From One Event To The Next....

With the Christmas Season in full swing, it is hard to find time to think, much less write a blog. That said, these pictures clearly show how busy we have been.

This was the first year I let Maya and Declan make their own ornament. We traced their hand and molded it to size with some baking clay. Then they painted their baked hands and I have yet to finalize this project with string so they can add them to the tree....

Although I had every intention of taking the kids to see Santa in years past, we never got around to it. So when our friends Tony and Sarah invited us to meet up with them at a local Real Estate Company who had a winter wonderland set up, we jumped at the chance to get the kids' picture taken with Santa. For my Canadian readers, I just want to point out that the picture below where Jeremy is playing in the snow with Maya is not really a picture of snow. They had to bring in a snow machine. As a Canadian who is used to a REAL winter wonderland, I just found it funny that they have to make their own snow around here. Below you can see us riding on an old fashion trolly too. Maya asked to ring the bell afterwards.

And what would Christmas be like without a picture like this?? haha!

(Maya asked Santa for a NEW CAR! Could it be that she heard her daddy say he needed a new one?)

To celebrate Jeremy's 36th birthday (on December 19th) we thought it would be fun to take the kids sledding on Mt. Hood. So at 7am I piled layers of clothes on the kids and packed up the truck while Jeremy got ready. After we were all ready to go, Jeremy checked the weather and the forecast showed temperatures well above freezing and rain on the mountain. So a 2 hour drive to the mountain would have been silly because we probably would have had to turn around to come straight back home. Instead, Jeremy suggested we take the kids bowling. This was a first for us and perhaps a last, at least for another 2 years or so. Maya did really well. She quickly learned that she had to wait her turn, but Declan didn't really understand that concept. At first, Jeremy and I found it funny to see Declan carry a 6 lb ball from lane to lane trying to find the perfect place to DROP the ball. Then, it started to get tiring. We had the man delete Jeremy and I off our play list because we thought it was silly to pay for 4 players when Maya and Declan were really the only ones playing. So all in all, Declan nearly ended up with a hernia from carrying the ball around and Maya ended up with a great score of 61.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS! See you back here next week:)