Dunlap Dealings

Christmas memories and our trip to Mexico

2012-02-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas favorites for pics.....My group pic is not as good as Jen's that she posted so I reposted actually on accident because it was just on my desktop but decided to keep it there it's a great Pic. Thanks Jen for sharing it.

Local fun in long beach..We went to the Aquarium that most of you probably remember going to before Mexico or Canada Cruises and just played

Quotes that were on my desktop that I accidently added too but decided to keep them because I like them.

Catalina Island we went to with Amber for New Years Eve. It was cold and foggy but fun.

AT a beach inbetween LA and San Diego the kids had fun with the birds and making freinds to play with.

The pool and club area where we have the trailer/house it's a really nice club area.

We all loved the warm beautiful water in Mexico....Especially Rilan though he'd be completly wet most times we went to the beach so once I just took off all his clothes and he loved it.

We did a little add on with storage and a closet for our room Rilan was helping Thain of course :)

We got to swim and interact with dolphins at a local dolphinerio really fun! Well for all but Abbie she didn't want anything to do with it.

Well anlyhow I could add more we actually did more 4 wheeling then anlything in Mexico but I already added so many pics so I won't go through looking for those. Mexico is a fun beautiful spot if you don't mind possibly getting a touch of Montazumas It's a great place though, Anyone who would like to join us sometime is more then welcome. Hope everyone is doing good. Love and miss you. Jill

Fun pictures with the Blaines

2012-01-18T09:18:00.000-08:00

The kids are really enjoying the new sleds!

This Christmas picture turned out so well, everyone is smiling, well, almost everyone!

Emily's Dance Recital. She comes in second on the left and ends up in the back row on the right.

Holiday Cheer

2011-12-05T20:13:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving it was so great to see everyone! (Anderson's you were missed.)

I've caught an awful bug that I hope none of you get, it's been the pits. I left work early Friday and today and slept pretty much all weekend! UGH!

However, Justin brought me home a cheerful surprise today!

We said we weren't going to get one this year but I think this is exactly what I needed to lift my spirits! He's a little guy but he's perfect for this year. Thanks Justin and thanks Mom and Dad for raising such a sweetheart who knows just how to cheer a person up!

In between napping this afternoon/evening I was able to do some decorating!

Justin also got icicle lights for me and hung them last week. It's beginning to look at lot more like Christmas.

See you all in a few more weeks. Here's to holiday cheer and getting/staying healthy!

Our long but cool trip.

2011-11-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

Ok just a warning there will be lots of pictures, right now I have 50 on my desktop but I will try to widdle it down to like 15 how I don't know...a but yeah anyone already annoyed might want to not read! :). So our long but cool trip was to Pennsylvania to get a Powered Parachute, Thain's latest obsession or toy whatever... it is cool though and since I've seen a lot of the states already thanks to Mom and Dad and Thain I thought it would be cool to see them all so this was a great way to start to do that.......hmm......by great do I mean somewhat long and mind numbing at times, yes, but also cool and well worth it......so since pictures tell a thousand words and who wants to hear me droon on and on anyhow I will get to the pictures.
First and last up Wyoming! Southern Wyoming through 80 is a lot like going through Nevada......enough said I can't find the darn picture I had anyhow.

Second up Nebraska. (above)
Mostly flat farmland. It's called the Corn belt of America for a reason, folks. These midwestern states have Hours and Hours of grain fields. but hey did you know that Nebraska has the largest Aquafer (underground water lake) in America.

And I must say Omaha by the Missouri river, where we stayed was quite charming. It had the cutest park areas and a very delicious, ambiant mexican resteraunt downtown....Yumm I think I'm gaining weight just thinking about it!

The Missouri river. a very pretty river I thought.

Third up Iowa. Lots more farmland but a very neat and organized state. That is what impressed me about it. I don't have any pictures as I think I took some on my waterproof camera and somehow lost that thing. Dad would be interested to know probably though that it is a gambling state. :).

Next...Illinois, more farms and I only took pictures of Chicago so here are some above and below. We are on a cute Pier called the Navy Pier.....

Doesn't the above picture look like an ocean scene.....well It wasn't it was Lake Michigan, One of our great Lakes, I had no idea that the great lakes were like that I had no idea what they were like at all.
See it was a very educational trip. I am now oh so much smarter, yes I know hard to believe after all aren't you thinking How could You get any smarter! I know I know but hey I guess even the elite smartest ones as I have room to grow. Can you tell I'm feeling oh so sarcastic today. Hmm. well I am so bear with me......

Our route in black.

So where was I ..oh yes....Next we traveled on 80 through the top Of Indiana and bottom of Michigan and then through Ohio. I'm not sure which if any pictures I took of there so I will show you a map of our crazy trip route. (above).

We finally reached Pennsylvania in 4 days travel actually what was to be the shortest half of our trip bought the powered parachute and then traveled down to West Virginia. They were in a pretty part of Pennsylvania where there was a bit of Amish territory. It was really interesting and cool to see the amish drive by on their horse and buggy or see their homes mostly white with white curtains and out houses be side the homes. I do respect a lot of their lifestyle but I have to say, Indoor plumbing is quiet nice.

West Virginia was very hilly and who knew but it is 75% covered with forest.....

Kentucky was one of my favorites. Lexington above had miles and miles of beautiful horse country and estates. Louiville about an hour West of Lexington is famous for the Kentucky derbys after all and I guess Lexington is the big place to buy horses but it was a lot prettier then the parts of Louiville we went by. Also we dropped south in Kentucky, out of our way to go see Mammoth Cave, the largest cave system in the world over 375 miles of it and they still think they haven't found it all. Wow. The cave was cool, but in itself not as geologically interesting as Carlsbad and others I guess but hey it was the longest in The World...we had to see it! (pictures below)

Rilan was happy so long as we were on the go......when they stopped to talk about it he was quite antsy! I'm such a wiz now I can tell you 100 percent of the rocks down in Mammoth cave......as you can tell they all looked similiar and the guide said were all limestone so well I guess I didn't have to be so smart to remember that. :).

Missouri was more farm land I believe I'm getting them confused a little ..in itself not overly impressive I guess but we went on a boat down the Mississippi in an old style boat called the Tom Sawyer. It was fun in that so much travel and history is tied up with this river but the boat ride itself was a little dry and a bit of hype but hey it was another thing you've just gotta do. Also the St. Louis Arch all made of Steel was quite pretty and impressive....We also were able to go up to the top of it in these capsule like elevater things...really cool.

They also had a pretty interesting underground museum as well under the arch. With mostly things about traveling west, from Lewis and Clark's experiences and such it was interesting. I don't know that much about Franklin Rossevelt but I do like what he says in that quote. A lot of places in illinois or Indiana and Kentucky do have a lot of things about Lincoln also... I believe his birthplace was there in Kentucky. I'm not sure what the other states claim on him is though. I really have a lot of respect for him as a president and some of our other country forefathers. I like reading a lot of their quotes and things.

Kansas I'm pretty sure....more farmland!

We did stop towards the western part of Kansas and when we were back up in Nebraska going back to try out the Powered Parachute or well I should say to help Thain do so. He wants to figure it out really well before taking anyone up. Very gentlemanly I must say. It did take us a few tries to get it started and the parachute going right but he seems to have the hang of that now and thinks it's very simple to handle. He did get going pretty fast after that and had a good time. (pics below)

Rilan was at first scared about it all and then enjoyed watching and riding in it when the shoot was put away and the vehicle was on the ground of course!

The kids were really great sports...after all a long car ride with kids can be quite the challenge and there were moments like this for them their looks say it all... (above)

But mostly they were as joyful as ever and as big a joy as ever. I really have two wonderful precious kids. Nothing could be better then being a Mom to them of course don't ask me to say that after they have taken turns waking me up all night and then getting up at 4:30 in the morning AGHH..ok you still can I'd say the same but it would be harder and I would be grumpier (heaven forbid I ever be grumpy that is)

Ok that was still very long with lots of pictures but I did widdle it down a bunch I promise I tried and it was hard!... but I hope it wasn't too long to go through...I'm already tired from posting it. :). Also for those of you who might not have catched my little face book blurp. Abbie is seriously starting to crawl! Crazy girl, she gets on all fours and gets around the room at least is it a completly coordinated crawl yet no but wow all the same! Also Happy Thanksgiving coming up to all of you! Good luck in having fun with out us pshht. No I'm sure it will be a great thanksgiving and we'll miss you and I'm really thankfull for each of you being my family and freinds. Love you.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the pumpkins!

The kids are at the perfect ages for Halloween. Trick-or-treating was really fun for everyone.

I think they got enough candy to last a little while.

We had "mummy dogs" and pumpkin soup for dinner. The soup tasted just alright, the mummies looked cute.

