ElfYourself...

For your Christmas pleasure....

SNOW!!

It snowed!! We woke up this morning to a very fine dusting of snow! Very unusual for these parts. It lasted for most of the day, and then it was gone....There's a chance for more tonight, but I doubt it will be much. Anything more than this and town shuts down, we just aren't equipped to deal with the white stuff....

Where's the snow??

One of the really nice perks of having Nana & Papa back home in the states is beautiful forest that surrounds their house is perfect for Christmas tree cutting....well, that and the fact that they let us visit often is nice too!! This year's adventure led us to a new spot where there were many to choose from. It took awhile to pick the best one, but I suppose that's half the fun. The only thing missing this year was the snow. Maybe next year!

New Pictures

We just got these back from Meagan's 2 year photo shoot. Enjoy!

Catching up....

Wow, its been more than a month...I'll spare you the "where has the time gone..." Here's a quick recap:

Thanksgiving was at our house this year. 17 of us this year, including the kids. We have newcomers- Uncle Gary, Auntie Carolyn and Ben have all relocated from Templeton, so it was nice to have them with us this year. Tom, Papa and Uncle Mike worked on the new porch cover for the garage all morning. I'll post pics when I get them back from my mom. We had lots of yummy new recipes and food this year, and I think we must have had enough for the Chinese army, as the saying here goes. Afterwards, we walked on the Sundial Bridge before Round 2 of the feasting commenced- Pies!

Soccer season has come to an end. Tony had lots of fun. While he enjoyed chasing the ball and running up and down the field with all the other kids, I'm thinking all those lessons of learning to share and not taking things from others has really sunk in with him (and several others, we noticed) When someone else had the ball, he couldn't quite bring himself to take it away.... One of the kids actually yelled back to their parent who was, um shall we say encouraging their child to 'steal the ball', "But Dad, you told me not to take other kid's toys!!" I guess they really do pay attention to what we are saying...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEAGAN!!Meagan is 2, such the big girl now!!

I'd love to post more pictures of her party, but due to camera error (or is it operator error??) most of the pics didn't turn out. Oh well. Lots of family and friends to help celebrate, open gifts, and eat cake!! Its good to be 2!!

Happy Halloween! We had a Wall-E and a Tigger this year. Tigger was a bit camera shy, so no pictures but here is one of Wall-E and his class right before the big parade, which was rained out this year so we wandered in circles thru the cafeteria instead of the track. We trick-or-treated in the rain with friends, had pizza and hot chocolate, and ate lots of candy!

Nana catches the BIG one!!

Ok, here's the last of many new posts...

On Sunday after the guys finished getting the roof ready for shingles we all headed out for a little bit of fishing before heading home. Nana caught the only fish of the day, and it was a doozy of a fish! We aren't exactly sure what kind of fish it was, we've never caught one like it before. Another fisherman saw it and said it was a whitefish, so that's what we'll call it. Anyways, it put up a great fight and was fun to catch, if only to be slightly dissappointing- no smoked fish this time! Way to go Nana!

And here's a shot of the new garage, ready for the roofers!

Leaf peeping and Apple picking...

We have spent the last few weekends out at my parents' house working on their new garage. While Tom and Papa were hard at work banging nails, Nana, the kids and I had a great time checking out the gorgeous fall colors and picking apples.

Picking apples...

Playing at the shore. It was really windy, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They had a great time hunting for sea shells and playing on the rocks.

And, of coures, there were the leaves. Lots of aspens, maples and other goodies....

Pumpkin Patch Field trip

Last Thursday, all the kindergarteners at Tony's school went to visit the farms at Shasta College and Meagan and I got to tag along. Now, Tony thought the whole thing was just ok, he's not too sure about the animals and the hay really stinks, as he puts it. In fact the best part for him was riding the school bus for the first time. (I have to drop him off and pick him up every day) Meagan on the other hand was beyond happy. I'm pretty sure we have a future 4H'er in this little girl. FFA, look out!! She loves anything to do with farms- animals, tractors, you name it. She was squealing and oohing and ahhing the second we got out of the car. After her little happy dance (one of these days I need to get that on video!) she pulled me across the parking lot to the horse coral and climbed right up to the top rung like she's been doing it all her life. She didn't even bat an eye when the horse walked right up to her, face to face. She was one happy little girl, let me tell you! All in all the kids had a great time, and at the end got to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin...

Bounce House

More adventures in birthday parties! Fallon turned 4, and to celebrate she had a party at the Bounce House Place (not its real name, but that's what the kids call it) Its hard to tell who had more fun at the party...

Baby in a basket

This is Meagan's new favorite way to watch TV. The basket usually holds quilts for the couches and is stashed under the coffee table. It has been empty lately, thanks to Tony and his 'nest' (more on that later...) so Meagan thought it would make a cozy spot to watch her favorite shows- Oswald and Curious George.

I love fall- time to get snuggly!!

Kindergarten Cutie

Tony's school pictures are back already!! They scheduled them early this year- the second week of school! Last year they took forever, we got them back the week before Christmas break.

Monster Trucks!!

Last week was the big monster truck show down in Red Bluff. Tony has been looking forward to this for a while now. Every time he heard the commercials on the radio on the way to school in the mornings, he always asked how many more days till the show...so excited! I have to admit, neither Tom nor I were all that keen on attending the actual show, so we compromised and went to the parade instead, which turned out to be more of a "parking" than a parade. The trucks were parked in front of the court house and all the drivers were there to talk to and sign autographs and stuff.

Tony finally got to see his monster trucks!! We wandered for a bit (15 minutes, tops) and then Tony decided that was enough, he was ready to go home.

Glad we didn't get tickets for the show!!

Soccer Time!!

Tony played his first soccer game this afternoon. Lots of fun watching these very little kids, 4-6 year olds, chase the ball back and forth. You know, the little ankle-biters all clumped around the ball like ball magnets. So this is a bit of an odd milestone for me, but as Tom says, I am now an official 'Soccer Mom'....I'm still getting used to the idea that I now have a child who is playing soccer. Anyhoo, here's some pictures from the game. Tony is number 8 on the red team.

First Day of School

Happy first day of Kindergarten Tony!!

Bye, Bye Summer!

Whew, summer's over for us!! It sure went quick, that's for sure.... Since our last post we've had a bit of fun, a bit of work, and a bit of rest. We were able to fit in some camping (our only trip this year), raised the walls on the new garage at my parent's house, had another birthday (mine), tried some tennis lessons, and reached a new milestone- I have finally become a soccer mom! Not a bad month if I do say so myself. Oh, and I finally figured out which camera I wanted to replace the old one, so there will be lots more pictures to come. Bear with me while I learn all the cool features!

Here are some pics from the past month:

We met our friends at Patrick's Point for a weekend of camping and fun at the beach. Tony, Meagan, Mikayla, and Nathan all loved spending so much time together. I have more pictures of the weekend, but they are on my dad's computer, so I'll post them when I get them back...

Fun at the lake....

Our tennis star...

Hanging out...

The last week has been pretty quiet (yea!) Here are a few photos of the kids. Tony has been putting together lots of different K'nex projects from his birthday presents. He has really gotten into these lately. They are like legos but you can do more. So far he's made backhoes, cranes, windmills, a ferris wheel, yesterday it was an airplane carnival ride and today its the forklift to move the airplane ride.