Roots

Jillian finished her session of basketball skills practice at Roots Academy today, and she's already missing it. She enjoyed getting better at her ball handling, and she was challenged by both Coach Scott and the older girls there. She also liked having Mckenna and Brooklyn there, two of her former soccer teammates from Kalama.

Wild Wood Toy Shop

 Bridget had an all day project.  This girl is an organizer.  She started in the morning and worked hard on her toy shop, making things to sell and decorating.  She had mazes, sea shells, decorations, paper dolls, etc. She grew a little frustrated waiting for everyone to get here and she had to wait until after dinner.  She had a CLOSED sign on the door and we had to line up to come in when she turned the sign over to OPEN. She had set up a cashiers sign and desk with a toy cash register.  Here Tor is her first customer. 

Bridget even made pennants to decorate with her logo that had the name in a circle with a rocking horse in the middle.  Here Papa is making it tough as he bought several things and she had to add them up and then count back the change.  She did pretty good at it overall. I think she's almost ready to start a business.

Little Angels

My favorite picture of these three little angels,.

Christmas Morning

 Everyone is enjoying the Pie Face present that Jillian received, when Bridget shouted out "I'm not playing that with you!"

 Jillian, the Star Wars fan, liked this hat that she just opened.

And can there be too many light sabers?  Obviously not, since Tor was thrilled with this present.  I don't think he could go through the doorway.  Ty and Brock spent some time teaching Tor how to pose with his light sabers before attacking.  Lots of fun!

Christmas Eve

 The traditional family pose before Dan and Robin's giant tree.  It's not easy to round up everyone for this part of Christmas Eve. 

 Everything stops when Santa arrives. There weren't as many little ones since Ava and Harper's family were snowbound in Camas and couldn't come.



 In this picture I believe Bridget is helping Santa read the names on the packages.

For the finale everyone gets in the big family picture.  We are sure glad Dan and Robin have a big house. 

Elf Movie

The tradition continues. The older cousins came to our house to watch the Elf movie. We figured we've been watching it every Christmas for nearly the past 14 years, which explains how they've memorized all the lines.

The Nutcracker

We made our annual trip to see the Oregon Ballet performance of The Nutcracker. As the girls have gotten older, they've looked forward to it even more. Even Tor was excited to see the mouse battle.

Gingerbread House

Bridget's 1st grade teacher Mr. Wells uses ClassDojo to share photos of the class. This is a post showing Bridget with the gingerbread house she made in class.

Preschool Christmas Program

Tor performed in his preschool Christmas Program today. He sang a bunch of songs, all with hand motions. In one of the songs, he was a sheep and had to say "baa". As soon as it was over, he made a beeline for the cookies.

The Polar Express

 Jillian, Bridget, and Torion are ready to board the Polar Express train.  It was so cold outside we got to board early.

 Tor was very excited the whole time.   First we got hot chocolate and cookies. The girls enjoyed singing all the Christmas carols. Then Santa boarded the train and gave all the children bells. Then we sang Jingle Bells, of course.

 Later Santa came by to ask each child what they wanted for Christmas.  Tor got up and whispered in Santa's ear.  Later when we asked Tor what he said, he told Santa he wanted a tall ? 

A picture with Santa afterwards.

Paint Class

 Bridget got to join Tierney and I for a snowman paint class.  We were there almost 3 hours and she listened to the instructor carefully and worked very hard.  A couple times she walked around to see everyone's paintings when she needed to get up and move.  She was by far the youngest one there.

 Class over and a wonderful snowman to take home.

As you can see, Bridget's snowman has a lot more personality than ours.

Lady Warriors, Year 2

Jillian played her last basketball games of the season tonight. She finished strong with lots of driving baskets and tough defense. Like last year, she loved playing with her team and for Coach Louie, and she's already looking forward to next season.