Christmas List 2011

2011-09-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

Hi Family. Based on limited feedback it looks like we will be keeping with the two gifts format this year. Jill also suggested getting one gift for Heath and Amber as a solution to making the numbers work out so with those constraints I ran the Santa program and got this list:

    @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
    @@@@@ CHRISTMAS LIST 2011 @@@@@
    @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

----------------------------------------
***John***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Kathryn', 'Jill']
Children: ['Deven', 'Abriela']

----------------------------------------
***Cris***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Thain', 'Jen']
Children: ['Bronco', 'Emily']

----------------------------------------
***Jen***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Thain', 'Justin']
Children: ['Colby', 'Aiden']

----------------------------------------
***Nate***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Alisa', 'Jeremy']
Children: ['Colby', 'Abriela']

----------------------------------------
***Jill***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Jeremy', 'Kathryn']
Children: ['Aiden', 'Ben']

----------------------------------------
***Thain***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Cris', 'Nate']
Children: ['Brianna', 'Emily']

----------------------------------------
***Justin***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['John', 'Cris']
Children: ['Rilan', 'Amber']

----------------------------------------
***Alisa***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['John', 'Nate']
Children: ['Heath', 'Bronco']

----------------------------------------
***Jeremy***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Alisa', 'Jill']
Children: ['Brianna', 'Rilan']

----------------------------------------
***Kathryn***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Jen', 'Justin']
Children: ['Deven', 'Ben']

To remind me if need be, here is also the calendar months assigned:

Mom and Dad - FEB/AUG

John and Cris - MARCH/ SEPT

Jen and Nate - APRIL/ OCT

Jill and Thain- MAY/ NOV

Justin and Alisa- JUNE/DEC

Jeremy and Kathryn- JAN/JULY

Summer, Please Don't Go

2011-09-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Northern Dunlap's. Everyone seems to be having busy summers this year. The Northern clan is no exception.

We did some traveling...

We went to SF and saw two GIANTS games!

We helped Mom and Dad with the shed

We biked in Sacramento with my Dad

We did a house project...

Scrape, scrape, scrape, sand, sand, sand all the paint off the railing for the deck

Harder than it looks trust me

All re-painted!

We harvested lots of yummy vegetables...

Empty garden beds

Full garden beds

Carrots!

Peas!

Beets!

Finally TOMATOES!

My flowers bloomed...

Stargazer lilies

Roses

Gladiolus

Justin is at Burning Man this week so I'm home alone with Zoey. I cooked lots of delicious fresh veggies and went for lots of walks since I finally got this off:

BOO...walking boot for 3 weeks (guess all that running caught up with me...I'm not 100% healed but enough to walk around without the boot)

Looking forward to having Justin back! I'm hoping we'll keep the summer weather for a few more weeks since it took so long for it to appear. Hope everyone else is enjoying summer as much as much as we are!

Pics from Anderson's

2011-07-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I blogged so here's some pics from our trip with Mom and Dad and then just various happenings. We've been having a good summer but wow two little kids is a lot of work! It's all I can do to keep everyone fed around here. They are precious and worth it but endless demands, laundry and dishes does make me feel like Cinderella minus anyone evil to blame :). When it comes to family Dunlap's and my family I am abundantly blessed and grateful!....well enough rambles here's the promised pics....

Of course most have seen these but May brought the birth of our beautiful girl Abriela Anderson! Thanks to Jen I have a decent pic of me with the kids. Also thanks to Jen I had some much appreciated help with the baby !

Rilan has been a very sweet loving big brother for the most part...especially considering he lost his only child and only baby status and has really had to share a ton of attention. He's a super good sport and so cute and sweet with her.

Dad and Mom with Abbie when we went up to visit. Was a great visit and we loved being there and spending time with Mom and Dad!

A great pic of mom with Abbie! :).

Brianna with Abbie :)

Thain and the kiddies very recent pic :)

Thain and Rilan motorcycling (very slowly) up at his brother's

May look like a total contradiction but hey we all know looks can be deceiving and in this case too! :). We went to a fun dinosaur museum park a few days ago and Rilan posed for a pic :). He's really a sweetie but dangerously destructive too!

Amber just got back from a trek monday! She's been doing good and having a good summer as well!

A beautiful sunset view and picture taken up in Huntsville near were Thain and I got married. I took a drive with the kids the other day! So pretty!

Pool, garden, and good pictures of Mom and Dad

2011-06-20T20:48:00.000-07:00

Instead of emailing these pictures to Mom, I am going to post them here. If you want to copy a picture and save it to your computer Mom, just right click on the image. Then click on save to and specify where you want it saved.

I was sorry to miss the family gathering at Mom and Dad's for Father's Day! Someone post some pictures of the shed for me. It sounds like Jill has gotten a lot of painting done. Other pictures would be appreciated too!

The bird I hit in Utah stayed with us all the way to California. Luckily, the deer that Nate hit didn't join the bird for the rest of the ride.

Bronco was Granddad's little buddy out in California.

The happy couple on their 46th anniversary.

We are glad you still love each other!

I love this one.

And this one too, they are all good, so I had to post them all.

This is where the kids are every free moment they have. Thanks to Mom for Deven's birthday present!

The kids with the biggest kid of all.

Here's the next day, with a friend over.

Here's my garden, focused on the baby lettuce. Everything is doing well, must be that horse manure we put on a couple of months ago. The plastic thing in the left corner is one of the "walls of water" protecting a tomato plant. I planted the last of my peppers and tomatoes today. It's supposed to be in the 80s this week, so hopefully no more freezing.

Happy Summer to you all! Love, Jen

piano recital part 2

2011-05-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

Emily playing "Whirling Leaves"

Bronco playing the book he got from Grandma.

Piano Recital for the Family

2011-05-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

Here are the videos again Mom, I don't know where in cyberspace the blog posts went to, but I can't find them anywhere!

I have been teaching the kids a song a week in their piano books. I can't believe how well they are doing, and I thought you'd like to hear a little performance.

Ben playing a pirate song

Deven playing "My Invention"

Business at the Blaines

2011-05-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

My indoor garden this year. Nate built this grow light for me, and it's working really well!

Ben and Deven are soccer super stars this spring! Both boys scored two goals in their games on Saturday.

The wildflowers in California were gorgeous!

Our kayak adventure on Clearlake

We drove over to Fort Bragg and enjoyed a walk on the beach.

If you can't read that sign up there it says "LumberJacks, where the big boys eat." I thought it was funny!

All ready to hunt for eggs at Grandma's and Granddad's house.

What are you finding Aiden?

Deven counting his eggs.

A fun game of Phase 10 with the kids, Grandma being one of them.

Watching over the flock.

Our six new friends. Now we have to build the coop!

The kids playing "Just Dance Kids" on the Wii. I played with them, and it was fun. Although it would be just as entertaining to watch the dancers.

I am trying to upload videos of the kids playing their piano songs, but am not having luck. I'll try one more time, but I might have to email them to you Mom!

Spring!

2011-04-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hello family! We had a fantastic visit from Mom and Dad the weekend before last and are beginning to enjoy the spring sunshine that they brought up with them.Signs of spring are all around us and we are hoping you snow bound or season-less folk are enjoying this time of year as much as us Portlanders.

One part of spring that has been especially great this year is observing all the changes that are taking place at our new house and neighborhood. Some of work from last year is beginning to pay off as well. The side of the house is abloom with tulips and daffodils and the necta-plum we planted in the front had a few blooms on top. Hopefully we will get some fruit.

The afore mentioned necta-plum blooms.

In between our garden beds we planted a half-wine barrel full of herbs.

Back to the visit last week: Here is Mom posing for a photo for my phone.

We didn't let them stand around for long. Before we let them enjoy Portland we had them do some serious work. We chopped down the tree in front of our house. It was a noble aged tree. Our octotarrian neighbor mentioned how it had been there for as long as she had been next door, some forty years or so, right Alisa? We also put together and stained some adirondack chairs and table we found at home depot for the front porch.

After all the work they insisted on taking a bit of a nap. I still had a long list of chores for them to do, but I suppose they earned a few winks.

We had some great meals and great times! Capping off their visit, we went to a funky little Portland restaurant called "Ned Lud." Portland's version of fine dining. It was a fantastic meal!

While there I spotted a pretty famous dude, Harry Shearer, the "it goes to 11" guy from Spinal Tap for those that are familiar. Behind that incredibly goofy awkward smile is him. I had Alisa take this snap-shot to, hopefully unobtrusively, document the spotting.

Mom bought us and them matching gerber daisy's. We are going to have a plant-off to see who can out garden whom. I think she already gets bonus points for "smuggling" hers across the border. OK, it turned out they didn't care about plants.

Hope you are all doing great!

Rilan, Rilan, Rilan!!!

2011-03-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

supposed to be a video of Rilan running his electric car Thain bought him, but so far

it hasn't uploaded, not sure it will work!

Rilan having bath time fun aka destroying whatever he can, gotta

love that smile though!

Out on a walk on a nice day!

In his electric car, he can seriously drive it and steer it around kitchen corners and everything, the video is supposed to show that but I don't think it will download right on here don't know why! loves all his big cars though....our living room looks like a toddler

parking garage!!!

With Amber on his favorite car the one Grandad and Grandma got him for Christmas!

This and That from Dad and Mom!

