorado another week.



This was a very good time for Lindy to spend some time with Grandpa and I tried to encourage Faith with all of her responsibilities. We had some very emotional and meaningful moments with dad praying with him and singing hymns. Lindy got to give him hugs and kisses, and the last time I saw him smile, it was at Lindy.

We had previously planned for aunts Kelly and Tonya to fly up to visit us for Corbin's birthday. So on Friday, October 8th Lindy, Kelly, Tonya and I were on a flight from Denver to Spokane. Faith says that's when the hospice lady encouraged her to give Andy permission to let go. She told him- "We are all ok. The girls are going up to Washington to be with Corbin for his birthday. We are all ok here if you need to go." And then he took his last breaths.

It was good for Kent, Kelly and Tonya to be together here in Spokane that weekend and it was still a special birthday for Corbin, turning 10 on 10-10-10. Kent drove out to Colorado again the following week for the memorial service.

Thanksgiving report

And, for anyone wondering- Thanksgiving was fabulous. The turkey ended up a little dry, but the maple-glazed carrots, apple stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and turtle pumpkin pie were all big hits! I wasn't thrilled with the roasted Brussels sprouts with pecans, but Kent liked them. Just my parents came over. The pics are of Lindy helping Nana and I with the gravy (just before it boiled all over the stove because we were so busy taking pics!), and Papa covered with paper cut up by the kids, taking a little Thanksgiving snooze. Kent read a Thanksgiving story and led us all in prayer and songs. We all played cards while Lindy napped. It was a really nice day!!

Thanksgiving-

Here I am; 31 years old, been married almost ten years, and this year will be the first time that I will host a Thanksgiving day feast. I'm so excited! Got the turkey today. Happy thoughts and prayers welcome. I'll let ya'll know how it turns out!

Pooley Family Mini-Reunion-

Here are just a couple of pictures from our big family get-together when both of my sisters and their families were in town last week. Kent, Corbin and Lindy got to meet Annika for the first time, and I got to see her again. She is my sister's 9-month-old daughter- my kids' first cousin on my side of the family. She's adorable!
We took some professional photos I think I may be able to post on here soon. We'll see!

Speech Meet Results

Here are a couple of pictures from the speech meet. (Sorry about the terrible quality, my phone's camera isn't quite doing the job these days. There's rumors of a new digital camera for us for Christmas. Please Santa!!) Anyways, these photos are particularly funny because they are taken before I explained to him that blue "Superior" ribbons are, in fact, superior to the red "Excellent" ribbons. :) (Note the girls' blue ribbons.) Poor boy!
Really, he did a great job, considering that he came down with croup on Wednesday night. His voice was pretty quiet for the competition, but the flow of his piece was better than ever. Yea Corbin!

Corbin won the speech meet!

Well, that's what he reported on Friday after school. Actually, him and four others from his class are finalists in the speech meet, so he gets to attend the big classical school speech meet in Moscow, Idaho on Friday and compete. He is reciting "The Travelers and the Bear" from Aesop's fables. So exciting! I will video tape it, and maybe I can figure out how to post videos on here?! No promises.

In other family news- Kent and I had pink eye last week and a severe stomach flu this past weekend. So gross. Oh, and Lindy puked all over her lovely dress when we were almost to the ballet in downtown Spokane last Thursday. (A good excuse to buy her an adorable dress on sale at Gymboree right before the show, though.) Oh, and the puppy is limping bad in his right leg. Arg!

Anyways, despite these things, we got through our crazy busy October fairly unscathed. Have I mentioned I LOVE teaching these childbirth classes? They're over now. (Sniff, sniff.) Kent was awesome- helping me cook and clean to prepare for these classes at our house each week. Tonight he even took the guys out for a "dad talk", while us ladies talked about breastfeeding and using slings. Whatta guy! He's a keeper.

Apple Picking and Cider Pressing

Now, we do live in the apple state, after all. The past two years we have gone to this orchard with some dear friends from church. This year we thought it would be the perfect place to meet with some favorite cousins- the Dertings. The Dertings are actually my aunt and uncle and their kids are my cousins, however they have adopted three additional kids that are the age of my own kids. Anna is from Madagascar, she's 8 and Kassie is a foster adoption, she's 7 and Jayson is a foster adoption and he's 3, like Lindy. These cousins live in Clarkston- 2 and 1/2 hours south of us. Bishop's Orchard is somewhere in the middle, so with the Mosers (Ella's family) and my parents, we made the trek down. After a few hiccups in the plan that morning, we were off with creamy tomato soup and cucumber goat cheese sandwiches to go. And yes, Corbin was with us, but he is elusive. And, I didn't take pictures- these are Jill's. (Thanks Jill, and thanks Grandma for the cute baskets!) We would like this to be an annual tradition- fall fun for the whole family! Even Kent and my dad enjoyed the day.

A few more random photos-

I'm trying to show here how much bigger Niko has gotten, however he's being such a spaz (puppies!) that it's hard to tell.
The dress that Lindy is wearing is a dress that me and my sisters wore 25 years ago. Cute, huh? Also, Lindy is wearing her new Skirty that I won from the Amoretti Fortnightly Purse!!! I really did- so, post a comment on her blog and you may win too!!! See how modest Lindy is with her Skirty on? ;-)

And a couple more birthday pics-

We had a fabulous party with 3 friends out at Papa's place. The theme was camping- check out the cake. Party favors included glowsticks, bags of gorp, beef sticks, a whistle/compass/magnifying glass and an emergency poncho. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows around the fire on the beach. The boys ran all over the place, made pod racers out of some of Corbin's new legos, and promptly fell asleep in a pile of sleeping bags in the bunk house. Cousin Justin and Papa made a delish breakfast the next morning of waffles and sausage. Life is good! Praise the Lord for eight whole years of Corbin's life. We are so blessed by him!!

Early Birthday Pics-

We celebrated Corbin and Papa's birthdays early because Nana will be at a conference all weekend. Here are a couple of pics: and yes, he already received the much-coveted StarWars legos. Thank you Nana and Papa! And very cool shirt- Brenda and Dave!

Do you have triplets?

This is what an old friend I found on Facebook the other day asked of me. I asked why and she noted all the pictures of the three girls. They are just so darn cute together, who can resist? They wore yellow dresses here for Gracie's 4th birthday party. (Note Lindy trying to be modest by pulling her dress over her knees. This was before I won her a Skirty!) Gracie is the oldest, Ella will be 4 in December, Lindy next April. (For those of you who don't know- Ella and Gracie are my two cousins' daughters- they are cousins to each other. Get it? Ah, doesn't matter- that's what we tell Lindy anyways.) So, they span out 8 months, but they should all three be in the same school year. Fun times!!!!!!

Lovely Lindy-

2nd Grade-

Finally, school has started. Corbin is ready!

Girly Girls and Manly Boys-

Lindy, Ella and Gracie in their Christian dance class. Kent and Corbin splitting logs for our wood-burning stove, preparing for the fall and winter.