Pretty Girls

We have enjoyed a nice Sunday today - it was nice to actually go to church after two weeks of being snowed in! The Ward Choir did their Christmas program and we had our special Christmas lesson in Young Women's. It was nice to stretch Christmas out a bit.

We've had a fun game playing afternoon and our friends the Ellsworth's came over tonight to teach us to play our new game - Settler's of Catan.

This weekend the girls went and did a photo shoot with one of Cali's friend. Olivia is a senior at Westview this year and she is an amazing photographer. She has a great eye and amazing creativity and does beautiful photography art. She has inspired me and I have decided to take a photography class this winter.

You can check out Olivia's work at her blog - http://stolenmemories.tumblr.com/

Enjoy the shots she took of the girl -

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day started with having to WAKE

up the kids at 9:00 a.m.!

Here they are on the stairs ready to go see what Santa brought!

We had a fun time opening gifts

The boys got Tessa just what she wanted -RED Vans!.

From mom she got an ANTIQUE LOCKET
Logan got the complete collection of ROCKY movies and a new camera since had lost his old one!

The boys bought their dad a ticket to the BLAZER/Celtic game. And then Clark gave Logan a ticket to the game and Logan gave Clark a ticket to the game! That makes a total of 4 Blazer games they will go to over the break - but I'm not counting! That is including the one they went to Christmas night. The girl's went to the movies while the boys were gone and we saw Marley & Me. The girls both cried - their dog hating mother did not!

With a little help from mom Clark picked out this darling HAT for Cali!

And the boys surprised mom with a combined Christmas and Birthday present

- a new I-POD!

As always dad was a great present hander outer!

Jim and Leigh Anne had agreed that they were not going to exchange gifts but they each cheated and got each other something.

Jim got a new set of cologne - perfect size for traveling and Jim got Leigh Anne a new GlassyBaby for her collection.

And then of course there was the traditional picture in the wrapping paper mess!

We had a nice relaxing day with visits to and from neighbors checking out what Santa had brought. Declan came for a visit - announced he was hungry so of course we had to feed him!!

Could we just KEEP him - please!?!?

We enjoyed a yummy dinner of prime rib, mashed potatoes, jello, Celestial Salad, homemade rolls, fresh sesame green beans and of course ice cream pie for dessert!

It has been a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Multnomah Falls

Just an experiment with sizing pictures but thought you might enjoy this larger pictures of Multnomah Falls!

Falls, Pizza and a Movie

The title of this post sums up our fun day!

On the front page of the Oregonian a couple of days ago was a picture of Multnomah Falls totally frozen over - no running water at all. Jim thought it would be fun to go out and see it.

Unfortunately it has warmed up a bit in the last couple of days so the falls are not totally frozen up any more but still an amazing site. We drove out this morning. There was still quite a bit of snow and slush on the roads the farther out the gorge we got. We saw numerous cars that had slide of the road including one large semi that slid off the road right at the exit of the Falls - there was barely enough room for our Suburban to get by.

This is the site that greeted us at Multnomah Falls today!

Me and my pretty girls.

I always love having my picture taken with one of my handsome boys...

until they use me as a human shield ...

because the other one is doing this!!

and then poor Tessa becomes a target!

Isn't brotherly love grand!

The walk up to the upper bridge was a little precarious - we had to hold onto the netting to avoid slipping down the cliff!

It was a beautiful site!!

On the way home from the Falls we stopped for pizza at our favorite spot in NorthWest 23rd. From there we met our neighbors the Osbornes at the movie theater where we went to see Seven Pounds. We enjoyed the movie but I won't say anything about it so I dont' spoil it for any of you who might go see it.

Dreams Do Come True!

The prime rib is roasting, the rolls are raising and I'm having fun playing on the computer while the rest of the family figures out how to play Settlers of Catan - thanks Nelson family!!


This year we didn't just have to dream about it and watch White Christmas to get a white Christmas- we actually got a White Christmas!

Christmas Eve day the kids (Logan, Cali and Tessa) went sledding with the neighbors. Clark was at home sleeping - recovering from going into work at 3:00 a.m. The boss got stuck on the freeway so he got to take an 1 1/2 nap in the car waiting for him to show up!




























Can you guess whose bum was a little sore the next day??



And then this morning - Christmas morning we got more snow! Looks like the temperatures are rising and the snowing will be leaving us soon though!

Christmas Eve Part Two

After our music program we put on our traditional Christmas pageant. This year Marsha and Larry had the "opportunity" to be Mary and Joseph - they were so excited!

Jim was the narrator and of course I was the camera man!

We had three good looking Wise Men!

And some darling shepherds...

And when the Angel of the Lord appeared they were Sore Afraid!

I am not sure there were really any rabbits at the manager scene???

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The entire cast

Of course Santa's elves delivered some new Christmas pajamas for everyone!!

and finally ...nothing was stirring...not even a mouse.....