January 2013 Really?

The first month of 2013 not only started but has zoomed by!

The first weekend of dry weather Cole and I took the Christmas lights down and decided this year to make a tool to help with this.  Oh sure, it took longer for us to build the tool than actually take the lights down but we sure had a good time.  And next year should be even quicker.

Yum, Cookie Tooth

Jo is baking more and more these days and my pants are tighter and must be shrinking. Coincidence?  I think not.

This day while she was eating bites of cookie dough because she just couldn't wait for the cookies to bake, her loose tooth fell out. Teach her to steal the dough before it's baked!

Fly Away

The family joined me for a paper airplane competition at my work.  I was asked to be a judge so I decided a judging hat was in order.

Yup, the Flying Nun Habit.

Oma, however, thinks I do these things to embarrass her.

Cole's plane almost got the longest flight and Jo's cotton ball drop almost won for hitting the target. But "almost" didn't win any prizes.

 SICK!

Oh, the flu hit our household and Oma and I think we might be on barrowed time as we have both avoided this so far.  But not the poor kids.

Cole missed a Friday of school and was down for the count until the medicine kicked in and then he made himself some zipper bag ice-cream and followed by another nap.

Jo on the other hand got it much worse and went down for many days.

They sure are cute when they sleep, sick or not.

Window seat for Xena

I decided to build a prototype window perch for Xena.

Not wanting a cat tree sitting on our floor taking up space I built this with some fence boards and an expandable shower rod.

We all like it well enough and so does Xena, so the next step will be to make it out of wood and have a nice looking cat tree inside the windowsill.

Jo's Art

Jo is taking her first drawing class and really enjoying herself, it's very low key and there are not many kids.  We bought her a new drawing book with a couple new pencils, erasers with a zipper case to carry it in.

She is also learning how to put her art up for critique at the end of each class which, I know from personal experience, is quite hard the first few times.  Jo has gotten nothing but positive feedback from her teacher and other students like it should be for all the kids.

Gift Cash!

My dremel is like an extension of myself.  I use it for everything like for cutting holes in walls, cutting screws shorter, sanding rough edges on items to sanding a mouth guard for a custom fit.  You name it...I can dremel it.  Well my old dremel died and that means, TOOL SHOPPING!  So with last years Birthday money added to this year Christmas money I upgraded!

I not only upgraded but bought the drill press that holds the dremel.  I think the stand will be easier on my dremel since I won't have to clamp it in my vise to use it hands free. Yes, I said vice clamp. Thanks Mom & Dad, the perfect gift!

Xena and Doug are still loving each other!

Sleeping together and playing together, they fit with our family well.

School Concert

The kids had eight weeks of music at school and this musical gift came to an end at school with an evening concert.

GREAT fun as all the kids were able to play instruments.

Cole played the keyboard and also the xylophone.

Jo played the maraca.  I asked Jo why she chose that instrument when there were so many other choices.  She stated "All the other kids like playing the xylophone and I really like the sound the maraca makes so that's what I chose." I sure love that she likes to do her own thing. You can say Jo shakes to the beat of her own maraca!

Basketball
Cole didn't want to play basketball this year so he is taking a break...no, wait.  One of Cole's coaches from last season called and asked him to play keeping the same group of boys as last year.  So if Coach asks you to play ball...you play ball.

 His team is doing well this season and and Cole is having a good time!

East Coast to New Years

Trish, Paul and Mandy came to celebrate the holidays with family and friends.  They popped after Christmas at the coast in for late morning breakfast of pepper bacon and Hawaiian French toast.

I hear they don't have pepper bacon around their area so it was a treat for them.  And for us?  Just a delicious meal that I might cook again this next weekend!

Paul flew home the next morning and then Trish and Mandy stayed for days and days with us!  LOVED the time!  The twins had fun sleeping in the living room as this gave Trish and Mandy some private space to hang.

We played some card games, watched movies, visited, ate, played some card games, visited and ate some more.  It was relaxing and fun.  We also shot some video that will be posted as soon as I'm done editing.

Beautiful day at the beach other than it's winter and it was cold!

This is Mandy reaching from the East Coast to Jo & Cole on the West Coast.

Then we played a little with the camera.

