Family Pictures

Eric and Brian and Grammy and Grandpapa were all at the house to celebrate XMAS eve. We had a wonderful dinner, opened presents, and had some cupcakes for dessert. It was the perfect night!

Nora and Ronan in XMAS outfits

The kids were so cute in their XMAS outfits. Ronan and Nora were so good all night and we were able to get a ton of good pictures.

Nora loves the SNOW!

We walked to Foothill park and found a great snow fort that another family had built. It was pretty big and I bet 4 kids could fit inside. Nora loved it. We also borrowed an tube from someone so that Nora and Jeff could slide down the hill. Nora laughed the whole time! PDX ran out of sleds the first day of the snow, so we'll have to pick one up sooner next year.

Snow in Cedar Hills

There are some of the pictures of our house and the pond with SNOW! It's been almost two weeks since it started and we even had some snow today (it really is a white XMAS)! I loved the icicles that we had hanging from our roof. Jeff pulled one off for me. Nora loved walking down to the pond. It's about half frozen over and just beautiful.

Artic Blast 2008

The picture of the snow is from in front of our house and was taken on Thursday- the only day last week that Jeff actually made it into work. Jeff's parents arrived about noon on Thursday. We were supposed to go to the coast on Friday, but we turned back once we realized how slick the roads were. Even though we were on 30, there was no way we would've made it all the way to the coast.

Jeff's parents decided to stay downtown for the weekend, and we joined them on Saturday night because we knew that the weather was only going to get worse. We took the MAX downtown and had a great time. Most of the stores were closing and we watched the local news and their 24 hour coverage of the storm. At this point they were predicting about 10 inches of snow.

This morning we made it home. I won't go into the details of our journey- except to say that it was longer than expected. We'll have to post more pictures, because we've had freezing rain and now a ton of snow in the past hour.

I've always wanted a winter wonderland, but now I'm over it!

Having a Blast!

We're so lucky that Jeff is from WI and knows how to really build a snowman. Nora was so excited to have Frosty in front of her house. We only had carrot sticks to use for the nose instead of a big carrot- it's the thought that counts.

Ronan is becoming a little man. There's something about putting him in blue jeans that really ages him.

Ready for Christmas Video

Check it out.

Ronan

We bought a new camera this weekend and were able to take better pictures of Ronan. He's cute even when he's crying!

It snowed in Portland! It started snowing at about 8:00 yesterday morning and continued for hours! Jeff and Nora went outside a few times to play in the snow before the temperature became too low. When Nora came in, Jeff made her a little hot chocolate. It's now about 20 degrees outside and Jeff is staying home from work. We LOVE the snow!

Olson Family Christmas Tree!

We took our annual trip to Sleighbells this year to cut down our own tree. Nora had no idea that we would be loading the tree into the minivan and then putting it into our living room- let alone what would happen after that. Later that night Jeff popped some champagne and he and Nora put the lights on the tree. Nora loved decorating the tree. She became an instant fan of the Olson Mouse. Ronan did the usual baby stare at the lights. Can you believe that this is already Nora's third Christmas!

Here comes Santa Claus

As you can see, Jeff couldn't miss the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap. He asked for a full nights sleep. We had to bribe Nora with hot chocolate so she would sit with Santa. She asked for Princess Ariel specials.

The Portland Christmas Tree

Last night we went took the MAX downton to see the Portland Christmas tree. We met up with Eric and Brian too!

This picture is a little dark, but we're all there. We had to wake Ronan up to get him in the picture, but I think it was worth it.

Children's Museum in Visalia

Nora wearing Minnie Mouse ears.

Nora is doing her favorite thing: DRIVING!

Tigger and her little brother.

Nora loved playing dress up- she thinks she's the Little Mermaid.

Nora hugging her favorite toy at Nana's

Pappy snuging the boy his been waiting for

Jeff does the traditional ice cold pool swim

Nora at the largest park in the world; can you believe its in Visalia?

Thanksgiving Vacation

We made it to Visalia CA. The drive wasn't too bad. Check out our video of the trip so far!

Thanksgiving 2007 Video

I'm also posting the video Jeff made of Nora from last Thanksgiving. I can't help myself!

Thanksgiving 2007

Since we didn't use our blog last Thanksgiving, I thought we might do a quick flashback to see what our lives were like only a year ago!

We drove down to Visalia and stayed in Big Sur and camped in KOA cabins along the way. KOA cabins were a mistake that we won't make again.

We visited Harmony along the Central Coast, and of course took a picture next to the population sign.

We're planning to drive down again this year. Only with a newborn we're going to try to get to Visalia as quickly as possible. Ronan isn't a big fan of his carseat.