Sweet Sitka!

We got a sweet little husky from a friend who had to give her away! We drove to Eugene to get her (she came all the way from Northern CA!) She is a great dog and we are having so much fun with a dog again.
Isn't she cute??

doll house

I forgot to mention this AWESOME dollhouse from my dad and Heidi. What a big hit!

Christmas Day

First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope everyone had as an amazing Christmas as we did. Second, I need to apologize to my sweet husband, who obviously took all the pictures since he wasn't in any pictures. Our Christmas morning started out at about 7:30 with Keeley's sweet voice saying, "can we open presents now?" We were lucky they slept that late but they were up late the night before with my mom, stepdad, Kyle's brother and his friend Niqua all came over for annual lasagna. We went downstairs and they looked at their
Santa gifts. Of course, Keeley got the big toy box she asked for. Kiera got a 5 sided box maze and they both got a old school "my little pony" castle I got off e-bay. I might be enjoying it even more than them! Then, we loaded up the car and went to my moms. We opened up all our presents there and the girls got a lot of neat things. Their favorite was a table with chairs that they can play with. So far, they really like lining up their my little ponys on it. Can you tell a theme? After an amazing breakfast, we loaded up the kids to my dad and step moms house where they took a nap before round 2! My step sister and her family were there as well as my step brother and his girlfriend. My step mom Heidi made an amazing german Christmas dinner. After all this, we went home and crashed. Maybe stay home next year?!?! I'm still exhausted!! It was great though.

Merry Christmas!

Arctic Blast 2008

You are either living it or you've heard about it. It was magical at first, now it is not so magical although I'm trying to allow it to be magical again as it's snowing AGAIN. We haven't been stranded thanks to the Element and Kyle's stellar driving skills. We've even been warned by police to not go down that hill...we've been safe though.

Until yesterday, it hasn't quite been snowball snow. Please don't throw that at me!! :)

Our fence in the backyard allowed for a ton of snow drifts. The girls had fun playing in them...and so did Kyle and I!

Decorating the tree

One of the days in the middle of this "arctic blast" we got our tree. We drove up to a lot with a bunch of trees and just picked one out. Maybe next year we will go cut one down but we didn't want to this year since we were gone for a week in December. We love our tree and there isn't a better one for us.

Keeley with the stockings on. So literal....

Grover likes the tree!

Hanging out at Gagi's and Gapi's house

Here is Gagi wearing Keeley's ducky hat.

Keeley and Kiera got a cute Dora book from Gagi and Gapi. It's a countdown to bedtime and has a bedtime clock. They love it.

We got Grandma Betty a puzzle that are 4 puzzles in one.

Here Keeley is giving Gagi and Gapi a platter we made at "Paint and Fire" in West Linn. She loved making it. It said "the distance makes us closer" and had a sign on one side that says Portland and a sign on the other that says Rochester. With Keeley's thumb Kyle made little reindeer and a little santa going across the top. Then the girls were able to paint the back. Keeley loved making it!

Sitting in Grandma Betty's chair. I had a remote that Kiera loved working.

One of Keeley's favorite pasttimes....coloring.

more fun in the snow

Here are just a few more of winter time fun

Gagi with Kiera

The kids love playing with Kyle's brother Chris

The polar express!

Gagi and Gapi bought us all tickets to go on the "polar express". We drove 2 hours to Utica to go on the Adoronak Railroad. It was about a 2 hour train ride (1 hour each way). Santa got on when we got to "the north pole" and came and visited each child. Then we sang Christmas carols and played games. It was a great time and completely worth the long trip!

We had 2 sets of 4 seats across from each other. The kids got to run back and forth between the seats and they thought it was the greatest. There were kids everywhere and it was loud but it was allowed and really fun.

Kiera didn't want to be contained! But she paused for a moment for a picture

There were elves running around everywhere that were CRAZY! They did keep it interesting as we waited for Santa to come and talk to us.

Santa came and gave each girl a candy cane and a bell. Kiera wouldn't sit on santa's lap, but Keeley did. Keeley asked for a toy box from Santa. I have NO idea where that came from!

Happy family!

Gagi gave them matching jammies

Thank you Gagi and Gapi for the polar express and the cute jammies!