Black Friday

Jess and I went out for our Traditional Annual Black Friday shopping trip. We started going out a few years ago and just have so much fun we keep doing it. It's just a great time for her and I to hang out together. We get our Christmas shopping done, go out to breakfast, and always get our picture taken with Santa. Too fun!! I love hanging out with her!

Thanksgiving

We had a little different of a Thanksgiving this year. With having older kids with jobs in the retail fields momentarily, both of them had to work - or so we thought. Jessi really did have to work, being in a grocery store at Thanksgiving is kind of a given. Jeff thought he had to work too, but came home about 30 minutes later. The dork looked at the wrong schedule and didn't have to work after all.

It was quite a quiet day however with Jess gone, and us eating later no one came over till later. That's okay, it gave Jeff some great homework time. Dinner turned out great and we enjoyed the evening hanging out a lot. Grandma Smout even brought us Thanksgiving presents.

She asked us what she could bring for Thanksgiving and Aaron told her presents. So, she did. It was so cute, and we all loved it a lot!!!! I got a little bouncy ball, Jess got play dough, Jeff Go Fish cards and Aaron got a kaleidoscope. Thanks Grandma, too fun!

We got tired of waiting for Aaron to finish talking to Amy to resume our game of Speed Uno so Jeff got a rubber band to fasten the phone onto his head so he could do both at the same time.

Oh the entertainment a silly little rubber band can bring! And we are always wondering why that boy doesn't have a girl friend!

De-boning the Turkey is my LEAST favorite part of Thanksgiving. I just hate it, so this year I made it a family affair. Jess was completely disgusted and I thought she was going to gag. I guess that's a trait she picked up from Amy, gagging at the wimpiest stuff. Jeff was just completely fascinated. He just got done going to the Bodies Exhibit for anatomy class and so it very in tune that sort of thing right now. He was feeling quite mortal last night ripping the flesh of another, once living animal.

We are so blessed in our lives and have so much to be thankful for. We all have jobs, Jeff is getting a great education, a warm house, cars to drive....... many many blessings. But most of all I am just so thankful for my family. Everyone is happy and healthy. We get along amazing and love to be together. Who could ask for more?

New Moon

Last night, after the party festivities were over a few of the girls and I took off to go see New Moon. We left early thinking that it might be busy and there were five of us that wanted to sit together. Holy Crap - it's a good thing I bought the tickets the day before and we were 40 minutes early. I can't remember the last time I sat in such a long line! The five of us ended up not being able to sit together after all. Becca and I sat together and the other three sat behind us.

The movie was okay. It certainly was better than the last one. I just get so tired of Kristen Stewart. I can't stand her acting at all! And, we were in a sold out theater with probably the most inconsiderate audience I have ever been in. Yelling crying small children, people running up and down the isles and in front of the theater, cell phones going off..... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! Not the best movie experience I have ever had, but it was still fun hanging out with the girls.

Jessi's Birthday Party

We had a fun day partying with Jess's friends for her 17th birthday. Since she is doing running start, she doesn't get to see a lot of them very often, so I think it was fun for her to just hang out.

We had an unknown dinner to start with, Mexican style, then just played games and did a bunch a nothing. Fun stuff

Poor Mitchell, all he got on this course of his meal were his silverware and drink. That means he got a whole lot of food later with no silverware to eat with. Such is the way of the game.

Jess sitting with Alex, her new beau.

A cake that Becca and Tori made Jess. It's says "You better eat this". They also gave her the soda below along with a farris wheel of pictures of them for her. They certainly put a lot of time into their gift - it was very thoughtful.

By the way, take a look at the beautiful teeth on this girl!! She finally got to quit wearing her retainers during the day. Night only. Now her smile is even more amazing. She is such a pretty girl. Looks like her mom :o).

Singing happy birthday and blowing out candles. With Alex, Jacob and McKenzie.

Caitlyn, Holly (Damon's girlfriend) and Damon

Cute Pic!
Back - Mitchell and Blake
Front - Jess, Jacob and McKenzie

Becca, Tori and Cameron

Becca again

Jess got a lot of cool stuff for her birthday and enjoyed hanging out a lot. She's got a great group of friends. Now she has lots of fun gift cards to go out shopping with. I get to have fun doing that with her I think. Can't wait.

Cheney Family Update

Since I have not made a blog post for about three weeks, I'm sure you are wondering if we are still alive here in Washington. Alive and kicking.

Life has been pretty monotonous lately. Jeff is going strong in school and just had his midterms this week. He is super frustrated with it though as his new computer just went on the brink. Yes, you heard right, his NEW computer quit working and is in the shop. That makes it super hard to work on homework since 90% of it has to be done on the computer. He is spending a lot of time at school these days trying to get things done. He set a pretty high bar for himself last quarter and is trying to keep it up. Keep it up Jeff, only 2 1/2 quarters left!!!!!

Jess? Do I have a daughter named Jess? I think I remember there being a time when I had a daughter, but it's all so fuzzy these days. Wait! There is this one girl that keeps sleeping in the bedroom across the hall. That must be her. Between school, work, friends, boyfriend and work (Yes I meant to put that twice) we never really see Jess anymore. She has always been a goer with a full schedule. I think she does better that way. She doesn't like too much time on her hands or she gets restless. Last we checked though she was getting good grades, so as long as the grades stay in check I'm good.

So.... this leaves Aaron and I at home - alone - all of the time. It's super weird! I guess this is natures way of weening you off of your kids so that when they move out you don't really feel it much. You spend so much of your life wrapped up in your kids up to this point, that now we are wondering what to do with ourselves. I'm trying to come up with fun, inexpensive, dates for us to do on the weekends.

What we really need I think is more friends. We only have like 2 1/2. I feel sometimes like we wear out our welcome with the ones we have. Most of them still have kids at home so they are too busy. I get to the point where I just feel bad continuing to invite them to do things because I feel like I'm imposing, or nagging or something. So, we are looking into our options. Take a class? Join a v-ball league? Join a running group or training group? Just something fun to fill the time and where we can meet some more people. Ideas?

I guess the time is getting closer and closer to just move to Idaho/Utah to be closer to everyone. Even Teresa has a hard time doing things with us. I'm hoping it's just because she is busy with kids and not because she doesn't want to! But, she doesn't even want to come over for Thanksgiving, so I wonder ;o) ........

That's about it in Cheney land. We are definitely in a crossroads in life where there are a lot of changes in all of our lives. I think we are all just trying to figure it out and find our niches. Really, gone are the days that our whole family can be together. It's a very rare occasion, and we treasure it deeply when it happens.

Jeff Got On The Deans List!

Jeff got a 3.9 GPA last quarter and just received a letter in the mail today letting him know that he was on the Deans List. I'm so proud of him. Good work Jeff!

(click on the image if you would like to actually read his letter :o)

Jessi's Pumpkins

Jess took off for a fun day on Sunday with a friend from work. We have had pretty decent weather lately so they wanted to be outside. To the corn mazes it was. They went through a couple of mazes, bought some pumpkins, went out to lunch, then came back home to carve away. Jess's friend was just leaving as I got home from my run, but I got a pic of Jess finishing up her pumpkin. She looked so cute I couldn't resist.