2011-03-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

This is out of order as I accidentally deleted it! It's the real (there are two) golden spike from the joining of the Union Railroad's easterly and westerly divisions in Promontory, Utah. It was of special interest to me as the Blaines and Jill took Granny and me there a few years ago and we got to see 'the' spot that joined the two. This spike is in the Railroad Museum in Sacramento and automatically goes down into a vault every evening at 5:00 pm when the museum closes and comes back up at 10:00 am when it reopens.
Bronco, Nate, Jill, Thain, and Rilan prepare for laser tag at Emily's 10th birthday celebration in January! They did great!
Emily is attempting to control the ball in one of her great gifts.
Deven built this fire station almost all by himself from the many pieces in one of his Christmas gifts.
Nate, Ben, Deven, Emily, Jen and Bronco in a family picture in front of the font after Benjamin's baptism.
Colby wearing his letter jacket - the Bobcats were the divisional champions this year, and Colby was key as their offensive guard!
I had the honor of sewing on his letter!
This is one of the aftermaths of our beautiful snowstorm a month ago. Two huge oaks tumbled and crashed. Unfortunately they damaged some fruit trees and Dad's electric fence around the bee hives. He spend many cold hours repairing that fence because we were leaving the next day for our Road Scholar "Trains across the Sierra" trip and wanted no bears dining while we were gone.
While touring the capitol in Sacramento we passed all the countys' displays. This one for San Mateo County has a picture of the Pulgas Water Temple near the center, which happens to be where Dad proposed to me!
A picture of California's Governor's office

Dad and I loved the railroad museum with all the different cars and engines - a few we walked through were a dining car with samples of china from the different lines, a Pullman (sleeper), a mailcar, etc. Upstairs are wooden trains and tracks for kids to play with, and this working display of different sizes of Lionel trains. A Lionel electric train was big in the lives of my brothers growing up - for years they and our dad had one going around our Christmas trees!
Dad and I had a yummy meal at Fats Restaurant in Old Town after our afternoon at the museum .

On our Amtrack Zephyr trip across the Sierras we saw oodles of snow and stately trees, beautiful clouds, traveling along the Truckee River and Interstate 80 in parts, and went through many tunnels, one several miles long.
Yesterday Brianna's school's choir put on a wonderful program. This is a scene from their segment on Star Wars.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!!

2011-03-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday Jeremy!! We hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday Bronco!

2011-02-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

Bronco's fishy cake. I got the idea from the Family Fun Magazine Mom!

Thanks for the super cute monkey Jeremy and Kathryn. He loved it!

Checking out his reflection in the game cube from Grandma and Granddad, thanks Mom and Dad!

Bronco's cute puppy from Aunt Jill. So fun to watch him do a flip! Great idea Jill!

This is my favorite picture, he's trying so hard to blow out his candle. He hated getting his hands all sticky in the frosting. I gave him a spoon. He liked that a lot better. I cut everyone pieces from the big cake before he got to work on it. As you can see in the video, he did really good at making a mess of it!

I've put in a little video of him feeding himself with a spoon for the first time.

When should we teach him how to chew with his mouth closed?

It's a Girl!!!

2011-01-18T16:21:00.000-08:00

Just had an ultrasound today and the tech said it was deffinetly a little girl! Yeay. Also everything looked and measured normal and healthy!! Which is always wonderful to hear. None of the pics turned out that good so I won't blog them but I wanted to share the exciting news! Love to all. The Anderson's!

Merry Christmas from Mantua!

2010-12-22T15:27:00.000-08:00

This year we made a gingerbread house from scratch. There are even rolled out gumdrop stained glass windows on the side of the house that unfortunately are hidden from the camera. We are enjoying picking off treats.

A lot of rain made a lot of the snow has melt, but we'll take what we can get. We are hoping most of it sticks around for Saturday. I would love to get some more cross country skiing in! It's my favorite snow activity. The kids can play outside for hours, literally! The neighbor dogs come over to play and Ben gets mad at them because he doesn't want them ruining the snow hill that Nate built. It even has a big jump this year.

Santa hasn't even come yet! This is the benefit to a large and very generous family! The kids are going to experience another dream Christmas full of everything they could ever want. I just hope they stay nice kids, with all the things they get. Thanks for mailing out the packages everyone! I was expecting to get them from Jill when she came back. I know shipping isn't cheap, so thanks for doing that.

Bronco had just learned how to crawl, and this was so funny. He wouldn't put down his sippy cup for anything. It looked kind of like a cow udder swinging under him as he went along...

We will miss all of you this weekend. Sorry John, Mom and Dad's tree is going to look void of presents, because half of the grandkids presents are out here. We hope you all enjoy the peace, because you might not get it next year. We love you all and look forward to seeing you in Florida!

Oregon Update

2010-12-14T23:26:00.000-08:00

Hey Fam! Been awhile, so here are a few random pictures and stories. Hope everyone is doing great!

We went to a local cut-your-own tree farm nearby in Oregon City, OR to get our first tree for our house. Here is Alisa picking it out. It was fun to go cut it down and drag it back, but it wasn't quite the same as going into the deep woods to find one. I miss that tradition!

Here is Alisa decorating the tree. We have quite a few ornaments, but not quite enough to fill it up. Alisa says that one of the first things she thought of when seeing the little alcove in our main room is that it would be a great place to put a tree. So, there was no discussion on where to finally put it when we got it back to the house!

The tree is starting to accumulate a few presents. Most of which need to get in boxes and sent to Utah for the Blaines. We will miss you all next week (and a few days)!

I had been taking a picture a day for every run I did. Here is a picture on my last run before my knee (supposedly my good one!) decided to not play along with marathon training and get injured. I've been off it for a good couple of week, and while I don't expect to finish fast in Florida, I do hope to finish! I even was able to run 3 miles today without any pain. Oh, yeah, back to the picture: there is a cool little farm with all sorts of fowl along the bike path/running trail that isn't too far from our house. On that day I saw that there was also a family of otters(?) near the farm. I caught one of them "sunning" itself on the bank.

Our fence along the house next to us starts at 6 feet and goes down to 4 feet. That is about 4 times as tall as Zoey is, so there is no way she can jump over it, right? Wrong. With the arrival of a new dog next door (a cute pup named Peanut, formerly Mango), Zoey was motivated to try to get over and say hello. Well, she was able to jump over by first getting just high enough to get her hind legs on the little perch there at the top. The neighbors said that she was free to come over any time she liked, but we somehow felt that they would actually get sick of us constantly retrieving her. So....

Over a very cold weekend we put up a trellis system above the 4-foot section. Thankfully, the length was exactly 24 feet long and three pre-framed 8 foot sections fit snugly in place. I had to extend the short posts by a couple of feet, which looks great on our side, but you can see the metal connector on the neighbor's side. They are a very nice couple however, and even helped us put it up. We had to quickly stain the trellis, no easy task in short wintry days, and here is Alisa showing how much she enjoys the task.

We are happy with the result and look forward to the spring when we will probably put in one or two vertical trellises (the plural of that should really be trellii as I like the sound of it), and plant some jasmine to climb along the fence.

Zoey, however, isn't nearly as happy. Here she is checking out the fence. I swear she knows which fence slat she is at by smelling them. Prior to Zoey jumping over the fence, there was a loose fence slat that Bill (the neighbor) repaired after she had gotten through. She would sniff along the fence and return to that one to scratch at it. Anyway, I think the trellis has locked her up pretty well in the back fence. Though now, I worry she will some day learn that she can probably get over the gate we built for her!

I've been volunteering at the local science museum both in the "featured exhibit" hall and in the laser lab. The laser lab is fun, but I am stuck back in a dark room where it can be half an hour before anyone comes in. I was wiling the time away last time I was there by taking long exposures of the diffracted light we pass through fog creating a rainbow. You can also see green speckling from the laser we use to display a hologram and some fiber-optic light fixtures.

Finally, I was going through pictures to post on the blog and found this one from our house-warming party and had to post it. Alisa is getting ready to fill those cupcakes with lemon curd. They were great! Anyway, love this picture and it gave me a smile.

Thanks for reading! See you all soon!

Baby number 2 and late Thanksgiving pics and wishes

2010-12-08T14:10:00.000-08:00

I had a baby appt last week and all looked good and healthy so that's great and the ultrasound is actually recognizable if you are used to looking for it the head is middle leftish :). she/he was moving around a lot so I'm not sure I have the mellow baby I'm hoping for but healthy and happy are number 1 priorities :) Here also are some pics from Thanksgiving. We sure had a good time with Mom and Dad and Jen and Nate and missed everybody else but was glad to see it looked like you all had some great Thanksgiving celebrations too :). Hope to see most all of you soon for Christmas!

Happy Fall and Halloween!

2010-11-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

Nate decided to get rid of his red suit this year. Too bad, it was so funny, but the pirate was classy!

Jill and Rilan joined us for trick or treating!

Bronco's first amusement park ride at Lagoon.

Camping in the beautiful fall colors!

The front crew on the above metioned ride. We were so loaded down with the whole family that we got soaked!!

Deven was so cute with Bronco on this ride! He is such a great big brother for Bronco.

We'll see if you can see this movie. It's a cute one!

Anderson Updates....

2010-10-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well first off we have some exciting news, we are expecting Baby number 2. Due date June 1st. I'm 9 weeks along and all looks healthy so far so that's great. Bad picture you can't see a thing but it was fun to see in the ultrasound today the little heart beating and all looked good.

We have been busy tripping too going on a nice trip home in late September to help celebrate Dad's b.day and then early October boating with Thain's brother and then a quick Southern Ca/ Disneyland trip about a week ago with Cole and Paula and Amber. We've been having a lot of fun basically well as much fun as tired and nauseus early pregnancy can be but it's good news and we will love to have our little ones close together and complete our family :). Here's a few pictures from the tripping.....

Well I was going to label these and clean up the blog a little bit but Rilan has had it and is driving me nuts so I better go...Oh I did want to post a few from walking with Jen of Bronco and him playing and a recent cute one of this little rascal....

hope all is well with everyone. Love the Anderson's

Dad & Mom on the move.....

