Faliveroops

Recently some of our good friends, the Olivers moved back to Arizona. Our families have been good friends for a long time! We have been blessed with having some very good friends! A few months ago, Melissa, Brooklyn, and Hayden decided that because our families are so close that they named themselves the Faliveroops after all of the last names (Falter, Oliver, Shoop). It is so nice to know that with our families that will we always be friends no matter how many years go by and how often we see each other. I'm so grateful for them!

Here are a few pictures that have at least part of Faliveroops in them from the past few years...

Daneah, Melissa, Hayden (this is the usual-Hayden in the middle of all the girls), Isabella, & Kimmie getting ready to go to the formal church dance in Elma. (Dec. 2010)

Maleah, Melissa, & Brooklyn going to the Elma formal stake dance the year earlier, Dec. 2009

The next few pictures are of our families all together (missing, Dixon, Kylie, & Lauren) eating dinner at our house the week of helping the Olivers get packed up and ready to move to AZ. I loved having everyone over!
Feb. 2011

One of the fun things about the Faliveroops is besides being the parents being the same ages, we know a lot of the same people from childhood, but didn't know each other until we were adults. Sandy & I have known each other since '93, (when Ray & I moved into the ward) and we barely missed each other in our youth. I moved from Rochester, WA (Centralia -Chehalis stake) in 8th grade & she moved to Chehalis a year or so after I moved away. So we know a lot of the same people.

Leslie & I just barely missed each other, too. I moved again to Lacey just 2 weeks after I graduated from HS and she moved away from Lacey just a week or so after graduation. I met Leslie when she moved into the ward in 98 or 99.

Here are some more random pictures of some of the Faliveroops from the past few years (in no particular order):

Above is Melissa & Brooklyn back in the "clubhouse" days. Meaning when the Falters lived in their tiny house at the Park and the kids played in the clubhouse to that community alot! See Melissa & Brooklyn have always liked to play dress-up! These 2 girls have never not known each other!

Another dress-up picture of some boys.. Keagan, Austin, & Adam.

Brooklyn was with us when the kids got their pictures taken & we had one taken of all 3 of them, we had one taken of just the girls, too. All in their old navy shirts.

Joy school graduation

6.12.2000

Hayden, Andrew, Brett,

Melissa, Maleah, & Brooklyn

Keagan & Landon as babies- I think this at the Thurston Co. fair.

This is one of our favorite joy school pictures!

Maleah, Brett, Brooklyn, Jenna, Melissa, & Hayden

I could add lots more pictures, but you get the idea, we have lots of fun memories of these 3 families & will continue to have more! I love my Faliveroops family!

40th birthday surprise Best EVER!

My 40th bday was this Wed. This is what I woke up to. Signs like these all over my house, there were prob. 15 or so signs all over the house. These are just a few of them. They were lining the hall, on bathroom mirror, in the kitchen, everywhere.

Last week there were a lot of whisperings going on, Ray had pulled Melissa into the garage to talk to her. I was kind of thinking, that was a lot of talking and whispering just for those signs, they were cute & all, but really... that much talking and whispering for that?!

Ray is known for not being able to keep secrets and hiding things. (which prob. is a good thing) He hasn't be able to surprise me with anything.

My friend Sue asked me last week if Ray & I wanted to go out to dinner with them Friday night about a week ago. Nothing out of the normal, we had been talking about it for a while. Thursday night Melissa was asked to babysit, again nothing out of the normal, I asked Melissa about it and she said...ugh... I need to talk to dad first... ok that is a little abnormal. I thought something might be happening, but I didn't want to ask too many questions and ruin any surprises. Friday Ray told me he had to work late again not anything abnormal since he has been working overtime, he said he would meet me at Tea Leaf with Sue & Bradly at 6:45, that is when it was slightly abnormal. Usually I am the one to help decide where we are going to eat, and to have such a precise time was a little unusual.. but again I didn't question anything because if there was a surprise I didn't want to ruin it. Long story - short, I thought there might be something going on, but I thought maybe a couple or two might be joining us for dinner, not 30+ people waiting for us at the restaurant. And Ray had been planning it for a few weeks! AND he had people send in letters to me about special memories & had my friends scrapbook it for me.