The Last Jedi

This is being posted as we sit in the theatre, waiting to see The Last Jedi. It's packed! Daddy saw the premiere last night with cousin Cale, Aunt Julie and Uncle Kevin, so he's ready to tell the kids when to close their eyes.

Tree Topper

Putting the star on top of the tree is something both Jillian and Bridget want to do, so it rotates each year now. It was Jillian's turn this year, and she was tall enough to reach up herself from a step stool (she's too big for Daddy to lift up anymore).

Tree Decorators

It was tree decorating time today. The kids made quick work of their ornaments, and only a few got broken this year.

Christmas Tree Day

 They were excited to get to Miller's Tree Farm to pick out their tree and they posed by the rock they always stand on, but today it was freezing and too icy to climb on it.  It was so white all around that it almost looked like snow.

 Papa picked out this tree that was pretty high up.  They all got to yell "Timber-r-r" when it came down.  They also helped push it over.

They found the perfect tree and since it was the tradition, the tree was clear on the other side of the tree farm.  There weren't any perfect ones closer so Daddy had to get the pick-up to haul the trees back to the main place where they got their candy canes.  A very successful hunt!

Anniversary at the Vault

The extended family all got together at The Vault to celebrate Uncle Dave and Aunt Laury's 30th anniversary. The kids spent almost all their time playing with Ava and Harper inside the bank vault.

Play-Doh Monsters

Now that Tierney is done with her student teaching, she had time to spend playing with Tor and Play-Doh.  He hasn't done this monster set in a long, long time so doing it with Tierney and getting silly with some monsters with snot coming out of their noses, meant a fun time.  They are both holding their favorite monsters.

Christmas Decorations

The kids got a surprise at church this morning. Grace Lutheran was all decorated for Christmas, with a tree and manger scene.

Christmas Parade

It was cool and rainy, but the kids still insisted on going to the annual Christmas parade. Papa Ken and cousin Adam joined them.

Rainy Day Basketball

Since Ty was only home a few days, they wanted to get some basketball pointers.  Rielee even decided to join them since she's playing middle school basketball this year.  I was going to put Tor down for a nap at this time but when Ty hollered to Tor to get out there, the nap was out.  They worked for 30 minutes, took a 5 minute break, then went for 30 minutes more.  Cold hands.

 They stayed undercover until it was their turn for a fast break lay-up.  Tor missed his shot so he had to do 5 push-ups.  He did 2. 

 I couldn't believe it when they asked for ice cream when they came in, like they weren't cold enough.

 After lessons Ava and Harper came down to play.  The girls and Tor had played up there before basketball.  They were downstairs most of the time playing with the popper shooters.  They come with 50 soft balls and I'm sure they lost all of them.

I had to take a second picture since we realized Tor wasn't there.  From the looks of it, he was having some quiet time alone-a little sleepy.  When Aunt and Uncle came to get the twins, we couldn't find them.  They were quietly hiding in the closet as they wanted to stay longer and play.

Black Friday Bowling

The cousins spent their late morning at the Triangle Bowl, scoring lots of strikes, eating pizza and playing arcade games. Jillian was thrilled to break 100.

Delivery from Connecticut

Second-cousin Betty in Connecticut sent the cousins some memorabilia that we gave to them after the Thanksgiving feast.

Turkey Cookies

The cousins kept up the Thanksgiving tradition tonight, frosting and sprinkling turkey cookies.

Tor's 4's Preschool Pic

Here's Tor posing for his 4-year-old preschool picture.

Hangin' with Paxton

Tor always enjoys having boys to play with, and he was playing hard with Parker, Jace and Paxton when they came over. He's especially fascinated with little Paxton, since he's one of the few kids he knows that's smaller than him.

10-U Basketball Season

Jillian started her newest basketball season with last year's coach Louie and lots of returning teammates. She was excited to finally find a team to stay with. The first weekend was a struggle, as the girls were working out the kinks, but they played much better today, winning both games. Jillian is one of the point guards, and she had several points, lots of assists, and she used her speed to get lots of steals.