happy happy new year!!!

miss evelyn is so excited about the new year that she went to bed at 5:30pm on new year's eve. its hard for such a busy girl to stay up late! :)

wow...we have been busy! the holiday season was super fun, but it seems like we just haven't been able to catch up yet. i think we are having to much fun playing! we have lots of fun pictures and stories to share, but they will have to wait. we are off to central washington for the holiday weekend to visit friends and play in the snow!

hope you all have a wonderful time ringing in the new year...we look forward to catching up with in 2010!

Libby

xoxoxo

ginger bread houses...

what a sugary week we have had! i baked a bunch of new fun cookies to give to our neighbors and then we had a ginger bread making party on tuesday night. it was my first time making a ginger bread house, but i must say it was a super fun activities, even for adults! i made some yummy soup and then we even had dessert before we made the ginger bread houses...i promise we didn't sample any of the candy or frosting! :)

tis' the season of sugar!

brian's master piece...i love the neco roof and gum drop chimney

ava even had fun!

love the porch railing...lifesavers!

molly and chris doing some serious construction...

kelly's masterpiece...

jackson and evie were doing a lot of flirting!

i'm already looking forward to next years ginger bread making party...thank you gardner's for the great idea and hosting the fun party!

round one...

what a awesome jam packed holiday weekend we had celebrating christmas at my mom and jim's with all my siblings. we were all of course spoiled rotten (christmas is my mom's favorite holiday!) although we all got lots of fun useful things that we were excited about. it was so fun watching gwynn, payton, and evelyn open presents, they were all exstatic about trying out their new toys. i think christmas is a lot of fun with a little tyke...it kind of reminds you of chirstmas when you were kid...oh, what great memories!
(you might want to grap a hot cup of tea or coffee to enjoy...this post is a little long!)

mom's tree of presents...

the boys...
jim's mom made these sock monkeys for the grand kids, i thought they were super cute...

gwynn was such a big helper opening miss evie's presents, i'm sure the new toothbrush will come is handy in a few months.

miss sock monkey :)

aunt lucy got her this book and a gift certificate for swim lessons...we are signed up to begin in January. what a perfect gift, i think she will love the water!

the ribbon was her favorite! :)

yummy!

sweet gwynn!

payton was super excited about his new tonka truck!

i think gwynn wanted one too!

lots of fun new books...

a new wood stacking ring set to chew on...

the ladybug was my favorite gift, its is so stinkin' cute!

even though she is a bit small for it, she loves to push it around on the carpet

and chew on the antennas! it won't be long before she is doing hot laps on the wood floor with it :)

a new talking ball that moves, which she loved playing with...

my chirstmas card from sarah...absolutely gorgeous, i love it!

i made cranberry margaritas...so yummy!

what a fun chirstmas we had. miss evelyn is so lucky to have such a stylish grandma and aunts...she got so many cute clothes from them all. i was hoping maybe some of them were in my size! :) thanks everyone for such awesome gifts we feel very fortunate to have such amazing family! we have one christmas down and three to go, we sure feel spoiled. we can't wait to spend the rest of the week celebrating with the tenbusch and macdonald family. wishing everyone safe travels in the week ahead.


ZOO LIGHTS!

(can you believe i'm standing under a snake? i think they are my biggest fear!)

saturday night we went to the oregon zoo lights, and lots of fun. i was amazed by how many lights there was, a few of the animals even poked there heads out to say hi.

gwynn wanted to push baby evie, she did a great job. i think she likes having a little baby girl cousin she can play doll with! :)

the garden...

look at all those lights!

macdonald fam..

the trains were even lit up...

on sunday we ventured up to mt. hood and went snowshoeing around trillium lake. it was a little rainy and the trail was really packed, so part of the time we didn't even have to wear snowshoes. it was a five mile loop around the lake and the view was awesome. it felt so good to get outside and enjoy some snow and fresh air.

miss evie did great in her backpack...

the crew; lucy, colton, mom, sarah, brian and evelyn...

mom, sarah, & brian

(i was so proud of my mom for doing the whole loop...what a superstar!)

that is trillium lake behind us...

colton, lucy, & sarah...

trillium lake...

aunt lucy and the little miss...she did so good on the trail, but by the last mile she was tried and couldn't figure out how to take a nap in the back pack. she went right to sleep when we loaded her up in the truck! :)

thanks everyone for such a fun weekend!

santa is coming a day early at our house...tomorrow morning we are going to open presents and then we will head down to the tenbusch's and then off to the ranch for a few days. i think this might be the last time we actually travel on christmas day...i'm looking forward to starting our own traditions at home with the little miss next year. i have such fond memories of chirstmas mornings when i was a kid. i was always the last one up, charlie and sarah usually had to wake me up. the rule was that we could open up our stocking and play with the toy that santa left for us, but that was all we could do until everyone else woke up...i mean until i got woke up! :) dad always put oranges in our stockings, and this year my mom put oranges in the grand kids stockings and when gwynn pulled our her orange she looked at grandma and started laughing and said silly grandma...i guess she was hoping for candy! :)

i hope you all have a wonderful christmas enjoying your traditions!!!

~Libby

xoxoxo

oh christmas tree...

i tried to get a few pictures of the little miss in front of the tree, but she wanted to put the lights in her mouth, so it was a short photo session :)

grandma tony made miss evelyn her first stocking...

best friends...

I'm getting so excited for Christmas! We have Brian's work holiday party Friday night and then we are in Portland for the weekend to celebrate Christmas with my mom. We are heading to the zoo lights Saturday night and then we are going snowshoeing at Mt. Hood on Sunday...I can't wait! Hope you all have a fun filled holiday weekend!

~Libby

let the holiday's begin!

after a busy weekend of preparing for the holidays, i think we are ready! on friday evelyn and i made a quick trip to portland to meet up with grandma and do some last minute shopping. we also managed to sneak in a quick visit with santa. miss evie thought santa was fine until she looked up at him and then the hysterical tears started flowing. poor little pumpkin...the things we do to our kids for our enjoyment. :) we got a picture of evelyn and santa, but for some reason blogger won't let me down load it...i will try again later.

back to her normal self after her traumatic santa visit :)

grandma sherry and the little miss...

grandma tony and grandpa paul came up for a visit over the weekend. miss evelyn kept giving grandpa paul the pout lip at first, i think he might have reminded her of santa! :) she warmed back up to grandpa in no time though.
such a big girl...sometimes we call her our 20lb turkey! :)

she loves to drool!

having fun with dad on the couch...

like father like daughter...too cute!!!

check out her shirt...yep it says her daddy rocks! i would have to agree! thanks auntie kat for the cute shirt!

lots of mud...ugh. we have been getting really wet and muddy this week on our walks with all the rain. i miss those cold clear dry days we had last week. i don't mind the cold temperatures, but the rain i could do with out. it just seems so much easier to dress for the cold then the rain. although i think i'm living in the wrong part of the state for clear cold days! :)

hope your all staying dry!