Could not have asked for a better winter day!

Jo standing barefoot on the logs.

Cole is also in this photo...camo.  Can you find him?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Cheer to 2013, may all dreams and wishes come true!

Our last evening together was the same as the whole trip.  Played some games, ate, visited while Trish and Mandy packed once in a while.

It was a WONDERFUL way to ring in the New Year!

More Stuff through Christmas

Cousin Hannah has a horse named Bell and recently started competing in local competitions.
(barrel race, zig zag through a number of poles down and back, ride down and grab a flag off a barrel, etc...)

The whole family made it out to watch Hannah this month, riding on a very cold and even wetter day.  She looks so confident in her saddle and riding around the ring.

She placed 5th in her age group in the zig zag through a number of poles competition.
(As you can clearly see I know little to nothing about this type of life style so "zig zag" is my official name of this race)

Oh Christmas Tree 
(please sing to the tune)

Oh Christmas Tree....

You were to tall for our ceiling.

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas Tree

We cut you down and trimmed you up.

 (keep singing)

Oma grab a sponge

and scrub up top.

We stood you up and watered

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas Treeeeeee.... (drag this part out!)

Your beautiful to usssssss.....

A Little Snow!

Not enough to delay or close our school but enough that it was beautiful and made our house hold s
smile!

Grange Christmas

Gma Norman and Gma Marie met Rachelle, Connie and the rest of us at the Grange for a Christmas feast, music and poem reading.

I love the home feel and seeing so many people I know during this time, it is always great!

All the kids stand on stage while a reading of what the letters of "Christmas" mean. Jo is holding "I", while Cole is holding "T".

Christmas from Rachelle & Connie.

Jo received a wood burning tool with lots of wood to practice and play with.

Cole got a model helicopter that was started at Gma & Gpa's house.

Gpa & Cole....and after about 3+ hours...a needed a break.

Much more fun to be had with both these gifts!

A little Snow Fall watching with Gma.

It was exciting but didn't stick.

So they made a cherry pie crumble pudding...thing.

It was quite tasty!

Christmas Eve

Brought us a Christmas Treat that the kids had fun with.

Delivering this macramé tree to my friends Sharon's house without being detected!

Some of the questions we were asked on the drive there: "is this illegal?" "What happens if Sharon catches us?" "What would the cops do if they caught us?".

Nothing like bringing your young children into the world of ... FUN MISCHEIF!

The kids exchanged their gifts.

And were all smiles!

Santa's drink, cookies, note and the pickle were set out for the night.

And it took HOURS before our Little Man finally fell asleep

Christmas was small and quite enjoyable

Santa got each of us fun and yummy items!

Zena with her new toy!

Cole with his paint ball mask and two certificates for paintballing.

Jo with her 'Black n White' Littest Pet Shops.

Merry Christmas 2012!

50?!

Aunt Tricia is now 50!

The family celebrated this after our Christmas festivities in Roseburg.  A few old neighbors also popped in to visit which brought many stories of our neighborhood and childhood.

First 1/2 of December

Derian is now 14!  Where does the time go? I wonder sometimes. She asked for a pull over sweatshirt and though we shopped quite a while for one we just couldn't find a nice one.
So we did the next best thing ... Goodwill.

As Derian opened her gift from us she said "Oh, a funny sweatshirt" and then she quickly tried to say "Thank You. Not funny Tina!" and put it back in the sack.  Only her parents knew that we purposefully got her the ugliest pull over we could find for a 14 year old so they both told her, "You must try it on Derian, it's only polite."

Kudo's to Derian as not many kids would put this on while their family and friends were standing all around.  She is a GREAT sport!  Derian told me later, "I'm going to get you back Aunt Tina."  I look forward to it too.

Derian's basketball team did very well this year and it was great to see how much she improved over last year.

Her awareness of where the ball was, her players and generally the whole court was fun to watch.

IT'S STARTED?!

Yes, Cole and his first "sport's" poster.

 Yeah, he watches volleyball...sure.

(He had no idea why I took this picture.  I'll get a lecture later I'm sure)

Zentangle

Jo's teacher at school started having the kids do this relaxation technique where they just randomly draw within a square.

