Christmas time is here!

In case some of you don't know...I LOVE Christmas! Not all the lights and decorations have been put up yet...we'll see if we ever get there, but I made sure that all my favorites were up!

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" (Look familiar Mom?) My family painted these houses when I was a kid and I've always loved how they look all lit up! 

We moved our tree to the other side of the living room this year and I think I like it better! Nothing beats the smell of a fresh fir tree at Christmas! (This picture was taken before all the ornaments were put on but it's the only one that I have. :)) 

"Uh oh....they caught me!"

Micah has been enjoying the lights and tree this year so far! Luckily he's not quite mobile enough to get there by himself yet!

I have more pictures, but they're not downloaded on the computer yet, so I"ll have to finish later! Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are!

Thanksgiving

Eric's Dad and Mom came up to visit us for Thanksgiving and we had a busy weekend! Micah had fun playing with his grandpa and grandma!

"Why does everyone keep kissing me??" :)

So happy! He has started doing this thing where he grabs my hair and pulls my face (REALLY HARD) to his and then chomps...literally...on my chin, nose or whatever else he can get his mouth around.

We had lots of fun playing in the snow and sledding!

Micah loved sledding and being pulled in his little sled!

I've fallen and I can't get up! At least Grandpa took the fall and saved Micah (who didn't even seem to notice!)

Family picture!

Starting to get sleepy!

Micah missed the actual meal since he was taking a nap, so it's not a whole family picture.

The Thanksgiving table....

Game time! Playing the Wii with Grandpa

All tuckered out after church and a busy weekend! He slept for like 3 hours!

Hope your Thanksgiving was full of family, friends and fun!

I'm dreaming of a white...Thanksgiving???

We're definitely going to have snow here this Thanksgiving! Today is a balmy 8 degrees outside and still snowing off and on. Although it's cold, it is so quiet and beautiful outside! I LOVE IT! I can never remember what these trees are called, but they have such pretty red berries all winter!

This picture was taken yesterday morning when we had about 3-4 inches of snow....

and this one was taken today! Talk about a winter wonderland, eh? We have about a foot of snow here now!

Micah watching the snow fall out the window. I'm not sure he cares about the snow, but it's too cold to really go outside with him anyways so we just had to make do with watching from the inside!

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels to wherever you are going!

Teaching them young....

Who says a baby can't use the computer? :) This picture is NOT staged...Eric was working on the computer and got up to grab something. When he came back Micah had apparently rolled over and we found him like this. :)

 Micah's favorite book is "Bubbles, Bubbles" (a sesame street book). Every time I start reading it to him he gets a BIG smile and starts cooing! It's very cute!

 Here he is "reading" his book...and sitting up on his own too! It doesn't always last for long, but he's getting there! Hopefully he will grow up to be a big reader like his mommy and daddy!

Thar she blows!

The wind that is......

Last night we had quite a storm here and our neighbors rather LARGE fir tree fell down and barely missed our house. As you can see in this picture, it also took out the power pole and lines (which are now laying on our roof!)

The tree completely uprooted when it fell over!

If the tree had fallen just a couple inches the other direction it would have taken out our bathroom and laundry room (which I admit could use remodeling...but I'd rather do it in a different way!)

So far it seems the only real casualty is our fence. All of this happened at about 1am last night which kept us up while we called the power company and fire dept. until about 3am. Then we all slept in the living room together just incase the power pole decided to fall the rest of the way down.  Good times....

Let's just say we are VERY thankful for the Lord keeping us safe and sound in our little house! Now, let the cleanup begin! (if only the power company would get here and clean up the lines so we could!)

Where's Micah?

Had to have a little fun in the leaf piles! He wasn't sure what to think at first, but the leaves quickly found their way to his mouth! :) What else are leaves for, right?

Happy Fall!!

Leaves are falling....

Leaves are falling to the ground,

Red, Yellow, Orange and Brown.

Swirling, twirling to the ground.

Look at all the leaves I've found! (or raked)

(A little bit of throwback to the days of teaching preschool!)

It was beautiful outside today which made me more motivated than usual...weird how that happens! :)

We have 2 rather large maple trees in our front yard area which makes for a LOT of leaf cleanup in the fall!
I decided I might as well get a start on it today since the leaf pick up is happening in less than 2 weeks and the weather forcast is predicting cold weather, rain and possibly snow in the next 10 days!



Raking leaves may not seem like that big of a task, but in our yard it is! It took me an hour to go from this...

...to this!

There are 4 large piles of leaves to show for it! The only down side....there are still a few more leaves left on the tree! :( Oh well, it was a good way to get some exercise and be outside on a gorgeous day!

Fun Weekend!

 This weekend we had some family in town for Micah's dedication at church. It was a busy couple of days but Micah sure had fun and enjoyed all the attention! Here he is with Great Grandma Davis.

 Outside enjoying the fall weather! It was a little rainy, but we got some nice sun too! :)

 Our little "pumpkin!" The pumpkin is almost as big as he is!

 Looking handsome in his little suit! All ready for church!

 This one got in the wrong order...oh well! Happy boy!

 Sleeping with Papa during church

 Micah (and us being committed to raising him in the Lord) being dedicated in church! He just smiled the whole time! :)

 Micah "flying" on an airplane! He loves this!



Apparently I didn't get any pictures of the kitchen floor being put in! Oops! I'll post a picture of how good it looks later! Thanks for coming up to visit us!

Pumpkin!!!

I am finding myself in a fallish mood and would like to make something pumpkiny. (Yes, I realize I just made up two different words in one sentence). Unfortunately, the only things I can ever think of to make are pumpkin cookies (which are yummy) and pumpkin bread (which I don't actually have a recipe for). Anyone have a favorite pumpkin recipe they want to share with me?? I'm always up for trying something new!

Oregon Trip!

Micah and I flew back to Portland with Lela and Megan for a week to visit family. Our first stop was at my sister Jodi's house. Micah's cousins Josiah, Elijah and Levi were very good with Baby Micah (as they call him)! Here is Josiah playing with Micah on the floor!

These pictures don't appear to be in order, but oh well. :) Here is cousin Joel giving Micah a hug! He kept doing it over and over and it was very cute! How sweet!

Here is my sister Kari with Micah :)

All the cousins listening to Mima read a story to them all! (I had a picture with you in it Mom, but you were wearing your "scary mima" patch so I thought I'd leave it out. :))

Aunt Jodi feeding Micah his bottle. (Apparently I didn't get one with Lela...hmmm) ;-)

Selah holding "baby Micah" as he eats her hair! Yummy!

Cousin Megan really liked to tickle Micah! I'm pretty sure she thought is was funnier than him, but he did give her lots of smiles when she did it! :)

Mima cuddling with Micah and Megan (though I think Megan is tickling Micah again) :)

A walk to the river by Mom and Dad's house. I miss it! Maybe next time we're there Micah will be old enough to go in! :)

On our way home from the river Megan had fun puddle jumping with a little help!

At the airport before flying home! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for taking us to the airport!

Micah did great on the plane both ways which was SO nice! We're hoping for another good flight tomorrow as we head back again for the weekend to meet the cousins on Eric's side of the family! :)

Thanks for a great trip everyone!