Christmas in Oregon

It was a winter wonderland in Oregon this year.  It never snows there, and when it does it melts within a few hours.  So, this was a very unique Christmas.  I had to take pictures outside my parents house to never forget the Christmas in Oregon with a foot of snow.  At it stayed the whole time we were there.

Did I mention we drove there from Idaho??  Yeah, it was scary.  It normally is a twelve hour drive...but there was a blizzard in the Columbia River Gorge...so it took us seventeen hours this time.  Did I also mention that they don't have snow plows in Oregon???  This was the first time we have ever actually had to use our snow chains.  The plows never did come thru the whole entire Portland area.  They just wait til it melts.  Coming from Idaho that is a really weird thing.

This was Rob's picture.  Another new thing for this Idaho Boy was seeing ice over everything.  I know you can't tell very well from this picture, but our van is completed incased in a layer of ice.  Rob had never seen anything like it, so he took a picture.

Sooooo.....what do you do when you are snowed in at Grandma and Grandpa's house???

You play games!!!

Christmas Eve picture of Robert's Family

Christmas Eve Picture of Paul's Family

Christmas Eve of our Family.

Don't we already look tired??

Christmas morning for Garrison

Christmas morning for Parker.  He loves all his Lego Loot!

He scored a big Rubbermaid container of Legos.  Thousands and thousands of pieces.

Addison really wanted a horse for Christmas.  So, she got one!  And the best part....we don't have to feed or clean up after this one.

We seriously had a wonderful time in Oregon this year.  Although the drive to and from was extremely scary at times.  It was worth all the fun times and memories.  We feel very blessed this year and we are especially grateful for FAMILY.

Carson's baptism

Addison and Ashlyn

Carson and Parker

Carson with his proud parents!

My brother Paul and Jennifer

We got to go to Utah for Carson's baptism.  It was great to see so much family.  The cousins always love to get together and play.

Addie loves horses

Addison has a love of horses...just like her mother.

Addie and Tobee  (Kirsten's horse)

Parker being Parker-Halloween

Parker LOVES to sell things. Here he is setting up a Pumpkin sale. He has a small following too. He had a lot of friends who wanted to stop by and help him with the sale. He was really generous too and split the earnings with all his little buddies. He made quite a bit too.

Here is Parker's WONDERFUL Harry Potter Quidditch costume. Why is it so wonderful??? Because I put a lot of time and money into it. Rob was not thrilled with this as he says, "You only wear it one day a year!" Yes, but if I'm going to do a costume I sometimes get a little carried away and have to go all out. I made the Quidditch Robe by hand (thanks to Grandma Dalley's help) And bought all the cool other things to make it look as much like the movie as possible. I think it turned out pretty good. We even dyed Parker's hair black. Parker was pretty excited about it all.

We had an old chicken costume that was Addison's. We put Garrison in it and called him Hedwig.

We had a wizard theme going on this year as you can tell. Addison really wanted to be a witch. Then she decided to add vampire teeth in the costume too.

Fun Pictures

Just taking some pictures of my cute kids (if I do say so myself).

Parker and Sennika

I had to put this picture in for Sennika (my little niece). She loves her cousin Parker, and Parker loves her too. So, here they are together.

Fun with Garrison

One of Garrison's favorite activites....climbing in the cup drawer and throwing out all the cups. 

 What a helper!!

Another favorite activity.....playing on the trampoline.  I had to take a picture with all that static.