All day to play

Toddie got home from another night of dealing with the public on a few nonsense calls at 3:00 in the morning to shovel snow from the drive with Cody.

Griff babysat while the 4 of us went to a boot camp at 24 Hr. Not as many members showed up so we had even more trainers to get in our faces. We were pretty much huffin and a puffin.

Afterwards Todd and Cody took the kids to our neighborhood park to tube.....

And make snow angels.

The kids had been waiting all day to go to Ikea and play in the daycare. We shopped for a few essentials for a half hour while they played and colored. I love the miniture show rooms. It makes one WANT to live in a 375 sq ft apartment! They are adorable.

We had a slight change of plans when we recieved a phone call from Ryan Gibson @ 3:00....so we headed back to Vancouver to dine at Spaggy.

Just as we were about to be seated, who should we run into but Santa and Mrs Claus! What a treat. They were so adorable and let the kids sit on their laps and tell them what they want for Christmas.

Todd treated to a delicious meal. I think it's the first plate of food I've seen Jaken snarf down since they've been here.
Griffin earned a cool wad of cash by babysitting for us while we went to the Trailblazers vs. Denver Nuggets basketball game. Nice box suite to boot. And the game was so close until the end, which is the best kind to watch. Thanks Gibby!

Home to put tired and sick children to bed. Yes, now Kenna has what Brody has. Uggg. The adults attacked my yummy sugar cookies and watched the news reporting even more snow tonight. It'll be a white Christmas for sure :>

Bank on this

Another busy day....even if the snow is ner' going away!
I awoke @ 5:30 a.m. with a burning hot Mr. Boy. He's so sweet and cuddly when he's feverish. Cody left at 9 a.m. to ride along with Todd and his crew at Tualitin Valley Fire and Rescue for about 8 hours. He came home and had Sara and I laughing about his tales of the day. When the first alarm sounded the firemen head to the fire pole, but civilians must use the stairs (insurace purposes) Cody couldn't find the right staircase that leads to the bay and is thinking...they're gonna leave me, until he hears Todd shouting "Cody out here!" The funniest was the article that Cody sees hanging on the dry erase board listing the top 10 presitgious jobs...Firefighting was among the top 3, and under Top 10 most UN prestigious jobs was banking! Sad. Sara and I decided to get out of the house and burn off a cinnamon roll @ 24 hour. We came home to help with kids with their "crafts". That was time comsuming! Once Caleb was in tears, Sara took over. It was hard to keep those little things in place.

We took the kiddies out to dinner and looking at Christmas lights. Some family down the street built this igloo and we stopped to check it out. They were hilarious. Told us to get out and they'd take our picture (3 people there with cameras) and then he emailed this to me! Total strangers. It was all lit up and everything.

Cody is practicing his abitilty to take close ups, and being patient when we tell him to re-do!

Linny remember our re-dos by the hydrangias? Todd was not as amused.

All of my Plans have been thwarted. That's alright, we've moved right into plan B mode. Plan A included lots and lots of activities with hardly any down time. Plan B....more down time and more baking. Sara made my favorite Salty Sweet Chex Mix.

My kids make candy trains every year and this year Jaken and Caleb got in on the fun. Jaken and Brody proceeded to "crash" all the trains, so we had to do a little more hot gluing.

Mr. Boy hasn't eaten in 3 days. He did take a few bites of this apple before getting 2 suckers from the bank while on errands. That's real good for him!

I'm calling Cody the Milk Man. He loves milk. Unfortunately for he, and myself....the milk gallons from Costco are very hard to pour. Milk spills everywhere. He's had a few accidents, but we're working on it. Molasses cookies anyone?

Sara and I made Lanelle's knot rolls. I made them into Orange Rolls and she made Cinnamon. Who knew she was such a baking queen.

Dash and Dine

This year Dr. Moses and Alli took the staff to Clackamas Mall to spend our Christmas Bonus and dine at Claim Jumper. It's fun to have a day out with the girls to shop and eat. Poor Ryan. That is a lot of females. We were only given 50 minutes to shop. Time to hustle!!! We all get along so great. It's more like hanging out with girlfriends rather than a typical staff party. We enjoy seeing what each girl purchased and then topping it off with a delicious dinner!

House Arrest

The Petersen's arrived safely after driving 13 hours from Treemonton to Portland. They barely beat the storm as it ended up closing I-84 in the Columbia Gorge. They met us at Griff's indoor soccer game, where again we were mistaken for twins. (even if Sara did look like a traveling orphan). Back at the house we were ready with a hot dinner and a fun filled agenda.....which is being changed daily by this new turn of events. Scratch the Christmas ships. Scratch downtown Spaggy and Santa and Pionner Tree. We'll see what gets scratched for tomorrow. We were planning a stay at Cannon Beach on Tues :<
The kids made beds in our room after going out to play in the winter snow storm that hit the NW pretty hard. You see, we are not used to getting snow. No one owns snow shovels, salt, let alone any snow plows that clear the city roads. So....we were pretty well snowed in. Church was cancelled, many stores closed. Under house arrest pretty much.

