Our Life at the Moment....

The past couple of months have been busy ones for us and our little household. Here is what we've been up to according to mom(that would be me:):
The Big Move: We listed our adorable little house about a month ago with a realtor in town in hopes of moving to Salmon Arm so we can both live and work in the same city. No bites on the house yet, but man it's a lot of work to keep the house showing-worthy with two energetic and busy children! We haven't found anything in Salmon Arm yet either so no sense of urgency at the moment. We're excited for a new adventure in a new city while still being close to our loved ones.
Jared: Jared is enjoying another great year teaching late French Immersion and PE to a fantastic group of kids at Shuswap Middle School. This year he is Team Leader which gives him a little more responsibility. He is also currently completing his Masters Degree in Administration and Leadership through Gonzaga University. His cohort meets in Kelowna, so yes, he is a traveling man! He was also recently called to 2nd councellor in the Stake Young Men's program for our church, which means he is a regional youth leader. He also works out and plays volleyball when he is not being adored by his children.
Andi: For any of you that don't know (and who thought that I was just putting on a little weight in pictures!) I am expecting and due March 6th, this makes me 24 weeks this week. We're exciting for this new addition to arrive and wish it was sooner (or at least I do:) In anticipation of the baby, I have been trying to work a lot to get enough hours for maternity leave. I've been substitute teaching a few days a week and have a long term french and socials job that starts this week at Jared's school. Yeah, it's like a date every day! It's tuesdays and Thursdays and every other Friday and will last about a month. I'm also still 2nd Councellor in the Young Women's for our church which keeps me active and busy. No indoor soccer or volleyball for me this year but I try to keep healthy by working out at the gym a few times a week and by.


The kids: The kids come to S.A with us when we work and go to The Papworths house (my cousin Chris and his wife Lisa). Lisa is great with the kids and they have fun playing with their cousin Chloe. Jordan loves to play Cinderella and I do to because I get to order her around have her do to chores (which she does pretty well!). She also enjoys our little homeschool and drawing. i wish our scanner worked because I would love to post some of her drawings, her work is quite impressive! She continues to say funny things. At Costco the other day, in a crowded isle, she asked in a loud voice for all to hear " Mom, dad, can you please feed us?" Nathan is as busy as ever and is an adorable little boy when he isn't yelling and scowling at strangers:) He loves to jump off things and runs everywhere he goes. He loves to laugh and play with the Jorjster. We've discovered that he uses "dad" as a suffix on most words, ex Juicedad, bookdad etc. They are both excited for the baby although Nathan of course has no idea how it's going to rock his little world. They both love story time at the library, playing at Boys and Girls Club and playing outside on the swingset. They keep us on our toes!

Dan's Wedding in Calgary

Jordan and Grandma Lee

Last weekend, we made a quick but full trip to Calgary for my cousin Dan's wedding reception. We left Friday after work from Salmon Arm because I was working that day as well. Like responsible travellers, we looked up the weather before hand and the forecast seemed fine. But soon into the trip, an enormous black cloud formed overhead and it began to snow. The roads were slushy, slick and a little scary, so we made an executive decision and decided to stay in Revelstoke overnights in hopes of the weather clearing the next morning. We got there about 5:30 pm and checked into the Sandman Inn where we got a poolside room and enjoyed a great night of swimming, hottubbing and eating at Denny's! It was like a dream come true for the kids (and us:) and we all had a blast. We set up the little DVD player from the car and we all enjoyed some much needed R&R. The next morning we hit the road to Calgary but not after deciding that we needed to hit the Sandman in Relvelstoke more often.


Jared's hair is coming in nicely after shaving it all off for Halloween. I warned him that he is thirty now, and who knows how is hair might come in if it came in at all! When we got to Calgary we went to the mall directly to do some much needed shopping.

The kids had a blast at the reception with their cousin Dreanne, they spent most of the time running around the cultural hall chasing each other. I can't believe I have "those" kids. We had a great time visiting with family.

This is how the kids spent most of the night. After the reception we went to the Whiteheads and had a delicious Sunday lunch with them all the next day before heading home. Like I said, it was a quick trip, but exactly what the doctor ordered.

This is me with my cousin Tanis. Tanis and I were roommates when I lived in Calgary and have had some fun times together. One of the more memorable times was playing mission impossible with our other roommate Jana in our apartment, painting our faces black and climbing out our apartment window, scaling down the two stories while holding on to bedsheets that we'd tied together. Unfortunately, we soon learned that this type of thing apparently is frowned upon by landlords.

The two brunettes! I'll be the first to admit that I did not want Britt to go dark, but she did and it looks fantastic!! Jordan now wants me to colour my hair blonde, I think just to makes things normal again.

The Lee children minus Jess. Zach flew in from Niagara, Caleb from Lethbridge and the rest of us from Vernon. It was a fun reunion that ended with Peters hamburgers at midnight. Jared took about a million pictures and believe it or not this was the best one. In every one at least two people (sometimes more) had their eyes closed!

Happy Halloween!

Jared went as a member of the "Blueman Group" and once again showed true commitment to the holiday by actually shaving his head bald for the costume. I've given him every other halloween to do something extreme to his hair. He actually looked quite amazing and impressed all his kids at school and at home. Jordan and Nathan found him quite funny (which was a relief because I thought they might be scared of him!)

