January - Trips

January was a big month!  I got to get away for a scrapbooking retreat and Greg took the kids to Reno to visit his family...

Maren snapped these as I was getting ready to go (Joel was already at school.)

Love this picture 

I drove to Portland and picked Emily up at the airport and then we drove into the gorge to a wonderful house that we had rented (from a family friend).

We spent pretty much three days and nights straight sitting at this table scrapbooking!  We took breaks for yummy food, a little bit of exercise and some sleep.  Other than that, we scrapped and talked and laughed and just had a WONDERFUL time.  

This was the view from the house...there is a river flowing and big hills on both sides...it was very quiet and PERFECT for a scrap retreat...no distractions!

 While I was doing this, Greg and the kids flew to Reno for the weekend! 

First flight without mom...I think they did just fine!

LOTS of silly pictures...

 

 Matt, Nikki and Olivia also came to visit! (This is Matt...)

Cousins... 

 They had lots of fun hiking - these hills are right out Greg's parents back door! 

They even got to go ice skating at an outdoor rink!

They both did great and can't wait to go again!

 

 This is Max, who everyone loves and has been a great dog and companion for Grandpa for many years...he passed away a couple of weeks ago and is missed!

On my drive home from Portland, it started snowing...this was the start of an exciting week!  More on that to come... 

Playing Catch-up: December

Here are some pictures from Christmas and the rest of December...

We had to get our tree at night this year, so no pictures from the tree farm, but we had fun decorating it!

The kids and I made these cute cookie jar gifts to give to family and friends.  They were yummy!

Joel had a run in with the pavement while skating, then hit his head on a shelf at the store...so he looks a little banged up!

Maren's school put on a Christmas program for the parents.  SO cute.

I ran a 10K with my friend Megan...we finished in 1:01!  This is great for me!

Joel did a project on Praying Mantis' for school.  He did a great job and got a good score on it!

  

On Christmas Eve we had our whole life group over for dinner and a Christmas "service".  There were 11 kids and 14 adults!!  It was a FULL house, but it went really well.

We did a recap of the 4 Sundays of Advent:  Each family had a verse, an advent reading and nativity figurines. It worked out so that there was one older kid in each family that could read a verse and a littler kid to put the figure on the nativity scene.  We also lit the candle for each week as we went along.

It was so neat to have each family playing a part...

Once all the candles were lit, we all got candles and sang songs by candlelight.

On Christmas morning, the kids opened presents and then some of my family came over!

   

Mom and Del came up from Portland and brought Grandaddy.  My cousins Abbie (and her husband Morgan) and Chet came over too!  We took this very strange picture just as everyone was about to leave...whose idea was it to cram us all on the stairs?!  It was a fun afternoon and good to spend some time together with family...