Holy cow!

Oh my goodness! Linda (sister-in-law) just put this on her blog of Mikaela! We always say how Mikaela looks like me, but seriously, I can't believe this! Too cute! Same smile and everything!

How's this one for ya?

Old pictures.

We've been scanning some old pictures that we want to get on a CD and print out.

Oh yeah.

The most adorale thing EVER.

Our neighbors have this cute little box that we used to think was a bird house. . .but a couple of weeks ago we realized it was a little storage box for a squirrel to hide nuts! We were looking out the window and noticed a cute little squirrel running along the back fence. Then he jumped over to the tree and lifted the lid to the little 'house.' He pulled out a nut and started chomping away! It was so cute! Emily didn't get a chance to see it; she only got to hear about it from us, and if you know Emily, you'd know she was totally bummed out to not be able to see an adorable little critter in the back yard. But a few days later we noticed him jumping over to the tree again! Emily finally got to see it! (And we actually got to get a picture of it!) (And you know there's really nothing to blog about once we start writing about a squirrel eating his nuts!)

Snow!

On Tuesday, it started snowing around 2:00. It just kept snowing and we eventually had 5 inches in just a few hours! The funny this is, the weather forecast showed no sign of snow! What a treat! Luckily, we got our errands done by 3:00 because shortly after that, the freeway had bumper to bumper traffic, and all the streets near the freeway were grid-locked. Totally crazy!

We got several really pretty pictures. . .



Emily took this picture of me in my new 'Eskimo' coat I got for Christmas. . .what a perfect time to use it!



Emily just gets so excited when it snows. . .obviously her favorite thing to do is eat it!


We sure hope this wasn't the only time we get snow this year, because it only stayed around for a day or two. . .although, we don't want a repeat of last year with the whole 14 inches of snow and everything!

Thanksgiving.

I know Thanksgiving was like a month and a half ago, but we need to get these pictures up.


I just have to say that Mom makes the best turkey ever and we always love when it's time to eat. Philip was especially having fun with those turkey forks. . .I love the look on his face while he's trying to poke Mom.


And we can't have a post with Philip without a funny picture of him. (That's what he gets for being such a trouble-maker!)

We had so much fun visiting with Philip, Kaylee and baby Kayden. We couldn't believe how much Kayden has grown since the last time we saw him. He is such a doll and the best baby ever! He always has a smile on his face.

We miss them so much and we can't wait to see them again!

Snow.

It's been snowing for the last two hours like CRAZY! I'll take pictures and post them later!

First Christmas present.

When we went to England this last May, we ran into our new favorite store, Cath Kidston.



Mom describes it as Laura Ashley on steroids. You can order from the US online, so I decided to take a look at their Christmas line. Oh boy. . .too cute. Mom has been wanting new mugs for hot chocolate and soup, so I found these little Christmas mugs at Cath Kidston. When they arrived in the mail (addressed to 'Miss Sarah Rayner -- so English), I couldn't resist not giving them to Mom right away. I figured, since they're Christmas mugs, we better enjoy them now. But the real reason I gave them to her early is because I couldn't wait. I just love giving her presents early! (And she loves it, too!)

They each came in a little Christmas tin! Too cute!

This is the only present I have given her early. . .there is one present that is really exciting that I will give her at noon on Christmas Eve. She keeps wanting me to tell her what it is and where we're going, but I won't give it up. She will nonchalantly say, "What are we doing on Christmas Eve?" just to try to catch me off guard. What? It's like she thinks if she randomly brings it up in a conversation that I'll say, "Oh yeah! We're going to. . ." Yeah right, Mom! :) I can't wait for Christmas Eve!

Family pictures.

Our wonderful friend, Sister Ashby, took our family pictures for us a couple of weeks ago. We haven't had our pictures taken for years, especially with just the three of us girls. It was so much fun, but now we can't pick which one to put in our Christmas cards!

Canon Beach.

For Halloween weekend we took a little trip to Canon Beach. Mom had a couple of gift certificates from her boss to stay at the Ocean Lodge, so we decided to stay a couple of nights there. We got a corner beachfront room, so we had a view of the ocean from every window!



We had so many gorgeous views from the balcony. . .the first few minutes in the morning were taken up with taking tons of pictures.



Haystack Rock was right outside our window. Mom kept saying, "Hey! We can walk to Haystack Rock!" Yes, we could, except for the fact that it's surrounded by water!



Every time we stay at the coast, we take a little drive to Astoria. It's kind of become a tradition to go see the Astoria Column.



This year, we decided to actually climb it. We had never done it before, but it was so fun.



Views from the top!



Down in the parking lot, they have this sort of Indian replica thing. We have yet another tradition where we always have to take silly pictures climbing all over the rock. I know, we're kind of crazy. Okay. . .a lot crazy.



We took a drive to Indian Beach and Ecola State Park. We got some of the prettiest pictures.



The last day, Emily had to search the beach for seashells. . .it's one of her favorite things to do. She found so many this time and even a clam shell that was completely whole and still in one piece!



We had dinner at Mo's (the best clam chowder ever!) and saw this lovely sight out of the window. What a perfect ending to the perfect day on the Oregon coast!