Tis' the Season!

We've really been getting into the holiday spirit lately. Here are some fun pics and a hilarious little video clip!


Portland's traditional Christmas Ships! Our first time, and we went to a potluck on a floating house right on the Columbia River!

 

 

 

Family Advent service at Grace. The moral of the children's sermon: give to those in need. We've been giving to those in need this season in many ways.

It's hard to imagine that Makenna wasn't here last year, thankfully my mom made an extra stocking for her, now we just need to stitch her name!

 

Kieran thinks that Santa only comes to the Portland Water Bureau's annual holiday pancake breakfast...he's never seen one in a mall! This year he had our director placing bets on whether he would come back for another sausage...he ate 5 big sausages, two pancakes, and eggs!

Kevin: "Oh my God that's hilarious!"

Civil War - Go Ducks!

If you live in Oregon, you would have to live under a rock to have not noticed the Civil War frenzy. One of the longest college football rivalries, the annual match up between Oregon State University and University of Oregon is not to be missed. The game lived up to the hype, and the Ducks were victorious.

Previous season game, Kevin couldn't help but get her the cheer uniform.


Makenna hasn't learned how to sign touchdown like Kieran used to at her age, but she sure has the cheer squeel down! Now she's got until the Rose Bowl to learn her touchdown.

Giving Thanks!

Two-thousand and nine has been an exceptional year for our family. I know that this is not the case for many others who have lost their livelihoods and homes, or for those who live in unimaginable poverty around the globe. This is why it is so important to give our thanks. This week Kieran has been very ill with the flu, and today is his first day out of the house in six days! So, I'm going to take this moment of rare silence to reflect on all that we are thankful for:

- Healthy family, and health care when we need it
- Friends and family who love us and keep our life interesting and fun
- Abundance of good food...almost too much a good thing yesterday
- Meaningful careers where we can make a difference in our community
- Excellent place for our children to be cared for and learn, plus we can visit
- Kiki, who teaches us about our humanity and is always ready for lovin'
- A loving marriage and friendship, this week marks 10 years since our first date!
- Warm home with things that comfort us
- Vibrant garden to grow food and flowers, connect us to nature, and play
- Beautiful place to live and grow, mountains and beaches, rivers and trees
- Connection to the web of life...via the living spirit or the Internet ;-)

Here are a few photos from our Thanksgiving 2009! We hope you are enjoying this relaxing holiday weekend.

Niels og Naira Besoege

We had a very hyggeligt (cozy) visit recently with my host brother Niels, and his Swedish girlfriend Naira. It was wonderful to reconnect after so many years...it's been over ten years since we've seen each other, and it seems like a lifetime since I lived with his family in a quaint Danish countryside home. As I expected though, we reconnected immediately, and it was so nice to get to know Naira.


Naira with Kieran and Makenna

Lots of tickling!
And nibling too!

Kieran and Makenna wearing their favorite Danish clothes from Smaafolk (Tusind Tak Susanne!)

To cap off a fantastic visit, Kieran showed us his dance moves on their last night here. I know I'm biased, but I have to say that his dance moves have gotten more impressive since his class began two months ago :-)


I ran out of space on my camera, so this is the finale:

It was only too bad that I totally ran out of space for Kieran's last blues song, he was squinting his eyes and sagging his shoulders like a natural. He was so serious that it was hard to not laugh. Niels and Naira were duelly impressed... ;-) Once he was all tuckered out, Niels read to Kieran from some of the new Swedish books they brought him. We also got some treats for our upcoming julfest...Tusind Tak!!

Det var en rigtig hyggeligt besoege!

Halloween x2

It felt like Halloween lasted for days this year, and in fact on Monday, November 2nd, Kieran woke up and asked "Is it still Halloween Mommy?" Halloween with two kids is certainly more fun than one. Even though a week has now past, I've finally got a moment to post my favorite photos and video clips. Part of the reason Halloween seemed to last for ages is because we celebrated on Friday at "school." Makenna was a fairy and Kieran a superhero (after wanting to be a red door, ghost, and scarecrow.)





Kieran has his dance classes on Fridays; here's a cute clip of him and his friends dancing as ghosts...Kieran is the one saying ooooh the loudest the whole time. Parents were asked to participate as much as possible, so since it was my day off, I spent the morning with the kids...in a purple wig...Kier doesn't know that it's me behind the camera :-)


The fun was just beginning though, as we carved our home grown jack-o-lanterns. The big one fell down both sets of steps as Kevin scolded Kiki for eating the pumpkin guts. Thankfully, I managed to carve a small design on the other side...we also still had a second small pumpkin left to carve, so Kieran wasn't quite as devastated.



The day was capped off when my host brother, Niels and his Swedish girlfriend began their visit. The power went out briefly (for the third time that day!) right before they arrived, so we had a very "hyggeligt" candlelit dinner of homemade tomato soup. Then we headed out to trick or treat around the neighborhood. It was fun to show them the neighborhood and catch up between houses. This year Kieran was able to make a 3 block route, and got enough lout that we are just finishing it up!

Fall evening w/ Friends

Following a productive weekend of getting our place back in order after a weekend away, lots of laundry, and working on a few house projects, we enjoyed a nice evening with our friends Hans and Ana, and their children Alan and Valentina.

Kieran and Alan have been fast friends for over two years as classmates at Pennisula Children's Center, yet since our "transfer" to CityKids we've extraordinarily busy. So, we hadn't seen each other in about two months, and with the girls being so young, they had sure grown in that time.

 

Hans & Valentina

 

Ana & Makenna

 

Hans, Kieran and Alan


Boys were all smiles and energy

D.C. visit

No, we didn't make it all the way to the nation's capital this weekend, but we did make a family trek to my home "town" of Days Creek (or as the locals call it, D.C.). Once I think back, as a little kid our house was white, and we loved to say that we lived in the White House in D.C.

Now, back to the original point of this post, sharing tidbits from our trip:

We enjoyed a nice relaxing fall weekend with my parents, or Grandma and Papa Roger as they are more often called these days. The unfortunate news of the weekend was that the annual Pumpkin Festival was canceled due to a big storm that was forecast, but the good news was that the storm blew in to the north and the weather was glorious. So we got in quite a few short walks, especially since we brought Kiki for his first trip to D.C. He loved the countryside, and made himself quickly at home there. Kieran and I collected acorns on one excursion, and the "guys" all headed to try to see the salmon spawning while the "girls" did a little shopping. Kevin also got a good dose of college football and a Penn State game and all the channels we don't have without cable. Makenna entertained herself by going after houseplants and watching us all chase after her. Like I said, a nice relaxing weekend for everyone.

It's all been pretty friendly so far, but the toy give-and-take has begun...Makenna was successful at stealing back her first dolly!

Reunited "at last", Kieran now starts asking about plans to visit/see Grandma before we've even parted. His past two trips to D.C. were sans parents, so this time around his was a little put off by the fact that Kevin and I were coming with him. He told us that only little kids were allowed to stay at their house!

It never fails to surprise people, but my Dad LOVES babies and they love him. Makenna kept grabbing his beard and squeal ling.

Kieran loved all the extra storytellers, and we were excited because on our drive home he started reading out loud to himself for the first time.

Makenna is getting ready for Halloween, and loved these monster glasses.




As a disclaimer, this video clip is not really very exciting. But it does show where Makenna is developmentally these days, standing lots and reaching for everything!

Thanks Mom and Dad for a nice visit "home"!