Baby blessing and Christmas Eve

We decided to try to do as much as possible while everyone was here for Christmas. We Blessed Oli Christmas Eve, and then carried on our tradition of white elephant with the Elders. The girls in my family all made a craft, the kids made a gingerbread house, and got to open a gift before bed. It was a busy night. In the morning Kevin made us all Biscuits and gravy, yummmm. We had a wonderful time.

...And it's Chloe by a mile!

WE made a sled hill in our back yard (we are still snowed in and unable to leave). Here is some video of our kids sledding.

17 inches and counting

UNBELIEVABLE! I haven't seen this much snow since my childhood in Alaska. It had snowed 17 inches by 10 oclock this morning. It isn't supposed to stop until 3pm. We are all thrilled. It took all of Kevin's energy to shovel a trail to the trampoline, a sled run, our walk way, and our neighbors car out. Ashton and Chloe love playing out in it. I have yet to go out, I've been cleaning and taking care of Oli, since she isn't snow ready yet. School was closed today, we will see if the snow plough makes it to our road by tomorrow. Its doubtful.

Christmas Crafts

So This is my latest in crafts. I loved these vinyl sayings that my sister-in-law sent. I also made over 200 chocolates with Courtney Claeson yesterday. I can't believe how easy and fun it was, and now I seem like a super treat maker to all my neighbors. Ha Ha I'm fooling everyone. It also snowed 10 inches today. Finally we have some snow to play in. Ashton and Chloe saw the snow falling down and looked at me with big eyes and said," Mom, I can't believe it, Its Christmas"! I had to explain that, snow doesn't = Christmas. Boy was I the Grinch.

How Oli got her laugh back...

Oli is becoming more aware of social interactions. She is almost ticklish and will follow people with her eyes if they cross her path. But her most recent discovery is laughing. It is really easy to make her laugh (which is great for my self esteem).

on our way home

On our way home from portland we were able to stop off and see some friends. We had breakfast at a nice lodge with the Bennetts and hiked up to an awesome waterfall.

Portland

Mt. Hood looked so pretty!

This last weekend we went as a family to Portland for our nephew Bryson's Baptism. We had a wonderful time, unfortunately our camera's battery died half way through our trip. I will say this. If I had seen Portland before moving to Spokane I would probably have pushed to move there. It is so beautiful, and you can live in the forest just a skip away from the city. We went to the children's museum, to Downtown Saturday Market, and of course the main event Bryson's Baptism. We are so proud of Bryson, his baptism was just perfect. It was so nice to hang out with our family. Thanks Randy & Diana for everything. We really had a great time. Oh and I'm sure we will be hearing about how much Ashton misses and loves Kayden daily.