2010-09-05T14:21:00.001-07:00

Since our Maine trip, Dad and I have continued a wonderful summer of fun and family! Ben and I stayed at the Railroad Park in Dunsmuir for the Boxcar Adventure with the Elderhostel program (now named Road Scholar).
This is our ''room' on the inside - looking past Ben's bed & mine, to Ben at the door of the bathroom.
On one of our hikes, our leader emphasized that if lost, you should not wander away from where you are. Ben is a great listener!
Soon after Dad, Jeremy, Kathryn, and I helped Alisa and Justin move into this beautiful place, their new home!
Barely a week later Jeremy, Kathryn, Justin, Alisa's good friend Kristen, and Zoey watched for Alisa to run past during her triathlon in Santa Rosa.
This is Alisa running the last lap, taken after her swimming and biking events! What stamina! She was on the go for more than 7 hours!!!!
Vance took this picture of us with Alisa after her finish!
Early the next morning, Justin and Alisa posed right before Justin took off on his ultra marathon near Danville, most of which was up and down steep hills. Jeremy drove us from station to station, and we often got there barely in time to see Justin run by. (Not because Jeremy was driving slowly - the road was very twisting!)
Relaxing with our gracious hosts, Kathryn and Jeremy after the exciting weekend.
Gary gave me a lug of Gravenstein apples so Brianna and Aiden helped me dehydrate a bunch and then did a great job making their own individual pies!
Brianna and I went to the Galley in Chico for a Cooking in the Kitchen for kids. Notice those curled knuckles! She's safely cutting mushrooms for the pizza.
Aiden's letting me know how old he is on his birthday, after the kids destroyed the pinata and he donned a ray from the star.
Cris, Colby and Cassidy Harrison watch him blowing and wishing.
Back to Portland where Dad and Justin built three professional looking composting bins, a planter, and the grape arbor!
Justin didn't waste any time getting the first one going!
Brianna and Aiden helping Cris celebrate her birthday at the Outback!
Justin stopped by on his way to the Burning Man Event in Nevada and the John Dunlaps returned from Colby's game in Merced.
It was a fun and yummy dinner!
We just returned from 4 nights on Lake Shasta the day before yesterday. Dad's driving us out of the harbor to begin.
Our last night we were parked next to a submerged firepit ringed by seats!
Despite being told by fishermen when we left that there were 'no' fish in the lake, Dad caught some every day. We brought about 10 home, and I ate one or two each day (they weren't as big as this one)!
The weather was gorgeous and we had one of the best times yet.
Now I am waiting for Dad to finish extracting the honey for the year so we can go visit Granny. Her surgery Tuesday went well, but Wed. night she had a rough time and since her blood count dropped so low she needed a transfusion. She also has a hairline fracture in her pelvis. She was released to Cypress Acres yesterday for a week or two, but she hopes to go home much sooner.
Hope you're having a fun Labor Day weekend. Dad's leaving tomorrow for a couple days for a tournament in Reno. I'm ready for the next posting........whose will it be? Much love to each of you!
Added after 9:00 pm: the plan is for me to pick Granny up tomorrow morning and take her to her home!

lots of play for the Anderson's

2010-08-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry This blog is going to be so big there is too many pics and things I want to include because I haven't blogged in a long time and we've been on the go so much this month or so I guess. Sorry I haven't gotten you any of those pics of the week Mom but here's lots :). Your house looks really neat Justin and Alisa! It's amazing how fast you've got those things done! They look great too. Also would love christmas ideas for all or well specifically, Alisa, Nate, Bronco and Emily for me :). Ok here's our play pictures...lots of camping in yellowstone cave exploring and such :)

   rented a see do in Huntsville for one wednesday activity.
   lots of fun. It was nice to go out while Amber or Heath watched
   Rilan too :)

Rilan loves his cousin's! Hanging out after a big 5 mi

walk around Manuii's lake With Jen.

Went to Amanda's 32nd suprise b.day party! Was great to

see her!

Rilan and Spencer :). Crazy and cool that we have been friends

since about the age Spencer is now and both have cool little guys of our own :)

At Jenny's lake outside yellowstone the first trip to yellowstone with Amber :)

On our way to firehole lake for a swim in Yellowstone Park

Posing with a fun statue in Jacskon hole

Rilan riding the bear :)

Amber also had fun with the bears :) the only one's to see anymore

seem to be fake. I wonder if Thain's bear ear biting early days have anything to

do with Yellowstone's trying to keep them away? :)

Thain and a lot of our family on his side went rafting down the river after.

Rilan and I stayed in the Motorhome to be safe.

We went up to Timpanogas cavern on a wednesday it was a big hike but worth it! :)

crazy people....who are they? :)

Random cute picture of Rilan. Amber was having fun putting stickers

on him :).

We went up to Bear Lake on a short overnighter to play and get a crate of rasberry's to eat.

Rilan playing on the beach at Bear Lake

Best Buds. Rilan and his Daddy have a ton of fun together. :)

We went to another cave near Bear lake. no big hike to it but lots of stairs in it.

pretty though and big

some pretty columns and stalagmites in Cave Minnetonka...wish we could've gone

to Carlsbad to top of our random cave exploring month.

On Trip two to Yellowstone we went with family here with our nephews and took

the big tram up to the top of the tetons's.

It was up about 10,000 feet I believe the tram itself went up 4,000 feet

really steep it looks like the clouds are just a reach away!

View coming down the tram the last 1/3 of the way.

Near our favorite Jenny's Lake in Yellowstone

We walked back around the lake it was really pretty and fun.

canooing on the lake.

A cute picture of Rilan...though I think most are pretty cute but I'm partial. camping after

on the way home.

We just went to Lagoon for a few hours last night we took his car

instead of a stroller he had fun watching everyone and riding around in it

Rilan on a boat ride at lagoon :)

Sorry for the tons of pictures but there was so many more that I loved too but this was already too many I'm sure. Hope everyone is having a great week-end. Rilan and I are soloing it for the week-end as Thain went to Arizona to visit Cole and do a little business :(. I just didn't want to try and handle Rilan in the Car for so long but oh well we've been doing good. Love to all.

Races, Birthday and House Updates

2010-08-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Long time no update from the J Dunlap's to the north. Going to do an update via pictures, since everyone loves pictures and it's easier than typing everything out!

My Half IronMan:

Exiting the Swim! Had lots of cheerleaders.

Finishing the bike course...again lots of cheerleaders--yay!

Surviving the run course. Mom is pictured to the right. Again, sooooo much love and support---couldn't have done it without all of you!

In short, I had an awesome swim, a REALLY rough time on the bike and a smile-filled run. Definite SUCCESS!

Justin's 50k:

(Grr...pictures wouldn't center...sorry!)

Before his race eating a bagel.

Mile 14ish Justin's looking strong!

Mile 20-something still kicking butt!

Speedy Justin finishing STRONG!

Our spectating crew (minus Calla who I think just wanted to be in the picture)---thanks everyone sooooooooo much! Having spectators is so motivating and really does help!

The House:

Justin and Chuck re-roofing the garage.

While my Mom and I re-painted the bathroom.

New roof on the garage!

New paint on the walls of the bathroom.

Justin's 30th Birthday:

The famous German Chocolate cake---it was good but not as good as Dad's. I tried!

Dinner and a pile of presents what else could a 30-yr old want?!

Mom and Dad Dunlap are coming up this weekend and I think the goal is to build the garden beds for the back yard.

In short, the last month has been SUPER busy BUT awesome.

Life is grand in Portland (it's even been sunny).

Christmas List 2010

2010-08-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the results from the first bug-free run of the program this year. Let me know if anything doesn't seem right. Gifters should not have the same giftees as they did last year, shouldn't give to their own spouses or children, etc.
Looking forward to seeing everyone soon hopefully. Also, I would love to post some pictures of happenings around here, but things are too crazily happening to get that done... Maybe when class is over in a couple of weeks. Hope you are all doing splendidly!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@@@@@ CHRISTMAS LIST 2010 @@@@@
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

----------------------------------------
***John***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Jen', 'Nate']
Children: ['Amber', 'Heath']

----------------------------------------
***Cris***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Justin', 'Kathryn']
Children: ['Heath', 'Rilan']

----------------------------------------
***Jen***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Alisa', 'Jeremy']
Children: ['Rilan', 'Brianna']

----------------------------------------
***Nate***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Cris', 'John']
Children: ['Amber', 'Colby']

----------------------------------------
***Jill***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Alisa', 'Nate']
Children: ['Bronco', 'Emily']

----------------------------------------
***Thain***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['John', 'Kathryn']
Children: ['Deven', 'Aiden']

----------------------------------------
***Justin***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Jen', 'Jill']
Children: ['Deven', 'Bronco']

----------------------------------------
***Alisa***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Jill', 'Jeremy']
Children: ['Brianna', 'Ben']

----------------------------------------
***Jeremy***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Thain', 'Justin']
Children: ['Emily', 'Ben']

----------------------------------------
***Kathryn***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Cris', 'Thain']
Children: ['Aiden', 'Colby']

Rilan's 1st Birthday!!

2010-07-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

Rilan had a great first birthday! The Blaine's came over and helped us celebrate! Here he is early in the day excited to be one.

