Christmas Day

I was a little behind on some things this week, with all the preparations for Christmas taking the front burner and little things like, laundry taking the back burner for a while. The kids don't mind this at all. As you can see, Simon is quite comfortable in this chair that is pile high with the laundry.
We had such a wonderful Christmas Day. The kids were very excited to see signs of Santa Claus having come to the house when they were asleep. The cookies were half eaten and the milk was gone, and of course he left them some presents. We have video of them opening their presents at the end. I hope you all had a great day and a relaxing one too! Enjoy our pictures. Happy New Year! David had a chance to earn some money this year to go shopping at his school gift shop. He bought me a very pretty ring and he bought Dave a, father of the year trophy. What a sweet boy!

The boys had a good morning. After we opened presents the boys watched, Monster Jam!

Then they went outside and did a little snowboarding.

This is the pork that Dave Bar-B-QED for the Christmas meal at Carl and Sue's (His parents).

Grandma had lots of presents to open!

This is Christmas Day, opening presents!

This is a video of the boys snowboarding.

Slumber Party, Birhtday and Christmas tree, Oh my!

Sarah celebrated her, Fifth birthday on the 8Th. We had a slumber party at our house with all the cousins. Trying to get, five girls to bed on time wasn't easy........so, it wasn't done. They finally went to bed around, 11:30. They had so much fun. We made pizzas from scratch and then had homemade cupcakes. They decorated them with pink frosting and lots and lots of sprinkles.

Simon really, really liked the sprinkles.

On Sarah's birthday, we had the family come over for cake and ice cream. Her cake was a, Sponge Bob theme. Sarah loves, Sponge Bob.

We cut our own tree this year. The kids are old enough to hike by themselves and enjoy it. We went to our good friends property out toward the old Skyline sledding area. For those of you who don't live here anymore and are familiar with that sledding area, they closed it and deemed it to dangerous to use. HMMMMM.........You think so. Anyway, He has a beautiful place out there and takes care of it so well. He saved us a tree and lead the way. We are standing in front of it in this picture. We brought it home and had to cut off about, two feet because it was too big to fit in the little farm house.

Sarah having fun in the snow.

Simon making a snow angel.

Sarah making a snow angel.

David making a snow angel.

This is the video of us cutting the tree.

I stole this from Julie's blog:-)

I love this picture that my sister in law took at Carl and Sue's for Thanksgiving! Grandma Ruth, I thought you would get a kick out of this picture, doesn't it remind you of the contrast between Kim and me??

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a really good and relaxing weekend, on Friday we stayed home and had left overs and then decided that we wanted something else to eat besides, turkey, so we went downtown and had a bite to eat and then we went to the annual tree lighting. On Sat. we watched the civil war game between the Ducks and the Beavers, This is David and his beaver headband that he made at school, in the background you can see the beaver fans.

This is the Bar-B-Q Turkey that Dave made to take over to Carl and Sue's on Sunday. We also made a roast, we rubbed kosher salt on it to make a cast so it stays extra juicy......it worked!

Isn't it pretty!!!!!!!!!

The boys had a lot of fun in Grandpa's shop.

In fact, all the kids had a lot of fun in Grandpa's shop, his shop was trashed by the end of the night.

Of course there was ping pong!

I think Rylie won.

Jon and Christina, you probably don't recognize this little guy! He is getting so big and now crawling! Enjoy the video.

Grandma has something to say

Happy Birthday Jon

Happy Birthday, Jon!

We miss you and Christina, we are thinking about you and praying for you always.

Love,

David, Shannon, David Dudley, Sarah, and Simon

Zac, Kim, Rylie, Kayla and Aiden

Sarah and Simon both received awards at there school for showing the fruit of the spirit. Simon received his award last month for showing joy and Sarah received hers this month for showing peace. They were both very excited and surprised, they didn't know that they had been chosen by there teacher for this until the announcement at the assembly. Of course Dave and I knew about it and were there to see it. I posted a video of the boys playing as usual. We have very creative children who can have fun anywhere, anytime.

