Cougar has Attitude!!!

All baby Cougar needs is "root beer" to go along with his beer belly.
The caption on this photo reads "What you lookin' at? Never seen a baby with a binki before. Go get me some milk so I don't have to get out of my chair."
Also his shirt says little guy, BIG RRROAR!


Alright. Who taught baby to give the bird-- Chris? You're both in big trouble!
(Actually I was the one to take the picture. I didn't even notice it until I downloaded it.
I guess this is his official first swear word.

The Annual Debate - Fake or Real?

O.k. so I put up our fake tree almost 2 weeks before Thanksgiving so we could really enjoy it this year. We had a real tree our first year of marriage but it drooped and dropped so many needles I swore I would never get one again. I've favored fake, Randy real. The score so far has been 11 fake, 1 real. However, it seems absurd not to get a tree from the evergreen forests of the northwest. So this year I caved, that and I didn't have to hike around 9 months pregnant like last year. We got a permit and headed out Thanksgiving weekend to search among the pines, firs and nobles for the perfect tree. Our permit was a whopping $5 - fabulous deal. We literally scaled a part of the mountain to find it. We joked about staying together so no one would get lost. We all had a great time. This is a definite tradition.

Turkey Bowl

At our house, we are lucky, lucky because we get 2 Turkey Bowls. One at the University of Washington Husky Stadium and our ward turkey bowl. This year Cayden brought his friend Bronson along, they love being able to play on a real college field. Randy and the boys were there for about 6 hours!!! They had lots of fun.

Gobble, Gobble These Up!

Mom told me about some of these she bought at a holiday boutique for the Emerson Thanksgiving, so I thought we would make some too. Madalyn had her friend Katie over and Makayla and I helped. We thought they turned out cute and were yummy!

We need music on our blog. What song do ya'll think is fit? We are a Happy Family or some Elvis for Dad? I nominate Nate for this.

Lexie and friends going to the high school championship football play offs (at the U, I must add). I don't know how much of the game she saw with her hair in her eyes.

Go UTES (on Sat.). Its going to be rowdy! You know we have three Ute grads in the fam.

I told my girls that they can cheer for the U, because of their Dad-aka a Ute fanatic. And to find their spouse at the Y. I think that is wise advice.

Look at Syd's ear. Weird! All the great advice I have whispered in her ear is now evident.

Oma looks great for 83. A good thing she does her daily exercises with her cane.

Sydney at our favorite place, Jamba Juice

Lexie Lou on Halloween wearing the tutu she made.

Chris on the Golf Course

Conner Can Smile

Hello Family,

I'm hoping this will work, I'm such a goof when it comes to this blogging stuff. I will try to keep in better touch with everyone, as the few times I have been on it, I enjoyed it. Hope everyone is doing well.........looking forward to seeing everyone on the Holidays!

Cheers!
Ang

Meeting my Utah Family

Uncle Nate is a pro at this baby thing. Hopefully he'll have another one soon.

Help? I don't know who this crazy lady is... j/k we love Great Grandma.

Maybe one day I'll have enough hair for Aunt Tiffy to style.

After holding me Aunt Angie told my mom she wished she could have a baby :)

Sydney is one of my BFF's. I love her.

Handsome Boy...hanging out at Grandma B's. Between my mom and Grandma I was held 24/7.

Getting excited for Halloween!

Cougar was a ducky. He only made it to two houses before he decided the party was over and went to sleep.

Halloween

Spookier things are afoot! One little girl passing by our house thought it was real and was almost in tears. The kids thought it was funny! Our neighbor across the street was wondering what Randy was up to and then decided she had rather not know.

Cayden was Survivor Man, Madalyn a diva named Pumpkin Spice, Cayleb was a snake for our ward Trunk or Treat and then decided to be an army man which was never on the list until Friday morning, (his other options were dragon, superman and pumpkin), Makayla was Twister the board game and Makenzy was a ladybug on the leaf. Our other option was baby on the hip or growth on the wart - the first wasn't too original and the second was a little complicated; wart costumes are hard to come by!

