Hey, thats my leotard

I thought I would post some photos from Christmas. Oli is getting so big she will be 4 months in a few weeks and is starting to want to sit and lay in her tummy more, p.s. Susan thanks for this outfit it is one of our favorites.

Chloe and Ashton are hugging out of sheer thrill that is Christmas morning and they finally get to open their presents. (Kevin told them if they opened any early they had to give them away, the threat worked well). This last photo they are preforming for us. My mother has been so kind and creative to have kept her favorite outfits of mine and passes them on to Chloe. Yes, that is my leotard and tights. I'm pretty sure my parents have an identical photo of my brother and I on the fireplace.

boogers in my bed

Today I told Chloe to go down to bed. When I went to check on her she wasn't in her room. (big surprise) I called out, " Chloe were are you"? I heard her tiny voice coming from Ashton's room. She was all tucked into his bed. I told her that she couldn't sleep in Ashton's room, she asked ,"why"? Before I could come up with a reason she said," Mom, cause I'll get boogers in his bed." Hey that sounded good to me, I just went with it and said," Yes" . She quickly went to her room and went to sleep.

Where does her logic come from? Some times things seem obvious to her, and no one eles.

She always keeps me laughing.

back in action

So over the last few years I have been letting my love for photography slowly fade and be replaced by several other things. One of this years resolutions is to help revive my hobbie, as such I am going to try to post some new photos every week. These are of the Oregon Beach.

Baby blessing and Christmas Eve

We decided to try to do as much as possible while everyone was here for Christmas. We Blessed Oli Christmas Eve, and then carried on our tradition of white elephant with the Elders. The girls in my family all made a craft, the kids made a gingerbread house, and got to open a gift before bed. It was a busy night. In the morning Kevin made us all Biscuits and gravy, yummmm. We had a wonderful time.

...And it's Chloe by a mile!

WE made a sled hill in our back yard (we are still snowed in and unable to leave). Here is some video of our kids sledding.

17 inches and counting

UNBELIEVABLE! I haven't seen this much snow since my childhood in Alaska. It had snowed 17 inches by 10 oclock this morning. It isn't supposed to stop until 3pm. We are all thrilled. It took all of Kevin's energy to shovel a trail to the trampoline, a sled run, our walk way, and our neighbors car out. Ashton and Chloe love playing out in it. I have yet to go out, I've been cleaning and taking care of Oli, since she isn't snow ready yet. School was closed today, we will see if the snow plough makes it to our road by tomorrow. Its doubtful.

Christmas Crafts

So This is my latest in crafts. I loved these vinyl sayings that my sister-in-law sent. I also made over 200 chocolates with Courtney Claeson yesterday. I can't believe how easy and fun it was, and now I seem like a super treat maker to all my neighbors. Ha Ha I'm fooling everyone. It also snowed 10 inches today. Finally we have some snow to play in. Ashton and Chloe saw the snow falling down and looked at me with big eyes and said," Mom, I can't believe it, Its Christmas"! I had to explain that, snow doesn't = Christmas. Boy was I the Grinch.

How Oli got her laugh back...

Oli is becoming more aware of social interactions. She is almost ticklish and will follow people with her eyes if they cross her path. But her most recent discovery is laughing. It is really easy to make her laugh (which is great for my self esteem).

on our way home

On our way home from portland we were able to stop off and see some friends. We had breakfast at a nice lodge with the Bennetts and hiked up to an awesome waterfall.

Portland

Mt. Hood looked so pretty!

This last weekend we went as a family to Portland for our nephew Bryson's Baptism. We had a wonderful time, unfortunately our camera's battery died half way through our trip. I will say this. If I had seen Portland before moving to Spokane I would probably have pushed to move there. It is so beautiful, and you can live in the forest just a skip away from the city. We went to the children's museum, to Downtown Saturday Market, and of course the main event Bryson's Baptism. We are so proud of Bryson, his baptism was just perfect. It was so nice to hang out with our family. Thanks Randy & Diana for everything. We really had a great time. Oh and I'm sure we will be hearing about how much Ashton misses and loves Kayden daily.