Bob the Builder and Cinderella patiently awaiting trick or treating on their big night!

The big night finally arrived for Jordan! After much deliberation and anticipation, Jordan finally decided to be Cinderella for halloween. We're not sure we're ever going to be able to convince her to be anything other than a princess for any Halloween. She looked and played the part perfectly.




Nathan with Grandpa King all set to go. They looked so cute together as Big and Little "Bob the Builder." Nathan was so funny. He kept pointing to himself and saying "Bob!"




The family: A Cowgirl, a Blueman, Cinderella and Bob the Builder.

We were so lucky to have Grandma King here this year to do Jordan's hair so perfectly!

There was a chilli cookoff at the church on Halloween right before trunk or treat. I'm happy to say that the King family took home 2 or the 3 awards that night for costumes! Jared won most original costume, so I guess shaving his head was worth it! Jordan won for the prettiest costume. She was the prettiest princess at the ball!

The great thing about Jordan is that not only does she wear the costume so beautifully but she also plays the role. She was calling us "your highness" all night and walking the walk of a real princess.

Giving Nathan a lollypop at the beginning of the night turned out to be a great strategy because it kept both his hands busy so he kept his hat on - a true halloween miracle!

The kids trunk or treating! They are becoming quite the pros!

The finished products.............

Nathan kept saying "happy birthday" when we lit the candles so we welcomed our new Jack'O Lanterns to life by singing "Happy birthday!" Mine is the pirate, Jared's is the "fright this way", Jared L's is the cave-like one, Britt's is the one with braces in the front row (yes, she actually weaved in braces!) , matt's is the witch and Jorji's is the scary face.

The artists.....we were all exhausted at the end and all agreed that being full time artists would be exhausting work. Carving pumpkins was always a big tradition growing up and even now mom usually gets us altogether to carve em' up. I was happy to carry on this tradition at our house this year as mom and dad are still on their cruise and missed the blessed event. I'm sure mom (now in Rome) would be very proud!

The Great Pumkin Carving....

Jorji drawing her face with Nathan eagerly looking on. Nathan was very patient on this night as all the grown-ups and even his playmate Jordan was deep in concentration working on their pumpkins.

The Jared's hard at work...

Britt and Matt. That's right folks, that's Britt with brown hair! I still don't recognize her. She does however look fabulous, the new look somehow makes her look older even...

The finished product! Jordan drew on her face and I cut it out exactly how she drew it. She made a great scary face!

A couple of weeks ago, Jordan had her first primary presentation at church. She sat up at the front with the rest of the primary in front of about 20o-250 people. She memorized her part and said it all by herself into the microphone. She said "Jesus will help me keep the commandments." She even sang a bit during the songs but spent most of the time looking around the crowd and back at the big kids. She was cool as a cucumber up there during her thing and we were so proud of her!
In other Jorji news, her vocab continues to thrive and she continues to say the funniest things, last night she mentioned how Grandma King will be very 'imppressive' with her pumpkin. I started doing a little homeschool with her on days when I'm not working and she loves it! She sits at the table, puts up her hand when she has a question and even calls me Mrs. King! We have lessons on letters, numbers, shapes, seasons, ect.

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY JARED!!!!!!

On Saturday Jared reached the important milestone of turning 30!! To celebrate, I threw him a surprise 80's theme birthday party Saturday night! It's been a secretive week, full of secret phone calls, emails and facebooking, not to mention secret shopping, cooking and baking. But somehow, Jared managed to stay in the dark the whole time and seemed satisfied with the story that we were going out to Rosters (Sports bar in town) for wings on his birthday. The night of his party I pretended to go to a church meeting (relief society broadcast-the perfect excuse to get out of the house). Although I sensed a tiny bit of impatience that I was even going to the meeting, Jared being the easy going, good natured man that he is didn't seem to mind me going. So during the broadcast, I high tailed to my folks house to get ready for the party. Mom and dad were gracious enough to host the event. I couldn't figure out how to host a surprise birthday party at our house:) It was awesome, because Jared was genuinely surprised! We had a great night - full of visiting, games, and great food. Lots of great stories about Jared were shared and lots of laughs were had. To add to the surprise, I had gotten jared a costume to wear so he wouldn't be left out!

Why an 80's theme? I think this picture says it all! I love you Jared, thanks for being so much fun and the sexiest thirty-year old around!

It must have been hard for rockers to blow out their candles with all that hair!

Jared with his "Optimus Prime" cake! I didn't realise this but when I surprised him with the cake he said that it was his first Transformers cake! Finally at age 30, he got his Optimus Prime cake!

We can always count on Jody and Taylor for great costumes! Love the fanny pack.

Me with some of the sexy gals. Man the 80's were bad! Britty, of course had no idea what was "in" during the 80's. Finally after making several suggestions that related to the mid to late 90's, I finally asked her what year she was born in and upon hearing the answer, no longer took her advice!

Jared and his motley crue.

This was right after Jared demonstrated "the worm" during charades. I love this pic because it shows just how tight his jeans were!

After watching Jared thru out the night, I decided that he would have been a really hot 80's rocker!

This was Alex after correctly guessing right during "Name that Tune!" 80's edition.

Before......