Merry Christmas to all...

Merry Christmas everyone!  We spent the holidays in Portland this year, but missed spending time with our families back in the midwest.  We had fun creating some new traditions this year though too.   We went to Christmas Eve mass, which was a candlelight service, and very beautiful.  Emma thought it was pretty neat that she got to hold fire!  We had yummy Chinese take out for dinner, which left us plenty of time to enjoy watching a Christmas movie together before we headed to bed and awaited Santa's arrival.  Emma was thrilled to find the skate board that Santa left for her on Christmas morning...it was just what she wanted.  Emma has enjoyed sporting her new goggles too--she wore them to school one day, and she said the other kids thought they looked silly, but when she looked at herself in the mirror, she said they were wrong, because she looked good!  I have to agree my dear...everything looks good on a confident girl!  Emma painted a mug and made a card for her daddy this year.  She was super excited to give him the gift...saying "he is just going to love this", as she was creating her masterpieces.

On Christmas afternoon, we enjoyed the company of good friends, ate a delicious meal, visited, and played a little Blokus.  It was a lovely day.

Big sister duties...

Emma is getting ready to welcome her little sis next month... making her cards at school, and picking out some of her toys that she thinks her baby sister will like.  She thought it was also a good idea to try out the ol' crib to make sure everything was in good working order for her new roomie!  Emma gave the crib her stamp of approval, however, I'm going to have to veto all the "friends" in the crib once the baby takes up residence there.

Butter fingers (of the peanut variety)

Who knew making peanut butter balls would be this messy!  We learned Grammy's secret a little too late...refrigerate the peanut butter ball mixture before trying to roll it into balls.  There's always next year, but this years experience was "finger lickin' good" too!

Holiday Train

The holiday train was a big hit.  Santa on the other hand...not so much!  He did leave the kids with a candy cane though, so that seemed to make up for the unpleasantness of sitting so close to the big guy!  The finale came when we got to watch the big steam engine (all decorated in lights) take off.  It was LOUD!!!

Gingerbread Men

Cash and Emma got their creativity on, and decked out their gingerbread men with all the candy they could get their hands on (except for the candies that made it into their mouths first)!

Gingerbread houses

Emma's friend Michaela came for a long overdue visit.  They had a grand time playing dress-up, "playing" with Darby, and decorating gingerbread houses.  The girls did an excellent job, and I foresee careers in the pastry business in their future!

Two cute girls

Emma and her friend Leni ventured out on this fine fall day to collect a few leaves to make a fall leaf wreath.  I couldn't pass up taking a few pictures of this dynamic duo!

Hee Haw....Happy Halloween!

Cowgirl Emma was out on the town wrangling in as many treats as she could get her hands on this Halloween!  She ventured down a couple more blocks this year, and had a "system" in place...she followed all the "big kids"!  It seemed to work for her, as when we were heading home, she told me she was glad to be done trick or treating because her treat bucket was getting too heavy!

The "new" scooter

Emma has been a little obsessed with scooters this summer, so when one of the older kids was selling their old scooter for $2 at our garage sale this summer...it was right within her budget!  Emma bought the very loved scooter, and we bought her two favorite colors--orange and blue--to freshen it up a bit!  This is the before picture, and I don't have an after picture unfortunately, but Emma has enjoyed many fine "scoots" down to the park on her fine new scooter!

Grandma and Grandpa Thier's visit

Grandma and Grandpa drove all the way from MN to visit us this summer.  We had a grand time during their visit.  We took a trip out to the Columbia River Goerge to see the Bonneville Dam, to the fish hatchery to catch a glimpse of some salmon making their way up stream, and of course the beautiful waterfalls.  We also enjoyed the time we got to spend with them around the house.  Emma especially enjoyed making apple pies with Grandma, and having about 100 books read to her by both Grandpa and Grandma!

Mt Adams camping and Huckleberry picking

We ventured back to Mt Adams again this year for our annual Huckleberry picking.  This year, John and John joined us camping.  We had a long drive on Saturday looking for the perfect berry fields, only to find great picking a short distance from our camp site on our way back home the next day.  We did come away with about a gallon of huckleberries though, and some good memories from camping with the Johns!

