Happy Birthday to Me!

Check out this great Birthday Present my mom did for me! She took Bekah and Topher to this upper end portrait studio, where they supply the clothes and everything! What a great surprise! My kids are so stinkin cute! Thank you mom!

Grammy

This is Chad's dear Grammy. She is Chad's fathers mother. Mona, Chad's mom is now taking care of her to keep her out of a nursing home. She is the sweetest little lady, Ryeleigh just dotes on her. It was sure good seeing her again on our short little trip.

Kissy Kissy Smoochie Cheeks

The best part of our trip to Utah was seeing all the new little babies that we hadn't met yet! Topher will have lots of little buddies right around his own age if we ever move back that way! First there is Ryken, Scott and Suzanna's little guy who is about 2 months younger than Topher, but the same size if not bigger! Than there is Owen, Melissa and Mark Christensens little guy, who I didn't get any pics of myself, but I stole one off her in-laws page so you can see the cutie! He is just over a month old, and is so stinkin cute! It was so great to see his parents and catch up with them. Then there is Allison, my friends Kama and John Petersbergers baby who is just over 3 months old. They just moved into a new house in Cedar Hills which is gorgeous! I am very happy for them, her 2 older kids are just adorable too. Can you believe all those cheeks on those little babies? So kissable!

Best Buddy

Of course we knew this would happen! Bekah and Connor picked right up where they left off. They played they fought, they hugged, they laughed, they had a ball! Connor was even over heard telling Bekah and his mom, that he didn't want Bekah to grow up, he likes her just the way she is now. He wants her to keep her hair the same and just stay little! It was pretty much the funniest thing ever. It's good to know that they can still be buddies even living 800 miles apart!

New Years Eve Auction

Trey & Susie Dallon, Zachary & Quince Suzanna, Scott & Tage Tage & Bekah Brian & Tiffany Izabel, Tim & Priscilla Todd & Stefanie

Matt& Sandy Jason (yes ladies, he's single) Mona, me & Topher Jessica, Elliot, Ryeleigh, Asha & Koy Shaleigh & Christopher

This was just as much fun as we remembered it. The auction was great, and we got some great stuff. Chad's brother Trey bid on a brand new Johnny Miller fly fishing pole and reel and then gave it to Chad. Chad is very excited to get out there and learn how to use it! We also got a bunch of toothpaste and toothbrushes, which sounds boring, but we won't have to buy these things for over a year now! Great emergency preparedness stuff! The kids all got some fun toys too. The best though was just seeing everyone again and feeling like it was just like we never left. (There were lots more pics of all the cousins, and our whole trip, if you want to see them all, let me know, I will email them to you. A special thanks to Todd & Stef, Brian & Tiffany & Scott & Suzanna for your hospitality while we were there! We love you all!

 

In a Galaxy Far Far Away. OMSI Star Wars Exhibit

How cool is this?!? This was soooo fun! OMSI was having a Star Wars exhibit, and because we bought the membership we got tickets for $3 a piece, instead of the $15 they usually cost. They had props and costumes from all 6 movies, we took tons of pictures, this is just a few of the highlights. There was a fun Hover car that you got to drive, the kids loved it, especially Bekah. There was a little movie/show kind of thing with a C3PO talking to a real robot engineer about the differences between robots of our time and droids from the movies. They had all these real robots there to see, and there was an exhibit to build your own mini R2D2 and then program him to move around little obstacle courses,( I will be adding a video to our video site, click on the videos to see if it is there yet). There was an exhibit to make floating cars and so much more. We all had a blast. We went with the Carters, all of my family, my mom and Jim, Ty, Tab & Trae. So once again it was a very large crowd and we had a ball! We went out to dinner at La Costita afterwards, a favorite of our little group around here. They have this dish called Fundido Especial, and yummmmm! Basically it's a cream cheese, cheese & chicken chimichanga-it is divine, a must try for any mexican food lover! It was such a fun night, but we are getting a little run down, as you can see we haven't had a moments rest around here the past week or so. It's not going to get slower yet either, in 2 days we leave for Utah!

Yippee, It's Christmas!

I think I was as excited as the kids this year! For Christmas Eve I made the kids all matching pajamas, and they looked so cute! On Christmas morning everyone was very pleased with what Santa had left them, I won't list everything we got, it would go on for miles, but I will list the main highlights-Topher got a Little People's Train, Bekah got a wagon and a Tickle Me Elmo, Ryeleigh got a bike, Zachary got some cool cars, one of them even goes up the wall, Chad got a couple of AirSoft guns and I of course got scrapbooking goodies. After we filled the apartment with torn wrapping paper and empty toy boxes to the ceiling, we headed over to my moms for round 2. We got just as spoiled there if not more than we did at home! Topher got a Little People's Bus, Bekah got a cute little snap on dress doll, Ryeleigh got a Cabbage Patch Baby, Zachary got a RoboSapien, (they all got way more toys than that too, I'm talkin stacks! Plus they all got like 10 new outfits each! Yikes!) Chad got a rolling tool box, stuffed with fun treats, movies, gift cards and other goodies, and I got rolling scrapbook tote filled with more scrapbooking stuff, sheets, and earphones for the gym. We got a few family games and movies of course, (those of you who know of Chad's DVD buying addiction know what I mean). We ate lots of yummy food and just lounged all day. It was such a magical day, the kids were all wired and exhausted yet happy at the same time, even Topher could not get in a good nap. He thought it was the greatest. I thought so too, hope your Holidays were as great as ours! Merry Christmas!

Park Pics

We were getting very claustrophobic in our little apartment this day. We had to get out! We went to the library for awhile and then headed over to Fairview Park. The kids got to run off some steam, and I didn't have to get after them for fighting or screaming for a few minutes. It wasn't that bad of a day out either, but still cold enough for their little noses to get red!

Zoo Lights

Way more fun then we could have ever hoped for! We weren't looking forward to going to the zoo in the middle of winter at night time and walk around freezing looking at some more Christmas Lights, but we are glad we did! We went with the Carters, so we were a very large group. My mom bought us a membership, because we do like the zoo here an awful lot and it wasn't much more once we paid for everyone anyway, so Thanks to you mom-love ya!
It was really cool, the lights were great, so many animated displays and fun things to see. Christopher loved the lights and was happy the entire time we were there. Most of the animals were sleeping and out of sight, but we did get to see the elephants, tiger and the awesome animals and fish in the Stellar Cove exhibit. We went for a ride on the zoo train and saw more great lights. Bekah and Ryeleigh had a blast on that. You would not believe how crowded it was though! Seriously wall to wall people, all parking lots and overflows were filled, you had to get on a shuttle to get to the line. The line was unreal! I cannot believe how many people wanted to do this! We understood though once we left, we may have just started a new family tradition.

Christmas Ships

Just one more of our little Christmas activities this week. This was Wednesday night. We went with my mom, Tab and Trae(who just got home from their cruise in Mexico) and our friend David Carter.

We went down to the river in Milwaukie and sat at the dock for over an hour waiting for the ships to come in. This was the last night they were doing it, I guess they are all just volunteers with boats who decorate them and float down the river during Christmas time. It was fun, once they actually came, but we got a little bored sitting in the car waiting for them to come. We had to entertain ourselves by blinding the kids with the cameras flash, which is what this picture of Zachary is. The boats were cool, Chad's favorite was the Santa in the canoe, the kids favorite was the fire engine, that even had a siren and the guy driving had a megaphone and got the crowd all screaming and honking. It was a memorable experience! After this, we all went out to dinner at Chang's Mongolian Grill, Yum!