Christmas Part 1

Last weekend we went to the Dearingers house to have an early Christmas with them before they had to leave town. The girls had a great time exchanging gifts and jumping on the bed! Sophie loves her Disney princess beauty kit and knows exactly what to do with the blow dryer and flat iron (she's been watching mommy!). Taylor loved her Rapunzel doll from the movie Tangled. It was the first movie she ever went to! Maybe next year at Christmas time Sophie will be old enough for us to take to a movie. :) We even took some pics of the girls in their Utah and BSU cheerleading outfits since "our" two teams will be playing each other in the Las Vegas Bowl next week. Again, we are so thankful to have such great friends here in LG. :)

Christmas Decorating!

We had originally planned to just have a little fake 3 ft. Christmas tree this year since we will be spending Christmas in Portland. We put it up around Thanksgiving time. Mommy's patience was running a little thin after Sophie pulled the tree over 4 or 5 times but she was FINALLY learning to leave it alone. About a week ago the armory here in La Grande delivered to our door a real tree. They were giving trees to the families of deployed soldiers. I decided that I couldn't say no to a free tree delivered to our house! It's beautiful and smells AMAZING! Sophie now gets the small tree in her room to do with as she pleases! She doesn't seem to touch the real tree in the living room and even if she did I decided that shatterproof ornaments are the only way to go. Thanks to the Dearingers for letting us borrow their nice tree stand that makes it impossible to tip over the tree. And thanks to Jessica for coming over and helping me put the tree in the stand. It's definitely a two person job! The tree is beautiful and we just wish daddy was here to see it and smell it. :( He loves real Christmas trees.

Sophie got to see Santa the weekend after Thanksgiving at the Festival of Trees at the armory here. She was a bit scared (to say the least!). But in her defense his is a big fat strange man in a red suit with white hair all over his face...I can understand how that would be a little scary! The picture is priceless! Thanks to the Dearingers for helping get pics while I tried to get her to sit on Santa's lap. :)

New Orleans

I had a wonderful trip to New Orleans. I feel so grateful that I was able to go see Eric for a few days before he left for overseas. We had such a great time! And thank you to my inlaws for watching Sophie. I know it wasn't an easy job since she caught a cold while I was gone!

While in New Orleans we ate great food, saw the sites, and just enjoyed spending time together. We took a plantation tour, a city tour (which included a stop at an above ground cementery), and we did a dinner/jazz cruise on the last functioning steam boat on the Mississippi. The hotel we stayed at was walking distance from most everything so we walked around a lot and saw the sites and enjoyed the mid 70 degree weather!

I already miss Eric so much and can't believe it's going to be 6 months until I see him again. Hopefully soon he will get settled in on his base and we will be able to webcam each day. Sophie will really enjoy seeing daddy on the computer.

Halloween...the 3 day extravaganza!

Our Halloween Weekend was a 3 day experience. We started it off by a trip to Grammy's on Friday. We got to see Aunt Sherry and my cousin Niki and her boys Chance and Gage. We also went "trick or treating" at Greaty's house while we were there. Sophie had a great time and loved shaking her pom poms and saying Go Broncos! Then on Saturday afternoon we headed downtown La Grande for some trick or treating at the local businesses. It was kind of rainy but we braved the weather and Sophie kept warm in her stroller with the BSU blankie that our friend Debbie Chaussee made for her. After trick or treating on Adams Ave. we went to dinner at Aunt Kathy and Uncle Merrill's house. We had yummy homemade chicken soup and Sophie got to play with Cousin Wesley who was dressed as a cute little bear. When we were finished eating we went to a "trunk or treat" at a local church. There were activities set up for the kiddos. Then on Sunday (which was actually Halloween) we went to a Harvest Party at Faith Center where Sophie did quite well at the ring toss, bowling, fishing etc. Taylor won a cake at the cake walk but the rest of us couldn't seem to win! After the party we decided to take the girls trick or treating at a few houses. We went to the Grayson's house first and then went next door to the President of EOU's house (who is Taylor's daddy's boss). We went to a few other houses and the girls were too cute. Sophie would usually say "Hello, candy please!" I finally got her to say trick or treat as well. At one house the guy said he gives whole candy bars to really cute costumes and the girls fell into that category! :)

Hay Maze

Jessica and I took the girls to a pumpkin patch and hay maze the week before Halloween. There had been a big wind storm the night before so some of the maze needed repaired but the girls still had fun!

Decorating "punkies"

The week before Halloween we went over to the Dearinger's for dinner and pumpkin (or punkie as Sophie calls them!) decorating. Sophie and Taylor got to fingerpaint small pumpkins and they LOVED it. Sophie didn't try to taste the paint until the very end! Then it was time for the adults to do the carving. I carved Sophie an Elmo pumpkin of course since she is a HUGE fan of him. Jessica carved Taylor an Ernie pumpkin and Ryan did his own design! We had a great time and really appreciate having such great friends to hang out with in LG.

Fun with Tay

Sophie's BFF here in LG is named Taylor. Sophie usually calls her "Tay" or "Tay Tay!" She can say her whole name but she prefers calling her by her nickname! A few weeks ago Jessica, Taylor's mom, and I took the girls to a harvest event at a greenhouse out of town a few miles. There was a pony, face painting (which Sophie wouldn't do!), and lots of hay bales and "punkies." There was even a little slide, hoola hoops, and other games. We had a great time with the girls and look forward to going to a pumpkin patch this Thursday and hopefully going on a hayride. The girls also got to go watch the EOU parade on homecoming weekend. Of course it's one of the few times they are actually allowed to have c-a-n-d-y!