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 :)