I made him a cake and had it already to go, as well as some cupcakes as I was going to let him enjoy his own cake.

The house was all decorated and quiet pre party :). There's Jen and Bronco in the background though it's hard to see. The Blaine's came and helped make it fun for Rilan. He had a great time.

Rilan had a great time opening gifts and got so many neat fun gifts!!

His favorite one was the slide Grandma And Grandad gave him, here he is climbing up it even before it was set up. He really loved going down it a bunch too!

He blew out candles on his cake, I thought it would be fun to let him do as he wanted with it, well this is what he wanted to do with it............

He had a lot of fun destroying it!! Wasn't too interested in eating it but that's ok it was his cake! I guess he doesn't believe in having his cake and eating it too :)

He also had a great time in his new pool, our main gift to him, we put the big slide from Grandma and Grandad well I should say thain did, in the pool and they had a great time turning it into a big water slide.

The Blaine gang kids had a blast too playing in the water and trampoline even though it was cooler. They really made his party a lot of fun by playing and having fun with him.

Bronco, though not getting the attention he deserved was pretty cute too, and is sure growing up fast! :)

Can't believe this crazy little guy is already one!! He is so much fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

2010-07-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AN AMAZING MOM!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Thanks for a wonderful summer vacation this year too! I will post some highlights of our trip this week. It was very fun and memorable and special. Thank you both for giving it to us! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Love you!

Lots of Ups and one Down

2010-06-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

Hi all...been awhile since the Portlanders have posted.

I'll do highlights bulletpoint style:

-Justin had an awesome semester! Straight A's (not that any of us thought he would get anything less) and an extremely complementary email from one of his professors about what a great student Justin was this term. Yay Justin!

-Justin and I are house hunting! Yes, house hunting DESPITE the rainest June on record (I am definitely ready for summer). We are looking to set down some roots and are having a great time looking at houses. I never knew I cared about the size of the yard or about where a bathroom is located. When/if we find something we love, we'll keep people updated.

-Justin is still training away for his ultramarathon...running lots of hills and lots of miles.

-Here is the one "down." I crashed on my bike about 2 weeks ago. I'm okay and thankful it wasn't more serious. I have a large hematoma on my right leg (I call it my alien water balloon) and some bruising. It's been a pretty big training set back but I'm powering through. For those interested, here's a photo:

-My dad had a stellar retirement party last weekend. I flew down for a short trip, it was great to see him and a bunch of my old teachers. To the teachers in the family, wait til you have students come back 20 years later!

-Justin went on a fun bike camping adventure. They parked the car somewhere and biked to the camping spot and then biked back. Sounded like lots of fun!

I think those are the major updates. We are really looking forward to seeing you all very soon!

Dad and Mom at play

2010-06-14T16:12:00.001-07:00

(If you wish to see any of these pictures larger, you can click on it. I imagine you already know that but in case you didn't, ................................)
This is most of the clan out on the deck: L to R. David Jurasek and his wife Michelle (Portland), Bob Ervin (San Leandro), Sharon, Don, Bob, Brub, Ernie Rick (San Carlos), Maureen Ervin, Gary, Nancy, and husband Roger Cox (Hayfork).
My "cousin's reunion" was three weekends ago at the home of my cousin Sharon and her husband, Don, at Lake of the Pines between Auburn and Grass Valley. Marsha and Helen were the only two not in attendance. Their home over looks the lake and a path leads down to their docked boat.
Carol and Brub and I stayed in their home, as well as cousin Nancy and Roger. The others stayed at a house nearby.
Don took us out in their pontoon boat for a tour of the beautiful lake. Sharon's sister, Sandy, and her husband, Ernie, are in this picture. He has MS and is wheelchair bound.
Don and Sharon, our hosts.

Don gave Brub and me a ride to see another home.

Last week Dad and I rented Holiday Harbor's smallest boat, the Diplomat (not in the picture).
We are headed away from the marina on a wonderfully full lake.
Mt. Shasta was glorious!
Our first night we tied up in a cove in Little Squaw Creek. There seemed to be a butterfly convention going on.
Big, full-of-water, lake made it hard to find the fish! This is a little perch Dad caught and threw back! Dad did let a huge (2 1/2 foot long) catfish break his line as we didn't want it!
Early morning (6:00 am) sunrise as we drove out to his favorite fishing spot. The lake was fairly calm then; most days it was pretty windy so we did a lot of rocking and rolling.
This was early morning. Most of the time we were in swim suits but the weather and wind made it too cold to swim - I only went in once briefly!
Dad did get 3 keepers: a salmon (which I ate there!) and 2 trout.
When we got home Friday evening Cris, John, and family had a lovely surprise greeting and dinner awaiting us!

Now we're looking forward to seeing each of you in Maine and wishing you a fun and safe touring trip getting there!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

2010-06-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

Lots of well wishes

2010-05-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to wish Dad well today on his operation, we'll be thinking of him and love him. Hope all the mother's had a great mothers day yesterday and Happy Birthday Colby!

Mom's picture of Rilan plus plenty :)

2010-05-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of pics of our precious Rilan, he's had quite the week-end, having to go into the hospital because he got a bad virus and got so much mucous clogged that he had trouble breathing right so that was very scary but he's doing good now and we are so very grateful. We are waiting for the weather to finally turn all the way warm! We've had enough winter thank you. Yesterday too we went to little Bronco's blessing wich was really nice, Nate gave a great blessing and we had a delicious dinner after at Jen's. He was so cute in his blessing outfit, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures! So that's the latest with The Anderson's :)

hmm somebody's already becoming a tv addict.

Rilan and Spunky playing after a nice walk in the sunshine! They are great friends both into anything and everything!!

Pictures of the Running Star

2010-04-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

I should probably let Justin write a race report but I couldn't help but share some pictures with you all. Justin finished the Big Sur Marathon on Sunday in an IMPRESSIVE 3:19:55---a new personal record for him.

This race is tough with constant hills, one particularly famous hill around mile 11 called Hurricane Point, 2 miles in length--yes, 2 miles of UPHILL!!!!

I am so very proud of my speedy husband! The course is closed to spectators except at the very end. Bummer for me that I couldn't surprise him along the course but I was certainly thinking of him and was waiting at the finish line.

In case you were wondering, 3:19:55 is a 7:38 pace! Justin came in 97 out of a total of 3442 runners, 10th in his age group and the 89th man to finish. Amazing stats! I wish I had his legs (minus the hairy-ness.)

Start line.

Along the route. Run takes place along Hwy 1.

Go honey!

Another shot along the beautiful ocean front run.

Sunshine!

Green hills and ocean for days.

Lookin' strong.

Bixby Bridge where there is a piano player.

Happy finisher! (if you look close, someone added a .2 to the mileage of Big Sur to make it 26.2)

picture for Mom plus some

2010-04-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Smiles from Bronco

He loves this play gym, thanks Rilan!

On our hike yesterday. Deven was really happy, I don't know what this face was for, tired of saying cheese maybe.

Nate's latest talent.

Ben getting one last ride out of the snow hill.

Happy Anniversary, Jennifer and Nathan!

2010-04-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

Happy 10th Anniversary to you!

Witty title with a pun involving the word "Bend" and the phrase "memory lane".

2010-04-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

Alisa and I headed out to Bend, OR last weekend somewhat on the spur of the moment. We had been meaning to get out there since moving to Oregon in part because of the many trips I made as a kid and in part for the promise of the sunshine in eastern Oregon. We found a hotel that allows dogs, doesn't charge for them, and doesn't put dog owners in the smoking rooms! Yay!

We had three things in mind for the trip: 1) go on a bike ride, 2) try out the two big Bend brew-pubs (Deschute's and Bend Brewing), and 3) see if we could find Granny and Grandpa's old Bend home. We succeeded on all fronts.

Oh, and before we succeeded in any of those goals we randomly found a Big Tree:

Alisa had done some research and picked out a ride that crossed the Deschutes river a couple of times. It was a great ride and a good third of it was on a great smooth road with a wide shoulder and there was no head wind. During that part of the ride we practically flew!

On the way back from the bike ride we realized we'd be passing near Granny and Grandpa's old Bend home so we decided to see if we could track it down then and there... despite being clad in spandex and sweat. Thankfully Mom had been able to track down the address earlier in the day and our many GPS devices pointed us in the right direction.

First thing I noticed was the General Store on the corner that we used to stop at all the time. In particular I remember buying those planes made of balsa wood or styrofoam to fly off the deck at the house. There is now an overpass required to get on the main street that the General Store is on. That is new, no? Also new, was the attached coffee shop, gas station, and Subway to the General Store. Progress?

Other than the General Store, the rest of the ride to the house range very few memory bells for me. When we did get to River Bend Drive, a few of those bells did start to ring. However, I remembered the road down to the house being much more steep and long. It was a long steep driveway, but not nearly the major descent of my memory. Also coming as a surprise to me was a house next to the road.

We found it! First thing that seemed different to me was the color scheme.

The house was for rent, so we had the run of the property to check it all out.

Was there always a door between the "guest bedroom" and the master bathroom?

All the bird houses reminded me of the bird watching books I would find at Granny and Grandpa's. Were some of these houses hold-overs from their day?

I know this one was, wasn't it!?

The bottom deck seemed to have gotten larger.

And, I don't remember there being so many sky-lights in the house.

