A bit behind, so a catch up post

Christmas! So much fun jam packed into one month. We enjoyed the Christmas Parade here in Keizer. Chilly but fun.

Keizer neighborhood lights. Claire was in charge of the camera that night. I have over 200+ photos of the houses all light up. 

Gingerbread house! Sweet candy fun!

Chex mix! Yummy....

Zoo lights with Boston and Tammy!

Christmas Eve! Santa's elves were busy for several hours putting together these Legos. They are well on their way in becoming Master Builders.

Laureli's gift from Santa. A new kitchen!

All ready for Christmas morning

Bright and early on Christmas morning. Claire showing Laureli how its done. She said thanks sissy I got it from here :) 

 Claire was Santa's helper and helped hand out all the presents

Tucker even got in on the Holiday magic with a "Pupachino" from Starbucks!

We had an amazing Christmas Season and are truly blessed by the love of Jesus. Looking forward to 2015!

Christmas Program

Claire's Christmas program at Crosshill Christian School was earlier this week. All the kiddos worked really hard and did an amazing job. We had older our students (who all had lines in the play) out with the stomach flu so it was a bit of a last minute scramble to get their lines memorized but it all worked out. Below is two links to YouTube to see a video (not taken by me) of the play. Claire can be seen as one of the peasants at approx minute 15 or watch the whole thing and enjoy!




http://youtu.be/7vq0E55WrIg


http://youtu.be/8Kxb96_NTiU

I didn't get any pictures of Claire that night but here are a few the next day at home showing off her apron that I made for her peasant outfit. It was a larger under taking than I anticipated but it all worked out. 

Tree hunt

We did our annual Christmas Tree hunt a little early this year. Claire was going to be at Grandma's house but we didn't want her to miss out on the fun. I found a groupon for $10 noble fir tree in South Salem. It isn't as manicured as we normally get, but I trimmed it right up and it looks great. Not to mention this has got be the smallest tree we have gotten in probably 10 years! The girls did great and the weather wasn't too bad just cold and muddy. Oh and Tucker came too :)

New Carpet!

We FINALLY have new carpet! I have waited for this since before we moved in. The downstairs looks great. Fresh coat of white paint on the ceiling and soft plush carpet on the floors. Now on to the upstairs! 

The Last Unicorn

Last year sometime I found The Last Unicorn on Amazon Prime and Claire fell in love! It was neat to share a cartoon that I liked as a kid. Hard to believe it came out in 1982. We've watched it a couple dozen times here at home and then last month I heard about it playing on the big screen and I figured Claire would love it. She had only see a movie in the theater one other time where she fell asleep. I gave Grams a call and asked if she would like to join us. So the three of us, Laureli stayed home with Daddy, went to check it out.

It played at the Hollywood Theater in Portland on Sandy Blvd. A super neat old theater built in 1926 with curved walls and floors. The writer, Peter S. Beagle, was there and answered questions from the audience before the showing. He explained how he came up with idea of The Last Unicorn, how long it took to go from book to movie and then again to be rereleased. It was fun even when Claire did get a little antsy and had to go to the bathroom three times and was really upset that we didn't stay after to meet the writer and get is autograph.

And one picture of Laureli sleeping with all her kitties! Watch out she maybe the crazy cat lady someday :)

Happy Halloween

We finally got around to carving pumpkins on Thursday this year. Cutting it a little close, but better than not at all. This year we grew one of our own, got one from our pumpkin patch field trip and also bought one. Claire picked out a cat carving for Dave to do, Laureli used markers on hers and I did a fun happy face. 

Dave concentrating

Tucker supervising 

Claire's turn to help poke out the outline

Scooping out the inside

Laureli's turn 

All finished

ta da!

Our treats! How am I suppose to resist this?

 We went to the school's Harvest Carnival for games and candy again this year. Lots of fun! Saw a few classmates and teachers. Followed by trick-o-treating a few houses in our neighborhood. 

Our ROCKSTAR and kitty (you can't tell but her hair is pink!)

Playing Candyland at the school's Harvest Carnival

face painting

Sad kitty, she didn't want to put her costume on