Christmas Day

Christmas morning we woke up to new snow on the ground and it came down heavy all morning. What a treat! (Although, the weather did change our original plans).

After opening presents together, just the 4 of us, and seeing what Santa brought (a new ball pit), we made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Around noon, instead of going to Brian's aunt & uncle's house in Oregon City area, we headed over to Nana & Grandpa's house for a celebration with about half the family.

It was a great day, and oh so beautiful to have a white Christmas. Now I'm ready for it to melt and everything to be back to normal!

The chocolate's kickin' in!

Christmas Eve

Since we had about 8 inches of snow on Christmas Eve, our usual plans got canceled, so we decided to have dinner with just my parents at our house. Brian had to go pick them up in the 4 wheel drive and bring them over, but it was great. We had a simple ham & scalloped potato dinner and exchanged presents with each other. Everyone did great with gifts this year, Blake & Avery made out like bandits. Here are a couple of the highlights of the night.

Stuck in the House, Day 3

There is even more snow today. I think we got about 2-3 inches this morning. We probably have a total of 8-10 inches on everything, with a thin layer of ice in the middle like an Oreo. We really wanted to get out of the house today, but we didn't drive anywhere. I was stuck working from home and so Brian took Avery with the neighbors and they went sledding on the golf course. Fun times were had by all! It's not supposed to snow or rain or anything tomorrow, so I'm going to have Brian take me to work in the truck. I really need to get out of here!

Christmas Activities

Over the past few weeks we have been doing the usual Christmas activities: cutting down our Christmas Tree, decorating our Christmas tree, baking cookies, building a ginger bread house, wrapping presents, watching Christmas movies, reading Christmas stories, driving around looking at Christmas lights, playing in the snow, and drinking plenty of hot cocoa!

One Monday morning I didn't have to work, so we took off straight from picking Avery up from preschool and headed to the tree farm. We found the perfect tree after about 8 minutes, so that was good because Blake hated being in the backpack. After that we got some hot cocoa and went to go pet the goats, pony & lamas.
That night after dinner, Avery & I decorated the tree with Brian & Blake supervising. We even listened to Avery's "Little People Christmas CD". She was super excited to be decorating and only a few ornaments were sacrificed.

A few days later, Brian picked up a ginger bread house at Target and Avery invited her neighbor friends over to help her build it. They all had fun, but the little ones just liked to eat the frosting & decorations!
About a week ago, we started getting some pretty cold weather. It even snowed a few flakes here & there. As the days of last week passed by, the snow flakes kept coming. School was closed Wednesday - Friday (so Avery's preschool didn't get to have their little program/party), and now, we are all but snowed in! I'm sure our truck could handle the snowy, ice covered roads, but why chance it? We don't really have to go anywhere, we just want to!
Avery & I made sugar cookies on Friday, yesterday we played in the snow and were invited to the neighbors for a nice, hot, French Onion Soup dinner, and today we made fudge and peppermint bark.
Now... if I can just get to work tomorrow?!?!?

Car Accident

I was riding in Shannon's car 2 Saturdays ago up in Kelso when we were in a little accident. An elderly lady was at a stop sign and pulled out right in front of us. We t-boned her right on her drivers side. Everyone was ok, just a little shook up. Shannon's car, on the other hand, no so ok. The lady was sighted at the scene but her insurance didn't want to make it her fault, so Shannon's insurance is going to fix her car, luckily. No one wants to be forced to buy a new car when your old one was perfectly fine before!

Thanksgiving

So I know this is a little late but I wanted to write about it before I forgot. Our Thanksgiving this year was a little bit different than usual. Usually we go with Brian's parents out to their best friends house in Beaverton in the morning/afternoon, have snacks, play pool and maybe even let the kids ride a horse or tractor, and then we head to my grandparents house for dinner. This year we still went to Beaverton, but then we had Thanksgiving dinner with my family at our house!
My mom is easing me into this new tradition so all I had to do was provide a clean house, and she & my grandma & aunts did all the cooking! It was a ton of fun having everyone here. We had 14 adults & 2 kids. After dinner everyone played pictionary (mostly the younger generation had to make the older generation play). It was a funny time and even Avery got into the game. Here is her drawing of a reindeer & a hot dog. (I'll let you guess which one is which)!

Brian's new baby

For the past few years, Brian has really been wanting a new truck. He's never owned a truck before, and did lots of research on them. This past summer, he decided that he wanted a Toyota Tundra. Well, after looking for 5 months, we finally found our perfect fit! Brian even cut some shelves out of the garage so we could park it inside.

Here she is in all her glory! Almost too pretty to drive anywhere.

The Beach

Two weeks ago, Brian had to work,but our parents were going to the beach, so I decided to take the kids and go too. The weather was absolutely beautiful and there was a clam dig scheduled Friday & Saturday evening, so Avery got to go clamming with everyone (I stayed at the house with Blake because it was almost dark & getting cold). Saturday morning we woke up and the girls all went into Long Beach to the arcade. Avery, Mommy, Nana & Nani all got to play lots of games and Avery got fun prizes with her tickets. We played on the beach that afternoon, but no clamming that night. It got too dark and we didn't have lanterns. The kids and I headed back home Sunday morning. They did great in the car and were overall really well behaved all weekend. And it was great have 4 other people to help out!
Here are some of the highlights...

The Birthday Girl

Avery turned 4 last Saturday! We can't believe that we have such a grown up big girl!

We told Avery a long time ago that she could chew gum when she turned 4. Several months ago she said that she wanted to have a bubblegum birthday party, so that's what we did! We found gum ball machines at the dollar store to give to everyone as party favors, I created a "bubble gum machine" cake, and we even had the kids bob for gumballs in plate fulls of whipped cream. I think they all had a great time and tons of our family & friends came to celebrate.

Here are some pictures of the highlights.

Happy Halloween

We had so much fun trick-or-treating this year. Avery is totally addicted to candy & sweets so she was in hog heaven, and Blake, he just loves riding in the wagon, so he was happy too. He really got the hang of it after about 3 houses. He would trot up to the front porch and hold his bucket, not really knowing why. He didn't care about the candy, he's never had any...yet. Anyway, they were totally cute twin dragons and loved every minute of it.

My Nana and my parents were at our house for dinner and handing out candy to other trick-or-treaters. Avery had just about as much fun handing out the candy, as she did getting it! We had 75 goblins come to our door this year.