Mom recalled there being a fireplace facing the river and after she mentioned that I was convinced that there had been as well. Anyone remember differently? Guess that was another sacrifice of the re-modelers.

The river was as impressive as I remembered, but which one of you siblings had me convinced there was a major waterfall right past the house downriver? No evidence of it in this picture, though it does remind me of all the times we would go fishing and craw-dadding.

Well, after a good half an hour of wandering around the grounds and checking all the doors (they were all locked unfortunately), it was time to say goodbye. It was a great trip and a great trip down memory lane. Hope everyone else is reminded of as many happy memories seeing these pictures as I was visiting.

The trail less traveled, Easter and Rilan

2010-04-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

We had a delicious, great Easter dinner, Jeremy got a new i pad and was on the news, purchasing it, Mom watched Rilan and Zoe for us as we went to the race. I thought I would have an easier time of it and get a better race time and that both Alisa and I could push eachother on the race, but it turned out that Alisa wasn't pushed at all and was there to just help me along, but I really appreciated her help even though it was really tough the whole time for me so I was a little cranky. Justin and Sarah are amazingly fast runners and both got awards. Justin won first in his age division and was so fast that he started 10 min before us ran 3.5 more miles then us and passed us by on the way to the finish. He was speeding along as I was barely surviving, huffing and puffing trying to finish. He was one of the first to pass us and then Sarah came shortly after, winning the overall top female...of course! They are both amazing:). It was so great to do it and I'm so glad I got to run my first 5k with Justin, Alisa and Sarah there with me. As again I'm stumped with formatting, the last picture is of Rilan preparing for races too as he races along our floors pushing his favorite toy, Grandad gave him for Christmas, his dump truck.

Mom's update

2010-03-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

It's been too long since I have done a post, as these are backwards in order! Our newest addition: 8 Australorp one week old chicks.
Jennifer and Bronco at home. Look at the size of his hands!
Bronco's bilirubin tested high so he needed to spend lots of time on the blue light. He actually seemed soothed at times by the vibration of the fan. After 3 days, his count was down!
'Aunt Candy', aka Jill, brought Deven, Ben, and Emily fruit roll ups.
Rilan was his good natured, smiling, self. He was crawling all around and Jill told me he's pulling himself up to try and walk now!
Mantua had lots of snow and snowed even more while I was there, despite Nate bemoaning the fact that the weather was too warm and the snow was melting fast.
Early morning was such a beautiful time! I took this as I was waiting for Emily and Ben to come down for breakfast and get ready for school.
Bronco is a beautiful baby!
This was taken after his bath - which he was not particularly fond of.
Rilan and Thain at the hospital while Jill was visiting Jen. Siblings could go in, but no other children under 14 years of age.
Jen, Deven, and Bronco in the first day after his birth. Both Jen and Bronco were given oxygen.
While Deven and I were 'home alone', we made cookies! He was great company and good as gold!

Thank you

2010-03-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

I wanted to thank everyone for the presents and birthday wishes!

I enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in my new hammock. I am attaching a picture of the hammock, Calla laying next to me in the hammock, and the dinner Kathryn made for me.

Love you all!
Jeremy

Happy Birthday Jeremy.

2010-03-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY!!!

Thanks for the birthday gifts.

2010-03-12T09:16:00.000-08:00

Thain wanted me to write for him on the blog a very big thank you to all the family for his birthday gifts. :). Rilan is crawling all over the place now, it's very cute, I'll try to post a video or picture soon. Hope everyone's doing great.
Love,
Thain and Jill :)

If you like this one...

2010-03-03T16:04:00.000-08:00

then check out our blog at www.blainefaminmantua.blogspot.com for more pictures. Love, Jen

Anderson Adventures

2010-02-13T08:12:00.000-08:00

Anderson Adventures Soon to be...Jill's goals and random thoughts on
Love, Life and the pursuit of happiness. (my personal thrills and pills :).)

RIlan Rilan Rilan...my annoying Mom blog :)

2010-02-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

Rilan eating his prunes :)
Ok Yes I know I liked seeing pics of friends kids etc....but sometimes
I wondered if that's all they could talk about and now I'm one of them.
Sorry It's just so hard first because He's just so cute and second is well
yes parenthood is life consuming it involves about 90 percent of what
I do anymore and I deffinetly wouldn't have it any other way..Parenthood
is the best thing ever...so.... here is an annoying mom mostly
all about baby blog :)

Rilan in his back pack he loves hanging out with
Mommy or Daddy seeing the town this way.

In his jumper and very cute sweater from
Alisa. He loves and uses ALL his wonderful
christmas gifts! I love them too :)

He got his two bottom teeth and so he figures he's ready
for steak :)....He's chewing on a piece of jerkey. I think
it feels good on his top teeth that I'm pretty sure are
coming in too.

He's just a cute boy and this is a cute pic.

He thinks he's cute too ;). He's really loving playing

in the mirror lately..It was so adorable this day he

was just doing lots of fun cute things, so here's a few

cute mirror pics....

We went to Vegas for a few days last week and here

both Rilan and Daddy have had quite enough pic

attempts...it still didn't turn out right....I was trying

to get the gondala in the back ground.

Rilan in his highchair looking cute before all the mess

is made :)

Playing with his dump truck from Grandad...He

just loves dumping out all the the blocks :)

Our vegas trip not the greatest pic but well one

of the best I have of all of us..

Amber, Heath, Amber's friends, Thain,

and Spunky and I went for a walk on wed.

it was fun and beautifull to see the frozen

lake and mountains.

Some brave or crazy nuts :)... nah it was

pretty solid..yes it's still pretty cold here

in Utah..

My adorable shopping buddy....love this outfit

from Cris from Christmas too! :)
Yes I know this was a LOT of pics but there were

even more I was tempted to blog. I know Mom

Grandma might not mind anyway :).

We just went swimming today with Rilan and he

had a good time, after we treated ourselves to some

wonderfull ice-cream cones....Thanks Mom and Dad

for the Valentines treat :).

HAPPY VALENTINES WEEK-END EVERYONE!

We sure love you and are grateful for you.

Sunshine and Flowers...is it Spring?

2010-01-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

Is it really January? I say this because last Saturday it looked like this...Justin and I went riding out West of Portland and were treated with some sunshine! (Then, January hit on Sunday and it poured but yesterday it didn't rain.)

Here is a funny picture of Justin getting ready for the bike ride in his Sierra Nevada bike jersey (now I want one too).

This week has been a bit stressful for me. Last night I was treated to these...I know some of you will argue otherwise but I have the best husband ever! (Yes, the flowers are in beer boot cup, my vases must be at my parents house.)

I'm really excited to keep reading everyone's feedback about DisneyWorld. A Florida vacation in January sounds great to this Northwesterner (even though I really can't complain too much about the weather this week). I did a quick search for rental houses near Orlando and found a couple of sites:

http://www.floridasunvacationhomes.com/

http://www.orlandovacationrentals.com/

http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/florida/central-disney-orlando/orlando

However, I know this family is pretty skilled at finding rental houses.

Happy rental house hunting!

Rilan's First Trip To Mexico a few christmas pics

2010-01-22T10:30:00.000-08:00

Testing ou t the waters

Wasn't so sure about the ocean but loved putting

his feet in the sand

Jumping away in the wee morning hours

Loves beach bummin it with daddy

We got to go snorkeling as Rilan slept on the boat

was lots of fun and the water wasn't too cold

We went with our cousins Sheila and Alan we

were taking a morning walk on the beach

Rilan's first Daquiri Sans the alcohoal of course. how the

heck do you spell alchoahoal?? I'm having a brain laps.

The Justin and Alisa Santas

Mom and Dad opening stockings

John Aiden and Cris...sorry John not the best

expression..

The Christmas gang

Another arbitrary list!

2010-01-12T21:23:00.000-08:00

Five wonderful things in no particular order:

1. THE GREATEST FRENCH TOAST IN THE WORLD
I came up with that name for this recipe when I was thinking about it in my head. I wanted to incorporate all the best things about other french toast recipes I have really enjoyed, subtle orange flavorings, a buttery sweet coconut crust, and a custardy interior. Of course, the french toast doesn't live up to the name, but it was pretty good! I think I need to up the orange flavor even more next time.

Of course, as would be expected, THE GREATEST FRENCH TOAST IN THE WORLD does create a lot of dirty dishes.

2. Deep dish pizza
This recipe actually fires a shot across the bow of Zachary's Pizza in Berkeley (and Danville, etc.). However, Zachary's laughs off that shot and proceeds to sink this pizza as Zachary's is still easily better. This one I don't have to drive 600 million miles for either though and it is quite delicious. I linked the recipe (free for another couple of months from Cook's Illustrated) above. The version I made (from the print magazine) didn't have sausage and I added spinach to one of the pizzas; other than that though the recipes are identical to what I made.

I used a pie plate and a cheese cake form pan as I didn't have the cake pan it calls for. Both worked well, but the form pan leaked olive oil all over the oven! So, lesson learned next time I will probably use two pie plates.

All the fun kitchen tools we received for Christmas have really been a motivating factor for getting into the kitchen!

3. Zoey Tricks
Zoey is missing all the treats she gets for showing off to the kids. She therefore demanded we make this movie in hopes that she would be sent treats.

4. Christmas Pictures
We had such a great Christmas (as usual) and feel so lucky to be spoiled by all of you. It was so great to see everyone and hang out for a few days. Looking forward to the next one!

