Meet the Grinch

Here is a fun twist on the traditional 'sit on Santa's lap to ask for what you want for Christmas while Mom gets a photograph' that doesn't work for us since Solomon never wants to sit on Santa's lap- face it- he is scary.

So imagine my joy when I surprised the boys by taking them to a bookstore [Powells bookstore in Beaverton/Cedar Hills location] to meet the grinch. This location is really new so this was the bookstore's first character appearance. First a man read the story of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess- you can see Cyrus reading it in the bottom right picture. Then after the story was over- the Grinch comes with a dog on a lease [see bottom left picture] for the kids to pet then we went over for "picture time". Solomon ran ahead of Cyrus and myself to be next to the Grinch when I didn't have my camera ready so by the time it is our turn- both of them are goofy or weird looking but not at the same time. The boys really enjoyed this and hugged the Grinch bye when it was all done. It was exciting and a better than Santa Picture for a holiday picture. So enjoy!

Dan

Here is an adorable picture of Dan at 3 years of age!

Lighting of a Tree in Beaverton, OR

Countdown for Christmas has begun....

Boys and I enjoying some 30 degree weather- at least it was not raining!

Some more Thanksgiving pictures

Helping Aunt Liz feed the horses- about 25 horses [including 2 ponies].

We tried to have a family photo taken but everyone couldn't get their act together...

Happy Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at Aunt Liz's horse on the horse property where she works. A beautiful home. She made a turkey breast [those pop-up timer things that were advertised on tv by Albertson's work really well], potatoes, green bean casserole, green salad, and supplied the drinks and pecan pie with homemade whipped cream topping. I made cranberry sauce and a mushroom-onion stuffing that turned out pretty good. My hot crab dip was made the night before for dinner :)

Morning funnies

In case you don't know I have been really, really sick. This past weekend Dan had also been on drill and with standing days/parts of nights outside in the cold, rain [also got a flu shot courtesy of the military]- he wasn't feeling so great himself when he came home Sunday night. We all slept in Monday morning- Solomon got up around 9:15am [late for him], Cyrus got up at 9:40am, Dan got up at 9:45am leaving me to try to sleep, which I did 10-11am... So Dan is wearing his pjs and his coffee is starting to brew when a knock on the door was heard. Dan not thinking clearly at all opened the door and there was his background investigator along with another police background investigator. Although the kids went wild trying to "entertain" our guests, Dan's military stuff is all over the floor, being so sick- I let the house go a little, and everyone in their pjs and it is 10:15am. Just came by [drop a few neighbor background checks] and to let Dan know that he is recommended to hire and she'll [background investigator] call after Thanksgiving with an appointment for the psych evaluation to be done on Dec 10th or 11th. Of course with Dan's embarrassment, lack of caffeine and kids going wild- didn't get a word of it until he email apologizing again for our "casual" moment and asked what was said. Thankfully they never asked after me so they can assume that it is all Dan's fault for things being funny that morning.
We'll post the date when we get it next week!

Quote

“Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.”
-- -Author Unknown

Veteran Benefits

House OKs tax relief for soldiers, veterans
Unanimous vote also will allow them access to low-interest home loans

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21661419/

Just some small good news :)

Happy Birthday Marine Corps!

Happy Veterans' Day!

Trick or Treating at the senior care home:

[My daycare kid Oliver and Cyrus]

Cyrus is a cute monkey for the second year in a row- it was the same event last year that he discovered "cute" gets you more candy :)