It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Rin's Snowmen.  I especially liked the leprechan & Steelers player

What we came home to on Monday afternoon.

 We finally got our winter.  Yeah!  Sean was especially excited, "Mama, if we ever move anywhere, I want it to be somewhere with MORE snow".  Hmmm.  I do love the snow.  And then I love to see it go.  This is beautiful, though, light and fluffy but packs into a good snowball.  Perhaps I've enjoyed it so much because I haven't had to use the car today.  Morning Kindergarten was cancelled, and the other kids school was delayed 2 hours, giving us time to do the latter pictured activities.  Kids might have to put up their bikes for a time, though.  Sean and Rin have continued riding into January.  Finally let Rin ride her bike home without me after Christmas break.  The hill is so steep it scares me, but she seems to be getting much better control and says she walks it on the steepest block (thankyou!).

What we woke up to on Wednesday morning

A little snow baseball with the boys (snowman playing first base)

Sean's snowman on the left looks like it's melting...I would too if someone was coming at me with a sharp stick, poor thing

Last night Sean threatened.  'Don't you dare shovel in the morning mom.  I want to do it!'  Then Milla pipes up, 'But I wanted to, Sean!'  I told them I think there is enough sidewalk and snow to go around.  True to their promise, the walk was shoveled when I finally rolled out of bed this morning (later than usual as I woke with a sinus headache and had already recieved the phone call at 6am that school was delayed) Rin came in at 7, 'Mom!  where are the truck keys?  I want to go clean it off!'.  She seemed to really enjoy herself.  Although with her short stature she gave the truck more of a 'mohawk' look than a complete 'shave'.
 
Fun stuff.  Only downer right now is that Brandon has been sick since Sunday with congestion and a cough.  It's made worse by the fact that he has a random habit of blacking out momentarily when he coughs. Which he can deal with when he's sitting down, but standing on hard floors or driving makes it a little more of a concern.  Luckily he got out of his meeting in Baker tonight because of the storm so he won't have to drive alone.

Happy snow day!

Lions and goats and doughnuts, oh my!

Tooth extraction with an unhappy patient

Well, we made it to Portland just in time; beating the snow by a hair! We decided to celebrate Brandon's 39th birthday at his mom's home in Vancouver.  We took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and spent Friday the 13th at the Portland Zoo.  We fought against the instinctive flow and circled the zoo backward, beginning with their relatively new Africa visit.  While I was shooting my kids posing with the lion statues, Brandon and his mom we're yelling from around the corner, "Come quick!  You have to see this!" Over and over.  But I decided to be a mom and stick with my kids.  And  missed all the apparrent action in the Lions exhibit.  Dad lion was just lazin'  about by the time I got there.  Ah well. 

My kids are fun to watch as well.

cheetah safari

 We got to watch the cheetah action from a jeep that appeared to be crashed into the exhibit wall.  Being cool, the animals were mostly fairly active and the kids were happy...THE WHOLE TIME.  No kidding.  So much fun.  I'd get loves and then off they would go again.  Favorites this visit: Sea lion (of course-as always), naked mole rats, and the tortoise that I could see up close how his head bent sideways and folded into his shell as opposed to retracting in as I thought.  Although when I think about it I'm not sure how a spine COULD retract.  Anyhow.  Another interesting tidbit...did you know that what you would think is a giraffes  knees and elbows are actually his

my little wide eyed prairie dogs

ankles and wrists?    Weird.  So that's why they bend a different way than you would think. 
On the way home we stopped by VooDoo doughnuts to pick up a dozen to make into Brandon's requested 'cake'.  I took advantage of parents first pick and snagged the bacon maple bar first.  Mmmmm.  And half of the butterfinger cake doughnut.  And maybe a bit of the grape koolaid powder covered one as well. ;)
We arrived home to snow on monday, but luckily the pass was not too bad and it was smooth sailing.  I felt much more in danger after arriving home and opened the newspaper to see a picture of my cross the street

neighbor's detacted garage in flames (occurred only a few hours after we'd left).  Then an hour later I had just crossed 2nd street right by our house with Rin and Thomas on the way to the sledding hill when we heard a big crash.  I turned around and saw at the intersection we had just crossed, two cars collided.  One spun and smashed into a parked car.  The other spun and slid up on the sidewalk not 20 feet from us.  My first thought was, 'are they OK?'.  My immediate second thought was, 'that car is still moving...in our direction!'  So I grabbed the kids and we scurried for a minute until the car came to a stop and then we went back to check on everyone.  The one was a BMW with side airbags.  I was asking through the window if the passenger was alright, but it took a moment for him to respond (as Onstar was talking to him as well).  It was disconcerting though, because I couldn't see into the car with all of the airbags inflated.  I visually couldn't check on him... Strange.  But I guess it's good the bags were there.

Anyhow, fun birthday and the kids are thrilled winter has finally arrived.  Catherine insisted on putting on Christmas music as it now feels the season.

