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.