What's new with us?

 I love Black Friday!  No joke!  I love to find the deals and I love to see what I can find!  I was able to get pretty much all of my Christmas shopping done this year which is good since it seems I have no extra time!  I did two major shopping trips this year.  One in the middle of the night and a second one (with Caden) at 9am.  We didn't score the $150 tablet like my sister did, but we did pretty well.  We also just made a cyber monday purchase on Sunday night, so we are getting deals all over the place.

One thing I have noticed this year is it seems everyone wants to get in the Christmas spirit early.  I see a lot more people decorating this year, and the lights are going up on a lot of houses.  Even our neighbor Griffin put up Christmas lights.  We got our tree this weekend and it is a very fat tree.  It is taking up about 1/3 of our family room.  I am sure I will post a picture soon, but it is a funny fat tree.  We decorated our house for Christmas today.  We got out the decorations and went to town.  Caden was so excited and running around the house "helping."  The other thing we were able to do was fix some decorations.  We bought stocking hangers 2 years ago that you can put pictures in.  Well, they still say photo here... so we added our photos this year. 

Tomorrow night is our office Christmas dinner.  It is not even December yet!  I guess that is one of the many reasons why christmas is moving quick this year, we are doing things earlier this year. 

We also have not gotten hit with the snow yet.  Last year at the end of November we had a ton of snow!  Not this year!  So far, minimal snow, and none has stayed!  I am sure I will pay for that, but excited for now!

Caden helped me wrap some of the presents on Saturday night.  As soon as we finished he asked if Dad could open his presents in the morning.  I told him he would have to wait until Christmas.  He asked me to show him on the calendar when that would be.  You know it's a long ways away when you have to turn the page...

Trick or Treating with the boys!

We had a festive group to go trick or treating this year.  We invited our neighbors over and a friend that I work with who has 2 boys.  Keegan was a monster, Gavin was a monkey, Caden was a cowboy and Bruce was a chicken.  Bruce had light up shoes on, so when he walked, his chicken feet lit up.  It was pretty funny.  All four boys hit up the neighborhood for treats.  Justin was the only guy with us moms, and our neighbor's sister was visiting too.  My friend let justin know his costume could be the guy from sister wives as everyone we walk by keeps commenting how cute his boys are.  So funny! 

We only had a few tricks, including a kid walking around pretending to be a zombie, and  house that was handing out air fresheners and construction paper.  That house also had a karaoke machine and they were chanting Halloween sayings out their door.  It was a pretty funny scene, but I guess you had to be there.  

Caden's bucket broke, so he ended up using a grocery sack.  It worked out well for him, he got a ton of candy.  We filled up his batman lunch box and now every night when he eats a good dinner, he can pick a treat from the batman box.  Looks like he will have enough candy to last through Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all!  I didn't get my costume totally organized, so I am a festive mom!  Caden is a cowboy.  Justin got to be a scary guy! 

He actually wore the mask for a while, but when we went to the first house, he scared the people.  He apologized and realized it would be better if he wore the mask on top of his head.

Coeur D'Alene Family visit

We spent a week in Coeur d'Alene having a mini Anda Family reunion.  Not all the Anda's (my dad's side) could be there at the same time, but it was a continuous week of festivities, activities and family time.  Truly a great week for all.  To start out the week, we went to Silverwood.  This is like 6 flags in the Inland Northwest.  Roller Coasters, kid rides and a waterpark.  If you brought 2 cans of food, the price was discounted.  Turns out the waterpark was closed too.  All in all, it was a fun day at the amusement park with about 11 Anda's.

The next day, we went on a bike ride on the trail of the Coeur d'alenes.  This was a great trail, paved and flat.  We rode about 13 miles that day.  I also discovered I was missing a bolt on my bike that day... So my bike became dangerous, and I borrowed my mom's. 