In the other picture we went to the Cedar River to see the salmon run - the largest sockeye salmon run in the U.S. except for Alaska. It was really neat to see them swimming upstream and making their nests. As you know, the salmon is an icon of the pacfic Northwest and were one of the lunchpin species that susutained human populations for years. Cayden has also been studying the salmon life cycle in his class. These salmon migrate from this river just minutes from our house to Lake Washington, then to the ocean. They spend about 2-4 years in the ocean and then make the trip back to their birthplace by swimming through the Ballard Chittenden Locks (Nate and Ash went with us there), back to Lake Washington and up the Cedar River because they can only reproduce in fresh water (Mom and Dad and Randy's sisters have been to the River with us).

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Micky Mouse, Donald Duck...... I can't remember the rest of the song. FYI, Brittany Spears is a former mouse-catier (sp?). Too bad she turned into a FREAK. Maybe money is the root of all evil.

Cutest Little Minnie Mo

Sierra heading off to her Halloween dance party. (Little did Mr. Disney know what he started). Thank you Grandma B for the costume. We love you and Papa Bear. If you would like to come to your 101 Halloween parade, give Syd a call. BTW, I have some real fun Halloween recipes-from yummy soups to spooky, sipping, witches brew- if you DARE!!

Go, John Deere, Go!

Sierra's future car.

Sierra, Syd and the pumpkin patch

A beautiful day at a local pumpkin patch. My honor roll student, Lexie, was home doing a project

:(

The finished result

Pretzel Hugs

Pretzel Hugs and face mask

EASY Halloween treat

Great for kiddos to make. No mixing. These are the HOT thing in our neighborhood.
FHE, visiting teaching, neighbors, school teacher.

Pretzel Hugs

1 bag of waffle pretzels
1 bag of Hersey's Hugs (stripped with white choc.)
1 bag of M&M's (with out nuts). Halloween ones if the store has them.

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees before you start. Line cookie sheet with pretzels. Unwrap hugs and place one on top of each pretzel. Place in oven for about 7 mins. or until hugs start to lose their form. Remove from oven and top each hug with 2 M&M's. Allow several hours to set or place in the refrigerator or freezer if you are short on time.

Pumpkin Pie Facial

2 tsp. cooked or canned pumpkin, pureed
1/2 tsp. honey
1/4 tsp. milk

Combine the ingredients for your face mask. Mix gently and apply to your face avoiding the eye-area. Relax for 10-15 mins. while your pumpkin pie face mask gently exfoliates, nourishes and conditions your face. Rinse with warm water and apply an appropriate moisturizer for your skin type.

Let us know.

LDS Pumpkins

This is possible. The missionaries did the Jesus pumpkin and displayed it at church. If you're really interested I can make and send templates for each one. Let me know.

Conner's 1st Pumpkin

Koester Family Update

Max on baby patrol. He'll lay by baby for hours and let me know every time baby cries. However, he doesn't realize HE'S the one that make baby cry when he starts barking at the other dogs. He thinks baby and mommy are for his enjoyment only.

Luna doesn't mind Cougar, but she's quick to remind us it's time to tickle HER belly.

Daddy loves me so much! However, I must admit I like mommy kisses better.

My dark hair is starting to come in. Who ever guessed my hair would look like my dad's is right.

This is the blanket Grandma B made for baby. He loves to lay on it and look at the lights. The doggies lay around me and make sure I'm o.k. (Don't worry mom is right there as well, just in case the doggies decide they're going to try to sneak in a kiss.) Isn't he getting so cute!!! We're so blessed.

"G" is for Goal

Yeah!!! Cayleb scored his first goal at his soccer game on Saturday. It was big! During the break, Cayleb was bugged that the "green team keeps scoring and my team has no goals." When the game started back up, he got the ball, drove it down the puddle, soaked field and kicked it in the right croner pocket of the net. After that, Cayleb said, "the green team hadad a pooped day" and he laughed! Then we went for ice cream.

"T" is for Teeth

Makenzy just cut her first tooth today. Yeah! October has been a busy month for learning. She also learned how to clap on October 12 and wave on October 14. She erupted into spontaneous, stacatto clapping sitting in the backyard watching Cayden play "Ladder Ball."

