Happy New Years.

New Years Quotes:

"Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. " -Benjamin Franklin

" Youth is when your allowed to stay up late on new years eve. Middle age is when your forced to. " - Bill Vaughn.

Christmas Pics

We had such a good time with everyone for christmas. I wish I could've been there longer! Here are a few pics we have from all the christmas fun. :)

Our Winter Wonderland

This is our driveway this morning! More rain is predicted and hopefully (?) it will wash away the ice that makes this soooo slippery! However we may get more snow, so be sure to bring your four wheel drives and snow chains! We are like little kids waiting on Santa, except we are waiting for you!
Colby , Bri, and Aiden worked on a snowman when the storm was beginning. Falling branches took down our cable line (thus we were without internet and TV for 3 days!) and our power was on and off, and then surging when on due to a broken power neutralizer (?) line. No mail for 2 days and late papers! We were out of touch!!!!
Yesterday at breakfast, I couldn't just sit there and eat, so I looked through our 2008 calendar. I laughed and cried as fond memories and fun events flooded back! You have no idea how precious these calendars are to us!!!!!
This is when the snow first began - so pristine and beautiful! Wish I had taken a picture after the 6 to 7 inches were on the ground. Of course by then, some of the not so great things about snow were crowding out the joys!

Winter wonderland comes to Portland

It's very hard to follow Jill and Thain's exciting news but somebody had to post after them...so here it goes...

It was a winter wonderland here in Portland today. It starting snowing about 9 am and didn't let up until 4 ish. Justin and I cancelled our plans to run downtown with our running buddies, the roads were not looking good. (We both got in our runs later though...Justin braved the snow and I ran on the treadmill.) I bet you Utahans laugh at our piddly 3-4 inch snow accumulations but for us it was big news. We spent the morning being rather lazy, watching a movie and cuddling with Zoey.

We did attempt to take her out for a walk mid-morning. She's never experienced snow before and it was quite the spectacle mostly b/c of her snow booties. Yesterday, we bought her snow booties. We bought them with the intention of using them in CA when we go snow shoeing with my Dad but decided today would be a good day to try a trial run. Here are a couple of videos of her with them on. (The first one is the funny one, this is right after we put them on her.)

Here are a few pictures from the day.

It's supposed to stay really cold this week, the weatherman said it's an "Arctic Blast." Why is it that this sunshine loving, warm weather, beach girl ends up living in a place that has "arctic blasts"? Hmmmmm food for thought.

I'm hoping the roads aren't too bad for me tomorrow morning. I'm actually not really looking forward to work this week. They are doing a big round of layoffs this week. I'm safe, which is a big relief, but a lot of people I know aren't, including one of my bosses =(. She's been with the institution for 22 years and they gave her the boot. I was shocked! She's like our mother hen. Things are going to look different at work after the New Year. Last week was rough. The atmosphere around work is ominous and gloomy. Lots of slamming doors and kleenex boxes. I am really looking forward to Christmas and spending time away from work with all of you. We are planning on leaving next weekend although if the weather is bad over the passes we might push it back a day or so.

Congrats again to Jill and Thain...what exciting news!

Can't wait to get big hugs from everyone in a couple of weeks.

lets play wheres waldo, no wheres the bambino :)

Well it's very early to get excited but we have some exciting news. You will hopefully have another nephew or niece, grandson or grandaughter or cousin :). We are 8 wks along and it's a lot of mild nauseu and tiredness so far but I had my ultrasound yesterday and it was so cool to see this little tiny human move and have a heartbeat. Yes the babys head is very large and half the size of the whole fetus but really..that is normal :). It's as healthy as any baby of what they can tell so far so that is great. The only bad news is that the due date will be July 18th - 24th mostly 24th so it's a few weeks after the trip to Maine...wich means we most likely won't be able to come... :(. but it will be worth it. Anyhow I wanted to let you all know! Can't wait to see everyone soon for Christmas.
Love you,
Jill and Thain too :)

Our Wish lists

Sorry this is so late.

Jeremy's Wish List:
Anything on my Amazon wish list (Lego Indiana Jones for XBOX 360, new Roomba, jigsaw)
Cash
Amazon gift card
iTunes gift card
Apple in ear headphones


Kathryn's Wish List:
Pillar candles
Candles of various sizes
Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Teachers by Patricia Logan Oelwein
Gift Certificate to Lakeshore Learning
Pretty soaps

Thanksgiving in Utah.

Hope everyone had a really nice Thanksgiving. We missed seeing all the guys and families and loved getting the email from Cris on Costa Rica. We had a really good time visiting with Mom and Dad though. We miss them all ready and look forward to Christmas to see everyone :). Here's some pics I have from this week-end.

Nate doing really well in his Santa race and Thain and Heath racing in the go carts.

Mini Golfing champs. We all did well, The Blaine's where way ahead of us but Mom, Dad, Thain and I were all within a few points. Thain won with 52, then mom and Dad tied with 53 and I took up the rear with 54.

Amber and her friend 4 wheeling up at Jen and Nate's beutifull place. Cute moment with Emily and Deven.

Nate, Ben and Deven sledding up when we all went to get our trees, I love having a real tree. Thanks Jen and Nate :).