Christmas Day 2008

Christmas day is always full of lots of fun. This year was no different. Chris has been on storm duty since last Sunday, so he was unable to come :( We missed him, but will celebrate Christmas with him in a few days & pray that another storm does not come and knock out power again! Thank you Chris for all your hard work and long hours to get people's lights back on.

Austin and I stuck to our plan & went to my parents house for the day. It was only about 4 miles away, but 4 miles of slippery ice! The prediction of lots of snow was wrong so instead of pretty, white fluffy snow, what melted the day before just froze on the road. We made it safely to our destination and started our day of celebration. As always my Mom made a delicious dinner of primerib, turkey, twice baked potatoes and other trimmings. Desserts...there were too many to list but we ate dessert twice today...or was it 3 times? Can't remember. There was a lot and we had to try them all. After lunch we headed outside to try out the new kid 4-wheeler & to sled down the driveway. We also got out grandpa's 3 wheeler and made a few tracks around the 10 acres. The snow was too deep to go off the path, but Austin had fun "driving". He doesn't like loud noises but for some reason the 3 wheelers don't bother him. After that we came inside to warm up, ate dessert & chatted. Here are a few family photos of the day. I didn't take any while we were outside but I can get copies and post them later.

Merry Christmas to all!!!!

The Fam. Beth, Isaiah, Steven, Mom (Linda), Diane, Austin and Dad (Ken)

Picture with the grand kids

The boys and their new toy at Grandpa & Grandma's house! How cool is this?

I feel loved

Thank you to all our friends and family who sent us Christmas cards and pictures. I love to get them and save them from year to year. All the photos go in my album so I can keep them forever.On Friday I met my dear friend Michaela and her son Jacob at the library to see the electric trains. The boys were entertained for 1 1/2 hours! That gave Michaela and I time to chat as well. Have a Safe week. I have 2 weeks off work (minus a few hours from home) so if you are bored and want to get together, give us a call.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Christmas Tree 2008

Our tree this year is a little lop sided and we need more lights but hopefully Chris can help me fix it this weekend. It doesn't look big, but it took me awhile to drag it in from the garage. Austin was great at encouraging me along the way, "It's almost in!!!"

Austin and Chester checking it out.Do you notice both pets are not in one picture? One was difficult enough. Austin also found a mini bunny ornament (you can see it in his hand) I have had for years and years. He hasn't put it down since.

"Quick...look at the camera and smile!" "Chester don't wiggle"

Happy Boy who will smile at the camera if you sing Jingle Bells. Why didn't we do that for our family Christmas picture?

Back from Vegas!!!!

I had a hard time getting pictures to turn out at night with all the lights. I was never outside during the day so this will have to do. The Christmas decorations were beautiful, but a lot of them turned out fuzzy. Enjoy. Outside Caesar's
Waterfall inside our hotel (The Venetian/Palazzo)

$20.00 roses. 2 were mine the other 2 were Nikki's (Jared's wife) The guys got suckered :)

Christmas decor

Jared at the Metabolic Maintenance booth making SlimStick Shakes. I want a vitamix! It worked so good.

Christmas Parade

Austin loved the Christmas parade this year. Of course the horses were a hit, but he even saw a goat....he wanted to see sheep and pigs too :)

I didn't know Deschutes County had a mounted police force.My vote for most creative. They had orange mud flaps on the wheels for feet that made a flap noise every 1/3 rotation.

Voted Best Beer---Deschutes Brewery....in my opinion :)The End with Santa in his Sleigh

Christmas Tea

My very dear friend Tootie Allen invited both my mom and I to the Christmas Tea at Westside Church. Here are a few of the table settings. They went all out! Tootie's snow man theme

Just for you Joyce

if you get bored, skip to about 1:40 on the tape and you'll see Sah dee steal Austins water cup :)

Here's for you Joyce :)

Sahdee and Dakota love each other all ready. For those of you thinking I got another dog the answer is "no". I am puppysitting for Joyce :) It was such a gorgeous day outside that Austin and I had to bring out the pets for a little fun in the sun.