Fall afternoon

Looking out the upstairs extra room window, I see a stately tree ablaze in deep red foliage. How incredibly beautiful this time of year is. I love the fall and the spring most of all. The temperature is just right and the flowers are still in bloom. A few of the leaves on the trees around the yard are beginning to dry up and fall off. Because of the abundance of snow last winter resulting in a high water table and the age of the trees in our yard all of the trees had an immense growing spurt. I anticipate many, many bags of leaves to rake up this fall. I'm enjoying the last few days of warm fall weather. The grass is still thick and green and more than once I've heard a serenade of birds from a massive globe willow that resides in the neighbor across the streets yard. The holiday season is fast approaching and I hope that by some miracle we will ALL be able to gather round a warm, comfortable fire at Christmas time and open presents together under the tree. It would be great to have all of the family together. I'm anxious to hold my little grandbabies in my arms and have all of you kids and grandkids together. Mass confusion will abound, but I want to see all of you so badly that I'm willing to gear-up for all of the commotion. Everyone have fun on Halloween. Love, Mom

I enjoyed the darling pics of "big boy" Conner. Dad, glad you got experience WY on a snowy, thirty degree, Sun :).
Our fam up date:
Kev- doing well and trying to stay out of trouble. I gave him a perm yesterday. He looks like he stuck is finger in a light socket, or just saw his ex-wife!
Me- BUSY with family and work (I have had hair appts. every day this week)
Lexie- Working hard at school and cheer. She may do her back hand spring at the game this week. I hope so, since we haven't seen it! Go UTES
Sierra- Getting excited to go out of town to her friends cabin this weekend. Keeping up great grades
Syd- Last week off track and is dreading going back to school. She is starting dance at a new studio this week.
Dog- still in depression and sure needs a groom so she can see again.

Love ya all!!

From Dad

Mom talked me into going to Kathy's yesterday and we left at 6pm and returned around 11pm. It was her birthday and she was happy to see us. She showd us some interesting books that she has including a book of Brigham Young that has every known picture that was taken of him and published in 2000. Also a book about the 1876 Worlds Fair held in Philadelphia with pictures of each fair building and articles about each event. She let mom borrow them and they're neat books. The pictures of the kids are getting cuter and they're all growing up real fast. I'm taking a few day of leave, since I have use or lose. Have a great day.

Dad

Wild Thing

This was Grammy's idea. She's so creative. I call this picture "Cougar and Friends."

Conner's first blog

Don't you think I'm getting cuter and smarter every day (I'm developing a cure for cancer in this picture.). Dad bought me a new hammock bed for my one month anniversary, it's supposed to help me sleep longer. I'll let you know if it works. Grandpa and Grandma B sent several darling outfits I'm planning on wearing one tonight. I think they're so awesome!!! Mom's proud of me because I slept through all three hours of church yesterday. However during RS I pooped so loud everyone looked and at me and started laughing. It was really embarrassing for my mom... but I thought it was funny. Well, I better go time to eat, poop and sleep. Life is so busy when you're almost five weeks old.
Miss you ALL

Conner

Dad posts on my sight because we share the same e-mail address and the sight won't let us in separately. Dad's post is funny, don't you think? When I read it there were quite a few typo's but dad has been over-tired for several weeks now. I think getting up so early every morning is doing him in. I feel guilty when I sleep in. Everyday when I do get up I feel thankful that dad has made it possible for me to have a lot less stress in my life by not having to work. Dad is such a incredibly, wonderful, caring husband and father. We are all VERY, VERY blessed to have him. Love, Mom

Well tt's October and I already got the snow blower ready last month and getting ready to fertelize the lawn abd take down the lawn furniture and canopy. I got the T-Bird waxed and now I need to waxthe other two cars and put on the hard top. I can't believe that Christmas stuff is already in the stores. And Yes, Santa is looking for a few noisy toys to help the parents stay young and alert to their kid's talents. Mom got me to stain the deck last week and I want it to snow at least 5-6 feet and bury those folks in Suncrest to remind them about the smart choice they made in purchasing a home on top of the mountain. The swimming pool is closed and last year there was a family of ducks and ducklings. The dogs got to swim in the pool at the close of the season and Durango has been playing catch to stay in shape. The pictures you send are always cute and it porves that we don't tolerate ugly babies in our family and that the theory of a superior breed does exist. How about those Presidential candidates huh?!!!! WE have a really good choice this year with dumb and dumber wanting to rule the Kingdom of Oz filled with Munchenkins who will follow these guys off the cliff. Where is John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe when you need them!!!! DAD

