Turkey Bowl...

Out of order, but not to be forgotten, was our Family Turkey Bowl!  Thanksgiving day was gorgeous!  It was the most perfect weather for a great game of football.  What a fun day to remember.  And what a great picture of the boys and Halle! 

Christmas Eve...

We had another low key Christmas Eve this year.  Uncle Andy and Aunt Mari hosted those of us who were in town.  With the holiday season always being one of Justin's busiest times of the year, its just easier to stay home. I actually have grown to prefer to not travel during the holidays.  It's interesting how things change as we get older.  I use to look forward to getting away for the holidays and now staying home just feels good.  

Mari made a delicious pasta meal and the kids continued the tradition of re-enacting the Nativity.  Ryan surprised us all by walking!  Okay so he has been taking 2-3 steps for awhile, but he finally decided to walk exclusively on Christmas Eve.  Merry Christmas to me!  I love this stage.  The germ freak in me loves when they finally decide to walk instead of crawl and chew on everything in sight.  We ended the night with the kids opening their Christmas jammies and off to bed we went.  Oh and I can't forget to mentions how Kate was so close to asking for her two front teeth for Christmas!  Her smile is going to look interesting for the next year or two...hee hee!

2013 Family Pictures...

Now that the holidays are over and the family photo gifts and Christmas cards have been received, I can finally post our recent family pics.  Thanks goes out to my sweet and talented SIL Mari. Family photos can be quite a stress but she manages to pull it off every time.  We met up at Mill Pond Park in late August to try and get a few good pics and ended up with several.  These are some of my favorites.

Oh Dad You're So Funny!

We can't get enough of Ryan's deep belly chuckles...

9 Years Old...

Zach turned 9!  9!  That happened so fast!  Hard to believe in another 9 years he will be begging to get out of the house.   This year we celebrated with the family.  He really loves a good party on his big day, but its always nice to keep things simple and low key.    He woke up very excited and couldn't get his day started until his gifts from us were opened.  Legos, Nike clothes and new kicks were the hot items this year.  Nike must be killing it with their Nike Elite Socks alone.  It's all he wears and I think he would have been thrilled if all he got was a box full of elite socks.  

Some fun facts about Zach:

• He LOVES soccer, so much that he plays almost everyday, trains with Justin almost every night, wakes up early in the morning to watch the European leagues on TV before school starts and plays on 3 different teams!
• Zach loves school and is very self motivated.  When asked he considers himself the 3rd smartest kid in his class.  I am not sure this is really true, but confidence is a great quality so I am not going to squash that.
• He LOVES tacos!  He could eat tacos day after day and never tire of them.  
• His favorite movie is Despicable Me 2.
• His favortie song at the moment is Safe and Sound by Capital Cities.
• His hobby when he is not with a soccer ball is Parkour.  He and his buddies from school go to an open gym in Beaverton, to test their American Ninja Warrior skills.  
• The latest rage are Rainbow Loom bracelets and he spends hours making all sorts of bracelets.  What started out as a very tearful and frustrating experience has now become very fullfilling and quite the accomplishment when he make a "cool looking" bracelet.  

We love you Zach and are very proud of you.  You are a good big brother to Kate and Ryan and do a lot favors for me and your dad.  Happy Birthday!

It's Tradition...

I figure if you repeat the same thing year after year, for three years straight, you've got yourself a tradition!  It's exciting to finally have a tradition.  It only took 11 years, but we finally have one.

The day after Thanksgiving we bundle up and head out to Lock Lollyland to scout out the perfect tree.  The perfect tree took some extra hunting this year, but we found it!  We always have a great time cheering Justin on while he is cutting down the tree.  We also usually have plenty of hands to help carry the tree back to our car after cutting it, but this year I had the pleasure(insert sarcasm here) of carrying it down the hill with Ryan strapped to the front of me.  Thank goodness it was our smallest tree to date.

Santa and his reindeer are always at Lock Lollyland so afterwards the kids paid a visit to Santa and read their Chirstmas lists.  These Christmas lists are getting harder and harder for Santa to fullfill.  What a great way to start off the Christmas Season!

Take Me Back...

The cold has set in and all I can think about is October and wishing the longer days of daylight and warm 70 degree afternoons would return.  Fall this year in Oregon was amazing, as always!  Having our weekends packed with soccer, we managed to squeeze in our annual trip to the Plumper Pumpkin Patch.  Fall doesn't ever feel like it has arrived until we go to the pumpkin patch.  This was Ryan's first time and there was lots to take in.  In years past the kids have enjoyed the barrel slides and corn maze.  This year, pumpkin bowling and the sling shot won their attention.   

As for our costumes this year, Justin and I were nothing.  I know, super boring.  Zach was a Green Fat Skin, what?  Kate was a Cowgirl.  And Ryan, poor Ryan, got to be boring like us, and just wore a Halloween onesie.  Next year I promise we will dress him up.  I just couldn't justify buying something for $20, that he would wear once, and for maybe an hour max.  Lame excuse for sure!  But from the school's Monster Mash to Halloween Night, we all got our spooky fill for the year.