Tuesday we headed back to Spokane so Justin could work and I met up with everyone at Spokane Discount.  We let my Aunt and Uncles know that no trip to Spokane is complete until you have shopped for the extreme bargains at Spokane discount.  I mean really, why wouldn't you want to have a pair of shorts for $1.42. 

Caden & I cam back on Thursday night for dinner and decided to stay until Sunday for more family bonding.  The next day, we were all getting ready for our bike riding adventure on the trail of the Coeur d'alenes when Charlie and Caden pointed out that not only were they matching, but Jeannette and I were too.  I mean literally - we were wearing the same shirt we both bought at Spokane Discount.  Not planned, but yes, we are the big dorks wearing the same shirt on the same day.  :)

Pete & Vanessa met up with us too and actually made it to Coeur d'alene surprisingly early (like in the morning)  We weren't expecting them until about 2pm.

This was just before we hit the trail.

This is us having our picnic lunch after the bike ride in Harrison on the trail of the Coeur d'alenes. 

We lined up the grandkids for a picture, we took about 6, none are great.  :) 

Uncle John gave the kids some airplane rides in the grass.

This was during cocktail hour after the bike ride.  All of us were just enjoying hanging out.

All the kids in their Halloween shirts, possibly acting like whatever was on their shirt...

This was the trail of the Hiawatha crew.  We biked the 18 mile trip and made good time on the trail.  I used my mom's bike because mine was a disaster thanks to the missing bolt.  At the end of the ride, Lookout pass was selling all their bikes from this season, so I scored a bike for about $110.  (Retunred my faulty bike to Costco...)

On sunday, on our way out of town, we stopped at Discovery park for a picnic with Pete & Vanessa before they headed back to Pasco.  This is a great park in Spokane Valley and has toys for kids of all ages and abilities.  With that being said, Caden & I were sitting and spinning gently on this circular looping merry go round thing.  Next thing I know my brother runs over, jumps on, spins us out of control and as I fly off, I accidentally kicked Caden in the head.  All of us were in shock about what had just happenend and Caden was crying since I had just kicked him in the head.  Yikes!  Just goes to show you, we can make anything that is "safe" a little more dangerous!

Overall it was great to see some extended family, wish more could have joined us, but we will do it again I am sure.

A day at the pumpkin patch

We hit up the pumpkin patch last weekend.  It was so fun to go out in a field and find the perfect pumpkin, along with the perfect stem.  We went to Knapp's and enjoyed the Pumpkin Chunkin, the corn maze and the all the animals.  If you haven't seen the pumpkin chunkin, it is awesome.  They basically "shoot" a pumpkin out of a cannon at a target.  He hasn't hit the target yet, and it is a quarter of a mile away from the cannon.

Caden meets Ryan Leaf

When I was in college, Ryan Leaf was the quarterback for the Cougars.  He was a great asset to a great team that broke records and played well.  After graduating, he made some bad choices and was not the stellar role model you would hope he could be. 

Well, we ran into him at the Cougar game on Saturday.  He is doing a book tour.  He is actually turning his life around and trying to right some wrongs.  Based on that, I wish him well. 

Since we saw him, we thought "why not let Caden have a picture?"  So here is Caden's 15 minutes of fame today.  After we took the picture, his publicist asked if they could post the picture on thier facebook page too.  I said sure.  Then my Dad recognized her as Margo Myers - past tv personality from the west side of the state.  After that, they realized that none of them took a picture and asked me to e-mail it to them. 

On a side note, we went to Northern Quest the next day and ... Ryan Leaf was there selling and signing books.  We purchased a book and it is signed for us, so stay tuned for the book review...

Cougar Football Saturday!

What is not to love about Butch Cougar?  What a great mascot!  Caden loves Butch Cougar and was glad to see him again!

Caden, my dad & I headed to Pullman on Saturday to see the Cougars take on Stanford.  We were hoping for a miracle and the cougs would win.  That didn't happen, but we sure had fun walking around campus, having ice cream at ferdinand's and having lunch at the fieldhouse before the game!  Go Cougs!