Camping trip in Southern Oregon

We headed a bit further than our usual camping trips this year...but for good reason.  We met up with our best camping buddies...John, Angela, and Marty, who now reside in California.  The trip to southern Oregon was quite worth the drive, with the rugged beaches, warm sun, sand dunes, and great friends!  Emma was even able to venture into the water...which is usually much, MUCH too cold to bear anything more than a dip of the toes!  We stopped to see some Sand dunes on the way back home.  It was a bit cool and windy though, so we will have to explore more of that area on our next trip.

Fourth of July

We had a pretty low key Fourth of July celebration this year...lighting some small fireworks in our driveway.  It had been a long day with Emma asking when it was going to be time to watch fireworks-- we prolonged it as long as we could, but couldn't hold out until night fall!  Here's the tail end of one of her sparkler runs to our neighbors house and back!

Cookin' up something good

Emma took a Winnie the Pooh cooking class, and learned how to make Alphabet soup, buttermilk biscuits with honey, and no bake peanut butter cookies.  It was delicious!

Life at the beach

Emma worked very hard to carve out a foot pool for herself and her sea creature toys.  By the smile on her face, I think she thought it was well worth the effort.  We all enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach in Newport!

A gymnasts meditation

Emma learning the basics of he cartwheel with coach Andrea at gymnastics class, and then reflecting on her technique!

Starlight Run!

Each year Portland celebrates the Rose Festival during the first week of June.  To get the festivities kicked off, the city hosts a 5K Starlight run, followed by the Startlight Parade.  Ken ran in this years race...dressed as Freddy Mercury, with some friends from work.  Emma and I joined him after the race to watch a bit of the Starlight Parade with John and John.  We had a bit of a 5K race ourselves...trying to find parking downtown, and then make it to see daddy running by in the race.

theater gals!

Emma and her dear friend Leni took in an afternoon at the theater, catching a showing of "If you give a Mouse a Cookie".  They enjoyed the play, but I think enjoyed the after-show ice cream even more!

Farewell to our Canadian friends

We had one last get together with the gang to celebrate Gen/Jimmy/Elias/& Lucas's time in Oregon.  They are moving back to Canada at the end of the month.  It turned out to be a lovely evening with friends, although a few tears were shed when saying our goodbyes to our dear friends.  They will be missed!

Sunday Parkways

We headed out for a wonderful Sunday bike ride on Mothers day this year.  It was the first Sunday Parkway of the summer season, and it was beautiful.  For Sunday Parkways, about a 6 mile loop is closed off to car traffic, and opened up to bikers, walkers, runners, etc.  They have many fun activities to partake in at the various parks along the route...such as eating ice cream while watching some bike polo, learning a new circus trick or too....and of course, biking around the city!

Slip n' Sliding

We recently went to a silent auction fundraiser for a project Ken is managing at work.  Emma joined us for the evening, and was the highest bidder on some new summer "toys".  We decided to invite Cash and Elias over to take the toys for a test drive.  Much fun was had by all!

Super Hero's

Emma's friend Peter came over to play today, and he came packing with some superhero gear.  I think their super hero powers are to bring a smile to your face!

Hike at Latourell Falls

We had some nice weather today, so decided to head out to the gorge and go for a hike.  I do believe this is Emma's first solo hike--meaning she hiked herself, rather than having us carry her.  This hike was a couple of miles, and we were treated with views of two waterfalls.   We would definitely do this one again!

Two little monkeys sitting on a lion

Emma and Elias enjoying an outing to the zoo!

Mastering the fall

Emma has been practicing riding her bike in the evenings and on the weekends, and is getting pretty good at pedaling and balancing on her bike.  We are still working on getting up and going on her own, as well as stopping.  We decided it might be good to teach her how to steer into the grass and take a graceful fall in case she needed to stop, and couldn't.  I think she gets her grace from me!

Easter Egg Artists

Emma and Cash perfected the art of coloring easter eggs.  They got pretty creative with some double dipping, as well as decorating with stickers too.  They tasted just as good as they looked!

Claws sitting

Emma's preschool has a guinea pig named Claws as their class pet.  Emma has been wanting to have Claws stay at her house for quite sometime, and we finally agreed to take Claws home with us for the weekend.  We were a little afraid that Darby would not approve, but were pleasantly surprised when the two of them seemed more curious of each other than afraid.  Claws was a very good houseguest, and we all enjoyed having him stay with us....especially Emma!