2011 Update

I can't believe this year is already coming to a close! It has gone by even faster than usual!! Here are some quick highlights of 2011:

Bryson turned 1 in January!

We took a trip to Phoenix in April to visit Dina and see the Grand Canyon Spent a weekend in San Francisco for Paul's 40th birthday in May

Then a trip to Texas for my brothers wedding in June


Garrett played baseball this year for the first time
And of course, we had plenty of beach time this summer!

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

For all of you Shutterfly fans out there...there are some great new photo card designs for Christmas this year. I have used them the last few years for my Christmas cards and they always turn out great! I know I enjoy seeing everyone's updated pics each year and it's so much fun to design your own. Of course, I always spend way too much time trying to decide on which design because there are so many to choose from! Here are a few of my favorite:
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It's fun to be creative with these cards and you can even change it to say whatever you want.

There are other great gift ideas on shutterfly as well, such as mugs, ornaments and my favorite - calendars. My sister and I have made calendars each year for our grandparents with personalized pictures each month and the dates of all the family members' birthdays preprinted on the calendar. This is very convenient especially with our large family which is continuing to grow!

If you are a blogger, you might be interested in their promotion right now. You get 50 free photo cards just for blogging about this offer. That's a pretty great deal!!

So...have fun and don't forget - Christmas is right around the corner :)

Garrett's Soccer Game

Garrett is playing soccer in the Kiddie Kickers league which is for 4 and 5 year olds and it has been a lot of fun watching! It's so funny to watch at this age because they don't really get the team effort aspect so they all run together in a group and fight for the ball individually. Garrett is proving to be quite competitive and aggressive when he's out there. When Kaitlyn competed in this league, she was quite the opposite. She would prance up and down the court, waving at us in the stands and thouroughly enjoying the social aspect of the game but really had no desire to get too close to the ball! Not Garrett!! Once the whistle blows, he's focused on the ball and is on a mission!

I am continually amazed at how different Kaitlyn and Garrett are and how unique God created each of them!

Here are a couple of clips from his games. He is number 7.

Puppies and Boys!!

For those of you who have not yet met our puppy, Loxie, well... she's quite an interesting dog with LOTS of energy!! I thought I would post a picture of what she does when she really wants to come inside!!

I am not sure if they label dogs ADHD, but if they do I think she would be a classic case :)

Kaitlyn finally calmed her down enough to brush her!

Meanwhile, Garrett was outside trying out his homemade slingshot he fashioned out of his guitar strap. I swear that boy can create a weapon just about out of anything!! I made him wear his ski helmet cause...well...he can be pretty accident prone! Amazingly enough, he actually swung those rocks pretty far [including one into his face...which again explains the need for the helmet] :)

Last weekend we had incredibly beautiful weather with fresh snow from that week, so we decided to try snowshoeing with the kids. I love going cross country skiing but Garrett just doesn't like it! If he's on skis, he wants to be going downhill fast! We thought we'd rent some snow shoes and see how they do and we had such a great time. We snow shoed up by Luther pass and found a sledding hill for the kids and then snow shoed into grass lakes. It was so pretty and peaceful and I was happy that Garrett enjoyed it too [of course a little whining was involved :) ] Kaitlyn of course did great, but she loves hiking and she has a lot more endurance than Garrett so I wasn't worried about her. It's funny how Garrett, with so much energy, can get tired so quickly when hiking or snow shoeing. Maybe it's an attention span thing, not sure, haven't quite figured that out yet :)

Garrett and Loxie racing down the sledding hill!!

Garrett has fallen and can't get up! Until we told him we were leaving :)

So...for those of you who may have thought I fell off the face of the earth... fear not, I am back :) I predicted from the start that I may have trouble keeping current with this blog idea, so please bear with me!

A quick update on the events of the last 3 months :) We had quite the traveling holidays this year (or I guess I should say "last year") First we went to visit Pia, Marco and Max in Laguna over Thanksgiving weekend. We had a great visit with them and enjoyed the warmer weather!

We also visited the Natural History Museum in LA which is where they filmed Night at the Museum. It was pretty fun seeing the exhibits and imagining them coming to life like in the movie...the little army men and the huge dinosaur...Anyways...I think the kids had as much fun as I did :)

Then we spent a night with Paul's uncle Klaus in LA on our way home.

Then...a couple weeks later, we made our way down to Texas to spend Christmas with my family. Everyone was home this year, including Stan and Sheryl and kids, so it was lots of fun. Thankfully my parents have plenty of space at their new place for all of us and the kids had a blast exploring the acreage and playing with the goats, chickens, etc.

The boys playing football Christmas day

Our "redneck Christmas" :) Actually the kids found a pile of cow's bones on the property and were quite fascinated. I don't think the girls were as enthusiastic, but Michael became quite attached to them and couldn't understand why his mom wouldn't let him take them back to Portland! Might be a bit tough to explain to airport security.

We went to a small town in Texas that puts up a million lights in their city square. That's alot of lights!!Garrett helping Grandpa with the loader!

Well, that's it for now! I'll try not to wait another 3 months, however, not making any promises either!!

Harvest Festival

So, I had the privilege of organizing the harvest festival again this year :) We had it on Halloween night and it was the best turnout yet! The kids had so much fun with the games, contests, prizes, facepainting, very tall clowns, etc. It was definately a lot of work but worth it in the end. Kaitlyn was Queen Esther and Garrett was David (he searched high and low for the perfect shape stick for his slingshot!) But, whew! am I glad that event is over!!