Tree finding

I can't believe how quickly the perfect tree was found. See how huge that tree is!!! The kids had a great time here. They said this was one of the favorite things they did this weekend. I hope we have just as much fun when we go cut our tree down next weekend.

After we found the perfect tree (which took 20 minutes!!! haleluja) we sat outside and had the best doughnuts you have ever tasted. They were hot and dense and just crumbled in your hand as you devoured them. They were so good. Daniel said it right when he said they looked like doughnuts you see in the movies.

This place was heaven for Sam. He enjoyed the tractors, throwing rocks into a pond, eating doughnuts, watching the bunnies, and poking the mud with a stick.
One thing I love about Sam is that he will only wear shorts, no matter how cold it is. He is just like his dad!

Other things we did this weekend: cleaned up the Wilson's backyard a little (with the Oregon natural backyard, you could never clean it all), and we went to an IMAX dome theater showing of The Polar Express. The kids liked that even though it was a little scary. Olivia and I had to go out of the theater for a while!

Visiting John

We are lucky to have Daniel's brother's family also living in Portland. That way we can also visit his family! For Christmas John got a guitar. He was showing Olivia how to play it. We had a nice time. I spoke with Mercedes and Claribel (in Spanish) while John and Daniel talked. The kids colored and watched a movie.

Thanksgiving day

Thanksgiving day started as it should, with a Turkey Bowl. Daniel lives for this part of Thanksgiving, it is just as good as homemade pumpkin pie and whip cream.

Drew, Seth and Daniel had a great time playing in the foggy weather on the wet field. Daniel played quarterback some of the time and caught a few touchdown passes. I did not get the low down on Drew and Seth, but Daniel says they are great players.

After the game and a warm shower for the boys, we hung out at the house. Mike made a wonderful meal and 2 turkeys. We had a great time doing nothing.

Val and Mom made sure the snack plates were always full. We had 2 kinds of turkey, green beans, grilled onions with apples, yams with brown sugar and pecans(to die for and requested by Seth), stuffing, cranberry sauce with pomagranate, mashed potatoes, and I am sure there was more...Barbie help!

This is what was left of the fried turkey after Grandpa Mike stood in the rain and cold weather to watched it fry. It was really good.

Thanksgiving in Portland

We finally made it to Portland after delays at the Apple store in Palo Alto and traffic in Oregon. The kids were so excited to see their cousins. After Poppie Mike treated everyone to a great dinner, the Wilson boys made a bonfire and we roasted marshmallows for s'mores. The we just talked while the boys threw around a glow in the dark football. I really enjoyed tonight.

I would like to thank Barbie for introducing my kids to the idea of lighting marshmallows on fire. Olivia loved blowing them out, but who doesn't?? It didn't take Sam long to figure out how far a gooey marshmallow can fly when flug off his roasting fork!!

Chloë was so content to sit in her camp chair and point her marshmallow stick at the fire and then eat them.

Tony

I think one thing will never change with Daniel and his brothers. They always like to compare muscles.

I love you Daniel, but I think Tony wins.... this time!

Chase's baptism

Here is Sam with the boys. He was very excited to be in this picture.
Barbie has more pictures I will post in the future.

Here we ALL are!

I did it

I told the kids if they could keep the fish alive we could get a dog SOME DAY. Well, the kids were doing a great job feeding the fish when I decided to change Rosie's water. Well, the shock of the new water killed the fish!

So I told the kids, mostly Sam, we could get new fish. They picked out two fish. One is just a regular goldfish with a black tale and then there is this guy. We call him One eyed Jack! Yes, he only has one eye and it is on the other side of this body!

Train ride

Here we are waiting for our train ride.

Chloë was loving every part of the train and everything outside of the train!

Olivia would hop from Barbie's lap to Poppie's but Sam wanted to sit all by himself.

After a yummy and high fatty lunch we had to wait for 50 minutes to catch the train back home.




Poppie decided to catch a quick cat nap on the train ride home.

Here I am showing off my new orthodic on my lower teeth. Let's hope this appliance will change my bite an eventually get rid of my headaches to I am always having. This picture really shows how off balance my face is. You can see how the left side of my jaw (when looking at the photo it's the right side) is much bigger than the right side of my jaw. The right side of my cheek looks sunken in! Maybe this don't look like much to the average viewer, but I have had a few dentists and my sisters make this comment,

Family Night

Dad really wanted to get the kids these rubber band airplanes. So he had to figure out how to tie them into FHE. So after an hour of putting them together and flying them he made some connection with all the part on the plane and all the parts of each of our testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus that make us whole. At least I think that was his message. Anyway, the kids had a great time!....obviously!!