Here are some random pictures that I liked of the festivities:

5. Puzzle

Yay! Utopia achieved.

One procedural thing in the only order one thing can be in:

1. Subscribe to comments.
I know I posted this to the comments a few posts back, but I wanted to make sure people were aware that they could subscribe to the comments so that any comments posted after the one you post will be emailed to you. I know I have wished that feature existed for some time now. Turns out that it does exist and I was just overlooking it!

Anyway if you weren't previously aware, to subscribe just make sure that little box is checked when posting your comment.

What's new with us

2010-01-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

So, nothing too exciting happening with us, but here are a couple of pictures of what is new. I also changed the background, as sadly, Christmas is over.

First, here is a picture of the new la-z-boy chair that Kathryn bought me for my Christmas present. It is very comfy!

Second, here is a picture of our new back yard. We decided to plant some photinias along the back fence to hopefully provide a privacy screen to block out the only thing I don't like about our house. :) We decided to get the 15 gallon bucket size plants to hopefully speed up the process.

Christmas Memories 2009

2010-01-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas always comes and goes so quickly, too quickly! I'm already looking forward to next year. Here are a few fun pictures from our Christmas in Paradise and a couple I took this past week back in Portland.

Jill, you'd already turned around at this point wish I had thought to get one with you running too! We will get some good pictures in March. (Anyone who wants to run either the 5k or 1/2 marathon in Bidwell Park in March let me know and I can send you the information on signing up. Justin and I will be running the 1/2, most likely, and Jill will be running the 5k.)
Justin and I running with Sarah (and Jill) in Bidwell.

A toast to yummy mochas!

Pile-o-presents!

Opening time...

This one is cute with Zoey trying to sneak her way into something!

California sunshine on the tree!

The drive home was uneventful and the weather actually wasn't bad over the passes either. A few days later however...
Portland got a mini snow storm! It only snowed for a few hours but it was pretty heavy at times and made the roads a royal mess. Both Justin and I were at home. We both caught a bit of a bug so I decided to work from home, good thing I did it took some people hours to get home.

This last one is for the Blaine's. Your puzzle was a hit. I haven't touched it and Justin has already made so much progress.

Happy New Year to everyone. Here's to a great 2010!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-17T21:10:00.000-08:00

For Mom.. As for some reason, she alluded to wanting actual Dunlaps on the Dunlap blog..

New post editor

2009-12-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

Now that we all have super powers in the dunlapdealings blog world, we can enable the new and improved post editor. We might have been able to enable it before, but I am not sure.

More details about how to enable it and what is new in this version is located here.

And, since I am at work and don't have access to any pictures to post, here are a few pictures related to my work.

<-- An image to the left

An image to the right -->

An image in the center:

Hopefully this should make it easier for you to upload and insert pictures to the blog.

Enjoy!

Favorite Blaine Thanksgiving pictures

2009-12-15T10:23:00.001-08:00

The feast...

This is the cutest one! What a good Grandpa!

Our Thanksgiving walk up the knoll while the Turkey baked.

Ben jumping off the knoll...

Does this picture make anyone besides me nervous? Thankfully, I wasn't there to witness this trip on the lake. Dads can be much more fun.

If you ever want to edit the blog background just click on the icon "cutest blog on the block" in the upper left hand corner. Go to free backgrounds. Click on blogspot backgrounds and there are many to choose from! Just follow the directions they give you.

Instead of wrapping your presents, I got creative with the blog pages. I added a post to www.blainefaminmantua.blogspot.com too if you want to see that one. See you all soon!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

Justin and I had a great weekend shopping, wrapping presents, making toffee and running in the cold/icy/foggy weather.

Saturday we shopped! We even brought home a little something for Justin.

Spartacus (my bike, the one with the red on it) has a new friend!

After shopping, Justin made a yummy dinner (hopefully he will post pictures and the recipe) and I wrapped presents! (Jen, hopefully Ben doesn't see this since his birthday present is in the background. Maybe you can scroll over it fast!)

Zoey slept!

Sunday we got up early and got in a very cold and icy run in downtown. I couldn't believe there were people out in SHORTS! Another great thing about Portland is it is truly a town of runners, we saw soooo many people out braving the cold and ice. I love that!

Can't wait to see everyone next week!

P.S. Jill/Thain, so sorry to hear about your loss. We are thinking of you both.

Utah Vacation 2009

2009-12-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

I was going through this year's pictures to make the calendar pages when I stumbled upon a bunch of pictures I had prepared to put up on the blog from our vacation. It is about time I post them!!

Nieces and Nephews enjoying checking out the new place.

One of my favorite things about the place was the awesome great room.

Rootbeer fun and mayhem!

Pretty sunsets almost every night

Brianna picked up a weird but amusing habit...

Revisiting Jill and Thain's place of nuptial exchange. Colby wondering why everyone else decided to jam into one tram.

Crazy people refusing to use a perfectly good tram system.

Um, which way is down on this map?

Family push-up challenge!

Carrots! Give us more carrots!

Wildlife galore near the pond.

Enjoying the firework display in the distance.

We can top that!

An Oregon Thanksgiving

2009-12-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

A thanksgiving tale from Oregon. We started the morning running with friends along the waterfront in downtown Portland.

We didn't even plan to be a rainbow! (The girl on the end is Sarah and that's her beagle Vaughn. He and Zoey are best buds.)
The group, in motion!

Justin and I after we finished earning our turkey with 10 and 13.1 miles respectively.

I tried my hand at making an apple tart. Sadly, I don't have a picture of the final product (but I stole one from the internet). Here is a picture of it before we flipped it out onto a serving plate.

Here's what it resembled but probably not quite as perfect looking:

We also made the vegetarian stuffing in a pumpkin recipe again this year. But didn't take any photos...sorry!

I didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving dinner but a couple of my friends did.

Toasting to our hosts at table one.

View of tables ones and two. We didn't know many people at the table in the front of this picture.

This doesn't do it justice but this is a photo of the food smorgasbord! You can see our pumpkin pretty clearly. It was so fun to try so many people's recipes, all different, all very tasty.

Later during Thanksgiving weekend we took the bikes out for a spin in rural Washington County (west of Portland) not too far from where we used to live.

It was cold but dry!

For the Twilight fans in the family, I saw New Moon with my friends on Friday afternoon. I can't say it was a great movie but it was MILES better than the first one. I'm also knee deep in the Harry Potter books. A friend lent me the first one and I didn't think I'd really like them but here we are only a few weeks later and I'm half way through book 5 (of 7).

For the video game players of the family, Justin played Fallout 3--a lot!

It's been really chilly in Portland the last few days (probably nothing compared to what it's like in UT) but cold for us. This morning it was 28 and they are predicting "flurries" on Sunday. The best news is...it's been SUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I prefer the cold to the gray so bring it on cold as long as you stay sunny I'm a happy girl!

We're really looking forward to seeing you all in a few weeks! In the meantime, happy calendaring and shopping. (We started out so well with the Xmas shopping, I did half of it in September!)

Our Thanksgiving week in Utah

2009-12-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

'Twas cold so the hosting kids brought Kathryn and Jeremy some of Nate's slippers!

The Blaines and Andersons went tree hunting the weekend before we got there! Now Deven, Emily, and Ben are ready for Santa!
One of our hikes was to the top of the knoll part of the way around the reservoir.
Nate is taking a picture of Ben jumping off a rock. It reminds me of the pictures Justin and Jeremy took near the Skyway of them "jumping" into the canyon.
This is for Cris and John, who gave Rilan this adorable outfit!
Ahh, time for Nate to carve the turkey!
I had to include a photo of the delicious feast prepared for us!
Hopefully you can click on this to enlarge it so you might read what Emily wrote regarding her Thanksgiving to be.
i-phones were a big hit with everyone. Jen and Nate tried both Kathryn's and Jeremy's to decide which model they wanted Santa to bring them.
This was an event I wish I could share! My camera took a video of Thain talking to Rilan about his taking steps, which Rilan did in the next photo - his little legs pumped up and down repeatedly! It was sooo cute and is still on my camera if you'd like to view it when you are here! I need a talented son or daughter to show me how to post a video!!!!

Emily, Deven, and Benjamin painting their sun-catchers.
Rilan charming his Granddad!

CHRISTMAS CALANDER TIME

2009-12-01T07:27:00.001-08:00

Just a reminder to everyone that I will need those christmas calander pages really soon! So get a going on them if you can...if you don't want to participate let me know soon too so I can do or reassign them. I still need to do mine too but it's getting close so I thought I better remind you all... I need to quit signing up for these things were I have to annoy you all....well I better get Rilan he's crying. I'll try to do a real post soon too. Love you all. Jill

Christmas Tree time

2009-11-29T18:02:00.001-08:00

Is this tree the one?

These are the 2009 Christmas Trees for the Dunlap homes. Our little tree is behind the car as we tried to figure out how to keep the gigantic tree to stay put. The snow angels were freezing, although the gloves kept coming off...Just a few scary moments driving in the ice.All in all a good
trip...Thanks to Grandma A for joining us!

colbys christmas list

2009-11-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

hey everyone this is Colby. I cant wait to see all of you during Christmas and hopefully sooner. I put my wish list up and ill paste the link at the bottom of the page. Footballs been pretty fun and now Basketball has started back up. Love you all and see you soon. (:

http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3L0J421KB9CXD?reveal=unpurchased&filter=all&sort=date-added&layout=standard&x=17&y=10

My Morning

2009-11-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

I haven’t posted in a long while but I thought I’d take the time to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving tomorrow. Justin and I will be thinking of all of you and wishing you a safe travels and happy eating.

