Day 369

Another picture from Parker's camera. He's captured Kaitlyn eating her breakfast bathed in sunlight.

Day 368

A sweet picture of Kaitlyn on the changing table. Soon, I hope we will be able to say good-bye to diapers . . .

Day 367

A freak snowstorm caught Portland totally unprepared. It took us over four hours to get home (all of 14 miles). The kids were better than I could have expected - Thank God for the DVD player in the car. And thankfully, they had some left over items in their lunch. Even though we didn't get home until after 10, Parker and Les still had a chance to go and play in the snow. All Kaitlyn wanted to do was go to bed.

Day 366

Here is Parker singing his new Christmas classic "Handy Manny Christmas" which involves him singing those words over and over and over again. It's soon to become a world wide favorite.

Day 365

Here's another picture from Parker's camera. I know it's a little fuzzy, but at least he got Grandpa's head in the shot this time. He took this one at Grandpa's house during Sunday football.

Day 364

Parker got a digital camera from Grandpa for Christmas and has been quite the shutterbug in the last couple of days. Here is one of the photos from his series entitled "What I ate at Chang's for Dinner." That's Grandpa sitting across the table.

Day 363

Yes, I bought the family matching jammies. Aren't we adoreable?


Santa was very good to our family this year. Grandma and Uncles Mike & Andy came over to watch the kids open presents and have some Christmas brunch.

Day 362

Christmas Eve was at the Deemer house with good food, presents, and family.

Day 361

As we were waiting in line, Parker was really excited to have a chance to sit on Santa's lap. Kaitlyn, however, seemed to be withholding judgement. But as soon has I handed her to Santa, she was clear that she did not want anything to do with the process. Big fat crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks and calling for Mom. Santa was quick on the uptake, and snatched her hands so she couldn't cover her face and then smiled for the camera. Oh well, two out of three's not bad.

Day 360

The children were nestled all snug in thier bed . . .

Day 359

Last year our tree topper suffered an unfortunate accident, so we had to go buy a new one. Parker picked out a nice lighted star. You can't quite see their faces in the photo, but both were excited by the prospect of putting the star on the top of the tree together.

Day 358

While getting out of the bathtub, Parker slipped and hit the corner of the eye on the side of the tub. Suddenly I had a wet, bleeding, crying Parker in my arms. The cut probably could have used a stitch, but I really didn't want to do that to him again. Thankfully I had my first aid experts over at the time (Carrie & Mindy) and after a group consultation Miss Carrie put on some butterfly bandages to keep the cut closed. After some hugs & love from Mom and Dad (and a dose of Tylenol), Parker was up and rocking out on the guitar on Rock Band.

Day 357

Parker really liked putting the ornaments on the tree. He kept asking if it was time to put another of one of the "ordaments" on the tree.

Day 356

Parker and Kaitlyn's daycare holiday party was a little bittersweet. Due to budget & space issues at the police precinct, the center will be closing December 31st. However when someone broke out an original NES system, Parker had a great time playing Duck Hunt. He was surprisingly good at it and I am pretty sure that the appropriate distance from the screen was maintained the whole time.

Day 355

Slowly the ornaments are going up on the tree . . .

Day 354

Parker eats apples all the time - peeled and sliced in his lunch. But this is the first time he has eaten an apple off the core. He was pretty excited when Daddy showed him the "big boy" way to eat apples.

Day 353

Although the stockings had been up for a few days, Parker finally noticed them while we were playing chase after getting our jammies on. He practiced reading all of the letters and he was particularly fond of the one with his name on it.

Day 352

I had a few too many vacation days accrued, so I took the day off work to get some work done on my scrapbooks (Yeah, I finished Parker's Year Three album!). I happened to glance out the window and was able to snap this picture. Someone forgot to tell this blue jay that birds are supposed to fly south for the winter.

Day 351

And the stocking were hung by the chimney with care . . .

Day 350

The family headed to Fudruckers for dinner tonight. Which, of course, means time in the arcade. Kaitlyn still loves the race car games.

Day 349

Parker's first concert - Imagination Movers!
I took Parker to see the Rose Garden for his first concert. We picked out his first concert tee and even a flashing glow stick (how could I say no?). Once the concert began, he sat enthralled the entire time. He would not get up and dance and in fact he got angry at me when I did. The highlight of the evening was when Mover Rich appeared in the section right behind us. I was able to lift Parker up so he could get a high five - he was ecstatic.

Day 348

The Sales Team from my office had a Christmas party at Ian's house - which was conveniently located just a couple of miles down the rode from ours. The kids acted a bit like crazy monkeys, but least they weren't the only kids there - and they didn't break anything. The got quite a kick out of riding on the enormous rocking horse.

Day 347

I ordered a wreath from the local Girl Scout troop (I play Bunco with one of the leaders). It looks very Christmas-y up next to our front door.

Day 346

At Pioneer Courthouse Square, they run some fun holiday performances at noon time. Kennedy, Pam's daughter, preformed with her school's marimba band today. Since Pam was out of the office, I went down to support her and snap some pictures for Pam. It was a lot of fun; I'd never seen a marimba band before. I was most impressed that all the kids had the music memorized.

Day 345

We got our tree put up by the corner window in the dining room and the lights are up. My plan is to have the kids help me put on a few ornaments each day. This is the first time we have put the tree in the dining room and I like the way the lights reflect off all the windows. Hopefully it will work out well on Christmas morning.

Day 344

We all traipsed out to Canby to visit Carrie's tree farm (okay, so technically it's her parents . . .). She helped us pick out just the right tree and even took a family picture for us. (In a sad/funny turn of events, Charlie the dog stole baby Jesus out of the manger scene and nibbled off one of his fingers. Surely we are all going to Hell now, because instead of immediately stopping Charlie we took pictures.)

Day 343

Our fair city hosted a tree lighting ceremony, complete with carolers and a visit from Santa. Grandma accompanied me and the kids, while Les took Uncle Mike to the Blazers game at the Rose Garden. Although it was pretty chilly out, a good time was had by all. However, neither of the kids wanted to go see Santa - even with the bribe of a candy cane.

Day 342

Okay, so I know this is the same picture from the December 1st. But I spent all evening working on our Christmas card, so clearly I didn't take any other pictures :) I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt at digital designing - although I did have a template to start with.

Day 341

What you are seeing here is truly a Christmas miracle. Les shared one of his precious Butter Cookies with Parker. Les waits ALL YEAR for these cookies and NEVER shares them. But in the spirit of Christmas, he shared one with Parker . . . and his heart grew three sizes that day :)

Day 340

We stopped at Borders on the way home to pick up a few new Christmas books. Parker was nice enough to "read" aloud to all of us.

Day 339

We used the self-timer on the camera to get a picture of all four of us together . . . and Missy too!