Benny Beaver

Benny, Sabrina and Randy in the OSU commons entry.

As a family, we spent an afternoon walking around OSU's campus. Going down memory lane, we walked through the MU and had our pictures taken with Benny Beaver.

Daddy Fix It!

Sabrina's favorite saying now is "Daddy fix it!" This applies to broken crayons, animals losing their stuffing, broken plastic wands, ripped pages in a beloved book. ANYTHING can be fixed by Daddy!

In other vocabulary news Sabrina has been learning sign language slowly. Mainly we have been working on "please, sorry, thank you and your turn-my turn." The other evening she actually used her new found knowledge to get her point across to me (Julie) who was singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad." She rather firmly told me to "Stop!" in which I replied that she needed to ask me nicely. Her response was to sign "Stop!" while saying it and then giggle. So the good news is that she should understand the word and have no excuses when I tell her to stop something.... I know...a dream.

Papa's Birthday

Singing Happy Birthday as the cake is walked in.

Saturdaywe had Grandpa (Papa) and John's family for lunch. The kids really enjoyed singing Happy Birthday (or Earth Day as our nephewsang)! It was a great day where the family talked, played t-ball and ate good food.Blowing our candles as a group!

Pillow case dedication

This is the first pillow case done using the fish on the side.

About six months ago, Julie read in a quilting magazine that there was a need to provide hand made pillow cases to cancer patients in order to uplift their spirits while going through treatment. This project has been one on the forefront of thought for months, but really launched when Julie's Uncle Lionel lost his battle with cancer. He had been an encourager in Julie's pursuit of quilting and had commented that he enjoyed the fish pattern found in John's quilt. Therefore, the first handmade pillow case that was donated to cancer patients has these fish on the edge.

John's Birthday/ Christmas Quilt

After months of sewing, John's quilt is done! This is the back.

The front side has many fish swimming back and forth. Brightens a day that might be gray!

Snowman Limbo

Back railing with our grapevine tree in snow.

Back deck railing with snow.

Our snowman doing the Limbo after one day of wet snow!

The front of the house covered in snow.

Let it snow!

Rolling the big balls.
Our new friend!
Exploring the snow with Randy.

Over the weekend it snowed quite a bit at our house. Sabrina has been reading about snowmen and making paper ones at pre-school, so she was delighted to make one in our front yard.

Happy New Year

Walking along the path on the Deschutes River.
Sitting on a rock with Randy.

Between Christmas and New Year's Day we travelled to Eagle Crest for some family time by the Deschutes River. Sabrina loved walking by the river, exploring the trail and looking under rocks. New Year's Day we dressed up and went to a neighbor's for a holiday party.

More photos from Papa and Mama's house

Papa's train and village..Sabrina and Arthur loved watching this go around the track.
Hanging out in the living room.

Cousin President McKinnley reading to Sabrina.

"Mama" cooking dinner.
Papa modeling his new hat.

Christmas Morning photos

Christmas tree on the deck in the early morning.

Our tree top.

The stockings before they are discovered.

A birthday balloon given by Grandma.

Before anyone was awake in the house I took some photos before the fast paced day started.

Fun Hopping around

Jumping with Snoopy! Hold on tight!

Stretch move which has morphed into climbing onto the bar and almost swinging around like uneven bar routine.

A little break from all the morning excitement to check Chef Snoopy to make sure he is ok after the jump.

Christmas morning was fun for me as a parent. I waited on the couch for Sabrina to wake up at her normal time and come around the corner in to the living room. We had waited to put gifts under the tree until she had gone to bed the previous night and so she was shocked when she walked in the room and saw all the wrapped gifts. For our aspiring gymnast, rock climber and all around monkey, she was in heaven when she saw a little trampoline under the tree. She immediately went to jump on it and then saw a Snoopy chef in her stocking. So then it was jumping with Snoopy on the trampoline. It was fun to watch her. She even went and jumped after a bath before clothing herself, but those pictures will not be posted...

Christmas Eve Run

This Fall Julie has been running with a friend while our daughters are in pre-school. At first it was just keep moving for thirty minutes and then it was thirty minutes of running and about thirty minutes of walking. Gradually, we worked up to running 10K distances three times a week. However, we discovered that tying running to pre-school is dangerous as when there is a break the runs are hard to get into the schedule and have supervision for the children. Thankfully, Randy watched Sabrina so I could run during the break. The first was the morning of Christmas Eve and then others were at Eagle Crest along the Deschutes River. We lost a little ground over the break but thankfully are not back to square one when we could not run down the block! (not really!)

Meeting a new cousin

Julie's side of the family had a Christmas party where Sabrina (and Randy) met Sophia, one of the newest members of the extended family.

Cutting our tree for Christmas

We saved one tree in our back yard for Christmas this year. Randy and Sabrina went out on a foggy night and cut the tree. We ended up havingto use only the top part of it for inside the house but it made a lovely little tree.

Cookie Baking

Getting the dough ready for rolling.

Rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies.

This Christmas season Sabrina learned that she really likes using the mixer and measuring ingredients to make cookies. Her favorite cookies were sugar cookies as she cut out figures using cookies cutters and used her little rolling pin. These were made with our friend, Doris, and on another baking session with her cousin, Arthur.

Christmas Decorations, puzzles and pins

The day after Thanksgiving "Papa" and "Mama" (Grandpa and Grandma) (Not to be confused with Julie who is "mommy") had the family down to their house for tree setting up and decorating. Sabrina loved climbing the step ladder and ladder placing ornaments on the tree. Playing with them before they were placed on the tree was not an uncommon event. Cousin Arthur encouraged and demonstrated the placement of the ornaments (Angels, birds and musical ornaments are placed near the top with Santas and others near middle. Cloth or unbreakable ones are placed near the bottom so the dog doesn't swipe with her tail and break them.)

The rest of the weekend was full of fun family time playing games with Grandma Joyce and Randy. The favorite activity was looking at a book and making animal noises and putting puzzles together. Sabrina and Randy enjoyed several wrestling matches. Sabrina was skilled in pinning her father and giggling!

Thanksgiving preparation

The party dress!

Making pies with Grandma Joyce!

The barricade.

The cousins!

Naptime!

Sabrina and Randy's mom made pies and rolls in preparation for the Thanksgiving at our house. Joining us for dinner were family members totaling fifteen in number. The four children had fun playing together. After dinner they even decided to build a barricade blocking the entrance into the living room. The substance of this barricade came from all over the house: pillows, blankets, toys, shoes....anything!

After dinner, the turkey did its work and naps were taken by several members of the family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving we decided to have photo taken from our favorite oak tree. This oak begs to be climbed and adds beauty to our house via the great out doors!