I was overwhelmed (in a good way) When I walked in, I couldn't believe how many people were there! And I felt soooooo loved! Of course it made me teary eyed.(Which seems to happen more often the older I get) Then to hear how had Ray had worked to make it happen & the book... what a great evening! The only sad thing, like my friend Jennie said was I couldn't be at each table hearing all the conversations!

Thanks friends and family for the support and love! Ray & I often talk about how we are blessed with such good friends!

Ray & I, best husband EVER!

See I already had "weepy" eyes!

Jeff & Jennie Klumker, Matti, Doug Gough, Bishop Grubbs

Matti & Gay Julkunen

Doug & Diane Gough (above)

Biship Grubbs & Linda

Brandon & Pam Kirkwood

April & Dave Hoeveler

Chad & Beth Hills

Darri Guinto (missed you Pedro) & my sis, Cindy

Sandy Falter & Leslie Oliver(Missed you Daren & Dix)

Barbara & Frank Johnston

Courtland & MaryJane Erickson

Jemma & Jared Williamson

Bradly & Sue Williamson

Brian & Michele Golden

Gay & Jennie

Jeff & Matti

Ray even had the room decorated! He brought all those signs from home & put them up. I didn't even notice they were gone from the house!


Ray had the party at Tea Leaf, the food was yummy, too!

Thanks everyone!

The glass is half full

What a day! But amazingly enough I'm not bothered by it..

Last night we said goodbye to mom & Thom for a year, they were asked to extend their mission in Wy for a year. They came home, brought their RV back stayed for a week and a half and then had to go back out to WY.
We have had a great time the last week and a half visiting with them and enjoying their company.
The last couple of days Keagan has been complaining about a sore throat, so this morning he stayed home from school. I left him home while Darri & I went walking, telling him I wouldn't be gone that long.
In the middle of our walk Ray calls and says mom & thom broke down, they're at exit 99, it's their water pump.
After my walk I came home picked up Keagan and we went over there picked them up and took them to the auto parts store. We got to visit for a couple of hours while Thom fixed the water pump. Luckily the only thing I was going to do today was clean the house, laundry, & get ready for preschool tomorrow. Thom was teasing me that I will do anything to get out of house work as the day went on. I called my sister and she came over and we all had lunch together at the truck stop- subway. We talked about what a blessing it was that if they were going to break down at least it was here close to us and we got to visit more.
Thom got the truck all fixed and I said I'll wait until you leave to leave to make sure everything is ok. They got almost out of the parking lot and I started the van... or tried to start the van.. nothing! Not only that, but because I had rolled the window down (electric) there wasn't even enough juice to roll it up and it had just started to rain. I get out of the van and I'm trying to flag them down, waving putting up my hand in a stop formation (Ok, go ahead and laugh, I was) The battery in the van was dead!!!
Luckily they just went around the parking lot to make sure their problem was fixed, it wasn't - their truck was smoking, luckily it was just smoking because something needed tightened.
Ray to the rescue, with jumper cables, and I got to the school with 2 minutes to spare to pick up Jadyn & Aurora.
So I haven't been home all day, had a broken down car, but I got to have lunch with my mom, thom, Keagan, & sis. And I didn't have to clean my house. :) Hopefully that is all the adventures mom & thom will have before they get to WY!

What a great weekend!!

I have been quite a slacker in the blogging department lately! It just takes so long to upload pictures and get it all lined up the right way... AND I'm so far behind that I don't know where to start. I'm starting with current stuff and will start working backwards, but will date it like I actually blogged it on the correct dates. I have lots of summer things to blog about.

Anyways...



We had such a great weekend!!

It got an early start with the kids not having school on Friday.



Thursday night I went with the young women in our ward to D.I. (a thrift store) in Federal Way. Our Young women are so much fun! We did an 1.5 hours of service, helping hang clothes back up on hangers & putting them back in the right spots. Melissa was pretty funny, she pushed a cart around with her in case she found anything she wanted to buy. She found a pair of jeans and a great outfit for spirit day that I will post a picture of soon. We ended the evening with ice cream at McDonald's.

