Portland Children's Museum

Like Father....like son!! :)

....yes that's a bruise on her forehead

I'm so HAPPY!!

WATER PIT...Josh decided to keep Haylee, himself and the camera out of this activity!!

The last Saturday Josh was off we decided to go to the Portland Children's Museum. Our local library gives out free passes (like a $24 value) for the members so I wanted to take advantage of it while Josh could come with us. It was a HUGE play ground. Garrett AND Haylee had so much fun. There were so many different activities for them to do. It was just all these different stations and play toys for them to play around with. There was a grocery store, a hospital, a digging pit, mirrors, slides, a tree house, and the list goes on and on!! We really enjoyed ourselves!!

2009 Christmas Holidays

Days Leading up to Christmas:

Josh and Garrett made a Gingerbread House a couple of days before Christmas so Santa Claus had something to eat. They had so much fun making it. I think they ate more candy than they put on the house. It came out so cute!

On Tuesday before Christmas Garrett and I went to the airport at 11pm to pick up Nana, Papa, and Jessie!! He was so excited he HAD to come with me. He was so good too for being up that late. Nana, Papa, and Jessie were very surprised to him as well because they thought he would be fast asleep! Went Garrett saw Nana he screamed at the top of his lungs, NAAAAAAANNNNNAAA....and ran up to her. I think the people in Canada heard him. It was really cute!!

Watch me....I'm eating the candy!!

Overly excited!

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Eve we decided to have Turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato cassrole, green beans....the whole nine yards....and it was SO good!!! After lunch we all got in the van (it was nice to be able to take one vehicle everywhere) and show Jessie where Josh goes to school and where I work. Because school was on break we got to go behind the scene and see Josh's lab area. He showed us some such they are working on and what they're doing. It was really neat!! Then that night we went to church for our Christmas Eve candlelight service and then back home for our christmas eve PJ gift and off to bed so Santa Claus could come!!

Christmas Day:

We had so much fun on Christmas Day. Garrett woke up around 8 am and came and got us. He really understood the whole Santa Claus thing this year, so it was a lot of fun. He went and told everyone to get up because Santa Claus brought him presents!! He was so excited. He had a lot of fun opening up presents. He wanted to open up everyone elses presents too.

Haylee had NO clue what was going on and I think she was in OVERLOAD!! She just kinda looked around at everything and didn't really know what to think or do.

After we opened up gifts, Jody and I started COOKING!! It has always been a tradition in Josh's family to make Mexican food on Christmas Day (and I DON'T MIND!!!) so we made Pasole, Green Chile, Spinach Enchiladas, Chicken Enchiladas, homemade salsa, and beans!!! YUM!! I invited some friends over for dinner, so they came over and we had a great time!! The food was great and we had a wonderful time with friends and family!

Waiting for everyone to get ready so we can go downstairs!!

AWESOME!!!!

What he is running towards in the previous picture (it's a chalkboard on one side, white board on the other side, and then has that paper....$14.99 from IKEA!!)

Santa Claus left him some milk too!!

This is so cool!! (You can see overwhelmed little Haylee in the back!! :)

After Christmas:

The day after Christmas we decided to go visit Mt. Hood! It thought it would be a beautiful drive and thought Garrett would have a good time playing in the snow. It was so pretty!! It was so clear and you could see Mt. Hood perfectly!! When we got there we put Garrett in all of his snow gear and took him in the snow. The first thing he did was layed down!! It was so cute! He wanted to build a snowman really bad but the snow was too powerdery.

Breath Taking MT. HOOD

Garrett is ready

I LOVE IT!!!

Mommy, Garrett, and Aunt Jessie walking through the snow

Snowball Fight!!

Where Nana and Haylee stayed....NICE AND WARM!! :)

Let It Snow

It started snowing HUGE gorgeous snow flakes today!! Garrett was so excited!! He thought it was christmas again!

It started snowing right as we were leaving for the airport to take Gene and Jody to catch their flight. I guess everyone got scared and left work early so traffic are AWFUL!!! It took us about 2 hours to drive 15 miles. They got there on time and we left to come home....that was when the fun began. The rodes started getting icy and the snow kept coming! It took us FOUR hours to get home. A couple of times were pretty scary! There were wrecks EVERYWHERE, people walking, empty cars, cars sliding all over the place. I kept prayign for God and His angels to surround our car and protect us....AND HE DID!! We are home safe and sound. I enjoy the snow but I'll enjoy it from my living room window, next to my fire place!

Our street when we got home!!

New Camera

Right now me and the kids are in NW Arkansas visiting my parents (they are on leave for 2 weeks). We had Christmas with them and I got a NEW CAMERA!! A Canon Rebal XSi!! I LOVE it!! I'm still learning how to use it...I would like to take a Digital Photography class next semester...we'll see!! Here are a few pictures I've taken playing with it and just trying to learn how to use it!! My cousin, David (my mom's nephew) here in Arkansas is teaching me a few things and he helped me with the sunset pictures!!

AWESOME....huh?

Christmas Fun

On Friday our town had a Christmas Tree lighting!! It was a low of 23 degrees so we bundled up and went for it. I was babysitting two little girls from our church so their parents could have a date...so we had FOUR kids under the age of 4...A LOT OF FUN!! Their girls are really well behaved and sweet so it wasn't a big deal at all. We were also meeting some friends at the park so we had lots of help. Minus it being FREEZING outside, we had a great time. The kids (there were 7 total...Cassie-4, Grant-4, Garrett-3, Blake-2, Addy- 2, Serenity- 2, and Haylee- 9 months) just ran around and played while the adults got to talk.

Garrett is ready for our cold night on the town

This is the life....all bundled up in the stoller

mmmmmmm.....HOT CHOCOLATE

Getting a picture of 7 kids is IMPOSSIBLE

Suzanne, Julie, and me

Then on Saturday we had our church Christmas party. That was a lot of fun as well....it was INSIDE!!! The group of teens raising money for a mission's trip to Honduras served us a FABULOUS dinner and then we played a couple of games and socialized. The best part is they had a kids Christmas party AWAY from the adults!!!

One of the games we played...Who can wrap the present the fastest...we were connected!!