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:)