Friday we got to sleep in and be lazy! yah! I read a book most of the morning. Then we had some good friends come over & we went and got Pappy Murphy's pizza for dinner. YUM!

Ray also planted grass seed in the back yard.. can't wait to see how well that will turn out!

This weekend was General Conference weekend, which I always love. (General Conference is where twice a year our prophet & apostles give talks to uplift us and give us guidance in our lives).

So many things to love about General conference! Besides the usual - being spoken to by our prophet and listening to all the great talks, hearing the announcements of the new temples, some other favorite things,

* My kids getting along (for the most part...) and being excited for conference. I love how it is a tradition in our family and they don't even question that we are going to sit through all the sessions of conference!

* Watching conference at home in our pajamas!

* having cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

* we went out for dinner after conference on Saturday... although it almost seemed like we were breaking the Sabbath. I love Happy Terriyaki! (and then left overs for Sunday!)

We also watched some Monster Truck racing on t.v. that Keagan had recorded. I love watching that, see my blog below about that.

Saturday it was sunny in the afternoon and I took the kids out & about after we went out to eat (Ray went to the priesthood session). We went to Tumwater Falls(another blog), drove by the Capital(another blog post), went to JoAnns fabric store, and ended it by getting milkshakes at Big Toms. Yummy!

Sunday we watched conference at home, had quiche for breakfast, and leftovers for dinner. Pretty much a perfect weekend! Monday came a little too early.

Tumwater Falls

I love going to see Tumwater Falls! It is so beautiful!! I realized I hadn't been there in quite a while. It was a place I used to take my kids all the time when they were little. My camera didn't do it justice. (There is a short video of this picture at the end)

Melissa didn't want to walk down and see the big Falls, so here she is waiting for Keagan & texting... typical teenager!!

Here Keagan is down below, he liked getting "sprayed" by it.

Poor Melissa is deathly afraid of bridges. This one really freaks her out, so she waited until it didn't have anyone on it and then she kind of covers her face and runs across it.

Keagan always being silly!

The fish hatchery was pretty cool, too. I was more interested in it than the kids... man I miss the preschool days when anything entertained them. There were a ton of big fish in there and they were jumping like crazy... until I got the camera out. You can kind of see them here. The videos are very short.

The first video is of the water fall. I love the calming sound of the waterfalls!

Our Capitol building

I love our Capitol. I think the grounds are beautiful. I love how on a sunny day you can see it everywhere downtown. I think Ray is very blessed to be working in such a beautiful area. I love it all through out the year. These pictures don't really do it justice. I have blogged about it before, here for a beautiful sunny spring day & here for a beautiful winter day. Here is a website that lets you take a virtual tour of the capitol. I love the inside as well. The dome & the marble are gorgeous. If you live around the area and haven't been in a while, you should go visit our Capitol grounds... just don't go in January.. until mid April when they are in session, unless you don't mind lots of people milling around and the parking is really hard to find.

You may find this suprising...

that I

LOVE

Monster Truck Racing!

I didn't post about it this year, but we went in January & the January before that & I think the January before that...

They come every year to the Tacoma Dome in January. We usually go with my mom & Thom. My bday & Ray's bday is in Jan. We usually go for our bday presents.

I don't really have a favorite truck, I don't watch it enough to know the trucks. I love when they jump in the air & when they crash & get back up. I love when they safely catch on fire and it is put out right away. I love how loud they are and you can feel it in you're whole body. (tv doesn't do it justice) Here is where I blogged about it before. Sometimes it is a little too cold & sometimes too smokey...(from the truck's exhaust) but mostly just FUN!!!

Now you may wonder why in the world after not posting for so long would I randomly post about this? We recently got the sports channel (for football purposes) added to our channel line-up, and they have Monster Truck racing on there. Keagan has been recording them on the dvr & we watched it Saturday.. in between conference.. I know felt a little weird.. like we were breaking the Sabbath or something, but it was so fun to watch. Who wants to come this year with us in January to the Tacoma Dome? My mom & thom are gone on their mission..

This one was really cool because fire was coming out the back! :)


The view from our seats.. we actually had really good seats this year.

They usually have some kind of other event there too, before they do the Monster Truck races, this year they had motor cross. It is really fun to watch, too.