December Happenings

We went to Kate's preschool Christmas program.



Kate couldn't see us, but kept waving. I'm just glad she wasn't the one picking her nose.

Kate was a cow

Eating cookies with Kate's preschool friend that she likes to chase the girls with.

Allie and Kate taught a Christmas family home evening lesson straight from Allie's pillow and the scriptures.

We made some cookies for Santa





And ate lots of sugar


Allie hosted a pictionary party


We've also been to 3 birthday parties, 3 christmas parties, ice skating, roller skating, bowling, tennis, activity days, Christmas Eve with family, Christmas Day with family, a basketball tournament and everyone made it to the dentist. Phew! It has been a fun filled vacation!

Blazers!

Last night Luke got to go to a friends birthday party at a Trailblazer's game. They saw the Blazer's beat the Nuggets 111-102 in a great game. Their little group even got top be on the jumbotron! Luke didn't get home until after 10:30 which he thought was pretty cool.

Santa part 2

I never got around to posting the picture of all the kids with Santa. Kate is really into Santa this year. She has sat on his lap twice already and wants to go again. Everytime someone knocks on the door she runs to it saying, "Santa's here!

Train

While driving around town we have seen the Max train and Kate has been asking to ride the train for weeks. So last week Kate and I went and rode the train into downtown Portland. It wasn't raining, but it was freezing. Of course, there was some kind of power outage so the trains weren't running as scheduled, but after standing out in the cold we finally got in. While in downtown we looked at the giant tree in Pioneer Square, checked out the Macy's window displays, visited Santa (again), and got some frozen yogurt with gummy bears for lunch. Okay, that was Kate's lunch but not mine. I had planned on sharing, but her pick didn't really interest me. I was worried that we might run into Occupy Portland but we made it out okay and were not involved in any protests.
  Waiting for the train

Writing and mailing a letter to Santa. Kate wrote it herself and would not accept any help. Hopefully Santa can read it since she doesn't know how to write.

Nothing like frozen yogurt with gummy bears on a freezing day.

Holiday Choir

This is Allie's second year in the Holiday Choir at school. She has a concert coming up this week, and in preparation for the concert, the choir always sings at a retirement home. The children fill a balcony and sing to the residents as they have lunch. I think it's even better than the real concert because you can see the joy in the residents' faces. Kate came along with me to listen. As always, she is a big hit with the 5th graders. They always mob her and want to play with her and get her to talk. This group of Allie's friends wanted to have their picture taken with Kate.

Piano Recital

Allie had a piano recital last night. She just started up again this fall after a bit of a break with all of our moves. We really miss her old teacher Maria, but she was a little to far for us with all of the things we have going on. Her new teacher Letty is great and teaches a lot of the kids in the neighborhood. Allie really loves piano and has been super disciplined about getting up each morning to practice. She played Christofori's Dream and Pachelbel Canon.

 


Christofori's Dream

Pachelbel Canon

Santa

Kate has a new friend!

We got our tree yesterday


And someone's very happy about it!

Halloween Festivities

Halloween night we had the missionaries and our friends over for dinner. Then we did some trick or treating around the neighborhood. It was perfectly chilly and dry-which is pretty good for an Oregon Halloween.




Here they are ready to go, Kate was ahead of the game and already starting in on some candy. Luke found a good friend and spent the evening trick or treating with him.



Kate was a pro at trick or treating.  She went right to the door, knocked, rang the doorbell and yelled "trick or treat!"  until someone answered it. One time someone said, "What a cute dinosaur!" and Kate piped up, "I'm a dragon, not a dinosaur!" Another time they commented on her cute costume and she told them, "My Grandma Galyan made it!"




Kate and her favorite little friend. She insisted on holding his hand and he was a good sport about it. Elmo had to come too.

Thanks

We have the best Halloween tradition. Every year the children decide what they want to be and then Grandma Galyan makes their costumes. They are always awesome and well loved by the children. This year we had a Mary Poppins, an Indiana Jones and Kate wanted to be a dragon. Thank you Grandma!

Happy Halloween

We carved pumpkins tonight. Michael long dental school years finally paid off for us! The fang on the top pumpkin fell off and we had to reattach. After brainstorming several ideas, Michael came up with the idea to insert a paperclip. An implant. It worked. We knew dental school would be good for something.

 

Here's a short clip of our pumpkin carving. The kids cracked me up with their impromptu goofball dancing.

Ice Cream

Grandma and Grandpa Melanson have a tradition of taking the grandkids out for ice cream for their 8th birthday. This time is was Luke's turn. He picked bubblegum and cookies n cream ice cream in a waffle bowl. Mmmm....

Timbers Game

Last month Allie and I got to go to a Timbers game with some friends. They won 3-0! Best stadium crowd I have ever been in. I think the fans alone should be credited with one of the goals. For the record, we both recently got new glasses. I bought mine first and then Allie picked hers to match!

Last week Kate's preschool went on a fieldtrip to a pumpkin patch. Here's a group shot with some preschool siblings (it's not that big of a prechool)

Petting baby chicks

These next two crack us up. Kate smells EVERYTHING! That farm was full of all kinds of smells for her. She kept telling me about the dirt, poop and donut smells. After she pet the animals, she had to smell her hand to see what they smelled like. Allie and Luke have been playing these two pictures back and forth and saying "Pet it! Smell it!' over and over again. It's so funny! Yesterday Kate was playing with her Lego animals and I head her say "Pet it! Smell It!"


PIcking out a pumpkin. She picked out the tiniest one she could. By this time is was rainy and cold and she was ready for a donut. (Donuts are her most favorite thing to eat in the world!)

Great Visit!

On Sunday after Luke's baptism we had a great visit with the missionary who baptized our family 22 years ago. It brought back so many memories a learning more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. When he was teaching us, he sang a song about faith that was a huge part of our conversion. It turns out he lives near us in Portland and was able to come up when my parents were here for the baptism. I'm so grateful that he chose to serve a mission and was able to find our family!

Luke's Baptism

Luke was baptized a few weeks ago. It was a wonderful day. Family came from all around to be there with us. Luke was baptized by Michael, Grandma Melanson and Grandma Galyan gave the talks and Allie sang a solo. Luke picked his uncles that were there to say the prayers. It was a family event!

Bobcat

Luke's first pack meeting was last night. He received his Bobcat patch. It's upside down because he has to do a good turn to turn it around. He stayed and helped put away the chairs as his good turn.


 





He is really loving Cub Scout and of the fun boy stuff.