Baby It's Cold Outside

For all of you who are not in Oregon or haven't heard, there has been a lot of snow in the past couple weeks. Most Oregonians are terrified of snow. We can brave through rain on a daily basis without an umbrella (I never even had one until I went to Utah) but the slightest bit of the white stuff and schools are canceled and news is showing 24 hour coverage.

It all started last week, sometime Saturday, maybe Friday. It's all a snowy blur now. So of course Sunday we only did one hour of church, which was fine with everyone.
Levi's first 'real' experience with snow. We did have a lot of snow in Utah but he was so little we didn't take him out much in it and when we did he didn't react too much. He was quite astonished at it all. He liked steping on it.

Jason, cleaning off the car for church. You'll notice there isn't too much snow accumulated. At first Levi loved it and started running in it, but he didn't stay out too long. He and little Eli, who was visiting, lasted all of 5 minutes when they simultaneously began crying as they ran into the house.

So for the past week schools have been closed a number of people stayed home from work. At our house it was insane because we had 'snowed in' 5 extra people. Talk about cabin fever. I finally made Jason go with me to the craft store just to get out. We also made a couple of trips out to some friends house. But even with all the snow and ice it's nothing to what happened within the past 3 days.

More to come.....

Live for today...plan for tomorrow....party tonight!!!

Recently we had our annual Vial Fotheringham 'Christmas Soiree'. For all of you who don't know what "Vial Fotheringham" is, it is the law firm I (as well as my mother, sister and now older brother) work for. I believe everyone in my immediate family has worked here and now I am back, working from home a couple hours a week. It is very family friendly and we have known the owners for years and years and are good friends.

So this year they decided to hold the annual Christmas party at the Oswego Lake Country Club (probabally to save Paula Vial and the Vial homestead, where we usually go, a lot of stress). Levi did a great job throughout it all, even though it was during his nap time. By white elephant exchange Levi was out of it, while everyone was fighting over the Victoria Secret bags, which was halarious by the way, becase even a bishop and ex-bishop got into it. One did have a set of boxers and the other I have no idea. We came home with fun crossword puzzles and a nice set of candles. Oh, and grandma gave Levi her barrel of monkeys game. He mostly liked dumping them out. Still does.

Levi showed some remarkable restraint when he saw the huge Christmas tree decorated with all sorts of fun things.
Uncle Isaac and Levi having a moment, over a cell phone. You have a cool cell phone, you have a new best friend. He'll also take keys with fun keychains on them.
This is probabally one of my newest favorite pictures of Levi. For the past month or so he would make what I call his "bitter beer face".
Levi.....at 70.

We'll see you all next year!

And Then There Were Two.

So here is a fun video of my crazy little one on the stairs. For some reason he thinks balls bouncing off his head is funny. Hummmmm. Thanks dad.




And today I found out that we are expecting another boy. We're way excited! I mean, who wouldn't want two crazy little boys like this???

Turkey Day

This year we went up to Moses Lake, Washington to spend Thanksgiving with Jason's dad, step-mom and three little brothers. It was a very much needed break from life.
We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Starrs (Jason's step-mother's parents, we have a crazy family). Levi adored the larger than life dog they had in their fireplace. Maybe we should just get him one instead of a toddler bed.

I didn't get much pictures of the actual dinner, there was too much going on and I forgot all about it. But there was a TON of food (no joke-4 turkeys). Levi, to the disappointment of grandpa, didn't care much for the meat but loved the fruit platter.
Not too long after dinner, Levi freaked out because he was exhausted. We took him to Jason's dad's house and while diapers were being changed he ran off the bed and hit his eyebrow on a box. I'll spare my mother the details but it was not fun to deal with. It was all down hill from there. We just before had found out he had a terrible diaper rash and on top of that after he woke up while running and crashing he cut his gums somehow. What a crazy day but Levi was quite the trooper. Jason says he is much tougher than I am, which is probably true but if I had Jason for a dad I'd be pretty tough too.
I love this picture because you can see just how much Levi adores his three uncles: Philip (11), Alex (9) and Willy (6)
Though he proved he could take on any one of them if they messed with him too much.

What a fun trip. Thanks Goodrichs!

It's Cider Making Time!!

This year we got to make fresh apple cider while visiting Jason's family in Washington. We made a few gallons last year but I'm sure Jason's dad Larry, was just humoring 'the city folk'. This year was INTENSE!!!

Step 1: Wash the apples. We were lucky and had a pressure washer to speed up the process.That bin was completely full when we started.
Step 2: The grinder! We hand cranked all those apples.
Step 3: Squeeze....we sort of cheated and used a air pressure pump thing (Larry rigged it up)

Step 4: Bottling. We made a total of aprox 70-80 gallons in 7 hours. It some dang good cider though. You just can't buy that stuff in stores. Levi was wonderful. I thought he would eventually freak out and have to go home. But he hung out in the John Deere wagon aka "traveling crib". The uncles were great babysitters and pulled him around when he wasn't watching everyone else in action.