christmas photos!

Hope all of you had a holly, jolly Christmas! We had a great day and it even snowed! Here is a look at our Christmas!

During the day on Christmas Eve we took the kids to see Santa, Savanna was THRILLED!

The girls in their Christmas Eve jammies and Madi showing her musical toothbrush (it was about this time that Madi turned sour as she learned everyone only got 2 prizes during our bingo game)

Jackson showing off his snowman,and no Jackson isn't a GIANT, the snowman was very, very small but hey, we were just happy to have snow!!!

Troy is my Guitar Hero!!!

Madi with her friends Hannah and Lauren, having a very WebKinzy Christmas!

jackster tkd

Jackson has been in TKD for 2 1/2 years. The belt system goes yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, red, brown, poome, and then finally black. Yesterday Jackson tested for his poome belt. He normally isn't nervous at testing but this time he was visibly shaking. He did really well and now he is one belt away from getting his black belt. Good job Jackster!!!!

holiday walk through the neighborhood

So Troy had a pretty good idea the other night, "Let's walk around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights." Before he sat down and got interested in something on T.V., we all hurried and got on our warm coats, hats, mittens, etc. and headed out with candy cane in hand and fancy-shmancy hoilday spectacular glasses (they make the lights look like snowflakes, Santas, or stars.) Anywho, someone had the brilliant idea of caroling. None of us was too keen to sing to strangers so we walked to our friends house where I remembered they were having their Hannakah celebration. We tried to remember Adam Sandlers song but all we remembered was , "Put on your yarmulke, it's time for Chanukah" (ok, i'll admit I had to just look up those two words, and good thing I did, I was way off)). We moved onto jingle bells. They loved it, we apologized fro crashing the party, headed home and had hot chocolate. Good times!

pressure

As you know we moved this summer. I loved my old neighborhood and still have friends there. And I love my new neighborhood but I am finding out this year about the pressure of the outdoor Christmas decorations. Sure we see funny movies about it but I am here to tell you it is real. i live next door to the Griswalds!!! Lights, and lights and more twinking lights, plus lawn ornaments (pluto and penguins to be exact) and it plays music. So with the sunbreak today (sunbreak is a NW term, when the sun peeks out from the clouds, we all yell "SUNBREAK" and rejoice!), I am semi-Griswalding my house. Actually, not even close, but just enough to be in the holiday spirit and not be known as the neighborhood scrooge. And with any luck, Troy will put the icicle lights up this week-end(it truly is his least favorite thing to do---EVER!)

thanksgiving photo!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and they got plenty of good food. I have to admit, my dinner was quite tasty (little pat on my back!) I am so thankful for my cute family. Each kid each is so unique and I am proud of them all. Troy and I have been married 15 years and I am so proud of our accomplishment. I am thankful for him and the husband and father he is to Savanna, Jackson and Madi.

This picture is all of us doing our best "Madi" face!

thanksgiving

So Jackson just said to me,
"What do you call a potato that smacks you?"
Me: "Uh, smashed potatoes?"
J:"No, 'smack potatoes' !"
Jackson smiles, I stare blankly at him...
Me:"You just made that up didn't you!"
J:"Yeah, just this minute!"(His face is beaming with pride)

So just thought I'd pass on the holiday spirit, before I start chopping, peeling, stirring, and mixing. I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving wherever you will be tomorrow. We have a sign in our house that says, "In every way and everyday, cherish family, friends and tradtions." HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!

my baby is 7!

Yes,it's true, my baby is 7!! She had a great birthday yesterday full of sugar, friends, family and presents!!!

more halloween pictures

We had a Pirate, Harry Potter, and an East High Cheerleader (High School Musical) and

Krash was a golfer, we called him Bagger Vance.

halloween was a success!

Costumes were cute, no accidents, no drama, good weather and judging by the "candy mountain", I consider Halloween '07 a huge success! We live close to an old cemetery and Jackson has been talking about running through the cemetery on Halloween since we moved here. Troy took Jackson and Madi. Madi got scared on the corner before even getting there. Jackson got a few feet into to the cemetery and decided not to take Troy up on his dare to touch a gravestone. There's always next year!

(I'll post more pictures later, apparently everyone is trying to download their Halloween photos because I keep getting errors!)

happy halloween!!!

We managed to get the pumpkins done last night and the kids were helpful in the disgusting, cleaning out of the pumpkin. Hope everyone has a Happy, Safe Halloween and I better see some costume pictures tomorrow!!!

fabulous fall

It took me so long to carve these pumpkins...Just Kidding, the big one weighs over 1, 000 pounds. The biggest one we got was 26 pounds and it still isn't carved. We will be working on that tonight!









This Fall was certainly busy but it is beginning to slow down. Football and soccer are now officially over. Both kids had their last games on Saturday and it was a nice surprise by Grandma Ruth to come see them.

thanks ash for a great week-end

Ash and the kids, including Krash.

Ash at the pumkin patch, football game and a couple action shots of the kids

A couple shots in Portland

My niece Ashley came out to visit us this week-end. We kept her busy with the usual Saturday activities---football and soccer, plus the pumpkin patch. At home the kids took turns entertaining her playing Scene It, coloring and reading stories. Monday before she left we caught a quick lunch in Portland, showed her around the city a bit and then we had enough time to stop by IKEA. Thanks for coming to see us Ash, we love you!