The best sound ever

There is nothing like this sound in the world.

My little ball of sunshine

Can this girl get any happier?

Dancing, singing, laughing and absolute joy make up every minute of this girl's day.

Can you believe her fashion sense too? This little ensemble was all her. Plus she wore it in public. Gotta love that.

Her delight for this moment was finding a single perfect rose. Now our morning was complete. Puts life into perspective doesn't it!

Little Miss Sass

Look at this sweet face.

One would never suppose that she would be anything but an absolute sweetie, but I have it on good authority (her older brother and sister :) that she can be a bit of a sass and at times even a pill! Apparently she comes along and plays with their toys without permission, or will tell them they need to go to time out if they are bothering her - the audacity. She has even been known to want to be included in their grown up activities. Ken and I have seen her on occasion with one hand on her hip and one finger in the air telling them what for. She has been given the nickname Little Miss Sass.

Our little Huck is walking all over now. We laugh because he likes to use the bat as a cane. He looks like a little old man.

If you get your kid a hamster

(Yes he is wearing a homemade birthday hat!)

She'll want a wheel to go with it.

If you buy her a wheel she will talk you into a plastic bed, feeding dish, water tube, a hamster house with larger square footage than the current house you are living in, and a princess carriage play wheel to walk around in, along with special teething treats, and particular bedding because cedar bedding isn't good for hamsters to breathe.

On the way home from the store she will see a sign that says there is a talent show for the best pets in the world, so she will want to get Humphrey an outfit and try out for the audition.

In order to get inspiration for the clothes she will want you to take her to the library to research books on hamsters.

Once she has all of the books published on hamsters from the library she will go home and ask you to take her hamster's measurements for a skirt.

After you have ignored the requests for sewing new outfits while you are trying to make dinner you notice all of your chopped vegetables have disappeared for the hamster's lunch. You then realize that an entire year of similar events like this has passed and it doesn't seem like a big deal to throw a birthday party for the family's one year old hamster.

So you make the hamster a birthday cake and the family sings happy birthday.

All of this is what happens when you buy a kid a hamster.

Snow Glorious Snow

We decided to travel to Sunriver this past week. Last Christmas we went there was no snow, so we were delighted that this time it did not disappoint. After we arrived it snowed 9 inches.

The kids had a great time playing, sledding, and building forts in the snow.

The kids thought the snow blower was like a sprinkler.

Towards evening it started to snow again and we got another 3 inches that night.

The next day was absolutely perfect. There was a beautiful amount of snow and gorgeous blue skies.

We set off with the kids to go sledding.

That night we took the kids to see the lights at the lodge. Leo took the below picture.

It was a magical and wonderful time. The kids had a great time and we loved spending time as a family. The 4 hour drive with Huck crying for part of it not so much, but the rest was fantastic.

Christmas Happenings

For Christmas we went to my parent's place. On Christmas Eve we went to downtown Albany. There is a place where they are building a carousal. People have agreed to sponsor an animal to be carved to be put on the carousal. They have stated specific things they want featured on the animal that are special to them. Each animal costs between $5000 - $10,000 depending on its place on the carousal.

These animals are completed and available for kids to ride on. They amount of work that went into them is amazing. They are beautifully carved and elaborately painted. There are amazing little details on each animal.

One of our favorites was the giraffe. The drawing of the frog in the background was an amazing carving as well. The person who sponsored the frog grew up in the depression so the bloomers on the frog were made out of a flour sack. She loved frogs, and fireflies so the frog is holding a jar of fireflies. On the ribbon the there are little tadpoles that represent each of the woman's children. There are other elaborate details on each animal.

The below carousal is what the idea originated from. It was originally the base of a person's Christmas tree.

The real carousal will look like this one. There will be 52 animals, each hand carved. The motor is being refurnished, and an entire new building will be built to house the carousal. They are projecting it will take 10 years to complete and they are already 6 years into the project.

When you visit you can see volunteers who are carving the figures.

Isn't it amazing to think that when we return in 4 years to ride on the completed carousal baby Huck will be 5 years old!

Towards the end the little ones had lost interest. Aren't they cute. Can't you just see Little Miss stomping her foot and yelling, "Mom!"

I think this is the only picture of me with my sweet boys during the entire trip.

On Christmas Eve night we dressed the kids up and did the nativity. I bet you didn't know there was a pink poodle (aka sheep) in the original nativity. Apparently baby Huck wasn't too keen about his part in the play.

For several weeks leading up to Christmas Midge wrote a play for the family to perform the nativity. The play was amazing. She had a part for each member of the family and she really thought about the age and what the person was capable of. She even wrote directions into the play of where people should be and what they should do in addition to what they say.

The whole crew.

Christmas Eve night we had the kids get dressed in their Christmas PJs from grandma and grandpa.

On Christmas morning the kids were moving so fast it was a flurry of activity.

Despite all the toys baby Huck got all he really wanted was to chew on the plastic straps of one of the toys.

For Christmas we made marshmallow guns for everyone.

Then we went outside and had a war.

This was the marshmallow crew. They guarded the ammo, rather they ate the ammo. The safe zone was on the front porch. Notice the flying marshmallow in the middle of the photo, the porch was relatively safe.

A lot of Midge's gifts were art supplies (she is turning into an amazing artist). She set up an entire art studio in the sun room and spent the entire day creating mini masterpieces.

It was a wonderful Christmas for everyone.