Happy 8th Anniversary Peter

Christmas Day

First we opened presents at our house... Then we went to the Cole's for breakfast and more presents...

Grandma Carolyn Cole and new cousin Eli

And finally to the Garrahan's for Christmas dinner and more gifts.

Bren and I matched in our attire; same brands, same colors. We've got good taste...and a connection at Patagonia.

Let the Framing Begin!

Sticking to Cole tradition, "When company comes...put them to work." Thanks Uncle Greg for all of your hard work.

And then there was a wall! The new large room under our house will be the laundry room, freezer room, work out room, craft room, mud room, music room...ha ha. The possibilities are endless. Now, how long until it's complete? I'm hoping the other Cole tradition of unfinished projects will not apply here.

Gingerbread Houses

Heidi wanted to make gingerbread houses with the girls, thinking it would be a fun activity and allow them to get creative. Once they realized that we weren't going to let them eat all the candy decorations they lost interest, leaving me the task of decorating a gingerbread house that would not disappoint. I had fun and with Heidi's help was able to create this:

Unfortunately it is not so pretty now. Peter has picked at it and eaten almost everything colorful that is not stuck too hard in the white, sugar "glue".

School Holiday Program

Taylor got to be a butterfly in the school play, a Mexican folklore tale. She did not have any speaking parts but needed to know where to move and when. Flying through the river.
Singing

Dancing with Rose.

I like this picture because it's of all the students, and it's candid. They hadn't practiced this song very much and it was in Spanish. They couldn't get the second line right during practice and so the teacher wrote out the lyrics on posterboard. Here they are trying to sing and read unfamiliar Spanish at the same time. Click on the picture for a closer look at their faces.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We got our Christmas tree on Friday. We drove up to the snow, found a somewhat sad tree with a nice top,sawed it down,

played in the snow and got cold,

went to our friends' house, gave the girls a warm bath and had dinner.

When we got home we realized that the tree was way too big so we had to cut off more of the bottom. Monday we decorated it in about 10 mins and...viola!
Merry Christmas!

Truckee Thanksgiving Vacation

For Thanksgiving this year my parents rented a cabin in Truckee, close to my brother's. This is how we spent our vacation:
cooking,
reading,

eating,

playing music,entertaining the wildlife,

clelbrating my birthday,

reading more,

sledding,

and taking family photos.

We also played Cranium and other games, went on a run, and watched football on TV. It finally snowed on our last day there (as you can see from the sledding pictures there wasn't much to play in).

City Mouse/Country Mouse

I went down to San Leandro a few weeks ago to tie up some loose ends and see friends. I took both girls with me. Taylor missed reading the country mouse and the city mouse story at school but we discussed the theme of the book throughout our trip. It was great to see so many friends, but I was reminded of how much I fear traffic. We mostly visited with our friends, the Potters, who just had a new addition to their family. Taylor loved holding baby Norah.

Mia and Lauryn picked up right where they left off.

This was a great half-way point where we stopped both on the way there and back. The Whiskeytown Lake Visitor's Center has clean bathrooms, trash cans, animal fur and skeletons that kids can touch, and it's a nice place to eat lunch. This picture was taken on our way home and it's honestly the best one I have despite Taylor's tongue. She's wearing her new boots which are already falling apart. Cheap shoes don't last!

Trick-or-Treat

For round two of Halloween Taylor was a princess, dressed in a hodge- podge of "fancy" clothes from around the house, including my homecoming tiara which loses a piece every time the girls play with it. Peter's favorite part of her outfit were her princess crocs. Lauryn got to wear the witch hat and didn't have to deal with any face paint. We went trick-or-treating with some friends who showed us where to go. The girls had a lot of fun. Lauryn, Rose, and Taylor

This was before we left. Taylor made a goofy face but it's the only picture that didn't have lighting issues so I'm posting it. I think Lauryn is the cutest witch. It was fun to watch her experience her first real Halloween.

Halloween Carnival

Junction Elementary's biggest fund raiser is the Halloween carnival and raffle. Here are some pictures of the big event. Taylor just won a cake at the cake walk and she's choosing a cake. The "cake" I made (brownies with orange-colored mint frosting) looked so bad that it was the very last one on the table.

This one makes me laugh because even though it's a bad picture of Peter, his half-opened eyes fit the costume.

We were late for the carnival and Peter and I were supposed to be at two separate booths. I threw on some clothes I don't usually wear and didn't look in the mirror. I left the face-painting up to the face-painting booth and was pleased with Lauryn's face. I didn't get around to making cat ears for her headband but they took care of that for me by putting the ears on her forehead.

Oh boy! Taylor just won a gold fish...and now it's floating in a big mason jar on top of the fridge. If it survives that we'll put it in the pond someday.

Row Row Row Your Boat

Our friend Jeanne sent her dad and his bride up here for a fishing trip. Peter took them out on the river one day and they went with Doug the next. I can't figure out how to upload video on facebook so I'm posting it here. It's cute. It's amazing to me how busy the fishing season has been. Both Doug and Peter have been on the river for the last week straight.

Company

I'm glad my mom takes pictures or I'd have nothing for my blogs. I just posted more pictures on my running blog.

Bren and Neil came up to Mom and Dad's for a weekend and the four of them came down to check out our new place and go for a hike. Cypress, the girl next to Bren, lives just across the highway from us with her fiance. She and Bren have been friends for about four years, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with her.Neil carried Lauryn in the backpack on the hike. Instead of falling asleep like I'd hoped, she kept talking and talking. Neil answered all of her questions and kept her entertained.

Our kittens are getting bigger.

This cat looked so relaxed until I took it's picture. The camera flash seemed to shoot it into the air.