Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful time with Roger's family, but missed my family in CA. We're looking forward to seeing them soon!

First, we took the difficult journey (through the snow) to Craig and Melissa's house for brunch.

After a wonderful brunch with lots of food and conversation, we were treated to some Christmas fireworks in the snow

and then some of the guys pushed and then finally towed a guest's truck off their road

Then we made it home okay! Here's Hannah and Buddy waiting for the guests to arrive for dinner.

By the way, all these pictures were taken by Alan and Nathan (or someone with their camera if they're in it), because they got digital cameras for Christmas! It was fun to look back at the end of the day at Christmas through 11-year-olds' eyes.

the decorations

the entertainment

the willing subject of many pictures

dinner

the cousins (anticipating presents)

After dinner and gifts, we learned how to play 10,000. Here's Brenna trying a fancy way to roll. It worked!

We hope you had a great Christmas, too!!

More Snow!

We got a lot more snow before Christmas. School was cancelled 3 1/2 days the week before, so the kids have had a lot of time to play in it.

Here's Buddy enjoying the snow in our backyard:

Nathan sledding in the retention pond

Buddy's doghouse
In front of our house
In case you are wondering, the garbage and recycling cans are STILL THERE, 2 weeks later. It must still be too snowy for the trucks because they haven't picked up in almost 3 weeks! We are happy, though, that our road has been plowed and we can now leave our house safely and get to most places we want to go.

Snow!

We were excited about our first snow of the season on Sunday.
The kids went sledding in the retention pond behind our house.

We weren't sure how Buddy would react to the snow, but he loved sniffing and eating it. I think he's a little tired of the cold now, though. Maybe he'll enjoy the fresh snow that we're expecting today or tomorrow!

Christmas Fun

We have been enjoying the Christmas season this year, since last year we were so busy packing and moving that we felt we missed out! On the first weekend of December, Santa came to our neighborhood in his fire-truck sleigh, complete with a parade of emergency vehicles and elves collecting cans and handing out candy canes! Hannah wouldn't sit by Santa, but wanted to get a closer look.Later that night, Sinterklaas came to our house and left chocolate letters in each of the kids' wooden shoes!

We all went to pick out a tree and Buddy had a great time! He was really good and enjoyed all of the new smells.

Last week, Hannah had her Christmas program at preschool. I was amazed at how happily she stood in front of everyone and sang!

The kids also did a great job singing in front of church with their Sunday School on Sunday morning, but it was a busy morning for me, so I forgot to bring the camera. :(

More Victoria Pictures

Thanks to our niece Lindsay for taking our kids to the wax museum and for taking lots of pictures, too! Here's a picture of the geniuses.

The kids loved swimming, even though it was very, very cold out. At least the pools were warm!

We spent a lot time exploring downtown.

The cousins Nathan and Hannah on our balcony on the last day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Walking into downtown Victoria. We stayed in the second building from the right. Finishing up Thanksgiving Dinner

On the Way to Victoria B.C.

For Thanksgiving weekend, Roger's parents took the whole family to Victoria. Our kids had never been to Canada before, so they were very excited! Here are a few pictures from the ferry trip on the way there.

Lindsay and HannahLeaving Port Angeles

Nathan, Taylor, Alan, and Kylan

Good Dog, Buddy

Anyone who talked to me this summer knows that our puppy, Buddy, was driving me CRAZY. I think I threatened every day to get rid of him. He is a very quick learner and knows lots of commands well, but gets into lots of trouble. Not only did he chew up stuff, rip a lot of our clothes, jump up on everyone, nip people, scratch up our floors, chew any toys of Hannah's that he could find, but he also did things like sit on the furniture when it was forbidden (at least he's looking a little guilty here).This was final straw that caused us to banish him to the backyard for the rest of the summer: eating anything he could find on our table and counters. Of course, he found lots of trouble to get into in our backyard, too. We had blocked off this area when he was smaller because it contained our small vegetable garden. Here he's sitting on the strawberries. He even found another table to climb up on outside.He also uprooted most of the new things we planted and tore out most of the irises put in by the previous owner. He dug out of our yard into the neighbors' backyard a couple of times, too. By this time, we were walking him at least 4 times a day, so he'd be too tired to get into TOO much trouble.

We finally started to really love Buddy once he had his surgery to be neutered. On his medication, he was so calm, sweet, and cuddly...we even let him on the furniture a little because we felt so sorry for him!
Now that he's feeling better, he has more energy again, but is still very sweet. He's turning out to be a good dog after all! He even helps around the house:

He helps clean dirty dishes...

and even helps Hannah clean the sliding glass door!