Hoff, our New Year's visitor

After arriving home from our Church New Year's Eve party (the family portion ended at 8:30), we settled down to watch a holiday Dr. Who with our arms full of pizza, guacamole dip and chips, gummy bears and martenelli's.  Not 15 minutes into the show we hear a knock on the door. Answering the door I see a vaguely familiar lady with a policeman behind her at the curb.  Hmmm.  ( I know my children are all accounted for).  The lady asks, 'Are you missing a dog?'  Oh, crud.  Not again...but I thought I just saw Henry?  'You have a bulldog, right?'
AH, relief.  Not our dog after all.  She is about to turn to leave when a light sparks in her eyes.  "How would you like to foster a bulldog until we find his owner?  He's the sweetest thing and the animal shelter is closed until Tuesday and otherwise he'll have to go sit in a cage at the police station..."  (Turns out she was the neighborhood dog advocate-her daughter is in Sean's grade) Before I know it we have Henry and Hoff chasing, barking, whining all over, under and through our house.  Turned into a crazy night.  Hoff was indeed a sweet dog but between his loud nasal breathing (cute dogs but not built quite right), the  marking of his territory in my kitchen (thankyou stone floors), the slobber flying everywhere and Henry never giving up chase, the dogs went outside for a time.   Even though the evening was chaotic, it brought on quite a few fits of laughter in between the screams.   Was just a little sad to see him go Sunday afternoon.

Milla and Sean made it until midnight this year, but poor Thomas was wiped out by 10pm.

Christmas stuff

We had a lovely visit to Nana and Grandpa's right before Christmas.  Got to make (and eat!) the traditional candy cane cakes, watch 'The Christmas Carol', take a Christmas Lights walk in downtown Caldwell, sing carols and go bowling.  Thomas bowl's as he lives:  full speed.  I was just pleased that the ball never bounced over to a neighboring lane.  He was pleased at the few strikes he was able to pull off.  It's nice to be close enough to just take a quick trip to see mom and dad and keep it low key.  Makes for happier kids and moms.

We got to spend alot of time this year just playing together.  The kids were none to happy at the lack of snow for sledding, but we did get to enjoy some new games thanks to Uncle Andrew and Aunt Zoe and a puzzle of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling thanks to Grandma Eyre.  As I think back, there are too many little experiences to recount them all.  I suppose many will be forgotten, but the feelings created by them will remain. 

We didn't even get a picture of our Christmas Tree this year.  Arizona white pine again.  The tree was lovely but leaned more with each passing day.  I guess we could have straightened it, but our cast iron base that we got years ago held strong and the tree stayed off of the ground. 

The kids did their Nativity for Nana and Gpa...and yes, that's Joseph made out of a stool, coat, stuffed bunny and football.  He never missed a beat.

We finished our Sistine Chapel in under 2 weeks... take that, Michelangelo

Uncle Ryan's gift for our Wii

We kept the gingerbread creation a little simpler this year and collaborated on an underwater scene.  Note Catherine and my's scuba diving santa.  Rin and Thomas both helped with pouring candy 'coral'.

Sean did the sunken 1/2 a ship on the left.  Rin, of course, the pink mermaid.

Close-up of Sean's ship and reeses cup barrel

I came in on a conversation that Brandon was having with the kids one day.  They were talking about Christmas presents- excited about what would come.  Brandon asked if the kids remembered what they'd gotten for Christmas last year...not one could remember.  He then said, 'I guess that shows you what is most important.  I'll leave it at that.

huh?

Heard from the next room.

Catherine, "Ahhh! Ow!  SEAN! You should know better than to sit on me when I'm walking!"

Sean, "But I thought you were standing still!"

Christmas

I feel good today.  Often on the evening of Christmas some sort of depression sets in.  But today has been full of family, music and tenderness.  I enjoyed being at church today.  To reflect on feelings of the past couple of months... of gratitude for a good husband, children that are growing and trying to make sense of all that's around them, of peace that comes when I think on the Lord and his goodness, of compassion and understanding for those that I see struggling, of patience for my own inadequacies and of knowledge that the Lord knows me and wants me to find joy.

Happy Christmas

Living Nativity

Had a fun night out with the family last night. 

Earlier in the week the kids asked if they could please, please go the Living Nativity  that's put on by the Seventh Day Adventist church every year.  We alwaysmean to go, but last year was the first time we actually made it.  And the kids remembered it.  And it was an even better experience this year.

First of all, Clive the Camel showed up this year (I guess last year he was sick).  So that was fun.  But the whole event is great.  The Romans welcome you (and give you a booklet to hold the stickers you get at each station) and then you go to the Census station to be numbered.  All the volunteers are in character and will ask the kids things like, 'So how did you come this evening?  By horse, or donkey, or perhaps a chariot?'.  To which Thomas replied, 'No.  We came by car (like, duh!)'.  Then to the 'Temple' building holding a replica of the ark, a veil, unleavened bread, etc.  A man gave an nice explanation of the symbolism within with the kids actually really listened to.  There's the inn, the manger (all with real animals for petting) and posted correlated scriptures you could read to the kids at each place.  The carpenter is actually making little wooden crosses to hand out, the fish market has actual smoked fish going.  Then the indoor market is just as fun and informative to give you a feel of the times when Jesus lived on Earth.  Ends with warm treats and a band performing Christmas hymns you can sing along with.  Quite a production. I enjoy having opportunities throughout to answer my kids questions and be in a positive environment.  The kids individually would get excited about something they saw here or there and call a sibling over to share it with.   There were good moments like the ones you always envision before doing things together (but that as often as not don't go as smoothly as planned with kids teasing and bickering and such).  At the end we were all finishing up our hot chocolate and were standing between an outdoor fire getting warm and the camel.  Slowly, Clive's head came craning around our direction and I say, 'Hey kids look!  Clive is checking us out!'.  And then in the blink of an eye his large muzzle darted directly at me- or rather at the cup of Hot chocolate I was holding.  He came within an inch of the cup when the rope on him caught.  Took me by surprise!

Finished up the evening with some traditional Friday night pizza.