Kids having fun

On Halloween we went to, Sarah and Simon's school first before we went trick or treating. They had so much fun. This slide was a big hit with all the kids. We got there really early so they had like 10 turns before anyone got there. Good thing too, there ended up being like 200 people at this event, a little to crowded for me. We went trick or treating in the neighborhood across the street from my parents where they came away with tons of candy. They ate it the next morning for breakfast and lunch, I have a different view on candy after that day! Sugar really is a drug!!! My children were not themselves for sure. All is well here with our family. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving, which so happens I am cooking this year for my side of the family. Enjoy the pictures.

October fun

We are having a lot of fun this fall, with Kim and Zac's anual Halloween party and a field trip to the pumpkin patch with David's class. Simon has been Spider man for a whole week now. He loves this costume and does not want to take it off. I feel like Halloween was days ago and we still have a couple of days before it really is. This year has flown by and I can't believe we are almost into November. Enjoy the pictures and I will have more up next week.

David's big fish

How cute is this picture!!! I love these boys so much.

David reelled this one in all by himself! Dave said he looked like a pro. Dave has been taking David fishing from the time he was two, it's no wonder that David is capable of doing this. Look how proud he is!

The boys went fishing this last weekend at the cove. Sarah and I went to Salem for a baby shower for my cousin Katie and her husband. They had the best time and got into more fish than anytime this year.

First day of school

I love this picture! I think I have the cutest kids in this entire world! David started school last week. He is doing really well and enjoys it. Sarah and Simon started pre-school today. Simon was thrilled to finally go to school and Sarah was pleasantly surprised to see her friends from last year in her class. I had coffee with a friend this morning and enjoyed some time to myself.

My three babies are all off to school. What will I do with all the free time????

This is, David and his friend from church. We were at family camp and he and his friend,(mostly his friends idea) decided to enter the talent contest. His friend made up the lines and had all of 1hour to memorize them. They did pretty good, David had to tell a few people that it wasn't funny, as this was a serious drama. By the way, David is Darth Vader and His friend is Luke Skywalker.

Simon's Birhtday Party

Simon had a party before his actual birthday at my parents house. We planned to go to the zoo on Saturday and so we wanted all the family to have a chance to celebrate with us. For some reason some of the pictures that I down loaded are not on the computer, so the first party is pretty sparse on pictures. We had a fun time at Grandma and Grandpa's. He was so proud to have everyone honoring him that night. At the bottom of the blog there is a video of Simon playing with his monster truck....don't miss it.

We drove to the zoo from the hotel in , Gladstone that we stayed at the night before. We got to the zoo at,9:00 am. My uncle Tom met us there. Simon was very excited because this day is his actual birthday. He kept asking where is my party, and my cake and presents. He forgot about all of that once we saw all the fun inside the gates.

IT was a little cold when we got to the zoo, so they all piled in to the stroller.

This one is out of place....can someone please explain to me how to delete the picture after you have already uploaded it???

Simon is feeding the bird at the zoo. This one is a repeat, oops!

Wow! Could this little sweetie be any happier? No, I don't think so. She is hand feeding a bird from the zoo. You buy nectar from them and hold it up and they just fly down and perch on you and drink the juice.

This is the train that takes you around the, Washington park. It was so beautiful and very cool as the train had to do some maintenance work on the steam engine. He had to empty out the boiler line or something like that, and so we stopped for a minute and all of a sudden there was a ton of steam coming out of the engine of the train, totally cool.

This is a picture of the end of the day at the zoo. We had so much fun. We were there from, 9:00am till 3:30 pm. The kids were beat.

Simon had two opportunities to blow out candles this year. the one on the top is his actual B-day and the one on the bottom is from the party at my parents house.

This is how Simon ended the day.

This is the monster truck that my mom got Simon for his birthday. He is saying, Big foot....big foot........big foot.