The "Cheesecracker!"

As I stated in a previous post, when Greg and I flew back from San Diego, we literally had to make a mad dash to Emily and Fiona's ballet. It was Tillamook County's version of the Nutcracker. Tillamook is known for their cheese (which is what I missed the most when I lived in Michigan). A lot of dairy farms around here (luckily the town I live in does not have any dairy farms!) So, they made the ballet with a farming theme. Rather adorable! They had a performance on Friday December 13th and Saturday the 14th. Busy, busy, busy!!

Snow!!

Snow at the beach is not so common here in Oregon, so when we do get it, the kids go crazy! Also, the whole county shuts down because we are no where near prepared to deal with it. Luckily, having lived in Michigan for 3 years, I do believe that I am the only one here that knows how to drive in the snow! For almost a week, the kids lived outside in the snow, which meant my dryer ran a lot more than normal (which is hard to believe since I average 8-9 loads of laundry a week!) Hot chocolate was also a must!

San Diego!

Greg and I got to go on a belated honeymoon to San Diego December 10th for 3 nights. On the 9th, Oregon was expecting freezing rain, so my mom came over with the kids so Greg and I could head to Portland to miss it. I had a free hotel stay at the Courtyard by the airport, which worked out perfect because we didn't have to pay for parking this way! In San Diego, we stayed at a really nice renovated hotel in the Gas Lamp and were within walking distance to a lot of things. Our hotel had a nice rooftop that we could go up to at night with our own alcohol or food and have a 360 degree view of the city. On our first full day there, we walked down to the USS Midway and took a tour. We spent 3 hours on it and only saw 3 decks. It was a self guided tour with headphones. We just pushed in a number of what we were standing by and it explained that area. We then took the ferry to Coronado Island and spent some time looking around all of the little shops. On the next day, we took the trolley to Old Town and wandered around there for about 3 hours. I fell in love with this place! We then took the trolley down to the boarder...I, however, did not want to cross! We spent 10 minutes there before I was over it! It was such a relaxing trip and much overdue. It was weird not having any mommy responsibilities! The longest I have ever been away from Emily in her entire life! When we got back, we hit the ground running by running to a ballet performance and made it with 5 minutes to spare!!!

Family Pictures!

We finally got our family pictures done! It was so cold...in fact it even snowed 2 days later! But the kids were troopers and smiled any ways!

More Wedding Pics!

Just a few more! We have over 400 pictures and I have to go through and figure out which ones to print and such, but I am thrilled with all of them. Couldn't have asked for a better photographer!

Halloween

I have never been one to dress up for Halloween since I was about 10 years old. But my husband still feels the need to dress up along with the kids!!! We had fun. We did the traditional going to the outlet mall, the elementary school and hit up Holmes Rd. Kids were exhausted...and so was I! I made the mistake of wearing the wrong shoes and man did my feet pay for that for about a week!

October?!

This month has been crazy weather. From severe storms to the most beautiful Indian summer! Last night we could hear the ocean just rumbling, which in all fairness we live about a half mile from the beach! So, we decided to load the kids up and go to the beach to watch the sunset. I captured these pictures and fell in love with them! Last week was a bit crazy to say the very least. My mom ended up having to be transported to the hospital via ambulance last Tuesday and didn't get out until Friday. The doctor said if she hadn't of been brought in, she would have been dead by the next day. Who knew a UTI could cause death?! I do now! The infection went into her bladder, kidneys, and eventually made it to her lungs...I guess that is what happens when it becomes septic! It was very scary for her and I. She can't remember most of the week, but I do. All I kept thinking is she is the same age my dad was when he passed away and it is almost 3 years since that happened. I am not ready to deal with this again. I plan on her being around for at least 20 more years if not more. She is doing much better now. Getting home and getting some much needed rest has done her a world of good...that and a crap ton of antibiotics!!!