Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Oh Yeah.......Winning feels good!!!

Ryan's basketball team had a game this evening at 7:30pm!!  Up until tonight, the team was consistent...they hadn't won yet...then this evening the boys pulled out their "inner superstars" and WON!!!  There's nothing like a late night Dairy Queen Celebration with a bunch of 7th grade boys!!!


"Way to go boys!!!  We are all SO proud of you!!!!"

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Basketball and Cinderella

What a crazy, busy weekend we had!!!!  Matt is assistant coach for Ryan's basketball team and they had a tournament this weekend (luckily it was in town)...with 2 games on Saturday and 2 games Sunday!!!


Ryan is under the basket in white on the left.  I tried to capture him catching the pass.  Apparently I need to work on my "sports photography skills"!!


Time out....Ryan's Canby team was playing the other Canby team!!  Great game....would have been phenomenal had we won!!!

The dance studio where Tori and Sarah take their dance lessons put on a ballet performance at the Fine Arts Center.  Sarah's 4 year old dance class performed a dance...they were "dragonflies".  Note here -- I ran the room backstage for all of the performances and learned very quickly NOT to call them "fairies".  There is a BIG difference between "Cinderella dragonflies" and "fairies". 



Sarah back stage.


Tori volunteered to come with me for both performances and helped entertain all 20 "dragonflies".  She brought a big bag of books and read them stories.


Tori with the dragonflies organizing a game of "duck duck goose"


Some of Tori's friends were the room ( performing as "Serfs" in Cinderella).  They joined in the fun.  To make it fair, the older girls were told they had to be "blind" when they took a turn to be "ducks". (This validates my photo skills......her eyes are SUPPOSED TO BE CLOSED in this photo :)


Who knew dancers had so much fun backstage????


Cinderella with Sarah in the pumpkin

Monday, January 18, 2010

It is a 4 day weekend

On Friday the kids had the day off from school, and with Martin Luther King Day on Monday, that means a four day weekend!!!  The best part of holiday weekends for us, is staying home, relaxing and not having any schedules!!!

Ironically, on Friday Matt had a class at Portland University.  He called at 1pm to say that the class was getting out early, and he was going to come home.  Over an hour and a half later he arrived, thanks to getting a flat tire on I-5 on his way home.  He still arrived in good spirits and thankful that it happened during the afternoon, instead of in the dark during his usual commute home from Washington.

Saturday Ryan and Tyler both had basketball practice, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out, and attempting a 1000 piece Jelly bean puzzle!  We have the puzzle set up on our sideboard, for each of us to work on at our leisure.  At the moment we have the border minus one piece!

Sunday we attended Grace Chapel with some friends and listened to "Bishop John" from Rwanda.  His sermon was on the reconciliation of his country after the genocide.  Then we headed to my Aunt and Uncle's church...Hope Community Church in Lake Oswego.  My cousin Milo and his family have recently moved to the Portland area and he was delivering the sermon.  It was great to listen to him, and see him doing what he LOVES to do! 

For Christmas, Matt's brother Justin and his wife Pam gave the kids a gift certificate to The New York Cheesecake Factory.  My parents gave Matt and I a gift certificate there as well.  So, the 8 of us headed to Washington Square Mall for some lunch and a little shopping.  Lunch was delicious and the service was FANTASTIC (it isn't often that a restaurant can seat a "party of 8" within 20 minutes-- thus the reason they referred us to a manager and took care of us promptly...we'll definitely be back!). 

We did a little shopping.......


Tori and Sarah dressing up with glasses and hats.....

We stopped at our favorite coffee destination........Starbucks of course!!!

Then, in the evening we went to my cousin Milo's for dinner!!!  It is great to have them living in the Pacific Northwest!!!  Our kids have a great time together and we are enjoying getting to know them!!!

Monday is another lazy day for us........Sarah is coloring, playing dress up and playing with her Barbies.... Tori is reading and reading and reading......Tyler, Ryan and Brandon are playing video games and on the computer.....and Ryley is out on a bike ride around town with a friend.  On my agenda......reading my book "The Help"...... doing a little laundry and being very thankful I get to stay home with my kids :)


Saturday, January 9, 2010

Celebrating Brandon's birthday

On Friday morning Sarah announced she wanted to "bake a birthday cake for Brandon in my Easy Bake Oven"!!!  Brandon was at school, and was going to be coming home with his 4 best friends to celebrate his birthday!!!



Sarah frosting Brandon's birthday cake!


The finished cake!!!

Now, I have to share that Sarah was SO excited about giving him the cake, that when Brandon came home with his 4 friends, Sarah couldn't wait to deliver it to him.  So, out to the garage she went.  The five boys were out weightlifting and she presented his "birthday cake".  Brandon asked for 5 forks, and all of these 8th grade boys took part of the cake.  Priceless!!!!

The boys, Ryan and Tori all headed out to the middle school dance for the evening, then came home for cake and ice cream.


Singing Happy Birthday to Brandon!


The party participants....note the candle placement in the number 14 (done by Tyler)!!!

After cake and ice cream Matt took all the boys (except Tyler....one day he'll be old enough) to the late showing of Avatar in 3D.   Everyone LOVED it!!!  They said the movie was great and the graphics were AMAZING!!!




Thursday, January 7, 2010

Brandon is 14 today!!!

It seems that we are in the best years of our life right now.  I wish we could stop time and just enjoy our life as it is now ....forever!  Today is Brandon's 14th birthday!!  How lucky we are to have him for our son!!!



Opening his cards.....


A house full of laughter.....


It is SO good being 14!!!


Finally got around to the cake this evening after showers/baths!!!  The best 6 siblings ever!!!


Making his wish.....


Wishing Brandon the best year ever!!!  We love you!!!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Ringing in the New Year

We rang in the New Year at a friend's house this  year!!!


My friends Julie, Christine and I


Some of the men, before the entire house filled up


The kids hanging out downstairs and singing karaoke


All the ladies with their blue martinis, hanging out at Debbie's bar!!! 

Cheers to a great 2010!!!