Grandma's Remarks

Lexie, not everyone can do a round-off, back-handspring. That's great!
Makenzy on the way up by the stairs, so cute. Hope, hope, hope she can come down as well as go up. Tiff, you've got quite the sense of humor and you and Kev are in our prayers about the job. It's fun reading what you post. About the 5k, well we will see. Keep encouraging the gang, we all need it. It would be terrific if we all crossed the finish line together. You know, one of those family history making moments. Speaking of history making moments finally all of us girls are blogging together. Pretty cool I'd say. Grandma LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the photo's. Sierra I could see that you experimented with the color, neat. Sierra have MaKayla and Millie get into blogging. Nic, doesn't surprize me a little guy as cute as Conner has already arranged to be a photo model. Do I have beautiful and handsome grandkids, or what? Angie, way to go. You did it. Your post was exciting to read. Where is the picture of Ariel at the dance? Hoping sweet Ashley will post again soon. Love Mom

Mom wanted me to post the delicious peach shake reciepe.. I think I emailed it last month. Now is a great time to get peaches.

Best-ever peach shake

2 cups fresh peeled and chopped peaches
3 cups high quality vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
whipping cream for garnish
sliced peach for garnish

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Top with whipping cream and garnish with a peach slice.

ENJOY

Note: I have used frozen ones when peaches are out of season.

Let me know

Everyone check your email about the 5k. We all can do it, I promise. Last yr. Sierra and I decided the night before to do it. We finished in 31.00 mins. It will be fun. After we'll go get a jamba :). You will be sore the next day but, if Rand can run the Boston we can do the 5k. Ariel and Millie too. I have a REAL beginner schedule if anyone is interested. Happy training!

Conner's First Official Photo Shoot

The lady at Kiddie Kandis asked if Conner could come back as a baby model for the employees to practice taking photos. Conner doesn't get paid, but he does get free pictures :)

Ang is a Blogger

Hi Family,
Well, it's me Ang...yes I'm finally on the blogger. This is Ariel at Homecoming with the girls.....they had more fun than the girls with the boys, although there were boys that wanted to ask her and some boys that were sad she wasn't thier date........Ahhhh. I'd have to say she is the prettiest! I'm not partcial or anything! Sorry to hear about your Dad Ash....you and your family are in our prayers. Nic keep those scorpions away from that cute little one! Congrads to Chris and the new job! Nic work on taking out your endowments we really want you there for our special day! Eve......baby is soooo cute! I'm proud of all your kiddos......they all look so cute! Move back soon, we miss you! Mom and Dad be proud, you have a super family.......and as the Prophet said enjoy Life! Love you all......Ang, Walt and girls!

Hey family!
this is lexie
i would like to announce that.... drum roll please..... I got my round off back handspring!
and me and my cheer team will be going to vegas and cali. for our compitions! yah!:]]
cant wait .
love you all !

Lexie Lou

Sierra after her dance fever convention (she played with the color)

The Koester Family...minus the doggies

YOU'RE ALL IN TROUBLE!!!

O.K. you're all in BIG TROUBLE!!! Why didn't you tell me new moms never get to sleep. While in the meantime their babies drift off almost any where at any time. I should have been warned (especially by Eve and Ash ;) No really we're all doing great!!! Baby is doing well, just getting so big. He barely fits into pampers newborn diapers, and I've already had to pack up a few outfits he can't wear. I'm thinking about not feeding him so much so he'll stay little forever ;) As for Chris, he officially has a job. I'm now hoping his X-Box will start to collect dust. He's anxious to start working again and excited to have a company car and gas card (Bonus I can drive it too.) Well I miss you guys. Hope someone wins the lottery soon so we can all go on another family vacation.