Last Family Fun Day of 2010

We drove down to Salem for our last family fun day of 2010.

We revisited the A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village which was a big hit with the kids the last time we took them there.

And now 2010 is coming to a close. Looking forward to fun days in 2011!!

Bowling and Horseback Riding

We are making sure we do lots of fun things as a family while we are all together during Christmas break. We went bowling yesterday. This wasn't the first time we have taken the kids and they (and we) were reminded that bowling in real life is a lot harder than bowling on the Wii. Rylan got a high score because he got pretty good at aiming his ball to roll off the ramp they have for little kids. The bumpers help out as well. There's nothing more discouraging for a kid than a gutter ball!

Also, earlier tonight we went over to the fair grounds where a friend of ours works with horses on Tuesdays and did some horseback riding.

It was hard to get good pictures of the kids in the light of the covered arena. Even though its dark, I love this one of Ryan with Lila and Rylan on their horses.

Christmas At Home

We had a lovely Christmas at home this year. We made a red velvet cake for the first time ever as Jesus' birthday cake.

Ryan and Emily made lefse for the first time, something my grandma is famous for making at our holiday meals. They already have ideas for how to make it better the next time.

The kids opened their stockings a little before a delicious meal and Christmas Eve service at church

and rose (surprisingly) not all that early Christmas day to open presents.

Then it was play,

play,

play, all the rest of the day. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve Service

All three of the girls sang a special tonight at our Christmas Eve service. It was so neat!

Zoolights

We took the kids down to the Oregon Zoo again this year for Zoolights. Last year we looked for lighted peacocks amongst all the brilliant decor. This year we were on the hunt for Alice in Wonderland characters. We found the Mad Hatter, the caterpillar, the rabbit, and the Cheshire cat, but Alice alluded us. The kind lady at the gift shop took pity on my kids and gave them a prize anyway. It probably had something to do with their sadly pathetic faces when they learned they were one short. We are looking forward to spending the next two weeks together doing all kinds of fun stuff while on vacation from school.

It's Christmas time!!

It's Christmas time and I have a lack of Christmasy posts on my blog. I will get on that right now. Some December happenings . . .

I have tried a couple of times rather unsuccessfully to get a good shot of the kids for our Christmas card this year. These are a couple of outtakes from that. I did finally agree on one, but you'll have to wait to see that til I get it and mail it out. Emily performed in the Longview Christmas parade this year with her dance studio. She is also doing a short recital this Saturday at a retirement home. And this is Rylan enjoying the snow at our house that started falling the day we left for Idaho for Thanksgiving. Only 10 more days til Christmas!

Cowgirls and Horses

Alaina got to have her "friends birthday party" last night. It was kinda belated because of sick kids, but it finally happened.

Alaina asked for a theme of "horses" this year so it was all about cowgirls and horses at our house last night. We had barrel races, ate horse food (apples & carrots) and munched on cake and ice cream (horses do that don't they?)

All the cowgirls in a row.

That's Megan, Teylor, Shelby, Jansi and Alaina.

YEEHAW!

Alaina Turns Eight

Growing

up

so

fast . . .

Happy Birthday Alaina! We love you!

Trick-or-Treat!!

The trick-or-treating crew. If you can't tell, that's a butterfly fairy, a caterpillar, another fairy (whose wings fell off) and a tiger. Those costumes have been recycled so many times, but they always want to be the same thing!

After church the kids brought their pumpkins in to carve.Cleaning out the guts . . .

Ryan found that the dremel tool was very handy to carve 4 pumpkins in a row. Much quicker. It was a fun day and we now have way too much candy in our house. Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

Pumpkins

Fall Soccer 2010

All three of the girls played fall soccer this year. They had a fun time. Lila scored a goal in her last game today. Here she is dribbling down the field. Go Lila go!

This is usually what Alaina is doing on the field . . .

She likes to jump around and swing her arms and play with her shirt. She says she loves playing and practices, but she tends to stay away from the ball during the actual game. Here she caught me taking her picture.

Aren't they cute?

My 3 little soccer players.

Good Friends and Great Grandmas

"Good friends are like stars.... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there."

We had a good visit with the McFarlands last weekend. Then we stopped by Grandma's for a short visit.

These pics with Grandma are from earlier this year when Emily went to stay with her a couple of days and then rode the train home with her. This was something I did as a kid (except for the riding the train home part) so it was fun to see Emily get the chance to experience it.

We are so thankful for our good friends and our GREAT Grandma!

Shell Collectin'

Lila and Rylan were begging me the other day to take them down to the beach so they could look for shells. They each brought a bag and their boots and we set out for the beach. They found lots of shells.

Big ones . . . little ones . . . but, in the end the boots came off and it was all about playing in the sand.

It's a boy!!

Yay for baby brothers! At our ultrasound appointment yesterday we were told baby #5 is definitely a boy. He appears to be growing and developing like he should too, so we are feeling so blessed! Thank you, God!!