I LOVE THIS!  I told Jo that people pay money for greeting cards that look like this.  I'm hoping she continues to draw and create.

Gingerbread Houses

Ms. Swift came for dinner and to help the kids build their ginger bread houses that Aunt Tricia gave them.

Fun was had by all and many candies were eaten during construction.

They could hardly wait to eat it.

I wouldn't think it would taste good, but what do I know.

Birthday Dinner with McBee's

Francis and Oma have Birthdays just days apart so we had a nice dinner with them to celebrate. (These are our neighbors from our old house)

Daughter Kristy, her son Chuck, Oma, Jo, Cole, Mom, Francis & Dale.

Oma is 45!

And nothing says Happy Birthday like a 5 Guys burger with a candle in it!

Oh, and family smiling with you to celebrate!

And we finally got to see a nice picture of Andrew.

He is in our thoughts every day.

Andrew, your eyes don't look so innocent any longer.

Second half of November

College Game Day in Eugene!

Tracy was not able to take Cole to Game Day like they did last year so Mom geared up for the crack of dawn outing.

Cole and I came up with a gimmick to hopefully get him on TV.  Meet Kirk Herbstreit Mini-Me!  For those of you who do not know Kirk, he is one of the ESPN Game Day personalities.

Cole and I got a front barrier spot and thought it was a good one. That would be a yes and no on the good spot.  The cameras didn't really pan our way so no one saw us on TV.

However Cole got plenty of attention as some college guys took a real liking to Cole and made sure the cameras came over and got close ups of Cole and his Mini-Me sign.  But no one at home saw those TV moments either.

WE DID TOO MAKE TV!  Really people, I don't know how you missed us?!

Cole was even interviewed by Erin Andrews (the woman in white above), but again it didn't make it onto the TV nor the internet.

Over all it was a great time!  Cold and wet but lots of energy and fun.  We will have to come up with a new gimmick for next year no matter who takes him.

After a shower and a hot meal Cole got a phone call from Martha & Tracy offering to give him their football tickets. (THANK YOU Martha & Tracy)

 

Oma and Cole had a blast at the game and this time Cole was shown on the Jumbotron during the game! (the huge TV where fans watch replays and such)

I think he had a FULL FUN day!  I know Oma and I did.

Love

Xena splits her sleeping time between Jo and Doug. (Doug sleeps with Cole every night)

Thanksgiving

We thought we could miss the holiday traffic by leaving at 2pm the day before Thanksgiving.  No such luck.  About 15 miles out of town the traffic was stopped!  What should have taken us 45 minutes took us an hour and a half.  I told Jill to use her GPS or the map and get us off the freeway and moving North again.

So a turn here and a turn there and we are moving North West, traffic light and then no traffic at all.  Oh joy!  I mean...Oh boy!  A sign: "Road Closed Due to High Water".  What?  Turning the next corner and there was a locked gate across the road.  NO WONDER there was no traffic.

A little back tracking and then another road leading us NW, traffic light and then no traffic at all. A sign: "Ferry Closed Thanksgiving & Christmas".  No probl...WAIT WHAT?  A ferry?  Well ok, it's not Thanksgiving yet.  Around the corner..."Oh, but there is high water!".

NOTE to self: Now we know there is a ferry, we will be back during summer.

Back to driving again this time with constant flow of traffic which we know to be a very good sign. We soon had to stop and take a phone call from our vet (middle of sporadic cell service) as Xena had been taken in that morning due to a fever and rapid breathing.  Xena needed surgery or they could continue with meds and see if she could make it through the night.

Decisions needed to be made as it was a choice of Christmas or saving the cat. After tears and discussions as a family we finally hit the road again.  Six total hours of driving for our three hour trip and we made it to family!

The kids table...

and the adults...

It was a full house of fun and a wonderful weekend with family.

Our drive home was uneventful thank you very much as the only trouble we had was finding a place to eat dinner.

And Christmas this year has brought us Xena as she has fully recovered from inflamed intestines and is back to attacking Doug and chasing squirrels.

We are so proud of our kids for telling us it was a not choice to put Xena ahead of presents.  Christmas this year the kid will exchange gifts to each other and Santa will of course come but that will be all.

This will be a very Merry Christmas, I know.