I wanted to share what I saw on my way to work this morning! Spartacus (aka my awesome new bike) and I took a ride to work this morning. We were treated to the most spectacular views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens at sunrise. I pulled over and took a few photos. Days like today make me feel lucky to live in Oregon (I know, no one thought I would EVER say that, right?!?!).

This last one is supposed to be St. Helens but the iPhone camera isn't the best for long distance shots.

On my other blog, I'm hosting a virtual turkey trot tomorrow. Essentially, it's motivation to get out and exercise before eating lots of yummy food because you'll know several other people from across the country will also be trotting along too. I'm posting the "race bib" below and I encourage everyone to get outside even just for a walk around the block. Enjoy family and nature (wow, that really made me sound like a hippy-dippy tree-hugging Oregonian...uh-oh...where is the mall? I need a dose of reality.)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Black Bean and Pumpkin Soup

2009-11-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Another week another tasty meal. This week I made some Twice Baked Potatoes, Angel Biscuits (the main difference between them and run-of-the-mill biscuits being that they have yeast in them), and the star of the week, Black Bean and Pumpkin Soup. It was all great, but the soup has to be one of my favorite of all time. The flavors worked so well together and was even better the next day. The only major change I made was adding a dollop of crème fraîche. I would make the other two recipes again as well.

We had a fun weekend entertaining Jon, my college roommate, who came up in part to cheer on his little sister Debrah who was in Eugene running for the Cal cross country team.

The weather has fully made the turn to autumn/winter here and we are getting used to the cold, drissling, very short days. Sigh... At least that all makes it a great setting for staying indoors and making more yummy soups!

Epilogue: The power just went out and the noise of something big falling over could be heard in the distance. The wintry weather is manifesting itself as some serious gusting wind right now. Good thing I am using the netbook (on battery and not plugged into the wall).

Wonders never cease! It works again!

2009-11-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

I apologize, Justin, for jumping in so soon after your new blog. But posting it worked for me and I am afraid it might not next time I try! This is Zoe waiting for her treat for not begging a few weeks ago in Paradise! Her eyes tell their own story, however!
Brianna opening her birthday gifts from Justin and Alisa - I don't remember what was so funny. Alisa had run a half marathon in the women's event in SF that day. Go Alisa!
This photo is for Thain - with thanks as our grass is really lush and green and has no more brown spots!
Aiden decided that spiders for dinner (thanks, Jen!) might not be such a bad idea after all.
Aiden and Brianna rode the Plasmacar until one of the wheels self-destructed. Hope we can find new ones!
Just a picture to show Nate that he has competition in the cherry consumption department! Colby's JV football team, with lots of great playing by Colby, beat mighty Enterprise in their final game Friday night.

Recipe of the Week (Month? Year? One off?)

2009-11-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

First: Happy Birthday Jen!

Second: Hi there, how are you doing?

Third: I made a cool lasagna last week. It was pretty great and had an unusual (and quite seasonal) ingredient: squash! I felt like I should share. The consistency is very much what would be expected of a lasagna, but the flavor is quite different and unique. Mom may be surprised at its source too, Martha Stewart. Actually, I heard about it from a blog I follow The Kitchn (sic). Click on the link on Martha for the recipe.

Here are a couple of entirely unappetizing images of it that will not convince you to make it (it looked quite good in person thank you):

I paired it with my beets and blue cheese dish.

Finally (fourth for those playing along): We have taught Zoey a few new tricks lately, the most useful of which is "begging". Why teach a dog to beg? Well, because this way she does it in the least offensive way possible. Here she is in action:

Now she lies down whenever either one of us is eating anything and is rewarded with a few small treats for her effort.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T13:26:00.001-08:00

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween! I posted our pictures on adventures of the blaine gang blog page if you want to check them out. There's an ultrasound picture of Bronco, and costume pictures of all of us. You can see my growing tummy too.

Hey John and Cris, and Jeremy and Kathryn, PLEASE post wish lists. I need your help. Thanks! Love to all, Jen

Andersons October Recap

2009-10-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween to all. I decided to maybe try and post once a month at least so here is

all of our late September/October happenings.....(sorry again for the misorder and sloppy formating I just cant figure it out, I tried to move pics after and it started to but shut off my computer twice in a row so instead of risk it I'm just going to leave it be... sloppy as it maybe.)

visiting California for Dad's b.day. We had a great visit with all.

Visiting Jeremy and Kathryns and going for a walk with them......Rilan's first football game....watching Colby play.

Our Road trip, Rilan's first beach experience on the coast of Washington

Heath's mega birthday slumber party ack!

my b.day Jen made a great dinner and dessert for me...the cake had all 31 candles, thank goodness their house didn't burn down

recognize huntsville lake with pretty autumn colors?

my b.day gift set up on our porch...a comfy hammock............if it would only get warmer again!

taking a family walk up in Huntsville

Rilan using his bouncer not quite sure what to do with it yet......

our solution to the cutest bedhog ever. love the crib john and cris!

the cutest bedhog ever..

my big assembly project........office furniture

more unassembled wood in the office

weeks later!

our road trip a beautifull view through mid Washington on 90....icy but beutiful..pictures don't do the things we saw justice

Beautifull Oregon Mulnomah falls about an hour east of Justin and Alisa

in the mining museum in Butte Montana, an old mine structure very interesting and cool.

a luminous storm coming in the same day we walked up there with Amber and Heath

The town of Butte Montana

on a walk with Justin just above his place!

In front of their appartment...we had a great visit loved the resteraunt too they took us too very fun original great food!

Alisa holding a crying baby....looks ready to cry herself ;)...she really did great holding him though for a big while before and he was already grumpy!

A aircraft carrier in Bremonton Wa...we got to tour one as our niece Sarah's husband is in the Navy. very intersting.

Mom & Dad's Christmas list

2009-10-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

Well, Dad and I have actually created a Christmas Wish list!

Dad:
a trifold wallet
Vermont Country Store non elastic crew socks - black H1120 $9.90 (8.90 ea. for 2) size 13 for 11 1/2 to 12 shoe (although Dad's shoe size is 11 EEEEE)
colored one pocket short sleeve T shirts XLT (regular shirts though he prefers XXLT)
Levi Action slacks black 42/30 (Mervyns and Penneys used to carry them)
100% cotton, white handkerchiefs

Mom:
ironing board one that doesn't screech when I open it!
sweaters/tops size M
binoculars
Tramontina 6 1/2 quart enameled cast-iron Dutch oven (Cook's Illustrated said $44.97)
Cuisipro 5 pc. stainless steel oval measuring spoons
All Clad stainless steel 2 qt. saucepan w lid - expensive! $139.95 joint family gift???
high heat scraper (spatula)
flat edged wooden spoon
William Sonoma dial a slice apple divider (19.95) recommended by Cook's Illustrated
new mouse for computer?

I was going to add some current pictures but it won't let me ~ when I click on the add image icon the 'Save Now' rectangle responds!

Christmas Calander Months

2009-10-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't heard from anyone requesting months so I just assigned them random style :). I hope that's ok. Sorry this is coming a little late to you too.....if you could have them to me by first of December/end of November sortof thing that would be great...but I really do need them by then because I haven't done this before and want time to make sure I can do this well. Thanks. I love our yearly calanders. No real theme, do what you want featuring your own family with the idea of highlights of our 2009 year bieng the main theme for at least one month maybe but yeah do what you want.
Jan.- Jill and Thain
Feb.- Justin and Alisa
Mar- Jeremy and Kathryn
Apr- Mom and Dad
May- John and Cris
June- Jen and Nate
July- Jill and Thain
Aug- Justin and Alisa
Sept.- Jeremy and Kathryn
Oct.- Mom and Dad
Nov.- John and Cris
Dec.- Jen and Nate

Blaine Wish lists

2009-09-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

Deven flew through the net on the trampoline and gashed his head on the side two weeks ago. Six stitches later, he was still smiling. He was one brave boy! His head looks back to normal now.

Emily picking peaches in Brigham City. I canned 60 jars of peaches and did two batches of peach jam. We are peached out for the moment, but they were delicious!

Christmas wish lists:

Emily: Books, pet shop toys, puppy in a pocket toys, art kit, kids cookbook, money jar that digitally counts money as you put it in

She wears size 10-12 and loves clothes too!

Ben: little safe box with a key, science kits... ???? (he wasn't helpful with ideas...)

He wears size 8 pants and size 10 shirts

Deven: airplanes, race cars with tracks, motorcycles, legos, money jar like Emily wants that counts the money as you put it in

He wears size 4-5 clothes in the little boys section

Nate: He has some things on amazon.com wish list, like a blue tooth head set for a cell phone or cordless mouse for his work computer. iphone, yeah right...

silky running shorts that are long size L, shirts XL short sleeve. He really likes the ones that have reflectors in them for running at night.

Jen: Cozy Slippers from Costco size 9, Fun shampoos and conditioners, face moisturizers, scented wax cubes for a scentsy warmer, I'll try to think of more and put it on my amazon.com wishlist.

I hope this helps! Thanks for all of your wish lists! Love, Jen