Cody asked "what is that?"....oh, that's the Griswalds. They're our neighbors. It's quite the light show out the front window.
We had a blast in this beautiful powder....sledding, making snowmen and taking treats to neighbors, ringing and running on the icy sidewalks. Yes, there was falling and crying.Todd made his way safely home from Beaverton after working a 48 hour shift. The kids played in the snow while Todd, Cody and Griffin performed acts of service, shoveling driveways and walks for older members in our ward. They were rewarded with lots of sweets. Speaking of sweets. They keep rolling in! I should have taken a picture of just how many cookies, candy chocolates and desserts we have laden on our counters. It's being enjoyed to say the least.

Poor Brody kept losing his gloves. He and Jaken make it only half as long as the older kids who don't mind getting FREEZING before coming in to warm by the fire.

Camdyn and CalebDuring snowy days I turn to baking. I got Sara in on it too. Cody was a happy recipient of our homemaker services. More of that to come.......

Cookies are a few of my favorite things....

This post is dedicated to Camas Mom (Janna)!
One might also wonder what the heck I'm doing up so late! Cleaning, picking up, and laundry in the peace and quiet one can only find when all kids are in bed. Sometimes sacrificing sleep for cleanliness and order brings me more fullfillment. Then again, 5 hours of sleep goes by pretty fast!
Anywho....tonight my friend Lori had her annual cookie exchange. She is the queen of all parties. From the appetizers to the ambiance, to the prizes and goodies to take home. When I was getting my stuff together Todd said "They're just cookies".....meaning, why go to so much work? Because Lori makes all this effort FUN! She asks us to bring 6 doz. cookies, display them and dress in holiday attire. I tried to dress to match my display.

This was hilarious. Lori called it "naughty and nice". Naughty won for Best Attire (you can't see but they light up). I won Best Display.....

And for the overall Cookie Queen. Yay! Lori gave me a crown and this Queen apron. I LOVE aprons. Thanks goes out to Amy's Wings, Grandma Mayme's mollasses cookies and too much Christmas decor'! Lori, is the Queen of thoughtfulness and flare! Everything she touches turns to gold.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Tonight's date night with the kids started out at The Old Spaghetti Factory on the Willamette River. It's become a tradition each year to dine there before going to see the lights on the Riverplace Marina, the Tree Downtown and Santa at Meier and Frank, now Macy's.For so many years we visited the Winter Wonderland on the 8th floor of Meier and Frank. Macy's bought it and changed the scenes and placement of Santa-land. It's still fun to see, but it broke my heart knowing Brody wouldn't get to ride the monorail circling the room, looking down at Santa.

Kenna asked Santa for Sweet Streets and a doll.....Griffin wants a Wii.

The weather was perfect....and the tree is beautiful and huge as always.

Camdyn wants her retainer out and the same toys as Kenna.

Todd and I got what we wanted.....for him to get Christmas day off! One year we took a family Christmas picture here with our umbrella's and Grandma wondered who that man was standing with our family :>

Macy's has a monorail memorial setting out for the kids to sit in.....not quite the same.

Brody, who doesn't know any different, couldn't be peeled out of it! He played there for about 10 minutes.

Vegas Vacation

Last week I flew to Las Vegas with my sister's, mom and dad. Some of these pictures are in random order, because I took them off the girls' blogs.
Each night we'd stay up late playing cards and we all bought a prize for the winner. Sara won my prize which was $5 worth of slots. She won $4.00. Or should I say, she lost $1? Not bad.Went to a movie.

Ran 18 miles from the Hilton out to the Red Rocks where the fam met me at the entrance and we went on a beautiful and steep hike.

This is the inside of the Phantom Theatre at the Venetian. We were upgraded to awesome seats!

The real reason we were honored to be here was to be able to attend the American Ambulance Association Awards Ceremony at the Hilton in Las Vegas where our father was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Only the 3rd of this award presented in the last 15 years. Currently he is the Director for Global Operations for American Medical Response. What this means is that he travels to India, Trinidad and other far-off places to help establish medical/ambulance services in these inadequately prepared countries. His knowledge and expertise in this field were made even more evident as we heard the many tributes given in his honor this evening. I'm pretty bugged this picture of us girls turned out blurry! Below, dad receiving his award from the current President of the Association. During one of our 3 night stays mom and dad took us to see Phantom at the Venetian. This theatre was awesome and the sets spectacular. Loved it, loved it! Sara and I were accused of being twins several different times. We just go along with it. It's actually quite funny, especially when they think we're identical! Now that I don't see.

Dining before the show.

We stayed a couple blocks off the strip so this night we walked and walked and walked down to Cesar's Palace to dine and shop and took a taxi back to our hotel where we played cards until very late. We took advantage of the Hilton Awards Member Spa, hiked the Red Rocks, and did some shopping. I was able to sit out by the pool before the plane trip home. 70 degrees feels real nice this time of year.

Went to Cheesecake Factory the first night for dinner. I love being with my sissy's again. Just like old times. And yes, there is still teasing and just being girls.