Christmas

Christmas this year was so laid back and relaxing. Normally, we would have Christmas morning at our house with my mom and then head up to Vancouver to spend the rest of Christmas with Greg's family at his parents condo in Vancouver before heading to his aunts house that evening in Lake Oswego for family dinner. But, this year his parents decided to have Christmas at the beach and came down to their beach house...which is 5 houses down from our house! The kids got to run back and forth and the girls spent a lot of time with Greg's mom baking and crafting. My mom was going to come over, but she hurt her knee really bad right before her kidney surgery and can hardly walk. Greg and I took her food everyday and brought the kids over to her. (More about my mom's health in another blog!) We were able to get the girls both bikes this year and Liam was in the transition year of not wanting presents and only gift cards so he could buy what he wanted. It was odd for him to not be unwrapping hardly anything and mainly just opening envelopes, but he really enjoyed purchasing his own stuff a few days later! The weather has been super nice here and the girls have been able to go out every day and ride them with the other two neighbor girls! It was an odd December where weather is concerned, but oh so nice!

Emily Turns 8!

Oh my how the years have flown by! It is hard to believe that Emily came into this world 8 years ago and forever changed my life. This year she was really into Monster High and One Direction. Oh to be young again! She got her first Monster High dolls and One Direction CDs. This girl is one of my greatest blessings. She is so tender hearted, sweet, caring, compassionate and sensitive. She tries my patience, she gets upset over the smallest things and is oh so very stubborn. She has pushed me to my limits and also been my reason to live and push myself harder. As frustrating as she can be at times, she is one of the sweetest kids I know. To think about how quickly these past 8 years have gone by, I cry knowing how quickly the next 8 will go. I want to keep her little forever. I love my snuggles and my kisses. I love her bedtime routine and how it has to be the exact same every night. I also love how when something is wrong, she needs me and only me. I know that will change in a few years and I dread that. I think sometimes we get so busy working and not living and I miss so many little moments. Things Emily can do now: *She is reading chapter books. *Preparing to do multiplication *Showers by herself (which she could have done sooner, but it took me some time to let that go too) *Rides a bike *Talks on the phone with her friends...A LOT! *Cuts her own steaks and other meat Looking forward to see what else my beautiful girl learns and grows in this year!

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!