Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays! We are enjoying winter break and keeping busy with the kids. The weather surprised everyone with a little snowfall yesterday afternoon and so we took advantage of it and headed outside for a few hours. The four of us built three snowmen in our yard and then Alyssa built another one this morning with Papa at their house.

Lauren still insists on wearing summery dresses on these chilly winter days. She finally agreed to leggings and even sometimes pants underneath to keep her warm.

Christmas day. The girls really like the cat and kitten that Grandpa and Grandma H sent. The cats purr, move and meow and seem so life-like.

Santa pancakes for breakfast!

The stockings stuffed by Mr. Clause and an empty plate and mug on the mantle with just a few cookie crumbs left.

Holiday card-2009.

Wishing a warm and happy holiday season to all our dear friends!

Catch up

Here are a series of photos from the last month or so. We headed up to South Prairie, Washington for Thanksgiving with family and spent the first night away in downtown Seattle. We had a great time! We rode the monarail to the Seattle Center and then Alyssa and Harry went up the Space Needle. Lauren and I stayed down below and went through the gift shop.

The view from the top!

Getting ready to head out from The Camlin, a hotel rich in history and also a few famous patrons, such as Al Capone, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and the scene from a movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

We had a painting project going on in our living room. We painted a far wall this "burnt cinnamon" color and then did the rest of the walls in a "tawny bisque". We are really enjoying the refreshing change and especially like the warmer colors.

My big helper.

This is Jackie, the cat the tried to adopt us. She spent about a month sleeping on our bench at night and meowing for food during the day. We found out she has owners a block away but has chosen not to return home anymore. The last week she is quite content and spoiled living in our next door neighbors house, only coming out a couple times a day. We are glad she found a home where she is happy.

Warming up at Boring Bark where we picked out our Christmas tree. The owners spoiled us with hot cocoa and coffee, freshly roasted on site.

We enjoyed a visit from our cousins of the South and had a chance to visit while the kids played.

We all enjoyed holding baby W.

A and L playing with the dollhouse in Papa and Grandma's sunroom. It is a pretty neat dollhouse with sounds, lights and lots of little accessories to decorate the house with.

The baby doll, Annie, on the right was my doll as a child. She was almost as big as W and he sure enjoyed looking at her, at least until her head popped off!

Fall Activities

With the cold snap we recently had, some of the local ponds froze over and we were able to head over to the cement casting pond at Westmoreland Park on Thursday afternoon for a few hours of skating. What a rare opportunity for Portland area to freeze up enough to skate outside! The ice popped and cracked a bit as we skated, but what freedom we enjoyed to fly over the immense surface on a gorgeous day!
Harry headed back to skate Friday morning and was surpised when almost the entire WinterHawk WHL hockey team showed up for an outside practice. A few of the players even invited Harry and some other bystanders to scrimmage with them. Harry assisted in a goal against the Hawks! We were pretty excited to see a clip of the practice including Harry on the evening news that night.

Check out how tall this guy is! He's not wearing skates and he is still taller and broader than Harry.

Alyssa and me skating Thursdsay evening on the frozen casting pond. What a fun time!!

We had skates for Lauren but she said it was too "freaky" to go on the ice, but we managed to get her into a camping chair we brought and had a great time pushing her around.

Alyssa is wearing an extra pair of skates I had, although they were three sizes too big, she did well. She really enjoyed skating with a hockey stick and puck.

Lacing up.

Almost ready!

Train show

Several weeks ago the four of us went to a train show that boasts over 1500 square feet and growing of miniature trains, towns, cars, tunnels, lights and people. We were intrigued with the realism of it and with all the train club members operating the switches and communicating through their headsets. Lauren was thrilled with one of the flatbed cars that was carrying one of the Thomas the Tank Engine characters. The club doesn't open its doors to the public too often, so we were sure to stop in and see it.

Train video