Franklin Thanksgiving

Christopher carving the bird. Family gathered for the feast.
Kali fine tuning her archery skills.

Kali showing all us adults how to ride a scooter correctly. It helps when you weigh less than 100 pounds :)

Grandma and all her kids.

Remember my post about duct tape and getting rid of warts??? Well I was about to give up because I did the Rx to the "T" and it didn't appear to be killing it. Well it did. I was doing the last filing and it just fell off. This is what his foot looks like now & you can't even tell where the wart was. Nothing is left. I am just amazed that it actually worked so well. If your curious, it was just below and to the right of his big toe on the pad part of his foot.Another health problem. Austin was sick and started biting and rubbing his face. Now I can't get it healed. Any suggestions from you Mom's out there? I've tried Vaseline, diaper rash ointment, fungal cream, hydrocortizone cream, and a healing ointment. It looks better in the mornings, but by the afternoon is flared up again. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Feeling very loved :) I was relaxing last weekend and found myself in the chair reading a new book. Austin woke up and climbed on my lap....fell back asleep. Then Chester got up and decided to take a little nap too. Sorry, no room for Chris. He decided to take a picture instead. I was nice and toasty.

Rodeo

We went on Saturday night to the rodeo with Amber and Chase. Here are some shots of our fun evening.

Chris at climbing school

Can you find Chris????? It took me a very long time and he had to help me :)

Chris is the 3rd guy up on the right hand pole. White hat, blue jeans and brown shirt :)

Another Great Book

I just spent 2 nights reading a really good book & now that I am done, I just can't go to sleep. Check it out if you haven't already or borrow it from me. Happy reading.

It's snowing :)

Well today marks the first day of snow falling from the sky in Central Oregon. Granted there is no snow sticking on the ground, but it is cold and there were a few cars around town that had snow on them.

Here's Austin really needing a hair cut. We'll probably do that today too.

HAPPY ELECTION DAY!

Happy Halloween

Our adventure began at the Old Mill, then Eastmont church, then a few stops at friends and relatives. My energy was spent by 7:30 p.m. Here's a few pictures of tonight.Austin was afraid of the Big Red Dog.
Taking a break and enjoying some of their treats!
fishing for goodies! He loved this.

Fall Days

Cassie and Cody at Grandpa Franklins today.Kaitlyn & Austin


Austin taking a bath in packing material.

The Michael Family-Jared, Michaela, Jacob & "baby on the way"

horses and bible study

Here's Michaela with Midnight after our ride.Diane and Zeb. I'm hiding a carrot from him :)

Busy weekend!

Our friends Justin, Meredith & Ava came for the weekend. We had a fun & busy weekend at that. We met them at the Pumpkin Patch in Terrebonne on Saturday. We stood in line forever for every thing! The train ride, to shoot pumpkins, & to buy pumpkins. It was still lots of fun.

The Radke Family
Ava & Austin in their costumes. Ava=kangaroo Austin=dinosaur

Chris shooting his pumpkins....WATCH OUT!!!!!

FRIDAY

Yesterday I watched Chase all day and I must brag that both boys were sooooo good. We went to Fun Friday @ Eastmont church, which is an open gym for 3 years and younger to play and run. They were excellent and the only thing that happened was Austin wrecked again flat on his nose. Poor kid. At least we didn't have the full blown bloody nose this time.

The Wreck

We also ventured out to the grocery store because I had my toy party to get ready for. For the first time I thought, how do you manage 2 kids in a one seater cart?? So I took a chance and just let Austin walk. He was Great!! Never ran off, helped me count out limes and onions and even helped bag the groceries. Both boys were very well behaved.

Austin had to sleep the other night on his tiger floor rug. He was there all night.

Dakota the messenger. Sometimes Chris and I will ask Dakota to bring notes back and forth between the two of us. Dakota LOVES it. Here he is this morning running up and down the stairs playing maildog :) You really can't see, but there is a white envelope in his mouth.