Merry Christmas!!

It's Christmas morning and I'm posting on here... hmmm... what's wrong with this picture? Oh yeah, it's because the Portland area got so much snow that my Mom's flight got canceled on Monday, and they couldn't rebook her until today - Christmas!! So we shifted "Christmas" to Saturday, so everyone can be here, and be ready to go :) The kids don't know the difference, so thank goodness for that!

Speaking of snowed in, I wanted to take this chance to post some more snow pictures! We have had about a foot or so of snow here, which is unusual for the Portland Area. It definitely slowed things down, and we've been housebound for the most part for the past week. Our car actually does great in the snow, and we ventured out a couple times for food, etc, but everyone else was slipping and sliding and we figured there was no need to get ourselves hit, so we just hunkered down, did tons of crafts, baked tons of cookies, watched lots of Christmas movies and played in the snow. Sounds like fun, huh? Other than the fact that we need a full finished basement with a play structure so the kids can burn some energy, and a Wii for J and I to burn some as well, we did pretty well. Cabin Fever never quite got to the level of the Overlook Hotel, so that's a good thing.

Some snow pictures!

Our house


our sled ride down the street to Albertson's for supplies. The kids thought it was so fun to be sledding in the street! That's our house right behind J's head


This was on the bigger street... NO sign of a plow anywhere! Not even on Main Street or the Freeways!


icicles on our icicles


On Tuesday we ventured out and this was Hwy 502, getting to the freeway. It was absolutely gorgeous - a total Winter Wonderland!


J worked hard to shovel our walk. It was funny, we were the only people in the 'hood that did so. I thought we had to, but maybe that's just Portland. Plus it was nice to just be out there, moving around


My little snow bunny








Yesterday it snowed more, and we played in the backyard. J and the kids were having a blast tackling each other and having snowball fights (or as Jason says, "no-ball hits" )


my plant has a hat


Poor J's hard work shoveling the walk was wasted :(

the park across the street from our front porch

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Woo Hoo! Now this is the type of snow that's worth it - not just 2/3 of an inch or so! It's been snowing here for 3 days, off and on, and we have about 8-10" I'd say. Good times!

All three kids had a blast sledding on our mini hill












and Jason decided he didn't even need a sled!


Mommy was pretty crabby during the sledding excursion... not sure why, but this is how I felt the whole time. Party pooper!


I was so mean, I tried to get a picture of the kids together and made poor Jason cry :( Definitely NOT winning Mother of the Year for that day! But he's cute even when he's crying, so I'm posting it anyway ;)


and today, we got a few more inches...

my poor duck is half buried (and the 2 babies behind it are completely gone - lol)

pretty!


and this is the fun tree we decorated at the park across the street - how pretty is it in the snow??!!




today the snow was topped with 1/2 inch of ice that Makenna was licking all day






Awww... what a good big sister!


then home to warm up with hot chocolate and making gingerbread cookies for Santa! (And MiNiMa!)


Of course, they ate as the decorated, so Santa might be out of luck ;)

Snow Day!

We got a little snow today, and so that was exciting! Jerome was home today, and we all got to play around outside for a bit.







Makenna needed the bigger black sled, so poor Jason had to use his baby sled... he doesn't really fit anymore - ha ha ha!

our street






the poor ducks were walking on their frozen lake, and were following us around (obviously hungry!) so I ran home and got our bread to feed them


We are supposed to be getting a little more snow in the days to come, so hopefully it will be enough to build a snowman :)

Holiday Happenings

December is always full of fun things to do. This year we finally made it to the Grotto, went to Zoo Lights which is a favorite, made gingerbread cookies, sat with Santa a few times (and even ran into him shopping at Safeway one evening! Did you know Santa wears a leather jacket over his suit and buys frozen lasagna for one? He must be in trouble with the Missus), drove around our town to look at the impressive lights, and still plan to hopefully squeeze in a few more things although the snow might be stopping us this year.

The Grotto (choirs sing in that little church, and there is a petting zoo, and amazing lights on the grounds)

One nice Saturday, Jerome took the kids to the park while I went to a couple local bazaars


LOL - she's not too sure of the monkey bars






we also decorated a small random tree in the park across the street - they are saying "ta-da!"

Oh by the way... this is a sure fire way to piss off a cat in about 5 seconds flat...

Zoo Lights! This is so fun. The Oregon Zoo goes a little crazy with the lights, and it is like walking around in a fairytale.

Kenna standing with the turkey by the petting zoom (Makenna is the turkey on your right)


M watching the swans swimming

the family (minus me!) under the snake


Jason loved this alligator








M taking time to smell the roses




a quickie one with me (amazing, I know!)


one of my faves... the dragon breathing smoke rings




Of course we had several episodes of cookie making. Once with our playgroup friends, and several times with just us.

we went to Jerome's Office party last weekend - how cute are they?




J got a soccer ball from Santa... he was in heaven and kicking it all over the party!


Makenna the other day... she looks like she was doing the worm