Snowed In!

If you haven't heard....we have been hit by an arctic blast!! We have lived in Battle Ground for over five years, and it usually only snows once or twice, one or two inches, that lasts for a day or two. The kids basically didn't have school the last week before Christmas break--which means they will probably be going to school until the end of June--and we still have over a foot of snow on the ground! We barely made it out of our driveway to go to a friend's house a couple of blocks away. Church has been cancelled the last two weeks, and we'll find out if we get to go this week in a couple of days. The Portland area basically shuts down, which made preparing for Christmas extremely difficult. I hate to admit it....it's been ten years since we've lived somewhere where it snows, and I was a chicken to leave the house!

My Own Wizard of Oz

A couple of days before Christmas, we watched the Wizard of Oz (it was on tv). On commercial, the kids disappeared upstairs. This is what they looked like when they returned. They had raided the dress up box and emerged with Paige as Glenda the Good Witch, Macey as The Scarecrow (complete with Indian dress and a grass skirt as her hair--and ski gloves), Brooke as Dorothy (and Toto in her hand), and Isaac as The Lion. I thought it was so creative :)

Brooke's teeth

Brooke had her teeth cleaned at the dentist the other day. They decided, since two of her top teeth couldn't come in because of the baby teeth blocking them (the two teeth have been gone for a year), that they would pull the baby teeth out. So, Brooke was a trooper and got two baby teeth extracted. She did great, but didn't go back to school that day. The tooth fairy was extra generous, due to pain and suffering. :)

Paige's 3rd Birthday!

I can't believe my baby is three! It makes me sad (and want another baby just a tiny bit:)...but at the same time, there are things that are great about her growing up. For one, she is totally potty-trained (believe me, there was a time I wondered if it would ever happen). Paige is such a fun little girl with a personality all her own. She loves to snuggle, play with her baby dolls, sing songs on the radio (her favorite right now is "So What" by Pink :), laugh, EAT, talk on the phone, be treated like a baby, and sleep in. Most of all, I love that she usually has a smile on her face. I love this little girl!

Halloween!

I am finally getting some Halloween pictures posted (hey...it's technically before Thanksgiving!) Carly was a girl from India, Brooke was a Spanish girl, Macey was someone from Star Wars (sorry--I have no idea which character), Isaac was Anniken from Star Wars--when he was a boy, and Paige was Little Bo Peep. We trick-or-treated downtown, the kids did some door-to-door in the neighborhood, then we had family and friends over for pizza and x-box. I love when Halloween falls on a weekend!

Papa

On our way home from California, we stopped in Medford and visited Shane's grandpa, aka "Papa". He is 92 years old and as witty and spunky as ever! We had a great visit--all of the kids received a lot of attention from the residents at the retirement home. One little lady was going to kidnap Isaac if we didn't keep an eye on her! :)

WE LOVED SEA WORLD!!

Our second day at Disneyland/California Adventure

Universal Studios

First Day at DISNEYLAND

Disneyland!!

We visited Disneyland for the first time! If I could describe our experience in two words, it would be 1. crowded and 2. HOT!! We took two days driving there. The pictures are of everyone excited, just before we hit the road. We spent the first night at Annie & Gary's in Sacramento, then drove the remainder on Sunday. Disneyland was closed to the public Sunday evening, due to Miley Cyrus' birthday party! (Oh how my girls would have loved to have been in the park!) We arrived bright and early Monday morning with high expectations, and left a little low. Lines for the big rides were 45 minutes to an hour, and there were fast passes only available on 3 rides. I think getting autographs from the characters was everyone's favorite part, though we did catch most of the parade, which was fun. Because we spent $40 just on breakfast, we decided to go to the store when we got back to the hotel. We left the kids with a phone and the door locked, and we checked up on them multiple times. When Shane and I got back to the hotel, we knocked on the door, we called the cell phone....and nothing. This went on for an hour! Our kids were so worn out, that they crashed hard, and didn't hear a thing. The hotel security didn't have a key to override the lock from inside. We tried EVERYTHING!! After waking up the guy next door, he pounded on the door as hard as he could (he was a little upset with us) saying, "well, I'll wake them up!! Nothing. They put us up in a room across the hall, until Carly called at 12:40 am, saying "where are you guys?" Needless to say, our first day at Disneyland was far from perfect.