Light, Green

A few weeks ago I heard Chloë say, "light, green" when the stop light turned from red to green. I was very excited to hear her say this. She has been a little slow to speak to us. A few months ago I took her to an audiologist to make sure everything was ok. She passed the hearing test. So it seems that we will just have to be patient. I can understand most of what she says when asking or showing me something, but it you are on the phone and try to talk to her she will begin ranting about who knows what! On a different note, she is almost potty trained!

Ezra's blessing

We always love spending the day with our friends. Zion and Olivia are great friends even though they only see each other every now and again.

Daniel and I enjoying talking to Casey and Talia. I hope we are able to do something with them sooner rather than later!

Halloween

To put us in the Halloween mood, we carved our pumpkins. Well, mostly I did the carving. Sam and Liv cleaned out their pumpkins a little, but mostly they thought it was yucky! Oh well. The next day is when the real fun began.

The first Halloween party was at Sam's preschool. The kids came wearing their costuemes for a group picture and then the kids put on their regular school clothes and their party was over. It was plenty of excitement for Sam. The teachers at this school know what they are doing.

Olivia's class was a little more eventful. I am room parent with one other mom. The teacher told us to have 3-4 stations for the kids to rotate through. We had 2 cookie decorating stations, a pumpkin decorating station and a slime table. Before we started the stations we had a mummy wrapping game. The kids had a great time.

Tonight was our first time we really went Trick o Treating!
Before we headed out for trick o treating, we stopped for pizza at the neighborhood party.
We had to stop at Daniel's house where he grew up, but no one was home!

Poor Sam

After talking with Sam's allergy doctor we determined that the only thing to really help Sam's allergies is for him to get shots. Because of the gravity of his allergies it turns out he needs 3 shots once a week for a long time. Below he is showing you the two shots he gets in one arm and a third shot in the other arm. As you can see he did pretty good the first week. But if I would have taken a picture after today's shots he would have looked a little less silly. Today he was hysterical. I finally had to pin him down and the nurse just went for it. Afterwards I offered him ice cream, but he wanted to go play at the Miners. So that is what we did.
Poor boy!

It's almost Halloween

We went to the pumpkin patch with some friends.

Lula loved the PUMPKINS.

Sam was climbing as usual.

I was a little bummed, because the traditional pumpkin patch festivities are almost extinct. The was a hayride, pulled by a four wheeler, but the rest of the pumpkin patch is covered with blow-up jump houses. Every time we drive by the lot, the kids want to go back.

We are already getting excited for Halloween. You can see in Sam's eyes how excited he is to be Buzz.

This year for Halloween we were characters from Toy Story. Olivia was Woody, Sam-Buzz Lightyear, Chlover-BoPeepe, Lula-a sheep, and Daniel and I were Combat Carls. Olivia decorated her vest and boots. I thought she did a great job.

Here we are the entrance to the ward party. There was a trunk-or-treat after the chile dinner. Sam and Liv walked around together, I went with Chlover, and Daniel and the baby handed out candy from our trunk. Everyone had a fun time. I think this was the first of many great childhood memories for me with my children at ward parties. Usually I was busy with keeping track of everyone, but this time I really enjoyed the spirit of the party. It was great family time!
p.s.
Maybe you will remember Lula's sheep costume from previous years. Chlover used it as well as Olivia. I can now retire the first costume I every made. (yes, I am sad about that)
Here is Olivia, the sheep, and a young Daniel and Lindsay.
This picture was taken one weekend when Daniel and I made a surprise visit to see Grandma Ann.

Lula is below

I will have to find the picture of Chloë in the sheep costume.

La Granja crystal factory and Madrid

This was our last full day in Spain. We returned to La Granja in the morning to visit the crystal factory and museum.

I thought the museum had a great collection of glass and interesting exhibits. One exhibit was the evolution of the shape of the lip on the bottle. Who would have thought such a point would have been so interesting.

Then we drove into Madrid over a mountain range.

Once we arrived in Madrid the sky was clear and it was a warm day.

You can kind of see the traffic we were battling to make it back to the car rental location on time. It was very stressful. We passed this building which I think is the Bank of Spain.

We drove past several plazas, like this one, which I think it dedicated to Christopher Columbus.

Here we are at the Prado museum.



This is the side where you get your ticket. It looks like a small museum, but apparently it has several buildings that make up the entire museum.

This is a picture of a window front for a very nice restaurant. These are some plates full off different tapas that they offer...as well as a pig leg.