It is a great day ...............

Welcome to the White House Mr. President!!! Let the celebrations begin!!!

Basketball and Bad Boys weekend!

This weekend we were on the go non-stop! Ryan's basketball team played in the Molalla tournament. Saturday they played 2 games. The first game was vs. McMinnville. Our team was short 2 players (out of 9), their team had a surplus and a height advantage. Halfway through the game, a jump ball situation got aggressive with one of McMinnville's players falling on his back directly onto the basketball and paramedics had to be called..he was taken away by ambulance on a stretcher (good news, he is only out for a week we found out Sunday). Our team lost to McMinnville by 20 points.

We came back for our evening game vs. Stephens and they didn't have the extreme height advantage, but had some very talented boys on their team. We had to leave the game with 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter (heading to Portland) and we were up by about 8 when we left. We found out Sunday morning we won that game by 1 point.

Ryan #21, notice the height advantage???

Defense!!!

Making the shot

About to pass...

Saturday evening Tori, Ryan, Matt and I went to Newmark Theatre in downtown Portland where we went to The Bad Boys of Dance. The show was AMAZING and even Ryan loved it (he had his doubts). They put on a great show...great music, great dancing, and great comedy throughout the performance.

Matt and I at the Newmark Theatre (photo by Ryan)

Tori and Ryan hanging out at the Newmark Theatre prior to the performance. I wish you could see what the view was like from their seats. You look down 3 stories to the lobby of the building and the artwork of the ceiling was unbelievable. I tried to take a photo, but didn't do it justice. In fact, it was pathetic, and therefore isn't posted on this blog!

After the show (around 9:30pm)we took the kids out to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Matt thought we should have been seated in the cable car!

Ryan and Tori

Ryan living the life....his shake was made at "the bar" and the bartender made it "man size"!

Sunday morning we were back in Molalla for the second half of the tournament. Our first game was against Stephens (who we played the night before and won by 1 point). We won the game 33-21!

Our championship game was vs. McMinnville (the team that beat us the night before by 20 points). Our boys all played phenomenal and we won in overtime 41-38!!!

Our championship team!!!! Ryan is 2nd in the front on the right.

Below are a couple videos Matt took on Saturday. Ryan is #21!

Poodle skirts and retainers!

Tori takes jazz and acro classes at the local dance studio. They held auditions last year for their dance company "dance team" and she made it. Tonight she had her first performance during Canby High School's Girl's basketball game half-time.

Tori in costume...the dance team of 22 girls, ages 8-15 performed to the songs from the movie Grease. They rocked the house tonight!!!!

Tori showing off her new Schwartz palette expander (we call it a retainer) that she was fitted for at the orthodontist on Thursday!

What Sarah's been up to this week

What a busy week Sarah has had! For Christmas the one gift she really wanted Santa to bring was roller skates. She is so thrilled to have them she spends most of her days skating in the kitchen/great room and when it isn't raining, outside.

Tuesday, we went skating in Portland during their Preschool session. Sarah absolutely loves it. During the first half of the session they have balls out all over the floor the kids can throw and then chase after in their skates. It is a great way to teach them to balance.

Picture above is of my filthy van, that proves that my lessons on reading and writing have worked. Who else would write "mom" on the bus?

Sarah in the center (bright green sweater..it was cold that day) during dance class.

Practicing their dance that they will perform on stage during the recital at the end of June!

Our friend Mallory and Sarah at Pump It Up on Thursday. Mallory treated us to a great playdate!!!

Sarah coming out of one of the bouncy houses.

Sarah coming down the slide on her side.

Mallory and Sarah on top of another slide.

We surprised daddy and took him out to lunch on Tuesday at TGIF in Vancouver!!!

Brandon is now 13!!!

We have a teenager in the house now!!!!! We can't believe Brandon is 13 already. With that said, how lucky are we to have such an amazing young man as our child! We must have done something right somewhere....or are just very very lucky to have such amazing kids!

Brandon with his brothers and sisters on his big day!!!

What 13 looks like!!!!

Hooked on Facebook

Well, it happened. I signed up for an account of Facebook, and it seems that catching up with many old friends has taken time away from our blog! With that said, you now know the reason there haven't been any posts lately and hopefully this weekend I will find some time to catch up with the latest and greatest from the family. If you have a facebook account, be sure to look me up and see what we are up to on a daily basis.

For a quick update on the family ---

Matt is working away non stop and is happy to see a turn for the better at the dealership. Hopefully this turn continues as February and March a generally very slow.

Tina has been busy on Facebook, catching up with friends, trying to come up with a paint color for the laundry room, and running the kids to each of their events.

Brandon -- IS A TEENAGER! We can't believe he is already 13! His passion at the moment is practicing his bassoon for a solo competition he has coming up in February.

Ryan -- is our Super Jock and playing Point Guard for his basketball team. That boy has natural skill and put on quite a "wow" performance last night vs. Wilsonville. He's taken it upon himself to spend all of his time after school teaching Tyler everything he knows.

Ryley -- is not participating in anything at the moment, which makes him our #1 babysitter while we are out and about at all the kids' events. At least he's making a ton of money! :)

Tori -- is staying busy with her acrobatics and jazz classes. She has her first dance team performance tonight at the high school basketball game. Her dance team is performing an 8 minute routine to the songs of the movie Grease. She'll be dressed up in a poodle skirt...should be great fun. Oh....and the other big news. She got her "palette expander" (which we refer to as a retainer) yesterday. Her mouth is a bit sore, but she doesn't seem to mind it. She of course had it made in the color purple with a frog on it (since her nickname is "Toad").

Tyler -- is playing basketball and is doing really well. He is also playing point guard and so having Ryan there to give him tips has been great!

True Oregonians take road trips in the POURING rain

To celebrate a new year, we decided to take a road trip in the pouring rain and fog up the Columbia River Gorge. We received record breaking levels of snow that has mostly melted and it has been raining all week, so the waterfalls were raging!

Heading up the gorge. Just trace amounts of snow left.

Our first stop was Vista House which was closed due to the weather.

The Vista house in the rain and fog

View to the east from the parking lot.

What looks like a chocolate stream (thinking Willy Wonka here) on the road leaving Vista House.

Next stop was Latourell Falls

The falls were raging and looked like a foaming chocolate latte!

Bridge near Latourelle Falls

Checking out the trails in the pouring rain!

Falls along the road way on our way to the next destination

Another raging waterfall along the roadway...just ahead the road was washed out and crews were place tons of rock to stop the flow that was pouring over the roadway.

Our next stop was Wahkeena Falls

A drenched Matt and Sarah in front of Wahkeena Falls

The kids in front of the falls (Brandon chose to stay in the van)

Next stop was Multnomah Falls Lodge

Multnomah falls in the upper left and due to record water levels an additional waterfall to the right of Multnomah falls. The lodge is on the lower right!

View of Multnomah falls while leaving over the bridge.

Our last stop was Horsetail Falls...this one was by far our favorite. The water was raging and you can see the spray coming from impact with the water below!!!

On the way home we stopped and took a photo of Willamette Falls . These falls are 10 miles from our home. The water level is so high now it doesn't even look like a waterfall anymore...more like a large rapid!!!