BeBe Branch

Be Be Branch is Abra's new best friend. She found Be Be in a pile on the ground in the backyard. She has a mommy, daddy and lots of brothers and sisters and the cedar tree is the front door where you knock to ask if Be Be can play! They played together all afternoon!! Abra even taught Be Be to ride the scooter. What great friends they are!! (and mommy's new mission is to find more human friends for Abra:))

Snowballs

What do you do when you want to have a snowball fight, but have no snow? Take all the pictures that Abra has drawn, was them up and HURL THEM AT HER!!! We have been tossing pieces of paper at eachother and it was been great fun!!

Santa Rich WARNING: PICTURE INCLUDED

Rich got his Christmas present a little early this year. He got to be one of Santa's Helpers a few years ago and LOVED IT!! This year, he really wanted to help the Big guy out, but didn't have the suit. Well, I bought the Official Santa Suit as his Christmas present and gave it to him early so that he can help Santa out this year with all the good girls and boys. He is so excited and you can now tell your children that Mr Rich is an employee of Santa's and does some field work in Oregon for him so they better be nice :)

Abra is LOVING the fact that her Daddy gets to help Santa!!

Preschool Picture

Here is Abra's preschool picture. One word...Richard

CLEAN

I just finished cleaning the walls and ceiling in the full bath. I didn't realize how yucky the walls were until I wiped them down and there was a considerable color difference between clean and unclean.

I wonder how long it will take for the nicotine to seep back through to the surface:)

Soap box on smoking

So we have discovered that the previous owner was a smoker who smoked in the house. Whatever, that is your choice...HOWEVER, if you decide to sell, you are the person who should Kilz the whole house. Don't necessarily have to paint, so the new owner can choose colors, but come on!!! We have yucky yellow things on our bathroom walls and ceiling, the laundry room occasionally smells like stale smoke and my car was sitting in the garage for almost a week, when I drove it today, it REEKED!!! I still am extremely happy with my house, this is just something that is a new discovery that grosses me out

Still no rain/snow/freezing rain

So, we were suppose to get some sort of precipitation today. I got up early to do some grocery shopping before the store got busy. The cloud cover made the temperatures not too bad, so we decided to do some yard work before the dreaded precipitation arrived. We worked on the pile of branches laying in the yard. I got them cut down so that we can fit more into the yard debris container. Towards the end, Rich and Abra helped. Rich lopped the BIG branches into smaller ones and Abra carried the smaller branched to me where I made them smaller and piled them behind a tree so that our yard finally looks nicer:)



Among the branches, we found one that looks like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree, so we just HAD to keep it!!! Rich found some wood to make a stand, and I grabbed a red ball ornament off the Christmas tree, and it is now sitting on our front porch! Rich is allergic to the real trees, so we can't keep it inside

It is now 4:30, and still no precipitation...but that is okay because we got a ton finished!!

Unpacked

So, I have been "unpacked" for a long time, but I can honestly say this now that I have taken the time to create a home for those things that you want to keep but don't really need or use that often. I usually just leave these things in a box unless I need them for something. (I have not been in one spot for more then a year and a half since I moved out of my parents house in 2000) Yes, I do still have things there that I need to bring here, but I figured I would drive to Iowa this summer and get them. It isn't like they don't have any room. Their house is HUGE, not to mention the oversized garage, the shed, the white garage, and the machine shed. really, where was all this space when all the kids were still living in the house:) I am really excited they have such an amazing house. It makes visiting much nicer. Off topic. Just a proud moment for me:)

Merry Christmas

I have never bought much in terms of Christmas decorations because 1) we didn't have the storage space for alot of boxes/tubs 2) it has never been MY house. I didn't want to invest in things that wouldn't work with the space/decor of my future house that I knew one day we would own. Well, we now have our OWN HOUSE and all of my decorations fit into one room.

Of course it is the one room that we never sit in because there is no TV in there, and I am very strict about food and beverages on my new furniture. Well, here is what my room looks like:)

Saturday, Abra got to see Santa downtown Forest Grove. It was cute, the local businesses had crafts for the kids to do and that night was the light parade. Abra was on her preschool float and I walked next to it:) The only sad thing was I forgot my camera and my phone, so no pictures:(

FREEZING COLD

IT IS FREEZING, literally. The pond in the backyard is frozen. I can even stand on it without breaking!! But, Abra is cuter, so she wins.

Thanksgiving in California

The drive down was long, but good. Abra was in a good mood, Rich got into a good mood once we were out of the Portland area, and I got to drive the mountain passes (not my favorite part) We got there around 4 and Ethan and Andrew were there, surprised by the visitors. The rest of the evening was calm and we all went to bed early. Wednesday, we went over to Matt and Jennifer's so that Rich and Matt could play the Transformers game for the Wii. Notice Ethan's fingers, yes in deed, he is flicking a booger and Uncle Rich was very excited about this and encouraged this the WHOLE TRIP!!

On Thanksgiving Day, Jennifer thought that making a Gingerbread Train would be the PERFECT distraction until it was time to eat.

Howie was busy biting at Shia. They both were instigators and wore eachother out often.

Friday, Rich and I got to see the New Moon movie. I think that this was done much better then Twilight. I can't wait to get my books back from Rachel so that I can re-read the book:) We also got to meet up with Bill, Colleen and Connor Martchenke. Sadly, it was only a few minutes in a crowded Mall, but it was nice to see them and it makes me miss the random evenings we used to hang out. Saturday, we made the LONG drive home, for the first time, it was to OUR HOME!!! Sunday, was a nice day, so Rich cleaned gutters, I worked on ivy and cleaning up dog poop, and Abra kept herself busy!!

Late is better then never

So, these pictures are two weeks old. They are from BEFORE our trip to California. If I remember correctly, it was SUPPOSE to be a nice day that had random rain showers. Like a good Oregonian, I worked through the rain. During the sun breaks of the day, Rich taught Abra to climb the tree in the back yard and Shia to climb the Juniper. Fun times:)

The couch has FINALLY arrived

After a month and a half waiting, my couch is here!! Just a few more things to add to complete my living room!!! I am SOOOO EXCITED!!

Christmas Presents

I can't post pictures of what I am working on (because some of them check this site-okay probably only Dorothy, but still!) I was thrown off by HOW BUSY Hillsboro was yesterday in the shopping areas of town. I guess that makes me alittle happy to be farther away from a shopping town:)

Other news...The flu has messed with Rich's sleep schedule. Though he is feeling better, his sleep clock has been rest to his natural night owl setting. He has been going to bed around 1 or 2 in the morning and sleeping in until 10 or 11. This week should be fun trying to reset the internal clock.

And Abra has a fever:( She acts JUST fine!! She just has a 101 fever every 6 hours (as the medicine wears off).

Today's news

Rich officially got the flu:( In attempt to keep from getting sick (I don't think my efforts are working becuase I have a headache and am very sleepy) I decided to move the TV from the playroom tot he living room so that I could sit on my new couch (an not on the one where Rich has his planted his butt). Notice that I was so tired last night I couldn't see the TV (because it is alittle small) So I moved the TV instead of the love seat. I did find out that sleeping on the loveseat ISN'T as comfortable as hopefully my couch will be.

In other news, Abra LOVES to wear her summer dresses. I keep reminding her that it is TOO COLD to wear things with no sleeves. Here is her solution to that problem.

Nothing new

I just felt obligated to write something since Halloween has officially been done with. There is NOTHING GOING ON!! Abra and I are starting to go stir crazy in our house. I guess I can complain too much, we haven't been sick and did make a trip out to Hillsboro to the library and did get some more yard work done, but that is the extent of my fun:) Looking forward to doing something with the old neighborhood friends Wednesday!! YES!!

Genentech Party

Last night was Genentech's Halloween party. Abra was REALLY excited!! She got to see her friends and show off her beautiful princess costume.

To the left, Bobbilee and Abra are holding hands waiting for costume contest.

To the top, Carl (her betrothed) are coloring after going through the haunted house.

Orange, really

Monday there is an extra garbage pick-up day so I decided to get the curtains in the family room taken down. Underneath the whatever color that is I found the original paint job!

Weekend fun

I got a call Thursday night asking if we wanted visitors. I said OF COURSE!! I know that all of my local friends are tired of hearing and seeing my house:) So, Friday night, Jim, Dorothy, Ethan and Andrew arrived on our doorstep. It was a COMPLETE surprise for Abra and she didn't know what to think!! Friday night was spent playing and playing and playing!!

Like most celebrations, there was a dance on Saturday night. Ethan and Abra were HILARIOUS!! They started dancing and then Ethan tried to "dip"her and they fell over!! They figured out the whole dipping problem by Abra just looking up at the ceiling. Then they started to twirl eachother!! It was GREAT!! I can't figure out how to uplaod videos, but it is on facebook if you want to see!

After the dance, it was TRANSFORMERS time!! Ethan got ready by getting his guns out.

Cookie time

A few weeks ago, I got to some fun cookie cutters from Ikea. There is a moose, fox, squirrel, porcupine, and some other things that I don't remember. Last week was just wet and yucky, so we invited Bobbie Lee over to make Halloween cookies and funny animal cookies.( I also made 2 pumpkin pies and 2 apple pies) It was a great fun day!!

Pumpkin time

Our neighbor gave Abra a pumpkin for Halloween. It wasn't really big enough to carve (plus she doesn't get to do much of the creative work) so this morning we got the paints out and I let her paint her pumpkin.

After it was dry, she wanted to put the halloween foam stickers all over the painted pumpkin.

What a weekend!

Saturday I decided to make pies. In total I made 7 pies and have enough stuff to make at least 4 more pies!!

Abra helped the first batch and then had a great time playing in the flour. She quickly got bored and decided to go to the backyard and "work" with daddy.

Sunday we went to church and then the real fun began!! Rich and Rick decided at "drunk campfire" the night before that they were going to cut trees down. Our yard looks HUGE with these trees gone (and there are more things that are waiting to get cut down)

Here is the five in one tree that they cut down

The winch got it's first real use

And now look at that space. This is going to be where my garden will be next spring.

Any of you who have seen the backyard know that there are TONS of trees. My goal is get rid of most of the trees and bushes in the backyard and replace them with fruit trees and bushes and a little larger grass space. This tree was one that Rich didn't want to cut down, but again, at the drunk campfire, it was decided that he would suprise me and cut it down. We got both trees cut up and this week (in between raindrops) are going to be chipping the branches and cutting some of the larger branches for firewood!

Friends

We had the old neighborhood friends over to play/show off the house. It was a great time since there was NO school for the older ones and Mc Donald's for lunch! I forgot to get pictures (and trust me, they enjoyed the playroom!) But thank you for everyone coming over to play. We will have to do it again or Abra and I can "go into town"

Busy Sunday

Rich and I both had our own To Do lists yesterday and got alot done!!
Rich spent his time outside Here is the the overgrown bushes behind the house:

Here is the after:

And my project was the kitchen. I painted the ceiling and the walls. First the before:

And the after: